Well, folks. This is it. Microsoft showed the actual external player and mentioned that it will be out this Fall/Holiday Season-ish. We’re predicting a November release in traditional Xbox fashion. No price point, either. At least it is pretty, and isn’t that that really all that matters?

Check out the screen via Comments ...

Via Gamesradar

Revealed at Nintendo's pre-E3 press conference, Super Mario Galaxy is Nintendo's debut Wii outing for its moustachioed mascot and we can bring you the first few details about the game.

As the title suggests, Super Mario Galaxy takes place in space as Mario, with the normally hapless heroine Princess Peach in tow, heads off in pursuit of an escaped creature. On the interstellar adventure the pair will explore various planets and alien landscapes, and will encounter a variety of new and familiar enemies.

The game will take full advantage of the Wii controller's motion-sensing features and the dungaree-wearing hero will have a host of new moves - including some gravity defying jumps - executed by tilting, pointing and shaking the Wii-mote.

More should be revealed when E3 opens its doors tomorrow.

Screenshot Via Comments ...

Via Gamesradar

The existence of Star Fox DS was revealed at Nintendo's E3 press conference earlier today and our tractor beam has successfully pulled in the first shots and details about the game.

Still a working title and pencilled in for release on 28 August in the US, Star Fox DS promises to introduce a new element of strategy to the space shooter by giving players a commander's view of the 3D rendered missions, as Fox McCloud and friends battle to protect the Lylat system.

The touch screen will be used to chart interstellar routes before engaging enemies, capturing bases and progressing across the map.

Up to eight players will be able to blast each other into tiny bits of space debris over a local wireless connection or up to four players can lock lasers after hooking up using the Nintendo WiFi Connection service.

Screenshots Via Comments ...

Via Gamespot

LucasArts has announced that Thrillville will be shown at this year's E3. The theme park creator will be released on the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, and Xbox in Q3 2006, and is being developed by acclaimed British outfit Frontier Developments.

The game offers a fully interactive and customizable amusement park in which you can build and ride roller coasters and more than 100 other attractions. You also have to take care of park guests, but you'll be able to unwind with dozens of minigames.

LucasArts promises that Thrillville's building model will be able to use with console controllers. The 75-plus rides include sedate carnival rides all the way up to wooden, corkscrew, and inverted roller coasters. There'll also be go-kart tracks, mini golf, and bumper cars that you can design and then play in four-player party games. You can explore the whole park on foot and chat with visitors to gauge how much they like your park.

The game is on course for a Q3 2006 release and will be shown at this year's E3 in LA, which starts tomorrow. ...

Via Gamespot

Nintendo has announced the full list of first-party handheld titles that will be shown at E3. The list features a heavy DS bias, with only one Game Boy Advance game on the list in the form of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team, but the company has treated us to a few brand-new product announcements that we've detailed below. More information should be available at the show itself, but here's what we know about the new games so far.

Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol is an adventure follow-up to the previous Chibi-Robo game. The story follows Chibi-Robo as he ventures into the great outdoors, where the flowers have been transformed by evil monsters. The character can use buggies, cars, and boats across lawns and ponds. He is also equipped with a squirter to fend off enemies, and dances to give life back to the park flowers. No release date has been given for the game as yet.

Clubhouse Games is a card, board, and clubhouse game collection that includes checkers, darts and poker. The game can be played by up to eight people from one game card over wireless game sharing, and will feature a Pictochat-like interface for communicating with friends. The game will also feature bowling, backgammon, bridge and billiards, and forms part of Nintendo's Touch Generations library, which is intended for nongamers.

Custom Robo Arena is an action role-playing game set in a sci-fi landscape, where players fight toward the Custom Robo championship. You will be able to upgrade your Robo with unique parts and create a unique warrior that can be taken online over Nintendo Wi-Fi connection. There's also multiplayer with multicard play and DS download play. The DS touch screen is used to customize the robot as well as clean it up after battle.

Diddy Kong Racing DS was also announced by Nintendo today, although the company didn't offer any more information prior to the show. We'll have to see if the company chooses to show it at the show when it opens on Wednesday.

DK: King of Swing DS is an action game starring Donkey Kong. A sequel to the GBA game, King of Swing DS sees Donkey Kong swinging and climbing across levels that make full use of the console's dual screens. Adventure mode will feature Diddy Kong as a subcharacter, and there will also be new moves, items, and minigames available. There is also a four-player mode that will make use of multicart and DS download play, and will offer the choice of Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Dixie Kong, or Funky Kong.

DS Air is the working title for a new flight simulator from Nintendo. The aim will be to take elite strike fighters and hunt down a mad dictator, and it will be a realistic sim with customizable fighters and weapons. Locations include land, sea, and air, and DS Air will feature a co-op mode that can be played over Nintendo Wi-Fi.

Hotel Dusk: Room 215 is an intriguing new graphic adventure game that places you in Los Angeles in 1979. As Kyle Hide, an ex-cop turned salesman, you must investigate the mysterious room of the title and solve the mystery of Room 215. Holding the DS console like a book, you use the touch screen to grill characters, search for clues, and solve puzzles.

Kirby is a provisional title, but Nintendo has announced that it is a new action game in which Kirby's copy abilities have been massively boosted. You can use the stylus to mix and match copy abilities, so that you can burn trees with fire ability or freeze water with the ice ability. The title also has subgames that can be played locally by up to four players, both via multicard and DS download play.

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, due for release in Q4 2006, sees gaming favorite Link tackle a new adventure. This time, he's washed ashore a mysterious island and must find the way back to his companions with the aid of a fairy. The game will be played almost entirely using the stylus--not just when controlling Link, but also when solving puzzles and making notes on the map. There's also a two-player wireless minigame available, involving a race against time to collect Force Gems.

Magical Vacation (working title) is a game that tasks players with the rescue of their teacher and classmates from the Will O' Wisp magical academy. As players progress through the game, they will fight monsters to earn experience points and buy new weapons, gaining levels and power as they go. As well as the solo game, players can team up with up to five friends wirelessly to take on enemies in a special "Amigo" dungeon. The game will be controlled almost exclusively with the stylus and features turn-based combat that accommodates melee and ranged attacks.

Mario Hoops 3-on-3 is due for release on September 11 and, as you'd expect, sees Mario enter the world of basketball. Each team will contain three figures from the Mario universe, although it's only possible for four human players to play simultaneously, so expect some NPCs to make up the numbers.

Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis is an action-puzzle sequel to be released on September 25 that puts the player in control of Mario toys in a bid to save Pauline--one of the franchise's early characters, not seen ...

Via Gamespot

As part of a game reel showcasing a slew of games headed to the Wii, Nintendo showed the first footage of a new game in the Fire Emblem series. The very brief snippet seemed to consist entirely of an anime cutscene, so nothing resembling gameplay was shown. However, the footage contained brief scenes of a young man fighting for his life in close quarters, and also showed a female character with a sparrow alighting from her outstretched arm. It's reasonable to suspect these two will be the protagonists in the game.

The Fire Emblem series is known for delivering richly complex stories and challenging turn-based battles. Stay tuned to GameSpot for more information about Fire Emblem for the Wii. ...

Via Gamespot

Though Wii and DS got most of the love at Nintendo's pre-E3 press conference today, the GameCube is still a contender. Its replacement, the Wii, won't even arrive until an as-yet-undisclosed date sometime in the fourth quarter of 2006, so there's still plenty of time to rack up more hours on the GameCube. Today, Nintendo released a partial list of games currently in development for its current-gen console, showing a healthy pipeline of new releases that extends right up to--and past--the Wii launch.

See below for an alphabetical list of publishers and their games, as well as planned launch dates where available.

2K Games -MLB 2K6: available this month

Activision -Over the Hedge: available this month -X-Men: The Official Game: available this month

Atari -Backyard Baseball 2007: June 2006 -Backyard Basketball 2007: November 2006

Buena Vista Games -Disney's Meet the Robinsons: March 2007

D3 -Dreamworks' Flushed Away: October 2006

Eidos -Tomb Raider Legend: September 2006 -Bionicle Heroes: October 2006

Electronic Arts -Madden NFL '07: August 2006

LucasArts -Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy: September 2006

Midway Games -The Ant Bully: Q3 2006

Namco Bandai Games -Pac-Man World Rally: July 2006 -One Piece: Grand Adventure (formerly Grand Battle 2): August 2006

Nintendo -Baten Kaitos Origins: September 25, 2006 -DK Bongo Blast: Q4 2006 -Super Paper Mario: Q4 2006 -The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: Q4 2006. As announced during the Nintendo press conference, Twilight Princess will launch in two versions on the same day: a version for Wii and a version for GameCube.

Sega -Super Monkey Ball Adventure: Summer 2006

THQ -Disney/Pixar Cars: June 2006 -Monster House: July 2006 -Avatar: The Last Airbender: September 2006 -The Barnyard: September 2006 -Bratz Diamondz: October 2006 -Nicktoons Vortex Island: October 2006 -SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab: October 2006

Tomy -Naruto: Clash of Ninja 2: Q3 2006

Ubisoft -Open Season: September 2006 -Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent: September 2006 -Rayman: November 2006

Vivendi Universal Games -The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning: October 2006

When the E3 show floor opens tomorrow, we'll bring you more info on these games and hands-on reports for the ones that are playable on the floor. ...

Via Gamespot

There was a lot of excitement for Nintendo's pre-Electronic Entertainment Expo press conference today, and the company did not disappoint. Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo's EVP of sales and marketing walked the enthusiastic audience through the company's next-gen plans, as well as its upcoming GameCube and Nintendo DS games.

First-party titles--especially Nintendo's classic franchises--claimed the lion's share of the spotlight. Nintendo fans will be particularly excited about Super Mario Galaxy (working title), which is a Mario platformer for the Wii, and the revelation that Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess will be a Wii launch title. In fact, Twilight Princess will get two launches: a GameCube version will hit shelves on the same day as the Wii version.

Also in development now are other follow-ups to classic series, including Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Fire Emblem, WarioWare: Smooth Moves. Nintendo is working on a number of all-new titles, announced for the first time today:

-Disaster: Day of Crisis is an action game where the player tries to recapture a hijacked nuclear weapon against a backdrop of natural catastrophes, including floods, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes.

-Excite Truck is an arcade racer that features trucks getting big air in the vein of the NES classic Excitebike.

-Project H.A.M.M.E.R. is an action adventure game in which the player will use both the nunchaku controller and the Wii remote to control a cyborg armed with an immense hammer.

-Wii Sports is a sports game that incorporates golf, tennis, and baseball. According to Iwata's comments during the Nintendo press conference, the game is designed to allow new gamers to compete on an even footing with experienced gamers.

All told, Nintendo says that when the E3 show floor opens here tomorrow, 27 Wii games will be playable. That includes both first-party and third-party titles, and Nintendo has released an extensive list of third-party Wii titles now in development. See below for an alphabetical list of publishers and their games.

Activision
-Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam
-Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
-Call of Duty 3

AQ Interactive
-Boxing Action (currently untitled)

Atari
-Dragon Ball Z Budokai: Tenkaichi 2

Atlus
-Trauma Center: Second Opinion

Banpresto
-Family Action Game (currently untitled)

Buena Vista Games
-Disney's Chicken Little: Ace in Action
-Disney's Meet the Robinsons

Capcom
-Resident Evil game

D3Publisher
-SIMPLE series
-Original Action Game (currently untitled)

Eidos
-Title TBD

Electronic Arts
-Madden NFL '07
-Medal of Honor Airborne

Epoch
-Title TBD

From Software
-Action game (currently untitled)

Genki
-Title TBD

Hudson Soft
-Bomberman Land
-Flight Game (currently untitled)

Jaleco
-Title TBD

Koei
-Sengoku Action

Konami Digital Entertainment
-Elebits
-Soccer Game (currently untitled)

Majesco
-Bust-A-Move Revolution

Marvelous Interactive
-Bokujo Monogatari ("Ranch Story")
-Heroes
-Kawa no Nushitsuri
-Original simulation game (currently untitled)

Mastiff
-Mr. D. Goes to Town (working title)

Midway Games
-The Ant Bully
-Happy Feet

Milestone
-New Vertical Scrolling Shooting Game
-New Action Game

MTO
-Character Action Game (currently untitled)
-SAN-X All-Star Revolution

Namco Bandai Games
-Final Furlong
-Mobile Suit Gundam
-SD Gundam G Breaker
-Digimon
-One Piece Unlimited Adventure
-New Action Game (currently untitled)
-New RPG (currently untitled)
-Tamagotchi
-Title TBD

Natsume (developed by Marvelous)
-Harvest Moon

Sega
-Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz
-Sonic Wild Fire

SNK
-Metal Slug Anthology

Spike
-Necro-Nesia
-Jawa

Square Enix
-Codename: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Crystal Bearers
-Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors

Taito
-Turn IT Around!!
-Let's go by train!
-Cooking Mama--Cooking with International Friends

Tecmo
-Super Swing Golf PANGYA

The Game Factory
-Title TBD

THQ
-Avatar: the Last Airbender
-SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab
-Disney/Pixar Cars

Tomy
-Action Game (currently untitled)
-Battle Action (currently untitled)

Ubisoft
-Open Season
-Rayman Raving Rabbids
-Red Steel

Vivendi Universal Games
-Title TBD

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
-Title TBD

When E3 kicks off tomorrow, we'll bring you more info on these games and hands-on reports for those that are playable on the show floor. ...

Via Gamespot

Microsoft officially unveiled Halo 3 during its E3 press conference today, and the company released a trailer for its highly-anticipated sequel on the Internet and its Xbox Live service. Halo 3 will be the first Halo game designed for Microsoft's Xbox 360 console, and the importance to the company was highlighted by the fact that Bill Gates, Microsoft chairman and chief software architect, was on hand to help announce the game.

When the trailer was shown to the audience at the Grauman's Chinese Theater, where Microsoft held its annual games briefing, the crowd erupted. Halo 2 ended in a cliff-hanger, with the Master Chief, the hero of the Halo series, returning to Earth in the midst of a climactic battle between the Convenant, an alien coalition, and Earth's defensive forces. The Halo 3 trailer begins with a slow shot of the dusty African plains. Wreckage litters the landscape, and a woman's voice is heard. It's Cortana, the artificial intelligent construct that is Master Chief's chief ally. In brief, cryptic sentences, she talks about "being the source," and she sounds like she may have been somehow combined with Gravemind, the intelligence behind the Flood, another alien menace. As the Master Chief enters into the frame, she says in a distorted voice, "I know you. Your past. Your future."

Suddenly, Convenant Ghosts and battleships appear in the skies. The music swells, and in the distance, a huge hatch slowly opens in the ground. A bright beam of light begins to build, blinding the camera. Cortana then chimes in, "This is the way the world ends." The Bungie logo then flashes on the screen, followed by the text: "Finish the fight in 2007."

Bungie, the internal Microsoft studio that created Halo, also released the trailer onto the Internet, and a high definition version was put up on Xbox Live Marketplace, the online service available to Xbox 360 owners. To quote the accompanying text found on Xbox Live, Halo 3 is about Earth under Convenant rule: "With its defensive forces, all but obliterated, Earth has fallen to the unstoppable might of the Convenant. These alien occupiers have discovered something beneath the ancient African sands - something incredible... something Forerunner." The Forerunners are an apparently extinct alien race that built huge artificial ringworlds called Halos, and the Halo games have focused on the mystery surrounding these strange objects.

The importance of a new Halo game for the Xbox 360 cannot be underestimated. The original Halo was a launch title for the first Xbox, and was easily the biggest hit, driving sales of that system. Halo 2, which launched in 2004, became a cultural event, with thousands of gamers lining up for hours for the midnight launch. Halo 2 made entertainment history by generating $125 million in sales in one day. However, Microsoft didn't mention Halo 3 at all during last year's Electronic Entertainment Expo, and fans had been left wondering when the software giant would finally drop the big news. Well, the waiting for news of Halo 3 has now come to an end. Now they'll have to wait to 2007 for the game itself. ...