Daetrin writes "IGN.com is reporting that Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo will be showing a new Pac-Man game at E3, developed with (some) help from original Pac-Man creators Namco. It seems to have a very interesting method of utilizing the connectivity between the GBA and the Gamecube. In one of the modes, one player controls Pac-Man using a connected GBA, which shows the traditional top-down view of the maze. The other players use normal Gamecube controllers to control the ghosts, and see a 3D view from inside the maze on the TV screen, which can be split up to three ways for the three player-controlled ghosts." That crazy banjo-playing Miyamoto chap strikes again, eh?

As part of our continuing E3 round-up, ahead of its May 14th start in Los Angeles, the biggest new announcement has been from Activision, which released info on its product line-up (press release via Yahoo) this morning. Highlights include the inevitable Doom 3, Peter Molyneux's latest public speaking project, The Movies, and licenses from Spiderman and X-Men to Shrek, plus Disney Skateboarding (which may actually be good, thanks to cult developers Toys For Bob, of Star Control fame.) Otherwise, it seems Tecmo may be showing a new Dead Or Alive at E3, alongside a DoA fashion show, and Ubisoft will show a more promising new 3D Prince Of Persia and the ever-mysterious Uru: Ages Beyond Myst MMOG from Cyan. Here's links to previous E3 coverage at Slashdot Games.

Rainier Wolfecastle writes "IGN.com is reporting Konami has confirmed that Metal Gear Solid 3 will be debuting at E3 next week in Los Angeles. There's no word on what will be shown, but if past shows are anything to go by, it's sure to be impressive." There's also a slightly Japlish-influenced teaser image on the Konami Japan site. But truly, how excited are you after the somewhat controversial (was it epoch-making, or just decent?) Metal Gear Solid 2?

Thanks to reader dj_paulgibbs for pointing to this Yahoo story talking about further upgrades to Xbox Live that Microsoft plan to unveil at E3. Yahoo's sources say these include "advanced community features such as voice chat and locater services that operate independently of games in progress", and also mentions a new "Xbox Music Mixer" for audio, as well as the ability to play video transferred from a PC. This is separate to the Xbox Live software upgrade we mentioned last week.

An anonymous reader writes "Electronic Arts today announced that The Sims 2, the next generation of the #1 PC game of all time, is in development." Seems like the new 'unique selling point' for the sequel is "the.. addition of genetics, with the DNA of Sims passed down through generations", but there's a whole heap of other new bells and whistles. The game will be previewed properly at E3, and the franchise has now sold over 24 million units as a whole.

According to IGN.com, the word is that Star Fox Armada for Gamecube will debut at E3. This is a Namco-developed title packing "flight-based missions and action-packed dogfights", and will be shown on the Nintendo stand either as video or a multiplayer-only playable demo. Looks like it should have a more traditional Starfox feel than Rare's Starfox Adventures, which was an action-adventure at heart, and only rebranded to include Fox McCloud partway through development.

More companies are announcing their line-up for E3, and one of the most interesting rosters comes from Capcom, who now have an E3 preview page up on their site. Highlights include Resident Evil: Outbreak (the online Resident Evil for Playstation 2) and Onimusha Blade Warriors (more of a fighting game?), as well as other new Maximo and Onimusha titles, though sadly there are no screenshots available there. Also announcing their product line-up are Eidos Interactive, whose press release mentions Thief and Deus Ex: Invisible War from the Spector-headed Ion Storm, plus interesting Legacy Of Kain and Tomb Raider sequels. Finally, a preliminary list of E3 titles bundled out of Sony Europe by Eurogamer includes Gran Turismo 4, Syphon Filter: Omega Strain, Eye Toy (using your Playstation 2 plus a camera add-on), Ratchet and Clank und Jak and Daxter sequels, and plenty more. Excited yet?

G9o writes "The demo for Unreal II: The Awakening has been released. The 153MB file is available for download at Fileplanet or FileShack. Originally Epic said they weren't going to release a demo for it, but perhaps the mediocre reception changed their mind?" In related news, French games site FactorNews are hosting a press document that claims "Unreal II" for Xbox, "Unreal Assault" for PS2 and "Unreal Tournament 2004" for PC will all be shown by Infogrames at E3, albeit possibly behind closed doors.

Arcane writes "This interview with id lead designer Tim Willits at Gamespot goes into more detail about Doom 3 than the usual 'mind blowing graphics' or 'changes the future of gaming' phrases." It's nice to see some new screenshots, mention of multiplayer modes, and most of all, Tim's descriptions of actually playing the game. New trailer debuts at E3, apparently.

An'Desha Danin writes "It appears that SNK is returning to the US market for the first time since they closed down its offices in June 2000. GameDaily has the scoop. The article mentions SNK will be showing at E3 with playable versions of Metal Slug Advance and King of Fighters 2001 for Gameboy Advance. Sweetness." Also mentioned are a new version of Samurai Shodown and a 3D version (!) of Metal Slug, so, needless to say, the messageboards on Neo Geo fansites are lighting up over this news.

The list of games to be shown at the E3 Expo in Los Angeles next month is rapidly increasing, and this Eurogamer feature has a round-up of what's been announced so far. There's always plenty of new titles and surprises, and this year is no exception. A notable list comes from Sega, and includes the Sonic Team title Billy Hatcher And The Giant Egg for Gamecube, more spiky hedgehog action with Sonic Heroes for GC/PS2/XBox, as well as Phantasy Star Online Episode III: C.A.R.D Revolution, a card battle RPG for GC that continues the successful franchise. Another major company showcasing its line-up is Nintendo, who has an E3 preview page that includes the now two-seater Mario Kart: Double Dash for GC and the eagerly awaited Advance Wars 2 for Gameboy Advance, as well as several Nintendo-bound Final Fantasy titles in association with Square/Enix. More updates as we get them.

MonsieurEvil writes "Valve announced today (http://www.planethalflife.com) that the long-awaited Half-Life 2 will be appearing at E3, and will be released this year. The NDA for press is supposed to end on April 28th, and quite a few magazines are already hyping their scoops. Hopefully all the teen-angst types that show their superiority through decrying this as vaporware can now listen to their elders..."

seldo writes "According to ITWorld, losses in the last quarter at Microsoft's Home and Entertainment segment have doubled. From the article: 'The segment, which also includes Microsoft's TV platform and PC games, posted a quarterly operating loss of US$348 million, compared with $180 million in the same period a year ago.'" An anonymous reader points to similar coverage at news.com, pointing out that the company also reports "profits for Office, and one small note about an undisclosed presumably Japanese company that Microsoft if propping up. So, the big question on my mind is, who is Microsoft secretly holding above water, and why? The fact that they are presumably Japanese, seems to point towards an XBox partner. Could this explain the sudden flood of Sega exclusive games?" Another anonymous reader writes "Microsoft will be showing a smaller sized Xbox at E3 this May. In addition to the smaller size of the hardware, the Xbox Lite will also be integrated with Media2Go allowing Xbox users to download digital content such as music and movies. Wonder what this means for all the current Xbox Mod Chips?"

Alex_Ionescu writes "The Doom 3 E3 Demo Alpha has leaked to the public. It looks promising, altough I'm only getting 12FPS on a Radeon 7500. Did anyone else have the chance to play it and could post their FPS? Here are some sites with more information and screenshots: here , here, here, and finally here. "

luciensims writes "Wireless networking blog e3.com.au is running a story about a few of their members flying a private aircraft 1500ft above Perth, Western Australia. They found over 90 access points. Details are here."

ZaMoose writes: "Not to beat on the poor America's Army servers any further, but their sitrep for today featured the following interesting tidbit: "That's not all. We're also working on an in-game browser, linux port, and host of other features. Yes, we've been busy the past week!" (emphasis mine). For those not familiar with AA:Operations, it is a free (as in beer) first person shooter developed under the watchful eye of the US Army. It received mounds of praise at this year's E3 and was released to Windows users July 4th." Well, it says Linux server port, anyhow. And JD writes: "Apex Designs have announced that their GTA-style game Payback is coming to Linux. The port appears to already be fully playable as there is a status report here which includes some early screenshots. (And their website doesn't require IE. :)"

Talinom writes "This has just simply gone too far. CNN has a story that tells how the video game Doom III by id Software has won the "Best Of Show" award at the E3 convention about one year before its release. Does this mean that Duke Nukem Forever is overdue for its "Game Of The Year" award?" The awards site is E3Awards.com. I don't see how they can give an award called "Best Action Game" to something that doesn't exist as a playable game, but then again looking at the past awards I see Neverwinter Nights won in 2000... in 2001... and in 2002.

mr_sheel writes "According to a Gamespy interview with John Carmack, Carmack says what he thinks about the video cards with Doom3: ATI Radeon 8500 is a better card, with a nicer fragment path, while NVidia still consistently runs faster due to better drivers. And of course, the GeForce SDR cards will not be "fast enough to play the game properly unless you run at 320x240 or so." And in a ShackNews interview with Carmack, he says that Doom 3 at E3 was only running at medium quality... wow."

Slashback (below) is chock full of updates to recent (and not recent) Slashdot stories, including some good news for AMD fans, and a last drizzle of news from E3.

spides writes: "If you thought the original X-Box controller was huge, you're in for a rude awakening. At E3 this past week, Microsoft and Capcom unveiled their 40 button control station for the X-Box's 'realistic' mech simulator Steel Battalion. On the same day, Nintendo and Sega unveiled the new keyboard peripheral for use with the Gamecube version of Phantasy Star Online, which can only be described as the world's largest conventional controller with a keyboard stuck between the directional pad and the usual buttons."