Day two of E3 and big news from Sony and Nintendo.
First from Nintendo and the makers of the Wii are responding to the popularity of music simulations games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band with one of their own. Wii Music
The game, which will be out before the end of this year, transforms the Wii Remote and Nunchuk controllers into more than 60 different instruments, including a violin, steel drums, electric guitar - even a cowbell. Players strum, shake, tap and drum along to their favorite classics -- and those masterpieces they dream up can be send to friends who have Wii Music.
The Wii MotionPlus is a new accessory for the Wii remote that makes it more responsive. Nintendo is making use of this in Wii Sports Resort, a follow-up to Wii Sports that's set at the beach. Right now all we have are these screen shots. Games include sword play, water cruiser racing and disc dog, where you throw a disc to a Mii-like dog. It's out in the first half of 2009.
Animal Crossing City Folk is set in a relaxed virtual world where the days and months pass in real time. It's intended as a world where there is always something to do: catch fireflies in the summer, go trick-or-treating on Halloween or take a bus and discover a new part of the town. But get home before too long or your neighbors will miss you. It's coming at the end of the year and will feature Wii Speak, a new voice chat system also debuted on Tuesday by Nintendo.
For handheld gamers, Nintendo said Grand Theft Auto: China Town Wars is coming to the DS. The traditionally console-only title should be available around the end of the year in Europe and North America.
From Sony and the big news is the launch Tuesday evening of the PS3 video download service. It will include movies from Sony Pictures, Warner, Disney, Fox Television and Film, MGM, Lionsgate, and 20th Century Fox. Sample pricing for the movie Cloverfield: $15 to own, $6 to rent.
An updated version of the much-delayed Home virtual world was also shown but the lack of mention of a release date has people worried. Sony has already pushed back the release date several times and its currently meant to be out in beta in a few months, but that wasn't mentioned at E3 so is it delayed? Stay tuned.
And if you're about to buy a PS3 - wait! From September the US$399 console will come with an 80 gigabyte hard disk as standard - that's double the current model for the same price.
Among new games and God of War 3 is coming to the PS3. Little more is known about the title beyond this trailer and its launch date: around the end of the year.
Ubisoft announced "I am alive," which takes place in a post-apocalyptic Chicago while the world is dealing with a water shortage crisis. The game was confirmed for "current generation" systems, which should mean at least Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
And bad news from Bungie. In a notice on its Web site it apologized for the lack of E3 news and blamed its unnamed publisher for scuppering its plans to make a new game announcement. "We were looking forward to sharing that with our fan community during the week of E3. However, those plans were just changed by our publisher," Bungie president Harold Ryan wrote.
E3 continues on through July 17, come back for more news tomorrow.
With reporting by Gamepro at E3, this is Martyn Williams, IDG News Service.
