The 2009 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E³) will take place from June 2-4, 2009, at the Los Angeles Convention Center (LACC), the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) announced today. The expanded E³ will welcome all qualified computer and video game industry audiences, including international and U.S.-based media, analysts, retailers, developers and business partners to preview the latest in interactive entertainment and technology.

When directly asked if “public,” meaning Timmy and his 4 parkour friends to the game lines will be able to attend, ESA stated to us rather directly:

The changes only include: increased booth sizes, increased qualified audiences, and an intensified focus on reinforcing the improved plans for E^3.

Update: Talk about the level of hate mails I just received (around 500) from posting this. This is what ESA wrote to us. We specifically asked if “non-members” of ESA meant anyone in the public, and that’s a no. It just means that people NOT in the ESA group (few companies, exhibitors, and now developers) can gain access to this event in 2009. Public is still not allowed.

Update # 2: Confirmed again. Not Public. Press/Developers/Attending Companies/Business Partners still need to APPLY to attend. E3 2009 will be like the “old” E3’s in terms of scale in the booths, not public attendance. Public cannot attend.

LucasArts has always had the tendency to release games with the Jedi-swinging, blade thrusting label in a dark light. Boundlessly, players have been left desultory in showing any sort of concern to the general Star Wars direction in terms of video games. Countless accessories, a ton of spin-off, and many mediocre games after, LucasArts finally manages to make Star Wars: The Force Unleashed a game that doesn’t come up half awry. Any comic-con freak with a lightsaber under his belt will find consolation here, minus the slow slices of saber-burn trailing from the repetitive hack and slash combined with half witted mo-cap acting in a story presented so completely.

The prim compass of this latest Jedi action thriller comes to set between the stories of Episode III and IV, presenting something most people of the series always wanted to see. The sad part really comes from the fact that the story was based on something that wasn’t deemed important enough for the big screen. While the precept of having an original storyline come into a game from such a big name as Star Wars: The Force Unleashed itself, it lends itself to an inherent plague of automatically being downhearted. Coming through the fax machine, George Lucas sends his notes along for the writing team anxiously awaiting certain corrections from their own storyline. As anyone plays through Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, it’s ostensibly uneven to some extent. One minute the apprentice is stabbing Wookies, the next minute he’s crying with emotion. It’s just an example, but imagine a dozen of odd perforations across the board. While we applaud the effort, a more approachable storyline from some, even one person from the actual writing team from the films or countless of other decent novels would have made for a more interesting game.

The mechanics for the actual game itself are difficult at times. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed puts focus of bringing out the force to the maximum in players hands. You can pick up enemies, hurl them, and do whatever you can to them midair. The issue really turns into selective process. Your force powers only apply to certain things across the map and even though you can lift certain ships, you can’t lift an ARC-170. Something that would actually take some effort from the force and unleash it. We definitely need to say this: what the heck?

One great thing anyone can admire about Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is just the sheer amount of technology within the game. Built upon two proprietary engines, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed takes Digital Molecular Matter and Euphoria into the realm of believable. While some of the assets aren’t as impressive when compared to the rest of the game, seeing rebel soldiers cling for their lives is just hilarious. This system isn’t perfect though. DMM is right on the spot, but Euphoria takes a hit. After enemies die and if they’re still held by the force in mid-air, all you ever see is them struggling. Once put down, their body is lifeless. Doesn’t make much sense that someone with a lightsaber just plunged fully into his heart would survive the outcome. Aside from this, the morbidness of the reality makes itself something worth seeing and paying money for up front. It just doesn’t get old.

Lame brains and mediocre manifestation aside, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is an essential component to any Star Wars fans game database. We’re at least glad this isn’t another game in a series of long games LucasArts excreted in the past. We were all tired of squad commandeering in Squad Commando’s, we were sick of the foolish games that made us play machines in a huge war, with Jedi’s as a “weapon” choice. We were dead tired of the old single player and glitched online play that Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy offered, at least having something to actually do with the main action in Star Wars. Now we arrive at Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and at least we’re not left totally disappointed. Runner up to many of our “Best of E3 Awards” WhatIfGaming Prizes, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is something fresh, and new enough to be considered worth buying and playing for long hours at a time. A Star Wars game that actually makes use of something so long forgotten by LucasArts: the Jedi experience.

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.

Best Action Game:
Left 4 Dead

Developer: Valve Software
Publisher: Valve Software
Release Date: Winter 2008

Action titles were far to everywhere this E3, but one happened to bite our interests. Literally. Left 4 Dead was full of life when we played it and managed to achieve an unparalleled amount of realism with an unique art direction and moreover gameplay that people of all ages and of all online gaming communities have been craving for.

Runner(s)-Up: Resident Evil 5 (Capcom), Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (LucasArts)

Other Nominees: Fallout 3 (Bethesda Softworks), SOCOM: Confrontation (SCE), Resistance 2 (SCE), Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty (SCE), Fracture (LucasArts)

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.

Gaming is an industry that overstrides in its own depth, and was represented as such through the want of portraying the very confines of it’s basic exertion in past E3’s. Developers would spend literally millions just to attract the bedaubed onset of crowds gushing in after waiting hours in line, hoping to generate that high from the buzz. But in that huge mist, the former Electronic Entertainment Expo was always an industry-only event, as it is right now. The problem? There just wasn’t any hard cracked rules by the ESA to begin with back in the 90’s. Now that it has, a majority of the public doesn’t find it compelling and a few are running far to call it doomed. Everyone should take a look through the real scope this time.

5. Better Structure

E3 in the past was simply a mess. The kiosks were literally everywhere, some didn’t even have a company representative present to give details, and overall most booths were mendacious. Around 3 of the Microsoft gaming booths were busted for two days, some Nitendo Wii’s weren’t functioning properly due to a shady sensor, Sony’s systems kept resetting due to faulty wiring and there was no help around the corner. As a result of the invite-only event now, there’s more support to go around.

Great. Now I Can Wait for 6-7 People of the Public at Each Booth to Finish the Entire Demo Before I Can Play.

4. More Reliability

As journalists, it’s important to get all the information we possibly can for a title. This is isochronal to the last one where with more support comes an increased amount of reliability. You can count on getting the information after the invite only switch without being drowned out by the loud clangor of rowdy gaming fanboys next to you even when you’re practically trying not to yell to be heard.

Look How Fantastic This New E3 Is! And How Cool That Dog Is Too!

3. No Booth Babes

The booth babes. We don’t mean to kill your fun. Or the excessively large sum you’re paid to stand around outside a booth to socialize with men “like us.” Or so she said, which was rather odd. Now I don’t mean to be a braggart. I’m a good looking fellow, down to earth and top of the line from the Ivy’s, but even I didn’t understand this. Is that what they told you? To socialize with us. Eh, I don’t blame ya. The booth babes not being there like previous conferences is really a move of common sense. Finally. It’s great to have them there, but great companies don’t need this marketing trick for their work. Great products speak for themselves and at the end of the day that’s what matters. At least it always did to us but somehow everyone else got wrapped up in these rather than the most important thing: the actual games.

He’s Asking Me What Game That Is? Creep.

2. No More Waiting For Hours In Line or 180 minutes per game booth.

We’d love for you all to be there. Really. We’d love for everyone under the sun and your families to come along so we have a chance at the Spanish Bull Run to the gaming stands just to get our coverage of the video games at an event that was always intended to be industry only.

This Is Why Bunnies Die.

Thank the sweet forces of mother nature for aligning the balance and making sure it’s extremely limited and we don’t have to face a Jumanji scene. For those publications out there complaining about the invite only E3 model, check your bifocals.

1. Specialization

All the factors combine together to finally create something memorable and straight to the point with future E3’s. We can finally get the information on the games we want fully, and don’t have to run through loops and jump through rings of fire to get it. Everything is more organized and better processed as a whole. We can finally get the structure and knowledge as a whole, and that’s worth downsizing E3 even more if needed.

We can finally play our games without waiting for hours on end in an “invitee” line, and cover the games accurately and with ease for the first time without a desultory setting which makes plans crumble at their feet. All of you out there have our recommendation to stop moaning and some miffed publications that still complain about this to have a check up.

Finally, we’d like to give ESA our full support in their new model and encourage them to keep the E3 Media and Business Summit by the invite model, and let the public have fun at their E For All. Keyword: All.

Article Sponsored by and Paid for by: The Entertainment Software Association (ESA). – This line is a joke. Good work in figuring it out by yourself.

Check back when E3 2008 begins as we will give you our own exclusive coverage right here at WhatIfGaming.

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]

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.

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.