My Perspective on E3

This post isn’t going to cover everything from this year’s E3. Nor is it going to tell you the same things that everyone else is already saying (Assassin’s Creed 2 and Splinter Cell: Conviction both look great). I’m going to try and touch on a few things with a perspective that other people aren’t talking about. These are in no particular order.

Joy Ride: I know what you’re thinking. “Really? This looks like junk.” To most gamers you’d be correct, but there’s something important going on here no one seems to want to talk about. Microsoft is trying out a free-to-play MMO for the first time on a console. Until now, free-to-play on a console has meant pack-in. This game is a free-to-play XBLA game with aesthetic microtransactions. That could be a big deal. It’s clear Microsoft doesn’t need too much of a return on this game for it to be profitable (it doesn’t look like it took too long to create), and if it does well we may see something closer to Maple Story for the Xbox in the future.

Saboteur: I’d heard about this game before, and I wasn’t interested. As a general rule I don’t get going for WWII games. This game, however, looks really cool. I think of it kind of like an open-world stealth game. Like Assassin’s Creed, but in WWII. I did love Assassin’s Creed. This game just jumped onto my “must buy” list.

Wet: This is another game that I knew about before E3 (I’d actually seen it on X-Play) and wasn’t crazy about. I’m still not sold that this game has what it takes to be a AAA game, but I could still see myself enjoying it. After watching a demo on G4 with Eliza Dushku talking about voicing the character, I think that this game could have enough style to draw me in. I’m not expecting anything amazing, but sometimes low expectations can make for fun experiences.

Nintendo’s Press Conference: I won’t go through the whole thing, but I noticed a sharp contrast between this conference and the one last year. Last year Nintendo was packed full of smiles and laughs. Everyone at Nintendo wanted to be your friend. This year it was all business. Clearly Nintendo America was a little stung by their reception last year. I was quite impressed at how business-like this conference was, and how much they wanted to impress the value of Nintendo for the hardcore. I still don’t think the third-party games will do well, simply because hardcore gamers don’t like the console as much for hardcore games as they do others. But if you really want to see how Nintendo brought the big guns this year, don’t dwell on Metroid, look at FOUR Mario games. Consider it brought.

Sony’s Press Conference: A lot of people came out this year liking Sony, rather than last year’s debacle. What’s strange is that last year’s conference held more for me than this year. Last year, Sony showed why people who don’t have a PS3 ought to be interested in the console. This year, Sony firmly entrenched themselves in the pocket of the market they already have (with the exception of Hanna Montana on PSP). Guys like me, who’ve never been into the classic Playstation franchises, didn’t really have anything to sink their teeth into (Assassin’s Creed 2 doesn’t count because it’s multi-platform). The kart racer that’s similar to Little Big Planet looks vaguely interesting, but if it’s like LBP in the controls department (by which I mean shitty) then I’m again not sold. Sony didn’t drop their price as we all thought they would. They joked about the various leaks, but I have to say that if there was one message I got from Sony this year it’s “We like where we are and we’re not changing.” And just think, two weeks ago everyone was saying that if Sony wants to survive they need some big change (price drop, new UI, etc.). I’m curious to see how this pans out.

These few points are by no means everything that caught my eye at E3 this year, but they are the ones I thought I had something at least a little fresh to say about. Notice I didn’t mention Microsoft’s press conference? I’ll just say that I think they did the best job of melding the spectacle (Ringo and Paul anyone?) with the games. I can tell that there are a lot of games coming up in 2009 that I’ll be buying (special mentions for Brutal Legend and Halo 3: ODST, just because they’re not in the post yet). That being said, I’ve got to go play through my pile of shame to make room for some new titles.