5. NINTENDO’S ACTUALLY MAKING SOME GOOD GAMES.
• Busting out with Super Mario Galaxy 2 and the completely new and unexpected Team Ninja collabo of the re-imagined Metroid, NINTENDO finally demonstrated that they still have some love for the O.G. gamers that put them on the map. After a past couple years of very disappointing nonsense like Wii Music and other stuff that not too many real gamers really care about, Nintendo’s shown that they’re still down for the cause and that there’ll be at least a couple good reasons to dust off that Wii—the Wii MotionPlus is none too shabby either and really steps the waggle game up a notch.

4. THE PS3 IS SERIOUS BUSINESS, BUT SONY STILL DOESN’T QUITE GET IT.
• With exclusives Heavy Rain, Uncharted 2, God of War III, and MAG on the way, the PS3 looks to have plenty to distract folks. Still, SONY failed to announce a price drop and the rumored PS3 slim doesn’t appear to exist; unless these things change before holiday madness, this generation’s console war will be all but decided. To make matters worse, the new PSP Go’s two main talking points seem to be (1) at $249.99, it costs about 80 bucks more than the original PSP and (2) people can’t play their old PSP UMD discs on it—go ahead and purchase the extended warranty while you’re at it. Heavy Rain is very, very cool, though, and gamers, people, and penguins everywhere should pay close attention to it when it launches early next year.

3. MICROSOFT IS IN IT TO WIN IT.
• All of the big three had strong showings at E3 this year, but MICROSOFT emerged as the overall winner. With Alan Wake, Halo 3: ODST, Left 4 Dead 2, Mass Effect 2, and former PlayStation exclusive Final Fantasy XIII all dropping within the next year, the 360 is still the cat’s pajamas. The no-delay, instant streaming, full 1080p video service through Xbox Live and the new, beyond state-of-the-art camera-based motion recognition that they’ve got going on (see above) pretty much solidifies Microsoft in the pole position for the current and next gen (if the streaming 1080p actually works as advertised). Microsoft has eliminated the need for a Blu-Ray disc player and one-upped the Wii in its mainstream, motion-recognition appeal—Grandma won’t want to waggle a remote anymore when she can just scan a golf club and get down to business.

2. THE FUTURE IS A BIT CREEPY.
• Along with Microsoft’s camera comes a scary advanced kid named Milo as part of Lionhead Studios head and Fable series developer Peter Molyneux’s new Project Natal (they’re trying to get people to say it Nuh-Tall, but, for real talk’s sake, let’s keep it Nay-Tul, please). Natal and Milo use the new motion recognition camera to simulate the most advanced, ostensibly real world yet seen in the interactive entertainment space (or any other space too, for that matter) and it’s downright creepy and just a bit unsettling to see how effective and immersive the simulation is. When this thing really reaches critical mass, WoW addictions may end up looking downright tame in comparison to the socially deprived children who might end up getting attached to Milo and his other soul-sucking little buddies.

1. THE REAL E3 IS BACK!
• The one thing everyone will agree on about this year’s show is that a big Electronic Entertainment Expo is a fun Electronic Entertainment Expo and that the more the merrier—things still aren’t back to E3’s peak years of the early ’00s and some companies probably wouldn’t have minded a bit more traffic and congestion, but it’s plain to see that this is the way things are supposed to be and the mistakes of the past two years now stand corrected. Especially cool is that surprises were actually left as surprises (though we already knew about the Em/Jay-Z DJ Hero performance) without everyone knowing ahead of time during the press shows exactly what to expect—Final Fantasy XIV pretty much came out of nowhere at the Sony show and the new Castlevania received a loud round of approval. Things should be good to go again for next year and beyond and E3 looks set to stick around. Video games are the business, and business is good.

Set to launch on June 3rd, Microsoft is hoping that Bing—which is supposed to bring to mind the sound of a bell ringing to indicate a search is done (we don’t have a multi-million dollar R&D department, but wouldn’t that be “ding”?)—will become synonymous with the verb “to search”, the way “to google” is now. We won’t rule anything out, but they have a hard road ahead of them. At least it’s not the worst idea they’ve had. Take a look back at some of Microsoft’s most famous misses…

MICROSOFT BOB (1995)
• In an attempt to make Windows easier to use for the novice, Microsoft got the bright idea to create a $100 program called Bob which would replace the windows desktop with a more visual representation of a work space called the Public Family Room. Microsoft’s current CEO was stated as saying that Bob was “one project we had undertaken … where we decided that we have not succeeded and let’s stop.” ‘Nuff said.

Why it failed: At $100 a pop, it was too expensive for most computer novices and if they really wanted a computer that was easy to use, they would just use a Mac. Not to mention, instead creating a patch for their poor user interface, Microsoft focused their efforts on Windows 95 which came with their new Explorer system which was way better than Bob.

WINDOWS ME (2000)
• Normally, Windows gets a lot of shit for all their shortcomings, but no version of windows (or any other operating system, for that matter) has been the target of such vitriol as Windows ME. Released as a follow up to the Windows 98, ME was supposed to be the test bed for new Microsoft technology like System Restore.

Why It Failed: Nicknamed Windows “Mistake Edition”, complaints of ME crashing users computers upon installation, it’s inability to work with programs and hardware that worked fine on Windows 98 and the fact that some people couldn’t even get the OS to shut it self down.

INTERNET EXPLORER (2001)
• Even though the world’s most ubiquitous web browser was lightweight, feature filled and pretty easy to use, like Windows ME, it became known as a symbol of Microsofts poor engineering.

Why It Failed: Being the most popular browser under the sun pretty much placed a bulls-eye on Internet Explorer, inciting every hacker to focus their cross-hairs on Microsoft’s browser. It didn’t help that Microsoft’s security was worse than Hatton’s guard. It was so bad, that in 2004 the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) told users to use any browser other than Internet Explorer unless they wanted to be infected with the Scob or Download.Ject keylogger that could be used to steal passwords and other personal info.

MSN SMART WATCH (2004)
• Reportedly, one of Bill Gates favorite projects within in Microsoft was SPOT (Smart Personal Objects Technology). Included in this division was the MSN Smart Watch project which teamed Microsoft’s MSN network up with watchmakers to create Dick Tracy type timepieces that let you check your email, the weather and headlines a glance at your wrist.

Why It Failed:To have all that data sent to a watch that looked like it came free with the purchase of Frosted Flakes, you had to fork over $40.00 a month.

MSN MUSIC & PLAYFORSURE (2004)
• Microsoft’s ill-fated music store sold files that were smothered in Windows Media DRM, but since they had no digital media player of their own, they created the PlayForSure standard. This let people know that no matter which MP3 player they bought (except for the iPod), as long as it had that certification it would play tracks from the MSN Music Store.

Why It Failed: Once Microsoft realized MSN Music couldn’t compete with iTunes, they abandoned it and created their Zune brand. The problem? All the PlayForSure files could not play with the new Zune player. FAIL.

We thought these ads were supposed to tell people why Window’s isn’t wack, but they don’t even mention Microsoft or Windows, let alone any of its features. WTF? Who cares if astronauts and animal trainers use it? You’re supposed to be telling the people who want to look cool with a Macbook why they should stick with Microsoft. Now, before we get ahead of ourselves, Microsoft still has the computer game on lock with a damn near 90% market share, but they got problems. Maybe they should focus on them instead of making commercials. We got some suggestions on how they can step up…

1. MERGE THE XBOX AND WINDOWS TEAMS

Ask anyone under the age of 40 what the best Microsoft product is, and they’ll probably tell you Xbox 360. Besides the dreaded Red Ring of Death, everything about the 360 is dope. It has the best game selection, powerful hardware and, most importantly, the best software available on any console. Playing online with friends on PS3 is straight up painful, while Xbox Live makes it effortless and it looks great. Two things that are seldom said about Windows.

2. BE MORE PROACTIVE

For a company as large and rich as Microsoft, you would think they’d be a beacon of innovation. But most of their consumer products seem to be answers to products that are already successful, like the Zune and Windows Live. Now the Zune and Windows Live aren’t bad products, they’re actually pretty damn good. But it’s hard to stand out when you’re #2. They need to take more risks with their products, bring in some innovators and stop trying to create things to destroy popular products.

3. FIRE STEVE BALLMER

Besides their slick, attractive, innovative products, there’s one reason Apple is able to stay on top and his name is Steve Jobs. People only hear or see Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer when he’s pissed off and ranting about one of their competitors. No one wants to buy products from him. Microsoft needs a charismatic figurehead that people actually like to peddle their products to the masses. A good salesman can sell anything, no matter how wack. Just ask Diddy.

4. FOCUS AND SIMPLIFY

When they launched Windows Vista, they launched FOUR different versions! When your average user walks into the computer store, they just want to pick up Windows and keep it moving. If they get confused at all, that’s a problem. And when it comes to Windows, people have been very confused. They need to trim the fat and focus on doing a couple things really well.

5. OPEN MICROSOFT RETAIL STORES

Microsoft seems to think that their main problem is one of perception. That people only think Windows sucks because Apple and a lot of the media has said it sucks. And they’re kinda right. If they want to really change people’s perception of Windows and all things Microsoft, they need to let people experience it first hand, on their terms. They need a Microsoft retail store. The only time people experience their products is when they go to Best Buy or some other store where they speak to poorly-trained sales people. If Microsoft had their own store, they’d be able to give people the entire Microsoft experience. Whatever that may be.

The Blue Track popped up recently on Germany’s Amazon website and is set to roll out on September 9th. But will laser and touchpad devotees be quick to make the switch? We decided to take a look back at the major innovations throughout the history of the mouse to put things in perspective.

See how far the cursor has come…

We’re not sure if the $300-million dollar campaign will actually work, simply because Jerry’s been catching bricks since Seinfeld went off the air. The handful of other ads he did for the geriatric crowd (American Express, Hewlett Packard), and last year’s Bee Movie are, well, straight up B’s. So we figured we could jog Microsoft’s memory (zing!) by compiling five (2 of which ended up being banned) of their greatest hits for a little inspiration.

BILL GATES’ LAST DAY AT MICROSOFT

ZUNE TICKLE PARTY

MICROSOFT XP (BANNED)

XBOX LIVE (BANNED)

MICROSOFT OFFICE LIVE MEETING

But we played Too Human, and while it may not be an instant classic, it’s still pretty damn fun (check the ill villains!). There are definitely worse ways to shit away the rest of summer. But don’t just take our word for it. Watch the game trailer and learn how to win your own copy below…

The first person to correctly answer the following question will win a copy of Too Human for the Xbox 360:

What are the names of two other games that were created by Too Human developers Silicon Knights?

Email your response to contest@complex.com.

With a spherical display sourced from Global Imagination and the same tech found in the Surface, the Sphere allows users to run and manipulate a number of different programs like a picture viewer and a world globe with the touch of a finger. And while the Sphere looks dope, we can’t imagine what the hell anyone would use it for besides teaching kids geography or playing a big game of Sid Meier’s Civilization. It’s reported that there’s no plans to commercially sell the $10,000 Sphere, so for now you’ll have to settle for a video of it below.

[Boing Boing]

GAMEPLAY: As a part of the elite team called the COG Delta Squad, the basic premise of the game is to defeat the Locusts who return from the game’s first installment, this time to destroy entire cities with one fell swoop. With a plot that simple, we figured we could breeze through it like other fast-paced shooters like Halo 3. We were wrong. Players with itchy trigger fingers are forced to be more strategic with their movements as they battle. But in case you’re on the brink of dying, and your teammate can’t revive you, there’s always the option in multi-player mode to peruse the map with the ghost camera and snitch on the competition by giving away their position.

WEAPONS: Everyone looks forward to the selection of army guns, but Gears Of War 2 is about how you use them. In our inventory we had the standard Lancer Assault Rifle, Shotgun, Boomshot Grenade Launcher, Frag Grenade, and Torque Bow. They’re all guaranteed to make the Locusts get down or lay down, but death by a grenade might be the worst way to go out. You can throw it, or plant it on a nearby wall (then crawl like heck) and watch the bodies fly, but players also have the option of stabbing themselves with it, out of pure desperation. If you’re savvy enough with the Lance Assault Rifle, an active reload technique allows you to let off a burst of bullets when you line up the moving bars in the gun’s display.

ENEMIES: To get the full feel of GOW2, we played in multi-player mode. It was a good excuse for us to blend in with the pros who got us past the first four waves of baddies like the Grenadiers, Drones, and Kryll. There are 50 waves (battles) per map, our team only completed four. Head shots are your best bet, which can add up to an achievement like in the Halo series, or another killer tactic is picking up your half-dead enemies and using them as a shield. Bang bang.

[DasGamer]