Obscurities- E3 Day 2 Part 2
E3 Day 2- Paced-station 3
Out of all 3 conferences Sony’s was the worst paced of the three. All the announcements came at the end like afterthoughts and after sitting through an hour plus to get there it was kind of exhausting. That being said, it was still more entertaining than Nintendo. The confirmation for God of War 3 was nice. The new games MAG, a 256 player, 8 to a team tactical based war simulator, as well as Infamous from the Sly Cooper developers looked interesting.
Out of everything they did, Little Big Planet was the most entertaining. A PowerPoint presentation becomes a lot more interesting when made in game and played out using the Sack-boy. The new PS3 features are okay, with in game rentals and purchases in place to rival Microsoft’s use of Netflix. The PS3 price-drop to $399 for the 80 GB model come September will likely be more crucial.
All in all the PS3 didn’t show off much, but then again Microsoft showed off RE5 and Fallout 3 which are multiplatform. The major 3 all kind of had lackluster showings, with the best presentation thus far being EA, which pains me to ever say that. Of course with EA buying up Bioware, I might as well start embracing them. Lets hope the 3rd party showings give us something new to look forward to.
Obscurities- E3 Day 2 part 1
E3 Day 2- Nintendon’t
Well I don’t own a Wii and was planning on buying a DS, but I do play my friend’s Wii. It has a few decent games, and more coming out, Wario and Chocobo Dungeon come to mind. However, Nintendo’s E3 showing was a shit on the face of hardcore/intermediate gamers. Wii Sports 2 sword fighting and Animal Crossing sums up the only good things presented. They made a big deal out of mediocre games like Pokemon Rangers and Rayman. GTA for the DS is okay in concept, but I don’t know how well it work out, I suppose I can hope for the best.
Their biggest announcement as they put it is Wii Music, which in theory sounded great, until they stated that you just push buttons and it plays itself. It’s like Communist Guitar Hero, no skill, no gameplay, In Soviet Russia Sax plays you! This is a toy, they make these for little kids, to push buttons and pretend they are playing music, except slap in more instruments, multi-player and Nintendo music.
On top of that the rest of the presentation Nintendo was singing their own praises, including stating they are at the top of the software sales, which they are technically only through counting Wii-Sports in bundled format. Non-bundled software, Nintendo is equal to Sony in games sold and half of what the 360 has sold.
Otaku Street- Berserk
A dark fantasy setting full of betrayal, blood, gore and evil, Berserk is not for the faint of heart. Created in 1989 and still running, it is an extremely long lived manga series that yielded one season of an anime series and two videogames, one of which made it stateside.
Berserk updates rather slowly, but the art is worth the wait and while the story may be creeping along now, that’s because I read the first 32 volumes already. If you have a taste for dark fantasy action, Berserk is for you. If adult themes, questioning of religion and the Aristotelian take on God is too much for you, avoid at all cost. But, if you seek a deep and engaging adult-orientated story Berserk can’t be topped. The anime doesn’t follow the manga completely, but it is also worth the watch.
