DISCLAIMER: I did not watch the Nintendo conferance because, while Nintendo has a lot to offer for some people, it does not appeal to me, therefore it would be pointless to watch. For that reason, Nintendo will not make it on my list. I will only be doing Sony and Xbox.
If this were judged on presentation alone, Sony would win hands down. I though they had a strong showing, a strong theme, and a clean cut feel. The only good presenters I saw on the Microsoft side, were the guy who opened up the press conferance, and the Forza presenter (he was by far the stronges presenter I saw in either of the two camps) Unfortunately, this cannot be judged on presentation alone, so who wins? Read on to see.
Lets start with Sony, they had a lot of games, but only two of their exclusives piqued my interest. Grand Tourismo, great graphics, looks fun, has NASCAR racing. And that silly Mario cart knockoff, that actually looked like fun. FF14 looked intense and had suprisingly good graphics, but I do not enjoy playing that genra. The rest of the games did not excite me.
I would have been impressed with Sony's motion tracking controller a year ago...or even last Sunday, but after seeing MS NATAL project, Sony's MC looked silly. It was buggy, looked hard to get used to, and the controllers themselves looked ridiculous with the little glowing "orb" on top. Also, the fact that it needed buttons to work was dissapointing. Couldn't they get creative and find a way to use motion, or virtual buttons?
Now for Microsoft, they stole the show with 3 games that appealed to me. Halo ODST just looked like fun, plus you get more on the Halo story line as well as all the Halo 3 maps, Halo Reach also adds to the Halo story line and should be good. Forza 3 has amazing graphics, looks fun, and has awsome car editing, and video editing features.
I was extremely impressed with the NATAL project,even though it is still in it's develompmental stages and is thus a little buggy. Once the kinks get worked out, and game developement really gets going, I see potential. People are constantly saying "you need buttons" or "you can't play FPS with it" I disagree. You could use a verbal command, use hand motions, or even use virtual buttons, although the latter would probably be clumsy. I would like to think game developers would find a way to give you the choice to use NATAL, or your origional controller in games, that way, if you got tired of jumping around like a fool, were just feeling lazy, or were too fat to get your ass away from your Cheetos and Mountain Dew, you could play using the origional, Cheeto stained, controller.
Who gets first place?
#1. Microsoft. They had a better motion control with more potential, and more games that interested me.
#2. Sony. They had a more polished presentation, but their motion controller doesn't hold a candle to Microsofts, and they only had two games that made me happy.
I already have a 360, so would I buy one? No, why spend the money?
Would I buy a PS3? Well, it has the bluray player, and two games that I think I would enjoy, but, since I am currently out of a job (and therefore out of money), and already have a gaming system, the answer is no.
