Playing Ketchup

It's been a crazy couple of weeks, let me tell you. In the last month or so, I've been to London, got through E3, and went to Tokyo for a combination business trip/burial for my grandfather. And this week (tomorrow, actually), I leave for North Carolina to go see my father, who just got out of the hospital from his big surgery.

E3 was even more exhausting this year than usual, though I'm not entirely sure why. The show itself was a bit of a disappointment, to be honest. There were a few surprises ($600?! Tilt functionality?!), but overall, people showed what everyone knew they were going to show, and most of it looked and played like everyone expected.

A few standouts:

- Assassin's Creed (Ubisoft): I'm a bit miffed that this appears to be a PS3 exclusive, but I really enjoy the premise of this game. From what I've heard, it's looking absolutely stunning. Can't wait to get my hands on this one. (Just found out that this got IGN's overall action game of show.)

- Splinter Cell: Double Agent (Ubisoft): Yes, Ubi had a fairly solid lineup this year. Splinter Cell seems to be changing the look of the game and is going for a more "Hollywood-esque" look and style. Should be entertaining.

- Resistance: Fall of Man (SCEA): A shooter by the guys at Insomniac, this game is *pretty*. Didn't get a chance to play it at all, but Insomniac is no slouch when it comes to gameplay (though whether or not they can pull off an FPS remains to be seen). Seeing as it is supposed to be a launch title, this could be one of the must-have titles for the PS3 launch.

- Heavenly Sword (SCEA): Or otherwise known as "Goddess of War." Essentially, a next gen version of God of War, with a female lead character, and mythology that looks like it's loosely based on Chinese mythology/Wu Xia movies.

- Bioshock (2K Games): Didn't get to see this one (was behind closed doors), but heard it was extremely impressive. I believe IGN gave it X360 game of show... It's the spiritual successor to System Shock, so there's a lot of hardcore anticipation behind this one.


Not Quite Sure Category:

- Wii: Still don't know what to make of the controller. When used properly, it can be fun, but the sensitivity is still an issue. And frankly, do I *want* to have to stand up and position myself in specific orientations to play certain games? Do I want to be concerned what angle my hands are at when lying down on my couch to relax? Still yet to be seen.

- PS3 Price Point: Who is this game console for? The only electronic/entertainment thing I've ever spent more than $500 on in my life is a PC. And that's because I needed one for college.

- Dead Rising: Capcom's new "Dawn of the Dead" style game for X360. It looks vastly improved over the movie they showed at last year's E3, but I'm still not sure if it's worth picking up. Sure, there are moments of sheer awesomeness (like taking a zombie's head off with a bowling ball), but it might get a bit repetitive after a while.

- Too Human: Looks like it could potentially be fun, but I've never understood why there was *so* much hype for this game before anything was really ever available for it. The version that they showed at E3 looked like it shouldn't have been shown, but I'm going to guess that a lot of the issues the game was suffering from were linked to Unreal Engine 3 and whatever camera AI they were using.

- Viva Pinata: Really, really cute, but will it actually be any fun? And is it really a good idea to link kids to XBL Marketplace where they can buy random crap??

- Nintey-Nine Nights: Looks pretty, but how is it any different from, say, Dynasty Warriors?

- Saint's Row: Another GTA clone, but this one is actually fairly good-looking. Considering the size and scope of the game, the graphics are good, the gameplay feels all right (though the driving is floaty), but the one thing it's missing is style. It feels a bit too generic right now, which might prevent people from caring too much.


The WTF Category:

- Shadowrun: Okay, I used to GM a Shadowrun campaign. I loved the game world, the gameplay, etc. WTF is this new game??? They took an extremely deep RPG and turned it into a half-assed FPS?

- MGS4: Why is everyone so excited about this game? They showed a 15 minute trailer that was unbelievably badly written (how many times can you repeat "War has changed" without it actually meaning anything in context of what is being said?), although the action sequences were pretty cool. The story has completely lost any interest for me, so I suppose that's why I care so little, but man. It was mind-boggling.


Overloaded:

- RTS games: Oh dear GOD, there were a lot of RTS games at the show. Supreme Commander, Company of Heroes, Medieval 2, Battle for Middle Earth 2, Civ 4 expansion, Rise of Legends, etc etc. I like RTS games as much as the next guy, but dayumn.

- Comic book games: The Darkness, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, X-men 3: The Official Game, X-men Legends 2, Dragon Ball Z, Naruto (like, 3 of them!), One Piece, etc. I know comics are "in" now, but this is overkill.

- Squeenix Brands: 14 SKUs based on 3 brands (FF, DQ, Mana). You know it's getting ridiculous when a specific *sequel* in a series becomes its own *brand*. There are about 3 or 4 Final Fantasy 7 products in development right now. And I believe there are 3 Final Fantasy 13s.




Okay. That was a lot more than I had originally intended to post.