E3 day one is over and it has been a long day for me. It seems like I’ve spent every waking moment watching live streams of press conferences, visiting forums and scouring the internet for sweet, sweet video game news. I had been half-hoping that I’d have a full analysis of the first three press conferences written up the end of today but the last press conference ended at roughly 2:30 a.m. GMT and it seems I’m not left with adequate time for the kind of in-depth analysis all of this madness requires.

Speaking of madness the news of last night’s Cirque du Soleil Kinect event has been just weird. Conceptually this world-renowned performance troupe performing an acrobatic interpretation of a Microsoft peripheral was batshit insane as it was but things seemed to get even more bizarre than I think anyone expected. The entire crowd being made to wear white ponchos seemed a little unusual but the journalists’ reports of creepy fake families, wood nymphs and giant mechanical elephants boggle the mind. It’s hard to believe that it was only this morning that the news on all of this was popping up on the internet and I still find myself bewildered firstly that this strange event took place and secondly that the content was quite so weird and hilarious.

The press conferences themselves were a bit of a mixed bag, overall they seemed to have a basic structure which was to get the blockbuster games out of the way first and then move onto motion control games and what they had planned for the casual market. At the end of day one I find myself a little disappointed; a large amount of time was certainly dedicated to showcasing rather underwhelming titles for the Kinect and Microsoft in particular focused on the motion peripheral for longer than I’d hoped they would. In brief my issue is that the Kinect seemed to have potential but for the large part the launch line-up has been filled with games that already exist on the Wii. I realise that I’m not really the target market for this stuff but you know what? I was excited about the Wii and even if it was a bit gimmicky when that console launched I had fun with the motion control games, Microsoft however seem to be playing host to some rather unoriginal content. Not only are these games that I would not buy but I’m very sceptical as to whether the kind of person who would buy a Wii (or has even bought a Wii) is going to buy an Xbox 360 and Kinect peripheral to experience a selection of motion control games which to some extent already exist.

Despite the letdowns the press conferences did have their moments. I especially liked the look of the big name titles Microsoft were showcasing; Fable III looked good, as a Halo fan I was blown away by the Halo: Reach campaign footage and even though I wouldn’t call myself a big Gears of War or Call of Duty fan I was impressed by what they had to show of Call of Duty: Black Ops and Gears of War 3.

And that folks is my brief summary of day one. Of course this is only a fraction of everything whirling around inside my head right now and I’ll have a full analysis of the press conferences up some time later this week. I’ll continue live-blogging the events tomorrow and will have another blog ready at the end of the day. Thanks for reading and I hope you’re all enjoying E3.

-Gamer_152

E3 day one is over and it has been a long day for me. It seems like I’ve spent every waking moment watching live streams of press conferences, visiting forums and scouring the internet for sweet, sweet video game news. I had been half-hoping that I’d have a full analysis of the first three press conferences written up the end of today but the last press conference ended at roughly 2:30 a.m. GMT and it seems I’m not left with adequate time for the kind of in-depth analysis all of this madness requires.

Speaking of madness the news of last night’s Cirque du Soleil Kinect event has been just weird. Conceptually this world-renowned performance troupe performing an acrobatic interpretation of a Microsoft peripheral was batshit insane as it was but things seemed to get even more bizarre than I think anyone expected. The entire crowd being made to wear white ponchos seemed a little unusual but the journalists’ reports of creepy fake families, wood nymphs and giant mechanical elephants boggle the mind. It’s hard to believe that it was only this morning that the news on all of this was popping up on the internet and I still find myself bewildered firstly that this strange event took place and secondly that the content was quite so weird and hilarious.

The press conferences themselves were a bit of a mixed bag, overall they seemed to have a basic structure which was to get the blockbuster games out of the way first and then move onto motion control games and what they had planned for the casual market. At the end of day one I find myself a little disappointed; a large amount of time was certainly dedicated to showcasing rather underwhelming titles for the Kinect and Microsoft in particular focused on the motion peripheral for longer than I’d hoped they would. In brief my issue is that the Kinect seemed to have potential but for the large part the launch line-up has been filled with games that already exist on the Wii. I realise that I’m not really the target market for this stuff but you know what? I was excited about the Wii and even if it was a bit gimmicky when that console launched I had fun with the motion control games, Microsoft however seem to be playing host to some rather unoriginal content. Not only are these games that I would not buy but I’m very sceptical as to whether the kind of person who would buy a Wii (or has even bought a Wii) is going to buy an Xbox 360 and Kinect peripheral to experience a selection of motion control games which to some extent already exist.

Despite the letdowns the press conferences did have their moments. I especially liked the look of the big name titles Microsoft were showcasing; Fable III looked good, as a Halo fan I was blown away by the Halo: Reach campaign footage and even though I wouldn’t call myself a big Gears of War or Call of Duty fan I was impressed by what they had to show of Call of Duty: Black Ops and Gears of War 3.

And that folks is my brief summary of day one. Of course this is only a fraction of everything whirling around inside my head right now and I’ll have a full analysis of the press conferences up some time later this week. I’ll continue live-blogging the events tomorrow and will have another blog ready at the end of the day. Thanks for reading and I hope you’re all enjoying E3.

-Gamer_152

The highlight of the day for me was the new Rayman. I was actually impressed with Medal of Honor and Ghost Recon (rare for shooters), but chances are I won't pick up either. Rayman on the other hand, may as well already have my money. Wonder what consoles it will be on.

" The highlight of the day for me was the new Rayman. I was actually impressed with Medal of Honor and Ghost Recon (rare for shooters), but chances are I won't pick up either. Rayman on the other hand, may as well already have my money. Wonder what consoles it will be on. "