Electronic Entertainment Expo

Also known as: e3.

The one big thing for everyone seemed to be "motion." We have to get our gamers up and moving, give them that next element! It actually is a pretty neat concept, and we can debate who started it all. PS2 had EyeToy which was an early idea of how you can use your body to game. Then the Wii came along with its WiiMote and let you really "control" those in the game.

Sony came back with the "PlayStation Move." This instead of having a camera on the end of a controller has a camera on the TV and it tracks a light. In #e3 on Neowin we were joking about how you could just use a lightbulb except it wouldn't have buttons. Sony stressed "buttons" greatly, we got a good laugh out of that. It actually looked like a neat product except for the 1 second lag time in the demos.

Then of course there was Microsoft's Kinect which is like a sophisticated EyeToy. Much more meticulous in tracking of the person and more than just "Oh you moved over here so now this board will bust." This is different, here you can interact with animals, become your character and determine how you move, or even simply use it as a controller free control station for the Xbox.

Can't forget the announcement of the new Xbox either, which I am getting. I figure someday I'll want a Kinect game and may as well have a "Kinect Ready" Xbox. Plus it is quiet and has a much larger hard drive. Now before any of you say, "Kinect works on all forms of the Xbox," yes and I know this, however I would like everything to just work better if it could. Which should happen for the internal wireless as well. If I had Kinect + Wireless N hooked up to the old Xbox Pro I doubt I would have space for much else.

I also got pretty jazzed up about Fable III and Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit. I love the Fable series and then I loved the older NFS games which is what this game seems to go back to.

Anyway, couple of fun things at e3. And I had a great time watching e3 with Neowin, we should do that again sometime!

Pokewalker

This is actually a pretty great idea.

The concept basically is that you walk around and your Pokemon that is on the Pokewalker will level up, and then you will be able to also find items. You can 'battle' wild Pokemon you find, and really it is just a great way to encourage kids to get up and move around. It is essentially an interactive pedometer.

Of course you could always just shake the Pokewalker to get "Watts" or whatever it is that helps your Pokemon level up, but where is the fun in that? Then when you sync it back up to your game you get a little summary of what went on from last sync, but of course in Pokemon terms. "Pikachu is happy and running about." "Pikachu decided to take a nap."

I'm going to be straight with you, I want one of these. Sure it is gimmicky, but it registers my steps and could be fun as a very simplistic Pokemon game. I have played the original Pokemon games, and then Gold and Silver as well, so I don't really want to spend more cash on a game that I already have, I just want this special pedometer.

It probably sounds silly, but if it wasn't too costly, maybe $5-$10 I would pick one up. Now if you play the game or know much about it you would say "Hey wait a minute Alan, you need a game to sync your Pokewalker with!"

And how right you are! My brother has the game and I could just sync with his, get some random Pokemon and just have fun with it.

If anyone knows where to get one, would be glad to know.

March Madness

I just want to say to anyone now that if you take part in this, or Fantasy Football then you can never call anyone else a geek.

Ever since I have seen more and more tweets saying "filling out my NCAA bracket", I decided to find out exactly how scoring and everything worked for this "March Madness".

From what I understand, and I could be wrong but I couldn't really find any real decent sources, best was an eHow article. Anyways basically I found it out to be like this:

• Make a bracket filled with various teams, lined up in such a way that the better of the teams get closer to the center of the bracket sheet
• Each level has certain point values, the closer to the center the more the point values are
• The more teams you correctly predict the outcome of the games, then the more and more points you get, increasing with each level closer to the center
• Whoever has the most points wins

It seems whenever I look way into one of these sports paper games I get disappointed as to find there isn't more to it. Maybe I just am the kind of geek who wants more to do. I don't know, I suppose lots of research could go into this. I might make my first bracket, could be fun. I'll find out.

Call of Duty: MW2

MW2 for those of you who don't know is "Modern Warfare 2", the second installment of the "Modern Warfare" series.

Many of us have played the game, most have seemed to like it. I didn't really have too much time to play it until just recently, and it is pretty good for multiplayer. I have it on the 360, and was used to FPSs on the computer, but finally got over that barrier.

But then I wanted more of a challenge, even though I didn't have a great K/D ratio or had that high of a level, I just wanted to enjoy it more. I had a few of the speed 'perks' unlocked, as well as "Commando Pro", so I figured I would make someone who can essentially outrun bullets and leap out of nowhere onto people and knife them. I created that guy, and honestly you feel like a super hero.

Jumping from building to building reminds you of either super hero movies, or maybe Assassin's Creed, but you really can get going fast. The hardest part is aiming where you are knifing and judging how far away from an enemy before knifing can you be with "Commando Pro".

It is insane the specialties you can create in the game if you use all of a certain type, or even certain combos, lots of fun too. So go home and try it if nothing else, then for poops and giggles: Marathon (Pro), Lightweight (Pro), and Commando (Pro). If you have the pro version of Commando then you have no fear when leaping from building to building as you can't get hurt.

Also, I found that different weapons (as I had guessed) would slow you down. I stick to a machine pistol and assault riffle, just for the light weight even though I do not use them, they are just light. FYI, a riot shield, while may protect your back, slows you down greatly.

I apologize if you found the post dry, I had some great idea of what to write about, but then went to dinner, came back, and started playing - you guessed it, CoD MW2.