LOS ANGELES — This was the year everyone wanted to rock out at E3. With big releases like Rock Band 2 and Wii Music, and smaller debuts like Lips and Ultimate Band, the stage is set for every single class of gamer imaginable.

Harmonix’s Rock Band 2 was by far the most powerful music gaming release of the convention. It will release on all four major consoles this fall.

All old Rock Band songs are compatible with the new installment, said Alex Rigopulos, president of Harmonix, at Microsoft’s press conference. While there are 84 songs on the Rock Band 2 disc, over 500 songs will be available for play.

Almost all the Rock Band CD songs can be imported into Rock Band 2 automatically, which means no disc swapping, said Rigopulos.

Some major additions have been made to the Rock Band library. A brand new track from Guns N’ Roses will be added to the collection courtesy of Axle Rose. For the first time, Bob Dylan has licensed his songs to a music video game; in Rock Band’s case, his hit song Tangled Up In Blue. AC/DC will also be exclusively on Rock Band 2.

Twenty bonus tracks will be downloadable in the fall before the release of Rock Band 2.

While Activision withdrew from E3 before the convention, some new information was also released by Microsoft about Guitar Hero: World Tour.

The Guitar Hero franchise has sold more than 5 million copies on the Xbox 360, said Kai Huang, president and founder of Red Octane.

The new game features a new wireless drum kit complete with cymbals and a touch slide guitar. The game has more than 85 songs on the disc, though there will be many more available at the launch of World Tour and beyond.

In addition to new instruments, the game features new modes like an online band career and 8-player battle of the bands.

LOS ANGELES — Sony’s big reveal Tuesday came in the form of DC Universe Online, the first massively multiplayer online game that allows players to revel in Jim Lee’s interpretation of the DC universe.

Players can choose to either create a character that looks like a previous DC character; say Batman or Superman, or they can create a character that is uniquely their own.

After an initial battle where the player fights alongside Superman against Braniac and Lex Luthor, the player can choose whether or not to walk down the path of righteousness and earn Superman and Batman’s respect, or become a villain and fight against them.

Comic book legend Jim Lee was the Executive Creative Director of the game and created the visual world DC Universe would be set in based on art from the entire history of DC comics.

DC Universe Online does not yet have a release date, but is hypothesized to come out at some point in late 2009.

LOS ANGELES — While it wasn’t Golden Sun 3, Capcom’s big surprise announcement certainly knocked the socks off quite a few gamers. During their press conference Tuesday, Capcom and Warner Bros. announced that they were going to create a live-action Lost Planet movie, set to release sometime in 2011.

No actors or directors or stuntmen have been recruited to the project yet. The film remains in the very early stages of its development. Writer David Hayter (Watchmen, X2) and father and son producers Avi and Ari Arad (behind The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man) are more than excited to be a part of the film.

They didn’t give us much, but it’s something to look forward to. It’s interesting that the most surprising announcement at one of the premiere video game conventions was the release of a movie.

LOS ANGELES — By all surprises, The Agency was one of the coolest and most unique games at the convention, when, as an optional first-person/third-person shooter, it shouldn’t be.

Coming from Sony Online Entertainment (SOE), The Agency is a massively multiplayer online shooter taking place in a world where spies and assassins are a day to day commodity. At the beginning of the game, the player decides whether they want to be a part of the sophisticated and stealthy Unite, or if they would rather enter with a bang in ParaGON.

After the player makes this decision, they do not have to choose what type of spy they will be. Unlike previous SOE titles like Everquest and Vanguard, players are not stuck to the role of a medic or a sniper, but rather can change their class whenever they want.

The Agency is an online game where it is important to spend a lot of time developing a character to be the best it can be, but developers behind the game understand that people have lives they have to live beyond the game. That is why they developed Operatives, non-playable characters work under a player’s character and do various missions to assist a player in completing their own. Operatives can carry out missions even when the player is not playing the game, which allows for continual development. Even when a player is not on The Agency, they can still receive text message and e-mail updates of decisions and achievements their Operatives completed.

Coming from a long line of multiplayer online games, SOE is making The Agency more personal by allowing four to 16 player matches versus the 256 player mªl©e in Sony’s upcoming title Massive Action Game (MAG for short).

The Agency will be released in December of this year for PC and the Playstation 3. SOE is developing ways to allow cross-console gaming for their online community.