So, first of the big three was the giant Microsoft. Coming into this, they had been pretty tight lipped. All we had were a few pieces of hype, like revolutionising and such.
What they delivered was by no means something to scoff at, it was a pretty good line-up. Besides showing off some Final Fantasy XIII (not much of interest, some stuff from the PS3 demo with some new footage as well). Soon things shifted into gear when Epic revealed a Metroidvania-esque game coming to XBLA, and it looked pretty awesome actually. This is the sort of shit Nintendo needs to do with Metroid, and the fact that they won’t do it annoys me to no end. So, one can see things started off pretty interesting.
Crackdown 2 also got a bit of a look, but I never really looked into the first one so seeing this was kind of moot to me. However, Splinter Cell – Conviction was a different matter on the other hand. It has changed a lot from its first appearance, but I’ll stick to Metal Gear Solid…. speaking of which…
However, sadly, things took a turn for the boring when they dragged out Halo: ODST. No matter what anyone says, it still looks like another game bearing the Halo label. I will confess, it is looking very pretty. And visually the game did make my draw drop a bit. Announced its date for September, pretty cool for XBox owners really. However, credibility I held for Bungie slipped when they announced Halo: Reach. A new Halo title apparently, it drops next year and ODST will come with a beta code. I hereby predict that Halo: Reach will contain a beta code for Halo 4. Or for increased irony Crackdown 2 will contain a beta code for Halo 4. One of the two.
…Oh yeah, Kojima. He rocked up, revealed Metal Gear Solid: Rising, featuring the label Lightening Bolt Action. Where to start, contrary to original beliefs this game is also being developed for PS3 apparently. And it will star Raiden, not involving Solid Snake (unless he is in flashbacks or something, still possible) and apart from that we can’t tell much. I’m expecting more of a reveal from Sony’s conference. As expected, no MGS4 for 360 though. And really that’s the main thing. This was a pretty big revelation nonetheless, because Kojima’s teaser had been uber hyping some sort of reveal for a long time. I don’t like how cocky this will make Microsoft though, they are going to get a lot more annoying to listten to now.
After dealing with some Sony stuff, Microsoft next moved to take on the competition leader, Nintendo. Revealing Project Natal, which I think looks quite a bit silly. Interesting, but silly. In my opinion, seems a bit like a glorified EyeToy. Obviously not a complete rip-off, but it is definitely reminding me of that a lot. I don’t like this “YOU ARE THE CONTROLLER” talk either, I’m a human being… not an inanimate object! Also seem to be getting rid of the need for friends by allowing you to stream movies to a virtual cinema where you and your Avatar buddies can watch and react like emotes (instead of going to the movies) and some weird AI-like feature. XBox 360, forget real life just use this.
They also revealed some stuff about streaming TV from Sky, but that was of not much interest to me. Because my TV is used for TV. Or my internet. I don’t need a console for it.
