Now that E3 is over, I can finally give you my opinions of this year’s expo. This has been a fairly monumental year for E3. All three console manufactures were there pushing their next generation consoles. Outside of consoles, game developers were showing off their true next generation games in anticipation for their upcoming launches. Now to be honest with you, I wasn’t really focusing on the games. I was more interested in what the next generation game consoles had to offer, so this article will mainly be a reflection of that.
First up is Sony. I’m sure you already know my stance on their system. I don’t like it at all. I feel that Sony has just copied everyone else’s ideas and are claiming that it’s innovation. Besides that matter, I didn’t feel that Sony really gave us anything new to think about. Sure they showed us an updated version of their next gen controller, and announced the price of the console, but where was the important things. What’s Sony’s online service going to be like? What media capabilities outside of Blueray will the console have? Can I network it with my computer to stream media? Sure these questions aren’t on everyone’s mind, but they’re on mine and Sony failed to deliver.
On the Wii front (why does Wii sound funny in every context used), I’m very impressed. Nintendo certainly announced a plethora of information regarding the Wii. We saw how the controller will function, accessories to the Wiimote, classic games in action, and we even got to see real game demos. While Nintendo didn’t announce the price, I know enough about the console to say it is certainly on my list of things to get.
Regarding the 360, I feel that Microsoft did a great job at E3 considering their console was already launched. We saw more accessories to the 360, upcoming features to Xbox Live, the HD-DVD drive, and most importantly, true next gen games. In my mind, Microsoft used E3 to further the reasons why the 360 is the best console for next generation games. I feel that Microsoft is committed to the 360 and it’s only going to get better with time.
On the games front, I was mainly focused on the game which showed the least, Halo 3. Sure, only a trailer was revealed, but just the confirmation that Halo 3 exists made me smile. I loved the campaign of Halo 2 but was greatly disappointed by the abrupt ending. Halo 3 will hopefully bring a great conclusion to the Halo series, making it the game I am looking forward to the most.
To sum it up, I thought this year’s E3 was great. Sony gave me more reasons to not buy the PS3, Nintendo gave me about a million reasons to pick up the Wii, and Microsoft told me I should stop procrastinating on a 360 purchase and do it soon. Now that this year’s E3 is gone its time to start saving up for another year of game purchases, and more importantly, the consoles that are needed to play those great games.
14 Comments
After E3, even I’m considering getting a Wii (you’re right, it does sound funny in every context. I need to go get myself a Wiiiii!). I’m just not sure what the selection of games is going to be like. I’ve only owned one Nintendo product in my life, the B&W chunky GameBoy. I have no idea what kind of games are out of Nintendo’s consoles. I just think Super Mario and Zelda when someone mentions Nintendo.
The reason I want the PS3 is because of the games it’s going to have under its belt. Since the PS1, I’ve loved many of the games that come out for Sony’s consoles; Tekken, Grand Theft Auto, Lord of the Rings, Italian Job and more.
I don’t really like Microsoft too much, but they have truly done a fantastic job with the 360. It’s the Xbox, which was great to start with, but it looks better and sleeker, has a beautiful and smooth interface and its wireless controllers are just way cool. I still curse Microsoft for ruining a great RPG/Adventure game and turning it into a FPS. I’m referring to Deus Ex.
Talking about controllers, is the controller for the Wii, really called the Wiimote? It sounds awfully lot like remote, except spoken by a toothless toddler or that little bird Sylvester keeps trying to eat (whatsisname yellow canary). “Waes my weewmote?”
Lastly, whatever happened to SEGA? Sonic brought me hours of fun when I was a kid.
Sony announced plenty of stuff about their online capabilities, network, and media stuff Ron. Most of it involved the PSP and how they can be linked anywhere and use the PS3 harddrive to store video that can be viewed on the psp. Theres also the possible DVR features which they didn’t talk about much. There were trailers of the main screen of the PS3 which is basically the same menu as the PSP but with more options. They also mentioned making a ps1 emulator for the psp which would be insanely awesome.
As for the Wii, it makes me mad. I would love to get one, but the whole “nex-gen consoles cost a lot of money” thing makes it hard.
Microsoft didn’t impress me. The system is out, and is not making a mark on the video game world at all. It seems that all the X-Box still has is Halo, and games that came out playstation years ago. We’ll see if it can survive.
I think Wiimote is the official name. I keep on seeing all the major news websites calling it that.
Regarding Sega, they’re out of the console business for good. They packed it up after the failed Dreamcast. They still make some games though, but not as many as they used to. The good news is both the Wii and the 360 will be getting all of the classic Genesis games available for download. I can’t wait for that.
True that they announced some minor things like AAC support, but I’d really like to know the full formats it will support. I also would love to know if there will be any streaming video at all.
Regarding the price, what are you talking about? The Wii is only going to be around $200. That’s very cheap compared to Sony’s $600 price tag. Yeah, I know there is a $500 model, but if you get that you miss out of hardware features unlike 360′s missing accessories on the Core model.
Finally, Xbox now has way more then just Halo. Didn’t you hear that Grand Theft Auto will be on 360 even before PS3? Xbox has Final Fantasy now. It has all the great Ubisoft games before any of the other console. There’s also KOTOR, Far Cry, Gears of War, Project Gotham, and the list goes on.
Sidenote: I think this post has crossed into the dark side. Sorry Bryan!
The Wiimote sounds really weird/funny, just like Wii itself.
The Dreamcast failed? It was really popular here in India. I mean, the PS2 beat it to the ground when it launched, but many people owned a Dreamcast.
Wow, that’s awesome! I used to play all those SEGA games for hours and hours on end. Many people grew up playing PS1 or Nintendo games, I grew up on SEGA. So I can’t wait till we can download and emulate Streets of Rage, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (hey, come on!) and Mortal Kombat 3: Ultimate. Is there anyway, the PS3 will be able to do the same? Or is it only the Wii and the 360? Because I’ve been holding off for a PS3. What made me sway a bit towards the 360 recently was the announcement of GTA 4 for it.
Too bad GTA is now 360 exclusive, big blow for Sony! As for me, I am just getting a Wii, the name does sound stupid, but sounds right in a weird way. I am disappointed to see that Windwaker is continuting on DS so now I need to get that as well. I am a Zelda fanboy, I bought Cube just for it, and now Zelda on Wii looks more awesome that the Cube version. Rumour has it Wii will cost between 150-250. I look forward to this system should be a lot of fun. Hopefully not for a week.
Is it really 360 exclusive? Got a link to back that up?
I dont have a link off hand, one of my friends watched hte E3 coverage online and told me..I’ll try to find where he got it from.
weird, i just googled and this site claims otherwise, though in the beginning it seems like it is 360 exclusive…weird indeed
http://www.gtaseries.com/
Righto. I think you were mistaken. They wouldn’t survive the wrath of Sony if they did an exclusive 360 release. It’s going to be released for the PC, PS3 and Xbox360 and if I’m blessed, Mac Universal Binary too.
Here’s what’s going on with GTA4. It will be coming out for 360 first. It will eventually find its way to PS3 though. The developers just haven’t had enough time on the PS3 to get it to the point they like.
Hey Ron, this is off topic, but would you tell me how I can get a neat pic. like yours to show next to my comments? Oh and would you please integrate coComment on your blog, it never seems to work and I have to sit and manually add my comments every time. It’s just a snippet of JavaScript that no one, but coComment users see.
Simran, go to Gravatar.com for the comment avatars. Regarding coComment, I’ll look into why coComment isn’t grabbing the comment details. I may integrate coComment in my blog sometime also.
Thanks for the link, Ron. And thanks for considering coComment too.
Yea my friend prolbably misunderstood or the news he got it from was wrong. I emailed him but he didnt reply. I guess he hates being wrong?