Pre-E3 Press Conference Reaction
Okay, I watched G4's two hour coverage of the pre-E3 press conferences.
Few things to note:
1: Despite the immature nature of the G4 staff, or at least their on-camera acting style, they really do know their stuff, and some of them have been covering gaming for a very long time. Percentage wise.
2: Sony wins the conference round, with the beautiful trailers and the tech demos that they "proved" were real time, not pre-rendered. That said, their biggest trailer, Killzone, looks amazing and Sony says that its not pre-rendered, but one look at it and I can not really believe them. Either that's good on Sony if it is real-time, or bad on them if they're lying their ass off.
3: Microsoft takes second simply because they actually showed their next console and some of the games for it. However, nothing really jumped out at people and demanded their attention. It really looks like they're banking on Live taking them all the way. And since Final Fantasy XI has been announced for the 360, that just might be the case. Lets face it: In terms of online play, the current Xbox wins handily. But Sony hasn't been shutting their eyes and plugging their ears: It wouldn't be difficult to expect Sony to have an online capability at least as good as the current Live, if not near what Microsoft is looking for with Live 2.0.
4: Nintendo loses, pretty much because they don't have a next gen console with games. They showed the case off, but that's probably an internal alpha. No games == booo. Zelda sure looked pretty with the lycanthrope Link, and it will probably excellent and all, since Nintendo remains arguably the best game developer in existence, but it really looks like Nintendo is aiming to undercut both in price, allowing them to continue to be the best second console. And the whole backwards compatibility all the way back to the NES thanks to downloadable games will certaintly raise its stock. But, as I said, they didn't show anything next gen other than a black box. Hell, there wasn't even a controller, which is the biggest thing the press has been talking about: The supposed innovation the controller will implement. Remember, Nintendo has always been ahead of the curve in terms of controller innovation.
5: And, lets not forget, its all about the gameplay! I was very impressed by some of the massive battles that I saw. One of the advantages the extra processing power is that more individual AI's and more indivdual units can be active and moving at the same time, allowing for tremendously immersive battles. I really hope that this will be one of the positive affects shown by the massive graphical and processing improvements.
6: As of right now, were I to suddenly gain the money to purchase a next gen console, and a few games, at any time in the future, I would wait to see what the PS3 actually will be able to do, simply because the 360 isn't blowing me away and I really am not seeing any great games coming out on it, at least until the PS3 gets released and Halo 3 comes out.
Anyone really interested in E3 should watch G4 this week. It really looks like they are toning down the "hip" attitude in favor of covering the event well. And, after all, this is the best way to see everything coming out without suffering through streaming video.
Few things to note:
1: Despite the immature nature of the G4 staff, or at least their on-camera acting style, they really do know their stuff, and some of them have been covering gaming for a very long time. Percentage wise.
2: Sony wins the conference round, with the beautiful trailers and the tech demos that they "proved" were real time, not pre-rendered. That said, their biggest trailer, Killzone, looks amazing and Sony says that its not pre-rendered, but one look at it and I can not really believe them. Either that's good on Sony if it is real-time, or bad on them if they're lying their ass off.
3: Microsoft takes second simply because they actually showed their next console and some of the games for it. However, nothing really jumped out at people and demanded their attention. It really looks like they're banking on Live taking them all the way. And since Final Fantasy XI has been announced for the 360, that just might be the case. Lets face it: In terms of online play, the current Xbox wins handily. But Sony hasn't been shutting their eyes and plugging their ears: It wouldn't be difficult to expect Sony to have an online capability at least as good as the current Live, if not near what Microsoft is looking for with Live 2.0.
4: Nintendo loses, pretty much because they don't have a next gen console with games. They showed the case off, but that's probably an internal alpha. No games == booo. Zelda sure looked pretty with the lycanthrope Link, and it will probably excellent and all, since Nintendo remains arguably the best game developer in existence, but it really looks like Nintendo is aiming to undercut both in price, allowing them to continue to be the best second console. And the whole backwards compatibility all the way back to the NES thanks to downloadable games will certaintly raise its stock. But, as I said, they didn't show anything next gen other than a black box. Hell, there wasn't even a controller, which is the biggest thing the press has been talking about: The supposed innovation the controller will implement. Remember, Nintendo has always been ahead of the curve in terms of controller innovation.
5: And, lets not forget, its all about the gameplay! I was very impressed by some of the massive battles that I saw. One of the advantages the extra processing power is that more individual AI's and more indivdual units can be active and moving at the same time, allowing for tremendously immersive battles. I really hope that this will be one of the positive affects shown by the massive graphical and processing improvements.
6: As of right now, were I to suddenly gain the money to purchase a next gen console, and a few games, at any time in the future, I would wait to see what the PS3 actually will be able to do, simply because the 360 isn't blowing me away and I really am not seeing any great games coming out on it, at least until the PS3 gets released and Halo 3 comes out.
Anyone really interested in E3 should watch G4 this week. It really looks like they are toning down the "hip" attitude in favor of covering the event well. And, after all, this is the best way to see everything coming out without suffering through streaming video.
posted by Wraithy at 5/17/2005 06:36:00 PM
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