Post-E3 thoughts and ponderings
Apart from Sony, no one really had much to reveal at E3 this year. I wonder if that was because they were "testing the waters" as far as the new format of the show was concerned. No telling what exactly it could have been, but it just seemed really dull on all fronts this year.
Microsoft
"And now, I would like to present...a new console for all of Halo nation .... the HALO 360."
*cricket cricket cricket*
*clap*
I think that pretty much sums up how Microsoft's conference went this year. Apart from the crazed fanboys, there weren't too many people who seemed very excited or very convinced by Microsoft's bullshit about market growth ... especially when Nintendo's own chart showed Microsoft's contribution to market growth was a mere 2%.
The fact that nearly every game at the Microsoft even was also at the Sony conference didn't help them much either. Still, Mass Effect and Lost Odyssey looked very cool.
Nintendo
In a word, disappointing. The near complete lack of anything new at the show coupled with nearly a half hour of Reggie gloating shamelessly gave off the impression that Nintendo is exactly where Sony was last year.
The Metroid demo looked decent, as did journalists' impressions of Super Mario Galaxy. Apart from that, they had what ... a brief mention of Mario Kart Wii? A response to all the queries about online that would have been as good as a "No. Fuck you." had it been any more defiant in its presentation?
That, and still no HDD announcement? Not even a mention of the Monolith Soft game? Or Disaster?
Wii Fit was really cool, though. I love the idea of the Balance Board, and I think the potential for such a device (especially combined with the Wiimote and Nunchuck) is limitless. More innovation please, Nintendo.
Surprisingly, despite the fact that the conference was filled with your typical high and mighty, snobbish journalists, Nintendo still got a ton of applause. I guess they deserve it, but honestly, I really was expecting a bit more from the show.
SONY
Everyone who said Sony's presentation this year at E3 would be the best can give themselves a little pat on the back.
Surely enough, Sony Computer Entertainment, who had the most to lose, really outdid themselves this year in the form of a highly entertaining and content-filled E3 Business and Media Summit press conference. Assuming all of you reading this have already watched video coverage of the event, these are the parts that really made me root for Sony throughout all of E3 this year:
1. The absence of Kaz Hirai: I'll be honest. I think this was the best decision that could have been taken this year. The absence of the devious duo from Sony's press conference alone made me feel more "in touch" with the company's goals.
I admit, I didn't know what to think of Jack Tretton earlier, but you know what? He's OK. I loved how Tretton and Phil Harrison made a genuine effort to sound enthusiastic throughout the entire conference, and not elitist and indifferent to their consumers like their Japanese counterparts. Sure, you could argue that they had no choice, but they made a solid effort, and it paid off, and that's what counts.
2. Chewbacca: Yes, it was cheesy. Yes, I loved it.
3. Software: Sony's first-party line-up looks mighty strong this year. Sure, they didn't announce much we hadn't already seen before in one form or another, but what really made the difference was how more than half of the titles Microsoft hyped to all hell in their own conference were just given a short 30-second trailer each; almost as if Sony were saying, "Oh yeah, we got those, to. Next."
Kudos to the company on managing to keep Metal Gear exclusive, and of course, Unreal Tournament 3's absence from the 360 at the game's launch is going to put the hurt on Xbox profits. Heavenly Sword and Gran Turismo 5 both looked magnificent, as did the new Wipeout game. I wasn't quite sure what to think of Killzone 2 from the trailer at the conference itself, but I'm definitely willing to give the game a chance.
Nicely done, Sony. It's good to know I wasn't entirely wrong about your company vision.
Microsoft
"And now, I would like to present...a new console for all of Halo nation .... the HALO 360."
*cricket cricket cricket*
*clap*
I think that pretty much sums up how Microsoft's conference went this year. Apart from the crazed fanboys, there weren't too many people who seemed very excited or very convinced by Microsoft's bullshit about market growth ... especially when Nintendo's own chart showed Microsoft's contribution to market growth was a mere 2%.
The fact that nearly every game at the Microsoft even was also at the Sony conference didn't help them much either. Still, Mass Effect and Lost Odyssey looked very cool.
Nintendo
In a word, disappointing. The near complete lack of anything new at the show coupled with nearly a half hour of Reggie gloating shamelessly gave off the impression that Nintendo is exactly where Sony was last year.
The Metroid demo looked decent, as did journalists' impressions of Super Mario Galaxy. Apart from that, they had what ... a brief mention of Mario Kart Wii? A response to all the queries about online that would have been as good as a "No. Fuck you." had it been any more defiant in its presentation?
That, and still no HDD announcement? Not even a mention of the Monolith Soft game? Or Disaster?
Wii Fit was really cool, though. I love the idea of the Balance Board, and I think the potential for such a device (especially combined with the Wiimote and Nunchuck) is limitless. More innovation please, Nintendo.
Surprisingly, despite the fact that the conference was filled with your typical high and mighty, snobbish journalists, Nintendo still got a ton of applause. I guess they deserve it, but honestly, I really was expecting a bit more from the show.
SONY
Everyone who said Sony's presentation this year at E3 would be the best can give themselves a little pat on the back.
Surely enough, Sony Computer Entertainment, who had the most to lose, really outdid themselves this year in the form of a highly entertaining and content-filled E3 Business and Media Summit press conference. Assuming all of you reading this have already watched video coverage of the event, these are the parts that really made me root for Sony throughout all of E3 this year:
1. The absence of Kaz Hirai: I'll be honest. I think this was the best decision that could have been taken this year. The absence of the devious duo from Sony's press conference alone made me feel more "in touch" with the company's goals.
I admit, I didn't know what to think of Jack Tretton earlier, but you know what? He's OK. I loved how Tretton and Phil Harrison made a genuine effort to sound enthusiastic throughout the entire conference, and not elitist and indifferent to their consumers like their Japanese counterparts. Sure, you could argue that they had no choice, but they made a solid effort, and it paid off, and that's what counts.
2. Chewbacca: Yes, it was cheesy. Yes, I loved it.
3. Software: Sony's first-party line-up looks mighty strong this year. Sure, they didn't announce much we hadn't already seen before in one form or another, but what really made the difference was how more than half of the titles Microsoft hyped to all hell in their own conference were just given a short 30-second trailer each; almost as if Sony were saying, "Oh yeah, we got those, to. Next."
Kudos to the company on managing to keep Metal Gear exclusive, and of course, Unreal Tournament 3's absence from the 360 at the game's launch is going to put the hurt on Xbox profits. Heavenly Sword and Gran Turismo 5 both looked magnificent, as did the new Wipeout game. I wasn't quite sure what to think of Killzone 2 from the trailer at the conference itself, but I'm definitely willing to give the game a chance.
Nicely done, Sony. It's good to know I wasn't entirely wrong about your company vision.
6 comments:
You are alive!
Yeah. E3 was definitely 'meh', of course, when I heard "no SSBB" before it all happened, I pretty much stopped caring for the entire expo right then.
Here's to four more months of teasing and taunting. Nintendo, you better include my Fire Emblem characters from melee + many more...!
My one sentence summation for the ADD crew.
Microsoft: We'll compete with Sony on Price in 2008, right now here's us blowing our software load in 2007.
Nintendo: We fucking told you so, now where did we put that SNES era arrogance?
Sony: I'm a nervous, vunerable, virgo looking for good times and fun playing first party titles.
The longer version.
Microsoft:
They seem content with winning this holiday season and they will probably do that with the software they have lined up. Beyond that it seems a total mystery, E3 is but once a year and you showed us whats coming for under 50% of it.
I'll stick to my guns and say they are hoping to win out 2007 over Sony and then will compete hard on price in 2008. This conference was MS treading water and biding their time.
Regarding the MS numbers. Erm you've been on the market two years it's no surprise you pull bigger numbers.
Nintendo:
I'm not sure if I blame Nintendo or their detractors. The montages and emphasis on building new audiences would have been just fine if they'd followed up with something, anything.
Zapper, nice to have you join the party but why no additional funtionality? I could use a toilet roll and duct tape and get the same effect. I wanted to slip in my Wiimote and at least have some wiimote buttons maps to a more gun friendly location. Missed opportunity was last generation Nintendo! Same can be said for the WiiWheel, why no buttons remaped around the wheel? No beefy speaker in the back? No mega rumble? No, just a plastic wheel like the ones we saw at launch.
No focus on WiiWare, or upcoming channels. No new games other than MKart. No DVD channel (I'm determined this is how it will eventually be delivered). No HDD or SD support announced (backing up is slow, tedious and not consumer friendly Nintendo!!).
Wii Fitness I liked, liked a lot. As a chubby bastard myself I'm going to pick that up and I have hope for the board being used in other games. Miyamoto was a blast, dude just exudes childish looks of fun.
But there lies the ultimate problem with the Nintendo conference. Such enthusiasm for WiiFit but tepid gestures towards their traditional market. Guys, you don't need to throw us away, I'm happy to pick up WiiFit, think it's great. I just want more than one Mario Galaxy to play this gen and I'd like you to grow the hell up and sort out online too.
Sony:
Okay, sorry but I've come to the conclusion that the Tretton and Phil (Little and Large)show with special guest Kaz. Was perfectly staged to show the world their tender vulnerable side. Jack's constant references to being nervous (dude your the fecking CEO of Sony USA and you can't speak to a group of people?), the weak jokes, Chewiee, I mean Chewiee for fucks sake! It just tries too hard to induce that "I'm embarrassed for them" mood. Mind tricks aside ;)
Sony actually won me over a little with their press conference. They seemed to keep the spin to a min although I take issue with the wow 100 unreal games reference, dude, everyone is using that engine, if you got games you got unreal 3! The other announcement was UT3 being an exclusive, well console exclusive as I still understand the PC is seeing it on or before the PS3. That was kinda unnecessarily misleading.
Before the software, let me cover the hardware. Cheaper PS3 = nice, although with user upgradeable HDDs I wonder why anyone would want the 80gig or why they'd actually bother trying to support two SKUs. While $499 still isn't cheap enough to move me down to the store its one of the better announcements of E3.
PSP slim. Other than battery did I miss anything that would appeal to someone who didn't already own a PSP? While a redesign is obviously not a new design it would have been nice to upgrade some smaller aspects of the device. Build in a camera and GPS and you have a perfect way to take snaps and geotag them, use it as a navigator in the car and perhaps also use it to feed video to the kids in the back.
Software I fall on a double edged sword. While something like MGS4 looks stunning, I said the same about MGS 1,2,3 etc. And while we're all but promised a quality and entertaining product there I've not seem much to ensure that the other games aren't going to be hollow graphical shells.
Overall:
I can see Sony was the only person looking at gaming from 2008 and 2009. I wonder if they can stimulate consumers and developers enough so that comes to fruition.
Microsoft are masterful tactitions, they may be happy with winning this short term battle and changing the rules once Sony catches up with software.
Nintendo are riding their vision firmly and at their own pace. This has been a key to their success but they should also remember it was the key to their previous failure.
Sony wins by sheer energy
Nintendo comes second through innovation and that warm fuzzy feeling
Microsoft last because watching chess is boring!
What cheaper ps3? Thats only for the old 60 gig one, once they sold out the 80 gig is the only model to get. It's the crippled one without the Emotion Engine. Sony expect to be rid of the 60 gig at the end of July.
About the press conferences big meh to all tree of them. Personally if I have to choose a winner it would be Nintendo slightly ahead of Sony. Sony should have a much stronger show. they way behind there biggest thing was Killzone 2? Not too mention having a conversation with Chewy about a white PSP with a fucking Dart Vader sticker but enough about Sony, It was a close finish and none of them where worth my time really.
Games that had me impressed where Contra 4, Victorious Boxers Revolution, that Esher puzzle game (forgot its name) and Pain was amusing to look at, last two are both PSN titles. Honorable mention to the PSP version of GOW not really interested, just more of the same but it's real impressive how it looks on a PSP.
Yup I saw that on Kotaku this morning and have now read the confirmation from Kaz. Frankly Sony can suck my balls! What a cheap attempt to steal some media attention and good old honest Jack stood up there on stage lamenting that someone let it slip. BS!
This kind of manipulation of the media is what turned me off from Sony as a company. Bloggers and gaming sites shouldn't let this kind of crap get explained away, Sony know this will garner much less media attention than the price cut announcement.
Sony, I hope MS turn you over good this generation because all you've learned is how to apply another layer of slimy spin.
(cough) too much? :)
酒店經紀 酒店打工 酒店工作 酒店上班 酒店兼差 酒店兼職 打工兼差 打工兼職 台北酒店 酒店應徵 禮服酒店 酒店 經紀 打工 兼差
Post a Comment