Sony has just announced a trio of new hardware products today at the Leipzig Games Convention including a new 160GB PlayStation 3 bundle, new PSP-3000 bundles, and a PS3 Wireless Keypad.

The 160GB PlayStation 3 will come in a limited-edition bundle packaged with Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, a PlayStation Network download voucher for PAIN, and a DualShock 3 wireless gamepad. The bundle will ship in November for $499, which is the same asking price as the current 80GB PlayStation 3 Metal Gear Solid 4 bundle.

Sony's second major announcment is that it's releasing new PSP Entertainment packs that include an upgraded PSP-3000 system. According to Sony, the new PSP will have a built-in microphone and an upgraded LCD screen with "a wider color gamut and higher contrast ratio to deliver deeper, more vibrant colors, as well as anti-reflection technology." The built-in microphone is a welcome addition because you currently need a headset to use communication services such as Skype and Go!Messenger on the older PSP systems.

The new PSP will be packaged with a Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters PSP Entertainment Pack and a new PSP 4GB Memory Entertainment Pack. The Ratchet & Clank package will include a silver PSP, a 1GB memory stick, a yet to be named UMD movie, and a PlayStation Network download voucher for echochrome. The Rachet & Clank pack will ship this October at the familiar $199 price point and expect the PSP-3000 to slip into the $169 PSP Core Pack later this year.

The last major hardware announcement is a new Bluetooth wireless keypad accessory for the PlayStation 3. The PS3 Wireless Keypad, designed to fit onto a DualShock 3 or Sixaxis gamepad, will give players an easy way to enter text on the PS3. Expect the PS3 Wireless Keypad to arrive this November.

PS3 owners planning to get the new Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero: World Tour games (and possibly, Rock Revolution) can hold off on clearing out living room space to accomodate several sets of incompatible music peripherals. Sony has just announced in its PlayStation Blog that it's worked with Harmonix, Neversoft, Konami, and Activision to ensure "a basic level of gameplay compatibility" between the guitar and drum peripherals in all of the games. Here's the block quote from Sony director of publisher relations, Michael Shorrock:

For the most part, this means that the titles with musical peripherals will work with the other's software. A few specific examples include: Guitar Hero: World Tour's guitars and drums will work with Rock Band 2 and Konami's Rock Revolution software.

And yes, you guessed it, Rock Band 2's guitar and drum set will work with Guitar Hero: World Tour and with Rock Revolution.

Conversely, Rock Revolution's drum set will work with both Guitar Hero: World Tour and Rock Band 2.

In addition, Guitar Hero: World Tour and Rock Band 2 will both support the SingStar microphones.

This agreement currently doesn't guarantee peripheral cross-compatibility in existing games such as Rock Band and Guitar Hero 3, but Shorrock hopes "to have an announcement on that shortly."

Epic Games hasn't been a huge fan of Intel graphics. As you may remember, Epic Games executive Mark Rein has blamed Intel for crippling the gaming-capabilities of a large portion of the PC market by shackling systems with sub-par integrated graphics. Will Intel's graphics-capable Larrabee processor be more of the same or can we expect more out of Intel's latest hardware?

We caught up with Tim Sweeney, Epic Games founder, chief architect, and the man in charge of Unreal Engine development to get his thoughts on Larrabee. Intel's Larrabee-based graphics release is still over a year away, but it looks like the chip already has an important fan out in North Carolina.

GameSpot: Do you think that Larrabee represents where GPUs are going in the future?

Tim Sweeney: Yes. I believe the ability to replace large parts of the fixed-function pipeline, or bypass it entirely with a software-based renderer running on the GPU, will be the key to future rendering features. While the current GPU model has enabled an amazing 1000X increase in graphics performance, I remain mindful of the flexibility and potential for new features that we left behind at the end of the software rendering era in the late 1990's.

GS: What about Larrabee excites you the most and why?

TS: The most exciting opportunity for Larrabee is the possibility of Intel moving it down to the mid-range and low-end over time. If Larrabee eventually displaces Intel Integrated Graphics, that would bring compelling graphics to the masses. Intel could become a real force for good in the graphics market, which -- to be blunt -- hasn't been the case in recent years.

GS: Do you think that Larrabee would make sense for next-generation game consoles?

TS: Certainly.

Rock Band 2 clearly commands a great deal of attention at E3 2008, but the unsung heroes of the game are its peripherals. Of course, being a hardware guy, I feel that way about all doodads. But in this case, the guitars, mics, and drums really do contribute to the feel of the game. So when we found out that Harmonix partnered with Mad Catz for peripherals, we were totally thrown for a loop.

Most of us know Mad Catz for their budget oriented controllers. However, both companies stated in no uncertain terms that all products related to Rock Band will be made with the utmost quality in mind. We were told that around eighty percent of Mad Catz's resources were thrown at perfecting Rock Band related products. The folks at Harmonix also said that there had been lots of back and forth between the companies. Mad Catz plans to release an entire line of premium Rock Band peripherals, and even some totally new designs that are exclusive to them.

Mad Catz decided to utterly blanket the Rock Band franchise with products. You'll find bass guitars, guitars, portable drum kits, premium guitars, and premium mics in their stable of products. We got to see a few of the products, but we couldn't play with them.

The company partnered with Fender to make full size replicas of the guitar and the bass. Both will be made from actual Fender bodies, and will have the full heft of a real guitar. The bass guitar will also feature dual strum bars to replicate the manner in which bass guitarists actually play. The over engineering of these guitars became readily apparent when we were told that these guitars were meant to handle up to 2.5 million presses before failure; standard Rock Band controllers fail after 1.5 million presses. Expect these full size replicas to cost a few hundred dollars.

We got to take a peek at the wired Portable Drum Kit. The kit doesn't have a stand, but that's what makes it portable. The four drum pads have suction cups on their backs to keep them stable on table tops and level surfaces. Mad Catz states that the drums should be good for up to one million hits. The accompanying kick pedal also folds up flat for easy transport. The company even thought to include two collapsible drum sticks.

The Premium M.I.C. adds a much needed control interface to the microphone. The wired microphone has a full set of Xbox 360 related buttons that run vertically along the side of it. Playing any other game with the microphone would be ludicrous but it's perfect for navigating the menus in Rock Band. There's even a switch that locks the buttons to prevent accidental presses during play.

Mad Catz will also be the only producer of cymbals for the Rock Band drum kits. You'll be able purchase a single cymbal for $15, or a set of three for $30. The cymbal kits will come with extension poles, clamps and colored wingnuts to match the color of the drum kit.

With any luck these products live up to our hopes. We're pretty sure they will after the level of trust and commitment we witnessed from both Harmonix and Mad Catz.

Logitech already has the Driving Force GT Wheel for the PlayStation 3, but sometimes you just don't have the space or the budget to handle the official wheel of Gran Turismo. PS3 racing fans looking for a more affordable wheel with fewer wires will want to consider Logitech's new Driving Force Wireless.

The Driving Force Wireless takes up far less space than the GT because Logitech has pared down the controller to a single wheel that sits in your lap. The wheel still has force feedback, so you'll need to plug the unit into an AC outlet though the wheel itself doesn't need to be wired to the console.

The wheel works with both the PlayStation 3 and the PlayStation 2. You just need an open USB port for the wheel's 2.4 GHz wireless receiver. The wheel has a small compartment in the back to hold the USB wireless dongle when it's time toput away the wheel.

The Driving Force Wireless will be available this August for about a hundred bucks.

Sleek curves, sweaty hands, and shallow pockets can add hidden dangers to the portable gaming experience. You never know when the PSP or DS Lite is going to attempt that leap to freedom, so it's no surprise that there are plenty of PSP and DS protective cases available on the market.

Logitech's PlayGear Pocket case line has been a popular choice for gamers and the company has just announced new cases for the PSP Slim and the Nintendo DS Lite for release this August.

The Logitech PlayGear Slim Pocket Slim fits the new PSP-2000 perfectly and even has extra space to accommodate systems that have the PSP extended battery. Owners can also design and print out their own custom skins to slide beneath the translucent case to add some personality to their systems.

Logitech spent over a year designing the PlayGear Pocket Lite for the Nintendo DS Lite. They came up with a smartly-designed carrying case that covers most of the system in a protective polycarbonate shell while providing a couple of openings for the ports and stylus.

You can store up to four DS cards in the top half of the case, and, as with the Pocket Slim, you can also personalize the Pocket Lite with customized skins.

The PlayGear Pocket Slim will retail for $15, but the PlayGear Pocket Lite will come in for a little bit more at $20.

We got a chance to get a better look at the new WiiSpeak microphone peripheral at Nintendo's West Hall meeting room. Nintendo had an Animal Crossing : City Folk demo system running with the WiiSpeak peripheral installed.

The demo station had the speaker sitting on top of the television, above the Wii sensor bar. The device plugs into one of the open USB ports in the rear of the console. Wii owners can use the microphone to chat with existing Wii Friends and in games such as Animal Crossing.

We didn't get a chance to check out the voice quality on the microphone because the person visiting our town didn't have a WiiSpeak on her end of the network, but she was able to type in responses to the random chatter and questions we asked out loud from our side.

The WiiSpeak microphone will be sold as a standalone product with a $30 MSRP. It should be available at the same time as Animal Crossing: City Folk, which currently has a Nov. 16 release date.