Puppies, protozoa and skipping rocks

Another Sony offering that will appeal to some outside the gaming sphere is "EyeToy Kinetic."

"EyeToy Kinetic" is an exercise game. Set up the EyeToy camera that connects to your PlayStation 2. Stand (not sit) in front of the TV. See yourself on the TV. See objects floating on the screen. Swat them. Kick them. Faster. More.

Kinetic will run you through a routine and even offer encouragement if you lag behind. According to the game's producer, Kinetic will work through every muscle group you have and offer analysis on your progress.

I’m tired just writing about it.

One great, great (did I say great ?) crossover hit from 2004 was "Katamari Damacy," a game where the object was to collect everything in your path by rolling a sticky ball.

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The sequel, "We Love Katamari," was on display at E3. Apparently, it involves cooperative play where two people need to roll the ball together. I say apparently, because I did not get a chance to see it. With 5,000 products at E3, one can only see so much.

Acknowledging the overload, one booth actually gave away Tylenol capsules. Best giveaway of the show, closely followed by the hubcap-sized faux bling offered at the booth promoting an upcoming 50 Cent game.

Another game I wasn't able to see was "Quake 4," the shooting game from the dark lords at id Software. OK, "Quake 4" isn’t a potential crossover title. In fact, it epitomizes everything that non-gamers think about games.

But now that we’re talking about shooters, I did get a chance to see "Unreal Tournament 2007." More vehicles, weapons and ‘tude. The usual stuff. Gamers will love it.

"Call of Duty 2" on the Xbox 360 looked fantastic. I caught a scene of the British 7th Division battling Rommel’s Afrika Korps in North Africa. The character animation was among the best I’ve seen in any war game, but I couldn’t keep my eyes from straying to the cool Mediterranean-style buildings and lamps.

While "Call of Duty" was impressive, a number of the Xbox 360 titles did not look as good as I expected. Blame the hype. Or blame the reality that the Xbox 360 is still in its alpha stage. Neither the games nor the hardware are ready for prime time, no matter what Elijah Wood said on MTV last week.

So I’ll hold my judgment until its Thanksgiving release.

Slide show   Games galore Images from the E3 video game show in Los Angeles.

I’ll also refrain from commenting on the PlayStation 3. What I saw at the Sony press briefing was gorgeous. The PS3 looks and sounds like it can deliver. But will it deliver at the same quality as those demos? We can’t say right now because they are not showing anything else.

One thing that the Xbox 360 did right (if you can allow me to finish before accusing me of being part of the MSNBC-Microsoft conspiracy) is put effort into the design of the box itself.

Two design teams, one in Japan and one in San Francisco, were commissioned. The result is a more elegant, more living-room friendly console — one much more likely to be welcomed under the TV by your non-gaming family.

That was part of the intention, according to Xbox’s Allard.

"We wanted it to be more inviting a broader audience," he told MSNBC.com.

I did have time to spend alone with the Xbox 360. I touched it, held it, caressed it. It’s definitely smaller than the bulky old Xbox.

Gamevil "Skipping Stone" is played on the tiny screen of your mobile phone.

Also smaller, cuter and a possible crossover hit is the new Game Boy Micro from Nintendo. It’s nice to see game companies finally get hip to better-looking hardware.

Most of the games mentioned above have a crossover appeal, but I had to go deeper. I had to find the truly universal game experience. I found it at mobile phone gaming company I-Play, which is distributing "Skipping Stone," originally produced by Korean company Gamevil.

As the name suggest, "Skipping Stone" is a game where you skip stones across an digital lake.

Nothing fancy. Just hurling rocks. Game of the show.

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