I've watched all 3 press conferences on G4 and all the E3 live coverage and I'm very excited for the rest of the year and what's to come.
Nintendo
A bit disappointed by it. It was nice to see specific dates for Metroid Prime, Super Mario Galaxies, and Brawl, but that's really it for the hardcore gamer. It's become common discussion on Nintendo going for the casual market and it's doing them well. Wii's are selling out everywhere, but for people like me who are more hardcore gamers we feel a bit left out. We get those 3 games, but that's really it and they didn't give us anything for the hardcore gamer to look forward to next year. Wii Fit seems unique and I think the Wii Balance Board is a really cool device for the Wii console and can be used in very unique ways. But I don't think I would really bother getting Wii Fit if I had a Wii console. The Wii Zapper looks like a really fun way to play first person shooters and I would really like to try using it to play games like RE4. No arguments about the DS. It is the undisputed champion of the handheld and looks like it will continue heading the right direction with games like the Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass.
Microsoft
They showed off quite a few good games that got me thoroughly excited. The obvious is Halo 3. But also Bioshock, Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty 4, Rock Band, Lost Odyssey, Eternal Sonata, GTA 4. They have a lot of good games coming out that I can't wait to play. They also showed off how you'll be able to download movies from the Live Marketplace and they showed various Disney movies that they will have for download. That's interesting and all, but I'd rather have more news about the games. I big surprise was the Resident Evil 5 trailer. It looks amazing and was the only game shown in their conference that isn't coming out in 2007. I was disappointed in no news on Devil May Cry 4 though.
Sony
All I can say about their conference is games, games, games. They showed off more of upcoming games than the other 2 and show promise. The Metal Gear Solid 4 trailer looked fantastic and makes me wish I had a PS3, but too bad it doesn't come out until 2008. Aside from that they had excellent games such as Ratchet and Clank, Uncharted, Heavenly Sword, and a lot more. They also showed off a new version of the PSP, which while the layout of the controls don't look very different, it thinner and weighs about 30% less than the original. One thing I thought was very cool was the downloadable games they will have. They will have full games, not just arcade games for download such as Socom. You can download the entire game over the PS network. Sony also stated their price drop, which had been stated a couple days before the conference, though it isn't a real price drop. Before the PS3 was priced at $500/$600 in the US and now it's priced at....$500/$600. Sure the hdd's are bigger for the price, but is that really a price drop since they still have the same prices for the consoles?
Now for some of the top games at E3
Bioshock
One of the top looking games for 360. The environment is gorgeous looking. With all the powers you are provided in the game there are numerous ways to go about every situation in the game and the AI is excellent making replays a different experience each time. And with a 20+ hour game for the a first person shooter, that makes it one of the longest I know of. And the moral questions of whether to harvest the Little Sisters or not really helps bring you into the environment. Do you let the Little Sister live and only get a small amount of Adam or do you choose to kill her so you can harvest as much Adam from her as you can? Then there are the lumbering behemoths, the Big Daddies. They just make for an extremely daunting enemy to stare down.
Mass Effect
An amazingly deep game from the creators of KOTOR. This is a game that will pull you in and not let you go. You will have relinquish any social life you have because the massive amount of content in this game will eat up all of you're time. Again just like in KOTOR the moral choices you make will affect how the game plays out. You can decide to play the good guy, you can be the bad guy or somewhere in between.
Assassin's Creed
An amazing looking game ever since it was revealed last year. The crowd mechanic is one of the most unique things I've seen where the crowd in the city become not only your camouflage, but also your obstacles. You have to get around the life like crowd to get to your objective, take him out, and then make your escape. The completely free roaming city is an amazing thing to see. They showed their city of Jerusalem and said that every single building that we could see, we could climb. Their is complete free roaming in the city and you can climb any building you look at.
Rock Band
Think Guitar Hero + bass + drums + vocals. I just want to play the drums on that game so bad. They showed a live demo of them playing songs and it looks like so much fun to play.
Call of Duty 4
One of the best first person shooters I've seen. Everything in it looks absolutely amazing and it promises to have the same intense battles that Call of Duty is known for, but in a modern setting instead of WWII.
Halo 3
Honestly not a whole lot was shown about Halo 3. They showed off a trailer for the campaign and they have shots of the actual gameplay, which looks amazing, but not a whole lot of new information. Does make me any less anxious to play it though.
Metal Gear Solid 4
The trailer was amazing, though rather confusing. We don't really know anything about the story, but the real-time graphics in the trailer were simply great and the fight scene in the latter half was one of the coolest looking things ever.
Heavenly Sword
Looks like the next God of War. Again the graphics are gorgeous and the intense fighting shown in it looks really fun. The multiple forms of her weapon looks like it will make for some more varied gameplay as you can change form on the fly.
Super Mario Galaxy
It seems like this will finally be the true successor to Super Mario 64. The gravity element and going between planets and running upside down make for a new and unique experience. I've heard the controls handle very well in the game too. And who can't turn down Mario in a bee costume.
Metroid Prime 3
The game looks simply amazing. Easily gonna be the best first person shooter for the Wii. I like how they did the lock on system this time around. I remember for the GC games you would lock onto one enemy and only be able to shoot at him, but with the Wii controller you can now lock onto one enemy so the camera will follow him, but you are still free to shoot where ever you want. The grappling hook is also a cool new feature and it also lets you pull things to you instead of pulling you places.
Undoubtedly I've missed some of the other great games shown at E3, but that can't be helped with how many their are. Maybe I'll post again or edit this monster of a post.
