E3 2010 Day Two Impressions

Day two of E3 2010 begins with Nintendo E3 press conference. Nintendo has had some mixed press events in the past with more of a focus shifted to the casual market and less on core gamers. That all changed today as Nintendo unveiled several new titles to classic franchises such as Mario, Kirby, Donkey Kong, and of course Zelda. Nintendo also unveiled the Nintendo 3DS which we had heard about a few months back and I'm really excited about 3D without the need for glasses or expensive hardware. They also announced several new titles and developers onvoard supporting 3DS including: Metal Gear Solid, Kingdom Hearts, Resident Evil, and many more.




Pros:

-Classic franchises return such as Donkey Kong, Kirby, and Zelda
-Nintendo 3DS was revealed with vast developer support and new titles coming soon


Cons:

-Vitality sensor was missing
-No release date or price point given for Nintendo 3DS
-Pikmin 3 missing in action


Overall, Nintendo had an amazing press conference with something for every type of gamer especially the core gamer with classic franchises. They had a balanced lineup of titles for both markets of casual and core gamers. The Nintendo 3DS really excites me and I'm look forward to hearing more about price and details such as a release date in the near future hopefully at TGS in September.

Sony was the final conference of E3 and they discussed many new technologies including 3D and motion controls. The highlights were Kevin Butler, 3D gaming, and specifics about Playstation Move.





Pros:

-PSP lineup is impressive
-Killzone 3, Infamous 2, and Twisted Metal for Playstation 3
-Kevin Butler segment was brilliant

Cons:

-3D Gaming is expensive
-Playstation Move needs better titles
-Many titles such as Last Guardian, Final Fantasy Versus XIII, and new games from Naughty Dog and Insomniac Games were missing in action

Overall, the Sony press conference was pretty solid but could be better. I'm not convinced on 3D gaming yet with the barrier of requiring a 3DTV and glasses. The Playstation Move has promise but until better titles are released I will wait. The price of $100 is a bit high but once it's bundled with better games I would be convinced. The lineup of games on Playstation 3 and PSP was solid and many I'm excited to play.

E3 2010 Impressions Day One

E3 has officially just kicked off at the Los Angeles Convention Center and Microsoft started the press conferences off. There are always lots of announcements of hardware and software with many surprises that await.



Pros:

-Gears of War 3 4-player co-op play demo
-Call of Duty: Black Ops demo
-New trailers of Fable III and Metal Gear Rising
-Xbox 360 Slim hardware looks nice
-Project Natal(Kinect) hardware is awesome!!

Cons:

-New titles for Project Natal(Kinect) hardware displayed are very similar to Wii titles we have already seen (Wii Sports, Wii Fit, etc.)
-No price point announced for Kinect
-The momentum started great then just fell flat with all the talk about Kinect

Overall, I was very disappointed with Microsoft's E3 press event and I'm hoping tomorrow that Sony and Nintendo will deliver much better showings. I like the hardware of Kinect but the launch titles don't impress me thus far and I will need some better games to even consider a purchase. It was clear Microsoft was catering towards the casual market as Nintendo has been doing since the launch of the Wii. The core gamers had some good games like Halo: Reach, Call of Duty: Black Ops, and Gears of War 3 but no major new announcements and all the games at the conference we had already seen at other events or they had been announced.

I will post my impressions of Ubisoft and EA conferences shortly!!