E3 2009 – Winners, Losers, Thoughts..
Nintendo: You’ve got to admit they had a better conference than 2008.. They’re really pushing the peripherals, which I suppose is where they make their money. Wii Fit Plus, Wii Motion Plus, and Vitality Sensor? Kinda ‘meh’ to me, but I’m sure I’ll use them at some point. Wii Motion Plus better add some more functionality to to Wiimote because Microsoft and Sony are on Nintendo’s heels with motion control.
I was happy to see some decent looking 3rd party games, and some DS games. Zelda Spirit Tracks, Mario and Luigi RPG3, and Golden Sun (Finally!) all look awesome. Up until this point I was pretty disappointed, then they showed New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Super Mario Galaxy 2, and Metroid: Other M. Definitely wasn’t expecting that, and it saved Nintendo’s conference to me.
Sony: Started slow with stuff we already knew about and lots of PSP info/footage. Then they busted out their Wii-waggle-controller-esque wand. Looks like once again Sony has taken from Nintendo, and improved upon it. Theres still no telling how good this thing will work when it gets some software, but the tech-demo they put on was better than most things I’ve seen the Wiimote do, and I think it was more impressive then XBox360′s motion control demo. The end of the demo showing the bow and arrow was better looking than Nintendo’s full game based on arrow shooting.
Then Sony brought out their heavy hitters, and won E3, in my opinion. Final Fantasy 13, followed up by an exclusive announcement of Final Fantasy 14. Agent, exclusive game from Rockstar. Gran Turismo 5, looking beautiful as always, now with damage, Nascar, and WRC. God of War 3 gameplay footage. Team Ico’s next project, The Last Guardian. That’s a pretty impressive lineup. Not including games we’ve known about (Uncharted2, Ratchet&Clank) and multiconsole (ModernWarfare2, MGS:Rising, Castlevania).
Microsofts conference was pretty good, with no huge ‘wow’ moments, unless you were wowed by Project Natal. Microsoft also jumped into motion control gaming this year with its camera based control that tracks the users movement. I think it has potential, based on the demos, but I also think it could end up being very Wii-ish. Which could be good for bringing in some casuals or non-gamers, but not work out so well for the hardcore. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Other big announcements were Metal Gear Solid: Rising and Halo: Reach, with tons of other good games to come: Alan Wake, Forza 3, Left 4 Dead 2, Splinter Cell, Crackdown 2, and of course the big multiconsole games (MW2, RockBand: Beatles, Tony Hawk Ride, FFXIII)
E3 Winner: Sony. Their lineup of games can’t be touched. The motion controller looked more promising than Natal, and looks like it can already do more than Wii can. PSP Go.
E3 Loser: Nintendo. Well, their conference anyway. It was the most boring. Although the last 10 minutes > much of Microsofts conference, and I’m excited about a lot of Nintendo’s games shown.
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