Last weekend Robert Bowling, Creative Strategist for Infinity Ward, casually dropped a large, megaton-sized bombshell on the PC gaming community: Modern Warfare 2 – sequel to 2007’s critically acclaimed, best-selling hit – won’t have dedicated servers or mod support built-in.

Since then, e-petitions have been signed, journalists have tweeted, and other industry figures have weighed in. Public opinion seems to be split into two camps: most are outraged; others are nonplussed. Meanwhile, Bowling has attempted to calm the waves of discontent through a blog post, defending Infinity Ward’s decision and reassuring the PC community that this is, in fact, a step forward.

Tom Bramwell, editor of Eurogamer.net, had this to say in response:

"IW man's blog about why IWNet is a good thing suggests he doesn't understand why the concept so upset people in the first place."

And this is the point. The heart of the issue doesn’t lie in a list of pros and cons; it lies in a philosophy – a set of principles that have been at the core of the PC gaming experience for as long as it’s been alive.

PC gaming is a fundamentally different beast from that of console gaming; in fact, you could almost say it’s more of a lifestyle choice. It’s not just about being able to play games with a mouse and keyboard. People who play games on the PC don’t just get there by accident; people choose to play games on the PC for a number of reasons that are exclusive to the platform.

They want to be able to mod their games. They want to play at the highest resolutions and at the highest settings. They want to be able to tweak the config.ini file for the absolute perfect balance between performance and graphical awe. They want to be able to have the freedom to play that game in ten years time, without DRM. And, yes, they want their dedicated clan servers, where regulars come together to play, share and frag with the rest of the community.

These are the perks that PC gamers receive for their strivings, through the heartbreak of hardware failures, broken patches, viruses and the perpetual need for better, more powerful upgrades. If you want hassle-free gaming, buy a console, because that’s not what PCs are there for. When you're a PC gamer, you're in it for the long haul.

Bowling seems to be under the impression that PC gamers want what console gamers have – that they want a centralised online service; that they want matchmaking. But they don’t. PC gamers, above all else, want choice and flexibility in the way they interact with their games, not what Bowling laughably calls “accessibility”. In some cases, those who’ve migrated from the console arena have come to the PC to precisely avoid those “features” that Bowling lauds as advantageous.

Activision and Infinity Ward are major players in the games industry. Every move they make is observed, dissected, analysed and looked at some more by their competitors. If this decision works out for them then there is a very large, very worrying possibility that dedicated servers and user mods will go the way of the dodo, while multiplayer matching will become the norm du jour. Say “Bye-bye!” to clan servers, server and client-side mods, free maps and the traditional browser; say “Hello!” to paid-for DLC, unpredictable matchmaking, bad pings and poor server reliability.

The PC gaming scene is not what it used to be. Yes, you can point to the flourishing MMO and casual games markets as sectors of growth, but big house names such as Bioware, Epic, Crytek and, now, Infinity Ward have all migrated at least some, if not most, of their development towards consoles. That’s just the way things have been going for a long time.

That’s not to say that PC gamers have nothing to look forward to. The indie development community, for instance, is a source of excitement, for me at least, as a lot of stuff we’re seeing is often way more creative and interesting than what’s currently out on store shelves.

Nevertheless, if Activision/Infinity Ward’s gambit pays off then it’s just going to be another nail in the coffin for the old ways of PC gaming. On the other hand, if Modern Warfare 2 fails to sell according to expectations then they’ll just point and say how the PC is a platform in decline. Either way, to quote a trashy movie tagline, “Whoever wins... We lose.”

So, E3 is over, but, more importantly, who won?

Well, it seems rather clichéd and non-committal to say this, but everybody did, in a sense. Between the console manufacturers, I’m sure each can be happy with their respective showings. Nintendo, while not having the most groundbreaking Keynote, probably made the shareholders very happy with their re-emphasis on “casual” games, the Wii Fit brand and the ‘tween market, with some “core” franchises also thrown into the mix (for the fans, of course).

Both Sony and Microsoft had very strong showings in terms what games they were touting. Microsoft reiterated its commitment to the social functions of LIVE with the new Facebook and Twitter integration, while further evolving the platform as a viable digital download service. Getting the next Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy XIII on-board also was a bit of a coup for them. Likewise, the effort Sony’s put into revitalising their portable console, the PSP, via a new introduction to the product line, the PSP Go, was reassuring to fans of the console and to developers – who, additionally, now have an 80% discount on developing for the platform. Sony also pushed their new “play, share, create” line with ModNations Racers, further strengthening the PS3’s position as the home of user-created content (excepting the PC).

And then there’s Project Natal, Milo and Sony’s new motion controller. It’s impossible to say at this point which one will have the edge over the other; both seem to offer different experiences, with Sony’s controller being a safer, more sophisticated evolution of the now archetypical motion controller: the Wii Remote. Project Natal and Milo, on the other hand, dare to reach for an unprecedented level of interactive experience. Whether they’ll actually get there and whether it’ll be any good, we shall see.

Among the deluge of news and announcements to come out of E3, some lesser-known, more interesting bits-and-pieces often slip through the cracks. Here are a few of my recommendations – an assortment of articles, trailers, interviews etc. – which you may have missed.

1. Joystiq’s Hands-on with New Super Mario Bros. on the Wii. Originally, I discounted the game fairly swiftly as I didn’t believe that an offline, four player platformer on one screen would work very well or be that much fun. From what I’ve heard from Joystiq, Eurogamer and the Giant Bomb crew, they have managed to do it right. I really shouldn’t act surprised; if anybody could have made this type of thing work, it would have been Nintendo.

2. “Sony working on ‘good will’ program to give digital copies of your UMD collection” (from engadget.com). This is interesting as I was wondering if and how they were going to do this. It probably won’t make me upgrade to a PSP Go, but it’s certainly another great move by Sony. Considering my general level of antipathy towards them, they’ve announced some really great decisions at this year’s convention.

3. Giant Bomb’s Brad Shoemaker’s interview with the BioWare guys. Both funny and informative.

4. Kotaku’s “The PSP Go Looks Familiar” article. I think I saw this somewhere else, too, but it’s still vaguely interesting. I also like the strange synchronicity that the device they modelled the PSP Go on is called a “Mylo”. Make of that what you will.

5. GameTrailer’s Bayonetta E3 Trailer. This trailer was actually leaked before E3, but it’s so bat-shit-crazy-insane that I think it’s worth everybody taking a look who hasn’t already. Totally, totally nuts. Five words: gun-wielding nun-vixen/dominatrix.

6. The Giant Bombcast: E3 Day Three. A lot less hectic than yesterday’s episode but just as good. Paul Barnett and Carrie Gouskos from Mythic Entertainment entertain us with behind-the-scenes anecdotes from E3. Best of the bunch: Carrie meets her all-time hero, Tim Schafer, and turns it into a social encounter Larry David would be proud of, and Paul Barnett gets a pizza delivered from Sugar Ray Leonard.

7. Giant Bomb’s Persona PSP Interview. A short but sweet interview from Jeff Gerstmann quizzing Nick Maragos, localisation editor for Persona PSP. Interesting for those addicted to the Persona 4 Endurance Run and looking to get into the Persona universe.

8. Shadow Complex E3 Developer Walkthrough from GameTrailers. An interesting look at Shadow Complex, a kind of Castlevania/Metroid hybrid from Epic Games, soon to be available on XBLA. I like the idea of a new “metroidvania” 2D-style game, but Shadow Complex seems to lack a lot of the flair, charm and personality of those games, which is a shame. Why Epic feel the need to reduce the look of every game they produce to muted grey, blue and brown colours, I’ll never know.

So, that’s it for this year’s E3. It’s been an exciting week for video games and I’m just glad I got to see it all from afar. ‘Till next time.

With all the major conferences now over, most of the reporting from E3 now revolves around hands-on impressions of individual games, interviews, gameplay videos, podcasts and smaller announcements. Since I can’t give you my hands-on impressions of what’s on offer, I can at least point you in the direction of what, I think, are the more interesting articles and features coming out from the gaming press.

From Joystiq, there are a few articles of interest. The first is one that states that Forza Motorsport 3 – supposedly the “definitive” racing game of this console generation – will be shipping on two disks instead of one. While the first disk is the one you’ll put in the drive to play the game, the second contains various assets and bonus features such as additional cars and courses. Could this be the first sign that Microsoft’s choice of format – the DVD – is finally showing its age? Maybe.

The second article regards Peter Molyneux’s promotion as creative director of Microsoft Games Studios Europe. This isn’t that interesting in itself; in fact, the main reason I paid the article any notice was because of their brilliant picture and caption they had for the piece.

Giant Bomb had an interesting interview with Valve’s Chet Faliszek over Left 4 Dead 2 – a game which has been receiving some mixed reactions across the board. On the one hand, a lot of the fans on the forums feel it’s way too early for sequel; they feel slightly abandoned and are a little worried that this now means that future DLC for the original L4D won’t happen. On the other hand, it’s more Left 4 Dead, plus chainsaws and incendiary bullets – what part of that sentence doesn’t sound awesome? The interview answers some of the questions many L4D fans have been asking themselves, and it personally alleviated some of my fears that this is not just a lazy cash-in for the franchise.

Also on Giant Bomb: the Day Two E3 Bombcast which descended into chaos and mayhem.  Among others, Leigh Alexander came on the podcast for the discussion and, boy, did she have a lot to discuss! Leigh frequently dominated and monopolised the conversation, often trampling over the responses of others to further justify her own opinion. When she was talking, though – and that was, well, most of the time – she came out with some really interesting, and absolutely spot-on, observations about E3, the console platforms, the asexuality of Resident Evil and the myth of PlayStation Home (and of virtual worlds in general). She has since apologised on her own blog for her behavior, so I don’t want to shame her or anything like that. I actually recommend you give it a listen, if only for Ryan’s reaction (”are you fucking out of your mind?!”) to her assertion of Nazi SS uniforms being “objectively sexy.” It was pretty funny, and I fully recommend you have a look at her blog at Sexy Videogameland as well as Gamasutra – the site at which she works as News Director. I hope to hear her on further Bombcasts in the future.

The Guardian Games blog has an article on the background origins surrounding Microsoft’s Project Natal. It’s worth a quick look-see for anyone wondering about the technology behind the thing. Kotaku also had a picture up on their site, which is worryingly reminiscent of HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Kind-of freaky, if you ask me.

Kotaku also asked Sony about the expected PS3 price-drop at E3 – which, incidentally, never came. Their response was that they are going in a different direction of adding more content to the system, thereby increasing its value as a platform. Fair enough, I say. It would be a little premature to lower the price of the PS3 as that is something that would be more effective during the Christmas season. The PSP Go on the other hand…

Speaking of which, there was an article for the Go, in which Sony was asked about the console’s pricing strategy. They commented that “It’s targeting an early adopter, a tech enthusiast.” My question is, will the tech enthusiast want it, though? They also mentioned that they are trying to get retailers in on the digital distribution pie, possibly looking into vouchers sold at retail which would then act as tokens to download certain games via PSN. That’s answered one of my questions, anyway – why would a retailer support a product which takes away part of their business from them?

For those interested in Bioshock 2, there are hands-on impressions coming in from several different sites. The general opinion I’ve observed seems to be of a slight weariness over exactly how well the multiplayer will integrate with the final product.

Finally, the trailer for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, as seen from the Konami press conference, is now available online for all to witness. Interestingly, Joystiq has picked up on the fact that while Kojima has been emphasising that this is a new game, it actually isn’t, because we’ve already seen it before – albeit in a slightly different form, minus the Castlevania logo.

Unfortunately, there were technical issues at the venue so no live video feeds were available this time. Going back to basics, here: live blogger feeds via Kotaku and G4. In the general scheme of things, the press conference seemed pretty low key. Apart from the couple of Metal Gear titles we already knew about – MGS: Rising and Peace Walker – there were a further two announcements made for Metal Gear Solid Arcade and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. It’s hard to get excited about MGS: Arcade, since there’s practically zero chance it will ever see the light of day in little ‘ol Blighty. The Castlevania title is apparently a reboot of the series, due for release both on Xbox 360 and PS3; it will be an open-world action game and, apparently, looks very impressive so far.

Other news at the conference

• Saw: The Video Game was shown in a trailer. Tobin Bell came onstage to talk about the game; nobody was listening and nobody cared.
• Some stuff about Karaoke Revolution. (Again, not interested.)
• They also showed new DDR: Wii. It uses the balance board, and judging the reaction from the live bloggers at E3, it also looks to be a lot of silly fun.
• Talked about WireWay – a platform/puzzle game for the Nintendo DS.
• Talked about Deca Sports 2 – a sports game for the Wii.
• Showed new DDR for PS3 and announced that there will be over 150 songs available as DLC over PSN and XBL.
• More details revealed about Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. It is a “re-imagining” of the original Silent Hill but with Wii motion controls. There will also be PS2 and PSP versions of the game. It’s supposed to be shaping up nicely; there will also be no combat in the game (you will be running away from monsters, instead) and you will use the Wii Remote to point your character’s flashlight around. Also, new music from Akira Yamaoka. [Will post E3 demo video on the site when it becomes available.]

I was stifling yawns while watching the Nintendo keynote. The Ubisoft conference was bad, but it was like watching car-crash television – you just couldn’t look away for risk of not seeing what was going to happen next. To me, someone who’s into more traditional games, there was very little to hold my attention at the Nintendo conference. And I imagine that sentiment probably applies to a lot of the folks sat in the audience, as well.

I’m sure several Nintendo fans are very happy to see Super Mario Galaxy 2, Metroid: Other M, and a new Kingdom Hearts game coming out for the Wii; there were also some other good looking games out there in the shape of Dead Space: Extraction, The Conduit and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers, all for the Wii platform. But what was, sadly, most evident at his conference, was that Nintendo are gradually, but surely, moving away from the “core” loyalist fanbase and towards the untapped “maybe” market – those who might play games but don’t at the moment, as Iwata later revealed.

Satoru Iwata, president and CEO of Nintendo, came on to talk about how the casual/hardcore divide is a myth and that there is a way to accommodate both loyalists and newcomers to gaming; I think most people know that’s more than slightly optimistic thinking on his part. It didn’t help his cause when he revealed the new – for the first time ever – Vitality Sensor, which looks like a heart-rate monitor, sounds like a heart-rate monitor, is… well, a heart-rate monitor, but re-branded for the Wii. I’m sure no-one expected this, but maybe that’s because the peripheral has no effective application and is, in general, a really dumb idea?

The main emphasis of this conference was clearly on expanding the Wii and Nintendo DS’s user base to get more non-gamers on-board. There was a chunk of talk-time devoted to the virtues of Wii Motion Plus for use in the new Wii Sports Resort game; again, there was the common theme, exposed in every conference so far, of courting the fitness and ‘tween markets – specifically, with Wii Fit Plus, as well as with a slurry of titles for the DS and DSi, including Style Savvy, Cop: The Recruit and Women’s Murder Club: Games of Passion. Emblematic of this turnaround is the now announced New Super Mario Bros. for Wii, which looks very similar to the DS game of the same name but with four-player co-op. Four player co-op? In a 2D platform game? With one screen between the four? It just sounds to me like a principally flawed concept.

There were a couple of additional things of note regarding the DSi. Good news for RPG gamers: they’re releasing a new Golden Sun and Mario and Luigi game. Along with Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, that’s not too bad. There was also mention of the DSi’s download service and with specific mention to Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again, seemingly an update of Mario vs. Donkey Kong but with the ability to create and upload your own levels for others to download and play through. Cammy Dunaway, Nintendo’s executive vice president, also went on to talk about how they’re marketing the DSi as a gadget which can be personalised to your express style and tastes. As further evidence of this claim, they’re going to include Facebook integration for the DSi later this summer.

It was all pretty routine, pretty straight forward, smart stuff. Vitality Sensor aside (Nintendo, what were you thinking?) it was a rather dull conference; very self-congratulatory and uninspiring.

But why should they care what I think? After all, I’m not their audience anymore, am I?