The BIG 3!!!

[Mr.Grandorifto]

Who stole the show at E3? Who blew you away? Which company has your undivided attention this year?

 

[YSSMAN]

RE: Microsoft

Out of the gate, they were dropping pretty massive titles that I know I'm going to be buying with the platform I already have. Games like Rock Band: The Beatles, Modern Warfare 2 come to mind early, but that is going across the board. I was definitely most-excited about the new Halo titles, particularly Halo: ODST, which will add an interesting new layer to the franchise. But, the main titles that had me excited were Crackdown 2 and Forza Motorsport 3, two franchises that I absolutely love, one of which will be here in October.

Then there was Project Natal. That by far exceeded Wii Motion Plus and whatever Sony is calling their new system. It breaks barriers, and becomes hauntingly awesome with their Milo Demo. I have to give props to Microsoft with their Facebook and Twitter integration that will be coming to XBL, which makes a lot of sense, but will also open up some very interesting channels when it comes to playing with your friends on either network. The changes to Netflix are welcome as well, because browsing videos through the 360 will make things much easier, and certainly be a nice add-on for when you don't feel like getting up to add a new title to your que.

RE: Sony

Sony came in an extremely (and otherwise surprisingly) close second, due mainly in part of a lack of two things:

1) Any kind of release date on Gran Turismo 5
2) Any mention of a price reduction on the PS3

If either of those had been included, I'd have been inclined to give the win to Sony. I do have to give some massive props for the Mod World Racer game, which looks like a TON of fun. The same can be said for MAG as well, which could have some absolutely EPIC firefights if the 256+ player number can be stable online.

So, I'm waiting for more on GT5, MWR and MAG. Otherwise, there isn't much for me from Sony.

RE: Nintendo

Don't get me started. There wasn't much to talk about, outside of the surprise Team Ninja Metroid announcement. I didn't get into the previous Metroid titles on the GC, I'm not sure how this will be a whole lot different for me.

 

[Omnis]

Tossup between MicroScro and Sony.

 

[Robin]

To be honest the MS show blew me away and there wasnt a dull moment. It showcased some amazing stuff both on the hardware and games side of things and was very upbeat and appealing to a gaming audience.

I think one point here is very valid. I was listening to giantbomb.com's 'BombCast' today which was the guys summarising the MS show and these are the things they had to say...

If you didnt get excited about something in it "your dead inside and don't like games".

- They said that companies have to realise who the E3 audience is, they dont want to see "numbers or pie charts, they just want to see games!". And this is what MS promised they wouldnt do.

- And finally the constant talking about "Tweens" at other presentations is another point which the giantbomb guys stated wasnt really something to talk about at E3 considering the target audience.

Basically these points that they made... Sony did every one of them

It was almost like they predicted how it would be laid out and I totally agree with the giantbomb guys on this, that those things make the presentations like a board room meeting.

In Sony's defence the conference was reasonable and the GT vid blew me away but Jack talking about the PS2 and sales numbers was very off putting as was the lack of enthusiasm with some of the guys on stage.

Robin.

 

[YSSMAN]

Basically these points that they made... Sony did every one of them

They're usually good for it. I thought this was an interesting tweet during the Sony conference:

Jack rolling out sales figs to prove people are buying PS3s - who are you convincing, us or you?

Great, you're selling a bunch - but what are you doing to convince everyone else that they should buy your system and your games?

It really seems like Sony hit a lot of good spots with their title debuts, but I'm still not sold on the hardware. If they would have mentioned even a slight price drop, I'd really have been dozens of times more excited for what they will have to offer in the next year or so.

 

[Robin]

Great, you're selling a bunch - but what are you doing to convince everyone else that they should buy your system and your games?

Exactly!, figures are for the shareholders and executives. The people actually watching and going E3 are gamers at heart, they want to see cool flashy stuff on stage and on screen! Distribution cycles of the PS2 do not excite me!

At least the Hannah Montana 'Tween' Lilac PSP got a great response, even Jack was laughing because he knew the audience would love that one!

It really seems like Sony hit a lot of good spots with their title debuts, but I'm still not sold on the hardware. If they would have mentioned even a slight price drop, I'd really have been dozens of times more excited for what they will have to offer in the next year or so.

Yeah it seems Sony did well on the games side of things and MS did well on the hardware side of things, looks like they have swapped places or rather priorities.

Robin.

 

[LaBounti]

RE: Microsoft


Then there was Project Natal. That by far exceeded Wii Motion Plus and whatever Sony is calling their new system. It breaks barriers, and becomes hauntingly awesome with their Milo Demo.

I disagree, Sony showed more gaming possibilities for gamers not grandmas like they mentioned, Serious games. The Milo demo was very impressive but its just not the same as what Sony is doing with their device. The sword and shield demo was more interesting from a whats possible stand point. You cant do the same things with both techs.

Natal's milo demo would be great for say guiding a AI person in survival horror game, but what about controlling a serious game. Sony's motion control seems like its made for that, not just rinky dink Family fun software. All the games demos they showed are clearly push towards what drove everyday people to the Wii.

 

[Mr.Grandorifto]

Thanks for the few replies that I've gotten. I was hoping to see a few more votes compared to who is online after the big E3 announcements.

My thoughts on Sony's new controllers (I like to call the magic wands) is like he said, they are prototypes, meaning it could be 6 months to a year before they come out. Take a look at the development time for Kinetic that hoverboard game took years to come out for the EyeToy. But wow, unlike the Wii nunchuks, there's no tether and if you're a big guy your reach is going to be longer than those dinky little cords. But that just blew me away, when I saw that. Even for a tech demo that is one well thought out idea. I'd love to see an Area 51 style game working out with a zapper version of those magic awands. With those wands the titles are now endless. Sony can now "borrow" certain 3rd party Wii titles, because they only have to port them to work with the new motion controls, and that can all be done behind the scene, without having to worry about it. That's the only salient point of the Microsoft Natal system is that it's behind-the-scenes.

Well I was going to talk about nintendo and xbox, but it'll just be a waste of my time. The reason GTPlanet forums are the way they are, is because of Sony. If it weren't for Gran Turismo, none of us would even be on here. The world would have been a dark and lonely place. Long Live Sony!

 

[YSSMAN]

RE:LaBounti

Its three completely different approaches to the same idea - and I'm thankful for it. They're all looking to appeal to more casual, or even non-gamers, and its going to expand the market in a way we never could have imagined. Certainly, the Microsoft stuff was a bit campy, but the Minority Report-like control of the dashboard was pretty sweet. But, any way you put it, you're still going to look like an idiot playing these games with any of these new controllers.

 

[LaBounti]

I thought the Tony Hawk board was ridiculous and will lead to many youtube videos of involuntary property destruction.