The Microsoft press conference last night was a total "blah." The Halo 3 version of the 360 looked garish, and I don't understand why Microsoft is including the HDMI output from the Elite but sticking with the 20-gig drive. No price, either. Has to be between the Elite ($479) and the Premium ($399), though, don't ya think?

Speaking of prices, I still think a 360 price cut is coming before the year is over. But with the "Falcon" model with the smaller, cheaper, more reliable 65-nanometer chips still not in stores, I'm guess Microsoft is going to hold off on the price cut a few more months.

Game-wise, the MS conference was okay, but there weren't any surprises. Halo 3 looked okay, and I'm pretty excited about Call of Duty 4. Assassin's Creed looks more average every time I see it, but I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt because the concept is so unusual.

Nintendo also just wrapped up their press conference, and I think it's clear that, despite the company's assurances that they still care about hard core gamers, they don't care about hard core gamers at all.

Which is fine, and certainly turning into a lucrative business decision.

But the big finale of their event was the revelation of an exercise game called Wii Fit. The number of hard core gamers who want to use their game consoles to measure their body fat can, I think, be counted on one Cheetos-stained hand.

And so here comes Sony.

And Killzone 2 looks awesome, confounding all expectations.

Sony's official press conference is starting just about now, but they've already unveiled the Killzone 2 trailer (this time with real gameplay footage) and it looks good.

If Sony can manage not to insult their customers for about an hour or so, they could, amazingly, be crowned the winner of this year's show.