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A whole load of cool looking games were announced at E3. No Zelda but there is two new Mario games. Left 4 Dead 2 looks pretty special.

E3 kicks off today in LA. It's a bit like the Glastonbury of the games industry; the biggest, baddest event of the computer games world, keynotes, rumours and dancing girls. The best rumour as far as I'm concerned is the announcement of a new Mario or Zelda game for the Wii. Wii have been focussing a bit too much on arm waving games for all the family, which has led to some disgruntlement among the nintendo hardcore. Zelda and Mario still top most best games ever made lists and the faithful, myself included, pine for a return. Let's see how it pans out.

News today that a former CEO of Henson's studio just got the job as US ambassador to France. They're picking them from our world now! I know various people who've worked there over the years. Sure, it's not like he was late-night grinding out animation with the rest of the gang, but still, pretty sweet gig. It doesn't have to be France, in fact it might be a a bit of a drag being the US's man in Paris, some nice pacific island somewhere, it's within all our grasps!

Just got sent the following email from the PACT lot. a petition to address UK kids programming. Take a look.

Great Uncle Bulgaria Needs You!

He is leading a campaign for more and better British kids' TV. UK-made children's programmes are a vital part of high quality broadcasting, providing kids with shows that genuinely reflect the diverse lives they lead today. Yet today new UK programmes account for less than 1% of children's tv in the UK, with imports and repeats increasingly dominating.

The Government has recognised this issue but so far nothing has been done.

Go to Britishkidstv.com to sign the letter to Culture Secretary Andy Burnham and Peter Mandelson to urge them to ensure children are part of Digital Britain.

Here's John Lasseter talking about Up opening Cannes. Reaction from the director after the screening and some nice clips. can't wait to see it.

Got sent a quite cool viral today. Strange how some of them seem to work while other stink of cynical pr, suppose it's something to do with successfully tapping a cultural zietgiest, actually it's probably due more to decent writing. I particularly like the Ren & Stimpy-style of animation in this one.

I suppose we should discuss filesharing at some point because it's probably something us technorati all do. The ISPs are rather breaking their brand with this capitulation they keep doing. I personally was sent a letter by my now ex ISP telling me to stop stealing stuff. The nerve. My opinion is that you can't fight the internet, particularly if you're a lumbering conglomerate and that they'd be better off finding some way to make it work within the new world order because it's not ever going away.

Martin McNulty of internet technology group, Forward said something similar, commenting on the argument by an alliance of creative industries that illegal file-sharers should be disconnected:

strange things afoot in the world of gaming as usual. First are reports that sex offenders in Texas will be required to register their status in online games and any online stuff involving avatars. Second and not a million miles away is news that everyone is going berserk about a Japanese game involving sexual assualt of minors, as they should of course, the strange thing is the japanese development company was entirely unrepentant and nonchalant about it, saying only that it was never intended to be exported outside of Japan. Apparently the general view in Japanese society is that the representation of taboo stuff in cartoons and games helps to minimise them occuring in real life, which is pretty much the opposite of the view over here. Having never been to Japan despite suggesting a tokyo special almost every week I may have got this wrong. more details on GameCulture