MCP
On the E3 side of things, 1up has a list full o’ links of the games slated for show-and-tell right here. No LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga for my PSP? What a sad day it is.

In the arena of backward compatibility, the PS3 has dominated the 360 thanks in part to Sony’s decision to just go ahead and slap some of the PS2 chipset right into their new console. That’s set to change for the recently-announced 80GB model. Sony is apparently going to rely fully on software emulation for previous-generation games, which makes me wonder if Sony will have to effectively drop support for certain titles as they put man hours into coding for the emulation. Only on the 80GB model, though.

It’s nice to see Microsoft taking an active stance in satisfying those 360 owners whose hardware has been less than reliable, what with the recent warranty extension. Now, they’re apparently going to cut their production costs on the console and use smaller, cooler chips. Seen (out of context) as a reaction to the PS3 price drop, a lot of people are speculating that Microsoft will shortly be announcing a cheaper, more heat-efficient 360. Other people are speculating that gold will suddenly appear in their rusty pans.

The last two stories of the day both involve smaller, incredibly cool games.

First, there’s Multiwinia, a multiplayer edition of Introversion’s popular RTS Darwinia. Screenshots have appeared as though out of a rusty pan! I like what Introversion did to the multiplayer model on their most recent game, Defcon, and I’m curious to see how they adapt the far-more-active Darwinia. I’ve been wanting to play a heated game of program-against-program ever since I saw ReBoot.

Second, there’s Cave Story. Have you played Cave Story? I’ve mentioned it before, and I will again. It’s freeware, and it’s among the best platformers I’ve ever played. It’s also being ported to PSP and DS by intrepid homebrew coders! Cave Story on the go is such a perfect idea, I can’t even say. Unfortunately, if you want to try out the "release candidate" for the PSP, you’ll need to make sure your toy is capable of executing homebrew code. If it can, I encourage you to give the game a whirl. Or just play it on your PC. I don’t care. I’m just an evangelist.