UPDATE: I don't know if the review is ever coming, I'm so slammed at work and that's when I blog, maybe this weekend though.  I can tell you I like the game, the online tourney  feature, especially with friends, is great.  I'd like to thank Godfree and Zamees for completely pwning me.

So today I had planned to write up a short review of Table Tennis, but I don't think that's gonna happen now. I'm just having such a bad day that I don't feel like it. The upside to this is when I do write up a review it will likely include a review of the game online. I haven't played online and am a little afraid to because I suck so badly right now and I don't want to have to put up with trash talking that I'm sure to get. I only know of 2 people on my friends list who even have this game, Trixie and Godfree (ok I just checked my friends list and Nano was playing it too), so any of you MSN bloggers with the game hit me up with a friend request because I know you'll be nice to me.

There's no real news so let me just ramble on about nothing.  Well Memorial Day is coming up and that means a three day weekend, thank God.  I really need this break, life's been hectic lately in terms of work.  I plan to spend this weekend gaming up a storm, I'll be playing/completing a lot of single player stuff but if you see me on just send me a message because anyone who reads my blog is cool enough to drop what I'm doing to play with.

In an effort to get some of these games completed I started to get into Tomb Raider last night.  I wasn't far in so I decided to start over and see if I couldn't do a better job getting those little reward thingies, that was definitely a good idea because I have a lot more now and I've gotten further than I was before.  Hopefully I can beat this game and King Kong before the weekend starts, I really want to send King Kong back to gamefly.  I also rented Amped 3 from Gamefly, wow this is probably the worst game I ever played, of course if might help if I has the manual.  I hear it's a good game for easy achievements, and I love gamerscore, but I don't love gamerscore points enough to play this piece of trash so I dropped that in the mail this morning.

Other than that I plan on picking up Table Tennis, presumably today, so if you're planning on getting it and I'm not on your friends list then add me,  I think I have like 6 open spaces on my list, even though I never play with most of the people I just can't bare to remove them because of the memories.  That's it, at least for now...

Source: Digitimes Systems

Well obviously I know your 360 can't drive a car, though many of them can blog now, but the use of two different dvd drives in the 360 is a little annoying to some of us.  In some ways it doesn't matter much which of the two drives you have, though some people do report that one is quieter than the other.  Wait a minute here, did I say two different dvd drives?  Allow me to correct that, there are now three different dvd drives for the 360.  Lite-ON It has partnered with Philips to begin producing a new yet another dvd drive, YAY!!! 

I know that the original Xbox went through its share of different dvd drives, but I don't think they were using different drives at the same time, it was more of a change over.  I understand that this will help production totals for the 360, but it just rubs me the wrong way.  You just know that one of these is going to turn out to be the next gen Thomson drive.

RUMOR-this has  not been confirmed by MS

Well I came into work today and as usual I jumped right into checking about 15 gaming sites.(I must sound like the least productive worker in the world, but while surfing through site I do get the daily production schedule updated and printed so that's not too bad.) Well Xboxic has been on my radar for a while now but lately they've moved up on my list of important places to visit (hence why I started commenting on posts recently) and they have an interesting post about a HDMI cable for the 360 (it's about freakin time!). Apparently liksang.com has a product listing for this item so we can assume that one will be available, hopefully soon. I know I can't be the only one excited about this so I figured I'd blog about the new cable, I swear it has nothing to do with the lack of interesting gaming news, seriously.

One day I may do a blog about all the different sites I visit, but I'm not sure I want to do that. I'm not sure you want to know how much time I waste on being an uber informered gamer, and I kind of like keeping some sites to myself.

RUMOR-this has not been confirmed by MS

Thanks to Joystiq and a loose lipped Microsoft employee we now have an idea on pricing of all the new accessories announced for the Xbox 360. There will also be a Halo faceplate.

• 360 wireless gaming receiver (which enables wireless 360 controllers, headsets, and wheels on your PC): $20
• Wireless racing wheel: $130
• Wireless headset: $60
• Xbox Live Vision Camera (with headset, one month of Live Gold, and one arcade -- presumably Xbox Live Arcade -- game): $40
• New faceplates for Halo (with the Master Chief on 'em, but not Halo 3 specific) and Forza (no word on connections to the sequel): $20 each
• 256 MB portable memory unit (MU): no official price yet, but definitely not four times the cost of the older 64MB MU

Thanks Joystiq, I've been loving your E3 coverage

Xboxic has a post up about how Xbox Archiv got confimation of a dashboard update from a Senior Prodcut Manager of MS Germany.  It's really great to have this dated, even though we all knew it was coming.  The update will feature the ability to download in the background, multiple downloads, and some stuff that hasn't been made public.

Have I plugged Xboxic yet?  I'm not sure I have but you should really check them out, there's some really good work going on there and the staff seems real cool so far, I just started commenting over there.  I'm the king of lurking, but with all the time I spend blogging and posting on forums such as Xbox.com, GTP, and GTR it really doesn't leave me much time to post on every site I visit. 

Xboxic

Xbox Archiv

I finally got a chance to play some of these new demos that we're getting courtest of Xbox and E3.  Here's my impression

Lost Planet:  Honestly, I'm not sure I've played this enough to give a good impression, it was just boring for me.  I felt like no matter what I did I couldn't die, and I hate games like that.  The graphics were pretty sweet though and gave me a bit of a RE feel, but I'm just not sure this game is for me.  I'll have to play the other level tonight to be sure

Moto GP:  I'm not a racing game person, not because they aren't cool, but because I'm so incredibly bad at them.  I remember going to my friends house and he'd be playing Midnight Club, he'd hand me the controller and just laugh at me.  It's really quite amazing that someone can be as bad as I am at racing games.  Now if I put a good amount of time into practicing I can get okay, but I'm still never good.  So playing Moto GP lasted about 5 minutes because I couldn't take any turns without crashing, yeah I'm that bad.  It's a good looking game though and I'm sure some people are loving them demo.  If you want a good laugh send me an invite to play, I'll accept it just to make you smile.

Ok so I guess there is more news, if you consider rumors to be news. The new rumor is that on Friday there will be a playable demo for Gears of War on the Marketplace. There are 2 sources for this rumor, the Gears website and a Peter Moore interview. There's a counter on the Gears site which seems to be counting down to noon this friday. Now if they're going by pacific time then that means 3pm eastern which is when a lot of the content has been being released on marketplace. I'm kind of annoyed that I can't find a link to the Peter Moore interview to get you a direct quote, cut me some slack, if you had any idea how many gaming websites I've already visited today then your jaw would drop.

Update, while checking the 1up boards I found a thread on the Peter Moore interview, all thanks to DarkestMobster.  Linky

At this point there's not going to be much news to report from E3.  Mainly you'll be hearing different impressions of the things that most of us would kill to get out hands on.  I'm totally obsessed with gaming and Xbox so I visit around 20-30 sites daily. So I'll point you to some of the sites I've been visiting throughout E3.

Gamespot
Xbox.com
Gamertag Radio
ControllerFreaks
Joystiq
Kotaku
Gamerscore Blog

Ok well it's finally really set in this year.  Every year during E3 I get in a really bad mood at some point, and today is the peak of my anger.  I'm reading tons of websites, and listening to Gamertag Radio right now.  I'm just pissed cuz I wish I could go to E3, it's so not fair, but I can deal.  It's not like I'm mad at the people who get to go, because they deserve it, I just want to go so badly.  I think I need a hug or something.

Keep checking Xbox.com, they've got some great content.

While I know some people are excited about being able to play 360 vs PC I for sure am not one of them.  PC gamers always actu superior, claiming console gamers aren't real gamers and blah blah blah, that's not my problem.  My problem is the huge advantage anyone on PC would have when playing FPS.  Let's be honest here, console shooters are much more difficult and require more skill to be really good at.  I constantly read on forums posts by PC gamers whining because there's no keyboard and mouse adatper and it's hard for them to use the controller.  Buckle down and get used to it, I'm sure it's hard to adjust but that's just the way it is.

I was trying to space my blog entries out a little more, but it's the morning and there's been a good amount of stuff that's come out since I last checked the net.  GamertagRadio is really doing some great stuff at this E3.  Yeah I got made love for GTR, but this isn't some Feelz Good shamelessly promoting GTR thing, it's really good.

Basically we're getting a new episode everyday of of E3, and Godfree's been getting some great interviews.  In episode 46 you can hear the following interviews

Kitty (PMS clan, I think it's Psycho S Kitty but she just said she was kitty)
Zamees (Gamertagpics.com)
Miss Irie (Gamertag Radio)
Street Fighter 2 hyperfighting discussion
Gears of War Developer
Viva Pinata Developer
Crackdown Developer

So either subscibe on iTunes or go directly to Gamertagradio.com and download the newest episode and join the site while you're there.

Well it's the day after the MS Press Conference and the info is now solidified and well documented.  Everything from Live Everywhere to the new accesories have been shown to the world.  Now I could do a write-up of all this info, download some pics and show them to you, but that would be a waste of everyone's time.  I'm just gonns throw up some links with a description of what they show.

Xbox-Scene
See pics of some of the new accessories.  Here you will get details and pics of the Wireless Racing Wheel, Wireless Headset, Wireless Gaming Reciever, and the HD DVD add on.

Kotaku
You know you love Kotaku, those guys are just great.  Well here's a great blog entry from them about the Xbox Live Everywhere.  This is a nice long entry with full details on the Everywhere service.

Well if you've been under a rock for the last 30 minutes then you don't know, HALO 3 is coming 2007.  You can even download a teaser on Xbox Live Marketplace, WOW!!!  I'm seriously more giddy than 9 year old school girl on valentine's day.  I seriously can't stand being at work right now, I need to go download that thing now.

Other than that they showed off some cool interaction between 360, pc, and cell phones.  Xbox 360 anywhere is going to rock.  Then there's the Vision service which allows you to watch other people playing, freakin sweet.  Tons of games announced and shown, but there's on really big.  Grand Theft Auto will make its way to the 360, get this, October 16, that's a month before PS3 is even out.  This game combined with Halo3 could really give MS the edge in the "console war".  I think in terms of the press briefing MS did steal the show with Halo 3.  I'm too excited to blog, this entry probably seems like a madman wrote it

Yesterday during the pre-E# madness the Xbox folks sat down with the MVP's for a rountable discussion.  Thanks to Gamertag Radio we can listen in on this discussion.  I haven't listened yet, but will update my blog with my thoughts (it's downloading now, I subscirbe on iTunes, you should too).  I'll provide a link to their website below.

Gamertag Radio

Well you already got my reaction to the PS3 announcement, but I'm an Xbox fan (not fanboy) so of course my opinion is somewhat skewed.  Today I came into work, and there's one guy I work with, D,  who's into gaming, but he's a playstation fan.  I've been talking it up with him over the last few months about the next-gen consoles so today I was very interested to talk to him.  So I come into work and he's standing there talking about PS3 with another guy who works here. 

D is not a happy person right now, let me tell you.  The price point of the PS3 could seriously kill that console.  He doesn't want to pay $600 for a console, escpecially when he knows he's gonna buy at least 2 games with it.  He says he still wants a PS3 but he's willing to wait for the price to go down.  Also he's now seriously considering a 360, and even said if Halo 3 comes out when the PS3 does, then it's over, he's getting an Xbox 360.  Here's a guy who plays PS2, like the 360, but is waiting for PS3, Sony this is your main customer base here.  He doesn't want your $600 console, he doesn't want to have to buy an HDTV, you're dropping the ball.  I already know I'm not going to get a PS3, I may eventually once the price drops, but no way I'm getting one inside of 2 years of launch.  I was one of the people who did everything they could to get PS2,  I had to order a $450 bundle from Canada just to get my hands on one.  I know I'm a MS lover now, but seriously Sony, WTF??

Well you may notice a new list to the left of my blog, it will be the places I visit for E3 info.  I haven't really done much with it, and I'm debating whether or not I should link the sites that I already have links for on my page but I'll get that all figured out by tomorrow.  I just wanted to put up the Gamerscore blog's Flikr site because they have some great floor photos of what MS has going on.  One very interesting thing is the picture of 6 Xbox 360's all without faceplates.  IMO this means there will either be limited edition E3 faceplates once again, or they'll be unveiling new faceplates.