E3 has come and gone, but for hardcore gamers it’s time to analyze the announcements and decide what we really think of the coming months and all the promised goodies that the developers revealed.

Cue Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw and his annual Zero Punctuation review of all things E3. The highlight this year? The stupidity of motion controls.

Here’s a choice quote and then scroll down for the video goodness direct from The Escapist.

“Gaming should be about games, not about controllers. Controllers as they stand are a perfectly adequate conduit for connecting man to machine by way of thumbs.

…

Delude yourself all you like with videos of happy families in pastel coloured shirts spending quality time with bouncy castle simulators but in the long term people want to play games the same way they want to read books or watch TV — slouched on the settee with a big bag of Maltesers.”

Watch the video:

A while ago I mentioned that I was looking for a new laptop, and while the hunt is still on (mainly because I’m quite happy to run my current laptop into the ground), I do have my eye on one little gem.

If you’re a gamer, Alienware is the de facto company for computers, and I am pretty much in love with the M11x that they released earlier this year.

I had a brief look at the system, which they call “the most powerful 11″ gaming laptop in the universe,” and it’s instantly impressive, like few other systems on the market today.

In terms of size and weight, the M11x is not a beefy system, but it is respectably sturdy, coming in at around 4.5 pounds with a height of 1.29 inches. As the tagline suggests, the base system is also packed with a fair bit of power for a system this size, including a WLED High?Definition 720P screen, a 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 335M graphics card, and an Intel Core2 Duo SU7300 processor. You can also upgrade the processor, hard drive, and RAM, but of course that will add some weight to your system.

Testing the laptop out, I only had a few minutes to play around, but the gaming experience was sharp, with quick response times, and excellent graphics.

I was also impressed with Alienware’s special software which lets you change the colours of the M11x’s glowing accents. That software lets you either change all the accents to one colour, or you can set each of the six zones to be a different colour, which is particularly helpful for gamers who want to be able to find certain sets of keys quickly.

The laptop also has built-in options to help save battery power while you’re on the go. The M11x is also obviously small enough to take anywhere, without being ridiculously heavy, and it’s powerful enough to play games or, if it strikes your fancy, run just about any work-related programs you might have.

And I’m a big fan of the fact that the system comes with a 500 Gb hard drive, or you can upgrade it to a 256 Gb solid state drive for an extra $500. That’s a big jump in price, but with that upgrade you’ll also notice a big difference in the system’s weight, speed, and maybe best of all, temperature.

In Canada the base system retails for $949 from Dell’s website, or you can max out the hardware options for around $2,300.

There are a lot of great laptops out there today, but I’ll go out on a limb and say that, for the size especially, this is a powerful system for the portably conscious.

And, hey, stay tuned to the site in July if you like technology and gadgets. I’m going to be featuring reviews of a number of goodies throughout the month.

Okay, I’m feeling really jittery. I’m kind of wishing I hadn’t just finished playing hours of Alan Wake because I’m freakishly nervous and jumpy, waiting for someone to climb out of the shadows with an axe or something.

Damn good game though. Kind of like playing through an episode of The X-Files meets, I don’t know, Twin Peaks? It’s pretty much the perfect blend of action/mystery/shooter, and I love that it’s told episodically, like a TV show.

About the only thing that drives me nuts is how Mr. Wake somehow manages to lose his weapons and flashlight after every single freaking chapter. Makes the game nice and challenging, but enough already. Tape the damn flashlight to your arm or something.

If that were me, I’d have flares attached to my hat, flashlights on each arm, and I’d be hauling a generator behind me with a set of outfield lights attached.

We’ll see, maybe by the sixth or seventh chapter he’s found a way of making his sidekick agent helpful in some way?

Just got back from an evening playing a pre-beta version of Halo Reach multiplayer. Looks a lot like what you would expect, with a few new twists and turns, of course.

I’ll play multiplayer a bit, but probably not as much as I’ll play what I consider to be the real game – the story mode. It’s always fun to see new Halo multiplayer, but there are rarely many surprises and I’m almost totally really fixated on what we’re going to see in the story, rather than how I’m going to get my ass handed to me by a bunch of 15-year-olds.

Right now I’m not alltogether sure what I can talk about, but I’ll have a bit to show you on April 21, and then a lot more after April 26. The first batch of updates will be a bunch of photos from the game, and then I’ll have video after that.

So, which part are you excited about?

Everything old is new again. With bowls full of old school candy, retro-looking whigs, and a couple of stand-up arcade machines, the good folks from the Xbox PR team held an 80s-themed party in downtown Toronto to promote the new Xbox Live Game Room.

The virtual space is customizable with furniture and fixtures, but the real focus is on the game cabinets that represent the various games you can play with your friends.

Priced at a minimum of 240 Microsoft Points, titles are available from Atari and Konami, including titles that originally appeared on the Atari 2600 and the Intellivision system.

A few of the confirmed titles announced so far include Asteroids Deluxe, Centipede, Lunar Lander, Millipede, Red Baron, Scramble, Super Cobra, Tempest, and Yars’ Revenge. More titles will be announced each week, according to an Xbox representative at the event.

I had a lot of fun catching up with some of these old games, but I’m dying to see what titles are on the way. The games are priced right for what they are, simple titles that you’re likely to get a few hours of play out of, but I guess I’m not as big a fan of the games that came out in the late 70s and early 80s. Bring on the games from the late 80s and early 90s!

Stay tuned for a video interview from the event.

It’s been well over a week now since Mass Effect 2 came out and I still don’t have my copy yet, and as you may have guessed, it’s killing me. I loved the first title and I can’t wait to get my hands on the sequel, but a little snafu has kept a review copy out of my hands, at least for now.

I’ve even purposefully kept my eyes off of reviews and articles about the game so I can face it fresh when it finally arrives, but it’s starting to make me a little crazy!

Looking back, I’d love to know how many hours I put into the last game. Probably something I don’t even want to think about, but I’m sure, like a lot of gamers, it would be well over 100 hours since I’ve played through it twice.

The non-gamers out there are probably thinking, ‘What, 100 hours? Are you crazy?’, but there is nothing like a smartly written, brilliantly designed game, and Mass Effect was all that, in spades.

Much like a good pair of jeans, there comes a point every couple of years where you’re better off replacing your computer rather than trying to make it work any longer. Maybe if you’re careful you can hold out a few extra months, but while I’ve had one pair of jeans for close to five years, it’s always a matter of a couple of years for me and my laptops, which get the brunt of my worst computer habits.

I’m currently running my 10″ laptop into the ground, after more than four years of use (epic longevity, by my standards), but I’m long overdue for a replacement. When using the internet is even starting to get slow, you know it’s time.

Considering how many amazing little netbooks there are now, I’m seriously considering picking up something small so I can just write on the go and post anywhere. I’m wondering though if anyone can recommend a system they’ve been using? I have some favorites out there, but I’d really like a few suggestions for people who have actually used some of the new netbooks or small laptops. Only musts for me are that it’s a PC, cheap and cheerful, has a decent battery life for its size, and won’t freeze if I’m multitasking.

Any thoughts?

Spike hosted the 2009 Video Game Awards last night, with the top award for game of the year going to PlayStation’s Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Since I’m not much of a fan of game awards though, I won’t get much into that.

What I will talk about though are the new game trailers that debuted during the show.

Among the trailers, fans got a sneak peek at Crackdown 2, Medal of Honor, Tron: Evolution, Batman: Arkham Asylum 2, The Force Unleashed 2, and of course, Halo: Reach.

The only real disappointment, at least in my mind, was Tron: Evolution, which looked kind of cheesy and like it was lifting a lot of what we’ve seen from other previous Tron games, including the old arcade titles, without investing a lot of new edge into the concept.

On the bright side though the other trailers were pretty awesome. Here are three of my favorites, and you can also check out the first Halo: Reach trailer on the Bungie.net website.

Five days have passed since Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony went up on Xbox Live, and I’m sorry to say I haven’t had a moment to check out what I’m betting is a damn good game.

Sure, I know I should be impartial before I play anything I’m going to review, but let’s just be honest with ourselves; the first chapter in Grand Theft Auto‘s downloadable content (The Lost and Damned) was genius. It was also one of the best add-ons I’ve ever played, and even with the somewhat hefty price tag (it was 1200 Microsoft Points on Xbox Live), it was worth every credit.

If you haven’t heard much, here’s a quick intro: In the latest chapter on the streets of Liberty City you play as Luis Lopez, a local hoodlum who works for nightclub owner Tony “Gay Tony” Prince, a man at odds with the local mafia, and trying to prove his worth.

After the grim antics of the last chapter, The Ballad of Gay Tony promises to be a lot more light-hearted with the action, offering up a lot more in the way of explosions, jokes, and lewd behaviour, over the brooding bits that have come before.

When I can get away from the movie theatres this week, I’ll be sitting down to play the game. Until then, here’s the trailer:

It’s drop day, Halo fans, and if you weren’t lined up to pick up Halo 3: ODST at midnight, chances are you’re still trying to decide how badly you want the game.

While I only just got my own copy today, which means I’m still working on a full review, here’s the official trailer to give you a quick sample of what the game is all about. (You can also find out more on the official Bungie website.)