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 had a chance to catch up with a very cool industry analyst Michael Pachter who wanted to reveal what he thought about the Microsoft vs Sony conference debacle.

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Here’s some footage we recorded for you guys. We don’t believe in generic stand and capture every time. We like to capture moments. This is one out of many to come. Flash Version Now Available For All Upcoming Videos Due To Popular Request

Constantly murmers are everywhere regarding which console leaders conference was the best in terms of presentation and pure content. Everyone downright agrees that Nintendo was “the worst” and there’s a whole lot of jumble about Microsoft and Sony.

Microsoft recently announced the multiplatform version of Final Fantasy XIII for North America and Europe,  but it just isn’t enough to get blood boiling. Microsoft has sold literally 19 million Xbox 360’s and it’s a number that’s hard to refuse. The placement of titles from Square Enix are numerous with Star Ocean 4 as a more than likely timed exclusive for the Xbox 360 console, and a general shift in more production towards the 360’s database. This increased relationship goes hand in hand with the unexpected, which is why some people were left far from surprised.

Sony’s conference didn’t have the best in its arsenal either. The conference began almost rather as a marketing pitch than anything worthwhile about the games themselves. We get it. “Playstation 3 is the next big thing,” “2008 is the year of the Playstation 3,” but that progress just seemed to regurgitated. Instead, how about feeding us something new? Something other than LittleBigPlanet, which we know is simply marvelous and full of effulgence. Show the public demonstrations of the games for the closed door conference held on July 15th, 2008. Same as Microsoft’s condition, Sony takes the liberty to flash us Kratos within minutes of the presentation, and things couldn’t be more obvious. Some of the Underground members even started yelling out “God of War III.” But hey, they tried.

As for Nintendo…well, we know about that.

Through the hordes that are these 3 conferences, we see that each and every one has their flaws and overall ups and down. There isn’t always 1 winner, and sometimes being a little bit better just doesn’t cut it.

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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Can you guess what we’re up to ?

Witness the glow

Oxygen Games announced today its line-up of titles due to be released in 2008. The upcoming products continue the publisher’s strategy of creating exciting games for market segments in the mainstream consumer base, from real life simulation and, action adventure, to puzzlers and casual sports titles.

Family and social video games continue to increase in popularity with consumers, with retailers starting to offer up more opportunities dedicated to this casual gaming space. -Jim Scott, CEO

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A selection of screenshots have become available for the newest title in the Guitar Hero franchise, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith .

The new screenshots show the band, which consists of lead singer Steve Tyler, guitar players Joe Perry and Brad Whitford, bass guitarist Tom Hamilton and drummer Joey Kramer, strutting their stuff on the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii.

Gamers will be put in the shoes of the Boston rockers and experience their glittering career, beginning at their first gig to the level in which they sit in today’s society.

Aerosmith fans and other gamers looking forward to experiencing the title should only have to wait a few more weeks at the most to pick it up as the game is scheduled for a June release.

Sony’s systems are on fire. No not literally, but sales wise. Sony platforms dominated across the 3 month Q4 fiscal for EA, with PlayStation 2 snatching 166 million units, followed by the PlayStation 3 on 152 million. PSP title sales grew by 77%, knocking out the DS hard on 33% sales and mobile titles selling 14%. 14?! Not bad mobile fanboys.

The Xbox 360 managed 128 million units by comparison, with the Wii trudging behind at 75 million units. What does it all mean? Both of Sony’s console platforms combined accounted for 61% of all EA console titles sold. Talk about double teaming.

Sony platforms dominated EA fiscal Q4 2008 Sales

Two thirds of women with access to the internet love casual games. Some love the Wii, go figure girlfriend! According to a new survey, this large sector in the industry for online games remains untapped and totally crapped out.

The potential for growth in this area is also substantial and this is more related to a widening of the market than a growth amongst those already committed to the paid-for online sector.

70% of women who are between 16 and 45 and live in households connected to the internet have played some form of free online game in the last year, with only 18% paying to play. Great. More orcs in the World of Warcraft realm. Just what we all needed. As for the other percentage, 59% of all women who go online between the ages of 16 and 45 play free internet flash games once a month, with the youngest being more dominant. And yeah, all tests discounted lunar cycles.

Is it a great thing that the industry sucks for females? Maybe. What’s for sure is one thing: the industry and females seem to have nothing in common. Even in the grim sector of the future.

Survey Source: Arkton

Nintendo Power asked you what you wanted to see on the Virtual Console and you answered. Here’s your (not my) top 5 most wanted games on Virtual Console.

1. Earthbound
2. Super Mario RPG
3. Chrono Trigger
4. Mother
5. Majoras Mask

Notice how both Mother and Mother 2 (Earthbound here in Non-Japan land) made the list. I must say, I almost completely agree with the list. I was a big fan of Earthbound back in the days. The game was awesome and you really got your money’s worth, thanks to the fact that it came packaged with the uber-awesome strategy guide. Unfortunately, that game was stolen from me by someone. Same goes for my two (2) copies of Mario RPG. That’s right, I bought that game twice and it was stolen both times. I still have Chrono Trigger. A shame that wasn’t released in Europe cause it’s one of the best SNES games ever. (though it was available on the PS1.) I’d probably get rid of Majora’s Mask and substitute Secret of Mana (awesome game) or Ogre Battle (one of the best Strategy games on consoles). But, all in all, it’s great and I hope Nintendo comes through and puts these games on the VC cause I’m dying to by these games again without having to take out a loan.

Think the list is imperfect? Write down your top 5 (or 10) in the comments section. Who knows, Nintendo might be watching.

List courtesy of Starmen.Net

Although long ago overtaken by the likes of Virtua Tennis and Top Spin, Namco Bandai haven’t given up on the Smash Court Tennis series yet.

The erroneously named Smash Court Tennis 3 came out in Japan last year and is now on its way to the UK in June – a full two months before the US.

The game features 16 real life tennis stars and online play, but it will face stiff competition from Top Spin 3.