For the nerds

I'm going to keep this nice and brief, like quickee sex. I shall rant about the first two days of E3, very quickly.

Microsoft's press conference was quite boring, even worse than last year, which is saying a lot considering they had Jeff Bell of all people speaking. The redesign of the Dashboard to make it even simpler (didn't think that was possible) sounds alright, but the Avatar system sounds retarded. The Mii system isn't exactly the key to the Wii's success, what's the point of copying it? The new eight-person chat sounds cool, but it was something they should've implemented in the first place. The Netflix thing sounds kinda superfluous, and the lack of any exciting announcements served only to drive a nail into this conference. But hey, at least us 360 owners are getting a bigger hard drive and a watered-down, 12 disc version of Final Fantasy 13, right?

I admire Sony stepping up their game this year, although the delay to Playstation Home is a bit disheartening. That's not to say what they showed wasn't impressive. PSN is getting a kick in the pants starting soon, competing with XBL Marketplace, giving it a huge run for it's money. On top of that, the library of noteworthy PS3 games seems to be mounting too. I also thought they had all but abandoned the PSP, but sheer number of games coming out for it in such a short time really put to rest all those doubts, especially considering the talent behind the people crafting these games (Resistance: Retribution!). More PSP and PS3 bundles have been announced, complete with price drops. Top it all off with the announcement trailer of God of War 3 (a series I personally abhor, but is a big deal in terms of first party developers), and Sony's looking to regain that foothold they lost in between consoles.

In terms of appealing to the core gamer, I lose more and more faith in Nintendo each day. Their conference was littered with nothing but inane peripherals, asinine gimmicks, and simplistic gameplay, fun perhaps for ten minutes, but has nil long-term appeal. The one exception is Animal Crossing, which is coming out in 08, which I suppose is a pretty big deal, again in terms of first party exclusives, but that's one fucking game. No further details of what could be their greatest title ever, MadWorld either. But the Capcom conference isn't until tomorrow, I don't think.

/nerd

PS. The announcement of the Rock Band 2 tracklist was probably more entertaining than anything the Big Three could give us. So much good shit there that the duds like Drain Me, Almost Easy, and One Step Closer seem decent by comparison!