It’s that time of year again. That week in May when I am willing to turn my TV to the abominable G4. Yep, it’s E3 time! And this is looking like the biggest freakin E3 yet. G4 has 3-hour coverage of each day’s events, which I record so that I can watch all of it in 30 minutes, including the fast-forward time (yeah, that much of it is unwatchable garbage). Sure the trailers are available on the internet, but there’s something about seeing them on TV that’s more appealing. That, and they have had a few interesting interviews (most notably for me, Will Wright and John Carmack).
So Sony is pricing the low end PS3 at five hundred dollars!! What are they thinking? And if you want 802.11b (and HDMI output and a bigger hard drive), you’ll have to shell out six hundred dollars. I think I’ll pass. Up until a week ago, I thought BluRay was going to win over HD-DVD, because I thought that the PS3 would be most people’s first high definition DVD player. Now I’m not sure that the PS3 will be quite so widespread, and I have serious concerns regarding the content of their bloodstream when they decided this price. Microsoft couldn’t have asked for more. I’m now thinking maybe I’ll get a 360 some day, after the first price drop (usually comes a little over a year after launch). I think part of the death blow for the PS3 is going to be their cell processor. John Carmack said the cell is much more powerful than the 360 at peak performance, but that it would be very difficult to write games that took advantage of this power. If John Carmack thinks it is too hard to program for, what hope does Joe Developer have?
The big news of course is Nintendo. Look at all the games they’ve got:
Super Mario Galaxy: A really cool looking Mario game set in outer space. Check out that trailer!
The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess: Link is back and he’s not a cartoon.
Metroid Prime 3: Doesn’t look like a huge leap forward, but I imagine the Wiimote will make it feel incredible.
Super Smash Brothers Brawl: Smash is back!! With Solid Snake?? Maybe there will be other third-party characters.. Sonic anyone?
Red Steel: If they get the alleged control issues worked out, this could be this generation’s Goldeneye. One neat thing I heard is that to open doors, you twist your left hand (as if using a doorknob). I thought that was pretty clever.
With most people guessing the Wii will launch at $249 or even $199, I could get Wii and all five games I mentioned for the price of a PS3 with no games. Seems like a no-brainer. Interesting side note: every Nintendo console system has launched at $199.
Some other games that look stupid hot (off the top of my head)- Halo 3, Too Human, Metal Gear Solid 4, and Spore (I’m looking forward to that one).
Something I haven’t seen addressed: Link is left handed. Will I have to swing my left hand to use the sword? I know that pushing your right hand forward will shove someone with the shield, and that spinning your left hand does a spin attack.. What about Red Steel, do you think you’ll be able to play with your gun or dominant sword in your left hand (if you’re left handed)? It’s an accessibility issue that developers haven’t had to address before..
May 11, 11:22 am
They better cater to me being left handed or I’m gonna write a letter. Don’t tempt me, cause I’ll do it. And you can be sure it’ll be a sternly worded letter too.
May 12, 4:26 pm
From what I’ve read, the Wii has stolen the show at E3. Apparently, the Sony presentation on the PS3 was utterly horrible, and the Nintendo presentation was at the complete opposite end of the spectrum (really good).
One interesting feature I read about was the use of Doppler shift in the Wii. The controller has a speaker in it that the developers can make use of. So, in Zelda, you fire an arrow with the controller, and the sound travels from the controller to the TV. Wicked!
I think Nintendo is really capitalizing on all of the mistakes that Sony has made so far. The price of the Sony unit is simply ridiculous, and there seems to be little innovation for the platform.
I’ve had a feeling all along, however, that Blu-ray would never catch on. Sony has never been successful at implementing a great standard format for everyone (with the exceptions of the 3.5” floppy and the DVD format, the latter of which was actually a joint venture with Phillips). BetaMax anyone? How about HiFD or the MiniDisc? Besides, Microsoft is behind HD-DVD. Losing Microsoft means losing the entire computer market, something no sane company would want.
Edit: You should add support for the and HTML elements.
May 12, 9:58 pm
Agreed, except that Microsoft being behind HD-DVD doesn’t really mean much since they’re a software company. I mean, it’s not like your Blu-ray-ROM drive wouldn’t work in Windows (you may just have to jump through an extra hoop), and HD-DVD will be an add-on to the already-expensive XBox 360 so I don’t think that will cause much additional penetration into the market. And Blu-ray does still have a larger segment of Hollywood behind it. And it’s superior, technically speaking. But it’s just so expensive! I think Beta was the same way--superior to VHS but too expensive.
But like I was telling OJ a few weeks ago- I’m not buying into either technology yet, because I don’t really want to have a bunch of 8-track DVD’s lying around in five years.
PS- The hippie-friendly and tags are now supported. :)