E3 '05: Half Baked

In what's becoming a really sucky annual tradition, I caught a cold the day before the show started. Maybe that's part of the reason why this year's E3 only scored a "Meh" on my Rock-'O-Meter, although there was a lot to be apathetic about.

I suppose it really was a big deal that three major new game consoles were unveiled (well, we'd already seen the Xbox tree-siddy on MTV's sad shambles of an infomercial, but let's just pretend that debacle didn't happen, shall we?). Here's my two-cents on each:

*** Xbox 360 ***
I still think it looks cool — not bat-guano crazy cool, but it's lightyears beyond that big, black Frankenstien's monster that came before it. I LOVE the controller. It's smaller, lighter, looks cooler, and feels more solid. I'm a little concerned about the new shoulder buttons, though; the lower triggers work fine, but I have to stretch my fingers too much to reach the new higher ones. Still, Microsoft deserves a big, tasty cookie. They've gone from having the worst controller last gen (at launch, anyway) to possibly having the best one next gen (especially if Sony goes through with that silver "boomerang" oddity for PS3).
There wasn't a single 360 game that I REALLY can't wait to play, though. I'll settle for a very DOA3-looking DOA4, Project Gotham Racing 3 (still pretty much sight unseen), and the sweet-looking Ghost Recon (although I normally have no interest in that series). Sega's 360 tech demos, Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and especially Gears of War looked great (although the latter two chugged along at horrible framerates). It's painfully obvious that the 360 won't really be ready to launch this year, although they're going to push it out, anyway. Nobody has real development kits yet, and we're only six months away from launch. Cripes. Developers have told me that Microsoft's claims of 25 or so games by year's end simply won't happen. And where's Perfect Dark Zero, the system's supposed "Halo" for launch? After stinking up the place with its abysmal MTV debut (and subsequent ass-tacular screen shots), its absence from the show floor did little to inspire the Xbox faithful.
But where the 360 is really going to kick ass is with its services. The integration of Live into the console is so far beyond anything Sony's ever dreamed of that it seems highly unlikely that PS3 will match it anytime soon. I'll settle for a slight hit in graphics if I can play 360 games with my bud in Japan with voice chat. Really, when it comes to online gaming, is Sony even that far ahead of Nintendo?

*** Nintendo Revolution ***
It's tough to judge the Rev's E3 showing, because it basically didn't show up at all. In the long-term I doubt it will matter that we didn't find out everything we wanted to know about it, but for now, it's another in a long list of reasons to shrug your shoulders about Nintendo. I think the look of it is... okay. Well, good, actually. I like that it clearly doesn't look like a toy, and should appeal to the mainstream crowd that turned its nose up at the purple 'cube. Its size makes the other next-gen consoles look big and bulky, and the glowing blue disc slot is uber cool. It just needs a little more personality; more of a unique touch. Hopefully the design will continue to shape up.
No games were shown, except for the very low-key Metroid clip. Third-party support still seems like a big uphill battle for the system. I'll buy it on day one for online Smash Bros., though. I like the idea of being able to download old Nintendo games, but I'll probably like it a lot less once I see what they'll charge me for them. Having to buy an add-on to play DVDs is just dumb. Why bother?

*** PlayStation 3 ***
This console gets my vote for sexiest look — especially the silver metal flake version on display at Sony's booth. The Spider-Man font for the logo is a little goofy, but it looks cool enough. The controller has me worried. Yeah, it's boring when they trot out the same DualShock design time and time again, but hey, if it ain't broke... My first thought upon seeing it was that Sony must need extra long handles to house a new kind of dual-motor design since they got mega-sued over the old one. Either that, or they wanted to show something quirky so that later on, when they steal whatever nutty ideas Nintendo's planning for the Revolution controller, they can say "See? We planned to do a new controller all along!" The silver boomerang is a little less scary in person, when you realize it's smaller than you thought... but still...
The games — God, please let them really look that good. I've heard mixed reports from "people in the know" as to how real or fake those clips were. If the PS3 can really make that Killzone trailer run in real-time, it's game over for everyone else. Whether it can or can't though, Sony has to be called out for flat-out lying about this footage. It was all presented as real games, glimpses of what the PS3 WILL do. Even if Killzone does come close to that level of quality, it ain't there yet, since the game has barely been started. Sony faked up a smokin' trailer just to dump all over 360's Perfect Dark Zero, and it did just that. After the PS3 showing, the buzz around the show was that Microsoft's next sysem is about to get its ass kicked. Hard. With steel-toed boots. It didn't help that none of the 360 games were running at anything close to the system's full power.

As for the rest of the show, there were plenty of good games on display for the PS2, a few predictable gems for Gamecube, and very little for Xbox. Put a fork in that system, it's done the moment 360 comes out. The DS has rebounded very well from the early PSP hype — I'm much more pumped for Mario Kart, Nintendogs, Animal Crossing, New Super Mario Bros. and more than I am for anything PSP's got cooking (although Pursuit Force and Daxter looked very promising).

Here are the games that stood out the most to me:

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - My early pick for Game of the Year. (It's still go to beat God of War, though.)
Okami - Probably the year's coolest new game that, unfortunately, won't sell more than a couple hundred thousand units.
Dead Rising - Not a benchmark next-gen game by any means, but it was fun to play.
Pursuit Force - A rare non-port for PSP that harkened back to good ol' arcade gameplay.
Daxter - Another original PSP title — what are the odds? The prettiest PSP game to date.
Black - I don't usually care for FPSs, but this game is drop-dead gorgeous.
Sega's 360 demos of Virtua Fighter, Sonic, & Afterburner - Could it be? Classic Sega revamps that might not suck?
Mario Kart & Animal Crossing DS - Finally, online goodness from Nintendo!
Mario Soccer & Baseball - Actually looked like a lot of fun.
Tomb Raider - Core, THAT'S how you do it! Glad to see this series back on track.

Man, there's so much more that I haven't even touched on. I guess this really was a good show overall; it's just hard to get too excited about the current generation anymore, and we didn't get nearly enough of the next-gen stuff. The transition seems to be happening so much slower than before. Ah well, I've got my Xbox tree-siddy preordered, PS3 is officially on the radar, and we've got another year's worth of Revolution specuation to keep us occupied when things get boring. E3 2005 didn't quite live up to its potential, but at least we've got a good stack of games to look forward to :)