Something For Everyone?

Microsoft and Sony have both now had their big day in the sun at E3 2010, and I'm still trying to digest it all. The House Gates Built seemed to be all about re-branding its motion sensing "Project Natal" by its new (awful, in my opinion) name, "Kinect". The biggest reason I dislike this name is that it all but guarantees that we'll end up with a generation of kids who think that "connect" is spelled that way. Don't we have enough illiteracy already without this nudge in that direction? As others have pointed out, it also seems too close to "kinetic" (probably by choice), both in spelling and how it sounds, which is sure to cause confusion. Oh, and the usual Halo-heads were no doubt all a-quiver at the Halo: Reach sneak peeks provided. Yawn, I say.

Boneman and I were desperately hoping that Sony would use E3 as the forum for announcing the long-awaited Resistance 3, but no such luck. Killzone 3 (Feb 2011) had already been "leaked" prior to the start of E3, but some of the highlights shown there were quite impressive. Same goes for the new Medal of Honor (essentially a reboot of the franchise, I guess), which my previous post showed. Perhaps most exciting for Vicki and I was the confirmation that Portal 2 is in fact on its way (sometime next year), and that it'll be available on the PS/3 (yay!). Sure, if it was just 360-bound, I'd buy it for that console, but I'd much rather get it for the Sony machine. I use my PS/3 way more than my XBox these days and would prefer to get most games for it.

PlayStation fans had worried that our free PlayStation Network was going away, to be replaced by a subscription-based, XBox Live-like service. Sony provided good news on that front, introducing the brand new fee-based PSN+, but leaving the original, free PSN as a perfectly viable option. For those interested, here's a list of what PSN+ offers. I have to say that the one PSN+ feature that might make me consider it is the "full game trial" in which you get to download a complete game and play any part of it you want for one hour. That's a pretty intriguing way to test drive a game, preferable in many ways to the demos that we've all gotten used to. I don't know that an hour's long enough, but being able to play any mode of the game is a huge advantage over most demos. I haven't stumbled across the one-year subscription amount yet, but I imagine it'll be comparable to Microsoft's $60 price tag. For $60, would I enjoy having the "full game trial" option as well as access to the odd free game and some early betas for a year? Maybe, maybe not; but it's intriguing to consider.

Sony also did a lot of showing off of their Wii-like, Kinect-like, "Move" peripheral (coming Sep 19/10). I will freely admit that I haven't paid as much attention to either Project Natal/Kinect or Move as I should have, and I'll try to fix that over the next little while. Last August, I posted a few thoughts on how shooters might change based on motion-sensing equipment entering the equation. I don't know if they'll really be the game changers that their promoters are claiming, but it's possible. Right now, if I had to guess, I'd say that I'll end up getting both of them (since I own both of the consoles) but I can't for the life of me see any compelling reason why just yet!

Somewhat ironically, Sony also revealed that there will soon be a SurroundSound system available for the PS/3. Could this finally be the way that I get a good sound system into my living room? That would be strange, but it could happen.

It's been a crazy few days watching the news out of E3, but it's also been a lot of fun. And it's not even over yet! "Christmas for Gamers" indeed!

[Update Jun 16/10: Nice writeup comparing the Wii, Kinect and Move here.]