With all of the different console manufacturers launching their online components this year, it can be tough to sort it all out. So I put together Back to the Front: The Console Wars Go Online to outline the facts and offer up some analysis. See what you think.

One of the ubiquitous topics of E3 this year was online gaming. Specifically, online gaming for consoles was in the air and not since Sega announced SegaNet has there been more interest in the topic. Of course, SegaNet taught us quite a few things “ most importantly that it is possible and enjoyable to play console titles online. It also taught us that a lot can be done with a 56.6 Kb connection and that it is essential to allow groups of local players to take on groups of remote players. SegaNet gave us so much, and many of us Dreamcast fanboys felt more than a twinge of sadness at the death of the system, which didn't wither into old age, but was rather sacrificed for the greater good of the parent company. I can picture the Dreamcast kneeling before a row of Sega execs, knife poised at his chest, "I am sorry I have failed to bring Sega out of the pit it had dug well before I was conceived. Forgiveness, please?"

Although they sounded intriguing, it wasn't the martinis and massages that lured me into the WildTangent room at E3. As a member of the media, the invites for drinks were as free flowing as T-shirts and temporary tattoos for the normal E3 attendee. Yet, as I was winding my way through the mayhem that is E3, I was surprised to see a rather large woman in a purple shirt handing out gamedisks. With quasi-anorexic booth babes the norm in this venue, I was surprised to note that all of the WildTangent women (as that's who they were) were larger-than-life and exceptionally friendly. I wondered, "Who would be so bold as to flaut tradition and hire large, fully clothed women to entice players to check out a booth?" The answer turned out to be a company that has used just such divergent thinking in all areas of their marketing: WildTangent.

It's not unusual for new trends to emerge at each annual Electronics Entertainment Exposition. Video games represent a relatively young but now thriving and dynamic industry that has been steadily gaining market share in the entertainment sector. In 2001, video game sales increased 43% to some $9.4 billion, approaching the music business and surpassing box office revenues. Growing numbers of people are tuning out, preferring to turn on their PlayStation 2s, Nintendo GameCubes, Microsoft Xboxes, and PCs.

In PC Gaming by Design, our man Paul takes a look at a PC gaming trend that seems to be amping up for the coming year. Certainly mods and modders have been around for years, but the latest crop of PC titles take great pains to give players the chance to get in on designing their own content. Get the skinny on this trend here.

She\'s back, and it\'s nice to see that the glory of Metroid will be preserved for another generation. Metroid Prime, the FPS next-gen installment of one of the most beloved gaming franchises, is all set to go on Gamecube, and it is going to be a whole lot of fun. Incredible visuals paired with tight gameplay insure this a spot in any gamer\'s library. Click here.

Valve has partnered with gaming ISP, Speakeasy.net, to poll the PC gaming public. Just what is out there? What kinds of computers do you folks have? How fast is your connection? How much RAM, baby? The results are a bit surprising if you've heard the lowest common denominator rhetoric of web design courses and instructional manuals. But gaming is an ever-evolving industry, both for producer and player, and those who do not keep up do not, can not, keep playing.

Sony announced several new partnerships and technology deals at E3, making a major play to enter the online gaming market before Microsoft can get its online bits in order. Both companies have professed the importance of online gaming to the success of console systems, and Sony has specifically illuminated desires to create an online distribution network for all kinds of gaming, movies, music, and other broadband entertainment applications.

While there were many points of interest at E3 this year, the most consistently really crowded booth was Nintendo's, where gamers flocked, nay swarmed, to see the GameCube. For those skeptics out there who think the general mediocrity of the N64 experience has soured gamers, witness the intense interest shown for the new system. Let's face it, the N64 has suffered from a general lack of titles, and some companies have released really terrible games for it, further causing pain to gamers who have been forced to pursue the "any port in a storm" strategy (Big Mountain 2000 comes to mind, er, flashes painfully across my memory). However, there have been some very good titles, and it's no mistake that the best titles on the system have been made by Nintendo and it's 2nd party developer, Rare. Nintendo is, in many ways, the Disney of the gaming world “ they have created and continue to create incredibly popular and lasting characters, who appear in all sorts of games and have firmly lodged themselves in the hearts of mainstream USA (as well as mainstream everywhere else).

The modern world of videogames is like most other creative pursuits in that it is now coming of age and realizing its full potential. During the course of this realization, many different phases and styles have, and will, emerge. Turning points and plateaus are inevitable, as are special titles that represent "timeless" examples of the artform. Just as a classic Mercedes Gullwing will always stand out from the crowd of other cars, certain games will represent a highpoint in gaming that will maintain a certain "Wow" factor in the decades of gaming to come. Further, just because drastically better 3D modeling, and other innovations, are coming doesn't necessarily mean that the games will make a deeper, or even as deep of an, impression on the audience than its well-crafted ancestor did.

As we move into the next arena of competing systems, 2001's HAL9000 may be a ways down the road, but there is a wide world of electronic-gaming glory in sight. While most have hopefully known the awesome perfection that is Dreamcast, it does behoove both the serious and casual gamer to look at the upcoming choices and see what each new platform has to offer them.
PS2 has already landed and GameCube and X-Box will within a year. PS2 and X-Box should both be in the $300.00 range and GameCube about $200.00. Like most other technical-equipment purchases, it all depends on what you want your new box to do. The PS2 has made a serious leap forward as a true 'Set-Top Box' offering movie-playback and the promise of serous internet capabilities. X-Box will offer these also and Nintendo's new entry will at least offer online browsing. With DVD players dropping in price everyday and nearly half the houses in the country connected to the internet, these are niceties in a console, but maybe not the prime focus.

PlayStation2, the words still sound like honey in my ears. Like the culmination of some grand epic, the PlayStation 2 is now a reality and I'm still giddy with excitement. My zealous desire to own a PS2 reached a fevered pitch this week and had me compared to everything from an irrational fanatic to a crack whore looking for a fix.

The new edition of D&D rules has been highly anticipated in the gaming community. Not only is this a big deal for pen-and-paper gamers, but it is a big deal for videogames based on the D&D rules set. We called in an expert and got one of our most knowledgable GMs, Robert Rider, to check it out.

Just when we were ready to count Nintendo out of the running they jump back into the arena with guns blazing. At Spaceworld in Japan this past week Nintendo unveiled the GameCube, their latest bid for the home console market. The colorful cubes look like the next generation in gaming, at least from the outside. The GameCube's most striking feature wasn't the neon colors or its shape, but the controller. It appears to be an odd mix of the N64 controller and Sony's Dual Shock controller with a completely new approach to buttons.

This interview is a followup to an interview we posted with Dan Birlew, author of many strategy guides for BradyGames and their main SquareSoft guy. In writing strategy guides, as with writing reviews or coverage of gaming, certain aspects of the gaming world become very interesting. Birlew obviously has thoughts about more than just strategy guides, and we wanted to pick his brain a little more.