Bonnie Ruberg is a staff writer for Planet GameCube and Gaming Age, a freelance games journalist, and the author of Heroine Sheik, a blog dedicated to investigating sexuality in gaming cultures. Today, we have the pleasure of running a piece she's written for the site about a topic that's been brought up more than once in the comments here on Slashdot. "For Zelda fans, this is a time of anticipation. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is officially on its way, and everybody is talking. By now, we've all seen the pre-release screenshots and videos. Nintendo has made some major changes with the series' latest installment, and the gaming world has let out a unanimous gasp at the results." Read on for the rest of her analysis of this oft-debated issue.

Last week I packed my bags and went to Washington to partake in the event known as PAX, The Penny Arcade Expo. That sexy new rising star of video game conferences. Along with thousands of other fans of the comic strip, we filed into the Meydenbauer conference center unclear as to what would greet us inside.

Every year, the pilgrimage to Gen Con brings tabletop roleplayers, wargamers, boardgame enthusiasts, and LARPers together for four days of unbridled nerdery. Besides participating in games, some of which have been around for decades, there are always new releases and previews to tantalize the gaming public. Gen Con is the tabletop industry's version of E3, where the year ahead is laid out by the big names. Read on for a taste of what your Friendly Local Gaming Store will have to offer in the near future.

Square Enix has their yearly media event in Japan this past weekend, and news on upcoming titles is plentiful. Final Fantasy XII has finally been given a release date...in Japan. The Japanese launch is set for March 16, 2006. Aside from knowing the Japanese release date, details on the theme song for the highly anticipated title were also available. Aside from the heavyweight, information on Square Enix's Mobile games had some time in the sun, FFVII: Dirge of Cerberus had some new info revealed, and Fantasy Earth (Square's next MMO) was shown off but was unplayable. FFXI, their current MMOG, got the business end of a Q&A about upcoming plans, while movie fans will be happy to hear that FFVII: Advent Children is set to premiere in Japanese theaters in September. Finally, the rumour from the event that has everyone excited is the possibility that the Final Fantasy VII tech demo is more than a demo. The beautiful movie, shown originally at E3 this year, was shown again at the event and has prompted commentators to wonder if this is the first glimpse of the much rumoured remake of the classic console RPG.

Gamespot has a preview of the next title in the Burnout series, Burnout Revenge. From the article: "When we saw Burnout Revenge at E3, Criterion compared this year's crash mode courses to holes you might play during a game of golf, complete with a simplistic teeing-off mechanic that determines how fast you get off the line, fairways--aka freeways--full of hazards (like cars you don't want to crash into...yet), golf green-like areas (such as intersections that ooze carnage potential), and a hole that takes the form of a moving "target car" that's worth loads of points if you manage to wreck it. These comparisons still hold true, but Criterion has clearly been hard at work refining and improving upon the crash mode since it showed it off in Los Angeles." Given how good Burnout 3 was, I'm looking forward to this.

1up.com has a feature up examining the possible end of days for the Game Boy Advance. From the article: "...it would seem the end is nigh. Sony's PlayStation Portable offers PS2 level power and a beautiful screen next to GBA's humble, Super NES-quality experience. And Nintendo seems be placing its hopes on its quirky but successful two-screened DS. Rumors of a next-generation Game Boy system were crushed at E3 2005 with the unveiling of Game Boy Micro, a revised GBA selling on its stylish, compact design and beautiful (but minuscule) screen."

A new online gaming mag has launched with an impressive array of contributors. Entitled The Escapist, the magazine appears to be going for gamer culture and commentary, as opposed to specific product information. Jennifer Buckendorff goes into what it means to be a gamer in Gamer Like Me, Kieron Gillen comments on the scapegoating of the games industry in Culture Wargames, and Tycho Brahe talks acceptance in The Mainstream is Coming! The Mainstream is Coming!. From Buckendorff's article: "Am I a gamer? I review video games for various sources, including a major metropolitan newspaper. In May, I made the rounds of E3 for ten hours a day. I have a carefully selected games library, and my adoration of GTA dates back to the London expansion pack, when I used a double-decker bus to evil ends. I grew up in the arcades, standing on tiptoes to feed quarters into the slots. I give game recommendations to friends and acquaintances as if I were reading their tea leaves. But, in the opinion of some, I am not a gamer."

1up.com has an interview with the guy who faked the beautiful Nintendo On video prior to this year's E3. The faked video raised quite a ruckus on message boards from here to fark. From the article: "The Nintendo community is famously excitable when dealing with leaks and rumors - the uproar over recent comments insinuating Revolution's downloadable classics would be free sent shockwaves - and this instance was really no different. Still, there were plenty of skeptics and cynics. To many, the presence of the esteemed Virtual Boy, the company's infamous portable blunder from the mid 90s, tipped the scales. 'The Virtual Boy isn't something Nintendo should ever use to promote a new revolutionary product,' said Jeffery Van Camp, editorial coordinator at Nintendo fan site N-Sider. Even the visionary behind Nintendo On admits 'Nintendo would never make another reference to a console that didn't comply with their expectations, but in this case, it wouldn't be a mistake, but a correction.'"

GamesIndustry.biz is reporting that Microsoft has sent out new versions of the beta development kit for the Xbox 360, replacing the Apple platforms used up to this point. From the article: "Prior to E3, developers reported that a very small number of these more advanced kits had been manufactured, but it's only in recent weeks that they have begun shipping to Microsoft's development partners on a wide scale."

Merrill Lynch Japan has conducted research that indicates that the PlayStation 3 will retail for $399. According to Gamespot's coverage of the paper, the unit will cost $494 to manufacture. Sony will thus be taking an almost $1 Billion loss in the first year of the PS3's lifespan. From the article: "It is normal for game companies to take a loss on hardware whenever a new console launches, since they typically focus on acquiring market share rather than generating a profit during the first year. During the second year and afterward, they can recover the losses with the savings that come from mass production and with licensing fees from publishers." Meanwhile, Press the Buttons is reporting on a Pro-G article in which SCEE Chief David Reeves states that "I feel proud that E3 went well from the presentations that they did...I feel very happy about that, but I told the troops: OK now we go underground. The PS3 goes underground until it comes out next year."

timtwobuck writes "Gamespot.com is reporting that Ken Kutaragi, president of Sony Computer Entertainment, has disclosed in an interview that PlayStation 3 will natively run Linux. In fact, it will come bundled with it, if you purchase the HDD peripheral." From the article: "But while Linux would require a hard drive to run on, Kutaragi told Impress PC Watch, 'We're not going to equip [the PS3 with] a HDD by default, because no matter how much [capacity] we put in it, it won't be enough.' It was unclear whether he was referring to the previously known fact that the PS3 would not have an internal hard drive or whether he was indicating that the device would not come with the external 2.5-inch detachable HDD outlined in the specs revealed at E3."

If you were watching SpikeTV at all last night, you probably saw the 5 minutes the network spent on the E3 Critics Choice awards. Gamasutra has a complete list of the winners available. Some winners for this year: "Best of Show - Spore, Best Hardware/Peripheral - PlayStation 3, Best Console Game - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Best Handheld Game - Nintendogs, Best Fighting Game - Soul Calibur III"

Gamespot has the word that the team behind Final Fantasy XI is working on a new game in the Massive genre. From the article: "Tanaka declined to comment on whether the MMORPG in development will be a successor to FFXI or a new product. He did confirm that the technical demonstration shown for the Xbox 360 during E3 was one of the experiments his development team had created to see what kind of graphics a next-generation console could achieve."

Garthilk writes "In the last two weeks since E3 I've read at least three gushing reviews about an upcoming game by Simutronics, called Hero's Journey. MMORPG.com gave it their E3 best of show award. CorpNews said it blew their pants off. IGN even had a good interview with the CEO of Simutronics. Warcry even goes so far as to say that it will turn gaming world upside down. The question still lingers though, can a company who has focused on text based roleplaying games cut it in the graphical world?" From the MMORPG.com article: "In a year full of big budget, big company titles, Hero's Journey offered graphics on par with all the major players and an extremely exciting look at their game play. E3 2005 marked a show where several high profile games were touting very similar features (state based combat), and in swept Hero's Journey with their innovative group combat, highly cinematic missions, interactive environments and hands down the best character creation ever put into an MMORPG."

The First Person Shooter that had everyone abuzz at this year's E3 was the simply titled 'Black'. Eurogamer has a piece on the upcoming console-based action game, where it's come from, and where it's going. From the article: "But one thing Ward freely admits is that Black distills the team's best memories of their favourite movies. In fact, the last time out we got a sneak peak at the storyboarding process down at Criterion's HQ, each of the game's levels were explicitly designed to play out like your best memories of the best action sequences they could think of. Not a bad basis for an action game, you might reason."

SpikeTV has announced that they will be airing the E3 Critics Choice awards, the first time that the awards will have an officially televised ceremony. The awards are set to be aired on Tuesday the 7th of June. That evening will feature other gaming-related programming, such as E3 highlights and a showing of "The Ultimate Gamer". From the article: "This original special will take viewers for an inside look at the E3, the world's largest video game industry convention and will offer a sneak peek at some of the games that will start hitting stores later this year. THE ULTIMATE GAMER specials present some of videogame's hottest and most anticipated game titles."

The gaming industry may be an ever more lucrative business, but in some ways it seems as if kids are still running the place. Gamespot has up an article in which they discuss the nasty things the Big 3 have said about each other. From the article: "Robbie Bach: The other two companies' presentations [at E3] weren't surprising. Sony's [PS3's] capabilities are the same as ours. Nintendo is aiming for the niche market [with its Revolution]. The current-generation Xbox sold more than the PlayStation 2 in North America last Christmas. We will become the market leader with our next-generation console." The Guardian Gamesblog has commentary on this.

SirBruce, of MMOGChart, took a good hard look at what the massive games of tomorrow will look like at E3. He has impressions of every game due to be released in the next year or so, with commentary on most. From the article, about Vanguard: "This title is highly anticipated by some of the MMOG hardcore, as it comes from ex-EverQuest developers Brad McQuaid and Jeff Butler, but aside from the graphics and the promise of in-game voice chat it does not seem to be very innovative over the original EQ1 design. The game is designed to be group-focused and highly challenging, which may mean it's too much of a time investment for the more casual MMOG player. If the game were coming out this year, I would have higher hopes for it, but I feel it may get lost behind the mass of other fantasy-themed MMORPG titles."

Tim Grube writes "Have you ever wondered what it is like to be a model at E3? The process is long and very tiring. Just think, what if you had to prepare to be a character from a videogame on stage that involves a sword fight. Professional stuntman and actor Ilram Choi has been in multiple commercials for Nike and Mountain Dew. At this year's E3 Ilram was cast as Soul Calibur III's Mitsurugi. Ilram wrote a diary on the days leading up to E3."

Modesitt writes "Corpnews offers some thoughts on how E3 has changed for the worse. Several factors are mentioned, but the increased number of people sporting 'Exhibits Only' badges courtesy of Best Buy, CompUSA, and EB Games is focused on as a cause of the descent of E3." From the article: "The only legitimate purpose to E3 is as a media event, for companies to show off their products to the public via the media (after all, such a tiny sliver of the gaming public could go to E3, even if it was open to the public, that the press must inevitably mediate this process), and it is failing terribly at that. Companies are no longer courting the press, or even attempting to develop new contacts among them; now, it is an established siege war between giant website network and shitty magazines, and arrogant companies who divulge the merest crumbs and act as if this were a thunderous pronouncement from Yahweh."