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This year's smaller, quieter E3 video game trade show may well mark the end of an era, with no solid plans announced for next year's show, and many participants lamenting the stripped-down vibe. Despite powering a multi-billion-dollar industry, the big game companies collectively decided that the massive shows of previous years were too expensive to put on anymore--but the pared-down version of E3 that started last year failed to inspire the industry or generate much significant media coverage.

Despite the melancholy feel, the big stories driving the gaming business were clearly visible (even if almost all of the games themselves were demonstrated from behind the closed doors of meeting rooms, rather than on the small show floor.) We see the major trends coming out of E3 2008 as threefold:

Rocking out just before The Who took the stage at a Rock Band 2 promo event.

(Credit: Michael Mullen)

First, the big console makers have sold pretty much all the consoles they can to "core" gamers, and now have to appeal to mainstream entertainment consumers based on price and nongaming features. To that end, Microsoft has cut the price of its standard Xbox 360 model to $299, and added support for the popular Netflix online streaming service. Sony has similarly cut the price of its step-up PlayStation 3 model to $399, hoping to capture users who are interested in both hi-def Blu-ray movies and just-announced downloadable movie and TV content.

Second, there's increased competition for noncore gamers: families, women, young children, older gamers, and even core demographic males who just don't have the inclination to learn and play complicated games that require massive commitments of time and brainpower.

To that end, Nintendo is continuing to serve the casual audience, announcing a sequel to the Wii console's original pack-in game, Wii Sports (which was easily one of the most-played games the last few years), along with a new music game, Wii Music, that doesn't even require the rudimentary note-matching skills of Guitar Hero. Microsoft and Sony are following suit, betting heavily on smaller, simpler games, some of which can be downloaded directly to consoles. Pixel Junk Eden for the PlayStation 3 and You're in the Movies for Xbox 360 are a couple to watch out for.

Finally, there wasn't a lot of high-profile original IP on display at E3 this year. Instead, we'll be seeing a lot of sequels to popular franchises going into the all-important holiday season and into next year, including Gears of War 2, Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero World Tour, Resident Evil 5, and others.

At the end of the week, Bethesda's Fallout 3, a modern take on a cult-favorite role-playing game from the '90s, was the clear audience favorite, with an especially strong showing from Rock Band 2, the sequel to last year's mock-rock hit, as well. Here's a roundup of my E3 2008 highlights:

E3 2008: Fallout 3
E3 2008: Dead Space
E3 2008: EA and BioWare working on a new Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic MMO
E3 2008: Resident Evil 5
E3 2008: Toshiba is a lonely hardware vendor
E3 2008: Trend alert--cooperative gameplay
E3 2008: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
E3 2008: Spore
E3 2008: Rock Band 2 set list revealed
E3 2008: Game over for the Electronic Entertainment Expo?

For a different take on the events of this past week, check out this post-show report from News.com's Daniel Terdiman.

Hitachi's LCDs are just 1.5 inches thick.

(Credit: Hitachi)

The whirlwind of CES 2008 is finally over, and now that we've had a few seconds to gather our thoughts, let's reflect on some of the major HDTV trends we observed at the show.

Thin is in

Flat-panels are popular for a reason, and part of it is people love thin screens. While plenty of people are satisfied with standard 6-inch-deep screens, HDTV companies are betting there's a market for ultrathin sets measured in millimeters rather than inches. The most impressive thin TV tech we saw was Pioneer's "Project Kuro" prototype plasma, which measures only 9mm thin, but unfortunately won't be released in 2008. On the more conventional side, JVC announced the "world's thinnest" LCD--coming in at 2.9 inches deep--while LG showed off an even thinner 1.9-inch thick LCD with a hole in it. Trumping both JVC and LG was Hitachi, with its new superslim LCDs measuring only 1.5-inches thick--although they ditch an internal ATSC tuner to do so. And, of course, no mention of thin HDTV would be complete without OLED...

Sony's 11-inch OLED is coming to the states this year.

(Credit: Sony)

OLED is coming

Sony made a big splash by showing off the 11-inch XEL-1, which will be the first OLED HDTV available in the United States and measures just 3mm thick. Samsung also had a 31-inch prototype OLED on display and there's no doubt the OLED technolgy is promising: razor thin screens, low power consumption and an excellent contrast ratio. At this early point in the game OLED isn't commercially viable--Sony's 11-inch set will cost $2,500--but as prices drop and screen sizes increase, OLED could be a major flat-panel TV technology.

WebTV all over again?

Bringing the web to your TV sounds like an idea better suited to CES 1995 rather than CES 2008, but we saw a lot of HDTV manufacturers promoting their sets' ability to grab content off the internet. HP, which has been a step ahead of everyone in this regard, announced an update to its existing MediaSmart HDTVs. Sharp is promising the ability to check weather and stock quotes on certain LCDs, while Samsung is focusing on recipes, artwork and RSS feeds. And Sony is continuing to support its Bravia Internet Video Link service, which at least looks slightly more interesting now that Sony's announced a deal with CBS.

RPTV is (mostly) dead

Mitsubishi's trio of laser TVs hang on the wall.

(Credit: Mitsubishi)

Some of the biggest HDTV news at CES 2008 was what wasn't there. Rear-projection HDTVs (RPTVs) were basically nowhere to be seen on the show floor, and just a week before CES started Sony announced that it would officially stop producing RPTVs altogether. While the general buzz is that RPTVs are essentially dead, that didn't stop Mitsubishi from launching a big laser TV demo--which was short on details and did little to convince us that laser has a real shot to dismount flat panels as the dominant HDTV technology.

The 42PFL5630D uses less power than any 42-inch LCD we've seen.

(Credit: Philips)

Green machines

While we were expecting to see more green HDTVs this year, we're betting Philips is in front of the curve on power-saving TV tech. The power-savings innovations on the Philips' Eco TV was enough to earn it CNET's Best in Show award and it uses less power than any other 42-inch LCD we've tested. In addition to using less watts, the Eco TV is produced using only lead-free materials and "trace" amounts of mercury. With a very reasonable $1,400 price tag, the Eco TV could be a big hit with consumers looking to control their energy costs--and if so, we'll see more green TVs from other companies.

Though not nearly as big as CES, the PMA trade show is coming to Las Vegas in three weeks. Yes, less than a month after covering CES, our editors will bravely return to Sin City to report on some of the biggest names in digital photography. That didn't stop camera and camcorder makers from revealing plenty of new products last week, though; major companies from Samsung to Sony revealed their newest digital imaging products at the show.

Sony made one of the biggest camera announcements at the show, unveiling the Alpha A200 digital SLR. This new 10-megapixel model stands to face other intro-level SLRs like the Canon EOS Rebel XTi and the Nikon D40x. Casio also made a splash with the Exilim Pro EX-F1, an EVF camera the company claims can shoot 60 still images per second, or record video at a whopping 1,200 frames per second. I'll believe it when it's under our skeptical eyes in the lab. On the snapshot side of cameras, Kodak and Samsung both announced a handful of inexpensive point-and-shoots, and Kodak revealed the ESP-3 combination photo printer/document printer/scanner.

For camcorders, flash memory was the name of the game this year as Canon, Sony, and Panasonic all announced new, high-end SSD and card-based camcorders. Panasonic unveiled several new SD card camcorders, Canon combined large amounts of flash memory with SD/SDHC card slots, and Sony added an 8GB flash drive to a DVD camcorder, giving users plenty of options for recording and transferring footage. Besides flash memory, camcorder manufacturers revealed new cameras that used more conventional media, like miniDV, DVD, and hard drives. Though it didn't reveal any new high-def, flash memory models, JVC expanded its Everio line of hard drive camcorders with several slimmer, more colorful models as well.

Those are the big headlines from CES, but don't think that's all the new camera/camcorder news of the season. Keep an eye on Crave at the end of the month for our coverage of PMA 2008.

(Credit: Nyko)

CES 2008 wasn't a very big show for gamers. Sure, there were plenty of controllers and accessories on display, but actual game developers were conspicuously absent. It's not surprising; CES is always oriented more towards general consumer electronics, and game-heavy companies usually wait until spring or summer shows like E3 to make their big announcements.

We were surprised by a major announcement from Namco at CES, though. According to the game company, its upcoming Soul Calibur 4 will feature Darth Vader and Yoda as playable bonus characters. Soul Calibur 2 saw Zelda's Link, Tekken's Heihachi, and Todd MacFarlane's Spawn as playable characters, but they aren't as big as Vader. Let's see the lightsabers fly.

Nyko unveiled its Wireless Nunchuck for the Wii, one of the first actual third-party controllers (and not simply a clip-on accessory) for the Nintendo Wii. When it ships in early February, it'll cut the cord between the Wiimote and the Nunchuk for about $30.

Gateway and Dell showed off some new gaming desktops, with Gateway's offering packing a quad-core AMD Phenom processor into a system that starts at $1,100. Alienware wowed spectators with a massive 22:9 curved wide-screen display. Unfortunately, the company hasn't announced any release date or pricing (though you can expect the price tag to be around "a lot."). Finally, Saitek showed off its new Cyborg Keyboard, a gaming keyboard that lets you customize the lighting of different banks of keys. You can have the WASD keys glow red, the number pad glow green, and so on. It's not exactly a revolutionary change in game control, but it certainly looks cool.

After the holiday season, gaming has hit a bit of a lull. Besides a few big titles coming out next month, don't expect much major news until spring or summer, when E3, PAX, and other shows bring out the developers.