The Tokyo Game Show is a mystery to many American gamers; we know it's the E3 of Japan, but how similar is it to our expo? Browsing the sites tonight, I've picked up a couple links to help you get to know this upcoming event a little bit better. First, here's the final list of games that'll be on display, courtesy of GameSpot. Want to know what the journalists are thinking about? GameSpy has four staffers over there maintaining blogs, who will be updating throughout the event. Although I've been to five E3's, I've never been privileged enough to attend a Tokyo Game Show. I think next year I'll strong-arm Steve into paying my way.

	Shining Tears Coming Stateside SEGA announced plans to bring the action-RPG Shining Tears to the United States. Developed by Amusement Vision, the game supports cooperative multiplayer action and around 50 hours of gameplay. The plot is centered around a boy who has lost his memory and is trying to find his way around a city under siege in a war. Shining Tears is set to ship in the spring of 2005 and retail for $39.99.
	First Facts on PSP Battery Life? 3DNewz is stating on their site tonight that the recent issues of Popular Science spills the beans on the battery life of Sony's PSP handheld. The article breaks it up into three categories: music, games, and movies. On the PSP, you can listen to music for 10 hours since it's not processor intensive nor needs much use of the screen. Games, however, drop the life to a respectable 8 hours. Movies are the main suckers of energy, lasting only 2.5 hours for a flick since it needs to consistently use the motor and laser to spin and read the UMD.
	Midway Announces Fear & Respect A new game coming from Midway was revealed today. It's called Fear & Respect and it centers on gang warfare in South Central Los Angeles. Players take control of a gangster just released from prison who is thrust back into the life that put him behind bars in the first place. Midway is teaming up with John Singleton, director of Boyz N the Hood and 2 Fast 2 Furious. Gameplay will revolve around garnering either fear or respect from your peers. Expect it late 2005.
	EA Sports Offering 3-for-2 Deal Electronic Arts made a couple announcements regarding their EA Sports lineup. First is the offer to gamers to get a free EA Sports game when they purchase two others. "Consumers who buy two new EA Sports titles between September 27 and November 14 can get a coupon online for a third free game," said a representative. Also revealed was a price-cut for the unreleased NBA Live 2005, slashed to $39.99. The representative added that these moves "show our competitors that we're playing to win in every category."
	Mercenaries Pushed to 2005 The glut of quality of titles this holiday has scared off another game from seeing a late 2004 release. According to Shacker and CNN correspondent Chris Morris, LucasArts' Mercenaries has been shoved into the new year, not wanting to go head-to-head with games like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Halo 2.
	Fable Breaks Xbox Sales Records The "best RPG ever" is making a case for itself with some amazing sales numbers coming in today. The game has sold over 375,000 copies in its first week, grossing over $18 million in sales. Fable has set first-week sales records for an Xbox title at EBgames and first-day sales of any title at Game Rush.
	ELF Game Coming Remember that movie with Will Ferrell that was okay, but kinda sucked? No no, the one where he thought he was an elf. Yea, well Crave Entertainment announced today they're releasing a game based off the movie. This quote from Vincent Bitetti, president of Crave Entertainment, says it all: "One of our key strategies at Crave is to select quality intellectual properties and then match them with the right platform and genre of gaming."
	Misc. Q&As/Features Planet GameCube talks with producer David Artuso who's working on Scaler. Gamesindustry.biz has a "focus-on" article on Square Enix's FFXI producer Hiromichi Tanaka. GameSpot talks with a developer working on Shining Tears.
	Misc. Media/Previews
	GameSpy delivers screens of Kengo 3 and Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3 and a preview of Kuon. Game Informer puts up some screens of Devil May Cry 3. GameSpot gives us impressions of Shining Tears and Under The Skin while posting shots of Sega SuperStars.
	TeamXbox has new screens of Jade Empire and hosts test footage of the "sequel-that-never-was," Kung Fu Story. GameSpot shares screens of Spikeout Battle Street.
	A few shots of Virtua Fighter Quest can be found at GameSpot.
	GamesAreFun has another Japanese magazine scan of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. GameSpot has impressions of some PSP titles that are looking mighty-fine: Need for Speed Underground and Tiger Woods PGA Tour. They also have footage of Sticky Balls and shots of The Urbz: Sims in the City. GameSpy slaps up shots of Chronicles of Eden and Metroid Prime Hunters.
	Game Informer highlights FIFA Soccer 2005 (PS2, Xbox, GCN) on their site this evening. GameSpot goes hands-on with Johnny Whatever (PS2, Xbox, GCN), posts footage of Mortal Kombat: Deception (PS2, Xbox, GCN) and screens of Sonic Mega Collection Plus (PS2, Xbox), NBA Live 2005 (PS2, Xbox, GCN), Need for Speed Underground 2 (PS2, Xbox, GCN), and The Urbz: Sims in the City (PS2, Xbox, GCN). GamerFeed goes hands-on with Crash 'n' Burn (PS2, Xbox). IGN puts up new movies of Godzilla: Save the Earth (PS2, Xbox).