Another year and another awards season. E3 was packed with exciting memories you have all seen (some still to be posted), and rooms filled with the hottest and most anticipated titles to date. It was certainly a great time, and now that time is over. It’s time to look forward, ahead to newer and better releases, and to ennoble titles in this year’s WhatIfGaming’s Best Of E3 Awards 2008.

Criteria: The Best of E3 Awards, a subcategory for the WhatIfGaming Prizes, are given solely to those video games that demonstrate a pure excellence in the field for which they are not only nominated but also chosen. These awards only apply to playable games at E3 given a few exceptional categories.

Nomination & Selection Process: Compared with other site awards, the WhatIfGaming Prize nomination and selection process is long and extremely rigorous. This is the sole reason why WhatIfGaming Prizes have grown in importance over the years to become the most important prizes in their field. Forms, which amount to a personal and exclusive invitation, are sent to about over 1,000 selected individuals to invite them to submit nominations months in advance from the latest builds per video game. Self-nominations are disqualified. For WhatIfGaming Prizes, inquiries are sent to such people as developers, industry experts, analysts, freelance journalists among others. After our deadline passes, the nominations are chosen by permanent committee of 5 selected individuals and only the final stage of nominees remain per category. From all of these, a winner is chosen.

The names of the nominees are not publicly announced, and neither are they told that they have been considered for the WhatIfGaming Prize. Some are announced publicly by practice. Nomination records are revealed approximately 2 years after each respective award year.

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We can just say that ESA’s 2,500 people invite-only model of the E3 Media and Business Summit as of 2007 is a digression to the dreams and happiness of that gamer who saves up everything for games, and has nothing more forward to look to during that time of the year than a massive event. The problem is that it isn’t true. In fact, the ESA’s decision to make E3 invite-only is one of the best decisions they could have ever made apart from catching pirates in the Northern regions of Seattle or some place like that. People have become tuned to the idea that the downsize is the worst possible thing that simply could have happened. The newest model of E3 has brought a sense of eventual prejudice and mostly misdirection from all fields that makes it apparent that many people are far from the realities of it.

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Quiz game Buzz! is to make its way onto Sony’s PSP handheld system this spring.

The game features more than 5,000 questions on topics such as music, celebrities, TV, sport, nature, movies and more, together with 1,000 pictures and videos.

It will also incorporate cutting-edge technology, as Sony explains: “The focus of Buzz! Has always been on social play and the PSP version is no different, with three exciting multiplayer modes to test your quiz skills to the limit.

“Pass Around is a mode that you only need one PSP for, as you pass the system from player to player. As well as the fun of traditional quizzing, some rounds will let you prey on your opponents’ general knowledge weaknesses: you can choose who to pass PSP to according to the question’s subject matter.”

Other single and multiplayer types of round have been specially designed for the PSP.

Why not on the Wii?

Ever wondered why Crisis Core saw a release on the PSP as opposed to another handheld? I didn’t cause I own everything. (I keep most of it in my garage.) But some of you may have been scratching your heads for a bit so Executive Producer Kitase is going to shoot down that question.

The demographic was higher teens to young adults as opposed to small children.The PSP seemed closer to that demographic than DS in general. So we feel we really made the right choice.

Here’s another good choice for you guys, remake FF7 for the PS3!

Devs explain why Crisis Core is PSP-only [Qj.net]

Rockstar Games let the cat out of the bag. More than one cats. Announcing Midnight Club: LA Remix for the PSP, showing newer screens of the hottest anticipated title now that GTA IV is shipped, and with a release date of Sepetmber is sure to get anyone sprawling like mad.

Today we are very excited to finally let you all know about this September’s release date of Midnight Club: Los Angeles for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, as well as the just announced Midnight Club: LA Remix for the PSP. In addition to the full press release with all of the details available at the link below, we also wanted to share some fresh new screenshots with you of Midnight Club: Los Angeles in action. Rockstar San Diego has been working very hard and very passionately on this project over the last few months, and its been a huge rush to see this game constantly breaking new grounds.

People are going to be blown away when they see how true-to-life Los Angeles looks in this game

said Jay Panek, Midnight Club Producer Rockstar San Diego.

We’ve added some great twists and turns that let players experience the authentic vibe and feel of the city at blistering speeds that you simply couldn’t get away with in real life.

I have dibs on Santa Monica.

In the coming months, we will be featuring a first on any blog out there to you the readers. We will be beginning a segment with the type: Things That Matter To Us Series. More on that later. Until then, we’ll leave you guessing.

Nippon Ichi has not forgotten about Sony’s PSP. They have just been developing titles for Nintendo’s DS and are now set to release a new title for the PSP called Infinite Loop: Kojou ga Misete Yume (Infinite Loop: The Ancient Castle Seen in a Dream). Theres no set date for this title in the U.K or U.S.A as of yet, but its set for July 24th in Japan. There is no idea surrounding this game of what it is about or what it involves, so will have to check their offical website for the low down when it is up and running in the future.

As it says, MH2G sold nearly 1.5 million in Japan alone for the PSP, making it one of the most profitable PSP titles in the console’s history. Capcom stated that it is poised to surpass sales of Monster Hunter Freedom 2, PSP’s first million-selling title in Japan, shipping as units in about two weeks.

Monster Hunter Freedom 2G released March 27 this year, and is available in Japan as a standalone title or a pack-in with PSP hardware. As of now, the series has sold a total of 6.8 million units worldwide since its 2004 debut on PlayStation 2. I guess, this just shows that freedom in the games industry is something people are craving. Even though the game itself is slave to linear concepts. Cue sarcastic face here.

In some cases anyway. A school in the city of Japan’s Chiba is giving way to a new method of teaching their fractions.

With Sony Computer Entertainment by their side, the non-profit organization ACE - the Association of Corporate and Education - came up with a way of teaching multiplication and division of fractions to children using the LocoRoco characters to explain problems that make these kids scratch their heads in angst.

The aim of the session was to explain the method logically so that students would understand why the method works. The overall fanciful presentation was based around a Flash game with the LocoRoco characters following a story that saw the concepts being explained, followed by worksheets for practice. Fun.

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It’s true! The PSP has bested the Wii and DS. In a three-way battle for supremacy over in Japan, about a million miles away, the PSP has emerged the victor. For now at least. Media Create’s sales charts, that cover March 10, 2008 to March 16, 2008, leaves the PSP at 57,651 units. Beating the Wii sales which are at 55,845 units and the DS Lite’s at 55,266 units. Hit the jump for more.

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The sensation of matching jewels together, watching them disappear and setting off an atomic chain reaction, netting me an enormous amount of points. Puzzle Quest is the best puzzle game I’ve played since Bejeweled. That’s because this game is Bejeweled, only better thanks to some minor design choices that make this game a compelling package only a fool would overlook. Puzzle Quest tries to shake up the puzzle-genre by adding a story and RPG elements to distance itself from the thousands of freeware clones on the net and carve out its own unique existence in the gaming universe.

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Just when you thought that EA Sports couldn’t get any fatter they go and get a couple of new IPs to fill themselves up. EA buying more stuff? Wow what a shocker there.

In an interview with GeekPulp, Todd Sitrin, vice president of global marketing for EA Sports, talked a hair about a new boxing game called Face Breaker. Also going on and on about the future of EA Sports.

“We actually have three new original IPs in development. The only one that’s been announced is FaceBreaker. We haven’t done an original IP at EA for several years — not since back to Freekstyle Motorcycle … we want to create new experiences and deliver that to consumers, and we’re excited about it.” Todd explained.

What if Face Breaker does kick 2K’s boxing franchises booty? Won’t happen! You know why? Because pigs don’t fly they walk, and to even think that you can contend with 2K is just crazy. Just kidding people. It’s EA Sports. I mean what could possibly go wrong?