Halo 3 was just previewed for the first time at E3.

The trailer has since been released to XBL, and the web via Bungie.net, and I will comment on it in another post. Here, though, let me say how excited I am, regardless of the quality/impact of the trailer. The Halo series started a frequent LAN party group that still happens today. The originators of that group still play on XBL on a nearly weekly basis.

I don’t know if I’ve ever been more excited for, or more involved in, any game release’s pre-release hype machine than when the “I Love Bees” ARG campaign kicked off for Halo 2. Sharpie and I checked those websites constantly throughout the summer, and communicated our findings, as we both worked at jobs where we could communicate via IRC. We used our GPS tracker to roam all over Corvallis, and pinpoint exactly where the phone call should come in. We went and stood by our phones at the appointed time, even though we couldn’t pinpoint the phone exactly. We never did get a call, but we had a blast running around, and enjoyed watching and helping the internet solve the riddle.

The speculation, the hype, the standing in line for hours until midnight - those were good times. And I am so excited that we get to do this again.

Now, we’re all older - we’ve got kids, school is harder, jobs are harder - but we’ll stay connected. I fully plan to use this website as a hub for all of my/our activities in pursuing the fun that is Halo 3. I seriously doubt that this will be the clearinghouse of information for the Halo 3 community, but I hope to use it to track our adventures with it. See you online, and bee prepared!

Nintendo is absolutely destroying Sony at their press-conference. Sony’s stodgy presentation - translated in place - was painful to watch.

Nintendo is flashy - and that controller really looks like it works! I’m seeing Zelda sword action, Mario jumping, game after game that really looks like the analog precision of a position sensing controller is perfect. Think about it like this - joysticks and dpads induce vectors - move this way, move that way, move this fast, move that fast. A positional controller, like a computer mouse, lets you say - go here, go there.

The result is that I’m seeing these people shoot exactly that orc - fish exactly that spot - jump to exactly that place.

Wow - he just said that the new Zelda game will ship on launch day with the Wii. Now, they’re demoing the game. Dang - that bow aiming demo. Wow - the controller has a speaker! As you draw the controller back, the speaker sounds like the bow string being drawn back, and then when you fire, you hear the arrow leave your controller, and then get picked up by your main sound system.

Holy cow that mario game looks amazing. I am coveting this. It’s called Super Mario Galaxy, and has lots of Mario running around the outsides of asteroids, cauldrons full of lava, etc. I may very well have to get this, especially if they reveal a low enough price at the end.

FYI - the next Zelda game, Twilight Princess, is coming out for both GameCube and the Wii. The Wii version uses the fairy from OoT again - the fairy is your indicator of where the remote is pointing.

“Until you get the controller in your hand, you have no way of knowing what this is about.”

They’re getting into DS stuff now, which doesn’t interest me as much, but I sure am impressed with the Wii. I haven’t yet seen how the Wii is a synonym of We - no online service that I can see - but the play control really looks like playing. Here’s hoping for a low price!

There’s a line of smart DS games - Sudoku, Brain Age, etc. It’s almost like one of those mini-mags you can buy at the check-out line.

Theory now from Satoru Iwata - the Nintendo Prez. They’re goal is to create more gamers. Specifically, they’re reaching out to those who once played, and to those who never have. They are changing the controllers and screen layouts (DS) so that more people, who wouldn’t ordinarily play, have a chance to see a new way to do things.

Theo whole point behind the Wii controller, he says, is that the remote control is something everybody knows how to use. And, everybody knows how to move their arms to do things. They’re banking on the fact that the familiarity of the controller, and control methodology, will attract new gamers.

The Wii can always be on - it has a Standby feature that lets it remain connected, but in a low-power state. Also, it can be connected to the internet to download new things, etc. Don’t know about online play, but it can download stuff in this standby state.

I didn’t catch a price - did anyone else?