*Copied and edited from the June, 19th 2010 post on my personal blog*

This Year's E3: The Reality

Ah, the Electronic Entertainment Expo. This trade show can really make a gamer's year with cool announcements, surprises, and details of formerly vague hardware and software. Too bad I was bored out of my skull this year. Lovely.

Every gamer has a wish list, whether it be a written one (like mine from the last blog post I made) or one that is in no particular order and rattling around within the confines of his/her brain holder thing. Skull, was it? Unfortunately, almost nothing from my own list happened, so despite a few cool bits of software on display, I feel like my excitement was met with good old boredom all week. Maybe it's my taste in games that is the problem. If I was a casual gamer with less... complex taste in games I think I would have had a hard time picking between the three big consoles as to which one would give me more for my entertainment dollars.

Alas, my favorite aspects of a game are the story, character development, narrative, and some form of at least partially strategic gameplay - I'm not into casual-focused games or hyper-violent titles. Because of that, as soon as E3 started this year I was on a fast moving train to Disinterested City, the greatest place on earth that isn't everywhere else. Looking deeper into the show, however, I see a few products that I think I am going to really enjoy. With that in mind, here's a handful of items I very much want after seeing them (mostly because I wasn't totally interested before or didn't know about it):

The Witcher 2

A sequel to a game that I swear I'll get to sooner or later, this looked amazing. A dark, branching storyline, an interesting universe, and a cool main character means it is not only in my wheelhouse, said wheelhouse may actually have been built around this game as it slept. It's also a PC game, and I feel it will be the one that forces me to upgrade my video card (who am I kidding, I was going to do that anyway).   

Nintendo 3DS

The 3DS has been getting some incredible praise from the press, so despite my total disregard for Nintendo products, may have to get it when there are enough role-playing games that don't focus on that dreaded touch screen. If/when that happens, I will be happy to purchase this bit of hardware.
 
 
 

Journey

From the same company that made the beautifully addictive downloadable game Flower comes this... thing. I honestly am having a hard time trying to write about it, so I'll let Giant Bomb's Brad Shoemaker do it for me from his preview of the game during E3:

"Chen is tired of the empowerment fantasies inherent in most modern games. He said he wants to return players to a feeling of being small and powerless, with a sense of awe toward the wide unknown world. That means no rocket launchers or double jumps in Journey. The game is about exploring this strange world as a hapless character with no foreknowledge of his or her strange  surroundings."

                                                                          My anticipation is palpable. And possibly sugar-coated.  
 

Spec-Ops: The Line

The only shooter that caught my eye and interest entirely from new E3 news (I had heard of it before, but was more or less "meh" towards it), this is also easily the most violent game I am excited about. The world and gameplay mechanics look fun because of the setting in a sandstorm-ravaged Dubai, and from what I hear the characters and story will actually be a developmental focal point. I've heard all that before and ended up with games that are violent for the sake of violent (and therefore insanely boring), but I am keeping a hopeful eye on this one.
 

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

I want to see what this game ends up being almost strictly because of other people's high enthusiasm for it. I've also heard a lot of talk about how the game will allow you to play in different ways, which is a definite plus in my book. I never played the other two Deus Ex games, so I also hope this game doesn't lay into constant allusions to events or people I don't know anything about.

 
 
 
 
Well, that's it. That's all that really caught my eye this E3. Ugh, what a bad year for me as far as this event is concerned. I have a feeling that I'm going to get much more joy out of the Tokyo Game Show this year since about a third of what I wanted was more likely to be announced there anyway - I was just being hopeful for some early information and got nothing for it.
   
 

 
Copyright (c) 2010 Michael Valdez and OddProdigal.com

 *Copied and edited from the June, 19th 2010 post on my personal blog*

This Year's E3: The Reality

Ah, the Electronic Entertainment Expo. This trade show can really make a gamer's year with cool announcements, surprises, and details of formerly vague hardware and software. Too bad I was bored out of my skull this year. Lovely.

Every gamer has a wish list, whether it be a written one (like mine from the last blog post I made) or one that is in no particular order and rattling around within the confines of his/her brain holder thing. Skull, was it? Unfortunately, almost nothing from my own list happened, so despite a few cool bits of software on display, I feel like my excitement was met with good old boredom all week. Maybe it's my taste in games that is the problem. If I was a casual gamer with less... complex taste in games I think I would have had a hard time picking between the three big consoles as to which one would give me more for my entertainment dollars.

Alas, my favorite aspects of a game are the story, character development, narrative, and some form of at least partially strategic gameplay - I'm not into casual-focused games or hyper-violent titles. Because of that, as soon as E3 started this year I was on a fast moving train to Disinterested City, the greatest place on earth that isn't everywhere else. Looking deeper into the show, however, I see a few products that I think I am going to really enjoy. With that in mind, here's a handful of items I very much want after seeing them (mostly because I wasn't totally interested before or didn't know about it):

The Witcher 2

A sequel to a game that I swear I'll get to sooner or later, this looked amazing. A dark, branching storyline, an interesting universe, and a cool main character means it is not only in my wheelhouse, said wheelhouse may actually have been built around this game as it slept. It's also a PC game, and I feel it will be the one that forces me to upgrade my video card (who am I kidding, I was going to do that anyway).   

Nintendo 3DS

The 3DS has been getting some incredible praise from the press, so despite my total disregard for Nintendo products, may have to get it when there are enough role-playing games that don't focus on that dreaded touch screen. If/when that happens, I will be happy to purchase this bit of hardware.
 
 
 

Journey

From the same company that made the beautifully addictive downloadable game Flower comes this... thing. I honestly am having a hard time trying to write about it, so I'll let Giant Bomb's Brad Shoemaker do it for me from his preview of the game during E3:

"Chen is tired of the empowerment fantasies inherent in most modern games. He said he wants to return players to a feeling of being small and powerless, with a sense of awe toward the wide unknown world. That means no rocket launchers or double jumps in Journey. The game is about exploring this strange world as a hapless character with no foreknowledge of his or her strange  surroundings."

                                                                          My anticipation is palpable. And possibly sugar-coated.  
 

Spec-Ops: The Line

The only shooter that caught my eye and interest entirely from new E3 news (I had heard of it before, but was more or less "meh" towards it), this is also easily the most violent game I am excited about. The world and gameplay mechanics look fun because of the setting in a sandstorm-ravaged Dubai, and from what I hear the characters and story will actually be a developmental focal point. I've heard all that before and ended up with games that are violent for the sake of violent (and therefore insanely boring), but I am keeping a hopeful eye on this one.
 

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

I want to see what this game ends up being almost strictly because of other people's high enthusiasm for it. I've also heard a lot of talk about how the game will allow you to play in different ways, which is a definite plus in my book. I never played the other two Deus Ex games, so I also hope this game doesn't lay into constant allusions to events or people I don't know anything about.

 
 
 
 
Well, that's it. That's all that really caught my eye this E3. Ugh, what a bad year for me as far as this event is concerned. I have a feeling that I'm going to get much more joy out of the Tokyo Game Show this year since about a third of what I wanted was more likely to be announced there anyway - I was just being hopeful for some early information and got nothing for it.
   
 

 
Copyright (c) 2010 Michael Valdez and OddProdigal.com

I think that Sony, Mircosoft, and other third party companies are going to use TGS and GamesCon to talk about and launch new games. For example SquareEnix, Activision, and many other third party companies didn't even have press conferences this year at E3. I think that this E3 didn't have a very large surprise factor to it. And you games you are looking forward to list says it all. The Witcher 2 was announced before E3, 3DS, Spec ops, Dues Ex, I could go on. If i am not mistaken there were very few "new" items at E3 (journey being one). But overall it was showing that things worked and that games were good. 
 
(PS I dont count the rehashed wii games on kinect and the move as "new" games) .
 
Overall I think most companies were playing to safe. And over the next few months you will hear about games that will spike your interest in one way or another.