Yawn…E3….Yawn…

So this is the time of the year in which I usually get fairly excited about the Electronic Entertainment Expo.  Just thinking of all the news, demos, videos, and amazing game reveals makes me want to fast-forward to the future.  However, this year’s E3 simply makes me want to fast forward to the E3 of 2009 to hope for some better news.  Microsoft basically is reliant upon throwing bags of money all over the place and turning the XBOX 360 into a media center.  Nintendo basically controls all the bags of money from the printing presses known as the DS and Wii and has zero inspiration to create new games for the gamers that helped raised them.  Sony kind of just kept pace and made the announcements expected of it.  At the end of the day, it just seemed as a semi-promise between all the console makers that the future will continue to bring along some high-quality games and third parties really care less about exclusives at this point.

Microsoft led the way with their press conference on Monday, July 16th.  From this, there were a few announcements which piqued interest and some ho-hum demos that didn’t show anything spectacular (at least for me.)  Of the biggest news was the fact that 360 owners will gain the chance to stream Netflix movies directly into their home.  All it requires is a Gold membership and a paid Netflix membership.  No word on if there will be a specific Netflix membership level announced just for Xbox 360 users.  It would be nice to see a new pricing level just for users that want to stream content and don’t want to receive any HD DVD Blu-Ray DVD discs in the mail.  The big MS also decided to follow the Mii route of Nintendo and create new Avatars to be used in the new version the XBOX 360 dashboard.  These kind of seem like an excuse to create more microtransactions through purchasing unique clothing and accessories to pimp out your virtual 360 self.  There were some neat uses for the avatars including integration into chat rooms for media sharing and some games such as Uno.  The only other part of this press conference that interested me was the demos shown.  Of course, there was the obligatory Gears of War 2 demo.  Pretty much looks like GOW1 with some more colorful textures, bigger surroundings, and some chainsaw duels.  This will undoubtedly be a big game even if no more improvements are placed upon it.  Also shown was some Fable 2 gameplay which looks to be OK, but I don’t think it will be as big of a hit as Lionhead Studios would like.  The only other 2 demos worth mentioning were for Fallout 3 and Resident Evil 5.  I have been somewhat torn on the new RE game for quite some while.  Perhaps it is because of the huge evolution RE4 took on.  For me, RE5 basically is RE4 with some really pretty textures.  The online co-op gameplay will be worth the price of admission, but right now I simply see a last-gen game with some gorgeous environments.  What really bugs me about this game is the HUD.  Seeing as how a lot of current-gen games are removing the HUD completely (or at least minimizing it) it seems really weird to see these big green circles taking up significant television real estate.  This leaves Fallout 3.  Once again – I am torn.  I have really high hopes for this game since I loved Oblivion, but the world looks so…..grey.  Are we not past the games with repeating colors throughout?  I know this is a post-apocolypic world, but even a nuked out Washington, D.C. can have color…right?  Perhaps not.  Action looks quick and intuitive and gaining perks will be extremely addictive.  The game supposedly promises 100+ hours of gameplay.  How repetitive this will be after hour 1 is yet to be determined.  Microsoft considered it a win that PC and 360 will have exclusive DLC for Fallout 3 at some point in the future.  The only huge surprise from this press conference was the announcement of Final Fantasy XIII for the 360.  Honestly, I think I am going to make an entire post about this and my true feelings on the matter and the overall effect on the industry.  Still no release date from Square-Enix…which is no surprise but still disappointing.

Moving on to Tuesday, both Nintendo and Sony decided to step up to the plate and show us their offerings.  Nintendo kicked up the festivities today which what is perhaps (I would have to research) the most boring and useless E3 press conference ever.  Then again, they have no reason to hype up either the DS or the Wii.  They are, after all, continual top selling systems which keep the cash coming in for Nintendo.  Instead, Reggie and Co. seemed like they just wanted to show of the games they were most excited about.  These included:  Shaun White Snowboarding, Wii Animal Crossing, Wii Music, and Wii Sports Resort.  Shaun White Snowboarding is basically another excuse for someone to hop on the Wii Balance Board (which Nintendo admitted they can’t believe people are essentially paying to buy scales) and attempt to virtually snowboard just like Shaun White himself.  Wii Animal Crossing really doesn’t bring anything new to that realm…just more of the same but on the Wii.  Wii Music is somewhat confusing.  From what I can understand, you basically pick a song and then move in time with the music on your instrument of choice.  In turn, your instrument basically plays along.  Shigeru Miyamoto himself demoed this game and more or less explained there is no right or wrong way to play a song.  We’ll see how this pans out.  Finally, there was Wii Sports Resort.  Why it took Nintendo this long to make a sequel to the only game most people play on the system is baffling.  However, it is finally announced and I am sure Nintendo will sell bundles upon bundles upon bundles of these things.  Along with Wii Sports Resort was the official announcement of the Wii Motion Plus add-on for the Wii-mote.  Essentially, this allows for even more realistic 1:1 movement in Wii games.  Increased accuracy should allow for better correlation with individual movements.  All in all, a very un-inspiring press conference from Nintendo, but not wholly unexpected.

Finally, there was Sony.  After the announcement that Final Fantasy XIII was no longer a PS3 exclusive, a lot of people (including myself) felt that Sony had to bring a lot to the table today to show why the PS3 is worth the price.  I would say they kind of succeeded.  There was some great showings from already announced games which reinforced that there are some great showings coming down the pipes.  These games included Little Big Planet (more on that in a second), inFamous (my personal must have), Gran Turismo 5 (though the showing of the Gran Turismo TV service), and Resistance 2.  Sony also gave some information on the PS2 (really?) and PSP games coming soon.  These included a new Resistance game for PSP and Yakuza 2 for PS2.  Kind of a side note of the other things which Sony offers.  Back to the PS3, Jack Tretton also decided to look at the PlayStation Network and the future of the PlayStation Store.  Starting tonite, PS3 users can rent or buy movies.  Initially, there are slightly upward of 80 movies available.  In relation to the PlayStation Store, a new add-on for Ratchet and Clank Future entitled Ratchet and Clank Future: Quest for Booty was announced.  This will cost $15 and be released sometime this summer.  I have not come across any information as to if this will pick up at the cliffhanger at the end of Ratchet and Clank Future.  Moving back the the “real” PS3 games, there are quite a few catching my attention.  First is Little Big Planet.  Sony perhaps had the best “powerpoint slides” ever by creating all their graphs and other notable figures in Little Big Planet and moving through this “reporting level” as they spout out the typical, boring “gloating” stats.  This is genius in that they have a way to display a highly hyped game and inform us all of Sony’s internal figures as well.  I haven’t had a chance to see the gameplay shown from inFamous yet, but I hear it was very…explosive.  I really don’t need to see anymore of this game to know that I want it now.  Kind of surprised that Resistance 2 was shown and Killzone 2 was not, but I guess Sony doesn’t want to overload us with shooters.  Perhaps they should share that strategy with Microsoft.  The final 2 games announced by Sony were God of War 2 and MAG (Massive Action Game).  This is where I got disappointed.  Why, you ask?  Because we went back to pure CG trailers.  I really thought we were past the point where zero gameplay is shown and pure CG trailers are supposed to get us hyped about a game.  Apparently Sony has yet to get the memo.  We’ll see if the remainder of E3 actually gives us any gameplay from either of these new entries in the PS3 library.

Well, that is pretty much it.  A lot of other items were covered to (including PS3 greatest hits, Microsoft Fall Update, and a new Grand Theft Auto for the DS), but I simply want to cover the highlights.  Hopefully I can follow up soon with some other impressions of games shown at E3.  As always, thanks in advance for your time.