The Tokyo Game Show started yesterday, and already there have been some major bombs dropped. Topping the list today is the announcement, complete with screenshots, of Blizzard\'s latest foray into the console market, StarCraft: Ghost. Featuring a new style of play than the older StarCraft titles, SC:G will make it\'s way to multiple console platforms and be co-published in Japan with Capcom. Click here for details.

Sony\'s betting big money on SOCOM: US Navy Seals, and from what we\'ve seen, it\'s a safe bet. The game is being pushed as an online multiplayer title, but the single player game is really great already. Nice AI, team strategizing, serious realism, and just plain fun gameplay should get it on your list of ways to avoid homework. Click here.

Microsoft really does love us. They love us so much that they listened when the gamers said they hated the Xbox controller. The Xbox Controller S (the \"S\" stands for \"small\") is a more manageable, perhaps more traditional, controller for those of you who could never learn to love the beast. Click here.

Is this gorgeous enough for you? The series that brought computer graphics into the mainstream consciousness is coming to a console near you. Myst III: Exile maintains the on-rails, point and click, interface of its predecessors, but features a 360 degree camera and the most photorealistic landscapes we\'ve seen so far, not to mention a meaty narrative. Click here for more.

Mind-numbing, anti-social, violence-inducing, sexually explicit: the list of evils attributed to video games gets ever longer. Apparently, the fact that games are achieving more "realness," according to Lois Salisbury, president of Children Now, based in Oakland, California, makes them more potent than ever in their ability to warp the minds of young 'uns.

Mind-numbing, anti-social, violence-inducing, sexually explicit: the list of evils attributed to video games gets ever longer. Apparently, the fact that games are achieving more "realness," according to Lois Salisbury, president of Children Now, based in Oakland, California, makes them more potent than ever in their ability to warp the minds of young 'uns.

AIRPORT, Salt Lake City. Maybe some of you out there haven't been to E3. In fact, maybe almost none of you have. Well, this was my first year, and I just sort of lucked into it, so believe me, I understand the pain and frustration that you must feel knowing that another year has come and gone in which you didn't get to see any Namco girls. Yes, I am just patronizing you. Anyway, a conversation I accidentally got on tape at the airport might help. This kid ("some kid" as I prefer to call him) was on his way to visit his dad in Illinois. The plan was, he was going to go there, try and get free stuff and money, and mostly listen to his dad complain about "your mother the bitch." So I showed him forty-five minutes of footage of the Space Channel 5 Go-go dancers. And after he cried for joy, I hugged him, and we had a pretzel. We also had this conversation:

After digging ourselves out from under the digital press kits and betas, here are what we think will the top dozen games of 2000. But first, a few caveats: we chose not to include any of the games that we chose as best of show for last year--that means that some excellent games--like Shogun, Diablo II, Deus Ex, Giants, and Oni-- will not be listed below. And we also decided not to include a few most excellent games that will be released in the very near future--including Sierra\'s Ground Control and Activisions\' Vampire: The Masquerade and Dark Reign 2.

Well, this week GamesFirst! will be featuring even more E3 coverage, this time covering the PC side of the street. Over the next several days, I\'ll be listing my E3 Best Ofs, starting today with Best Party, Booth, and Awards Presenter, and ending this weekend with my Best Games of E3 list. In the meantime, we\'ll continue to preview this year\'s upcoming PC and console titles from E3.

In the grand scheme of things the Dreamcast hasn't sold as well as it could have and I don't think there's any real mystery as to why this is so. A lot of people felt like they got burnt by the Saturn and they've lost faith in Sega's ability to deliver the goods. Gamers coughed up 299 bucks to take a stroll through the next generation system, but then a little something called the PlayStation showed up and preceded to whoop Sega's ass all up and down the isles of your local videogame store. When Resident Evil came out it gave gamers an experience they'd never had before and the Saturn was on the ropes. Sony landed jabs and uppercuts and if you listened closely you could hear bones breaking. Final Fantasy VII rolled out and "Fatality" echoed in the background. FFVII helped sell a bajillion more Playstations, and the Saturn basically just disappeared. When the dust settled and the blood was mopped up Sony was the undisputed champion of the console world and Sega's mangled remains were unceremoniously kicked aside, and the videogame world moved on.