The specter of a world with no physical games available at retail is one that is raised often, especially by executives of traditional brick & mortar stores. In an article at Reuters, author John Gaudiosi raises the question yet again. He makes an effort to simply present the facts about the growing role digital distribution plays in how we purchase games today, and the facts are there. However, I believe that entire premise of the article is flawed.

Digital distribution really offers gamers only two highly positive benefits: First, it’s easy. You can purchase a game without ever leaving your house. Heck, you don’t even have to leave your chair. Second, it’s extraordinarily simple to keep games purchased over a platform like Steam updated. Since the Steam client must be running to launch the game, you simply download the update before you start the game. What could be easier?

The Reuters piece even quotes that great bastion of gaming knowledge, Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter (seriously, who died and made this guy king? Am I the only one who thinks he talks out his ass most of the time?), who says, “Downloads will become 20 percent of the market within five years, and probably peak at around 50 percent of the overall market in 10 years.”

I’m sorry, but this is not only purest speculation, it’s not even good speculation. Why? Hit the jump, and we’ll examine it.

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First things first, let’s all take a minute to wish happy birthday to the 4th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons. It’s been a year, and Wizards of the Coast has made great progress in the promotion and expansion of 4E.

Now, as you may have noticed, your usual Analog Gamer columnist, Shawn Sines, has graciously allowed me to step in this week and provide you with your weekly tabletop gaming fix. He’s done this because I have an axe to grind, and a point I want to make.

As a fairly avid player of Dungeons & Dragons, I tend to frequent a number of message boards dedicated to the hobby. In the year that 4E has been on the market, I have seen one thing on all these boards that really gets on my nerves: fights and arguments between players over which edition of D&D is the ‘best’ edition.

Here’s a news flash, people: There are multiple editions of D&D that are ‘the best.’ How can there be more than one ‘best’ at anything? Read on and see….

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Would a Neverwinter Nights be a viable MMO? Sources at Variety say Atari is betting on it. Supposedly it’s the whole reason Atari bought out Cryptic Studios.

I question whether porting NwN into the massively multiplayer realm is really a sure thing. The most obvious obstacle is taking BioWare and Obsidian out of the equation. However, I believe that taking the modding out of the game which has already spawned many persistent worlds which are essentially mini MMO themselves will take away one of the elements that makes NwN such a fascinating setting.

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There’s a new spin on the rumor that Microsoft’s Project Natal for the Xbox 360 doesn’t work for everyone. The peripheral free motion control system based on near infrared technology was demonstrated at E3 2009. In a live Paradise demo, media personality N’Gai Croal was unable to steer his car with his hands although his foot controls worked fine.

VGChartz has put a new angle on this conspiracy theory. Author Jacob Mazel cites an article published in the Journal of Clinical Monitoring and Computing in 2005 on Reliability of Near-Infrared Spectroscopy in People With Dark Skin Pigmentation to support his theory that Microsoft knew the prototype Natal system had trouble distinguishing N’Gai’s motions because of his melanin rich skin. He says he saw N’Gai later that day wearing light colored shoes. He believes this is the reason the Natal demo was so restricted and videos demos of black celebrities trying out the system, like the one following the break, were shown.

The glitch experienced during his demo could have been a known problem that Microsoft couldn’t avoid because of N’Gai’s re pore with the Games Industry. It could also have been a fluke in an otherwise well tested system…

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Blood. Chaos and Blood.. Oh and lots of Cake for everyone.

Check out the plus-sized E3 trailer for this upcoming PlayStation Network game. Fat Princess, while marginally offensive to some, seems like (and pardon me for my cross platform comparison) the PS3 answer to The Behemoth’s Castle Crashers on the surface except its got a lot more of everything you’d expect.. more blood (if that’s possible), more mindless hack-n-slash action, and more princess.. markably more princess.

The game is scheduled for release later this month and looks like a lot of fun with its massive gory combat and support for up to 24 players online.

You can check out the E3 trailer which introduces the character classes and the game’s very basic premise after the jump.

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Those rascally rabbids are preparing for an exodus as Rabbids Go Home. This sequel to the Wii game that had players dancing with rabbids and practicing their cow flinging has the rabbids climbing back home to the moon as they build their own precarious Tower of Babel. There are two trailers out from E3 for this fresh storyline.

First up is the Rabbids Go Home E3 2009 Trailer which gives gamers a closer look into a lunatic world overrun with rabbids.

I love that the devs wasted no time in getting the US president to contribute to the rabbids’ march to the moon.

The RGH Inside the Wii Remote Trailer features gameplay elements as rabbids invade your Wiimote, unwittingly putting themselves at you mercy. This is one of the funnier more memorable moments from E3. It reminds me of JoeCartoon’s gerbil. Torturing and customizing your own rabbid to use inside the game? Definitely a win. Catch it after the break.

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EA and Maxis presented Spore Galactic Adventures at E3 2009 this week. This expansion pack for Spore adds space exploration and planet fall challenges to an already diverse game.You no longer have to feel obligated to conquer every planet you run into. You can do a few errands for the indigenous population for fun and profit and be on your way.

Although Spore didn’t sell as well as EA had hoped, mostly due to it’s draconic SecureROM DRM, the life simulator has been wildly popular. The Spore Galactic Adventures E3 Trailer proves that it’s all fun and games even after the flying monkeys arrive. Check out the video after the break for quest examples and glimpses of gameplay.
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Well, I have to admit that I was less than excited about E3 this year. After all, I was there in 2007, when the conference moved to a smaller format and a different venue. That year, and in 2008, the conference felt smaller and less important. Many of the ‘announcements’ we were receiving were things we had already reported on weeks before, and we’d even seen many of the trailers before.

Shawn mentioned all of this when he was talking about his PrE3 Blues. I mentioned then that I was unfortunately agreeing with him.

So, in the face of this crazy E3 week, how do I feel now?

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The Star Wars SAGA RPG is officially one of my favorite games to read lining right up there next to the old West End Star Wars D6 RPG, Pinnacles’ Deadlands and Kenzer’s Aces & Eights. While I’m currently buried in fantasy mayhem in my two ongoing RPG games every new SAGA release not only entertains me and enriches my Star Wars fanboyish knowledge of the galaxy far, far away, but it also demonstrates that if I ever get the opportunity to play in a game rather than run it I’m going to insist it be Star Wars SAGA.

Every time I begin a discussion of Star Wars with a game group I seem to have the same frustrating results.. “Star Wars would be great if I didn’t already know how it ended.” Is the most common response I get.

It seems a lot of gamers have their impressions of what adventuring in Star Wars can be locked into the films they enjoyed. I’ve even had the “Star wars is a generational saga about the Skywalker family and their impact on the universe” George Lucas paraphrase thrown back a few times.

Well guess what folks, that may be true of the George Lucas story and his cinematic campaign, but this is an entire galaxy full of folks. Lots of planets to explore, many cultures to experience and lately even, thanks to Dark Horse Comics and Bioware/Obsidian lots of time to play within. I professed my love of the Knights of the Old Republic setting in a previous column, and with the reveal trailer for the upcoming Bioware Old Republic MMO making fanboys lose it, I think the resistance to playing in that setting may start waning.

Getting away from the 800lb. Gorilla in Star Wars: The Rebellion, Darth Vader and even the later Expanded Universe canon of the Yuuzhan Vong and New Republic can be a challenge.

How do you tell your own tale in a world so universally loved?
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Hideo Kojima made an appearance at Sony’s press conference to introduce a big Metal Gear Solid game for its new pocket size portable. The new PSP Go has Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker in the works. This full Solid Snake game takes place in 1974, ten years after MGS3 making it a true successor.

With E3 2009 in full swing Gaming Today is swimming in trailers for so many awesome games, you’ll forget how slow the first five months of 2009 were. I’ll try to fire off as many as I can in short bursts. Enjoy the Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker E3 trailer after the break.
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