It's that time of the year again - E3 time. Even though the event has had some huge changes since last year, being managed by totally different people, even having a different name now (E3 Media and Business Summit (formerly known as Electronic Entertainment Expo), it ended up giving us very typical keynotes from Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony.

Microsoft was first, with few surprises. Mostly just confirmations of rumours that had been floating around for weeks or months. "Lips" a name often heard in these rumours, turns out to be a singstar style game for the 360 with motion sensing microphones. Netflix integration with the XBox, finally, after months of rumours, also has been confirmed and demonstrated. Personally I don't care, because it's an American only service.
The biggest news from Microsoft however is the complete over haul of the XBox 360 with the upcoming yearly spring update. Microsoft will now let users store and play back games from their hard drives. You will still need the disk in the drive however, to prevent the evils of piracy. It should stop that extremely noisy DVD drive from spinning up in-game though and give faster load times. It's funny though, since I was installing retail games on the original XBox years ago. That was a hack of course, and did not require the game disc. Also, the dashboard will be completely revamped. I personally quite like the 'blades' system currently on the 360, so I hope this does not disappoint. Wii style avatars are also being added as well as various other community features. A 60GB version of the 360 is replacing the 20GB version soon. The newest Final Fantasy is no longer a PS3 exclusive outside of Japan, as it will be coming out for the XBox also.


Nintendo was next in line. They showed off a new add-on for the WiiMote to make it more precise. Even going as far as to claim 1:1 sensing. I.e, I move my arm this much, and the character on screen moves his arm exactly that much. Called the Wii MotionPlus, it will be sold with a new Wii Sports Resort game. Sounds cool, and as it is now, my Wii does quite well. So this can only make it better. They also showed off a dedicated snow boarding game for the Wii Fit board, and a music game where the WiiMote and WiiFit board are used as various instruments. 50 different instruments in fact. WiiSpeak, a microphone that allows everyone in your room to speak with others in another room, was also shown off. Amazing.


Next up was Sony. They used 68 LCD panels on their stage, pretty cool. The Playstation Network will finally be getting its own movie and TV download service, and by the looks of it, is slightly easier to use than the current Xbox 360 market place. Something that sounds even more overdue however is that Sony is adding something I did not know they did not have; A single persistent sign-on across platforms and services. Like Microsoft's live ID, Sony will allow you to sign into the network on any device that has access using a single username. To challenge the 60GB XBox 360, Sony announced an 80GB PS3 to replace the current 40GB model. Only $50 sepperates the PS3 and 360, with PS3 having a 20GB lead, built in WiFi and BluRay. I personally am a Wii60 user, but the PS3 is looking like great value these days. Home was shown off again, but is still not ready for prime time.


That's about all from the three console giants. I didn't go into the games that Sony and Microsoft talked about much, but all they really did was mention or show off previously announced games. Nothing earth shattering, but the competition is keeping things heated, with new games, addons, peripherals and services being announced all the time. This years E3 let them show off the latest and greatest of these.