E3 Observations

Microsoft

So I stayed up past midnight, awaiting the live stream of the Microsoft conference, and boy did I regret it the next day when I had to front up to work dead tired. The MS conference was disappointing, and despite being a long time fan of both the original Xbox and Xbox 360, I have to say that the wheels have truly come off for Microsoft. Speaking from personal experience only, I've almost completely moved from 360 to the PS3. I don't like having to pay for Live, and regardless, my 360 is one of the old ones with no WI-FI. MS made a gamble to get the 360 out first but for the early adopters, would you rather buy another 360 to update it or just go for the PS3 with Blu-Ray, a larger HDD, built-in WI-FI and free online. Surely there's quite a few hard core gamers who went for the PS3 once it showed what it can do. So the message of this year's press conference was that all the 3rd party games will be on 360, there's a lot of media content on 360 and that Kinect exists. So like I said, my 360 doesn't have WI-FI so I'm not interested in the media, all those games will be on PS3 as well and the voice control in Mass Effect 3 doesn't interest me in the slightest. Gears of War 3 obviously looks great, and I know it will be as brilliant as both it's predecessors were, but the predictable Halo reveals, really didn't stir me up at all, and when you look at Sony's exclusives coming this year, and the massive Nintendo news, and it really looks like MS is running last in this race now, at least for me.

Sony

I'm loving my PS3 more every year and 2011 and early 2012 are shaping up as the best for the Sony system. Uncharted 3, probably the best series of this generation, as well as Resistance 3, Infamous 2, Twisted Metal and others just re-emphasized Sony's superiority over Microsoft in the software department. And the pricing of their new portable system the Vita would have made a lot of people happy. I love my PSP. I'll admit that the great games for it were few and far between but the good ones did deliver, and the multimedia capabilities are still far superior to most portable devices. Expandable storage and a brilliant and large screen means the PSP is a blessing for me on holiday. So they don't really need a ton of games coming out, just a few must haves like the Uncharted they've been showing off, and I'm pretty much sold. Now the fact it may also allow the PS3 to leverage the same capabilities as the new Wii U and you can see why Microsoft are up against it. 

Nintendo 

I've never been much of a Nintendo fan. I was a Sega kid all the way in the 8 and 16-bit wars and  then a Sony and Xbox fan. But the new Wii U has me super excited. Finally you can play all the big 3rd party games, in a unique way to boot as well as hopefully numerous exclusives. The big question is how long will Nintendo's power dominance last as MS and Sony prepare their next generation of machines. Nevertheless, Nintendo are counting on building a sizeable lead by then. If the price is reasonable and the launch titles strong, I will be itching to get it, and from a non-Nintendo fan I think that's a pretty strong backing. Nintendo's worry should be that the 3DS is waning with weak launch titles, little to discern itself from the everlasting DS/i/XL and little reason for many people to get it. Now that the Sony Vita has been announced at the same price as the 3DS I would say Nintendo should be feeling threatened for the first time in a long time in the handheld market. But the wow factor of the Wii U overshadowed this and gave gamers a lot to look forward to, as well as Microsoft and Sony. 

The Games - 

There were a lot of big titles shown at E3, including stage demos of Gears of War 3, Mass Effect 3, Modern Warfare 3(!) and a ton of others. But I was really impressed by Rage which seems like a blend of Bioshock and Borderlands, but with brilliant graphics, and seemingly a lot of variety and a ton of gameplay. 

Bioshock 3 also has me super excited. The first one was one of the greatest of this generation and this looks to be an awesome re-imagining of the Bioshock genre. The multiplayer FPS battle will be fascinating this time around as Battlefield 3 has been absolutely dazzling with what's been shown so far and with the MW3 team having a lot pressure on them Still, what was seen of MW3 also looked superb. I've always been a CoD fan but Black Ops was lackluster and I've been waiting for Battlefield to deliver for a long time. This might be their turn.

Bring on next years E3. 

Review - X-Men First Class

Is this the best X-Men movie? Well it certainly has a couple of things it does better than any of it's predecessors. The costumes are excellent. Spot on. An homage to retro but still looking sleek and stylish. And the story is strong too. It's an origin one of sorts, showing the creating of the personas of Magneto and Professor X and the formation of the X-Men. In fact, some of the strongest parts of the movie involved pre-Magneto Erik Lehnsherr as a child in Nazi concentration camps as he is tormented by a brilliant Kevin Bacon and then as an adult on his one man crusade against the Nazi who got away. Charles Xavier's story is a little less interesting but James McAvoy does a fine job as a young, brash and idealistic soon to be Professor X. However once the background is set the movie pushes full steam ahead into the conflict part of it's story, culminating in the inevitable epic battle. There is an interesting take on Xavier's paralysis here but it's also a let down in that drawing of the line between Magneto and Xavier is predictable and safe, laying down the groundwork for the next movie but not leaving anything interesting to ponder in the meantime. The other negative was the haphazard manner in which the team was assembled and the X-Men formed. There was no explanation or reasoning why these particular mutants were selected, and the code-name sequences were a little corny. Nevertheless, this is mostly nitpicking. The strong points are brilliant and these negatives are minor. As I mentioned, Kevin Bacon is awesome. If you don't consider him a bad-ass you will after First Class. The acting is very strong overall actually, Michael Fassbender particularly impressive, though I swear I said January Jones as Emma Frost was terrible before it became a Twitter storm. And Michael Ironsidemaking an appearance was good to see too. Did I mention the costumes? The whole look and feel of the movie, coupled with the strong acting, effects and story telling certainly put this high on the Marvel movie list, let alone the X-Men movie list and it bodes well for future of the series. Definitely a must see.