(I've edited this a bit...)

Ah yes... The bulk of E3 has passed, with all three major companies showing what they've got to offer. This time of the year is always hectic for me, trying to keep up with all the news, but I've managed to watch/read about all the conferences, and this is what I personally think the "winning" outcome looks like:

(Nintendo = Sony) > Microsoft.

Now, lets talk about this.




Nintendo is my best friend right now. I understand there were no new major IPs (which I do think sucks), but come on -- New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Super Mario Galaxy 2 (sequel to what I personally consider to be the best Mario game to date on any platform), a new Mario RPG, and a freaking Metroid game made by Team Ninja of all companies? I was born about a week before the NES hit North American shores, and I grew up with the console. Nintendo's conference was a dream come true for an 80s kid like me, and this is all without even going into stuff like Golden Sun DS and Sin & Punishment 2. Call me a fanboy all you want -- Nintendo made me smile this year.

Oh yeah, and there was that vitals thing, too. :P




As for Sony, I liked what they had to announce, as well. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Maker (holy 4 Big Bosses, Batman!) and the new Team Ico game (I still haven't played a single game of theirs... :( ) look awesome, and it's nice to know that Metal Gear Solid: Rising is going multi-platform. And come on -- Demon's Souls and Resident Evil Portable. :D There were a bunch of others, too -- I knew MAG was coming, but seeing it in action like that was definitely a nice treat. I'm not a God of War fan, but I can't argue that it's going to make a lot of people happy.

Microsoft made me feel left out in the cold, personally. I think the Halo series is way overdone already, we'd already seen Final Fantasy XIII stuff, Crackdown (at least the first one) isn't my cup of tea, and the only exciting thing I saw was MGS: Rising, which isn't exclusive. (Okay, as much as I think it's too early for it, I'm excited for Left 4 Dead 2, also.) I don't know, they just didn't do it for me this year. I'm no more compelled to pick up another 360 now than I was before this week started.




There's another huge aspect of these conferences that can't be ignored: Let's have a chat about motion controls. While the tech in Sony's and Microsoft's new offerings are impressive, I honestly don't even see them competing with Nintendo and the Wii. The reason for this is because the Wii was built around motion controls, while they're just add-ons for the PS3 and 360. You need lots of extra equipment to do what the two companies are claiming their stuff can do (while MotionPlus is only $20 by itself and is going to be bundled with a bunch of games), and I'll bet money that no more than a dozen games on each console will utilize the motion control/capture systems to their fullest. People constantly complain about the Wii's lineup of trash games, but I can't wait to see what kind of shovelware hits the PS3 and 360 with these setups out there.

This was definitely all about jumping in with what's popular. (Which does make sense, from a money-making business point of view.) I do like the fact that Sony's offering is like the Wii on crack (and that you actually hold a controller), but the cost for the setup will probably be way too high, and then there's that presumption that there won't be nearly enough games that will take full advantage of the whole thing to justify said high cost.

Natal sits particularly uncomfortably with me. The idea of controller-less controls is okay, but when I'm playing a video game, I like and want the feel of a controller in my hands. If I want to play around without holding a controller, I'll go to the park. I play video games to escape reality, not to simulate it. I don't know, this is just an opinion, anyway. It's not that I don't think it'll work well, because I'm pretty sure it will. I just don't think it'll feel right. I'll give Microsoft credit where it's due, though -- Good job scooping Johnny Lee up. Nintendo really messed up with that one, I think.

Anyway, that's my E3 2009 schpiel. What do you think, fellow robots? What impressed you the most?