By Now that all three next gen consoles have debuted at E3 2005, the press is collectively reeling from all the announcements. I think Sony surprised everyone with the strength of the Playstation 3 hardware and made a strong showing with various game demos. Sony not only showed that the returning franchises were going to look great, they showed some brand new titles. The demos for Motor Storm (a down and dirty racing game), Warhawk, Killzone 2, Insomniac's dark first person shooter I-8 (goodbye fuzzy animals), and Unreal Engine 3 were totally hot. Now there is some question as to whether these demos were done with the PS3 hardware or if they were animated using separate movie-making tools, but it seems like the PS3 has the power to make these movie-quality animations. Sony made smart moves by concentrating on these games at their announcement, plus the power of the hardware and all it can do. The NVidia graphics chips would cost more than $2000 alone on the PC. There is a report from Japan that the Playstation 3 will cost just under $500.
Microsoft, on the other hand, seemed more superficial. They concentrated on the Xbox lifestyle and how they were going to hook everyone from your Mom to your kid sister on the console. It seemed like it was the pitch that J. Allard and company used at a company meeting for Bill Gates rather than E3 consumers. They showed a commercial of young adults gathered around a virtual living room holding the Xbox 360 controller and dancing. No, J., if they are into dancing they won’t be sitting at home on Saturday night with the 360. It was a bit of a misfire. The games they showed at the Microsoft announcement didn’t seem to get anyone hot and bothered. Dead or Alive 4 didn’t look that much different than the current Xbox title, even though you can see a few more details and moving objects, it’s not that impressive. Project Gotham Racing 3 is a game that might get Xbox geeks to buy the 360, but it’s not a console pusher like a Mario or Halo game. Microsoft made a big deal out of Perfect Dark: Zero as the shooter for the 360 launch in their MTV special, yet reports are that it’s not on the floor at E3. If any title could see the Xbox 360 at launch it just might be Quake 4, and in this preview and interview with Todd Hollenshead, you can see for yourself. It’s unclear if this will be a launch title.
As for Nintendo, I just can't excited about the Revolution. Yeah, they will have wireless controllers, an Internet connection, and the ability to download games from their old library, but who cares? A Nintendo console just means new iterations of Mario Cart, Zelda, and Metroid. At least Microsoft and Sony are trying new things and pushing the envelope a little. Nintendo's always in a recursive loop and their call stack has overflowed with me.
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