E3 has come around again so soon (it appears), or am I just getting older? Bah, humbug. Anyhow, after Sony’s kitchen-sink-approach to keynotes and surprises I’ll only highlight in brief a few items that have piqued my interest:
PlayStation Move
Speaking of the devil, the Move has finally been priced and dated which ‘moves’ it out of the vapourware category. Should be an interesting direction to take the PS3, but who exactly is it aimed at? If it’s mainly children, then they’ve already got the Wii, and for parents the Wii is a heck of a lot cheaper. This concerns me.
I’ll qualify the above with a caveat though: the PlayStation has the best tech in this area now. Way more accurate (1:1 tracking) than anything the Wii can offer with better graphics and sound to boot, and more tactile than the Xbox 360’s Project Natal Kinect product. I’m sorry, but waving your arms about can be hit and miss whilst gaming whether you’re a seasoned gamer or a casual one. That’s just the way it is.
Killzone 3
The graphics should be spectacular, and it has support for PlayStation Move.
3D gaming has arrived
This isn’t really a big deal for me, as I don’t buy into the whole 3D spiel just yet. However I can’t argue with the fact that this is potentially another exciting avenue for the PS3 (and gaming in general) to be going down.
Portal 2
If you’d have told me a week ago that Gabe Newell would be actually present at Sony’s E3 keynote with a native Valve game AND proclaim that it would be the best console version, I would have just laughed. And laughed. Now I get to eat my own hat. But seriously, this is an epic win for the PS3 platform as it means that going forward, we now have Valve working on first-class games for the system.
And maybe, just maybe, good ol’ Gabe won’t slate the PS3 quite so much going forward!
Gran Turismo 5 gets dated
That’s good enough for me. I mean, months turned into years (almost 2 years since the Prologue version!) and hope turned into despair. The end is in sight now!
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
Not only am I very excited about the next instalment in the series after the sublime sequel, but it’s also nice to get a few perks. I’m taking about the PS3-exclusive multiplayer beta. Good stuff.
Medal of Honor
The PS3-exclusive special edition includes a HD remastering of Medal of Honor: Frontline. Whether this is a deal breaker for some, who knows? But again, it is nice to get some exclusive perks. Over the years is has been frustrating to say the least, seeing treasured PlayStation franchises lose their exclusivity. So what was announced in the keynote along these lines restores a bit of equilibrium in my eyes anyway.
inFamous 2
I’m really unsure about the change of art style and re-think of the main characters(s) as this can lose the cohesiveness that is usually found in a series. However I’m willing to look the other way on this one as I really enjoyed the last game, and I trust Sucker Punch to make the sequel even more epic. I can picture the crackle of electrical power to be wielded already. Muwahaha!
So there you go, just some thoughts of mine. Am I spot-on, or a bit wide of the mark in some places?
I was quietly hoping for some information on Dirt 3 from Codemasters, but to date there’s been no mention. Medal of Honor just seemed to me to be an utter ripoff of Call of Duty, and not a patch on the originals.
Can’t argue with a GT5 release date though
DiRT has gone a bit too ‘multi-discipline’ for my liking; I’d rather have a pure rallying game like the old Colin McRae or WRC games.
I hear you on Call of Duty though, nothing beats it in my mind (yet). Not even Battlefield Bad Company 2 could sway me.