These are my initial, unprocessed thoughts regarding the press conference:

* First off, G4's coverage sucked balls. Didn't see the Viva Pinata trailer, didn't see the Lost Odyssey trailer, didn't see the end of the Halo 3 trailer, didn't even see the god damn Mass Effect trailer. Truly awful coverage.

* Microsoft may be very smart showing off just stuff for this holiday season. It drove home to me, and I imagine others watching, that not only does Microsoft have plenty of exclusives and non-exlusives coming to the system this holiday alone, a lot of the games look damn good. I can easily say here are more games I imagine purchasing on 360 than I would on Wii or PS3 this holiday.

* A fourth SKU? Come the fuck on Microsoft. We don't even need two. Get your shit together. It's quite possible the announcement of the Halo 3 edition console will be this years "Riiiiidge Racer!" No one seemed to care...

* Resident Evil 5 trailer was a big surprise, and very welcomed. Looked great. Same villagers-turned-batshit crazy vibe as RE4, which is certainly not a bad thing.

* Yeah, no MGS4 announcement...surely you weren't expecting it? It'll come soon enough I'm sure.

* The guy that played Madden with Reggie Bush is an idiot.

* The PC Gears of War content better make its way to 360...

* 360 will most certainly win this holiday season, at least compared to PS3.

* Call of Duty 4 and Assassin's Creed look cream-worthy good.

Halo 3 trailer. New gameplay. Watching on G4TV.

Adam Sessler's voice pops up, saying "You guys enjoying this?"

YES. GO THE FUCK AWAY.

Then, cut to commercial.

The trailer was not over.

...

What

the

fuck.

Even though I have absolutely no qualifications to be making such predictions, I am going to attempt and lay down some stuff I see happening at E3. This is more for my own thoughts, as I'm sure most people are absolutely tired of reading these things and want to get on to the real thing anyway.

Here we go.


Nintendo

* Nintendo will show off a lot of "casual" games, while also showing off a playable Metroid Prime 3. New trailers for Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Mario Galaxy. A firm release date will be set down for one of these two games, and a vague "month" for the other.

* Nintendo will reveal Mario Kart Wii and Animal Crossing Wii. A new trailer for Disaster: Day of Crisis will be shown. We will never hear of Project: H.A.M.M.E.R. again.

* Spielberg's recently discussed Wii game could be shown at the press conference. Could be.

* Miyamoto will have something up his sleeve.

* Nintendo will mention new colors for the Wii and/or DS. No one will care. Besides that, Nintendo will not even whisper about a Wii/DS redesign, including the aforementioned DVD-capable Wii. Why should they?

* A new Metroid DS game will be shown...think fancy 2D with 3D touches a la Castlevania DS. Metroid Dread?


Microsoft

* Microsoft will not counter Sony's price drop...yet. However, I wouldn't be surprised if something similar happens (Premium down to $299, Elite $399) before Halo 3 hits...

* Halo 3 will obviously take the biggest chunk of Microsoft's time.

* Microsoft will also flout their exclusive GTAIV content, but only talk, not show.

* Despite the rumors, Rock Band will stay multiplatform. MGS4 will also stay PS3 for now.

* Besides for a trailer of Banjo-Threeie, Rare will be invisible this year. Game will release in 2008.

* Nary a mention of Too Human. That game will be out in 2008 at earliest.

* A sizeable trailer for Mass Effect will be shown, with a more firm release date then we've seen before. November?

* Alan Wake will have an extensive trailer/demo. Releases next year.

* Fable 2 trailer. Releases next year.


Sony

* Sony will show off some impressive first-party games, made all the more impressive by the fact that they will (mostly) be coming out this year. However, impressive third-party exclusives will be minimal at best.

* New trailer for MGS4. May live up to hype. Coming out 2008.

* New trailer for Killzone. Will not live up to hype.

* Nothing new for FFXII. 2008 release if we're lucky.

* More demos of Home and Little Big Planet. The "wow" factor of these will wear off just a bit.

* No big PSP re-design. At best it'll be purely cosmetic, such as DS Lite. New bundles. Online store.

Yeah, it's typical company PR bullshit, but come-the-fuck-on Sony:

A few days ago: "At present we have no plans [to cut the price]," Sony President Ryoji Chubachi.

Today: "Sony Computer Entertainment America has officially confirmed the company will be dropping the price of the 60GB PlayStation 3 SKU to $499."

I mean, what the fuck. That kind of bullshit is completely unnecessary.

This completes my empty rant.

To honor this year's kinda-sorta E3 that takes place next week, I've decided to bring up what was at least my favorite moment of last years:

It's Ridge Racer!!!

That's right. Kaz Hirai. Ridge Racer. We all remember. We all laughed. We all got sick of it.

It's time to live it again.

In the new GFW magazine, they blow the lid off SimCity 5...or as EA has decided to call it, "SimCity Societies."

What the fuck?

Granted, I haven't read the details on the new game, but a couple things are throwing me off.

1) "Societies" Does this mean there is a new focus? The Sims aspect of SimCity 4 didn't sit well with me. Are they pushing that idea even more now? Boo!

2) The developers have changed. The game is being developed by Tilted Mill Entertainment. Even the 1up.com article announcing their magazine is covering it admits that their previous game, "Caesar IV," wasn't great. Fantastic.

3) Look at this screen:



Maybe it's just me, but the whole look of this first screen puts me off and doesn't feel right. I don't like it one bit.

Of course, I need to be reasonable. I haven't read the article, I haven't played the game. It could continue the fine line of SimCity games. But at this point, I have a feeling Will Wright will continue to cry.