Gotta hurry up and get this in before Sony's presser starts.

The MS press conference was actually a positive and negative experience for me: positive because Microsoft brings all the win to the party to counteract the big bucket of lose that Nintendo shoveled on us today; negative because my Xbox 360 is currently suffering from Red Rings of Death. Boo! So, quick array of thoughts:

* Galaga Legions. You know, I used to think Galaxian was the sequel to Galaga. I was not aware it came first. That said, I may pick this up, because Galaga Legions seems like the XBLA answer to Arkanoid DS and Space Invaders Extreme (both of which I greatly enjoy). Looks shiny, like everything else on XBLA that has bullets, so if I eventually suffer a grand mal seizure, you know why.

* Gears of War 2: I didn't like Gears of War (heresy, I know), so I'm hoping this improves on GoW1. Namely the cover system, which seems divisive - lots of people liked it, I thought the tendency to take cover at inopportune times or on the wrong side of things rendered it pretty abominable.

* Fable 2: I remain cautiously optimistic. Last time Peter Molyneux promised gamers the sky (literally) and we ended up with a game that could be pleasantly described as mediocre, but fun. This time around I think the hype is much lower, so I expect to be at least surprised by what Fable 2 is capable of.

* Portal - Still Alive: I splooged a little.

* Final Fantasy XIII on the 360: More heresy - I simply don't give a damn. I understand that this is a big moment for crossplatformship, that Microsoft or Square-Enix are figuratively slapping around Sony, blah blah blah, whatever. I can appreciate that. However, Square-Enix seems to be taking huge strides away from the gameplay that was fundamental in FF1-6, and that was expanded on in 7-10. FF12 was an action RPG with menus, plain and simple. I hated it. And the characters were absolutely atrocious (I spent 90% of my time with the game wanting to stab Vaan in the throat with a rusty spoon, even if he was Captain Basch). FF13 does not appear to be taking any steps away from that kind of action-RPG-ish gameplay. They can call it ATB all they want, I think we know what to expect.

I think I may be the last remaining turn-based RPG fan on Earth. Give me the SMT "Press Turn" and "One More" systems anyday. Or Lost Odyssey, I loved Lost Odyssey.

I'm not trying to be super-negative, it's just that so little at E3 seems to be moving in a positive direction, most companies seem to be afraid to do anything new, and when they do try and innovate, it gets dumbed down and we get a bucketful of waggle games. Hopefully Microsoft can counteract that, and hopefully I am completely wrong about Final Fantasy XIII. Until then, there's still Portal 2.