Post E3 2005 Thoughts

It’s been just over a week since E3 wrapped up. I’ve watched dozens of trailers, read tons of articles and seen a ridiculous amount of stunning screenshots. I tell ya – this is an exciting time for gamers!

GameSpot‘s coverage of the event was impeccable this year. I signed up for a GameSpot Complete membership for E3 last year so I could watch the press conferences live. The problem was that the majority of the live feeds were chugging so bad they weren’t watchable. Kind of disappointing, but I ended up downloading something like 6 gig worth of videos, so that made up for it. This year, every stream was perfect! All the downloads were quick – I don’t think I saw any less than 100kbps, which is definitely acceptable! I recommended checking out the service if you’re anything like me. I’ve tried out a few of their competitors and nothing even comes close to GameSpot. Man, I should be getting paid for this!

Anyway, here’s my post E3 2005 thoughts…

Xbox 360

I could hardly wait to see what MS had in store for their next-gen console. And I think it’s safe to say they didn’t disappoint. It actually looks great! They’re taking a bit of a different approach with the Xbox 360. Instead of focusing on raw power and visuals, they’re aiming to please a wider audience by offering a console that is more of an entertainment unit than a gaming console. Obviously, gaming is it’s primary purpose, but they’re introducing all sorts of other bells and whistles to try and captivate those that have looked past the current-gen Xbox. At first, I was a little bummed that it probably won’t stand up to the PS3’s capabilities in terms of graphics, but with the line-up of games they’ve announced that will be available at launch, I don’t think there’s anything to worry about. As long as they continue to deliver great games and an even better gaming experience, the Xbox 360 will do just fine.

Playstation 3

Holy hell, it looks nice! The piano black is mad sexy! But the controller – what were they thinking? Is that the Baterang? Anyway, take everything I see about the Xbox 360 and reverse it for the PS3. It seems Sony would rather focus on gaming than pleasing the entire world. They’ve kept pretty quiet about their online component and instead, unleashed some incredibly good looking trailers. I’m talking total jaw-dropping shit! The Killzone 2 trailer alone has sold me on this console. If that’s game play footage, as it’s been said to be – I’m getting a PS3!

Nintendo Revolution

Well, I think Nintendo has finally realized they can’t continue to compete in the console battle. After-all, you can only regurgitate the same games so many times. Instead of just doing the same old porting job for another generation, they decided to make the Revolution backwards compatible… all the way back to the original NES, apparently. And that’s about all I have to say about that. Nintendo did unveil yet another new handheld that plays GBA games, though. Yeah…

The Games

There’s an insane amount of disgustingly good games coming out this year and next. Of those games, these are the ones I’m most looking forward to…

  • Battlefield 2: Modern Combat
  • Blazing Angels: Squadrons Of WWII
  • Burnout Revenge
  • Call Of Duty 2
  • Company Of Heroes
  • Condemned: Criminal Origins
  • The Darkness
  • Destroy All Humans
  • Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
  • F.E.A.R.
  • Full Auto
  • Gears Of War
  • Ghost Recon 3
  • I-8 (working title)
  • Killzone 2
  • King Kong
  • Need For Speed Most Wanted
  • Nightmare Before Christmas
  • Okami
  • The Outfit
  • Prince Of Persia 3
  • Project Gotham Racing 3
  • Quake 4
  • Soul Calibur 3
  • Star Wars Battlefront 2
  • Star Wars: Empire At War
  • Stubbs The Zombie In Rebel Without A Pulse
  • Ultimate Spider-man
  • Unreal Tournament 2007

So, all in all, a good year! Tons to look forward to – even a new console by Christmas! The Xbox 360 is supposed to be out for the holiday season across all markets. The PS3 in Q2 of 2006 and Nintendo didn’t release any details as to when the Revolution would be out. No rush though guys, take your time!