E3 2005 @ Home: Ryan's Report

Written by Ryan Genno  on May 23, 2005

Specials: Let the hype begin!

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Let the hype begin! The E3 Expo is once again pulling out all the stops by putting on lavish demos only to tell us what new products we should be buying in the future. All the big guns are here too: Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. All of them have news on their latest and greatest consoles. Here are some of my opinions of the show so far.

First off, I will talk a bit about the Xbox successor called the Xbox 360 since it was the first to get out of the gate. In case you haven't already seen it yet the design of the 360 is a smaller yet goofy white concave unit that can stand up or lay flat. OK, no big deal but Microsoft promises the system will be backward compatible with the old Xbox games (although they said only the most popular games would play on it, so maybe your old copy of Voodoo Vince could be rejected). They were also able to show a few exclusive 360 demos for upcoming games like Dead or Alive 4, Test Drive Unlimited, and Kameo. Yes, it is the same heavily delayed Kameo that was actually a Rareware (you know that company Microsoft paid over 300 million bucks for yet only produced one commercial flop on the Xbox so far) Xbox One title but now they are moving it to the new system instead. Certainly nothing to get excited about and sadly, there was barely any mention of a killer app like a Halo or Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic (two of the most popular series on the current system) sequel really hurt them especially since they hyped up this special MTV event. Overall I'm excited about the 360 and I know Microsoft will have more surprises later on.

As good as the 360 show was Sony answered back in a big way with their anticipated Playstation 3 system. The PS3 is a sleek all grey system with even more built in power then the 360 and it comes with some oddly upside down СU' shaped wireless controller. The system will not only to able to connect with the PSP so you play the games and download digital photos on a TV, but you can also play all those thousands of Playstation One and Playstation2 games as well. Sony's PS3 sure sounds pretty good so far, but they didn't stop there.

Sony already announced several big sequels to many of their popular franchises like Metal Gear Solid, Gran Turismo, Tekken, Fight Night, Gundam, and much more will be coming to the PS3. Perhaps one of coolest PS3 demos being shown was for the new KillZone game that looked so amazing and so intense that many believe it to be Computer Generated. It's all great hype so far but my very jaded nature tells me to be wary, and I will believe it when I play it. Sony still came out looking great here and they left the gamers around the world wanting more.

Last and most certainly least there is Nintendo, and what they showed off for the big show. Now I love Nintendo and the GameCube as much as the next guy, don't get me wrong, but they clearly didn't have as much to brag about compared to Microsoft and Sony. For example: Nintendo finally unveiled their big next generation console: the Nintendo Revolution. The beta unit was a very small and slim unit that is said to be three times more powerful then the GameCube itself. Unfortunately, there was no description of the system's controller, or worse yet; no real games planned means they are really far behind their competitors.

Nintendo is also banking heavy on the diehard old school fans because the Revolution will not only be backward compatible with the GameCube discs (seems to be a theme this year) but Nintendo also promises the Revolution will be able to play the older games from the NES, Super Nintendo, and Nintendo 64 eras. Normally I would think this is great news since I loved Nintendo's older work, and they are a big reason why I'm an avid game collector, but still there is this huge uneasy feeling over me about this new plan of theirs.

You seen Nintendo tried this sort of thing before with their NES re-releases for the Gameboy Advance for example. It was one of the biggest rip offs I've ever seen because Nintendo wanted you to pay 25 bucks Canadian for only a single game when you could buy a NES console and a few games at that price. I have one important message for Nintendo: I'M NOT SPENDING 25 DOLLARS FOR SUPER MARIO BROTHERS WHEN THE REAL NES GAME IS ONLY A BUCK!

Nintendo also showed an even smaller portable game unit. Sadly, this wasn't an upgrade to their flat and sometimes hard to control DS system, nor was it even a new system. The new system is nothing more then just a super tiny redesign of the same old outdated Gameboy Advance you played for years. Boring! Unless this system is going for super cheap I don't see this sticking around for very long.

Overall, this E3 2005 show already impressed me since all the big companies are finally talking about their newer consoles, and the games you can play on them. I love all the talk about wireless gaming and backward compatible and it should keep the fans happy. The only thing that worries me is that none of the newer games are playable yet, and we don't know if the demos being showed are done in real time or not so it's hard to pass too much judgment. It should also be pointed out that not everyone can unlock a system's full power right away. Just look at games like Resident Evil 4 and God of War for their respective systems, great looking games that came out late in their console's life cycle. The bottom-line is I am quite happy with my current consoles at the moment and these guys still have to do more to get my hard earn money, but they are off to a good start at least.