Microsoft's E3 press conference wrapped up here a few hours ago (as we speak, EA's press conference is under way, with an oddly conspicuous number of Bungie dudes in attendance), but thanks to the ever-porous Internet, there weren't a lot of unleaked surprises on tap. Other than the significant announcement that FINAL FANTASY XIII IS COMING TO THE XBOX 360 ZOMG ZOMG ZOMGGGGG!!!!!!!!11

I know this is a big deal -- the Final Fantasy series has been one of the biggest exclusive jewels in the PlayStation crown -- but there's just one problem. I fricking HAAAAATE those games. Well, I loved FF VII, along with the rest of humanity, but JRPGs as a whole turn me right off. So yay for Final Fantasy fans who own Xbox 360s, meh for the rest of us.


Unlike some of the previous games in the series, at least you can tell this Final Fantasy XIII character is a girl.

Although there was no Halo announcement (though again, we could hear something out of the EA presser literally any minute now), and no mention of motion controls (but just as the press conference was beginning, those cheeky cheeksters at Nintendo of Canada text messaged journalists and told them to check out the MotionPlus Wii accessory at nintendo.ca), there was some interesting stuff. Microsoft's really going all out with the Xbox Live fall update, which will introduce Nintendo Mii-like avatars connected to your gamercard. You'll be able to chat, group together prior to jumping into games and take part in a new game show channel of sorts, which will include stuff like 1 vs. 100. Kinda nifty, if not exactly wholly original.

Even niftier was an Xbox Vision camera game called You're In The Movies. At first it looked kinda dumb -- players perform along to a set of silhouettes and hand/body movement instructions on the screen -- but that was only the first step. These mini-games are actually used to capture footage of the players, which is then inserted into an awesomely cheesy B-movie trailer, like a green screen without the screen. The guy who was running in place to stretch out a bungee cord is suddenly now being chased by a giant radioactive lizard, for instance. Seriously, this has wicked drunken party game written all over it. More sober players will be able to edit and upload their own masterpieces as well.

On the more hardcore side of things -- that was Xbox bossman Don Mattrick's mantra, that Xbox will serve both halves of the gaming public -- the Fallout 3 demo looked AWESOME (I'll be going hands-on with that puppy on Wednesday), as did Resident Evil 5 with its newly revealed co-op mode. Fable 2's got a co-op mode also, though slightly unique in that your Xbox Live friends playing their own single-player game of Fable 2 will show up in your game world as glowing orbs. Either player can invite the other into his unique game world, and have him over for adventures, drinks, to chat up the wife and so on.


The Fallout 3 gameplay demo during Microsoft's E3 press conference looked great. Gory as heck, but great.

Gears 2 is looking fab as well, though something odd happened when Epic Games' Cliff Bleszinski was demoing the game. About 10 seconds in, the screen suddenly blacked out for a few seconds, and then the scene reset to the start of the demo. It was very unlike a normal game glitch, and one of our astute readers here wonders if maybe it was a pre-recorded demo that they were "playing" along to, like a gaming version of Milli Vanilli. (In which case, that would make Epic Games' Rod Fergusson, who was allegedly backstage controlling the other character, the Vanilli.) If I can corner Cliffy tonight at the Gears 2 party after he's had a few Jagerbombs, I'll ask him about it.

Still nothing about the Bungie presence at the EA press conference, but it's not over yet. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: False alarm, there was no Bungie/Halo announcement at the EA press conference. Now I'm off to an Xbox Canada reception and then a Gears Of War 2 party. This is the calm before the storm, though... tomorrow I've got 14 hours of back-to-back press conferences, gameplay demos, interviews, writing and -- if there's still time -- maybe another party or two. Leaving the computer behind for now, but watch for some Blackberry bloggin' as the night goes on.

You know the old Irish rhyme about the boy named Michael Finnigan? Who had whiskers on his chinnigan, and the wind blew them off but they grew in-again? What's weirder, that a kid could grow a beard or that the beard could be blown off by a stiff breeze? Hey Irish folks, maybe stick to writing drinking songs.

The annual E3 trade show, formerly known as the Electronic Entertainment Expo but now downsized to the more stately E3 Media and Business Summit, is like Michael Finnigan's whiskers. Today is the "begin again!" part of the rhyme, with the first event of the first day (Microsoft's "do we have ANY surprises left to share?" press confernece) kicking off in two hours at the Los Angeles Convention Center, which is going to seem practically deserted compared to the E3s of old.

As usually happens during the run-up to E3, pieces of news are already wafting out of the LACC like the smell of fresh cookies in front of a bakery. F'rinstance, Microsoft finally went public yesterday with the worst-kept secret of the past few weeks and announced that the Xbox 360 will now come with a 60 GB hard drive instead of the dinky 20-gigger (which is still better than the zero-GB hard drive on the Xbox 360 Family Arcade Basic Core Tard Pack, an abomination that needs to be dragged behind the shed and shot.) The current 20 GB model is now $299.99, while supplies last.

Oh, and the new Halo game rumour we've been talking about? Gamespot are reporting this morning that Halo series developer Bungie are indeed working on a Master Chief-free new installment, but that the new game is rumoured to be a "darker, grittier" squad-based take on the Halo universe, similar to what we've seen in Vancouver director Neil Blomkamp's very cool live-action Halo shorts.

And because I know you're DESPERATELY INTERESTED in my personal comfort at this, my eighth consecutive E3, I'm happy to report that my E3 hotel this year has both functioning Internet AND a window that does not overlook a freeway and/or downtown L.A.'s busiest thoroughfare. It does overlook a brick wall that's so close I could probably lean out and touch it, but hey, at least the wall won't wake me up at 5 a.m.

Among the events on today's agenda are Microsoft's aforementioned press conference at 10:30 a.m. local (ie. Pacific) time, EA's presser at 3 p.m. and a Gears Of War 2 demo/reception/piss-up that begins at 8:30 p.m. and goes until the wee hours. A crafty move to get people to miss Nintendo's 9 a.m. press conference tomorrow, maybe? We'll see if it works.

Check back often for less verbose, less comprehensible (if such a thing is possible) updates. I gotta go shave these damn whiskers.

When I was jolted awake by booming thunder around five o'clock this morning, my first thought was: Damn, those poor fools waiting in line for the iPhone.

For all the hype and hoopla and controversy surrounding Apple's hypnotic toy, people seem to have realized that waiting in line overnight for the launch of a new product is generally unnecessary and uncomfortable, although a handful of diehards with more free time than sense did exactly that. The flagship Rogers store here in Toronto reportedly had about 150 people in line at opening this morning -- not bad, although much of the line-up formed in the last couple of hours before the store opened. I strongly suspect anyone who drops by a regular Rogers store around 10 a.m. today will be able to get an iPhone with no problem, particularly if they choose one off the beaten track a litte.

In today's edition of the Gadgets page for Sun Media, I solicited iPhone impressions from those who did get one today (why so early?), those who aren't interested (why not?) and anyone else who still has an opinion that needs voicing. Frankly, I'm getting a little tired of hearing and talking and even thinking about the iPhone, and I'm busy getting ready for next week's video games mecca in L.A., the E3 Media and Business Summit. Getting out of town for a few days to shoot aliens ought to be nothing short of cathartic.

So, the iPhone: Yea? Nay? Or does it even matter what we think now?

Whoa, Nelly (Furtado)! Did Rogers cave in to the raging iPhone controversy? Sadly no, not really.

As we hinted might happen a few days ago, Rogers has quietly responded to public pressure and added a more robust data option to its slate of iPhone plans. But the new, limited-time offering announced this morning still falls short of the U.S.-style all-you-can-eat voice and data plans that many potential iPhone buyers have been demanding.

From this Friday until Aug. 31 (my birthday, if anyone cares), iPhone buyers will have the option of picking their own standard voice plan and adding a $30 data plan that gives them 6 GB of mobile data per month.

While this is still short of an unlimited plan, I don't even use 6 GB per month on my home PC broadband connection, so I can't fathom burning through more that six gigs on a phone. Unless you're constantly downloading video on your iPhone, this is essentially as good as an unlimited data option.

That said, as soon as you're no longer buying one of Rogers' specific iPhone plans — the cheapest being the $60 150 daytime minutes/400 MB of data/75 text messages option — you're going to get nickel-and-dimed. Rogers' Mega Time 30 plan, for instance, gives you the 150 weekday minutes plus unlimited evenings and weekends (though "evenings" is a misnomer, since free calling doesn't start until 9 p.m.) for $30, but no text messages. Once you add text messages, and then voicemail, the system access fee, maybe an upgrade here and there, you're still going to be paying far more than any other iPhone user in the world.

Although really, you're paying extra for most of that stuff with the iPhone packages anyway. Hell, just trying to navigate Rogers' byzantine website to get information on their confusingly named plans is a chore. Rogers, please, give your website a ground-up overhaul. It's meant to be a tool for communicating with your customers, not a barrier that shuts them out.

The 6 GB data offer — which only lasts until Aug. 31, remember — should act as a small bucket of water tossed on the forest fire of controversy surrounding the Canadian iPhone launch. It's better that a kick to the head, but won't be enough to silence critics.

Giant buckets of icy-cold hatorade are being dumped on Rogers Communications this week, following Friday's announcement of Big Red's iPhone pricing plans. Behold the consumer outcry, online petitions, minor media firestorm and much vein-bulging, hand-wringing, blog-burning venom.

Which leaves me scratching my head and asking... seriously, what were you expecting?

Rogers (and its subsidiary Fido) own the iPhone in Canada. Like many companies in the business of pleasing investors, Rogers enjoys making money, as evidenced by the $2.4 billion in profits they raked in on their wireless biz alone last year.

So why, pray tell, were you expecting Rogers to introduce iPhone plans that were favourable to the consumer instead of the company's own bottom line? What would be their incentive to play nice with their customers when they're holding all the marbles?

If you want an iPhone on July 11 when the thing finally debuts in Canada, Rogers has got you by the short and curlies. Either pay up and shut up, or lose your obsession with Apple's precious gadget until the early adopters have got theirs, at which time the prices might go down a bit. The more people that don't bite early, the more pressure there is on Rogers to make their iPhone plans more attractive.

The main complaint seems to be that Rogers' voice and data pricing plans, which range from $60 to $115 per month (plus taxes and the $7 monthly "system access fee" gouge) are outrageous compared to the good deals that American iPhone users get. But that's always been the case in Canada, and it'll continue to be the case until new competitors in the cellphone biz emerge after the soon-to-be-completed wireless spectrum auction.

Even then, there's no guarantee Apple will strike a deal with another company anyway, so it could be Ted's way or the highway for the iPhone's foreseeable future.

It's probably no coincidence that Bell Mobility today announced the iPhone-like Samsung Instinct will be arriving in stores Aug. 8, or that Bell is touting the Instinct's significantly cheaper data plans, starting at $10 per month.

While the Instinct may well be a fine phone — we'll go hands-on with one as soon as they become available — it's silly to think this or any of its iPhone-esque brethren (like the LG Vu) will actually be a replacement for the iPhone.

Nobody does slick, friendly, intuitive user experiences like Apple, and nobody inspires the same degree of pure gadget lust in the masses. And even from a purely technical standpoint, the Instinct doesn't quite measure up to the iPhone: It's got only 2 GB of included memory versus the iPhone's 8 or 16 GB, lacks WiFi, has a less versatile touchscreen, runs on the EVDO network (slower than Rogers HSDPA data network) and so on.

As well, Bell's $10 so-called unlimited Internet plan shouldn't be confused with unlimited data; it simply means you can surf the Net at will via the Bell-provided browser installed on the Instinct. I suspect that any other browser or application that accesses the Net (like Google Maps, for instance) will require extra data charges, and you won't be able to download big e-mail attachments at will unless you do so via a Web-based e-mail service like Hotmail or Gmail.

Does this mean the Instinct won't be a good phone? Of course not. It's just that for better or worse, the lure of the iPhone is absolutely irresistible to many people, and Rogers knows this only too well. And while the uproar over their iPhone pricing could conceivably create enough of a PR crapstorm that Rogers decides to ease up a bit, I sure as heck wouldn't bet on it.