E3 Impressions

Well, it’s that time of year again.  That special time of year when I am completely incapable of doing anything remotely like work and simply spend all my time refreshing gaming web sites pages to see if they’ve updated with any content that I care about (the answer: no).  

And, I guess it’s cool that E3 is back to being “kind of a big deal”.  Yeah, since I can’t go I don’t really care either.  But I did check out the live blogs of the various big 3 keynotes.  It’s kind of surreal watching those, though.  I mean, I don’t know who they think they’re talking to, but it certainly isn’t me.  It’s kind of depressing.  It’s extra-depressing since that was my reaction last year as well.

To be honest, I’m only ever going to care about a very small percentage of the gaming news from any E3.  For one, I’m not picking up an Xbox 360 and I’m probably not going to pick up a Wii.  Why? You ask.  The answer is simple.  I honestly don’t have time.  I can’t keep up with all the games that I buy and play for my PS3, what’s the point in buying more consoles?  That’s what it really came down to.  

And, within the PS3 game list, I’m only really interested in playing single player PS3 games, particularly in the platformer, survival-horror, and RPG genre.  So, when Microsoft tells me that they’re working on this camera peripheral that can recognize my face and track my movements, I don’t really care.  I’m not going to be moving around when I’m playing games.  I don’t even want to be (let alone buying a 360 for that).  Same with Sony’s little contraption thing.  I just don’t care.  

But, there are some things I do care about.  Like that footage of The Last Guardian.  It’s hard to explain how good that video makes me feel, but it makes me feel good.  All warm and fuzzy inside, and maybe a little choked up.  That’s what Team Ico specializes.  Magic.  Similarly, but on a totally different note, Heavy Rain is coming along.  The ridiculously terrible camera controls in Indigo Prophecy tore me away from that game, but it doesn’t stop me from being very excited for their next game.  

Of course, it’s also good to see that I can keep looking forward to White Knight Chronicles.  And I was happy to hear that the main character in Assassin’s Creed can swim (I don’t know if it’s good a thing for a sequel that its most exciting piece of news is that the developers got rid of a stupidly annoying aspect of the original).  

On the flip side, each time I see something for Dante’s Inferno, it makes me less excited for that game.  I really, really hope that the game has long load times where it forces you to read the poem.  That would be awesome.  Or maybe a journal where he’s slowly recording the poem.  Except, the game doesn’t seem to feature Virgil.  Unless, the player is Virgil, guiding Dante through Hell.  That could work.  Okay, I admit it, less excited for this game is still rather excited.  

And I want to know why I didn’t get to read all sorts of stuff about Beyond Good and Evil 2.  

And, on an unrelated note, I have a question.  What can Square-Enix possibly show us from Final Fantasy XIII that would actually matter?  I mean, a couple years ago they showed me the title graphic.  At that point, I was pretty much sold.  They can show me all the confusing pieces of the CG movies they want, I mean, it doesn’t mean anything to me.  I’m already buying it the moment it comes out.  

Let’s see, other reactions... I guess I don’t really have very strong feelings about God of War III.  It’s a little depressing that the typical comments are something along the lines of:  it’s crazy gory, like you won’t even believe.  I mean, how is that a recommendation?  I wasn’t playing God of War for the gore.  But maybe all the cool kids were.  

And then there’s The Beatles: Rock Band.  Obviously, I’m excited.  Vocal harmonies will be tough.  Really tough.  But obviously worth every second.  And the idea of full album downloads makes me giddy.  I can keep on dreaming of that special day when I can play through the entirety of Sergeant Pepper’s.  That will be a good day.  

Sigh...

But, yeah, I guess that’s the stuff I care about.  I’m looking forward to hearing how that Metroid game comes out, of course (and for that matter, I might even consider checking out Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, even though the first was already stupidly ridiculously hard).

So, yeah, that’s E3 for you.  Overall, I think it went alright.  All things considered.  And, well, maybe I’ll even consider playing an MMO when FF XIV comes you.  Stranger things have happened.