E3 has come and gone, and it wasn’t without its announcements that had my ears perk up. Here’s a roundup of things that caught my attention, split up from the different “camps” they came from. As a whole it’s been said that this year’s event was missing something. Whether that something was pure excitement, or companies not living up to hype (or removing it in the case of Bungie/Microsoft), along with the lack of attendees (being a media-only event), the overall reaction from the event seems depressed and deflated.
Sony
With the announcements of an 80GB PS3 to be released in September, rumors coming in about a new PSP refresh, and LittleBigPlanet having a “release date” set for 10.21.08, I’m gearing up for my PS3 purchase to come in the next few months, and looking forward to it. The God of War 3 cinematic that they released looks pretty cool, but I’ll keep my reservations about the game until I see, or experience some actual gameplay to see how they made the transition to the PS3, along with a third creative director switch in the series. I’m mostly interested in the release of LBP, and look forward to some fun nights of playing it with some friends, but it looks like the PS3 is starting to *slightly* look up in terms of what game library is available, and some people taking the platform a bit more seriously (notably, id Software). With Bioshock getting some potentially exclusive content the PS3, I may have made up my mind for what platform I’ll be purchasing the game for, but I’m not entirely sure how different that will be from the DLC that’s available for the 360. More research on that later. In terms of PSN titles, I’ll be looking to get my hands on echochrome, which has been already released, and Fat Princess, which looks like a funny take on a team-based game of “capture the flag” (or chubby princess).
Microsoft
These guys made my week/summer with their announcements, and the ones that mattered the most didn’t really have much to do in the way of gaming. They’re putting together a slick new dashboard update for gamers, which shows a much slicker, simpler design that lends to a great polished look for the console. They kicked out a price cut for some of the current models, which makes the 360 more affordable for some, and they’re going to be adding “avatars”, very similar to what the Mii’s offer to the Live service. On top of this, the two biggest announcements that hit home for me was the fact that I’ll be able to turn my Xbox into a streaming device for Netflix’s Instant Queue service. While I’m not a current Netflix subscriber, this is the last thing I needed to push me off the fence to take the dive when this service goes live. I’ve been hoping to turn my 360 into a more media-oriented device, rather than just playing games, and this helps put it in the right direction, along with my rewiring of my stereo to get surround sound coming from the 360’s digital audio out. Lastly, Microsoft is going to offer the option in the future to be able to install your game directly to the hard drive, giving the disc drive a bit of slack, and potentially a longer lifespan, as well as improving the load time on some games. This seems to be very well received, even though Sony had beaten Microsoft to the punch on this feature, because Microsoft is making the feature optional, rather than mandatory. Soon enough, we’ll also be seeing The Behemoth’s next game: Castle Crashers. While I liked Alien Hominid, I’m hoping they release a game that myself and a few friends can get past the second level. (I mean really guys, tone it down just a smidge)
Wii
I don’t have much to say about Nintendo, other than the fact that this was incredibly disappointing for me. Watching the video of their keynote made me never want to play Wii Sports again, and while I’m interested to see what their MotionPlus accessory can do for improving game input, I’m reserved to see myself dropping more money on add-ons until I see a game worth buying it for. The few things that I’m looking forward to on the Wii sit on third party developers – MadWorld looks like it’s going to be awesome.
Other
In news outside of any specific “camp”, I’m looking forward to see what Bungie has to offer to the gaming community, and for us to find out who this Superintendent really is. I’m curious about Sonic Unleashed, but not very excited about this whole beast-at-night aspect of the gameplay. E3 is supposed to be the pinnacle of the gaming season, but it’s timing is seeing to be a rough time for studios to fit in new announcements, as they usually rely on more than five months to hype a new product before the Holiday season.
0 Response to “Reflections on E3”