Some 3rd Generation Info
To whom it may concern; I have compiled some information I have gathered over the last week via E3 coverage and a VERY well-informed visitor to Gamestop, about the next gen consoles (Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii). It's very very long, so be prepared for a read. Please read it, I worked so hard on it :P
Xbox 360
First let's get the easy one out of the way. As Microsoft has already released their 3rd gen console prematurely, they didn't have much to say at E3. One of the best games, in my opinion, announced and shown was Gears of War. I am not a fan of Microsoft, and the 360 never really blew me away, but this game looked absolutely incredible. It's a 3rd person shooter - 1st person when you aim your weapon - and the graphics were fantastic. The gameplay looked good as well, with a cover system that seems to work well. Also, there was a clip of a human running up to an enemy and ripping into him with a chainsaw blade attached to the bottom of his gun, which needless to say is beyond cool.
Secondly, Microsoft showed a clip of gameplay from Halo 3. When I say "clip", I'm being generous. It was about 10 seconds of Master Chief walking towards a cliff, with a bunch of ships flying around. Of course, these were some damn fine looking ships and Master Chief looked better than ever, but I guess that's about all the footage we can expect from a game not slated to launch until around 2007.
I didn't catch much else, gamewise, about the 360, at least from E3. If what I heard is true, they may be re-releasing the Xbox 360 in Japan since it did so badly at first launch (most stores over there were dropping 360 prices the first day), due to no RPGs or Fighters (The 2 biggest game niches in Japan).
PS3
The Playstation 3 announcements were a little more buzz-inducing than Microsoft's, but still nothing staggering. The biggest announcements were Metal Gear Solid 4, which wasn't really huge because that's been announced and speculated upon for ages now, and Warhawk, an airplane flying game utilizing the 6-degree tilt sensor that the PS3 soundly ripped off of the Nintendo Wii controller, after slamming it a little while back. Some other announced titles were nothing special; a few racing games - Gran Turismo HD and Formula One 06 - and Genji 2 (eh, kind of cool I guess).
The Playstation 3: An editorial - Up until recently I had been looking forward to the PS3. I have always been a bit of a Playstation fanboy (can you say Final Fantasy?) and I was really hoping that the PS3 would continue Sony's console track record of longevity. Alas, as more and more news of the system came to my attention, I became more and more worried, and I just can't take it anymore. Here's why;
The PS3 will launch with 2 versions (sound familiar?) The $500 version with a 20G hard drive, and the $600 with a 40G hard drive. No, I did not mis-type those numbers. Now that everyone has gotten over the ridiculous cost of the Xbox 360, here comes the PS3 to dig even further into your college book and pizza fund. Overall, for this and some other reasons, I can't see the PS3 doing very well. One of the other said reasons is the BluRay disk format that Sony has created, mostly, for the system.
Sony has a long history of trying to create new media formats that fail miserably. Remember BetaMax, the hopeful contender to VHS a long time ago? They cost twice as much to produce (at a time when VHS tapes were about $70 and VHS players were around $600), so Beta flopped. More recently, Sony failed again with the UMD format for the PSP system, a video format usable ONLY on the PSP.
Sony seems to want royalties so badly that they keep inventing costly new media formats that apply to nobody else in the market but themselves, and then wondering why it failed when people went with VHS and DVD. there are plenty more failed formats that Sony has tried, by the way, such as the Digital Audio Tape (See? You've probably never even HEARD of that one), but I just can't recall any more right now.
Anyways, I can forsee the exact same thing happening with BluRay. Right now Sony has developed a severely expensive (allbeit with more information capacity) new format to hopefully corner the market if it catches on. But it won't, since a DVD player costs half as much and holds more than enough information for at least movies. What then, you may say, is this extra space going towards as far as video games are concerned?
The answer is... nothing you, the buyer, will ever get to see. The extra information on the BluRay discs is mostly going to be used to have the game in several languages on the same disc, so that Sony won't have to regionally encode the game and relaunch it in different countries. So, basically, YOU pay more for a disc so that SONY doesn't have to pay to redo the game for another country. I'm sure the game quality may be somewhat improved, but that's basically all you'll get out of it. BluRay is the main reason the PS3 is costing so much, and that's with Sony LOSING a lot of money (BluRay players by themselves are, from what I heard, going to go for around $1000), so Sony is once again shooting itself in the foot, and I would predict that the BluRay is going to go the way of the Laserdisk. And the BetaMax, and the UMD, and the DAT...
Oh, and did I mention? The PS3, while having more graphical capability than the Wii or Xbox 360, is apparently so hard and expensive to
develop games for, that a lot of developers don't even want to bother. The problem is that, without getting into the technical details (Mostly because I don't know them) the PS3 basically requires the developers to program the games the exact opposite way that games are and have been developed for ages. I don't know exactly how that works, but the description gives you a good idea why so many developers might be apprehensive about working with the PS3.
Wii
I have saved the best for last. I'll be honest; I don't like the name. But everything else about the system, I love. First of all, let's look at the announced titles. Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (HUGE buzz on that one), Super Smash Bros. Brawl (with new characters like Metaknight from Kirby, Pit from Kid Icarus, Samus Zero Suit, Wario, and - huge surprise here - Solid Snake of Metal gear Solid), Red Steel (probably the first of a long line of FPS games to incorporate the Wii's controller... more on that later), Metroid Prime 3, and Mario Galaxy, among others.
Now, here's the thing that gets me. This year's E3 was, unquestionably, Nintendo's. They dominated with their new system, unique controller, and huge titles. Not only that, but they did all this WITHOUT mentioning the incredible backwards compatibility of the Wii, OR the Virtual Console (You'll be able to download thousands of old NES, SNES and other games, for a price.) At least as far as I know, they didn't mention it.
The controller of the Wii boasts the same tilt sensor that the PS3 ganked, but also, the laser at the front will allow depth perception, which really pushes the Wii to the forefront. Don't worry though, you won't be stuck with it; word is, a shell will be available that you can plug the remote into for regular controller gameplay.
This controller is great news for Nintendo. This means not only will a LOT of game developers be onboard for the Wii (meaning a LOT of big and/or new titles, fixing the problem that crippled the Gamecube), since many developers have said how much they love the Wii controller and the new ground it can break in gaming, and not only have developers said that the Wii is cheaper (that is, 1/4th the cost), easier and more fun to develop games for than the other 2 next-gen systems, but a lot of these new titles will probably be first-person shooters (I mean, the basic controller has a built-in Light Gun!), which could in turn attract some more adult-oriented titles, which will break the stigma Nintendo has always had of being a "Little Kid System".
The main reason I love the Nintendo Wii, however, is the price. Averaging out all the different prices I have read and heard, the price will probably be around $200-250. That's half (Or less than half, depending on which version you get) the price of the PS3. That means you could buy a Wii, an entire library of games, and probably download quite a bit as well, for less than the cost of just the PS3 SYSTEM. There's no way to compete with that. Nintendo has said they don't plan on actively "competing" with the other 2 contenders, but I have a feeling that the Wii will destroy them no matter what, even though it's graphics power won't be much improved over the Gamecube's (which still has some damn good graphics capability).
In summary, Microsoft prematurely shot it's wad by releasing the Xbox360 so much earlier than the other 2 next-gen systems, and so not only had very little to announce at E3, but unless they step up their system's functionality and push it's potential, may go the way of the Sega Dreamcast.
Sony had a few decent titles to announce at E3, but because of the fact that Sony is once again trying to invent new media formats (Like they did with UMD's for the PSP, which have failed miserably, among other formats over the years) and that this esoteric format is the main reason the PS3 is costing $500-600, I can't see the PS3 being very successful.
Nintendo, without a doubt, owned E3 this year. Having announced the least of the 3 next-genners beforehand, the Nintendo Wii had the most to show off, including a lot of big titles like Super Smash Bros. Melee, LoZ: Twilight Princess, and Mario Galaxy to name a few, and the controller that has directional tilt sensors and a laser sensor at the front for depth. This controller (and the fact that the Wii is the cheapest, easiest and most fun to develop games for) will lead the way to a lot of developers signing up with Nintendo to make groundbreaking new games, which in my opinion will lead to a lot of First-Person Shooters, which in turn will lead to more adult-oriented titles, giving the Wii a more universal appeal - all of this at only $250, less than half the price of the PS3.
I see a great future for Nintendo (Having revolutionized the way games will be played with a new controller and a LOT of potential new titles),a decent future for Microsoft (Who now has an established fanbase and now has a relatively low priced system, and a system who's power is becoming more and more apparent and utilized), and a bad future for Sony (who is once again trying to create new formats out of thin air that cost far more than they're worth, while most likely doing little to improve on its competitors other than ripping off their ideas).
Xbox 360
First let's get the easy one out of the way. As Microsoft has already released their 3rd gen console prematurely, they didn't have much to say at E3. One of the best games, in my opinion, announced and shown was Gears of War. I am not a fan of Microsoft, and the 360 never really blew me away, but this game looked absolutely incredible. It's a 3rd person shooter - 1st person when you aim your weapon - and the graphics were fantastic. The gameplay looked good as well, with a cover system that seems to work well. Also, there was a clip of a human running up to an enemy and ripping into him with a chainsaw blade attached to the bottom of his gun, which needless to say is beyond cool.
Secondly, Microsoft showed a clip of gameplay from Halo 3. When I say "clip", I'm being generous. It was about 10 seconds of Master Chief walking towards a cliff, with a bunch of ships flying around. Of course, these were some damn fine looking ships and Master Chief looked better than ever, but I guess that's about all the footage we can expect from a game not slated to launch until around 2007.
I didn't catch much else, gamewise, about the 360, at least from E3. If what I heard is true, they may be re-releasing the Xbox 360 in Japan since it did so badly at first launch (most stores over there were dropping 360 prices the first day), due to no RPGs or Fighters (The 2 biggest game niches in Japan).
PS3
The Playstation 3 announcements were a little more buzz-inducing than Microsoft's, but still nothing staggering. The biggest announcements were Metal Gear Solid 4, which wasn't really huge because that's been announced and speculated upon for ages now, and Warhawk, an airplane flying game utilizing the 6-degree tilt sensor that the PS3 soundly ripped off of the Nintendo Wii controller, after slamming it a little while back. Some other announced titles were nothing special; a few racing games - Gran Turismo HD and Formula One 06 - and Genji 2 (eh, kind of cool I guess).
The Playstation 3: An editorial - Up until recently I had been looking forward to the PS3. I have always been a bit of a Playstation fanboy (can you say Final Fantasy?) and I was really hoping that the PS3 would continue Sony's console track record of longevity. Alas, as more and more news of the system came to my attention, I became more and more worried, and I just can't take it anymore. Here's why;
The PS3 will launch with 2 versions (sound familiar?) The $500 version with a 20G hard drive, and the $600 with a 40G hard drive. No, I did not mis-type those numbers. Now that everyone has gotten over the ridiculous cost of the Xbox 360, here comes the PS3 to dig even further into your college book and pizza fund. Overall, for this and some other reasons, I can't see the PS3 doing very well. One of the other said reasons is the BluRay disk format that Sony has created, mostly, for the system.
Sony has a long history of trying to create new media formats that fail miserably. Remember BetaMax, the hopeful contender to VHS a long time ago? They cost twice as much to produce (at a time when VHS tapes were about $70 and VHS players were around $600), so Beta flopped. More recently, Sony failed again with the UMD format for the PSP system, a video format usable ONLY on the PSP.
Sony seems to want royalties so badly that they keep inventing costly new media formats that apply to nobody else in the market but themselves, and then wondering why it failed when people went with VHS and DVD. there are plenty more failed formats that Sony has tried, by the way, such as the Digital Audio Tape (See? You've probably never even HEARD of that one), but I just can't recall any more right now.
Anyways, I can forsee the exact same thing happening with BluRay. Right now Sony has developed a severely expensive (allbeit with more information capacity) new format to hopefully corner the market if it catches on. But it won't, since a DVD player costs half as much and holds more than enough information for at least movies. What then, you may say, is this extra space going towards as far as video games are concerned?
The answer is... nothing you, the buyer, will ever get to see. The extra information on the BluRay discs is mostly going to be used to have the game in several languages on the same disc, so that Sony won't have to regionally encode the game and relaunch it in different countries. So, basically, YOU pay more for a disc so that SONY doesn't have to pay to redo the game for another country. I'm sure the game quality may be somewhat improved, but that's basically all you'll get out of it. BluRay is the main reason the PS3 is costing so much, and that's with Sony LOSING a lot of money (BluRay players by themselves are, from what I heard, going to go for around $1000), so Sony is once again shooting itself in the foot, and I would predict that the BluRay is going to go the way of the Laserdisk. And the BetaMax, and the UMD, and the DAT...
Oh, and did I mention? The PS3, while having more graphical capability than the Wii or Xbox 360, is apparently so hard and expensive to
develop games for, that a lot of developers don't even want to bother. The problem is that, without getting into the technical details (Mostly because I don't know them) the PS3 basically requires the developers to program the games the exact opposite way that games are and have been developed for ages. I don't know exactly how that works, but the description gives you a good idea why so many developers might be apprehensive about working with the PS3.
Wii
I have saved the best for last. I'll be honest; I don't like the name. But everything else about the system, I love. First of all, let's look at the announced titles. Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (HUGE buzz on that one), Super Smash Bros. Brawl (with new characters like Metaknight from Kirby, Pit from Kid Icarus, Samus Zero Suit, Wario, and - huge surprise here - Solid Snake of Metal gear Solid), Red Steel (probably the first of a long line of FPS games to incorporate the Wii's controller... more on that later), Metroid Prime 3, and Mario Galaxy, among others.
Now, here's the thing that gets me. This year's E3 was, unquestionably, Nintendo's. They dominated with their new system, unique controller, and huge titles. Not only that, but they did all this WITHOUT mentioning the incredible backwards compatibility of the Wii, OR the Virtual Console (You'll be able to download thousands of old NES, SNES and other games, for a price.) At least as far as I know, they didn't mention it.
The controller of the Wii boasts the same tilt sensor that the PS3 ganked, but also, the laser at the front will allow depth perception, which really pushes the Wii to the forefront. Don't worry though, you won't be stuck with it; word is, a shell will be available that you can plug the remote into for regular controller gameplay.
This controller is great news for Nintendo. This means not only will a LOT of game developers be onboard for the Wii (meaning a LOT of big and/or new titles, fixing the problem that crippled the Gamecube), since many developers have said how much they love the Wii controller and the new ground it can break in gaming, and not only have developers said that the Wii is cheaper (that is, 1/4th the cost), easier and more fun to develop games for than the other 2 next-gen systems, but a lot of these new titles will probably be first-person shooters (I mean, the basic controller has a built-in Light Gun!), which could in turn attract some more adult-oriented titles, which will break the stigma Nintendo has always had of being a "Little Kid System".
The main reason I love the Nintendo Wii, however, is the price. Averaging out all the different prices I have read and heard, the price will probably be around $200-250. That's half (Or less than half, depending on which version you get) the price of the PS3. That means you could buy a Wii, an entire library of games, and probably download quite a bit as well, for less than the cost of just the PS3 SYSTEM. There's no way to compete with that. Nintendo has said they don't plan on actively "competing" with the other 2 contenders, but I have a feeling that the Wii will destroy them no matter what, even though it's graphics power won't be much improved over the Gamecube's (which still has some damn good graphics capability).
In summary, Microsoft prematurely shot it's wad by releasing the Xbox360 so much earlier than the other 2 next-gen systems, and so not only had very little to announce at E3, but unless they step up their system's functionality and push it's potential, may go the way of the Sega Dreamcast.
Sony had a few decent titles to announce at E3, but because of the fact that Sony is once again trying to invent new media formats (Like they did with UMD's for the PSP, which have failed miserably, among other formats over the years) and that this esoteric format is the main reason the PS3 is costing $500-600, I can't see the PS3 being very successful.
Nintendo, without a doubt, owned E3 this year. Having announced the least of the 3 next-genners beforehand, the Nintendo Wii had the most to show off, including a lot of big titles like Super Smash Bros. Melee, LoZ: Twilight Princess, and Mario Galaxy to name a few, and the controller that has directional tilt sensors and a laser sensor at the front for depth. This controller (and the fact that the Wii is the cheapest, easiest and most fun to develop games for) will lead the way to a lot of developers signing up with Nintendo to make groundbreaking new games, which in my opinion will lead to a lot of First-Person Shooters, which in turn will lead to more adult-oriented titles, giving the Wii a more universal appeal - all of this at only $250, less than half the price of the PS3.
I see a great future for Nintendo (Having revolutionized the way games will be played with a new controller and a LOT of potential new titles),a decent future for Microsoft (Who now has an established fanbase and now has a relatively low priced system, and a system who's power is becoming more and more apparent and utilized), and a bad future for Sony (who is once again trying to create new formats out of thin air that cost far more than they're worth, while most likely doing little to improve on its competitors other than ripping off their ideas).