e3 2011

I'll start by going over the press conferences from the big three, in the order in which they happened:

Microsoft
Well, they've gotten a lot of flack over their conference, and I do think a lot of it is justified. That Star Wars Kinect game was actually generating a bit of hype; that is, until everyone realised the fucking thing's just rubbish.

I'll be honest, I don't think Kinect has much of a future. The idea is great, but it's just too damn laggy, and I think it's a waste of time and resources to try and improve the software lineup given its current state. It's a great first step however, and I'm all for evolving gaming off of the couch and away from the gamepad, but this isn't the answer. Not yet, anyway.

That all said, there's one more thing about what was shown in Microsoft's conference, which I will discuss at the end of this blog.

Sony
I'll be honest, I like Jack Tretton. Really, I think he's a natural on stage, I like listening to him, and I think he's very much down to Earth. I might not always agree with what he has to say, but when watching him at e3 at any rate, I can't help but like the guy.

Poor Sony had some apologising to do this year, and Jack did it about as well as anyone could. Despite it all, I came away feeling sorry for them. I couldn't have cared less about the network's downtime, because I'll go months at a time without firing up my ps3, but the perpetrators having potentially gotten away with our credit card details also, well, that's very serious business indeed. For a company that was just about humiliated, they rebounded extremely well.

Outside of buying the odd app for my Ipod Touch, I don't care for handheld, portable gaming, so I have no interest in their new PSVita portable device. I will probably see one at some point, and be impressed in it's processing capability no doubt, but there's no way I'd ever buy one.

I'd have liked to have seen more Playstation Move demos, particularly that Sorcery game they demoed last year (that almost seems to have dropped off of the face of the Earth). It wasn't to be seen though, and while Medieval Moves looked alright but not particularly impressive, NBA 2k12 was just much too gimmicky for my liking.

Thanks but no thanks.

Sony really impressed in one way though, and that's with their new Playstation-branded 24" 3d screen. Two players, each with a pair of glasses for 3d, will be able to both watch that screen but both also see completely individual unique images. Brilliant.

Nintendo
The Wii-U is a huge gamble. It's an about-face on their strategy with the Wii; going from a great small controller shaped like a racquet handle, to a huge controller with a 6.2" screen slapped in the middle.

If you think about it, the Wii-U is just an evolved Wii. It can use Wii remotes, and it will play all the Wii games, but it does 1080p over hdmi and has a controller with a big screen built in.

There's some potential there for some clever shit, but as per the usual, it will only really be Nintendo themselves bringing out the goods. All Activision, Ubisoft and EA seem to know what to do these days is make one title and port it across. Unfortunately, that's a practice that doesn't exactly allow for much in the way of innovation.

Time will tell on the Wii-U, but I think it's a pretty good bet that it's not going to sell anywhere near as well as the Wii has done. I'd like to see it be a big hit though, because I do love how Nintendo are so often thinking outside the box, but I do imagine them losing a lot of money on this one.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 vs Battlefield 3
Assuming I have the money to buy just one of these at the end of the year, I'm pretty much 50/50 at the moment on which of these it will be.

Battlefield 3 was looking good heading into e3 (thanks largely to the faultline footage), but then Modern Warfare 3 hit with some very tasty footage, both at the start of Microsoft's press conference, and also while watching the stage demo being played.

It was a bit surprising, to be honest, considering the mass exodus that took place a while back at Infinity Ward, but it looks like they're putting together a damn fine game all the same. Kudos to them.

That said, Battlefield 3's new Frostbite 2 engine is sexy. I didn't think much of their tank run demonstration at the end of EA's press conference, but it's arguably an extremely capable engine.

The Battlefield franchise has lost me of late however. It all started going downhill from Battlefield 2 onwards, when it was becoming apparent that bot support wasn't nearly as important to them as it used to be. I even bought Bad Company 2, despite the removal of bot support, not to mention the ability to create your own servers altogether.

While I don't really regret that purchase, I can't stand it when features that are once considered staples of a franchise are completely removed down the track. Many will not care, but I did, and it felt like they were giving me the finger. This is how you reward me for my loyalty all these years?

The excellent Call of Duty Black Ops, by comparison, is the first Call of Duty that I'm aware of in which they actually added in bot support. Not to mention, the full campaign and the awesome zombie mode. Talk about fully featured.

So yeah. 50/50.