It's been a big week for video games, I've been playing more Rock Band and I have Sid Meier's Pirates which is also great but the real experience this week was E3. Of course I can't run through every game but here is just some of the stuff I enjoyed from this years show.
Nintendo
I thought that Nintendo did a fair job, granted they weren't obviously the be-all-and-end-all company for the core gamer this year but they've got some interesting stuff. I thought Wii Music looked like great title, not quite as in-depth as a game like Guitar Hero and I think that's something some rhythm gamers may miss but it is still an imaginative concept and to give Nintendo some credit the game has 60 freakin' instruments! Nintendo also unveiled Wii Sports Resort and that alone looks like a pretty good game but the Wii Motion Plus add-on is what really does it for me, it's a tool that adds so many new possibilities for developers and opens up the controller for areas of play that were difficult and clunky before. I am a little surprised that Nintendo were hyping Guitar Hero on Tour so much though when they were already hosting titles on the Wii like Guitar Hero 3 and Rock Band. New Animal Crossing looks like good stuff. Skate It! also seems to be answering the prayers of the people who were wishing for a skateboarding game that included the balance board and my long-time personal want from Nintendo is finally being fulfilled in the form of a new sequel on the Wii of the Japanese strategy game Pikmin. It's a shame that there was such a bring-down and distancing from the old-school Nintendo fans through a complete lack of anything Mario, Zelda, Metroid or any "proper" Pokemon and this is one thing that left a feeling of emptiness in Nintendo's otherwise quite successful conference.
Sony
I was reasonably impressed with what I saw from Sony. I still don't really have any more inclination to buy a PS3 than before but Resistance looks like a cool game and they have some other interesting things... like Flower. I must say even though I don't usually go for that kind of thing Playstation Home looks like it's coming together quite well. Little Big Planet still looks like it'll be a great title as well, I really wish it was available on other consoles. Sony also seem to be joining the competition in the movie download and rental market and I don't know about anyone else but despite Microsoft's and Sony's efforts at this I still have no more inclination to use my games console as a replacement for my DVD collection. Hard to say that Sony will fair any better than they have before, their main sale spikes only being around Christmas and MGS4 but I hope fans get everything they deserve.
Microsoft
Microsoft also put in a strong performance at E3. Gears of War 2, Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise and Resident Evil 5 look like they're shaping up to be the kind of superb games we are expecting them to be and I was also surprised by how enthralled I was when presented with new glimpses of Fable 2. The full setlist and news that original Rock Band songs will be able to be ported over for Rock Band 2 was good news to say the least and although both developers are doing a great job I till feel more inclined to get Rock Band 2 than Guitar Hero World Tour. Microsoft also made some decisions that I felt were perhaps more akin to Nintendo's kind of decisions. They really seem to want to bring in games that are more simple and accessible to more casual gamers, they've got their very Mii-like cartoony avatars and then they had their whole weird thing with the Xbox Live Vision Camera games. I love the idea of 101 person multiplayer quiz games where you can win actual prizes and the idea that we can now have our own avatars with unlockable clothes, but the avatars are too close to the Nintendo Miis for me, I'd prefer something a little less cartoony and I don't want to see any novelty camera games or Xbox Live Arcade titles that don't live up to standards. Overall I'm not quite sure what to think of the new look for the dashboard either, but I'm sure everyones opinions will be well-founded come the Autumn update. Although it's only a short game I was happy to hear GLaDOS announce Portal: Still Alive to add more content on the brilliant experience the original puzzle game created, I'm really excited. Another title which will no doubt bring a grin to many gamers faces is Final Fantasy XIII and I'm happy the series is chipping in one of its ground-breaking games for Xbox 360. I also saw a fair bit more of Halo Wars and I'm finding it hard to judge what I think of the gameplay but I'm a big Halo fan and I think Ensemble Studios and Bungie can be trusted to produce an RTS that is at very least decent.
Concerning PC titles I still thought Spore looked mind-blowing, the number of creatures people have already created is phenomenal and even after all this time waiting the concept continues to blow me away every time. I was also happy to get a look at Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2 which will be the sequel to an RTS whose skirmishes and campaign missions have given me much enjoyment over the time I've had it. Now I just need to get my hands on a new graphics card and I'll be all set.
Bungie's New Announcement
Bungie (I love Bungie!!) had their own little saga of events this week. In the lead up to the announcement of their new project they had been leaving cryptic clues around their site through the mysterious character of the Superintendent in that genius way that Bungie do. When the Superintendant hi-jacked Bungie's site and started a countdown on the front page even the usually ever-complaining community of Bungie.net were excited beyond belief and speculation ensued. However before that countdown had the chance to hit 0 the publisher contacted Bungie telling them that the project was not to be announced and so with an announcement from Bungie's President and many sad faces on the side of both Bungie's employees and fans the news on the new project was shelved. The publisher was soon revealed to be Microsoft and it turned out that it was indeed a Halo project that was being announced, in fact even before the E3 press conference a representative from Microsoft had mentioned to Kotaku that it was a Halo project. But when it all came crashing down Microsoft said that they had done what they had done because a) They wanted to make their press conference suitable for modern attention spans and b) They thought that this particular project deserved its own event. Based on the latter statement I suppose Microsoft did the right thing, but if only things had been organised between Bungie and Microsoft much earlier there wouldn't of been so many disappointed gamers.
I could go on and on about this and even go into serious depth on each little game that has been showcased at E3 2008 but this is where I shall end this madness. It's once again been another very awe-inspiring event in the gaming calender and it'll be brilliant to see all the games shown on our consoles in the future. I hope we'll also get a chance some time to see titles that didn't pop up at E3 such as Mass Effect 2, Bioshock 2 and various other things ending with 2. This week I'll leave you with what I felt was a very special moment in animation, used the live coverage of E3s Microsoft press conference.
-Gamer_152