The next gen wars are kind of like the Royal Rumble (bear with me while I explain the analogy).

Wannabe's like the Phantom Game Console clamber into the ring with visions of greatness, former champs and industry stalwarts like Nintendo dive in under the ropes looking for one more shot at title, precocious young tykes like Microsoft strut in with cautious optimism, while last years reigning champ Sony slowly pushes the ropes down as he swaggers into the ring, one leg at a time, assured of victory.

Just like the Royal Rumble, there's always one idiot who gets overzealous and is chucked out seconds after flying into the ring, much to the amusement of onlookers, he vows to be back but we all know he's gone for good.

At this point all bets are off, it's anybody's game. The old stalwart has a pretty good shot, he's a fan favorite, everyone's got a soft spot for him (I seem to remember Hulk Hogan winning the Rumble when he was in his late sixties, of course, the Hulkster never loses a fight ever, except to Mr. T). The precocious newcomer also has a pretty good chance of coming out on top, we'll call him the Heart Break Kid in this analogy. He's flashy with a bag of new tricks and he's promising the world. Well what about the reigning champ? Right now things don't look so good for him, he's kinda like Andre the Giant at this point, sorta slow moving and just wading through guys through sheer force of will, but he looks vulnerable, now he's on the ropes and it looks like his competitors are straining to lift him up and tip him over the edge. But it ain't quite that easy.

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Not only does this clip, taken from the newest 1UP show, gives you a glimpse of how it's looking inside the Valve offices, it also includes new footage from Half Life 2: Episode 2. Witness a thrilling buggy ride as the developers of the game explain what they've added to make Half Life 2 even more thrilling.

Later parts of the video show Portal, the innovative puzzle game that caused a lot of stir when it was announced. Utilizing a similar idea that Prey debuted with, the difference here is that Valve's concept of the portal technology is much less combat-oriented. Instead, they've decided throw bunches of insane, theoretically impossible puzzles after the player, as he needs to reach the exit of a room using only his portal gun.

Console gamers are lucky, as they'll receive a big bundle of goodness that includes the main game, Episode 1, 2 and Portal. The original game and Episode 1 are already released on the PC and have been subject to widespread critical acclaim. The Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of Half Life 2 are expected to be released in 2007.

Backwards compatibility is a good thing. For loyal followers of the Playstation platform, it looks as if Sony's going to let us finish Final Fantasy VII on the PS3.  If you check Sony's Playstation 3 website and check their "About" section, try clicking on question 11.

For those whose browsers can't use Flash at the moment, the question asked is: "How do I save my Playstation 2 Memory Card information to Playstation 3?"

The answer: "To use saved data on a PlayStation 2 memory card, you must copy the data onto a virtual memory card within the hard disk. This requires a PS2/PSone memory card adaptor to copy the data to your PLAYSTATION 3. A memory card adaptor is designed to edit, up/download game saves to and from EMS flash card or smart media card."

While there have been unofficial memory adapters for the consoles in the past, this is looking to be an official announcement that they will make a way for us to transfer our memory card information to the new hard drive. It's also possible that there's some relation between this news and the increasing crackdown against fake memory sticks, in preparation for the PS3. The questions now will have to be "How," What kind of system will you use for transferring," and "How much?" With an expensive price tag for even the 20 Gig version, we hope that they'll either bundle it with both packages, make it a cheap add-on for us to use, or have it as part of their advertising campaign in gaming stores, letting gamers do free memory adaptation in the store for the first few weeks of sale.

If we're lucky, maybe Sony will announce some big news at the Leipzig Games Convention this month. We'll keep our fingers crossed - and keep you all posted.

With some buzz that PS3 games reportedly cost around $60 each, this German retailer's promo sounds really sweet. If you can read German (we can't), the poster is supposed to say, Pre-order a 60GB PS3 €599 (about $750) and get the following games for free:

• Formula One 06
• Genji 2
• MotorStorm
• Lair
• Resistance: Fall of Man
• Singstar
• The Eye of Judgement

Let's see, at the rumored projected price of $60 each, that's a bundle worth a whopping $420! Talk about generosity! Anybody here knows how to pre-order in German?

Play.com has started taking pre-orders for the 60GB PS3 bundle for a price that's going to cost an arm and a leg - £549.99.  Converted into greenback, it's a mindblowing, jaw-dropping, wallet-draining $1,019. It's the first indication that the bigger 60GB PS3's price is ultimately decided by retailers, as Sony announced at E3. Barring pricing errors and currency typo on Play.com's part, it's also an indication of what UK gamers might expect to pay upon the launch of the next-gen console on November 17. The bundle includes three launch titles - F1, Singstar and Warhawk.

Online retailers' listings may be unreliable sometimes, so a measure of healthy skepticism should be applied. From the looks of it, Play.com seems serious about the pricing and even notes: Due to an expected European shortage of the PS3, we are unable to guarantee delivery of your PS3 before Christmas. All pre-orders will be fulfilled on a first come, first served basis and game titles in this package may be changed, subject to availability. With that, Europe is almost assured of a PS3 shortage even before the console hits retail shops.

The price of the standalone PS3 was expected to hit £425 ($787) in the UK. So it seems our English friends will have to shell out £125 ($232) more to secure their premium bundle. I bet this is just a small price to pay for the privilege of being one of the first PS3 owners. Still, though...