Category — Main

Well, it’s been a couple of weeks since my last entry.  Let’s see what happened so far:

The Dark Knight came out. ==> Really really awesome movie.
Comic Con came and went. ==> TR2N!!!  AWESOME!!!

I finally started my XBOX Live account, as you can see from the new gamer tag.  Finally, I can get back into the regular (time willing) habit of playing console games!  My first priority when I started it up last night was to download a few XBLA games.  I’ve been wanting to try this new-fangled direct distribution for a while, now.  (Wii doesn’t count, IMHO)  I’m trying Penny Arcade Adventures, TMNT (1989), and Soul Calibur, first.  I also downloaded the demos for DBZ: Burst Limit, Too Human, Catan, Carcassone, and Ikaruga.  Man.  I gotta say.  It totally seems worthwhile to provide demos for games.  They’re such eye-openers.  The demos I played last night showed me that I probably don’t want to waste my money on Too Human, (I was looking forward to the art style ) but will probably get Ikaruga and DBZ:Burst Limit after the summer.  Ikaruga was kindof a given, since I’ve loved it ever since I first played it on Gamecube.  DBZ was surprising, though.  I wouldn’t call myself a hardcore DBZ fan.  I’m a fan, just not totally gaga over it.  However, I’ve got to say, playing the demo was really fun and nostalgic.  The little cutscenes get annoying, but i love a good button-masher! 

In more exciting news, it looks like I’m going to be a sort of reporter for a computer graphics community site during SIGGRAPH.  It’s pretty huge, in my mind, but I’ll keep you posted as to how it’s going.  You’ll find out everything soon enough! (by the end of next week)

I’ve been keeping up-to-date with E3 announcements this week. (not something I usually do for E3)  To tell you the truth, I didn’t have very much hope for the conference this year.  When I heard how different E3 was last year and how many companies pulled out of the ESA this year, I honestly thought that E3 was going to be on its last legs.  It’s amazing how I always seem to be pleasently surprised when I expect the worst.

Monday at Nintendo’s press conference, Miyamoto showed off Wii Music and the new advanced motion control system.  Finally, Nintendo’s getting on the ball.  I was more than a little disappointed when I first played the Wii and found how unresponsive and limited the sensor and accelerometer was in the Wiimote and Nunchuck.  Now they’re finally trying to make up for that failure by launching the Wii Motion Advanced for cloase to a 1:1 motion response ratio.  This is what Nintendo should be doing.  Finding ways of improving on their system in order to compete with the various price drops and firmware updates of the XBox 360 and PS3.  Wii Music also looks kinda cool.  I’d be more excited if I didn’t already have a 360.  Wii voice?  Don’t need it.

Yesterday, Sony’s press conference was far more interesting.  Holy crap.  Resistance and Rachet and Clank are now Sony’s poster children.  Insomniac was definitely getting the publicity.  They kicked things off by having Ted Price show off the Resistance 2 demo.  Very spiffy, indeed.  They then went into the success of the PSP bundles, announcing a new one.  In October, Sony’s releasing a bundle that includes a silver PSP, Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters, National Treasure 2 UMD, a 1Gb Memory Stick, and a download pass for echochrome.  Sufficed to say, it’s on my shopping list.  Next, they announced a brand new PSP title, Resistance: Retribution that will bridge the gap between Resistance: Fall of Man and Resistance 2.  It’s being made by Bend Studio, who created Siphon Filter.  Finally, they announced a new title coming exclusively to the new Playstation Network, Ratchet and Clank Future: The Quest for Booty!

Man.  I heard Brian Allgeir and James Stevenson name that as one of the possibilities for RCF:TOD’s title.  At the time, I thought it’d be a fitting title for a Ratchet game.  I guess they did, too.

Last, but certainly not least, Alex Evans from Media Molecule took us on a whirlwind tour of Playstation’s year-round success and future as a demo of Little Big Planet.  That’s what I call a presentation.  I’d use LBP just to create an alternative to Powerpoint.  It’s amazing!

I’m excited to see more, but now I have to go back to work.