E3: Meh

© Penny Arcade

As usual Gabe and Tycho have hit the nail bang on the head with their latest comic about - surprise surprise - E3. Yes it's that time of year again and I'm once again one of the minority in terms of journalists who didn't go, most places it seems were taken up by fanbois and bedroom editors with the odd proffessional journo thrown in for good measure.

Thank the Gods for the interwebs though. Gamespot hosted the three major press conferences from Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo and they've been my evening viewing of choice. Either way, the comic above really does sum up the week's events.

Microsoft

Microsoft have finally stopped treating their consoles like a sideline, instead making them their full focuses and giving the Xbox 360 the treatment and respect it deserves as a huge player in the video games market. The press conference didn't throw up any surprises but when you're a journo, I usually hear everything in advance with the rumour mill filling in the rest, like Lips (WTF, seriously, what kind of a name is that for a game?) and avatars for example.

Nintendo

Ahh Reggie with your huge shoulders, it wouldn't be a Nintendo presser if you weren't there, the conference didn't start late and some kind of Pokémon game wasn't announced. Gratz on all three! This time round Reggie had a lot of import from Cammie Dunaway who actually gives the impression she loves games but in a really HUGE American kind of way. Watching her play against Reggie using Wii MotionPlus (what a con!) and Wii Resort was amusing though and typifies Nintendo's attitude of converting the masses into gamers, either casual or hardcore; it doesn't matter as long as people buy their games and consoles.

Sony

Gods, the Sony Presser was boring. Seriously. Using BigLittlePlanet might make those figures look prettier (and by extension a distraction from the whole point) but it's still like watching paint dry. I love the way they always talk about ten year plans - especially when the PS2 is the only thriving example of such a plan, the PS3 will be lucky to last four. I'm sorry, Sony, but the PS3 cannot beat the Xbox 360. Live with it and have fun trying to crack the media market with those downloadable movies, which Microsoft have been doing for like two years. Cheers on the single user name for all your products though, I might finally be able to make my PSP talk to my PS3 now. Great! Aside from that *Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz*