Game Update 3: E3 Conference Impressions

The Electronic Entertainment Expo has ended, and it was much different than it's been in previous years. It was much more low key and companies mostly played it safe. Very few new games were announced, especially on the exclusive side. Microsoft and Nintendo's press conferences seemed to focus more on patting themselves on the back than showing new stuff, and Sony also didn't reveal much, but seemed more humble after having troubles in the last year. They still managed to screw up the one big good thing they did, though.

Microsoft Press Conference - Peter Moore spent a long time going over the numbers and sales and talking about how the Xbox 360 was "driving the industry". Really? You've sold the most systems and games when you've been out for a year longer? Impressive. They showed some good looking games, but aside from a nice teaser for Resident Evil 5 they were all coming out this year and already announced. There were a couple new things, but they weren't anything interesting for real gamers; a party game based on Viva Pinata (the cartoon clips look like the most soulless, corporate attempts at grabbing children I've ever seen) and a version of Scene it? with special controllers. Also, Moore revealing the Halo 3 special edition of the 360 and giving a long pause waiting for applause that never came was the funniest moment at E3. Did they really expect a big reaction? It's just a green 360! It doesn't even come with the game! Who gives a shit? Gears of War for PC looked pretty cool though.

Nintendo Press Conference - It may be impossible to disappoint Nintendo fans if many of them were satisfied with this conference. They played at least five videos throughout the conference that were spliced together clips of internet videos and news stories talking about how great the Wii is and how much fun everyone has with it. We get it, Nintendo. People like the Wii. They must, if it's still sold out throughout the world. If Sony can make this many PS3s that no one is buying, a much more complicated machine, how is Nintendo still having trouble making lots of Wiis? It seems strange. The big announcements were a piece of plastic to hold the two controllers together for light gun games (the Wii Zapper!), Mario Kart coming to the Wii with online play (surprising!), and Wii Fit, a new game thing with a balance board controller you stand on that senses your weight shifting, with a bunch of random mini-games. Awesome. Iwata actually mentioned hardcore gamers being concerned Nintendo is ignoring them without actually saying how they aren't. The Metroid Prime 3 demo was all right, but it was seriously a bad conference.

Sony Press Conference - They also didn't show much new. There was some new stuff about added functionality to Home and a redesigned PSP. Few games were announced, but the new stuff was kind of exciting. Echochrome looked like a cool, crazy little download puzzle game, I'm not a fan of racing games but Gran Turismo 5 looked amazing, and Sucker Punch is making a potentially very cool sandbox superhero game called Infamous. Hideo Kojima came out to personally show a trailer for Metal Gear Solid 4 which looked incredible. He also reiterated that this is the end of the story and his last MGS game, but he's said that before so I'm not sure. Killzone 2 has a lot of potential, though I wasn't a huge fan of the first game (I'm still somewhere in the middle). They showed a bunch of trailers of games that are coming, a lot also for the 360. During the conference, the price drop for the 60GB model of the PS3 was already announced and it looked like Sony might be getting back in the fight and building momentum. But afterwards, there was a bunch of mixed messages coming from the company until it was revealed that they're actually ceasing production of that model, and focusing on the new 80GB SKU that's packaged with Motorstorm, so the cheaper system will only be available until they sell out (which could take a while). It's disappointing to see them self-destruct again, but we'll see how this all plays out.