Well here we are. It's after E3 and we have a vision of what the future of gaming will hold. So who has the best grasp of it? Each of the companies really brought out the big guns (although Nintendo's guns were the smallest of them other than the cannon that is Metroid) but who "won" E3?
Let's start with last and move to first. Nintendo, I'm sorry to say, really didn't bring much to the show. They showed off Wii Motion Plus and Wii Sports Resort. Wait, didn't they show them last year? Yup. They showed off New Super Mario Bros Wii which is a version of the DS title that, even though it looks cool, is essentially the same game with some new items.
Then the was the announcement of Super Mario Galaxy 2. Great but I know a lot of people that just didn't care about the first one, myself included. And then there was the point where I was just about to write off Nintendo:
The Wii Vitality Sensor. WTF is that? Do I really need to keep track of my heart rate when I'm playing a game? What's the use of that, seriously Nintendo. At this point I was done. Then came the Real big announcement:
Metroid: Other M by the now Itagaki-less Team Ninja. Well played Nintendo, but it's a too little too late I think.
Final thoughts for Nintendo: unless they bring something HUGE next year I think they should focus solely on the DS. They have that market cornered and the DS is their license to print money. They should either do that or go the Sega route and just turn into a game developer.
In second place we have Sony. Sony came in with a bunch of new games that look really good and a motion controller that is nice, but in my opinion pales to what Microsoft showed (more on that in a bit). Let's start with the games.
Uncharted 2 looks friggin sick. Amazing visuals and the action looks crazy. I never played the first one, due to the fact that I down own a PS3 (yet) but I will be getting both of them.
Modnation Racers looks like the Little Big Planet of racing games and it looks hella fun. The customization is infinite and it looks like it may revitalize the kart racing genre.
God of War III doesn't need to be spoken about. It looks awesome and it doesn't come out til 2010. That is all.
The PSP Go was announced and it's priced at $250. That seems a little pricey, especially in today's world, but the most interesting thing about it is the lack of a UMD drive. The whole system is going with the whole "download only" scenario, but what does that mean for current PSP owners? What about the money spent on UMD's? Is there going to be a way to burn the game to the Go? And being that is is download only, what does that mean for retailers?
Final verdict on Sony: They're making me get a PS3 this summer, so they're doing something right. There's still. Long way to go to win my heart though.
And now we have Microsoft, the winner. They brought the fire and didn't stop surprising the auduence. From surprise game announcements to the Skynet camera (I mean Project Natal), they brought the future of gaming now. Let's look through some highlights:
The first surprise was that there actually is going to be a Crackdown 2. The first one came out of nowhere and was an open world gem. C2 looks like it will improve on that formula.
Left 4 Dead 2 was a fantastic surprise. Fighting zombie in Louisiana in the daylight was cool, but I lost my mind when the chainsaw was shown. Between that and the frying pan (Dead Rising style) I'm a happy boy. I'm going to have to buy two copies though, on for the 360 and one for the PC.
Halo: ODST is going to come with a beta for a new Halo game, Halo: Reach. What is Halo: Reach? Not a clue, but ODST will sell a bajillion colpies just because it comes with the beta.
And now, Project Natal. Every time anyone ever thought of Virtual Reality, everyone though VR helmets and what not.
Not anymore. Holy crap.
Project Natal isn't Xbox Live Vision 2.0. It's XBLV 3000. There is no controller required; you are the controller. The painting and the Breakout type demos they showed were awesome, and full body control of your Avatar is a much appreciated feature, but that wasn't the most impressive thing. That would be awarded to a little boy.
Milo, the creepy brother of the girl from The Ring. Ah, I'm just kidding (sort of).
Peter Molenuex (I know I spelled it wrong) created a, for lack of a better term, person that lives in your TV. He reacts to your voice, you react to his and it's truly amazing. Check it out here (http://bit.ly/GCkPh), I can't embed because I'm on my Blackberry.
I don't know if I should be excited or scared. I can imagine what this will do for RPG's but it is a little omnipresent. I don't want my 360 waking me up to play with it. That's how the machines take control.
On the non-gaming side, last.fm is being integrated into the Dashboard this fall (along with a coupleof others as I'll talk about below). And Netflix has finally heard our cries; you will now be able to update your instant queue right from the 360. Walking be damned!
Final verdict on Microsoft: They are doing all the right things. They have a vision of the future and it's going to be one hell of a ride.
Also, on a side note, as you can see on the left I'm now on twitter. This came from the announcement that the oh so pretty Felicia Day made at the Microsoft press conference that bot Facebook and Twitter are being integrated into the Xbox this fall.
That's all folks, looks like it's going to be an interesting year!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
