Sure, 4th of July is cool and everything but I get more pumped about E3. Apart from some fireworks and bar-b-q, July 4th just isn’t the thrill fest it used to be. E3, on the other hand, always gets my motor runnin’. For those who don’t know, E3 is the Electronic Entertainment Expo where new video games are announced, new hardware is shown, new sequels are unveiled, new this and new that…whew.
Microsoft: I’m mostly an Xbox kind of guy anyway, so I thought this was the best of the press conferences. Gears of War 2 looks f’ing awesome and Fable 2 is looking better every time I see it. Sure, the Avatars are basically Miis for MS, but I still get a kick out of seeing something that looks like me appear in a game. I know that’s not a very “hardcore gamer” thing to say but it’s true. The game show stuff on Live looked pretty cool and all the changes for the dashboard are more than welcome. Finally, I can talk to more than one person at a time in private chat. I could care less about Final Fantasy coming to the 360. I just never really got into that series.
Nintendo: I watched this press conference waiting for one thing and one thing only: more memory for the Wii. I NEED a hard drive for that thing, dammit!! I love downloading games, but without enough storage to hold them, it gets to be a pain in the ass. I know I can store stuff on SD cards, but swapping them out and loading/erasing every time I want to play some stupid retro game is just too much trouble. The Xbox Live Arcade does it right. I can flip through and play a game or two where I want. All those Wii channels should be the same way. What did I get at the conference? Some annoying woman telling me personal snowboarding stories. Wii Sports Resort looks cool, but that Star Wars game ISN’T what everyone’s been waiting for!! See that sword fighting game on Resort? THAT’S the light saber game we’re waiting for! Wii Music looks pretty fun and my wife got all worked up about that one. Still, I didn’t get my hard drive!
Sony: I’ve been waiting for an excuse to buy a PS3. I honestly have. Sony’s arrogance at launch put me off, but this is a whole shiny new system that I don’t have and I love buying shiny new systems. Unfortunately, there are only 3 – 4 games on there I’d want to play. Resistance 2 looks like it might pull me in. Well, that combined with Infamous, the DC Universe mmo and Killzone 2 might do the trick. God of War 3 would have to suck BIG TIME for that to not be the one that truly pushes me to the PS3 aisle in Best Buy. By the time all that happens, the price should be down to a level where I don’t feel like I’m getting reamed to purchase a black monstrosity that only plays a handful of worthwhile games.
There was also a ton of good games announced like Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero World Tour, Fallout 3 (good lord, this game looks great) and a bunch of others. I’ve been watching a lot of these for a while and I’ll continue to watch them but E3 gives me one place upon which to focus my drooling, longing stares. Now I just need to figure out how to pay for all of these games and then find enough time to play the damn things.
