Official E3 2007 Discussion

Killzone 2, Final Fantasy 13, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Killzone 2, Little Big Planet, and Gran Turismo 5. Sounds like Sony has an impressive 2008 lineup. I own a PS3 and a Wii. I'm rooting for the PS3 as I have always loved Sony. I am also backing the Wii but not as much as the PS3. Well I'm glad Sony finally dispelled all the stupid rumors of MGS4 is coming to the 360. I hope Lair and Heavenly Sword are great! Home could crush Xbox Live but we will see. Sony has also taken a step in the right direction this holiday season by securing the deals with Ubisoft and Midway Games for timed exclusives. People won't want to wait a year for it to come to the 360. I wonder if Sony will try to make a similar deal with Ubisoft with Assassin's Creed. That's the only big thing I think they can do except for maybe trying to get Bioshock or Call of Duty 4.

What I didn't like about MS conference was that they showed a bunch of multi platform stuff. Boring! Show us your exclusives. The Halo movie was cheesy and I have seen those Disney movies a thousand times.

Home is interesting, and we'll see what happens with it. The in-home launching of games is great and if it's totally integrated with multiplayer i.e. the people you're hanging out with in a home lobby enter the game with you automatically, then that would be pretty friggin sweet.

I don't mind the multiplatform stuff. I mean both Call of Duty 4 and Assassin's Creed look amazing. Then you have GTA4 which is going to rock as well. However, the reason why multiplatform stuff is important is that is shows Microsoft is getting just as many, if not more, games than Sony at the same quality, with a cheaper price.

What Microsoft's conference highlighted is that the rest of the year is going to be absolutely insane for them. And I'm just going to list the major major games coming out.

August: Blue Dragon

September: Halo 3

October: GTA4

November: Mass Effect

December: Lost Odyssey

Looking at the conference, there were no new surprises, but Microsoft showed ME that they have a AAA game in every single genre that I care about.

PS3 will have a killer release schedule in 2008, but we don't really know what Microsoft's schedule is going to be so its tough to compare. What we do know is that games like Alan Wake, Halo Wars and Too Human are slated for 2008 which should make them have at least a decent year, which should only improve as more stuff gets announced as we move into the Liepzig and X07 conferences.

I am wondering if Mass Effect will actually ever come out. It's been delayed so many times. I'm just worried about Nintendo. I just don't think the will have the strength to continue. I mean the controls will wear out after a while. And if you compare the games it just seems like the 360 and Ps3 have such high quality and the next gen feel. Take the racing genre for example. Compare 360 exclusives Project Gotham Racing 4 and Forza Motorsport 2 and the PS3's Motorstorm and Gran Turismo 5 with Mario Kart for Wii. I remember when I first saw some of  the major exclusives for the 360 and Ps3. I thought this is really feels next gen. Then I looked at Wii exclusives like Red Steel and Zelda and thought this feels like last-gen. The controls are next gen but if they wear out, Nintendo is stuck with something between a Gamecube and an Xbox.

Ever come out?? You obviously didn't see the 20 minute walkthrough given by BioWare. The game is essentially done and the last few months are going to be spent on polish and tweaking. Personally that makes me extremely excited since I've been anticipating the game for a long time, and it's good to know that they're not rushing it out.

And I really don't think you should worry about Nintendo. They are selling a ridiculous amount of hardware and software and making money hand over first. With Wii Fit Nintendo is probably going to sell another insane amount of systems. What we're seeing is a split in the market. Nintendo has successfully accomplished their goal of going in a totally new direction and appealing to a completely new market. Wii Fit has about as much to do with games as an iPod. I'm not saying it's bad or anything like that, but it's different. And it just doesn't really make sense to compare what Nintendo is doing with the more traditional consoles. I mean, people don't say "Oh the PC sold 200 million units this year, take that Playstation!" Because the PC is a different beast than the consoles, and the Wii is emerging as a new kind of beast.

Since this direction is so new we'll see what ends up happening. Personally, I'm hoping that more people being exposed to game-like software will then migrate into more involved games. But I'm not holding my breath. I also don't think that the HD consoles have too much to worry about. They're making a lot of money, and this holiday season will be their real coming out party, which will get next-gen rolling in a big way. So the HD consoles will do well and be a success, and the Wii will be a success. These things aren't mutually exclusive.

But Mass Effect was supposed to come out in June. Then it got delayed to September. Now it's delayed to November. Wasn't it supposed to come out before June then it got delayed to June? But anyway I think the Mass Effect Trilogy won't be able to cover the 360's lifespan. I know some gamers agree with me when it is said: Mass Effect 3 will be a launch title for the Xbox 720. Though still Bioware is my favorite developer in the industry.

But really at E3 this year I am kind of getting sick of how many shooters are coming out. It's probably just me, but there are so many shooters!

I'm glad SSBB and Galaxies finally got dated. There were rumors of Galaxies being delayed to 2008. Let's see if it will meet expectations or fail to meet the hype. Either way I'll pick it up.

I just want all three consoles to succeed. I think they all bring something unique to the industry and I would like to see them all come out as winners. They all have killer apps coming out so I think hardware and software records will be broken this holiday. I was also glad to hear that PS3 sales have increased nicely since the price drop. So this way maybe we won't see a repeat of Devil May Cry 4, Virtua Fighter 5, Dragon Quest IX, and Fatal Inertia. It could only be for a month or even a week but they were doing so bad in sales even a day of good sales will be a breath of fresh air.

I think the PS3 has a hot lineup to look:

August: Lair

September: Warhawk, Heavenly Sword, Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction

October: Folklore

November: Haze, Uncharted Drake's Fortune, Unreal Tournament 3

Misc: Socom Confrontation, Coded Arms, Singstar, Time Crisis 4, and Wipeout.

Mass Effect was originally announced to come out in Nomber of LAST YEAR! They releaved it at E3 2006 and said it'd be coming "this Christmas" so yes, it's definitely been delayed a while, but reports from this E3 said that the game looked very finished. I don't know if you've had a chance to look yet, but check out the live demonstration that the developers did for Gamespot. In that demo that state that the game is essentially done and the next few months are going to be spent on balance and polish. That sounds good to me!

To be perfectly honest I'm actually surprised by the quality of Sony's 2007 holiday lineup. We'll see if any titles get delayed, similar to what happened with MS last year. If Ratchet and Clank, Uncharted, Heavenly Sword come out on time, then combining that with the sweet 3rd party games coming out Sony will have a very solid set of games.

And I know it's sounding very diplomatic, but with Nintendo's 3 heavy hitters coming out this holiday as well it's going to be pretty crazy for everybody no matter what platforms you prefer. There's going to be A LOT of money spent this holiday, I'm just worried that with all the big games coming out there'll be some gems that end up getting lost in the crowd. Ace Combat 6 and Devil May Cry come to mind.

Yeah I bet Sony was pretty mad when Microsoft said you could only get the complete grand theft auto experience on the xbox 360. Microsoft probably got ticked off about Haze and UT3, not to mention MGS4. Nothing bad really happened to Nintendo though, but Rock band might not be good for them.

When is DMC4 coming out, I thought it was September. Though really I think it will get blunted by Halo 3. In my honest opinion I think it would have been better if they made it a timed PS3 exclusive, then waited until the Halo hype was over to release a 360 version.

And finally this holiday season I might be able to play more than Motorstorm on my PS3. I also might find more than a few reasons to play my Wii and 360 more often as well. All in all i think this will be a vast improvement over the lackluster games Sony had last year. Seems like Sony is finally getting serious about their games. But is it already to late?

Still they better cut the price of the 80GB version by $100, otherwise sales of it will be as bad as PS3 sales.

We'll see what happens with GTA4 this fall. There's no doubt that GTA was a big deal with PS2 and was responsible for... A LOT of sales. Now that it's releasing on both consoles, it's going to be interesting to see which one people go to. I imagine they'll choose the 360 by virtue of the lower price tag.

I don't know when DMC4 is being released, it was supposed to come out this spring, but I imagine it'll be out sometime this fall. And it's going to be sweeet. DMC3 was awesome, and I'm sure that DMC4 will be even better. I'm quite happy it's coming to the 360 as I don't see myself owning a PS3 for a long while.

The whole 60GB/80GB thing is such a big mess. I mean, if you're looking to buy a PS3 then why buy it now? Why not wait until the 80GB lowers in price. Of course if everybody waits for the 80GB version to lower in price then the 60GB will never sell out, and thus the 80GB won't lower in price! I see the "price cut" as spiking sales for a little while, but I don't see it having a significant effect on overall sales. I mean there's not that much difference between the old 20GB and the 60GB, so a price drop on the 60 isn't going to make much of a difference. Then the 80 version is an even SMALLER upgrade!

Sony needed to KEEP the 20GB version drop that price to $399 and phase out the 60GB version. THAT would've been smart. THAT would've got them sales. Then when hard drive prices drop they can have a $499 version with 120GB or so, but enh, it would be superfluous.

Honestly speaking I just see this all as growing pains for this very long generation that will most likely be the last console generation. In 5 years we'll be looking back at this and laughing while playing some sweet games.

Well Sony did do one smart move: bundling Motorstorm in with the 80GB version. Though really I think if they want to have a chance they should bundle in Resistance as well. Then cut the price by $100 to drop it down to $500.... again. Then market it with everything they have got and point towards major exclusives as reason enough to pick it up.

However there wasn't a price drop, the 60GB will be discontiued like the 20GB was. If the 80GB version stays at $600 then it will just be another 20GB and 60GB discontinuing thing. Then they will introduce a 120GB PS3 and the same thing will happen. I think they should just stick with something and hit the ground running with it.

On Amazon the preorders for GTA4 were: PS3 42% and 360 58%. But that was a while ago and I bet most people just buy it at the store.

And Sony better hope Lair and Heavenly Sword will impress.

Sony should bring back the 20GB version or better yet introduce something like a 40GB version for $399.