Few surprises shake up E3

LOS ANGELES – The Electronic Entertainment Expo flooded the streets of L.A. with game company employees last week, as virtually every game firm in the world showed off its upcoming products at the industry’s largest trade show.

Walking around the Los Angeles Convention Center, I saw a lot of more of the same – sequels to games you’ve already played, different-colored versions of accessories you already own. But there were also a few surprises.

N-Gage games to leap to phones

Nokia, maker of the slow-selling N-Gage cell phone and handheld gaming device, finally acknowledged that gamers just haven’t taken to the expensive, taco-shaped unit.

The N-Gage underwent a redesign over the past year, but it hasn’t been enough to compete with the gorillas of the handheld market, like Nintendo’s Game Boy Advance or Sony’s PlayStation Portable.

Still, market research shows that we like to play games on our phones. So Nokia did the logical thing: It’s expanding N-Gage game capabilities to other smart phones, probably from the company’s 60 series, coming out later this year.

You won’t see the big ad push until 2006, but the company is quietly building in the ability to play N-Gage games on some of its phones as early as this fall.

‘Duty’ calls twice

Activision showed off two new and completely different versions of “Call of Duty,” due out later this year. “Call of Duty 2,” for PC and the upcoming Xbox 360 console, promises an immersive experience with detail never before seen in the World War II shooter series.

A level I saw showed players interacting with enemies and squad mates in a hyper-realistic attempt to take over gun emplacements at the top of a cliff. Around you, dozens of soldiers faced each other, reacting in an incredibly lifelike way to the threats they posed to one another.

Throw a grenade and the enemy runs away from it, making it an effective way to flush out folks who have settled into spots where you can’t see them. People duck, provide cover for one another, run away, advance and shout realistic advice to each other during a fight.

The physics – what breaks and how people react when they’ve been shot – were spot-on.

Also showing was “Call of Duty 2: Big Red One” for current- generation consoles. It wasn’t as hectic and people-filled as the next-generation version – current consoles don’t have the guts for that – but it showed detail and sharpness that have once again advanced what we can play on current machines. The PlayStation 2 version I saw in action looked every bit as good as last year’s Xbox games.

Mad Catz is wired to the 360

I also had the chance to see Mad Catz’s new Xbox 360 controllers – or to be precise, resin mockups of the wired versions.

You read that right: wired.

The Mad Catz rep said that Microsoft hasn’t yet let people create wireless controllers for the 360 and may not until next year. They’ve been told it will be holiday 2006 before a full product line can go on sale, even though the 360 ships with a wireless controller this fall. That may mean fewer choices for people who shop for the new console this year.

Analysts say that about 40 percent of gamers use wireless controllers right now. That number is expected to jump to 60 percent by the end of the year.

As for the wired controllers, they showed very little change over the current generation Xbox in terms of button placement. It looks like there may be an extra set of shoulder buttons (á la PS2), and the headset jack may be on the bottom rather than the top of the controller. Otherwise, it’s alpha-and-d-pad business as usual.