I'm pumped and will be downloading it on Thursday. Anyone else? Speaking of Star Wars, anyone seen The Clone Wars yet?

Due to popular (okay, one) demand, I'll give some impressions of Soul Calibur.

Honestly, Rance and Derrick are more qualified experts in the genre as I have mostly flirted with Mortal Kombat, Tekken, and DOA. Soul Calibut has been the only fighting title to set my soul alite and the soul still burns for the most part.  The game continues to be the most defined and polished weapon combat game. It lacks the frame by frame exactitude of VirtuaFighter and the like, but it has never been that kind of game. Nor has it been a game of pitch perfect balance either. Characters like Nightmare and Sophitia have always had some almost game breaking cheapness. While core characters have been made more equitable, the Star Wars characters clearly keep the unbalanced, power move tradition of Soul Calibur alive.

It looks like the classic MK 2D play field mixed with the over the top super-powers of Marvel vs. Capcom. I can't believe I'm looking forward to another fighting game. Is this a fighter renaissance?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYf2Dh71RgY&NR=1

I don't know if the video thing worked.  If not, that's the link.  Maybe it will work this time.

You will be happy without AIDS:

Watch the whole thing, you owe it to yourself.

Good stuff.

Rance and I decided to take in a last minute 12:20 am. Its over now; its incredibly late/early now. Frankly, I don't know what to say. Not for lack of words or analysis or enthusiasm or even because of exhaustion. I simply believe anything I say will sound like hyperbole, which is so often overblown and unwarranted. Especially from an unabashed fan of Batman, comics and the like, anything I say will be colored by my own nature and perhaps, by that association, sound hollow. I believe this film deserves better.

This is not merely genre film. This is not only an action flick. This is not even just a Batman movie. See The Dark Knight soon. Maybe twice.

I'll lean heavily towards Xbox news because that particular console has the most H&S mindshare.

Monday Microsoft Press Conference:

• Gears of War 2 looks great- environments are huge, enemies are vast in number. Campaign is 2-player co-op. New Horde mode allow 5-players to work together against increasingly difficult waves of Locust creatures. New enemies abound. It was teased that Marcus and Dom are going to ride a Brumak. Interviews confirm our least favorite exploits in the Gears Multiplayer have been fix and a Halo-like lobby has been added. I have no doubt that this game will unite most of the clan online again. Remember the early days of Gears multiplayer... insane fire fights, function cover, good times. Check out the new trailer. It is better than or rivals the "Mad World" ad.
• Resident Evil 5 looks like a really pretty RE4 with co-op, which is just fine with me.
• Fable 2 was also shown. It had some very innovative Co-Op mechanics, but I've never been interested in the series.
• Post-apocalyptic RPG Fallout 3 was shown. I believe fans of that series and Oblivion will be impressed. The Vaultec Assisted Targeting System(or VATS) alls players to stop time and target specific enemies. It triggers a stylish and dynamic cut-scenes that results in massive dismemberment. You can also play it as a more traditional shooter. It seems like a nice nod to the old turn-based style of older Fallout games. The 360 will have exclusive DLC.
• As Aaron already mentioned a Portal game will also be coming to the 360 (and PC) exclusively.
• Also of note, Bungie's big game announcement was suddenly cancelled, spoiling the company's plans and the massive countdown clock on Bungie.net's main page. It has been confirmed that it is a Halo game. Rumors swirl that is a squad based shooter like Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter supposedly following ODSTs. MS reportedly wanted to concentrate on games releasing in the next 6-10 months. They plan on having a special event for the Bungie announcement.
• Finally, the biggest suprise of the show: Final Fantasy XIII has jumped the Sony-exclusive ship and will be out day-and-date on the 360 (at least in North America and Europe).

The Dashboard Update:

• The dashboard will be a 3D interface, which reminds me of itunes or videos I've seen of the apple TV. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet, but it seems to more readily organize and combine Marketplace content. Video walkthrough below.
• The gamer pics can be replaced by a cartoony "Avatar" with multiple clothing and look options. For those familiar with Nintendo's Mii system, it is basically a more robust Mii, with no-to-little animation. The static Avatar can be put in a party with other Avatars. Through this the Avatars can chat, share pictures, or instantly enter games. They mentioned jumping into XBLA arcade games together and the new Primetime games(which are large multiplayer games that seem to use Avatars, shown a Live version of the TV game show 1 vs 100.). You don't have to use an Avatar. The gamer pic is still in play, though the Blades system we know now will be gone with no option to use the classic interface.
• NBC/Universal content is on the Marketplace now. This includes Battlestar in HD, or at least Xbox Live Marketplace HD.
• BIG NEWS- Netflix subscribers and Xbox Live Gold subscribes will have free access to all of the streaming movies on NETFLX's digital distribution service. You can begin streaming the movie to your Xbox just as the system works on the computer or through the Netflix set-top box. You can also watch the movie in an Avatar party. There were some hints that the Avatars might sit in silhouette MST3K style; this is unconfirmed. No word on quality, but this could be a great feature at no additional charge to subscribers of both services. I hope it is better than Amazon Unbox.
• Themes will still be available in some form. This is a Xbox Live Team mock-up.

Sony Stuff:

• MAG was announced. It is a  massively multiplayer shooter developed by the SOCOM guys. I guess its about two years away.
• Resistance 2 was shown. There was a Godzilla sized enemy, which was insane and amazing. But in a play though I saw on G4 the charcter shot at the behemoth through a window and the glass plates in the window did not break at all.Seems sort of dumb for a game this sophisticated. Maybe it was an early build.
• Little Big Planet is coming a bit later.
• Home is coming... some year.
• Sony was vaguely apologetic for their slow build up of features(still playing Xbox Live catch-up) and referenced that some of the PS3's biggest and best games came in years 5-7 of the consoles life. A compelling arguement for late adopters and people (like me) who do not want to consider another console generation anytime soon.
• PSN games continued to outshine XBLA arcade, as the PSN seems to support some really unique indie games.
• Otherwise, no one here cares, because only two of us own the goddamn thing.

Nintendo:

• Nintendo geared a conference with ridiculous, dumb, soccer mom and grandpa friendly games perfect for coverage on USA Today, Good Morning America, and Oprah.
• This amounted to a huge "Fuck You" to long term Nintendo fans. No Mario, no Zelda, no Kid Icarus, no nothing. Animal Crossing is the hardest-core game in the line-up and it looks like the Gamecube game with 4 player multiplayer.
• They have finally released a mic. Its an omni-directional room mic, which is pretty fucking stupid. Even if you don't like headsets, do you want to here the kids making noise, the games sound effects, and ceiling fan whirling while attempting to "chat" with your friend.

Other things:

• Left 4 Dead has pretty much been unversally lauded. That game will be Chombie-hot.
• Dead Space looks like a bad-ass survival horror game in the tradition of Event Horizon and Bioshock. I find a few thing particularly compelling: 1. There is no HUD. All information is communicated by gauges on the chatacters back, inventory and maps are displayed through a holographic display that projects in front of the character. 2. The main character is an engineer not a soldier- in the style of Half-Life. The weapons are mostly tools and mining equipment. 3. Certain areas have no artificial gravity, wherein the puzzle has to be solved by magnetically afixing to wall and ceilings, skewing your perception.
• G4's coverage has been a mixed bag. If I had to watch it live with the inane banter and force transitions I would shoot myself, but on TiVo I can jump to the hands-on with the game and face time with the developers. In that sense, I've enjoyed it. Amazingly, they showed the entire MS, Nintendo, and Sony Press Conferences commercial free, so the entire world could wince when the corporate CEO's poorly delivered joke falls flat. 
• There have been alot of over cool games shown by EA, Activision, Capcom and others- Dark Void, Mirror's Edge, Prince of Persia, to name a few. I might post more info later.

In Summation by Penny Arcade: