Crave

Yeah, this episode's intro gets weird.

It's a game game game game game game world this week as E3 has inspired us to dedicate this show to gaming.

Dong thinks project Natal is really cool, but feels talking to real people on the street is more interesting than talking to a 10-year old virtual boy who is just the first step in Skynet's eventual world dominion.

Later, I share my love for all things Bioware, past and future, including Dragon Age: Origins and The Old Republic and why these days, games can get away with things that movies cannot. Check out on this Dragon Age trailer to see what I mean.

Also, there's iPhone, PSP Go, DSi, and Zune HD talk. Well, maybe not "talk" but we do mention those at some point during the podcast...I think.

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Natali Del Conte makes her triumphant return from E3 and joins us on today's show. After suffering through two years with an HTC Mogul, Jeff finally upgraded to the Palm Pre this weekend. Tune in for Jeff's personal review as well as some unfortunate news that has us all reeling...with laughter.

(Credit: Jeff Bakalar)

All right, first thing's first: NATALI DEL CONTE. That should be enough to get you guys to listen to today's show. She's finally back from her Tour de California. She was actually at E3 this past week and she gives us the scoop on her first impressions of the event. Actually, it turns out that Natali's been taking some gulps of Jeff's unique brand of Haterade! It's always a pleasure to welcome Natali back to the show, even though she's crossed over the dark side. Welcome home, girl!

We've been talking about the Palm Pre ad nauseam for weeks now leading up to Saturday's release, and Jeff actually woke himself up before the crack of dawn and picked one up. Be sure to listen to the whole episode to hear about the fiasco that happened in line, it's unbelievable, and kind of funny. Pix or it didn't happen, Bakalar! After all that happened, Jeff successfully picked up a Palm Pre, and he loves it! All his contacts from Facebook, Gmail, etc...are now consolidated; music transfers are easy thanks to iTunes (fingers crossed that Apple shows mercy); and the keyboard is surprisingly easy for Jeff's ham shank fingers. Sadly, though, there's one very significant, deal-breaking, horrendous manufacturer's error that needs to be correctly immediately before Jeff turns back into a pumpkin and we lose him forever. Tune in to hear more about this awful glitch and how you can fix the problem!

Oh the irony...

(Credit: Dan Ackerman/CNET)

Although we have to wait until next week's show to hear of Dan's possible escapades with McLovin' and company, along with his (enviable) hands-on experiences, at this year's E3 event in Los Angeles, that doesn't stop us from giving our take on what went down.

Note to Dan: We expect some video footage of actual gameplay, NOT a 15-page slide show...we kid, but, no, really.

Oddly enough, we were all physically suffering from one thing or another before the taping of the show--Joe with his sinuses, Julie with the constant eye twitch, and Scott with...whatever--but we mustered enough strength to push forward 'cause that's how we roll. Based on what we saw of E3, we discuss who won the motion sensor/controller wars, the PSP Go, and which games we were excited to get our hands on in the future.

We also talk about what could, or should, be expected at this week's Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). Obviously, the iPhone OS 3.0 should be shown off, but what about the new iPhone? We predict what the rumored new iPhone--or what Joe calls the "iDevice"--will have, and what it needs to take back the hype from the Palm Pre.

In the midst of all the serious and informative discussion though, we find ourselves victim to double entendres and innuendos. Also, Julie strikes several poses in front of the404 banner in the podcast room, but you'll (obviously) only catch it on the video version of the show. It's all in fun.

It's Friday, time for beer.

(Credit: Matt Hickey)

E3 was a blast this year with exciting announcements from Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. But it wasn't all about gaming. In fact we've given much attention to Palm and Sprint's rollout of the Pre, a device we fell in love with on accident at CES a few months ago.

We also found some sub-$300 laptops from Dell that had us interested, as well as Sony Ericsson's take on an app store.

And finally we discussed future tech, including AMD's DirectX 11 GPU and prototype self-assembling robots that will kill us all.

Oh, and some band named the Beatles is getting its own version of Rock Band. Wake me up when the Monkees get one, OK?

No, this isn't a Blizzard title.

(Credit: Vogster)

Coming soon for the PC and shown off at E3, Vogster Entertainment's "persistent world shooter" is a multiplayer online game featuring underground gangs, customizable gear, and MMORPG-style quests and team play, set in a near-future wasteland. Check out the screenshots below.

E3 Slideshow: Crimecraft

8X zoom for your DSi.

(Credit: Nyko)

Hot off the heels of the company's Wand accessory release for the Nintendo Wii, video game accessory manufacturer Nyko debuted three new products at this year's E3 convention.

The Zoom Case for Nintendo DSi is certainly the most interesting DSi accessory we've seen yet, boasting an 8X zoom lens attachment. The protective case is textured for a better grip on the system and the zoom lens itself can be detached and transported in a case of its own. Good thing for that or this accessory would have removed the "portable" feature of the DSi.

For those PSP owners not choosing to upgrade to the new PSP Go, the Charge Flex Grip will provide your handheld (the PSP-2000 or the 3000) with an improved grip as well as up to 1.5 times more play with an embedded rechargeable battery. More high-res photos await! ... Read More

E3's come and gone, but some oddities still linger. Shown during the Sony E3 press conference and discussed little after that, Invizimals is a curious game using the PSP's camera to create augmented reality "animal ghosts" that appear in real-life settings. Coded capture cards seem to attract the beasts, after which they do battle to each other. Nintendo DS-like blow-and-shake controls add extra input to the critter-fighting.

Confused? Check out the trailer. Would augmented reality gaming be something you'd like to see more of? Would it be something you'd trust the children with? And, most importantly, where is our PSP camera? Perhaps it is on its way with a certain Invizimals?

Hopefully the end result will be more compelling than the admirable but incredibly arcane augmented reality PlayStation Eye trading card game The Eye of Judgment.

(Credit: 2K Games)

Hitting the very definition of a cult hit square on the head, few gamers have heard of the 2002 game Mafia, developed by a small group of Czech programmers and originally released on the Xbox and for PC -- but those that do recall it regularly sing its praises as a superior open-world action/adventure.

Built on essentially the same model as Grand Theft Auto, the game transported its crime family story back to the 1930s, and evoked the Maio Puzo Godfather vibe much better than the stodgy, by the numbers, officially licensed Godfather games did later.

For this long-in-the-making sequel, Mafia II, 2K Games has brought the original developers in-house, calling the new studio 2K Czech. What we saw from them was another carefully constructed, engaging virtual crime world, this time updated to the 1940s and 1950s (perhaps not coincidentally mirroring the timeframe of the second Godfather film).

There's not a heck of a lot that's actually new or unexpected in Mafia II, if you've played GTA, The Godfather, Saints Row, or any of a dozen other sandbox-style games. But the city feels thriving and colorful, and the missions we've seen involve just enough variety (such as riding a window-washing rig down the side of building to take out a rival mobster in a conference room meeting) to keep it from being another generic car-based crime thriller.

Most interesting perhaps is the clearly Eastern European take on 1950s America. Looking at the era of Mad Men, Eisenhower, and Hyman Roth filtered through the cold war cultural memory of a former iron curtain country reveals an interesting subtext about how our mid-century lifestyle translated overseas. There's a clear love for bulbous classic '50s cars, fedoras, and retro-chic diners -- which in hindsight seems like a pretty likely picture of what Czechoslovakian game programmers would imagine 1950s America to look like.