It’s the third day of E3. The press conferences are finished and we are finally getting to spend some quality time with some of the most buzzed about games of the coming year.

Video games reporter Kemp Powers stopped by the Capcom booth and shot and slashed his way through one of the most impressive games of the show, “Resident Evil 5.” (Video below)

The follow-up to the 2005 hit “Resident Evil 4″ on the Nintendo GameCube, Sony Playstation 2 and Wii, this new game is the first offering in the survival horror series for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s Playstation 3. It’s due for a worldwide release on March 13, 2009.

More than just a typical sequel, “RE4″ was a critical and sales smash that rewrote the book on horror games and pioneered a unique over-the-shoulder view that is now ubiquitous in action titles. “Gears of War,” “Mass Effect” and “Metal Gear Solid 4″ are just a few of the big games that now employ the view.

The new game, though definitely a massive upgrade in the graphics department, appears to be sticking with the adage “if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it,” which should make loyal fans of the series very happy.

Hero Chris Redfield travels to a fictional city in Africa, where the entire population of the city has been transformed into mindless zombie-like creatures. In this adventure, players are accompanied by a computer-controlled partner, Sheva, who shares weapons and ammunition, opens doors and even heals Chris when he is injured.

She is also pretty handy with guns and rifles, which is a relief when being attacked by swarming hordes of enemies.

In the recently announced cooperative mode, a second player controls Sheva, who is necessary for accessing hard to reach areas and solving numerous environmental puzzles.

Here’s a quick video of one of the game levels that demonstrates the fabulous new graphics and gore-filled action of “Resident Evil 5.”

WARNING: it’s not for the squeamish.

Electronic Arts is taking its popular “Skate” game to another level with the introduction of “Skate It” made exclusively for Nintendo’s Wii and DS.

“Skate It” follows a similar storyline as its predecessor, but it gets players off the couch and onto their Wii Fit Balance Boards. A player’s body weight on the balance board controls their turns and jumps on the skateboard.

If you’re a skateboarder or snowboarder, don’t be too confident. The game’s not as easy as it looks as our reporter Jennifer Martinez (not pictured)  found out when she got off to a rocky (and embarrassing) start to the game.

But fear not, after three or four tries she got the hang of the making turns and jump grabs on the balance board.

But you don’t need a balance board to play the game, the Wii Remote and Nunchuck can also control your ollies and kick flips. The stylus takes care of these functions on the DS.

Our video games reporter Kemp Powers went to today’s Ubisoft press conference, which featured the usual array of gun play and sword fighting fans expected from the French video game publisher.

The company, however, saved some of its most enthusiastic chest-bumping for an update on its “Games for Girls” brand strategy.

Tony Key, Ubisoft’s senior vice president of sales and marketing laid out the impressive data; in the first three months of 2008, sales in the division aimed at “tween,” or pre-teen, girls grew 63 percent. Six of the top ten third party titles on the Nintendo DS are games targeted to the tween set.

And the number one third party title on the DS is Ubisoft’s own “Imagine,” a series of games that allows girls to pretend to be animal doctors, fashion designers, chefs and other professions and has sold more than four million units worldwide.

“You definitely cannot call them casual,” Key said of young girl gamers. “They’re playing and buying a lot of games.”

Which is why Ubisoft is expanding its girl games brand by rolling out a new line of “Imagine” titles between now and October that includes “Teacher,” “Interior Designer,” “Movie Star” and “Wedding Designer.”

We’re not sure how many little girls dream of planning other people’s weddings when they grow up, but obviously Ubisoft has done some focus group study and knows better than we would what professions today’s girls find interesting.

Our favorite game of the bunch is “Party Babyz,” in which girls play as babysitters and entertain the little tykes by having them race, dance and have soap bubble contests.

“Ener-G” is the new brand offering that will seek to capitalize on the popularity of girl sports when it releases during the holidays.

Calling it “the first sports brand dedicated to girls,” Key explained that the interest in sports is at an all-time high among young girls, with one in two girls playing sports in 2008 and 50 percent of all high school athletes being female.

For a company that is renown for its games for the hardcore enthusiasts, Ubisoft is definitely proving that it knows what the young ladies like.

It was Nintendo’s turn to play a little music. Following on the heels of popular music genre games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero, Nintendo showed off Wii Music at its E3 press conference.  Here’s a quick video — shot by our video games reporter Kemp Powers — of Nintendo executives, including legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto , playing the Mario theme song. (Hint: Miyamoto is the short Japanese man.)

The reception for the game was mixed.  The game does let you simulate more than 60 different instruments and it does seem easy to use. However, no one keeps score and you can’t play out of tune because the game picks-up motions to play the melody. The complaint seems to be that it is too basic and simple. (To be fair, many people said that about the Wii when it came out.)

One of my colleagues may have said it best. Guitar Hero and Rock Band makes you feel like a rock star. This game makes you look like you are in a high school marching band.

Electronic Arts provided a glimpse at “Spore,” a much-hyped game where players begin with their own basic microbe and customize their creature to weather environmental conditions and population changes on Earth. Reuters video game reporter Jennifer Martinez gives us the story from the news conference. 

During the  company’s E3 press conference, EA showed a brief trailer of the game and set a release date, Sept. 7, for the latest title from legendary game creator Will Wright, known for creating “SimCity” and “The Sims.”

EA has invested $80 million, according to one analyst, into making ”Spore,” which was inspired by Wright’s love of science and his favorite toy as a child, a chemistry set.

“Science and creativity are an amazingly fertile intersection,” said Wright at the news conference.  “Science was something you could make stuff out of.”

The storyline of Spore takes its cue from Charles Darwin, as the game is essentially a virtual action game based on the scientist’s evolution theory.  For example, if players want their creature to have 360-degree vision, they are able to add extra eyes to the character’s body.

The “survival of the fittest” game has already gained large following of fans through EA’s web launch of its “Creature Creator,” where users can log onto the site and create their own Spore character. 

Within the first 22 hours of the Creature Creator’s launch, over 100,000 Spore creatures were created by users.  Over a million creatures were created by the end of the week, according to EA.

Microsoft’s showcase of highly anticipated games for the Xbox 360 was mostly sequels of popular franchises, but all featured a new common element: cooperation.  Reuters games reporter Kemp Powers explains.

Cooperative play, in which several players work together to finish a single-player mission instead of blasting each other, seems to be the mode du jour these days.

It has already been announced that the next installment in the “Call of Duty” franchise, “Call of Duty: World at War,” will include a cooperative mode (the last game did not). “Halo 3,” the last installment of Microsoft’s flagship franchise, for the first time included the ability for up to four players to play the entire game cooperatively over Xbox Live.  

When online multiplayer play became popular on the Xbox Live service, it was driven by the strength of the multiplayer offerings in games like “Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six.” That usually meant some variation of deathmatch, in which individual players (or teams of players) competed against other individuals/teams over Xbox Live.

The new cooperative components of these Xbox 360 heavy hitters are sure to be highly anticipated additions:

“Resident Evil 5″ (March 13, 2009) is the newest installment in the popular Capcom horror/action franchise. “Resident Evil 4″ was a huge critical and commercial success on the Nintendo GameCube and Sony Playstation 2, and now this newest title makes an appearance on the Xbox 360. The cooperative mode means two players can shoot, punch and kick through the hordes of frightening enemies together. Online teammates will also have to help one another navigate environments by opening doors, offering boosts and other cooperative maneuvers.

“Gears of War” is one of the biggest hit franchises exclusive to the Xbox 360, and “Gears of War 2″ (November 7) seems to be picking up where its hit predecessor left off, with even more action and gore than the original. The first title in the series already allowed the entire game to be played cooperatively over Xbox Live, so the sequel ups the ante with “horde,” a new mode that allows up to five players to play cooperatively. Rather than play through the single campaign with five people, “horde” will task the teammates with surviving an onslaught of computer-controlled attackers.

“Fable 2″ (October) While cooperatively play is becoming a common feature in action games and first person shooters, it was more of a surprise to see a co-op feature added to “Fable 2,” the follow up to the unique role-playing game that debuted on the original Xbox. In the game, players start off as a young child and gradually build their character into a full-grown hero (or villain). This time out, players can also call one of their Xbox Live friends into the game so that they can fight, play and quest together.

(Photo: Reuters/Mario Anzuoni)

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Nintendo should feel very flattered by Microsoft’s press conference that kicked off today’s E3 Media & Business Summit in Los Angeles. 

Our video games reporter Kemp Powers points out similarities. 

One of the major announcements at the press conference was a planned overhaul of the Xbox 360 console interface. The new suite of features will include a community games channel to showcase (Warning: media buzzword) user-generated titles.

More interestingly, Microsoft heavily plugged the addition of cartoon-like personalized avatars that can be inserted into a number of upcoming casual and family game titles.

Yes, just like the Mii, the customized cartoon avatars that can be found on Nintendo’s popular Wii console. The avatars on the Xbox 360 will have a deeper level of customization than Nintendo’s Miis, and users will be able to select from a wide variety of clothes, accessories and hairstyles, Microsoft said.

Microsoft also unveiled a number of casual and family games to capitalize on the popularity of the Wii, such as “Lips,” a karaoke-style music game that employs a motion-sensitive wireless microphone.

Motion sensitivity. Cartoon avatars. Peripherals and accessories. Games for the entire family. Sound familiar? It’s Nintendo’s playbook, but hey if you can’t beat them….

(Photo: Microsoft)

All good things have to come to an end. Even a stroll down memory lane. Final stop: proudest achievements and biggest screw-ups.

What was your proudest achievement?

Gates: We changed the mindset that software was this unimportant thing and (how people thought) about computers in a certain way. I think that was our most important thing.

Ballmer: The guy has a lot to feel good about. Just think about the number of things that have happened. There was no software industry. Now, there is a software industry. There was no personal computer. Bill was really there at the birth of the modern personal computer. Bill really designed the IBM PC. That’s my non-revisionist history.

We had to come from behind. In some of these battles, we got to lead from the front. It’s actually more fun to come from behind. For us, that’s more fun. That’s when you really surprise people. It’s actually harder and a lot of the people who work for the company now have never done it, but in some of those cases we had to do it. We went toe to toe with the biggest, most powerful computer company in the world and we beat them. Windows versus OS/2 and we beat them.

What was your biggest screw-up?

Ballmer: That’s all for you.

Gates: We were together on many of these. Our biggest mistake comes when we don’t see where software might go in the future and we’re not working on it early. By the time, something is really popular, it’s maybe three or four years after you’ve done the work needed to get there.

When we got it right, betting on graphics interface, even though we told our competitors that they should (do it) and tried to get them to do it, they didn’t. By the time it was clear that it was a mistake, they were in deep trouble because we had done the work and we were there. In software, you have got to anticipate the turns in the road. We have made many of those turns. They have said, ‘hey this is Microsoft at its peak’ every year for almost 20 years now. The reason we’ve defied that is because we made many of those twists and turns, but there is many that we missed.

The search and advertising thing that the way that thing has grown up to be so important, you’d probably pick that as ‘gee, that’s a big mistake.’ If we had started three years earlier and seen how important it is, it’d be a lot easier than having to do it coming from behind.”

Ballmer: In the old days, I used to have a list with our biggest screw-ups, but I stopped that after the list got too long.

After answering employee questions for an hour or so, Ballmer and Gates held back tears (unsuccessfully) and they said a final goodbye.

Ballmer: There is no way to say thanks to Bill. Bill’s the founder. Bill’s been our leader. You can’t do it. We can thank Bill for the culture. We can each thank Bill personally for the opportunity that we individually had a chance to have here. Every one of us, whether you started last week or started 28 years ago, has had a set of opportunities to realize our own potential. We’ve had a chance to contribute to society, a chance to develop and grow as professionals, a chance to work with the best and the brightest in the world and a chance to prosper personally. We’ve been given an enormous, enormous opportunity and Bill gave us that opportunity. I want to thank Bill for that.”

Gates: My life’s work is really about software and working with incredible people. I love working with smart people. I love working with Steve. I love working with all the incredible people here.

Even the times that were the toughest, in some ways, those are the times that bonds you the most. When IBM decides to attack you or when some legal ruling isn’t quite right, and you have to do a press conference afterwards.

There won’t be a day in my life that I’m not thinking about Microsoft and the great things that it’s doing and wanting to help.

(Photos: Reuters)

Microsoft said on Wednesday that casino chain Harrah’s Entertainment Inc is the second customer to deploy Surface, the company’s coffee-table-shaped computer that responds to touch.

Harrah’s installed six Surface tables at the iBar “ultralounge” at its Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. Unlike AT&T, the first company to deploy Microsoft Surface at a handful of its stores, Harrah’s has developed its own applications for the machine.

The most interesting is a new “Flirt” application. Since each Surface comes with a video camera, bar patrons can communicate or “flirt” with people at other tables. It seems like a pretty fun application, although one has to wonder why it has taken so long to become a product. After all, this was an idea conceived in the 1990s by none other than Miss Janet Jackson. Check out this video for proof.

It’s probably not visible in this picture, but here’s a sample of what Harrah’s calls flirting.

• “Apart from being sexy, what do you do for a living?”
• “I lost my number. Can I have yours?”
• “I tripped on a kiss and fell in love with you.”
• “You’re so HOT … got sunscreen?”

The Surface will also allow bar patrons to create and order cocktails, watch YouTube videos and play video games like bowling, pinball and memory games. There are a couple of “virtual concierge” applications. One lets customers tour Harrah’s Vegas properties and attractions, while another provides a virtual guide to the Las Vegas strip.

Microsoft’s weekend deadline to Yahoo to negotiate a friendly deal has come and gone. So, now what? Microsoft has its options. It could raise its bid, walk away, go hostile at a lower price or go hostile at the current price. Most Wall Street analysts think the last option is the most likely.

Separately, Marc Andreessen , co-founder of Netscape, provides a thorough breakdown of the options for Microsoft and Yahoo. Especially interesting is the part about a potential legal fight if Yahoo’s board decides to exercise its poison pill as a defense to a tender offer by Microsoft.

(Photo: Reuters/Christian Charisius)