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It's not Friday, but we'd like to pretend it is. So here you go: left over from last week's E3 Business and Media Summit, two representatives from Gamecock Media learning how to ride a Segway Human Transporter while wearing makeshift chicken outfits.

It's just really kind of awesome.

Microsoft's Jeff Bell and Reggie Bush at E3

(Credit: Dan Ackerman/CNET Networks)

By now, the news has hit the wires (and the blogs) that Peter Moore, corporate vice president of interactive entertainment at Microsoft, is leaving Redmond to be president of the sports division at game publisher Electronic Arts (EA). An EA representative confirmed to CNET News.com that there is no press conference planned, but a release (now posted on Kotaku, which first reported the news) has been sent out.

It's by no means the only recent major executive shuffle in the game console world, as PlayStation creator Ken Kutaragi famously stepped down in April. But Moore's timing is interesting--he's departing just as the releases for some big Xbox and Games for Windows titles have been finalized in the pipeline, such as Halo 3. In essence, he's in the clear.

What's even more interesting is that even though Halo 3 was undoubtedly the centerpiece of Microsoft's rather theatrical press event at the E3 Business and Media Summit last week, Moore made a pretty big deal out of the EA Sports title Madden NFL 2008, with New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush coming onstage to demo the game (though his appearance was with Jeff Bell, corporate vice president of Microsoft global marketing, not Moore). Yes, Microsoft and EA are partners in this sense, so it was also positive hype for the Xbox, but talk about making EA Sports stand out.

One CNET writer quipped that Moore must have "told reporters they would only get the first half of his acceptance speech...and the rest would be up on Xbox Live Marketplace for 400 Microsoft Points." Moore, it should also be noted, is seminotorious for having tattoos of the Grand Theft Auto 4 and Halo 2 logos. No word on whether he's made plans for some EA Sports-worthy additions.

The new PSP is 33 percent lighter and 19 percent slimmer.

(Credit: GameSpot)

James Yu at GameSpot got to spend some quality time with the newly redesigned PSP at last week's E3 show. Some of the details he confirmed during his hands-on session with the new PSP:

• The reduced weight is noticeable when you pick it up.
• The new battery is slimmer. Old PSP batteries can be used to "double playing time," but the battery cover won't fit over top of it. Instead, Sony will offer a high-capacity power kit with a fitted cover.
• The control layout is essentially the same, but GameSpot editors felt the d-pad and buttons on the new unit provided "a little more tactile feedback and better overall feel."
• Standard 3.5mm headphones will still work, but the new jack configuration won't be compatible with the existing PSP remote.
• The improved game loading time is said to be due to the doubling of the internal RAM (from 32MB to 64MB), which allows more of the game data to be loaded from UMD to the internal memory.
• AV output cables will be sold separately, and available in composite, S-Video, and component varieties (price TBD).
• The new PSP can be charged over USB--opening the possibility that you'll be able to use more generic power adapters, and charge straight from a PC.
• The new PSP will retain the $169 price tag of the existing model when it hits this September. The $200 "Entertainment Pack" versions will also be available, with additional colors and pack-ins.

For complete details, check out the full report at GameSpot, which also includes plenty of photos.

Game fans know that E3 is America's big, annual video game trade show, traditionally known for oversize displays and loud music and filled with anyone even vaguely affiliated with the interactive entertainment industry. Until this year, that is. Rebelling against the high costs of the LA-based show, the big game companies instead elected to put on a radically different show in 2007, losing the massive convention center booths and moving to a handful of hotels in Santa Monica, along with cutting attendance to less than 10 percent of last year's.

Attacked by a diaper-wearing chimp at EA's The Sims cocktail party

The great experiment dubbed the E3 Media & Business Summit is over, but the verdict is still out on the show's new format. Some would call it smaller and more intimate, while others said it was inconvenient and a scheduling nightmare. One clear theme was obvious--an emphasis on big games coming out for the 2007 holiday season, rather than games that may be years away from store shelves.

Personally, the "Best of Show" has largely been locked-in since last year's E3, where we saw the first glimpses of 2K's BioShock, a dystopian action/adventure set in an art deco underwater city. Nearing release at the end of August, the game continues to impress. Another favorite was Rock Band, EA's answer to the Guitar Hero franchise, compete with faux drums, guitars, and a karaoke-style mic. It may take up a lot of living room space, but house parties will never the same again.

Other high-profile games on display included Halo 3, sure to be a best seller when released in September. It looks better the longer you play it, with graphics packed with subtle details. But the game itself seems too similar to the two previous installments, as if the basic idea had run out of steam. Grand Theft Auto IV looks like more of a leap forward for that series, but there was too little of the game on display to make an accurate judgment.

Games for 2008 that made an impact on attendees include Fallout 3, a new entry in a cult favorite RPG series, and Resident Evil 5, seen only in a brief, but impressive, trailer. Those two will clearly be big at next year's E3 (if there is an E3 next year).

We asked a few fellow journalists what their favorite game of the show was. "Fallout 3 may be more than a year out, but it sure as hell doesn't look like it," said Russ Frushtick, senior games editor at UGO.com. Scott Steinberg, publisher of DigitalTrends.com, voted for Resident Evil 5, saying, "It looks fantastic and appears to deliver the cinematic intensity we've come to expect from the series." Evan Narcisse, senior associate editor at Time Out New York Kids, went more mainstream: "Rock Band actually lived up the hype. Being a front man for a crew of deadly rawk assassins scratched an itch I didn't even know I had."

Finally, if you're reliving all the E3 fun, you can retrace my week in Santa Monica through the links below.

E3 2007: 'BioShock'
E3 2007: 'Warhawk'
E3 2007: 'All-Pro Football 2K8'
E3 2007: 'Guitar Hero III'
E3 2007: 'Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles'
E3 2007: 'Rock Band' (we rocked so hard, we blew the lights)
E3 2007: 'John Woo Presents Stranglehold'
E3 2007: 'BlackSite: Area 51'
E3 2007: 'Uncharted: Drake's Fortune'
E3 2007: 'Medal of Honor: Airborne'
E3 2007: Sony's big ol' press conference
E3 2007: Microsoft kicks off the E3 press conference season
E3 2007: Welcome to the new high-security E3

(Credit: SCEA)

Online multiplayer shooters used to be about little more than blasting the guy next to you over and over again, with perhaps a little capture-the-flag thrown in for good measure (although even that required more blasting and less flag-capturing than you?d think). After the Quake, Doom and Unreal games had run their course, gamers turned to more tactical online shooters, personified by PC games such as Battlefield 1942, that pit two massive teams of soldiers against each other in a contest that was more about capturing strategic map points than racking up a body count.

Warhawk, an online-only PlayStation 3 exclusive with a somewhat tortured history, takes the massive online skirmishes of the Battlefield franchise and simplifies the gameplay to better appeal to pick-up-and-play gamers. The matches are fast-paced but offer a strategic element, letting players run around on foot, drive jeeps and tanks, or even better, hop in the hovering Warhawk aircraft the game is named after.

(Credit: SCEA)

That Warhawk is such a blast to play is somewhat surprising, given the changes in direction the game has gone through. First spotted at last year?s E3 show, Warhawk was pitched as an action-packed flight combat simulator, and was one of the first PS3 demos presented to the press in playable form.

The game vanished after that for a time, eventually re-appearing as an online-only affair, originally intended for download on the PlayStation Network. Industry watchers were not impressed, and assumed Sony was just dumping the half-completed game on the market. But after playing the current version of Warhawk it's clear that the game has a lot of potential, and demo kiosks running Warhawk were constantly packed. It will be available in both retail stores and as a download later this year.

(Credit: 2K Sports)

Back in what we like to call "the day," football fans had two main choices for NFL-branded video games. There was the Madden juggernaut and 2K Sports' NFL2K series. Thanks to EA's exclusive contract with the NFL, the last 2K football game to see the light of day was NFL2K5, which became something of a cult classic.

2K Sports is still going strong, with its NBA and MLB franchises, so the company decided to blow the dust off its football game and create a new version, minus the official NFL license. Instead, All-Pro Football is played with a league of made-up teams playing in imaginary stadiums, with plenty of customization options, so you can design a team uniform that almost matches that of your favorite team, but not in a legally actionable sort of way (i.e., the Dallas Rustlers).

The real kicker is the roster of players you can use to stock your team. Locked out of using anyone currently playing in the NFL, 2K instead signed up more than 240 retired players, including everyone from John Elway to William "The Refrigerator" Perry. Put former teammates together or engage in wild what-if speculation, pairing legends like Johnny Unitas and Walter Payton. The gameplay will be familiar to anyone who's played one of 2K's older football games, and you can flip through a traditional playbook to call plays, or simply pick a star player and get a custom list of plays to highlight their skills.

The only potentially sour note comes from the inclusion of controversial hall of famer OJ Simpson, presented in all his mid-70s glory. If media watchdogs get upset about violent games like Grand Theft Auto or Manhunt, we can?t imagine they'll be particularly pleased to see a game publisher sign a contract with an accused murderer.

On Monday, Sony announced a $100 price cut for the 60GB PlayStation 3, taking the console's retail price down to $499. Since many gamers saw the PlayStation 3 as too expensive at its previous retail price of $599, Sony's decision was widely praised. Unfortunately, the $499 60GB PS3 isn't going to last, because Sony has just confirmed that the company is no longer producing 60GB PS3s.

On the same day the price cut was announced, Sony announced a new 80GB PS3, a console that will be bundled with Motorstorm and will retail for $599, the same as the first. The price cut for the 60GB PS3 was never intended to be a permanent cut for the product; it was only intended to clear out stock for the new version to be sold at the old price. GameSpot has reported that Kaz Hirai, Sony Computer Entertainment's CEO and President, has confirmed in a video interview that the 60GB PS3s are no longer in production, and that all new PS3s will be 80GB models to be sold at $599.

When E3 kicked off, everyone was pretty excited about Sony and the new $499 PS3. Sony had a $499 PS3 before, but it was a slightly scaled-down, 20GB version that was discontinued back in April. Now it seems like Sony's doing the exact same thing with the 60GB PS3 (originally the high-end model) that they did with the 20GB: kick it out the door and make sure the only available PS3 will sell for $599 a pop. Considering the biggest complaint leveled against the PlayStation 3 has been its price, this was simply a terrible decision.

Sony Computer Entertainment of America's director of corporate communications David Karraker told GameSpot, "This is absolutely not a bait and switch," he said. "We are offering a full-featured PS3 for $100 lower than the original price and will do so for months to come, allowing consumers the opportunity to acquire this model at this adjusted price."

For many gamers, even $499 is too much for a console. The Elite version of the Xbox 360 retails for $479, and it includes a 120GB hard drive (though it lacks the PS3's Wi-Fi support, Blu-ray drive, or media reader). The Premium version of the Xbox 360 only costs $399, and the Nintendo Wii only $250. The supposed $499 price was seen as a concession by Sony that, yes, the PS3 cost too much. Suddenly saying that they're just clearing out stock and that the only PlayStation 3 they're currently producing will still retail for $599 is utter madness.

The decision alone is made even worse by the timing. Today is the last day of E3 2007, and the entire expo is being capped off by confirmation that the PS3 price cut won't last. Nearly every media outlet is going to mention the price uncut in their expo wrap-up. Everyone is walking away from Santa Monica with the $599 PS3 back in their heads.

It's also Friday the 13th, but that might just be coincidence.

First impressions mean a lot in gaming (I'm looking at you, Killzone 2), and sometimes developers choose to leave the us in the dark. Such is the case with the PS3 exclusive, Infamous, which comes to us via SuckerPunch, the makers of the cel-shaded classic series, Sly Cooper. So far the only detail we have is that in it, you must decide whether you become a superhero or villain to the people of the city it takes place in. The trailer premiered during Sony's E3 2007 press conference, and no release date was announced.

(Credit: 2K Games)

Easily the most-anticipated game of 2007 that doesn't have either 'Halo' or 'Grand Theft Auto' in the title. Since we first got a glimpse of the eye-catching underwater city of Rapture behind closed doors at last year's E3, the grass-roots buzz (as opposed to marketing-fed hype) for BioShock has been building.

Students of gaming history already know that BioShock's producer, Ken Levine, is best remembered for the System Shock series, which combined first-person shooting with puzzle-solving, adventure and RPG game elements. His company, Insomniac, couldn't nail down the rights to produce another game in the series, so BioShock is what we?d call a spiritual sequel, with much of the same thinking-man's shooter vibe.

(Credit: 2K Games)

Most gamers will be going in cold, so all you need to know is that the game starts with a mid-ocean plane crash, where the sole survivor miraculously finds a man-made station sticking out of the water, leading down to the decrepit ruins of an undersea city. The pseudo-1940's art deco vibe is a nice break from the warehouses and space stations that most first-person shooters seem to be set in, and the level of detail is impressive, from the faux period advertisements to the big band music playing in the background.

Naturally, all is not well in the city of Rapture, which was founded as a utopian experiment for scientists and artists. Genetic manipulation led to the citizens developing super powers, and a civil war ensued, leaving a handful of psychotically deranged survivors, most of whom are not exactly rolling out the red carpet for you. Traveling through the city in a somewhat linear fashion, you must use wits, guns and some of Rapture's patented genetic power-ups to survive long enough to find a way back to the surface. Much violence ensues, but we liked that you can choose to attack head-on, set traps or even use you newfound powers to pit enemies against each other.

We've gotten a few opportunities to play BioShock as a work-in-progress over the past several months, and the latest build here at E3 continues to impress, from the different every time enemy AI to the fantastic water and lighting effects that create real sense of underwater claustrophobia. With an August release date for PC and the Xbox 360, you'll likely be hearing a lot more about this game in the coming weeks.