E3 2005: Notes From the Newsroom @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on May 19, 2005

Blogs: John's home but he has to blog, blog, BLOG!

As several others members of the Gaming Target staff are trying to sleep off hangovers while images of booth babes dance in their heads, I'm here in the GT newsroom (translation: my bedroom) watching the whole show from the comfort of my computer chair and on G4. So while I may be 3000 miles away I can still hear all about the biggest games coming down the pipe. *sniffle, sniffle* Anyway...

Thursday, May 19, 2005 @ 2:22 PM ET
I don't know how it happened, but in the span of about two days my interest in the DS has gone from mild curiosity to full blown need.

The idea of Sonic Rush floored me and then Square goes and just mentions the word "Mana" and I'm 13 years old again.

On top of that there's Mario Kart DS playable online and the new Super Mario Bros. game which has been promised to be the first new side scrolling Mario game in 15 years. I'm starting to think the better question is what took me so long?

If they ever put Tetris on this thing I might have to buy two.

Thursday, May 19, 2005 @ 1:52 PM ET
Ya know, that little Episode III movie is pretty good. Right, right, E3, video games, yeah.

According to Kotaku, 24 The Game is already looking and feeling sweet. I know it'll never live up to what I think it should be like in my head but just give me the option to make Jack scream "Who are you working for!" just once.

Lightsabers, Star Wars, too much stimulation...

Wednesday, May 18, 2005 @ 3:07 PM ET
Sonic Rush looks down and out amazing. I knew it was possible to make the two screens work as one on the DS but I never expected the final results to generate such a wow from me.

The DS just needed a little time, that's all.

Tuesday, May 17, 2005 @ 8:16 PM ET
Two teraflops. All the forum freaks are buzzing about the fact that the PS3 can do two teraflops. But what does that give me in a game machine? Maybe I'm blowing any geek cred I've earned but I have no idea what a teraflop does.

We've heard all this supercomputer talk before with the PS2 and we all know how that turned out. A lackluster launch and it was eventually overpowered by the Xbox and GameCube.

Two teraflops. I guess that's supposed to look impressive on a spec sheet.

Tuesday, May 17, 2005 @ 1:33 PM ET
With all of the next-gen announcements floating around is it wrong that two of the games I'm most excited about are Mega Man X Collection and Capcom Classics Collection?

Tuesday, May 17, 2005 @ 11:12 AM ET
So here we sit on Tuesday morning, E3 proper doesn't even begin for another day yet. Pictures have been revealed of all three consoles with Nintendo's press conference the last bit that remains before most of the cards are on the table. The only card we're missing is price.

Ah price. With all three consoles launching within twelve months of each other, the hardcore are going to have a hurtin' wallet come Christmas 2006. But maybe this is where Nintendo shines. With a system that is only two or three times as powerful as the Cube they will no doubt be able to offer it at a lower price. The low power also means that companies that want to try more experimental or "low power" games like Gradius V, Katamari Damacy or Contra: Shattered Soldier are gonna want the Revolution. And those are three games I love this generation.

And that download service for classic Nintendo games? How long do you think it'll be before other companies want a piece of that action. Ladies and gentlemen, legal emulation has just happened and Nintendo did it. If the cries of "Can you put Linux on it?" are answered then at the very least Nintendo will win the Slashdot War.

But then you throw the monkey wrench of the combined Halo 3/PS3 launch in there and this generation really will be an all out war. It's going to be wild and crazy and I can't wait. And I don't care what anyone says, that PS3 controller looks awesome.