E3: Monday’s Round-Up

So, Monday.  Wow. It all started with the leak of the new Xbox console (thanks to some over eager Italian advertisers) which quickly turned into bizarrely timed USA Today articles leaking the name of Natal (and its games).  And then there was that Microsoft show, which required space-aged Mexican garb and a massive leap of faith. Or drugs.

In fact, despite being Microsoft’s chance to shine, their press conference was a complete damp squib.  A gaming division forged on hardcore games (and a hardcore following) threw it all against the wall and decided 10 minutes of Halo and Gears was enough, and then bored most of the attendees stupid with legions of motion controlled fluff.

Still, at least they did a MicroOprah, saving the only cheer for the generous but incredibly shallow act of giving all the still present seated a free Xbox.  For everyone else, the Xbox is shipping now, unless, of course, you’re not in the 10% of the World’s population that lives in America, in which case the new smaller, slimmer model is due the month after.

And if you don’t like the new model, you’d best get out and grab yourself an ‘old’ 360 now, as they’re not making them anymore meaning that the classic white versions are now SUPER R@RE and outdated.  And we can only assume they’ll work with Kinect, which, should you wish to inspect your Ferrari’s lights by waving your hands around, is due in November.

Still, EA’s conference, by all accounts, was much better, revealing the new Need For Speed game, a decent BulletStorm trailer, the first half of the Dead Space 2 trailer (which continues today at Sony’s do) and Ubisoft’s bash, which we’re currently typing up, has already ‘won’ for some members of TSA by featuring the follow up to Rez.  Well, me anyway.

You can follow all our extensive, unrivaled E3 coverage right here. Sony and Nintendo are up next…