E3 2006: Wii Wii Wii I Want Some Too!

It's impossible for me to try and work during E3--luckily I don't have a job now! I imagine this is what football addicts feel like when the NFL Draft is on ESPN or March Madness for basketball fans. With the internet coverage, you almost get the full E3 experience, without the wear and tear on your feet or traffic jams on the 405. Joystiq has been my main source of news, giving blow-by-blow accounts of the Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft conferences. Gamespot also has a cool blog with video opinions from key staffers. Sony went first and struck out in my opinion, by offering up the Playstation 3 in two bundles for $499 and $599. That price point will be a barrier for many gamers that I know, but Sony could still sell out to the early adopters this fall. It seems crazy to buy the $500 model when it doesn't have features like HDMI output. After reading numerous opinions of the Sony conference, I don't get any sense that people were blown away by Sony's game demos. Gran Turismo was pumped up in HD but apparently it didn't look any better than Project Gotham Racing 3. Sony's controller was changed from a boomerang design to the old classic dual-shock look, but without the shock-they put in sensor motion capabilities, which means the Rumble feature had to be disabled. The most interesting new PS3 game is Resistance: Fall of Man from Insomniac Games, which I saw Ted Price demo on G4's E3 coverage. Gosh darn it, but Hot Shots Golf looks impossibly cute in 1080p.

Nintendo's show was much better received. How can you wrong by having Miyamoto walk out and conduct a symphony using the Wii remote? It's like Mickey Mouse in Fantasia. IGN's web site has a number of videos showing off the Wii remote in games like Zelda, Metroid Prime, Red Steel, etc. The Tony Hawk game I mentioned previously is called Downhill Jam and it is very much like SSX: going downhill in various locations and pulling off tricks to acquire boost. There's a nice interview with the Downhill Jam game producer on IGN. Without the new remote, I'd say it was too derivative, but with the remote-I want it! The most irresistible game for me is Wii Sports, a title that combines Golf, Tennis, and Baseball in one package. The graphics are nothing to shout about, but the remote makes it so much damn fun. Take a look at these videos on IGN's site where Miyamoto plays tennis with Reggie, Iwata, and an audience member. I can easily see myself buying a Nintendo Wii this Christmas instead of the Sony PS3.

Microsoft's showing was better than Sony's, but not a Revolutionary as Nintendo's. Gears of War, Forza 2, Fable 2, more Live Arcade classic games, and Live Anywhere were neat but not mind blowing. Gears of War leaves me cold, no matter how Microsoft tries to pump it up-I don't like that third-person mode and I want to blow shit up at will. I really just wanna have a decent version of Unreal Tournament on the 360. Forza 2 looks pretty but the first one was such a gear-head game. I am more interested in Test Drive Unlimited, a cool Massively Online Racing game where you have the entire island of Oahu perfectly mapped out with GPS. I downloaded the TDU demo that just appeared on XBox Live and it's fun, even though the graphics aren't up to PGR3 quality and it crashed my 360 twice. I just want that Magnum P.I. fantasy--the game opens with your avatar eating chips and watching TV in a luxurious pad that would have supermodels drooling. There are two driving wheels coming for the 360, one from Logitech (priced at $99 I think) and another one from Microsoft, a wireless wheel. If you use the wireless mode, you sacrifice the force feedback capability, but if you plug it in, you get true FF. The Halo 3 trailer got me all hot and bothered (even though it won't ship until 2007), and I was lucky enough to download it on Xbox Live around 1pm PST. After that, XBL really got pegged and it took me over an hour to download the Forza trailer. I think the most exciting 360 game at the show is Crackdown, an open-world game featuring super-powered cops-I really hope it will ship this year. The trailer on Xbox Live shows off various game features while panning between comic book panels--but in an upscale graphic novel sort of way. Nuff said.