Having never attended an E3 in previous years, and instead feeling content to view the chaos from the darkened comforts of my computer chair, this year’s E3 seemed reminiscent of the event thought to have been banished and replaced. Sifting through the battery of new game announcements and corporate swagger, I couldn’t spot the change. However, a quick glance at a release date list should speak loudly regarding the focus as its shifts. Tectonically. Almost everything shown at this year’s "Entertainment for All Expo" will be hitting shelves, digital or brick-and-mortar, this year. This is a model, I believe, more closely resembling Hollywood than the traditional videogame industry. Trailers aside, it is accepted in the movie biz to sit on a finished project until it is prepared for release. Not so in our beloved hobby, where "going gold" means a scant few weeks until retail explosion.

After the E3 fallout, I’m happy to hear that the DS will be seeing a sequel to Advance Wars. I don’t like the idea of Wi-Fi support, unless Intelligent Systems imposes some form of a time limit. Without online play, I’m thinking it will be the usual Advance Wars upgrade: new units and CO’s. Blah, blah, but I’ll still buy it. Outside of that, Galaxy, Smash, and Metroid look stellar.

I saw Harry Potter and Transformers over the last couple of weeks and can recommend both movies if you’ve never read or seen the source material. Potter is the better of the two flicks in my opinion, but you know what they say about opinions. I’m out; see ya next week.

We feel it is the duty of the Ministry of Art & Design to recommend quality comics reading for our fledgling audience. This week at the Ministry we read the complete Bone by Jeff Smith. If you have never read any of Jeff Smith's comics you are just plain 'ole missing out on one of the great joys in life. Here in the heart of the ministry offices, we have constructed a paper mache sculpture of Fone Bone for all of the members of MAD to bow down to and worship every day. Yes, the comic is THAT GOOD. We also bought a copy of Flight 4. There will be an official review of this material next week, however preliminary Ministry approval has been issued based on the fact that the previous three Flight anthologies were friggin' great!