E3 reactions or I am a giant video game nerd
So, I woke up this morning to an email from Microsoft annoucing there is a new Xbox 360. It's black, quiet, has wifi and 250GB of space. Yum. I'm tempted to upgrade but can't really justify it at the moment. But all that space would be glorious for downloadable Rock Band music...and who knows what else!
Then they announced that Project Natal was now the Xbox Kinect. If it does everything they are showing in the video, I think it could kill the Wii. First of all, it eliminates peripherals. You buy the Kinect and that is your peripheral for ALL of those games. No controller, no balance board - the Kinect KNOWS ALL (erm, so no making out on the couch, okay? because it's watching you and it might...ya know...blackmail you later) I'm fascinated by the Dance game they show. Honestly, the biggest thing when it comes to playing those games now is that I'd have to drag out the DDR mat, find some space for it, hook it up...oh man this would make things so much easier for games like that.
Nintendo sort of flailed around during their presenatation - teasing us with a Legend of Zelda preview, but then telling us the game won't be out until 2011 (which to me translates to "Holiday 2011"). The rest of the games for Wii were the same old, same old. Mario plays every sport ever invented while you wait for Zelda to come out. Their biggest deal was the Nintendo 3DS which is somehow 3D without the player having to wear glasses. I'm not sure how that works...it kind of freaks me out. And as much as I use our current DS, my guess is we won't need this unless a special Zelda or Mario 3D game comes out. Then maybe. MAYBE!
Sony was all about the Playstation Move, which just looks like a Wii rip-off to me. And my guess is that it will suffer from all the same issues that the Wii is currently dealing with - it's hard to design a good game with motion controls. Plus, some games are going to require BOTH the Move and EyeToy. Sony is trying to make a big deal that their controller will be out before the Kinect and be cheaper (even though Microsoft has not announced a price on the Kinect) but the obvious Wii Copy-Catting bothers me and really does not make me interested in this peripheral.
Then they announced that Project Natal was now the Xbox Kinect. If it does everything they are showing in the video, I think it could kill the Wii. First of all, it eliminates peripherals. You buy the Kinect and that is your peripheral for ALL of those games. No controller, no balance board - the Kinect KNOWS ALL (erm, so no making out on the couch, okay? because it's watching you and it might...ya know...blackmail you later) I'm fascinated by the Dance game they show. Honestly, the biggest thing when it comes to playing those games now is that I'd have to drag out the DDR mat, find some space for it, hook it up...oh man this would make things so much easier for games like that.
Nintendo sort of flailed around during their presenatation - teasing us with a Legend of Zelda preview, but then telling us the game won't be out until 2011 (which to me translates to "Holiday 2011"). The rest of the games for Wii were the same old, same old. Mario plays every sport ever invented while you wait for Zelda to come out. Their biggest deal was the Nintendo 3DS which is somehow 3D without the player having to wear glasses. I'm not sure how that works...it kind of freaks me out. And as much as I use our current DS, my guess is we won't need this unless a special Zelda or Mario 3D game comes out. Then maybe. MAYBE!
Sony was all about the Playstation Move, which just looks like a Wii rip-off to me. And my guess is that it will suffer from all the same issues that the Wii is currently dealing with - it's hard to design a good game with motion controls. Plus, some games are going to require BOTH the Move and EyeToy. Sony is trying to make a big deal that their controller will be out before the Kinect and be cheaper (even though Microsoft has not announced a price on the Kinect) but the obvious Wii Copy-Catting bothers me and really does not make me interested in this peripheral.