current impressions

[Bulerias]

The Wii "hey, mom + dad + grandma + grandpa can play too!!!" trend continues with Kinect. Pass. Same thing with Move, I bet, although I anticipate that Sony will lean more toward the hardcore gamer.

Kinect is DOA. The rumored price -- according to a Gamestop listing, anyway -- is $149. Yeah, right, like **that** is a mainstream price. Remember, that's just the camera set WITHOUT the actual console! The 360 Slim looks kick-ass, though, and a great price to boot. But mom and dad will likely jump for the cheaper option on the market, which is the Wii at $199. I'm sure Nintendo will drop the price to $149 soon, as well. Maybe they don't even need to.

I say the following as a fan of gaming and not of any particular company -- Nintendo has this E3 in the bag. Between Zelda, Pikmin 3, some cool heavy-hitting Wii RPGs from Japanese developers (Last Story, Xenoblade), a bevy of 3DS games + the actual hardware, the only way they can "lose" (I hate this term, by the way) is if they focus too much on Wii Party, the Vitality Sensor, etc...

 

[Tyler.]

It's sad to see gaming come to all this casual motion control crap. The videos on Kinect make the people playing the games look like retards. Microsoft and Sony should have stayed out of motion control. But yeah, I think Nintendo is definitely going to "win" E3 this year.

 

[Bulerias]

It's sad to see gaming come to all this casual motion control crap. The videos on Kinect make the people playing the games look like retards. Microsoft and Sony should have stayed out of motion control. But yeah, I think Nintendo is definitely going to "win" E3 this year.

I think the expansion of gaming is a necessary step, though. Despite what gamers think, "hardcore" gaming has always been niche. The PlayStation family -- except 3 -- has sold boatloads because Sony was the first on the "casual" bandwagon. Gaming has been getting more and more complicated since the arcade days, to the point where even someone like me is having difficulty adjusting to certain 360/PS3 games, whether due to complex controls or cluttered interfaces (I'm 18 and have been gaming since I was 4). You can say that I'm in the minority... but what minority are we talking about? A small portion of the already-negligible percentage of the population playing videogames?

We're coming full-circle here, I think. It's just that the early efforts are a) overpriced, b) half-baked, and c) miss the point of casual gaming. Gaming in its simplest form relies on pick-up-and-play. Think Super Mario Bros for the NES. Kinect and most Wii games miss the point. Move doesn't seem to be catering to this audience exclusively, so I'm going to reserve judgment on Sony's thing until I see their conference.

Motion controls are in a very early stage... they are mostly imprecise at this point. We're witnessing developing technology being sold as "finished" products. Look at the Wii Remote and the subsequent unveiling of the MotionPlus...

 

[Fabioisonfire]

Get XBox Live!

 

[Trent the Paladin]

So far I've only seen EA's conference from E3 and then a couple game trailers. EA's was meh, could have been better. Started out excellent with Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, which was pretty amazing. That's going to be a blast for sure. Dead Space 2 gameplay was cool, can't believe they're making us wait until tomorrow for more. Medal of Honor was kinda cool, but I couldn't tell what was going on half the time until they blew some of the screens up. Then the rest of the conference was dull until Crysis 2 was shown, followed by Bulletstorm. And then the Star Wars: The Old Republic "Hope" trailer was a great way to end it.

Gonna watch Microsoft's before Ubisoft's if I can.

 

[Bulerias]

I missed EA's conference, was out of the house all day... I normally just watch the "Big 3"'s conferences...

 

[Tyler]

I'm thoroughly impress with what I saw with the Kinect. Of course, I didn't really get a chance to see any games. I think it's an excellent piece of hardware; however, if Bul is right, and the price is $150, then it won't do that well. I will admit, the whole "Xbox, Play Music" would make me feel so badass.

The 360 Slim looks amazing although I don't think I'll be getting one, unless my current Xbox gets RRoD'd. I'm assuming because it is newer technology, there is a lesser chance of it breaking.

As for Sony, I'm really only interested in Little Big Planet 2. I'm not sure if I want to hear one more thing about Home. If I do, I may cut my ears off with a knife to prevent myself from hearing any more BS.

It'll be interesting to see what Ninty does. If they reveal all the titles everyone is expecting, then it will be a successful show for them. And I do think they'll be dropping the price of the Wii. I believe there were rumors a while back about the Wii dropping to $150.

 

[PaJami]

I missed the Ubisoft part. Anything interesting happen?