Why even bother?

Ok, I’ve recovered from my comatose state and am finally able to jot down my thoughts on the MTV “unveiling” of the X-Box 360. And just what might those thoughts be?

Why even bother wasting the resources, man power, effort and electron beams needed to broadcast such a lackluster, uneventful pile of rubbish.

In ½ an hour we probably saw 40 seconds of the actual system and a total of 25 seconds of game footage. And that’s with the “first ever Perfect Dark Zero deathmatch”, the biggest farce I have ever seen on tv.

I should have known. Hell, I did know. I had my reservations about the show, which I posted here earlier . . . yet somehow my hope that Microsoft would come through blinded me. I quickly knew I was in trouble when some unknown girl struts up to the center platform, pulls the 360 out of a bag and then the crazy editing and camera movement kicks in.

Here’s a thought for the editing/camera guys: if you actually focus the camera on what it is you’re trying to show, maybe the viewers can actually take it in. As Powerpuff mentioned, instead of the absolutely useless bit on pimping your X-Box, how about focusing on the reason people are watching - the 360 - and go over its features. Open the DVD tray. Show the back of the system. Give us some freakin’ specs for Pete’s sake!! No, we get none of the above. But we get to see The Killers perform. Yeah! Gamer’s rejoice!

Then, there was the Perfect Dark Zero deathmatch. I don’t even know what to say, except to reiterate my original thought of this post. Why even bother? If I want to see a bunch of people’s reactions while they are playing a game, I can go to my local arcade and stare at strangers. For all we know they could have been playing Counter Strike, or Halo 2, or freakin’ Pac-Man, since in a stroke of brilliance they decided that there was no need to show the actual game they were playing. So again, I must ask . . . why even bother?

From what I managed to see of the games they showed, I was most impressed by NBA 2K6, Ghost Recon 3 and Gears of War.

Tony Hawk and Tiger Woods looked like they were running on a regular X-Box. Very disappointing. Need for Speed looked great, although it was hard to tell if the graphics were real-time or a cinematic (maybe that’s a compliment to the game).

Lastly, one game I was very interested in seeing, Madden, continued to disappoint. I thought that the Next Gen Madden commercial was very, very, disappointing, and the footage shown in this unveiling continued the trend. I was hoping Madden’s visuals in this Next Generation would start to blur the lines of reality and gaming. As it’s looking so far, the player models look nothing like actual humans, and the lighting and textures still don’t seem to try to mimic reality. After seeing the amazing NBA 2K6 video, Madden’s visuals look far, far behind. Here’s hoping that this is all very early footage and that the actual game will blow me away.

So, I guess we’ll have to wait until E3 to get some real answers. Here’s hoping for the best!!! Can’t wait, next week is going to be VERY exciting!!!

Tanis out.