After months and years of chatter and appetite-whetting about gaming’s next frontier in high def, this year’s E3 expo in Los Angeles showed that the cooks have been busy and that soon, very soon, we will chow down. Adding to the already-released Xbox 360, which emerged last November, here are the hardware offerings that will make it happen.

Sony Playstation 3
Between the Blue-ray drive, the motion-sensing Bluetooth controller, and the promise of 1080p gaming, the next-gen Playstation aims to deliver a lot—at a cost. The entry-priced model, at $499, has no HDMI output, and for that reason alone it would be wise for home-theaterphiles just to shell out the extra c-note for the $599 model, which also comes with a 60 GB hard drive. Sony claims the PS3’s überpowerful Cell processor—which the company developed with IBM and Toshiba—will be capable of generating an unseen-before level of realism in landscapes and character movement. Shake off the sticker shock and you will find a host of eye-drying launch titles to ease the pain, including the graphic- and story-rich FPS Resistance: Fall of Man, futuristic aerial combat in Warhawk, and ol’ reliable Gran Turismo HD. While the PS3 may have to play catch-up to the Xbox 360 as to the number of games in its library, the weighty presence at Sony’s E3 booth assures an arsenal to come.

us.playstation.com

Nintendo Wii
While other new console controllers have essentially the same constitution as those of their previous incarnations, Nintendo’s Wii intends to incite a revolution. Long and narrow like a remote control, the Wii (pronounced “we”) controller can be swung around like a tennis racket, a golf club, a conductor’s baton, or whatever motions the respective game calls for. As Nintendo has historically excelled at bringing video games to the nongaming masses, the Wii’s interface was developed to shorten any learning curve that may still exist for players young and old; so not knowing which buttons to press is no longer an acceptable excuse. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and especially Super Mario Galaxy are among the stunning titles that are due by Wii’s launch, later this year. Oh, and there was a gun-shaped controller among the accessories displayed.

wii.nintendo.com

Microsoft Xbox 360 HD DVD Player
The Xbox 360 has a yearlong head start over the other consoles, but its early release also meant that it shipped without HD DVD-playing capability. Perhaps buyers will be a touch irritated that they need to find space for yet one more component, but 360 followers will likely want this add-on—partly because this demographic is prone to collecting gadgetry and partly because the unit’s price is expected to be lower than a stand-alone HD DVD player. However, as the main console has no HDMI output, some are cocking their eyebrows about the possible quality of the signal (and compatibility with future software titles). Aside from seeing the physical device, no significant news was available at press time about the external HD DVD drive for the Xbox 360 except that Microsoft expects the player to be available in time for gift-giving later this year.

www.xbox.com