If you’re a fan of the Red Faction series and want to check out the game a little early (and maybe pick up some free stuff while you’re at it), you might want to head over to 1 E. Main St. in Champaign on May 18th. The Red Faction Guerrilla tour truck is heading our way, bringing with it five kiosks for some on the road play time, as well as some free swag.

Complete press release follows:

I return (after using some of my rapidly accumulating vacation time, and being sick for most of said vacation… Gah…) with some good news for the Wii-less among you.

Frequent visitors to the217.com may have noticed a colorful ad banner floating around in the sidebar on many of the site’s pages, imploring you to vote for the buzz Best of CU awards. And do you want to know why you should vote?

Well, yeah, to show your appreciation for the many fine businesses in town, sure, but more importantly because voting automatically enters you into a random drawing to win a Wii! Yes, that’s right, we’ve got a Wii to give away here on the217.com (I’ve even seen it… they’re keeping it under lock and key, guarded by the company Giant Enemy Crab).

Along with the Wii, the kind and generous marketing people around here have also scraped together an extra Nunchuck and a copy of Wii Play (which comes with an additional Wii-Remote for use with the aforementioned extra Nunchuck).

So get out there and vote!

Giant Enemy Crab guarding the Wii… Clearly not a Photoshop job…

The new keypad add-on.

So… what has Games Convention 2008 in Leipzig brought us so far? Well, several interesting tidbits, actually, and it’s only the beginning of the second day of the convention proper. Eat that, E3.

Sony, for one, has let some details slip about the new PSP model. The PSP 3000 will hit North America this October, in plenty of time for the annual post-Thanksgiving shopping orgy. It will be shipping bundled with Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters, and also as a “Core Pack” that will retail for $169.99. On the technical side of things, the PSP 3000 will feature an improved screen with a wider color gamut, higher contrast ratio, and anti-reflection technology that will make it easier to see in outdoor lighting.

They also added that they’re releasing a 160GB model of the PS3. The new PS3 model will be introduced in North America as part of the limited-edition Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune bundle some time in November for a whopping $499.99. The North American bundle will include the game an console, as well as a DualShock3 controller and a PSN voucher for PAIN.

Sony has also announced a new Bluetooth enabled keypad add-on for PS3, that snaps onto the controller, due to ship sometime late in November. According to their press release, the keypad will be compatible with all typing situations you may encounter on the PS3, including chatting in the upcoming Home, and can even be used as a touch pad to move the on-screen pointer.

Additionally, they’ve announced EyePet, a virtual pet game for use with the PS3’s Playstation Eye camera peripheral. The game features a simian-like pet that lives in an on-screen version of your room, captured by the camera. The pet will be able to interact with it’s environment, recognizing objects and people. EyePet will be available in late 2009 in the PAL market… release dates for other regions haven’t been announced as of yet.

Microsoft had at least one interesting bit of news… and that was the new limited-edition green wireless controller. Not exactly big news in and of itself, but apparently the thing, in addition to being really butt-ugly, has an enhanced D-pad that can register movement in 32 directions. Unfortunately (and bizarrely), it’s only releasing in Europe as a tie-in with Pro Eva 2009, and only for a limited time, starting October 24.

On the actual games end of things, Komani has a new action title in the works for PS3 and 360 called Lords of Shadow, described as a “dark fairy tale” in which the player takes on the role of the mysterious Gabriel in an epic battle between good and evil. It’s scheduled for a 2010 release, and definitely sounds like my kind of game… I think I’ll keep an eye on this one.

EA has given a release date of February 20, 2009 for The Sims 3. They’re planning a simultaneous global release (has anyone actually managed that yet?).

Quantic Dream showed a nifty trailer for Heavy Rain that even includes some gameplay. I’m not sure what I think of the gameplay itself yet, but the game certainly is looking very nice. See it here.

Capcom’s Dead Rising port for Wii (subtitled “Chop till you Drop”) also got some screen time with the debut of its trailer, which includes gameplay footage. See it here and see some more here.

Ubisoft showed a nifty playthrough of the entire first area of the next Prince of Persia title (which was playable at E3… but now us lesser non-industry people can see it first hand). See it here.

So there you have it… the most interesting bits and pieces from GC 2008 thus far. The convention continues through the 24th, so expect more.

It’s coming next week, in fact. Running from Aug. 21 through the 24th in Leipzig, Germany (with the developers conference running the 18th through the 20th), this years Games Convention will hopefully have something more to offer than what E3 did a few weeks ago.

But don’t expect to see a whole lot from the Big Three. Nintendo is opting out entirely, and Microsoft isn’t bothering with a press conference. That doesn’t mean that the show isn’t going to have anything to show, though… it’s going to be all about the third parties. Which given the boredom we encountered at E3 with the first parties may not be a bad thing at all.

Especially with more than 400 exhibitors.

I’m looking forward to seeing more of such games a Mirror’s Edge, Heavy Rain, Little Big Planet (which is rumored to be playable), and, with any luck, another look at Beyond Good & Evil 2 (pretty please, Ubisoft?). I may even have a PS3 by the time these games are released.

Seeing as there were so many people live blogging the event, there wasn’t much point in little old me posting obsessively about this year’s E3. But in case you missed them, here are the highlights from this year’s kinda tame E3:

—–

On the Sony Front

The major announcement was that the 80GB PS3 would be getting a $100 price drop in September… along with losing PS2 backwards compatibility.

SCEA CEO and president Jack Tretton promised that PlayStation Home would be well worth the wait and that gamers’ patience would be “more than rewarded” when the public Beta opens later this year… and that EA, Ubisoft, LucasArts, Activision, and Nike (yeah, the shoe people) were all partnering with the service.

From Nintendo

A new Pikmin title is in the works…

As is Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for DS…

Along with a port of Dead Rising for the Wii…

So is “Wii Music”… the casual version of Rock Band, where you flail you arms about wildy. There are no points and no way to “lose”… it’s more of a toy than a game. It will sell millions. Moving on…

The Wii-Remote is getting a new add-on called Wii MotionPlus to improve it’s motion-sensing sensativity, and Will debut with Wii Sports Resort.

The Wii is also getting WiiSpeak, an add-on that sits on top of the sensor bar and provides voice chat capability.

And From Microsoft

Final Fantasy XIII will be ported to the 360! OMFGWTFBBQ?!

NBC and Universal have entered into agreements to provided content for Live, as has NetFlix.

A new Live interface is coming this fall, with a new GUI, avatars, and a My XBOX channel.

—–

All in all, not the most interesting E3 on record. Sony and Microsoft showed a lot of stuff we already knew about, and Nintendo harped on about casual gaming. Is it me or was this whole thing a bit of a letdown? Oh well… Maybe TGS will do better.

No, this post isn’t about those horrible games that are saturated in pink hues and revolve around cuddly anthropomorphic animal friends that developers market to pre-teen girls. This is about the Games 4 Girls competition, an event in connection with ChicTech and the U of I’s Department of Computer Science, in which college-age women design and implement a video game for their younger counterparts in middle and high school.

This year’s competition began in January, and the winners were just announced. As part a of the ChicTech initiative, the goal is to get girls interested in computer science. Participants compete for cash prizes of up to $1000 per team member, and games are judged by a panel of high school age women.

This is the fourth year for the competition. I actually had the pleasure of participating in the very first G4G with a team of women in computer science at Parkland (we didn’t place, but we did walk away with an honorable mention). It’s a great opportunity to really dive into something that women may not have ever considered as a career previously, and a whole lot of fun. By the sound of things on their website, they’ve expanded a bit and accept entries from all over the country now.

It’s too late to enter this year, obviously, but if you haven’t heard of it, and think you may be interested in the next G4G, drop by the competition’s website and take a look. Never too early to start planning. Check out the games that won last year, while you’re at it, and stay tuned because I’m sure they’ll post download links for this year’s winning games.

If you’re a teen (or you have a teen) age 12-16, you might want to check out the upcoming BNGamefest at the Bloomington Public Library in Bloomington-Normal on June 20. The event features the latest systems and some of the most popular games. While the even is targeted at teens, a recent article about a previous event (which occurred back in early March, prior to my blog even existing, else I’d have told you all about it…) implies that future BNGamefests will welcome adult players as well.

Details and registration information for the event can be found at http://www.bngamefest.org/.

If you’re heading up to the Milwakee area this weekend, or are looking for a bit of a road trip to while away your days off, you might want to check out the Midwest Gaming Classic going on all weekend long.

What is it? Why it’s a gaming convention. In the midwest. And it covers just about every aspect of electronic gaming imaginable. You can buy and play classic arcade and pinball machines, check out some new stuff, buy, sell, and trade gaming merch, listen to one of the speakers at the event… maybe win a raffle prize (like a Wii or a trip to Six Flags).

But most of all, it’s an excuse for gamers to get together with other gamers. Things kick off Saturday at 10am at Olympia Resort, and the convention runs through Sunday. Tickets are $10 for one day or $20 for both.

Check the official site for more details.