E3 Thoughts and Impressions.

SolidusRaccoon · Post by **SolidusRaccoon** » Mon May 15, 2006 5:24 am

Well the big show is over, and it looks like Nintendo stole Sony's thunder. While the PS3 did look impressive it just did not have the showing power. Even though the MGS4 stuff was breath taking they just did not really bring in the "WOW!!! I need that right NOW!!!!!" factor. I will still get a PS3 eventually, but not for a long time, after a few years into the systems life cycle and a good number of price drops. The price is just too rich for my blood, and I could care less for the entire blu ray technology. Way too early to hedge any bets on the blu ray and HD DVD format wars. Besides, that will give them time to release the second version of MGS4 with all the goodies and extras that was not in the first release.

But I am hooked on the Wii, Nintendo has truly impressed me with their newest console, and yes it is finally good to see a true console gaming system again . Sony and Microsoft are blurring the lines between console and gaming computer more and more every day. Sure they look impressive, but what difference is there between the XBOX 360 and a solidly built desktop PC? Not much. I hope I don't come off as too fan boyish, but I am just very intrigued and amazed with the current Nintendo strategy, basically that they are not competing with Sony and Microsoft. While the other two are competing on gaming horsepower and statistic Nintendo is gong back to working their niche market, innovations. I am eagerly anticipating a chance to play these games, and the reports from E3 say that the wiimote works pretty much flawlessly, yeah, I was burned by the horrid power glove, so I was concerned about how well the wiimote would function. Super Mario Galaxy and Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess are turning out to be good games, and another big impression was Super Smash Brothers Brawl, awww yeah time for some Solid Snake butt kicking action. And to top it off the Virtual Console will just be the icing on the cake. Now if they can pull of a good pricing structure, I have heard rumors from around $200-$250, we will have a done deal. A Wii will be mine. Ohh and now I can pick up all those good Game Cube games used for a song and finally get a chance to play them.

Astral · Post by **Astral** » Mon May 15, 2006 5:39 am

Dude, there is no compertition anymore. PS3 has Blue, so blue has practicaly won. Unless HD can pull something compleatly amazing out of the bag, their gona get pummled.
I totaly agree with you about the Revelution though (the Wii, though I can't say that without giggling 'inuendo') its a true work of art, and I personaly will be several hundred pounds poorer when its releace date comes around

Shyal_malkes · Post by **Shyal_malkes** » Mon May 15, 2006 5:59 am

my brothers and I are never 'cutting edge' people. we usually get something after it's dropped a few prices, reguardless of how cheap it may have been beforehand.

we don't even have an Xbox360 yet, just one old Xbox, one new one, an old NES lying around somewhere, a playstation, and an old N64. most of our games are old and we've beaten them many times before.

still, it serves it's purpose of knowing what we wanna buy long before we buy it. and it is quite heartening to hear that there are some good prospects in the future.

but I never got into pokemon because I wanted in the hype, I got into it to see what the hype was about in the first place.

Madmoonie · Post by **Madmoonie** » Mon May 15, 2006 7:22 am

Did you go to E3? And not take me?!!!

Did anyone see who is in the new Smash Brothers game?

Gonna love see good old Snake in there mixing it up with Samus and Mario. Its gonnna be awhile before I can get ANY of the new systems....Although I really wanna try the new Zelda. That looks pretty neat. Supposed to be....mature than its predecessors. I don't mean tacky. I mean....serious. Not so kiddish. But on the whole, there was no real HALO or Half-Life power-house debued.....well, execept for HALO 3, of course. GAMERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE!

Doink · Post by **Doink** » Mon May 15, 2006 9:12 am

I am supremely annoyed by the PS3's high price. My current PS2 has just died in the middle of Kingdom Hearts II, thanks to my brother disassembling it. He SAYS it's broken, despite the fact that I could get it to play KH2 before he broke the thing himself. I'm torn between simply getting a new PS2 or waiting for the PS3, on the off chance that the new games are any good.

Wait, did you just say Solid Snake is appearing on Smash Brothers? Awesome! I can't wait to tell my brother about this!

Madmoonie · Post by **Madmoonie** » Mon May 15, 2006 10:13 am

Doink wrote:I am supremely annoyed by the PS3's high price. My current PS2 has just died in the middle of Kingdom Hearts II, thanks to my brother disassembling it. He SAYS it's broken, despite the fact that I could get it to play KH2 before he broke the thing himself. I'm torn between simply getting a new PS2 or waiting for the PS3, on the off chance that the new games are any good.

Wait, did you just say Solid Snake is appearing on Smash Brothers? Awesome! I can't wait to tell my brother about this!

go find the trailer online. Answers many questions.

Namrepus221 · Post by **Namrepus221** » Mon May 15, 2006 12:13 pm

Doink wrote:I am supremely annoyed by the PS3's high price. My current PS2 has just died in the middle of Kingdom Hearts II, thanks to my brother disassembling it. He SAYS it's broken, despite the fact that I could get it to play KH2 before he broke the thing himself. I'm torn between simply getting a new PS2 or waiting for the PS3, on the off chance that the new games are any good.

Wait, did you just say Solid Snake is appearing on Smash Brothers? Awesome! I can't wait to tell my brother about this!

http://www.richspsxparts.com

I swear by this guy, sold me the parts I needed to fix mine when the laser died and does repairs on consoles as well.

Dapple · Post by **Dapple** » Mon May 15, 2006 1:24 pm

I'm a big Zelda fan so I am dieing to get my hands on Twilite Princess.

I am supremely annoyed by the PS3's high price. My current PS2 has just died in the middle of Kingdom Hearts II, thanks to my brother disassembling it. He SAYS it's broken, despite the fact that I could get it to play KH2 before he broke the thing himself. I'm torn between simply getting a new PS2 or waiting for the PS3, on the off chance that the new games are any good.

I am pretty good at PS2 repairs, I am A+ comp tech certified, and I've had alot of practice. Have five PS2's lying around. Picked two of them up at garage sales for five bucks.
It's always best to wait a year or two before going out and buying the new stuff, so they can upgrade it a little, and fix any major bugs.
(PS2 laser death flaw)

Namrepus221 · Post by **Namrepus221** » Mon May 15, 2006 2:08 pm

Dapple wrote:I'm a big Zelda fan so I am dieing to get my hands on Twilite Princess.

I am supremely annoyed by the PS3's high price. My current PS2 has just died in the middle of Kingdom Hearts II, thanks to my brother disassembling it. He SAYS it's broken, despite the fact that I could get it to play KH2 before he broke the thing himself. I'm torn between simply getting a new PS2 or waiting for the PS3, on the off chance that the new games are any good.
I am pretty good at PS2 repairs, I am A+ comp tech certified, and I've had alot of practice. Have five PS2's lying around. Picked two of them up at garage sales for five bucks.
It's always best to wait a year or two before going out and buying the new stuff, so they can upgrade it a little, and fix any major bugs.
(PS2 laser death flaw)

Tell me about it.

I had one of the first PS2's in the States (9 hours in line folks)

And the laser died just about last year (Right when a game I wanted had just come out as well)

So I ordered the much better replacement laser (The original PS2's came with a 400C laser, the better ones are the 400B) and replaced it myself.

4 months go by and the new laser burns itself out...

Ugh.

I'm gonna end up replacing that one or selling the PS2 off for parts eventually.

Narnian · Post by **Narnian** » Mon May 15, 2006 3:44 pm

Of course one could save a lot of money and not play video games

Chess, reversi, backgammon, scrabble, dominoes, apples to apples, trivial pursuit, bridge, poker, mah jongg, boggle, cosmic wimp out, balderdash, etc. - never had 'em break.

Doink · Post by **Doink** » Mon May 15, 2006 5:01 pm

Narnian wrote:Of course one could save a lot of money and not play video games

Chess, reversi, backgammon, scrabble, dominoes, apples to apples, trivial pursuit, bridge, poker, mah jongg, boggle, cosmic wimp out, balderdash, etc. - never had 'em break.

You just can't get the same lightshow out of Monopoly, man.

Dapple · Post by **Dapple** » Mon May 15, 2006 5:59 pm

Four Way Chess!

Bengaley · Post by **Bengaley** » Tue May 16, 2006 12:12 am

My cousin has 4 way chess. One of these days I might actually play it.

Here's the curent state of gaming:

Nintendo did what they always do. Something that Sony and Microsoft seem to not understand is the power of character connection. Aside from Megaman and Spyro the Dragon, I can't recall any non-Square-Enix games for the PS or PS2 that REALLY caught my eye that have actual characters.

Xbox has the sports, and Halo - but Halo doesn't really connect. Sure, the plot is great and fun, but... still, I can't quite synch with Halo as well as other games.

But I am a child of the 16 bit console wars. I remeber when the NES was still selling strongly, I remeber when the SNES and the Genesis were fighting each other. Mario Mario vs Sonic the Hedgehog - you had no question about who was the system mascot for Sega and Nintendo.

I don't know if this is at all coherent, but...

Nintendo knows the power of the connection that gamers feel with the characters. How else are games like Mario, Zelda, Metroid, and Star Fox (My four Nintendo games, at least) able to repeatedly sell? Hum a Mario or Zelda song, and quite a few people will know it. Hellfire, I don't know a single person in the US who DOES NOT KNOW who Mario is.

Sony and Microsoft simply cannot compete with that. So they tried to ignore it... and thus, Nintendo competed with them by lack of competition by sticking where they know they rock.

Hellfire, I'll be the first to admit that the PSP is a nifty gadget. The DS is a better gaming platform, though - by far. If I want the features that the PSP has, I'll get a laptop.

Therein is the key: Gaming is about gaming, not about cramming as many additonal features are you can into the system.

IMO, Xbox 360 has lost steam, the PS3 is going to fail due to the high price (3DO, anyone?) and the Blu-Ray tech which IS going to blow up in Sony's face.

And the Wii? Nintendo has done stranger things in the past. After all, think objectivly about Mario - with all the messed up shit that happens in that platformer (giant mushrooms make you bigger? Sure, buddy.), I' not surprised that they're calling it the Wii. With the Wiimote.

Nintendo. They have the ability to laugh at themselves, and encourage the laughter. They have the Unholy 16 Bit Alliance of Sonic and Mario. They have honest-to-goodness loyalty in most of their customers.

By staying loyal to their purpose they've won the console wars. Sure, I KNOW I'm calling this too soon, but the XBOX 360 needs alot more steam aside from Halo 3, and the PS3 is going to be a lame duck with that starting price. Just judging from what I've seen... Nintendo's managed to survive again.

Anthony Lion · Post by **Anthony Lion** » Tue May 16, 2006 2:46 am

Amen bro!

The Wii is the first console I'll be buying as soon as it hit the stores.
(I've always waited for price-drops before)

The name, though... I'll be glueing a 'Revolution' sticker over the name before I power it on for the first time...

I already have the NES, SNES, N64, GC, GB, GBPocket, GBC, GBA and GBA DS from Nintendo, (anyone have a VirtualBoy for sale?), and tons of others, including 2 versions of Atari Lynx, the Philips CD-i and even the Atmark Pippin.

Gotta catch 'em all...
(Except for the Sony PSP or M$ Xbox or Xbox360)

SolidusRaccoon · Post by **SolidusRaccoon** » Tue May 16, 2006 3:13 am

Yeah a lot of good points, as I mentioned I don’t hate Microsoft or Sony, just have no interest in their next generation products at the moment, and I do own a PS2 for the record. But the Wii, has me hooked, I have never felt so much energy and anticipation for a gaming system, I usually wait a few years for all the kinks to get worked out and the price to come down before committing to buying. And it has been a good practice, I waited 3 years for the PS2 and got a better made model, waited when they first GBA came out, then I later got the superb GBA SP, put a hold on the DS, now I see the DS lite is coming out, and right there is another great example of Nintendo’s innovation, the DS is a spectacularly fun system to play, the games are so addictive and the concept of the dual screen and stylus really adds levels to the game play. And even though I have nothing against Sony, the PSP does nothing for me, Sure it looks pretty, but it just does not have the FUN FACTOR. There have been no PSP games that make we want the system. Now look at all the heat The New Super Mario Bros is getting, that game alone will sell the DS. And some of the games shown at E3 for the DS look just as fun to play, that is why I am a gamer, I want to have FUN.
And with the Wii I will have fun, and I will not wait to buy one like I usually do, Nintendo has a superb reputation of high quality so I am not concerned about the launch systems having any major defects. Unlike the competition which seems to always have technical issues with the launch systems.

Dapple · Post by **Dapple** » Tue May 16, 2006 1:36 pm

Personaly, I focus on the game I want, and then buy the consol that supports it. Not the other way around.
It's pretty much Insomiac Games, Enix-Square Soft, and naughtydog for the PS2 for me.

Sehvekah · Post by **Sehvekah** » Tue May 16, 2006 5:28 pm

I'm a PC gamer myself, and really don't have any intrest in consoles(nothing personal, it's just I feel I'll get better value for my time/money by focusing on one platform. Course, the whole mod scene doesn't hurt any[Kung Fu for Max Payne? Hell Yeah!]).

Still, I'm saving up to buy a Wii in time for christmas(for my little bro, who's got a game cube and my old N64). Nintendo may never again have the market share they did with the NES, but with the, err, competition, they're facing, I can't help but think the Wii's gonna do a lot better than the GC did.

BlasTech · Post by **BlasTech** » Tue May 16, 2006 6:35 pm

does the wii do the whole "play the last gen's console games" thing that the xbox 360 does for some games?

Sehvekah · Post by **Sehvekah** » Tue May 16, 2006 7:06 pm

No, sadly, it doesn't do backwards compatability for some Game Cube games.

It does it for all* of them. And then some!

*=There may be a handfull of games that don't work quite right on the Wii, but at the least it should support the vast majority of GC games.

Madmoonie · Post by **Madmoonie** » Wed May 17, 2006 10:47 am

OH HAPPY DAY! One of the greatest games ever made is debueing a new chapter! Command & Conquer 3: Tiberian Wars has recently been announced by....I think EA. Not sure....but doesn't matter cause there is new C&C! WHOOPEEEEE!