ultrajamie Posted May 18, 2006 Posted May 18, 2006 my lastest column has been posted at Britxbox.co.uk, it's about E3, while it was written for an XBox site, i thought you guys might like to read my thoughts.... ..... WOW That’s it. That’s all you can say. Well, it’s all I can say. This years E3 has proved to be the most exciting ever. It really has been a bit of a white knuckle ride in terms of what the major companies were up to - which, of course, was expected. What no one predicted, was that it would turn out quite the way it did. You will probably already be aware that Sony, after taking the show pretty much by storm last year with the series of technical demos and hardware promises, ended up pretty much a laughing stock. It's console seen as overpriced, underpowered (compared to Sony's promises), and extremely short on genuine innovation. Two games Sony relied upon last year - Motorstorm and Killzone - were nowhere to be seen, and what was left hardly blew the 360 out of the water in any respect. Quite the opposite in fact. Lets not even mention it's blatant, but technically poor, rip off of the Wii controller. For a company so willing to tout it's leadership status, it's lack of any genuine direction of it's own was pretty galling. Put it this way, i think most people would sum Sony's E3 up by saying "Heavenly Sword and Warhawk look... Nice. But I'm not paying £500 for a console and another £100 to play them." By the end of the third day, the queues to see the PS3 had dwindled to being pretty much non-existent. A telling sign indeed. No, this year E3 belonged to Nintendo. It's triumphant trouncing of the PS3 actually being the least of it's achievements. The Wii has delivered a genuine alternative to the vision put forward by Sony and Microsoft when no one really thought it could. Where last year all anyone wanted to talk about was whether Sony's games were really technically possible or whether Microsofts early hardware would live up to it's potential, this year no one cared that the majority of Wii games had been developed using old Gamecube devkits. By refocusing on what makes games fun, Nintendo neatly pulled the rug out from beneath Sony, and to a lesser extent Microsoft, and as a gamer I salute them for it. Lets be honest about it, whether you are an Xbox 360 fan or not, Wii really does have the best launch line up ever conceived. Metroid, Warioware, Redsteel, and Zelda at launch and the simply astounding looking Super Mario Galaxy within the first 6 months. It makes the 360's launch window of clunky ports and dodgey updates look a little foolish. Nintendo, it seems really are back big style. I couldn't be more excited about it either - especially given a couple of years ago I really despaired of Nintendo ever crawling back out of the hole they dug themselves with the Gamecube. Wii looks a 100% certified worldwide hit. It's that simple... and for once, Microsoft and Sony's stance that Nintendo isn't competing with them is true - because Nintendo has leapfrogged them both with ease. The record 4 hour queues to see Zelda says it all. Fans waiting 4 hours to play one level of a game with supposedly ‘last generation’ graphics is all the vindication of Nintendo’s new direction you could ask for. As for Microsoft, well, I would describe their showing as... Hmmm... Solid. Some good looking games, some neat announcements, checking all the right boxes and saying all the right things. But exciting? That’s difficult. It's hard to get really excited over Halo 3 so little of it was shown, and what was had echoes of the early Halo 2 showings - very little of which made it into the final game. The rest of the games were good. Some were brilliant. Many were better looking than the equivalent Sony franchise. So Microsoft did really well, but the focus - in terms of the console space at least - had been moved away from the HD flash they were touting. To sum Microsofts E3 up it was nice, pleasing, and just what we expected. If not a little bit undermined by a lack of genuinely new stuff being shown - Shadowrun was leaked before the show and many of the titles we have known about for eons. So, unless you had you heart set on a PS3, E3 will have been pretty pleasing all round. Roll on the Tokyo Game Show where we will see if Microsoft can make any sort of comeback in the far east in the face of the current derision the PS3 is experiencing… and to see how the Wii fairs on it’s home turf (as if you need to guess, really).
Kurtle Squad Posted May 18, 2006 Posted May 18, 2006 I read it all Seemed pretty good, thoguh being made for an XBox site they were probably confused at where you were trying to go with this during th middle
Hellfire Posted May 18, 2006 Posted May 18, 2006 You write for a XBOX site? Pff :P I'll read it later, but Sony took E3 last year? Ich don't think so.
mike-zim Posted May 18, 2006 Posted May 18, 2006 all in all i think it is a very good piece. and i do think last years show belonged to sont because everyone believed the lies they told. this year eyes were opened to possibilities. Rock on Wii
Konfucius Posted May 18, 2006 Posted May 18, 2006 I really liked your article but it would fit a Wii site much better than an Xbox one. I enjoy your style of writing a lot, I could really imagine how the feeling at E³ was.
Patch Posted May 18, 2006 Posted May 18, 2006 I really liked your article but it would fit a Wii site much better than an Xbox one.I enjoy your style of writing a lot, I could really imagine how the feeling at E³ was. Agreed. An entertaining read nonetheless.
ultrajamie Posted May 18, 2006 Author Posted May 18, 2006 I really liked your article but it would fit a Wii site much better than an Xbox one.I enjoy your style of writing a lot, I could really imagine how the feeling at E³ was. thanks... actually.... most of comments on the Britxbox forums about the article were that they agreed and want a wii... only one person complained about it. Even xbox fanboys want a Wii!!
Adrian DX Posted May 18, 2006 Posted May 18, 2006 You write for a XBOX site? Pff :PI'll read it later, but Sony took E3 last year? Ich don't think so. Yup, Twillight Princess took E3 last year!
ultrajamie Posted May 18, 2006 Author Posted May 18, 2006 Yup, Twillight Princess took E3 last year! on the whole i would say that the ps3 created the biggest buzz overall last year... while twilight princess was the best recieved game.
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