E308 posts

E3 2009 was not only a return to the big trade show event version of our favorite week of the year in games (we are still trying to forget those two horrible years of just media folks going to meeting rooms). It was also a return for the booth babes. Some people love to see them and other want this trade show tradition thrown out with the baby water. But they are definitely coming back for E3 2010.

G4TV had several booth babes at their E3 2009 exhibit hall space and this year they are asking potential female models and spokespeople to submit a video of themselves saying why they should be the official G4 booth babe. Submissions must be made by May 19. A group of judges will then pick a number of video submissions and post them on the G4 web site where readers can vote for their favorite booth babe from May 24-June 4. The top three vote getters then go through another G4 judging panel and they will pick the final winner. That woman will be flown to Los Angeles to be G4's booth babe at E3 2010. And it's likely we will take a picture of the winner. And it's likely you will look at it. Don't pretend you won't.

That's right kids! The BigCast returns after a short hiatus. Dubbed "The Episode We Should Have Thrown Out," episode 005 is riddled with tech problems due to the addition of (what was supposed to be) an awesome new microphone -- which picked up every little noise in the room! While we were going to throw this one out to keep with our growing audio quality, some of you have emailed us requesting to hear it. So, keep in mind the audio quality in this episode is so bad it can fall in a well and die -- that said we hope you enjoy it!

For tech and time reasons the news portion of this episode has been cut (it was the worst sounding portion of the show anyway) but listen as BigCast regulars Xav, Kyle and Steven Wong chitchat about all things E3.

It's a little late to the party but let's be honest, it's only a party until the BigCast arrives. This ... is the BigCast!

Note: Come back on Monday for BigCast Episode 006! That's right, no need to wait a week for the next edition. You'll get another shot of BigCast love Monday afternoon with better audio quality. We swear!

Question? Round-Table Idea? Email us: podcast [at] bigdownload [dot] com

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Hosts: Xav de Matos, Kyle Horner and Steven Wong

Produced by Xav de Matos

Music: Intro/Outro: "Am I Awake" by They Might Be Giants. Bridge: "Gedgetron" by Gazaar

E3 2008 may seem like a distant memory (a really painful distant memory but we digress) but our mothership Joystiq has finally gotten together to name their picks for the best (and the worst) games they got to see at the nearly vacant LA Convention Center earlier this month.

Will your favorite game be among those cited by the team at Joystiq as one of their award winners? What surprises do the awards have in store for you. There's only one way to find out. Check out their picks for the E3 awards for 2008 right now.

You might know the Entertainment Software Association for their efforts in organizing E3 but the video/PC game industry association is a lot more. This week the ESA released their annual report where the group went over all of what they do for the game industry.

The 37 page document (in PDF format) is quite extensive with the ESA going over its efforts in court to prevent laws that might restrict the sales of games for their content. It also covers topics like their fights to prevent game piracy, their research into who plays video games, their support of the Entertainment Software Ratings Board and more. One rather glaring omission from the report is that the ESA lost five members (Activison and Vivendi Games, now Activision Blizzard, LucasArts, id Software and Crave Entertainment) during the past few months (to be fair it also gained three members in its fiscal 2008 year; Epic Games, MTV Games and Codemasters)

[Via Joystiq]

Even though it has been called by many who attended the worst E3 ever held, that hasn't stopped the Game Critics Awards from naming their picks for the nominees for their annual Best of E3 award. The awards, picked by a group of mainstream and game oriented journalists (including Chris Grant of our sister site Joystiq) had three games that will appear on the PC platform named as Best in Show (Fallout 3, Mirror's Edge and Spore).

The nominations for Best PC Game are Spore, Dragon Age: Origins, Warhammer Online, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II and Left 4 Dead. Indeed Valve's upcoming zombie shooter got three more nominations (Best Original Game, Best Action Game and Best Online Multiplayer Game). You can go to the Game Critics Awards' web site for all the nominees; the winners will be named on August 5.

So Dead Space, the upcoming sci-fi themed survival horror game from Electronic Arts, is looking very much like an "M" rated game at this point. But apparently the trailer for the game that was shown at EA's E3 press conference earlier this month was too much for the Entertainment Software Ratings Board. As least that's the word from Ars Technica who states they received an email from EA after the conference stating that the "Lullaby" trailer is " . . banned here in the US (well not banned, but wasn't approved) by the ESRB because well, it's pretty gory."

And indeed it is very violent and bloody, but no more so than other Dead Space trailers in the past. However the ESRB decision hasn't stopped Gametrailers from posting up a link to the movie (with an age gate) so you can check out all the action for yourself after the jump. The game itself is due for release on the PC and other platforms on Oct. 21

Download the Dead Space "Lullaby" HD Trailer

id Software holds its annual QuakeCon event in Dallas next week, Sony Online holds its annual Fan Faire later in August in Las Vegas and in October Blizzard plans to hold its latest BlizzCon installment. But could yet another developer hold their own fan driven event? Maybe. Eurogamer reports that Frank O'Connor, the head of Halo development at Microsoft Games Studios, hints that a HaloCon could be possible as well.

While O'Connor stressed that no such planning for an event has taken place yet, he did say, "You can do a HaloCon. Nothing on [the scale of Comic Con], but you could bring a few hundred people just to see a Halo thing." While Halo is mostly known as an Xbox/Xbox 360 game franchise the first two games in the series were ported over to the PC.

We've posted up a lot of comments on E3 2008 over the past week from game industry executives and all of them seem to agree on one thing; the current small invite only format just doesn't work. So what can be done to return E3 to its former glory days? In his latest blog entry, EA Sports head Peter Moore says that Electronic Arts plans to get involved in any future E3 changes.

Calling E3 2008 "soulless and lacking an epicenter", Moore claims EA will be meeting soon with E3 organizers the Entertainment Software Association and that he hopes those meetings "will be substantive and be productive in finding the right path forward." Moore also wants to see gaming fans at future E3s, saying, "With the right planning, involving our biggest fans in E3 would bring back some of the raw passion the event has lost."

In addition to the anticipated Bionic Commando: Rearmed remake of the original game, most gamers are aware that the series will receive a series reboot in the form of the simply named Bionic Commando. Capcom gave the game the royal treatment at last week's E3, unveiling an action-packed trailer and promoting both Rearmed and Bionic Commando.

We recently had a chance to spend some quality time with the game, so be sure to check out our impressions while you're downloading the sexy high definition E3 gameplay trailer.

Download the HD Bionic Commando E3 2008 trailer

It's clear that there's no stopping Lara Croft. After making a successful comeback by in Tom Raider Legend and getting back to its roots in Tomb Raider Anniversary, the series continues to capitalize on its best features (and we're not just talking about the feminine ones) in Tomb Raider Underworld. We got first looks at Lara's latest subterranean adventure at this year's E3, filled with lost cities to explore, plenty of puzzles, and signature acrobatics.