E3, the video game mega-conference, has returned. (You can always tell it’s E3 by the sound of disappointed fanboys everywhere, who look forward to this thing for months on end, and then get angry when the show inevitably does not meet their expectations.)
Anyways, I watched all the console makers’ press events so you didn’t have to. Here’s all you need to know:
NINTENDO:
Cool shit: Announced the “MotionPlus,” a pretty amazing accessory that plugs into the bottom of the Wiimote and delivers true 1:1 control. (Though, it must be said that this is what the Wiimote should’ve been from the beginning, but whatevs). MotionPlus will come packaged with the also-announced and sure-to-sell-a-bajillion-copies Wii Sports: Resort.
Meh: Also announced Animal Crossing for Wii, Wii Music, and Shaun White Snowboarding.
WTF: Four games, Nintendo? Really? And the closest thing you have to a “hardcore” game is Animal Crossing? No new Kid Icarus, as was rumored. No new Zelda, Mario, or even Excite Truck. For shame, Nintendo. FOR SHAME.
MICROSOFT:
Cool shit: Netflix is now partnering with Xbox Live, which is a pretty big coup. And Final Fantasy XIII is no longer a PS3 ’sclusy (that’s industry speak). Another big coup. COUP!
Meh: Enough with the Fable 2 and Gears of War 2 already! We get it!
WTF: Microsoft’s new Xbox Live Avatars, which are huge, huge ripoffs of Nintendo’s Miis. Seriously, there was nothing else you guys could’ve come up with?
SONY:
Cool shit: Sony was the easy winner of the show. God of War 3 was officially announced with a teaser trailer; a new Ratchet and Clank was announced for the PlayStation Network; a whole new genre/game — MAG, or Massive Action Game for online — was announced; Jim Lee came onstage to show off his design work for DC Universe, Sony’s upcoming MMORPG. And that Resistance 2 trailer — holy crap!
Meh: The announcement about movies and TV shows coming to PlayStation Network. Xbox Live has had this junk for a long time now.
WTF: The new 80GB, $399 PS3 bundle, which comes without backwards compatibility. Man, I’m glad I bought the 80GB model before it went gimp.
Did Sorny show anything from LittleBigPlanet or Home…?
Yeah, one really cool thing they showed from LBP was actually during the Presentation on sales numbers. They had one of the game’s creators come out and manually control “Sack Boy” (one of the main characters in LBP) to jump through a level designed as a bar graph. It was really fucking cool, actually.
For Home, they just showed more video of it, but nothing new as far as I can tell.
Huh. Home is like the Chinese Democracy of the PS3.
Yeah LBP looks amazing.