E3!!!

E3 2013 is now well under way in Los Angeles, and it’s definitely one of the more memorable shows in recent memory.  Not necessarily for ALL the right reasons, but memorable nonetheless.

On one hand, you have Microsoft’s genuine attempt to win us over.

That Rome game looked interesting, although the over-abundance of “quicktime” diminished my interest enough to not even want to look up the game’s entire title.  A new Halo game can be fun, so long as the material is refreshing enough to not feel like a rehash of prior games.  Forza 5‘s “driveatar” concept is pretty neat, I suppose, but the graphics didn’t seem all that much more impressive than Gran Turismo 5.

I wasn’t much a fan of their “it comes with Kinect, which you will like” approach.  The Kinect and PS Move are gimmicky responses to the Wii Remote, and the novelty of those devices wore off pretty fast.  By the time Skyward Sword came around and showed us all what was possible with good motion controls, even I was sick of it.

I guess I’m one of those who believes that playing video games is meant to be a lazy activity, and that’s that!

 

 

In any case, that, coupled with a convoluted used game policy and a $500 price tag, has me thinking “no thanks”.  Not until the price goes down a time or three.

On the other hand, you have Sony’s brilliant strategy of going in the opposite direction.  “Microsoft’s doing what???  Well, we certainly don’t want to do that.”

For the last few years, I’ve bounced back and forth between the PS3 and Xbox 360.  I own both consoles, so it’s easy not to declare any loyalty to one or the other, and just lay back and enjoy the stream of games on both sides.  They each have unique charms that bring me back, and I play them both just about the same amount.

With the PS4, however, I think Sony has me sold already.  I probably won’t buy at launch, just because I’ve found recent console purchases a bit jarring to the bank account…  but if I’m going to go next-gen, it might as well be with the cheaper, more user-friendly console.

As for Nintendo’s E3, I’ll make another post tomorrow.