E3 2005: Overall Impressions

E3 is over. The smoke has cleared, gamers worldwide are resting their eyes from staring at their computer monitors for days, journalists are catching up on sleep and giving their eardrums some much needed quiet time and game developers are going back to their 15 hour days, trying to get these games ready for release.

So, after taking in all the sights and sounds of this past week, who came out as the clear cut winner of the show? Which game stood out as the next must have title? Which games have me salivating for more? You know what? I have no idea.

This E3 was a strange one. The week started out with a bang. No, make that an atomic explosion. Sony unveiled the PS3 in their Pre-E3 Press Conference, showing not only the system, but some pretty amazing videos and tech demos. The specs indicate that the system might be twice as powerful as the X-Box 360. It will use blu-rays discs, be able to display 1080p resolution, have a removable hard-drive, be backward compatible all the way to the PS1, and have bluetooth wireless controllers. Pretty impressive. But most impressive were the games shown. Fight Night Round 3 looked fantastic. They’re finally bringing back Warhawk!!! MotorStorm looked chaotic, fast-paced, and fun - not to mention insanely gorgeous. And then there was Killzone. The demo that would ruin every other game in the show for me. At first, nobody knew if what they were witnessing was real. We all knew that the PS3 was powerful, but this was far beyond what anyone was expecting. In hindsight, after all the drool has been cleaned off my shirt, my jaw is almost fully healed after hitting the floor and my senses are back to their usual skeptical self, we realize that the Killzone (and Motorstorm) footage was not real. Sure, the PS3 is powerful, but in the end we really have no concrete gameplay footage, no hands on with any of the games, just some really pretty videos of what the games "might" look like and a lot of promises that they’ll be amazing.

Microsoft followed with a lackluster presentation, since the system was already unveiled the previous week in the MTV debacle. Nothing new was shown, in fact, something was missing. Perfect Dark Zero - Microsoft’s killer app in Halo’s absence - was a no show. Why? Could it be that the game is not looking as hot as expected? From the 5 seconds they showed on MTV that is a viable conclusion. I’ve heard countless reports of the game being shown behind closed doors and that it is looking a lot better. But why hide it? If this is your "Halo" and you say it is coming along nicely and the MTV build was old and not reflective of how the game looks now, why the secrecy? Microsoft’s saving grace was Gears of War. Here is a game that has "next gen" written all over it. It looks simply amazing. The story sounds intriguing and if the gameplay is solid (and they fix the horrible, horrible frame-rate) then you have yourself a system seller. Too bad it won’t be available for launch, missing that window by quite a few months.

On the Nintendo front, I have no idea what the big N is doing. They announced the Revolution, showed the system and claimed that it will be about three times as powerful as the Gamecube. Which means that it will be dead last in processing power come the next generation. You have to applaud Nintendo for sticking to their guns. They’re still only creating gaming machines, in an age where a console is expected to be able to run a magnitude of media operations and be the center of an entertainment center. "It’s all about the games." Look, I’ve bought every Nintendo console since the NES, I love them as a developer, they truly are pioneers when it comes to gaming. Now, that being said, I see Nintendo going the way of the dodo very soon. It pains me to say it, but I do. Maybe the Revolution will retail for $150, maybe developers will be able to churn out games for minimal cost, maybe it can survive on the strength of its first-party games alone. Maybe. But doubtful. For all their innovation, Nintendo fails to evolve with the times. They held on to cartridges as long as they could and it hurt them. Bad. I don’t think they can survive another generation in 3rd place. We’ll have to wait and see what happens, but I don’t see many 3rd parties knocking on Nintendo’s door. But then again, that’s nothing new.

After last year’s E3, I came away with a long list of games that blew me away: Halo 2, Advent Rising, God of War, Metal Gear Solid III: Snake Eater, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Resident Evil 4, Gran Turismo 5, Half-Life 2, Doom III, Conker, ESPN NFL 2K5, Mercenarries, the list goes on and on. I didn’t come away with such a large list this year. It seemed like most games this year were only shown on video and were not playable. What happened to Black? They only showed it behind closed doors last year and after a full year, they still don’t show the game to the public. I hear it looks great, but all I have to go on are a few screen shots. Show the game people!!!! Madden 2006? The only next gen screens/videos are the same mediocre ones they’ve been showing since the commercial aired. Hands on impressions (again behind closed doors only) state that the game looks far superior and that the detail in the players and stadiums is amazing. Sure. Okay. SHOW THE GAME!!!! But, we all know why EA is only showing next gen Madden behind closed doors. They’re not stupid. They want fans to buy the PS2, X-Box and Gamecube versions of 2006, which will probably be out in August. They'll sell millions of copies like always. Then, starting in October, just before the 360's launch, they’ll finally show us what next gen Madden really looks like. People will freak out. "Wow, it looks so much better than the crap they were showing before!" All the fans that bought 2006 already will still want this better version. They'll buy it up in droves. Now EA has sold millions of copies of both the current gen, as well as the next gen Madden, which are only a few months apart. If EA shows Madden on the 360 now, then a lot of the people who would by the current gen version might just wait the couple of months to get the newer version. Makes sense from a business standpoint. God I hate you EA.

My short list of notable games from the show are:

(Note: I had to look at all the following games a second time to really get an impression because after watching the Killzone demo I thought every game in the show looked like crap. After coming to my senses, I was able to see that some of these games actually looked pretty damn nice)

Ghost Recon III (360)
This was one of the first 360 games I saw. The graphics look great, with very fluid, realistic animations. The new HUD looks slick and the game is supposed to take place in one large virtual city. There will be no mission briefing screens to break-up the action, everything will unfold continuously, making for a seamless gameplay experience. At least, I hope so. This one is looking hot.

Shadows of the Colossus (PS2)
I’m a HUGE Ico fan, so this game is high on my list. I’d buy anything from these guys. This game could be about a rabbit looking for ranch dressing and I’d still get it. But anyway, the game looks great. The graphical style is reminiscent of Ico, which is A-ok in my book. Sign me up!

Zelda: Twilight Princess (GC)
Ask Powerpuff and he’ll tell you that I’m a Nintendo fanboy. So, needless to say, I’ll be purchasing Twilight Princess the day it is released. Orcarina of Time is still my favorite game of all time, and after my initial shock at Wind Waker’s new look, I thought it was a fantastic game and its visuals are some of the most impressive on any console. From the Twilight Princess movies I saw this title looks like it might try to challenge OoT as the greatest Zelda ever. We’ll see what happens.

King Kong (360)
Saw some video of this game and the jungle environments looked fantastic! Its mix of first-person action, mixed with 3rd person "you are Kong" segments can prove to be a winning formula. Plus, this game is being created by the guy behind Beyond Good and Evil, so things are looking very good!

Dark Sector (360/PS3)
Saw the seven minute trailer for this game and although it was basically just one long cinematic (done in real-time though), I still came away impressed. I would have liked to have seen some gameplay, but the sci-fi/stealth vibe this game has going for it looks like a good choice. The lighting effects were great, the main character’s suit looks phenomenal and the sound was very atmospheric. I know Powerpuff is siked for this one. :p

There were other games that looked pretty good, but nothing jumped out and grabbed me like last year. Like Powerpuff said, this E3 was about the next gen systems. But since almost none of the next gen games were playable, we were left with a lot of looping video reels and trailers to give us an "idea" of what to expect. The next gen systems stole the thunder away from the current gen games, but since the next gen games were practically vaporware, it created a sort of Catch-22 in which no one won. After the dust settled, we were left with X-Box, PS2 and Gamecube games which looked as good as they’ll ever look, but our eyes were already spoiled by what’s on the horizon. It’s a shame. I was not an advocate of Microsoft releasing their next system this year. I felt there was still some untapped potential on the current systems. Games like Doom III, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Gran Turismo 4, God of War and Resident Evil 4 prove that these systems can still "wow". But it’s too late now. There’s no turning back. After seeing some of what the next gen has to offer, suddenly, RE4's textures aren’t looking quite as sharp, GT4's environments look a bit iffy and Chaos Theory’s lighting is looking just ok. Now, the next gen can’t come soon enough. The potential that is there waiting to be tapped is scary. These systems have - truly for the first time - the power to let developers create games with almost no barriers. We’ll see what they do with this power. Hopefully, not everyone will try to use 80% of the system to power the graphics engine. Hopefully, this new power will be used to open up new gameplay opportunities never before possible. We’ll see.

Next year’s E3 should be one for the ages.