E3 2011 - My Thoughts

Hey guys, what’s up?  This is SpaceScreaminJohn here!  Now I’m not sure if a lot of people know this about me, but I’m pretty big into video games.  And as such, I always look forward to when E3 comes into town and seeing all the new games and new ideas coming out in the forthcoming years.

Well now that E3 2011 has come and gone, I thought I would share with you guys my thoughts and opinions regarding this year’s conference.

With that said, let’s start off with Microsoft’s conference.  I’ll be honest with you guys, I won’t be talking too much about Microsoft mainly because I don’t truly care much for the Xbox 360.  Granted, it’s a pretty cool console and I’m sure the console exclusives are great in their own right, but honestly, I’m a little more interested in the PlayStation 3 than the 360.  It’s not because I’m a fanboy or anything, but most of the games I’m interested in are mostly PlayStation exclusives.  But I’ll talk about that later.

Anyway, regarding Microsoft’s conference, their conference was probably the least good out of the three companies...and I’m being really generous here.  I swear, Microsoft seems to be trying really hard at finding the cheesiest actors in the world.  Honestly, the actors playing the Kinect were unbelievably bad.

I don’t follow many of the Xbox exclusive franchises, such as Forza, Gears of War, Halo, etc., so I don’t really have much of an opinion on them.   Although I do think the Halo 1 remake is pretty cool.  Halo 1 is really the only Halo game I’ve ever really played.

As many people will tell you, Microsoft was really pushing the Kinect this year.  Now maybe it’s because I’m more of a casual gamer above all else, but I’ve tried out the Kinect at my local Best Buy and I think it’s pretty cool, but since I already have an Nintendo Wii, I don’t really see a point in buying Kinect.  Kinect doesn’t have any games that I can’t already get on the Wii.

One game I really want to talk about is the Disneyland game.  When I first heard about this, the Disneyland nut inside of me said “hey, this is pretty cool.”  But after watching RandomDCE’s E3 video as well as reading some of the comments on the other videos regarding this game, yeah I can’t help but agree with them.  This is nothing more than a glorified travel video with a few mini games thrown in.

And that’s all I will say for Microsoft, let’s move on to Sony’s conference.

First off, in response to the whole PSN outage situation that occurred this past April/May, all I will say is that as long as that doesn’t happen again, we’ll cool.  Anyway, let’s talk about the games.

In regards to "Uncharted 3," I’ve played a demo of “Uncharted 2” once and I thought it was pretty good.  Plus this series is developed by Naughty Dog, the same masterminds behind “Jak and Daxter” and “Crash Bandicoot.”  So this will definitely be a game I’ll check out.  As for “Resistance,” I’m not a fan of shooting games, so this game means nothing to me.  I also won’t say much regarding all the 3D stuff Sony is marketing.  Granted I’m happy about the 3D T.V. that’s only $500, but even so, I’m not really that big on 3D gaming.  Doesn’t make a difference to me.

When it comes to "Twisted Metal," oh...hell...yes I’m going to get this.  I’ve been with the Twisted Metal series since “Twisted Metal 2” and I have loved every game since then (well maybe not “Twisted Metal 3”).  Initially, I was worried that the game will solely be focused on the multiplayer aspect and the single-player aspect will be forgotten.  But after seeing some footage and listening to various interviews with David Jaffe, I think this game is going to be the best of 2011.  If only I had a PS3 right now, this would so be a day one for me.

Of course, the big talk of the Sony conference is the PlayStation Vita, the successor to the PSP.  Overall, it looks really nice.  It’s familiar, yet new.  I like how it’s now got a second analog stick and the touch screen is pretty cool.  However, from the looks of it, it doesn’t look like it’ll be backwards-compatible with all my UMD games.  But at least the games will now be on cards now, eliminating loading times and that horrible scratching noise you get with UMD’s.

Normally, I will say that paying more than $200 for a handheld is a bit extreme, however with all the changes being made from the PSP to the PSVita, I guess I’ll be a bit more lenient.  I still won’t be able to afford it.  You know, with school and all...

And that’s pretty much it for Sony.  Let’s finish this off with Nintendo’s conference.

A couple of big things from Nintendo.  The most talked about one is the Wii U.  The Wii U – That name is going to have to grow on me, as well as the idea itself.  From what I understand, the only real big change from the Wii to the Wii U is the controller, which sucks considering they promised a new console entirely and not just a new controller.  Honestly, I’m not impressed with the Wii U.  But hey, this won’t come out until next year, so who knows...maybe Nintendo can convince me by then.  Until then, I’ll stick with my regular Wii, thank you.

The other big thing Nintendo was pushing was, of course, the Nintendo 3DS.  I got to say folks, the 3DS is pretty sweet, but the 3D effects can be a pain on your eyes and the price tag can be a pain on your wallet.  But...Nintendo announced some really cool games.

There’s of course, “Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D.”  Considering I never played the original “Ocarina of Time,” I am somewhat interested in this one.  Although really, if I wanted to play OOT, I could just find and play the original game or better yet, get the one for the Gamecube.  Still, the 3DS port is portable and in 3D.

I’m a sucker for Mario Kart, what can I say?  Hopefully, the online play is better than Mario Kart DS.  The Super Mario game for the 3DS looks pretty cool too.  And there’s going to be a “Luigi Mansion 2” for the 3DS?!  They really want me to get this, don’t they?

Honestly, that’s all I can say about Nintendo and that concludes my video on E3.  Overall, not the best E3, but there were some pretty neat games I’m interested in.

This is SpaceScreaminJohn, thanks for reading!