I just attended IGN Live, a gaming expo open to the public, yesterday. It was the first one IGN has put on and overall I think it was a good first try. I tried not to let my E3 attendance distort my expectations of what could potentially be a mini-E3 for Joe Gamer. I wasn’t initially going to go, but the announcement of playable 360 games and plain curiosity (coupled with an online discount offer for tickets) changed my mind. My DDX buddy, Ackibat (Vince), came along and we spent the next 5 hours looking at mostly current-gen games, playing in an old-school arcade (set on free play!), and spectating a Halo 2 tourney. (Acki actually entered but I’ll let him tell you how he did.) I think the biggest disappointment was that the reported and rumored 360 games that were supposed to be there were not. King Kong, Need For Speed:MW, Call of Duty 2, and Tony Hawk:AW did make the show. Madden and the MS titles sadly were MIA. Not that I’m a big Madden fan but I really wanted to see if it lived up to its trailers. King Kong and Tony Hawk were obviously just slight upgrades from their current gen counterparts. They definitely didn’t make you go “WOW.” NFS, to me, is just another driving game that looks prettier. Nothing revolutionary there. Call of Duty 2 on the other hand looked great! Does it scream NEXT-GEN? No. But the level design, gameplay, and visuals were enough to put COD2 on my must buy list for launch. An Activision rep also told me that it will support up to 4 player co-op ONLINE! We’ll see… But the absolute joy of the show was, without a doubt, being able to demo GUITAR HERO from RedOctane. No it’s not a next gen game, nor is it on Xbox. It is a PS2 guitar game in the vein of Dance Dance Revolution. The guitar controller is absolutely awesome and the gameplay is so incredibly fun, I’m more excited about playing more of this game than any of the 360 launch titles. Yeah, you heard me! Take a look at this video: http://media.ps2.ign.com/media/748/748976/vids_1.html Yes, it is as much fun as these guys make it look. I’m looking forward to an Xbox 360 version with downloadable songs, but I WILL be picking this up for my PS2 in November. So you may be thinking, wait Shima, I thought you were on the fence about the 360. Well, due to peer pressure and the ability to get the 360 at Game Rush strictly on trade-in credit (yeah, I did it) I figured “what the hey?” And as a so-called “game enthusiast” I knew I had to be one of the first playing in the next gen. Will I spend all my gaming hours there? Heck no! With games such as From Russia with Love, Metal Gear Solid 3:Subsistance, and Resident Evil 4 coming out for the PS2 and Xbox this year and next, I got plenty of current gen gaming to keep me occupied. (I’m finally getting to Ninja Gaiden now that the Black edition is out.) So what will be the 360 games I’m getting at launch? Well, like all my decisions, let’s see how the reviews come out. Call of Duty 2 for sure to satisfy the multiplayer arena and I’ll be renting Elder Scrolls:Oblivion for my single player experience. What of PDZ? Like I said, let’s see first of all IF it makes launch and second if it’s any good. COD2 and Oblivion will keep me busy for many hours as it is so I’m not too concerned about titles beyond that. Remembering how the PS2 launch went, I know not much will come out for the 360 after launch until Holiday Season 2006 (that goes for Gears of War as well, just wait…), so I won’t be in any rush to pick up games since I’ll have to savor their experiences for 11 months. And during down time, I’ll just have to pull out my guitar controller and jam to some Judas Priest! ?

It's been over a week since Ackibat and I attended E3 2005. I've had a chance to mentally recover from all the video and audio stimulus and digest my thoughts of what I experienced. Since I like to think in snippets, that’s the way I'm going to give it to you:

--INTRO--First, I definitely think anyone who considers himself a gamer should experience E3 at least one in their life. This was my fourth one and, although it is all the eye candy and excitement as hyped, I think I'm getting to the point where I feel the coverage on G4 (the cable TV station dedicated to videogame shows) presented almost an equally gratifying experience. Plus G4 gets to see stuff that's classified as 'private showings' and you really get to see the games close up and actually hear the audio without being drowned out by all the other noise. Why am I telling you this? Perhaps it's to help feel content about not being able to attend or maybe…it’s because my feet hurt so much from all the walking…or maybe the smell of ‘geek’ is just getting to strong at the LA Convention Center, even for me! By the way, if you don’t get G4TV, call your cable company now!

--XBOX 360— Well, after the MTV special and all the ‘leaked’ info, I wondered what was left to unveil at the show. The answer? Not much more other than a backwards compatibility announcement, which even that was taken with a raised eyebrow since they said it would allow playing only the “top-selling Xbox games”. Okay…which are those? Halo for sure, bat what’s going to be left off I wonder. I like the look of the machine and of course the new Xbox LIVE features I think are wonderful, but when it all came down to seeing the games I really didn’t feel like this was next-gen stuff. Defiantly more like Xbox 1.5, as many attendees and the press also expressed. Many like myself feel that MS is just coming out too early with the 360 and it will seem dated very quickly with the release of the PS3 (more on that in a bit). The controller is very comfortable and I played the new Need for Speed and Top Spin using it. On the positive side, the two Xbox 360 games that were the most impressive were Gears of War, Ghost Recon 3, and Full Auto. I’m sure you’ll be hearing a lot about GOW as the November release of the 360 draws closer. Honestly, I was more excited about the new Xbox games coming out this year. There is still plenty of life left in the big black box with releases like Half Life 2, Far Cry:Instincts, Destroy All Humans, Darkwatch, Delta Force:BHD, Battlefield 2:MC, Ultimate Spider-man, Rainbow Six:LD, 007:Russia with Love, and even, yes, The Godfather. You know something’s up when the game that was getting the most attention at the MS booth was the hew HALO2 Multiplayer Map Pack demo, seriously. I think I’ll be able to get plenty of enjoyment from the current Xbox and LIVE for at least another 18 months.

--PS3—Hands down, the most impressive showing. The new console is sleek and powerful. The games look like next-gen should look. Killzone, Fight Night Round 3, Killing Day, Warhawk, I-8, and the games that put a huge smile on my face, MotorStorm and Unreal 2007 were all so impressive to see…not to mention a little title called Metal Gear Solid 4. Of course none were playable and there is much speculation as to what was real-time vs. CG. But, both Sony and the 3rd party developers have gone on record saying that everything shown was done “to spec” and truly represents what can be achieved with the Cell processor and the NVIDIA GPU’s in the PS3. Throw in interactivity with the PSP, Blu-Ray HD movie playback out of the box, HDMI outputs for up to 1080p resolution and you have a next-gen console that is plain awesome! HOWEVER… there was one HUGE hole in Sony’s unveiling of the PS3. WHAT IS THE PS3’S ONLINE SOLUTION???? How are they going to compete with the already successful Xbox LIVE. let alone MS’s new revised LIVE? Sony was silent aside from merely mentioning that they will have one. Seriously, if Sony could just set up a service as good a Xbox LIVE is NOW, they could walk away with the market. The Halo brand is strong, no doubt, but not that strong and Sony has plenty of exclusives to attract even the devoted Halo player. Since the PS3 isn’t due to be released until spring 2006, they have plenty of time to plot their next move, perhaps even announcing their online solution the week of 360’s release to deflate the hype of MS’s new console. The other missing piece? The price. We’ll soon see…

--NINTENDO REVOLUTION—Feh! I care not. Would I like to play Zelda and Mario games? Sure, but not enough to buy a whole new console. I do predict that Nintendogs on the DS sell like hotcakes and could become a craze mirroring Tomagotchi and Pokemon.

--FINAL THOUGHTS—So how am I planning on spending my future gaming dollars?? Based on the info I have today, I’d say I’m going to happily wait on the 360 since I’m still having a great time with the current Xbox. I still have a backlog of games I’ve yet to play/complete on it (Psychonauts, Stranger’s Wrath, Forza, Jade Empire) as well as all the future titles being released this year. Besides, I’m thinking the majority of DDXers won’t be plopping down $300-350 for a new system this year since most of us got our current Xbox more than a year after it’s release when the price came down and more software was released for it.

The PS3, on the other hand, could easily have me waiting in line the day it’s released. It looks to have an awesome line up of TRUE next gen games for it’s release, (if you don’t believe me just take a look at this video) plus since it’s backwards compatible all the way back to the original Playstation, I can get to all the PS2 games I’ve missed playing the last 6 months like God of War, Metal Gear Solid 3, the upcoming SOCOM 3, and platforming favs Ratchet & Clank 2&3, Sly 2, and Jak 3. As I said earlier, the price of the PS3 could be a factor, with some speculation of a $500 price tag (still not a bad deal if you factor in the HD Blu-Ray playback). But realistically, I think it will fall between $350 and $400. As for the Xbox 360…I can always wait for the first or 2nd price drop and pick it up a couple years down the road like I did with the original and be perfectly happy. But Sony, you better not disappoint on your online solution!

Don’t take my word for it boys! Do your own research at either IGN or Gamespot. They have plenty of info and movies for you to get your own impressions. Please email me with your thoughts about this blog or post your comments below, I’d love to hear them!