E3 2011

WARNING: This isn't exactly my typical blog post. I expect it to be slightly long and directed to a narrow audience. So if you are here for an intellectually awakening post then go to sleep. I do not wish to be responsible for an epileptic seizure that may result due to this blog post. That said, if you don't know what is E3, please follow the link below.

http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=e3

Alright. Enough of the nonsensical reading. Let's head straight to the point.

This year's E3 is going to be BIG. And everybody I know who follows E3 says the same every year. I did the same for the last 2 years. In retrospect, it always is big. With thousands of people storming the E3 game-floor, and the numbers increasing with every passing year, E3 is the biggest event in the gaming industry - a fantastic platform to showcase what's there to come, and to be occasionally disappointed.

With E3 going live this weekend, I am going to talk about the 3 major conferences (Nintendo, Microsoft & Sony) and the things that I am most excited about.

Let's start with Nintendo. I never got myself to being a Nintendo fan. The last 'Nintendo' thing I remember is playing Pokemon on my GameBoy Advance. There used to be a time when Nintendo was a hardcore gamer's choice. That died out with the Wii. The Wii got a grip of the casual, mainstream audience. With last gen's PlayStation 2 like graphics and a revolutionary motion controller, Wii became everybody's choice. Wii had a landslide victory at the start of the race against Xbox360 and PS3. It still dominates the market share. But statistically, Wii software sales continue to drop as Microsoft's Kinect and Sony's Move capture the market.
So what does Nintendo do ? They decide to come up with 'Wii HD'.

Now there isn't any concrete information about the Wii HD. Just speculations and rumors, but we know for sure that Nintendo has this in stock for E3. It is essentially your Wii console in full HD. This might seem exciting to some but what I fail to understand is - what is Nintendo planning when Sony and Microsoft came out with their HD consoles in 2006 ? How can they capture the HD market when its already being fortified by Microsoft and Sony ?
Even if Nintendo comes up with a HD console more powerful than the PS3, Sony and M$ will eventually crush the competition starting 2014 when they release their next gen PS4, Xbox 720 or whatever it maybe.

So this is possibly the only reason why I might just see the Nintendo conference.

Otherwise Nintendo tends to be quite boring. Nintendo 3DS never excited me and with the software titles they offer for their systems, it just gets worse. I mean people talk about Nintendo and Zelda. Not a single molecule in my brain gets stimulated by the sight of Zelda.
That said, Nintendo always surprises me. The father of a 10 year old kid will not buy his son a 360 or a PS3. He will buy him a Wii. And I guess the price point that Nintendo offers is one major factor in this. But again, Wii HD definitely can't beat the PS3 and 360 in the HD price point competition. Either Nintendo's got something really solid in the works or they are heading towards an experiment - which I believe will fail miserably.

Next up - Microsoft. In 2009 when M$ revealed Project Natal (now called Kinect) , it took everybody by surprise. Everybody I knew was psyched up about this motion controller that required no controller in the hands. I remember even my father, who is least bothered about gaming technology, telling me about Project Natal and I too was looking forward to it. But it turned to be a disappointment when it was finally revealed with full functionality as Kinect in E3 2010. It seemed to me like a more refined version of the PlayStation EyeToy - which Sony released during the PS2 era and never really did much to it.
Of course there were marked technological improvements and better functionality but the basic concept was the same. And that became quite evident with Kinectimals (similar to Sony's EyePet) and same goes for most of the games. Only Dance Central stood out from the pack. It brought something new to the table.
I will quote Jeff Gerstmann, chief editor of GiantBomb, where he says "I am playing on my Dance Central machine," referring to Kinect, because right now this is the only solid title M$ has in its Kinect line up. If they don't bring something new, some criticism is bound to come. However, M$ is working on some good Kinect software support like finger tracking and voice recognition and with the acquisition of Skype, video calling is bound to come to the 360. But I doubt there would be much about Skype in this E3. The acquisition was too recent to allow any major software enhancements.

Other than that, M$ does not have very many first party titles for the 360 this E3. Gears of War 3 and Alan Wake are the only ones that I can name. This year's E3 will be on the downside for Microsoft.

And finally - Sony. Flat out, this year's Sony conference is going to be huge. Some might say I am biased towards Sony because I own a PS3, which might actually be true to an extent, but without a doubt Sony will dominate E3 this year. If I read correctly, Sony's conference will last 5 hours, longest conference ever in E3 history ! If you are wondering what will they showcase, then a major part of it will be PSP2, currently codenamed Next Generation Portable (NGP.)

The NGP is literally a PS3 the size of a PSP, with dual analog sticks, touch screen on both sides of the device and the standard Wifi and 3G capabilities. And they successfully showcased Uncharted running live on the NGP with PS3 level graphics, so you know this is real. I really cant wait to see what Sony has to show about the NGP - some NGP titles for sure. The price point may be an issue here.
Then Sony has an amazing lineup for its first party games namely Uncharted 3, Resistance 3, Infamous 2, Twisted Metal and a few more. Sony will also showcase its 3D gaming, which I hear is mind blowing on Uncharted 3.

And finally the PlayStation Move. Much like the Kinect, Move was dubbed as a Wii rip off and if you think about it at a very basic level, it surely is. Just like Kinect, it was better implemented and enhanced with advanced functionality. It also offered titles similar to the Wii, so people started labeling Sony for selling out to the mainstream market as against the hardcore gamers, for which the PlayStation has earned a name for itself. But Sony did use the Move to cater to hardcore gamers. Unlike the Kinect and Wii, Move provided support for first person shooters like Killzone 3, Socom and even for games like Heavy Rain. However, if you look at the sales charts, Move just din't make it to where Kinect and Wii did. So i'm hoping Sony showcase some innovative Move games this E3.

Other than these, there are the EA and Ubisoft conferences where they showcase third party titles and peripherals. Couple of third party titles to look forward to this year - Battlefield 3, Modern Warfare 3, Bioshock Infinite, Mass Effect 3 and hopefully GTA5. Rockstar hasn't taken E3 too seriously so you never know what's there. Hideo Kojima has been talking about Metal Gear Rising for the past 2 E3s. Much to my surprise he is not attending this year's E3. But something Metal Gear is bound to come this E3 and the 360 audience will be happy to hear about their first Metal Gear title.

Finally, I hope this year's E3 gets the most unexpected announcement, like Bungie on the Sony conference declaring the next Halo will be a PS3 exclusive :D

You can watch the live stream of the press conferences on

http://e3.gamespot.com/

or
http://www.gametrailers.com/e3/

at the following times

All mentioned timings are by Singapore/Malaysia/Hong Kong time zone (+8 GMT)

Microsoft

7th june 12:30am

EA

7th june 3:30am

Ubisoft

7th june 5:30am

Sony

7th june 8:00am

Nintendo

8th june 12:00am

Let me know your thoughts down in the comments below.

As always

peace