So. Gears of War 2 is bigger, better and more bad-ass. Fable 2 "is finished". A true sequel to Geometry Wars is coming next month. The blades are out, and gamerpics with them; with the Autumn update, a new dashboard and silly social networking avatars are the new in thing. And as if the future doesn't look bright enough for Xbox 360 owners, Microsoft's massive bank balance finally broke the Sony faithful at Square Enix: Final Fantasy XIII is arriving day and date with the PS3 version to the red-ring a console near you!

Things will pick up later today on the other fronts of the fight for holiday supremacy. Nintendo have announced they'll be fixing the questionable motion controllers they shipped with the Wii - with add-ons! That'll cost money! Let's call them Wiimote 32x for jollies!

Sony, meanwhile, have been very, very quiet. The calm before a storm, we can hope. God of War 3 is a sure thing and I see lots of Little Big Planet before us. Resistance 2, Killzone 2, the new, supposedly downloadable adventures of Insomniac's Ratchet and Clank. Perhaps something from the Naughty Dog folks - a new Jak and Daxter, perhaps? But certainly the most exciting prospect is that of Team Ico's next project. With that alone, Sony could absolutely sweep the show.

Nintendo, for their part, have won no matter what; the faithful, let's be frank, are already broken and submissive. Animal Crossing alone will satiate their fanlust. And even if the big N shows poorly, they've already won the mainstream press, the money, the glory...

Microsoft may not have had their day, though, because in addition to all the in-house awesome, a trio of third-party IPs that have been rather under the radar till now have suddenly, if not exclusively, attached themselves to the Xbox 360. I'll let the trailers speak for themselves, but suffice it to say: creepy Event Horizon horror with a perverted Twinkle Twinkle Little Star soundtrack could well be a work of genius. For your terror, Dead Space:

And if we go wanting a new game from the auteurs that brought us Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, there's always the startling re-imagining of the - or, rather, a - Prince of Persia:

Mirror's Edge, meanwhile, could prove to be the perfect little cherry on top. With a tip of the hat to Portal here and Assassin's Creed there, it's shaping up nevertheless to be a strikingly original new franchise: