Nintendo easily had the most disappointing presence at E3, more because they should gave blown our socks off and less because it wasn't any good. But, a new, unique console (that both Microsoft and Sony are already trying to emulate via Smart Glass and PS3 Vita connectivity), fantastic looking 1st and 3rd party software, and strong 3DS support show that Nintendo's future is bright.
Sony continues to struggle in the handheld market and continues to show a great lack of thought and innovation in their products. But, strong, exclusive software (ignoring PlayStation All-Stars) and a focus on games shows that, while the company is struggling greatly, they're in it for the long haul and are willing to fight.
Microsoft has just lost it.
Opening up their E3 press conference was Halo 4. It looked amazing as expected. Later, Gears of War was given some attention. It, too, looked amazing as expected. The rest if the conference was dedicated to Smart Glass (cool concept taken from Nintendo), Kinect, and 3rd party, multiplatform software and services.
Seriously, Microsoft? You want the legacy of Xbox 360 going forward to be games I can buy other places and services I can use other places WITHOUT PAYING YOU A FEE ON TOP OF THE FEE I PAY FOR THE SERVICE?! Yes, COD: Black Ops 2 will sell millions, mostly on Xbox 360. So what? I can play that mediocre franchise anywhere. It isn't a selling point for you. Halo is. Gears of War is. Which brings me to another point.
My Wii's disk drive failed recently. Rather than pay to have it fixed, I'm buying a WiiU. I sat down to play some games the other day and realized something. My Wii library is diverse. I've got platformers, kart racers, shooters (1st person, 3rd person, and arcade style), dungeon crawlers, fighters, puzzlers, side scrollers, party games, and more. My Xbox 360 library consists of shooters, shooters, Burnout: Paradise City, shooters, a few Guitar Heroes and Rock Bands, shooters, Sonic Generations, shooters and Halo Wars (based on a shooter). Of the 11 shooters I have, only 3 franchises are represented, and two of the shooters are the same game (Halo: Combat Evolved and the Anniversary Edition). My XBLA library is better, but not by much.
It's not from a deep love of shooters that I have either. I like Gears of War. COD is mildly entertaining for a an hour or so. I love Halo. This hardly is evidence of love affair with shooters. No, the problem is that Microsoft hasn't diversified the Xbox 360 library very much. Don't get me wrong, these genres are represented. There are platformers, fighters, brawlers, but very few of them, if any, are any good. And none of them stand out from the pack. Assassins Creed is fantastic, but it's not new and not exclusive. Forza is unparallelled in realism, but it's just another driving simulator. If I didn't have an Xbox, I could play something similar to Forza. Xbox 360 lacks the truly great, innovative, purely fun games that are a Nintendo staple and are present on Sony's hardware.
I'm not just talking about game play. Game play is king. But art direction can have a huge impact on how a game feels. Take the most popular games on Xbox 360. Most of them look pretty much the same. Lots of browns and greys, maybe a few deep reds. Buildings toppled over. Cars stacked on top of each other. broken windows. Deserted homes. These things set a very specific mood, the same mood. It's gotten dull and boring.
Now take Sony. God of War is rich in Greek buildings, red blood across the landscape, burning structures. Team ICO games present crumbled castles with lush greenery growing through the cracks and holes in the walls and characters with unique fashion choices. Little Big Planet depicts a very colorful environment that just screams "have fun!" Even darker toned games like Infamous have a unique style to them that sets it apart, even though the environment is very similar to other games set in war torn worlds.
Nintendo's roster of games, though familiar, even manages to be more diverse than Microsoft's much newer stable of games. Ask anyone who's been playing Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Kirby, Donkey Kong, or any of the other many Nintendo IPs since the beginning and they'll tell you that each entry of these franchises feels fresh and new. Art styles change with each adventure through Hyrule. New game play mechanics are slowly added to each journey to the Mushroom Kingdom. Metroid manages to surprise us with how much more can be done with so little.
Then you look at Microsoft's library. Apart from Halo, which is still very similar to other FPSes even just because it is an FPS, most of it looks and feels like the rest of it. Sadly, most of what's exciting on Xbox 360 is related to zombies, something many people could rightfully argue is also over done. What helps games like Dead Rising and Left 4 Dead stand out as simply existing for the fun of it is that it's hard to take zombies seriously. When a game tries to taken them seriously, you wind up with another bland shooter that's replaced aliens and Nazis with zombies.
Shooters are why people flock to Xbox 360 over PS3 and, more recently, Wii. Shooters are also why going into this next console generation I, and a lot of other people who are feeling the sting of post apocalyptic brown and grey blandness over saturation, am really excited about WiiU and, for the first time in the brand's history, am really curious about what Sony has been working on. Will I get the Next Xbox. Yes. I'm way to invested in the ecosystem now to back out and I still enjoy what few exclusives it has to offer, especially Halo. But, as was the case with the current generation, other consoles will get a lot of love from me to fill the gaping holes Microsoft has left unfilled if they don't step it up. This year's E3 has shown that Microsoft is quite content bringing us more of the same and more of what everyone else is also offering.
Sony continues to struggle in the handheld market and continues to show a great lack of thought and innovation in their products. But, strong, exclusive software (ignoring PlayStation All-Stars) and a focus on games shows that, while the company is struggling greatly, they're in it for the long haul and are willing to fight.
Microsoft has just lost it.
Opening up their E3 press conference was Halo 4. It looked amazing as expected. Later, Gears of War was given some attention. It, too, looked amazing as expected. The rest if the conference was dedicated to Smart Glass (cool concept taken from Nintendo), Kinect, and 3rd party, multiplatform software and services.
Seriously, Microsoft? You want the legacy of Xbox 360 going forward to be games I can buy other places and services I can use other places WITHOUT PAYING YOU A FEE ON TOP OF THE FEE I PAY FOR THE SERVICE?! Yes, COD: Black Ops 2 will sell millions, mostly on Xbox 360. So what? I can play that mediocre franchise anywhere. It isn't a selling point for you. Halo is. Gears of War is. Which brings me to another point.
My Wii's disk drive failed recently. Rather than pay to have it fixed, I'm buying a WiiU. I sat down to play some games the other day and realized something. My Wii library is diverse. I've got platformers, kart racers, shooters (1st person, 3rd person, and arcade style), dungeon crawlers, fighters, puzzlers, side scrollers, party games, and more. My Xbox 360 library consists of shooters, shooters, Burnout: Paradise City, shooters, a few Guitar Heroes and Rock Bands, shooters, Sonic Generations, shooters and Halo Wars (based on a shooter). Of the 11 shooters I have, only 3 franchises are represented, and two of the shooters are the same game (Halo: Combat Evolved and the Anniversary Edition). My XBLA library is better, but not by much.
It's not from a deep love of shooters that I have either. I like Gears of War. COD is mildly entertaining for a an hour or so. I love Halo. This hardly is evidence of love affair with shooters. No, the problem is that Microsoft hasn't diversified the Xbox 360 library very much. Don't get me wrong, these genres are represented. There are platformers, fighters, brawlers, but very few of them, if any, are any good. And none of them stand out from the pack. Assassins Creed is fantastic, but it's not new and not exclusive. Forza is unparallelled in realism, but it's just another driving simulator. If I didn't have an Xbox, I could play something similar to Forza. Xbox 360 lacks the truly great, innovative, purely fun games that are a Nintendo staple and are present on Sony's hardware.
I'm not just talking about game play. Game play is king. But art direction can have a huge impact on how a game feels. Take the most popular games on Xbox 360. Most of them look pretty much the same. Lots of browns and greys, maybe a few deep reds. Buildings toppled over. Cars stacked on top of each other. broken windows. Deserted homes. These things set a very specific mood, the same mood. It's gotten dull and boring.
Now take Sony. God of War is rich in Greek buildings, red blood across the landscape, burning structures. Team ICO games present crumbled castles with lush greenery growing through the cracks and holes in the walls and characters with unique fashion choices. Little Big Planet depicts a very colorful environment that just screams "have fun!" Even darker toned games like Infamous have a unique style to them that sets it apart, even though the environment is very similar to other games set in war torn worlds.
Nintendo's roster of games, though familiar, even manages to be more diverse than Microsoft's much newer stable of games. Ask anyone who's been playing Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Kirby, Donkey Kong, or any of the other many Nintendo IPs since the beginning and they'll tell you that each entry of these franchises feels fresh and new. Art styles change with each adventure through Hyrule. New game play mechanics are slowly added to each journey to the Mushroom Kingdom. Metroid manages to surprise us with how much more can be done with so little.
Then you look at Microsoft's library. Apart from Halo, which is still very similar to other FPSes even just because it is an FPS, most of it looks and feels like the rest of it. Sadly, most of what's exciting on Xbox 360 is related to zombies, something many people could rightfully argue is also over done. What helps games like Dead Rising and Left 4 Dead stand out as simply existing for the fun of it is that it's hard to take zombies seriously. When a game tries to taken them seriously, you wind up with another bland shooter that's replaced aliens and Nazis with zombies.
Shooters are why people flock to Xbox 360 over PS3 and, more recently, Wii. Shooters are also why going into this next console generation I, and a lot of other people who are feeling the sting of post apocalyptic brown and grey blandness over saturation, am really excited about WiiU and, for the first time in the brand's history, am really curious about what Sony has been working on. Will I get the Next Xbox. Yes. I'm way to invested in the ecosystem now to back out and I still enjoy what few exclusives it has to offer, especially Halo. But, as was the case with the current generation, other consoles will get a lot of love from me to fill the gaping holes Microsoft has left unfilled if they don't step it up. This year's E3 has shown that Microsoft is quite content bringing us more of the same and more of what everyone else is also offering.
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