E3 Conferences: So, Who Won?

It's easier to say who lost in this case. Sony easily put itself in the same position Microsoft did last year and had a horrible showing. Where did Sony go wrong? Well, I have a few ideas:

1. Sony didn't open with a splash of any kind

Microsoft opened showing off Gears of War, their top title for the holiday. Nintendo had Miyamoto come out and show off the controller and people behind him show off Ubisoft's Red Steel...and then they went into a little marketing video showing off people playing games with the controller. Then they showed off Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess about 19 minutes in, their biggest game of the holiday season. It took Sony 25 minutes before they got to any PS3 game, that being Gran Turismo HD, which was just a demo built on assets from Gran Turismo 4. Roughly 50+ minutes in before another PS3 game is shown.

2. Sony chose to push numbers first

Nintendo and Microsoft put them in the middle. Why did Sony push the numbers first? Well, it's the only thing they can stand on at this moment. I still believe Sony's thought process is that the Playstation brand is so ingrained into people that they will go out and purchase the PS3.

3. Sony should have released the price later

Yeah, this was dumb. Word going into E3 was that Sony was not going to release a price, which would have been the smart thing to do...unless they want people to start saving early.

4. The price is way too high

If people know about the differences, who in their right mind is going to go out and purchase the $500 version instead of the $600 one? Sony is beating its own self with this price. The 360 will probably outsell it here in the US/Europe and the Wii will probably outsell it in Japan at that price. Nevermind that the system is 11 lbs. and about the size of the original Xbox. I seem to remember Japanese people saying they didn't like the big box design of the Xbox...now Sony is bringing out a system that is just as big?

5. What games are coming out at launch?

Microsoft faced much the same problem last year, although they did end up bringing out Perfect Dark Zero, Kameo and Project Gotham Racing on launch day. Sony didn't show off anything first-party to me that will be out at launch. They showed off some first-party stuff, but didn't say whether they were launch titles or not. Once again, I go back to my God of War II thought...why is it on PS2 and coming in February with the PS3 so close? Possible answer: Sony is farther behind on PS3 games than they want to be.

In the end the winners are both Nintendo and Microsoft, but I'm not sure who to say is #1 coming out of the conferences. Sony now finds itself being outdone by both companies. The Wii has a better 3D controller than the gyroscopic PS3 controller. Microsoft is going to broaden Live to allow people to play cross-platform on PC and 360 along with tying it will cell phones as well. The only thing I saw Sony show off about the online system is their new music store that will probably fail when put up against the iTunes juggernaut.

As my friend Bill Harris said, Sony may be in total disarray at this point. From sources it sounds like the gyroscopic controller was a relatively new development and they didn't show it off very well with Warhawk honestly. The best game they showed off was Resistance, but once again...is it a launch title?

In the end I'd give the slight nod to Microsoft simply because their presentation seemed more tight and they had a lot of good looking games to show off. Nintendo showed off the innovation and have an instant system seller in Zelda, but they didn't reveal a price or date as of yet. In the end I think the last image of Halo 3 at the end of Microsoft's presentation was reason enough to believe Microsoft may have taken the place of Sony as the 800-pound gorilla...we shall see...

Microsoft: The 800-pound Gorilla

This year was a far better pre-E3 conference than last year for Microsoft. I think they didn't hype things enough last year and spent most of the time talking about the circle and the community of Xbox Live instead of showing off games. This time around it was obvious the games were forefront while Live was given quite a lift as well.

For me I'd say Microsoft showed off the best games. Of course it helps when your system is already out. Gears of War, although it may not appeal to everyone, was quite impressive with the demo that Cliffy B went through. I think he's proud of this game and that's a pretty ringing endorsement even though he working on the game himself.

Then came the sequels. Fable 2 and Forza Motorsport 2 were shown in pre-rendered glory. Forza will be out by the end of the year, but no word on Fable 2. Then they showed off Splinter Cell: Double Agent, which is coming out in September, meaning the 360 will have it before the PS3. All 3 games honestly make me pretty excited. I wasn't overall thrilled with Fable's length, but the game was still very good.

Then they showed off Viva Pinata. I know a lot of people are not interested in this game, but I still say this is Microsoft's major children's release coming up. I don't think we know everything about the game yet, it could be very Animal Crossing-like in the end...who knows.

After this Peter Moore decided to show off his new tattoo (remember back when he had the November 9 + Halo 2 inked into him...it was still there). We all thought it was going to be Halo 3, but it turned out to be that they were announcing that Grand Theft Auto IV will be released on 360 and PS3 simultaneously on October 16th, 2007. This will be the first time the Xbox people haven't had to wait for the new GTA. Moore also announced that Rockstar and Microsoft is in an exclusive agreement to release episodic updates to GTA4, which of course makes it more interesting than the PS3 version probably.

Then they moved into the PC games. They first showed off, via playable demo, Crysis from Crytek/EA on Windows Vista. Later on it was found out that the game will also run in Windows XP, which probably means the game will be out before Vista is released. The game looked excellent, but I expect nothing else from the company that gave us Far Cry. Then they showed off the new Conan and Flight Simulator X.

Then the big rumor that was never kept quiet, Microsoft and FASA are bringing Shadowrun to the 360 and the PC for a day and date release with Vista in January 2007. They then showed off their new acquistion in my aforementioned notably absent Alan Wake, now being published by Microsoft for PC and 360. Then Bill Gates came out...

To unveil Xbox Live Anywhere, a system that will connect the 360, your Vista computer and your mobile phone. They showed this off by one of the workers going to Major Mike on his computer and ask to play a game of Shadowrun. They were then playing Xbox 360 to PC on the game, which is probably showing the XNA architecture at its best. I can only guess there will be more games like this in the future with simultaneous releases now that Microsoft has re-organized all their game divisions into one entity. They also showed off being able to tune a car on a mobile phone, re-paint it on Vista and send that car to the Xbox 360 for use in Forza Motorsport 2. It all sounds very cool, although I wonder if this is going to cost PC users anything or not.

Then we came to the end and Halo 3 was shown. Even though it was totally CGI built I have to say I was more excited about that even after seeing the demo for Metal Gear Solid 4 yesterday. I don't know, Halo just does something for me. Maybe it was hearing the awesome music again or seeing the huge Covenant ship flying by. The movie was awesome even though it showed no gameplay.

In the end I think Microsoft gave a really good presentation. I wish there had been more playable sections of the big games coming, but we do have the new demo for Lost Planet on Marketplace along with lots of videos from E3. I have yet to play the demo, but I have downloaded it...hopefully I will have some impressions up later.

Microsoft showed it may be the new 800-pound gorilla on the scene after this. We'll talk more about that next though...

Nintendo: We Do Things Differently

Nintendo's conference was very interesting. I have to say out of the 3 speakers for the big 3 I've always thought Reggie Fils-Aime at Nintendo does the best job of explaining things to everyday people.

Nintendo did what it wanted to. It showed off key games on the Wii, such as:

Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (a GC and Wii version will be released)
Super Mario Galaxy
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

Those three games within the first year of the release of the system is like hitting the trifecta in Nintendo land. I can't remember a time where the big 3 titles in Nintendos library would be coming out within a year. Now I am guessing that they will be released within the year of the Wii releasing, maybe we'll know more as E3 goes on. Nintendo also showed off a Warioware game for the Wii as well and that will be super hot as well considering how well the games did on the GBA.

They also didn't leave the Nintendo DS in the dust, showing off both the new DS Lite coming in June and snippets of some games, such as:

Yoshi's Island 2
Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
StarFox DS

Obviously the biggest news was the showing of the Wii version of Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. I'm not sure what kind of differences there are going to be outside of control between the Wii and GameCube versions, but the graphics looked pretty good on the Wii version...could that be a slight upgrade as well? Reggie said it was the best Zelda yet, while the guy playing it on the Wii said it was "one of the best"...guess he didn't attend the marketing meeting.

It is cool that Nintendo will sell a Sports pack at launch with a tennis, baseball and golf game. That will show off the controller really well. So will Red Steel, but anyone who reads Game Informer already knows what the game is all about. The demo shown wasn't the greatest until they showed the sword fighting at the end.

If there's a lasting thought from the Nintendo conference it comes at the end where Miyamoto, Fils-Aime, Iwata and the Nintendo winner are playing tennis. The lasting image is that the Wii is fun, especially in groups/parties, and Nintendo will keep doing what it's done all along.

The one disappointing aspect is that Reggie had a bullet-point image at the beginning that talked about release date/cost. He said it would be released Q4 2006, but he never gave any indication of the price. I'm wondering if Nintendo is thinking about adding Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess to the system and that's why they didn't say a price. I'm going to guess it will be $200 for the system, but what do I know.

After I post about Microsoft's conference I'll do a catch all on my feelings about all 3 conferences and who came out on top in my mind.

PS3 20GB Has Less Options

Interesting, this is via Gamespot. I'll blockquote it for reference:

According to the latest specifications released by Sony, the PS3 now only comes with one Ethernet port and four USB ports. Also, the lack of a second HDMI port means that the dual-screen setup running 1080p function that was shown off last year is no longer a possibility.

The PlayStation 3 will come in two configurations, one will have a 20GB hard drive and the other will have a 60GB hard drive. However, losing 40GB isn't the only downgrade with the 20GB version. The 20GB version, priced at $499, will not have Memory Stick, SD, or Compact Flash inputs, Wi-Fi capabilities, or any HDMI output.

So, they're basically attempting to make the 60GB version more appealling for the $100 extra hit. That's all well and good until you look down and see yourself paying $200 more than the 360 and who knows how much more than the Wii. I'm not saying this to slap Sony in the face, but there is a price point people won't pass and I think they aren't going to bite at $600.

That the 20GB version is so neutered (no memory inputs, no HDMI port and no Wi-Fi is arguably more detrimental than the 360 Core) makes the 60GB one even more enticing than the Core vs. Premium decision with the 360.

The other interesting thing in the story is presented here and goes back to my previous post:

The new motion-sensitive controller, included standard in both the 20GB and 60GB models, will lack a feature that was present in the PlayStation 2's DualShock 2 controller--vibration. Citing the new "six-degree," a statement from Sony says "vibration itself interferes with information detected by the sensor."

No vibration means Sony doesn't want to pay Immersion to use it in case they ultimately lose the suit (as they have been for a while now), even though they pass it off as vibration interfering with the sensor. I'm not sure vibration is going to matter, but it does give a little more sense of "being there" than a controller without one. The one question I have about the gyroscopic controller is whether you can turn it off or not. I know I have the habit of moving the controller while in a driving game for instance. If the "six-way motion" was on I'd be screwed so to speak.

This isn't a knock on Sony, but I'm not sure how much they're going to use the gyroscopic characteristics of the controller. Yes, Warhawk looked pretty cool, but in the end do I want to fly like that or use the analog stick? If Sony's going to rip off Nintendo they also need innovative games with which to use it. We'll have to see if that takes off or not.

And, yes, Metal Gear Solid 4 looked sweet, but I also saw the "Coming 2007" on it as well. This means it isn't a launch title. Final Fantasy XIII looked sweet too, although that was mostly pre-rendered stuff. I do wonder if Square-Enix has anything planned for the Xbox 360 or if they're sticking with Sony again. I'm not sure Square-Enix has the hold it once did on gamers and their loyalties, but I could be wrong.

One last thing on this post. This whole price point is a good indicator of where Sony feels its place is in the market. They feel they are #1 and are riding on the fact they've been #1 for 2 generations now. They are smug enough to believe that people will unload this kind of money to play the next Playstation machine. We'll have to see whether that works out for them or not...I remember a lot of people in line with me who were complaining about having to scrape together $400 for the Xbox 360.

I can't wait to see more from Sony, but at $600 for the higher system it seems like a tough pill to take...

Playstation 3: Worst Fears Realized?

I missed the last part of the presentation, I'll catch up on it when Gamespot brings out the streams for it. Obviously I missed the Metal Gear Solid 4 showing (probably the biggest reason I was tuning in). Early word was that Sony was not going to announce a price at E3, but they proved the rumors wrong. Sony will have 2 SKUs, much like the Xbox 360 but this time both will have hard drives. Here they are:

20GB Hard Drive - $499
60GB Hard Drive - $599

At those prices I think they may not have as many people picking up the system as they hope. They will sell the extra $100 (for the low end) as the fact that you're getting Blu-Ray support with the system. Although that is well and good, I don't think it is enough to sell a system when millions of people already have tons of DVDs.

The controller also went to the old standby of looking the same as the other Dual Shocks. Smart move on Sony's part because that boomerang look was stupid. They also added in gyroscopic controls into it, trying to take a page out of the Nintendo Wii book (but not going far enough). I haven't seen the gyroscopic controls in action yet since I missed that part. I wonder if Sony borrowed the technology from anyone considering they are still in litigation over the vibration function.

Having not seen the last section of videos that showed off the "big" games I can't say how enamored I was with the overall presentation. What I did see (up to the Resistance showing, which was impressive...but more on that later) made it feel a lot like Microsoft last year. I didn't feel Sony used the time well enough to show off the power of the PS3. Instead they had the head guy from SCE come and he made things really boring from my perspective. The one thing I took out of it was that Sony is going to try to hone in on iTunes and in the end they will fail yet again.

As I said, Resistance was impressive, but dare I say that FPS games are starting to be too much alike. A world where World War II never happened and aliens are hopping around. It sounds cool and looks cool, but will it have a story to pull me in? Who knows.

As far as I know there were no games announced as launch games. It sounds like Gran Turismo HD will be out "soon after" launch (is it just me or were any of you also not impressed by the GT HD showoff?). The one thing that really stood out for me in the GT HD video was the last one at the Grand Canyon from GT4. The car was going through it, but there was no dust kickup nor were the tires making any sort of impression into the dirt. I realize this demo was built on the assets of GT4, but even Project Gotham Racing 3 has skid marks and they stay there through the whole race. The F1 game with the PSP connection looked pretty cool, although I still think the PSP is a big rip-off that they're trying to tie into anything that is successful.

I hope Sony announces some big launch games, because nothing currently stands out. Since I didn't see MGS4 I have no clue if that is a launch game, but I can only guess it isn't. In the end are we going to stand in line for a system that is $100 more expensive than the Xbox 360 with only the possibility of a minimal power gain? It's a question worth thinking about and I hope the rest of E3 gives us some answers.

I'll be back with my thoughts from Nintendo (who usually put on a good show) and Microsoft tomorrow.

E3 Game Preview: Part 2

This time we will cover the big 3 and Electronic Arts. Let's get on with the show:

Electronic Arts

Army of Two (PS3/Xbox 360): Recently announced. No pictures have been shown as of yet, but it sounds like it is a cooperative game ala Contra.

Battlefield 2142 (PC): DICE and EA are going to the future with the series. Mech combat and sci-fi weapons are the order of the day it seems. Supposedly this game will be out before the end of the year and I would expect a somewhat playable version on the floor at E3.

Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Sun (PC): To me this series has never done wrong (outside of Renegade) and I hope this one lives up to the legacy that Generals gave this series.

Madden 2007 (All systems): Unlike its sister game down below (NCAA), we don’t know much about this game other than it will supposedly be built more around the running game. I’m hoping draft class import will be available in the 360 version and I also hope that the next generation versions will keep all or most of the goodies from the current gen versions (unlike NCAA)

Medal of Honor: Airborne (PC/PS2/Xbox/PS3/Xbox 360): Recently pushed back to Q1 2007, this game must have a bit of trouble at this point. I would expect them to show it, but EA’s winter is looking quite bare with this, Spore and Superman Returns all being pushed back.

NCAA Football 2007 (Xbox/PS2/Xbox 360/PS3/PC): I’m not enthused that all the goodies in the current generation version will not follow to the next generation versions. Granted I’m not all that excited to follow a player from entrance into graduation, but I am a bit leery about the supposed imbalances with playbooks (with the current generation having expanded ones) and only having Division I to work with. As long as the 360 version has the franchise mode and the ability to transfer draft classes into Madden I’ll be happy.

Project Gray Company (PS3/Xbox): This game is being named for the lead designer. Chances are this is an LOTR RPG game given the images that are shown on the Project Gray Company Site. This sounds like an expansive open world RPG game ala the recently released Oblivion. This game is currently named Gray because Steve Gray is the Executive Producer.

Spore (PC): Although it has yet to be announced, this game has supposedly also been pushed into 2007. This game blew away everyone at E3 last year (at least the people I talked to) and I think a lot of people are disappointed this game will probably not be out before the end of this year.

Superman Returns: The Videogame (All systems): This game was also delayed, but to the end of this year. It was supposed to come out with the game, but EA gives the reason of needing to work on such an open world that the game takes place in. The game will be released with the DVD this holiday season. This is kind of sad because the game looked cool, however. The only thing I am worried about is that EA Tiburon may be stretching itself thin with this, Madden, NCAA Football and possibly another NFL Street all on its plate.

Microsoft (all Xbox 360)

Fable 2: I can only guess this will be one of the surprise titles that Microsoft hasn’t announced yet. Now that they own Lionhead/Big Blue Box, the studios obviously have to be working on something, right?

Forza Motorsports 2: Oh yeah! It was tough to top Project Gotham Racing, but the original game did just that. Sure, it was a different game, but Forza blew the doors off of everything and even challenged Gran Turismo 4 as the best simulation out there. I can only believe that part 2 is going to be awesome.

Gears of War: Microsoft’s big game of the year, bar none (unless there is a game they have yet to unveil). This game is being set up for holiday release and will have a massive marketing campaign behind it. This game is guaranteed to be on the show floor in some form and will probably have a lot of people looking its way.

Halo 3: The rumored 2-minute video looms large over E3. Will the game be Halo 3 or will it be named Forerunner as Bungie is currently calling at least one of its games (if not only game). I hate to say it, but Penny Arcade was right on about the rut Bungie has found itself in for better or worse. I don’t know if they can have multiple games being made at one time when people are clamoring for another entry in the Halo series.

Mass Effect: BioWare’s Sci-Fi RPG entry into the next generation world. Given their superb work in the past, chances are this game will be great as well…too bad we won’t see it until 2007.

Too Human: Along with Gears of War, this game will also power Microsoft through the holiday season. This is the first game in a trilogy and it is made by Silicon Knights, one of my favorite developers thanks to Eternal Darkness. The game is based around Norse mythology and will have an interesting control system (right stick will be your melee attack movement while the triggers will fire the left and right guns). This game sounds like a cross between God of War and Devil May Cry.

Viva Pinata: You can laugh at this game, but Microsoft is obviously going all-out with this game that seems geared more toward children. A TV show is in the works along with this game. This could be the type of game that will bring families to the Xbox 360, so don’t dismiss it right off.

Unannounced Xbox 360 Games: There will probably be a few surprises by Microsoft and possibly some games that are unannounced that are coming this year.

Nintendo

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Cube/Wii): The game I’ve been waiting for. It is now delayed to later this year, probably before Thanksgiving. Chances are it may release the same day as the Wii and Miyamoto has said there will be Wii-enabled sections of the game. At this point in the GameCube’s life I think it would be smart to make this a fully Wii game and you have your automatic system seller from the start. I think this game will still loom large at E3 this year, but it may not have the hype it had last year.

The Legend of Zelda (DS): There is a DS game in the works and I personally can’t wait for it. The Zelda games on the handheld systems have been top notch and I would expect this game to follow suit.

First-party Wii games: Obviously there will be other Wii games from Nintendo. I’m not sure what is going to be their key launch game, but I have to believe there is a Mario or Metroid game in there. We’ll see come Tuesday afternoon.

Sony

God of War II (PS2): Quite possibly one of the top 5 games being shown at E3 this year. I obviously loved the original, so it should be no surprise that I am hot for the sequel. The negative aspect of this game is it is coming February of 2007 and that it isn’t on the PS3. In the back of my mind it makes me wonder what types of games Sony will have ready for the PS3 come November and into next year if this game doesn’t top the list of launch games for the PS3.

Killzone: Liberation (PSP): I liked Killzone, but I didn’t feel it was the best thing since sliced bread. Chances are this PSP title will be a really good seller for the system, although I question how good it will be without a right analog stick on the PSP.

Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters (PSP): Much like the recently released Daxter game chances are this one will also be a fantastic release. So far the series hasn’t laid an egg and hopefully that won’t change with this release considering how badly the PSP needs good games.

Unannounced PS3 games: You’ve got me on what Sony is going to show at their conference on Monday outside of ports. They have to have at least some first-party titles, but I doubt things like Killzone or Ratchet and Clank will be ready for November. Sony has been very quiet about everything surrounding the PS3. If they have a big title it will help them a lot in reversing the recent negative PR.

E3 Game Preview: Part 1

I used to do this for CG/GT before E3 and I figured I'd have it live on here. I don't cover every game, but I have the list that is interesting to me and what I want to see via the news sites. This is Part 1 which covers all the companies and the key notable absence except for the big ones (EA, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony). Off we go:

2K Games

Bioshock (PC/Xbox 360): This is going to be an interesting game to see in motion. Billed as the spiritual successor to the System Shock games, it has a lot to live up to. The game looked interesting from the Game Informer preview earlier this year. This game is due out in 2007 unless Irrational/2K says differently

Civilization IV: Warlords (PC): The expansion pack to probably the best Strategy game of last year and possibly the best PC game of last year. Firaxis seemed to hit on all cylinders again with the original game and adding 6 scenarios plus the new “Warlord” unit this sounds like a worthy pickup later this year.

Prey (PC/Xbox 360): This game saw a miraculous resurrection last year at E3 and it just recently got a release date of July 10th. The sad part about this game is that it will fill the coffers at 3D Realms and the vaporware that is Duke Nukem Forever or whatever their next game is. 3D Realms has lived off of their licenses since DN3D came out. This game looks interesting and another test for the 360 versus a PC.

Sid Meier’s Railroads! (PC): We all remember Railroad Tycoon, right? Well, this is the next game in the series without the name. I’m hoping this will get as much love as Civilization IV got. I don’t know how many RT fans there are out there, but I’m pretty excited about this game.


Blizzard

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (PC): The expansion pack to the biggest MMORPG out there. I still haven’t played this game and I have 2 versions of it. One of these years I’ll install and play it. Just have a problem with that monthly charge.

Diablo 3 (PC): Rumors have pointed to this being in development and what better place to unveil it than at E3?

Starcraft 2 (PC): With StarCraft: Ghost finally giving up the ghost (heh), there may be a chance that this game is in development as well. If this and the game above are in the oven be prepared for Blizzard to take over the world!

Capcom

Dead Rising (Xbox 360): This game has seen some delays, which usually isn’t a very good thing. Chances are Capcom will have this on the floor in a playable state, but who knows now that the release date is August for this game.

Lost Planet: Extreme Condition (Xbox 360): An intriguing game that looks like a 3rd person shooter and a mech combat game rolled into one, this could be very hot! The cool thing about this game is that there will be a demo released on Marketplace on May 9th, the day of Microsoft’s pre-E3 meeting.

Devil May Cry 4 (PS3): This was shown last year and I would expect them to have more about this game at this E3.

Resident Evil 5 (PS3/Xbox 360): Announced and E3 2006 may be the first time we see the game in motion.

Eidos

Hitman: Blood Money (PC/PS2/Xbox/Xbox 360): Another delayed game from Eidos although given how good the other games in this series has been chances are this one will follow suit.

Konami

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PS3): This game will most likely create the most hype for the PS3 of any game out there. Chances are this game will not be out until 2007, but Konami hasn’t given a release date as of yet. If this game comes out a launch expect there to be a bigger problem than the Xbox 360 ever experienced at launch. I know many people left this series after the 2nd part, but 3 was awesome and I can only imagine 4 will be as well.

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS): Given how well Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow was received this game should be a slam dunk. This time around the game is based during World War 2 and you are able to switch between 2 characters at any time during the game. You can play as vampire hunter Johnathan Morris or the magically adept Charlotte Orlean. No word as of yet on how the touch screen will be used.

Unnamed Kojima Wii Project (Wii): Konami sent invitations to several media members that a game will be shown off on May 9th. I have no clue what it is, but could it be a Metal Gear game re-done in first person with the Wii controller? *shrug*

LucasArts

Untitled Indiana Jones Project (PS3/Xbox 360): This was rumored last year, but they may finally show the game off. Chances are this is coming out in 2007, but LucasArts certainly needs a hit to continue being even a blip in the gaming scene outside of the Star Wars games.

Midway

Mortal Kombat Armageddon (Xbox/PS2): The final game in the series. Supposedly you will be able to play as almost all the prior characters in the game including boss characters. It will also have another RPG-type game option that should be more tight than it was in Deception.

Unreal Tournament 2007 (PC/PS3): I can only guess this will be shown off on the floor. Whether it comes out at the end of this year or not is up for debate. Also up for debate is whether it will actually make the PS3 launch or not.

NCSoft

Tabula Rasa (PC): The next game from Richard Garriott and it’s an MMORPG. The overall feel of the game changed from E2 2004 to E3 2005 and the game is now a sci-fi based game. I’m pretty interested in this game and I think it could be one of those sleeper hits as long as Garriott can live up to his older games.

Rockstar

New GTA Game: This will be interesting. I’m not sure Rockstar is working on another GTA game after the backlash sustained by San Andreas. I could be very wrong, but whatever they do I think they’re going to not push the envelope as much as they used to.

Table Tennis (Xbox 360): This game should be in pretty much full playable form on the show floor. This is the type of game that could become very addicting very fast.

Sega

Phantasy Star Universe (PC/PS2/Xbox 360): This game offers both a large single-player and multiplayer experience, so both camps are covered. This could be a huge game come E3 if Sonic Team has done a good job. I think it will be a big game on PC if done right and the monthly charges aren’t that much. This series used to be at the top of the RPG world and it’s my hope it will be again.

Sega Rally Revo (PC/PS3/Xbox 360): Chances are it can’t compete with the simulation racing games out there, but I think this game could have its own niche in the market. The original arcade game was pretty hot back in its day, but Rally may be a relic of the past.

Sonic the Hedgehog (PS3/Xbox 360): This is a huge game for Sega and Sonic Team. The last good Sonic games were on the Dreamcast and even those didn’t live up to the greatness of the ones on the Genesis. If they can fix the issues from the Dreamcast games and create a game that will pull in both old and new fans alike I think this game could be big.

Virtua Tennis 3 (PS3/Xbox 360): The king of tennis games is back, but not until 2007. Top Spin was certainly great, but nothing beats the innovator. I don’t know what kind of licenses this game will have (it doesn’t look like they’ll have the Opens given one of the screenshots here being named the French Open), but the early graphics look pretty darn good.

Yakuza (PS2): This game looks pretty cool and from what I understand was pretty hot in Japan. It looks a lot like Rise of Honor in the overall feel of the game. I just hope the controls aren’t the same. I think this concept sounds cool being a member of the Japanese Yakuza. Sega is working on the localization right now and it should be out on PS2 by September.

Notably Absent

Alan Wake (PC/Xbox 360): After hearing about the awesome preview of this game behind closed doors at E3 2005 I am surprised that Remedy is not showing it off this year. A lot of questions could be asked, such as whether there is trouble with the game and if the game is going to make a 2006 release or not. It’s sad it won’t be there because the game looked really good.

Observations: Infinite Crisis #7 and Civil War #1

Well, I've finished reading both DC's Infinite Crisis #7 and Marvel's Civil War #1. I read them in that order and I have a feeling my opinions on these two titles may have been different had I flipped the reading order, but who knows. So, let's get to it (WARNING: Major Spoilers below, so if you haven't read either book do so and come back):

Infinite Crisis #7: I'll talk more about my overall feeling on the series as a whole later in this post, but for now we'll concentrate on this chapter. Right from the beginning I see a problem with this issue that has come up once before in this series. For those that hadn't read the Villians United special that came out last week you will be lost immediately at the first page. In the special the Secret Society broke every person out of all the prisons around the world, creating the hero vs. villain battle royal that opens up this chapter on Page 2. DC did this once before (that I remember, there may be more) during this series when Superboy Prime took on Superboy the first time and the story spilled off into Teen Titans. DC made it a point to portray that IC would be standalone and for the most part it is, but there have been parts here and there that flood into IC.

Early on it is obvious that both Alex and Superboy Prime are still alive post Tower blow up from last issue. Alex makes the observation that some things have changed in the new unifed Earth, such as the fact that Wonder Woman was a JLA founder again, that Batman still fought the Gotham criminals even though his parent's killer was caught and that there are recorded rumors that there were Superman events before he was in Metropolis (meaning he may have been Superboy, something he never was after the original Crisis). DC has said that the reframing of characters will be answered during the backup stories in the 52 series that starts up next week.

Lots of bit characters die early on in the massive hero vs. villain fight in Metropolis. We finally find out who was in the Flash suit at the end of Infinite Crisis #5...and the rumors were true, it was Bart. He took Barry's clothes and evidentally had just enough speed left to take on Superboy Prime one last time in this issue. At the end of the book he hands the costume off to Jay Garrick and says he isn't going to be the new Flash and also says he was gone for 2 years in the future and that Wally, Linda and the twins disappeared.

In the end there were a few surprises and a few foregone conclusions. Earth-2 Superman ended up dying taking on Superboy Prime with Superman, but Prime ends up not being killed (the surprise) and is now trapped by the Green Lanterns and makes the statement that he's gotten out of situations far worse than that before. Superman and Earth-2 Superman end up pushing Superboy through the Sun near Oa (Prime was going to destroy Oa and create a new Big Bang) and that burns off his suit he was getting his powers from. Superman loses his powers, which explains the current run One Year Later. Bruce goes with Nightwing (who got hit by a blast from Alex, but evidently survived) and Robin. Wonder Woman goes off to find herself and that begins the year without the big 3. Alex escaped capture and is seen in Gotham City, but he ends up being killed by Luthor and Joker because, as Luthor says, "You didn't include Joker in your plans". In the end it leaves Prime alive and it should be interesting to see if he escapes or not.

Civil War #1: It may be a consequence of reading this book last out of the 2, but I just wasn't overly excited about this issue after reading it. Millar has done political intrigue before in the pages of what is (so far) the vastly superior Ultimates series. I have a feeling this book may have been pumped up too much by hype and it didn't seem to grab me as much as it could. Unlike IC I think Civil War is not going to be contained just within the core book, but will spill out to the crossovers..the biggest of all being the Amazing Spider-Man 7-parter.

The coolest thing about this issue is that Captain America goes rogue on the US Government and that Iron Man, Reed Richards (?!) and Hank Pym (I'm guessing he's in the Yellowjacket outfit) is helping the government. The art is easily better in this book than in IC, but I think Marvel may have set itself into a sitaution that is too big to handle. Obviously the big story will be which side Spider-Man takes as news points to him being the central character with a decision to make. It is interesting he says in this book that he won't give up his identity because he could come home and MJ is impaled on an Octopus arm and Aunt May is begging for her life. Daredevil also makes an appearance here and I am guessing that is the one currently loose in New York while Matt Murdoch is in prison. Word is the identity of the new Daredevil will be spilled in the next issue of Civil War (note the overall crossoverness of it all).

Overall this issue didn't impress me, but much like Infinite Crisis #1 it is only the build up.

Overall Infinite Crisis Thoughts: This is a tough one. Overall I enjoyed the series, but I do think they could have pushed it to a 12-part series like the original in order to pack more story into it. It seems nowadays that special events are framed around a 7-part series (Identity Crisis, Infinite Crisis and Civil War prove this theory) and that just condenses the overall story from my perspective. I think Identity Crisis would have been better had it been longer and there was less to work with from a character perspective with that series. In the end I don't think IC is going to stand up very well when compared to the original Crisis. I will say that I was only 9 years old when Crisis was going on and I remember how awesome that was. Now I'm 29 and am reading this Crisis and am obviously looking at it from a different perspective. The major deaths were not as big this time around (Superboy and Earth-2 Superman/Lois versus Barry Allen and Supergirl in Crisis) and there just was never the shock value that could have been there honestly. I certainly enjoyed reading the whole series and look forward to 52 starting next week, but in the end I feel it just wasn't as defining a moment as the original Crisis on Infinite Earths was. Feel free to e-mail me and tell me your feelings.

Nintendo Wii: Maybe Not So Dumb

Yes, the jokes started flowing after Nintendo announced that the Revolution was changing its name to Wii. Most jokes pointed to the fact that the name (pronounced "we") can be used as a synonym for urinating or part of the male anatomy. Heck, even I had a few laughs at its expense.

Revolution was a great name, but I think we all knew it was just a codename like Katana (Dreamcast), Dolphin (GameCube), Xenon (Xbox) and many other systems had. I still think a lot of people have a problem with the name, but once you get over the initial craziness of it all it starts to grow on you. Let me throw some names out there for you:

Yahoo
Google
iPod
GameBoy

When those four (and I'm sure there are others I'm forgetting) came out, what was your first reaction to the name? Yahoo was the first in that group and you had to laugh at it. Now the creators are rich and they can laugh to the bank. Same goes for Google and they have become even bigger than Yahoo.

The iPod is the #1 digital device out there and Apple is always adding functionality to it. I know I snickered the first time I heard iPod and I'm not sad to say I've owned one for over 2 years now.

The last one (GameBoy) was considered a stupid name when it was first announced, it is just that we didn't have the internet at that time like we do now. In the end the GameBoy has become the #1 system of all time, selling over 110 million units. That's crazy, but the name stuck through several iterations and people got used to it.

In the end who is to say that Wii isn't going to catch on like the four above? It is far more innovative than Microsoft (Xbox 360) and Sony (Playstation 3) have been with naming their new systems. It was also smart for Nintendo to announce this before E3 as it gives people time to let it sink in. I still think the Wii is a very interesting wild card going into the holiday season. Chances are there will be more units of the Wii than the PS3 in Japan/North America by the time the end of the year rolls around. Nintendo is still the innovator, they just need the 3rd parties to come along with them and not leave them in the dust like they did with the N64 and GameCube.

So, come back and think about Wii in a few days after the jokes have subsided. I think it may grow on you...or I could be entirely wrong.

Welcome Back

Sorry for the 3 week gap in posts. Things have been busy at work and I've just kind of hit a lull in gaming. I'm about 20 hours into Kingdom Hearts II, but I think the talking and cutscenes were starting to get to my better half, so we took a break from it and haven't picked it up again, but I hope to soon.

I did play some Top Spin 2 on the 360 and I'll try to do a review for it in the near future. The game is really good, but it is a bit more convoluted in how you dole out ability stars than in Top Spin. For the most part the loading is gone, especially when going into matches, but actually getting the location loaded does take a bit. Another cool thing is you can now save inside of a tournament, something you couldn't do in the first game.

I'll also have some comic book thoughts coming up as well. Next week is HUGE! Civil War #1 AND Infinite Crisis #7 comes out next. So basically Marvel opens up its big event as DC closes theirs and opens up the door to the lost year in 52. It's an exciting time and there are a LOT of rumors flying around in both the Marvel and DC universe.

Once again, welcome back and hopefully I'll keep this up...

Infinite Crisis #6 (Major Spoilers)

Well, my guess was right that the regular Earth Superboy was going to bite the big one. Psycho Pirate also bit the big one by the hands of Black Adam once he was released from the vibrational machine. It's unknown whether Superboy Prime lived through the destruction of the machine, but the preview on the last page for next issue says something related to whether Prime can be stopped or not.

My guess is by the end of Infinite Crisis #7 everyone who knew about the multiverse before Crisis on Infinite Earths will be dead minus Power Girl. This means Alexander Luthor and Superboy Prime will be dead (if they're not dead already, although I believe Prime is still alive, we never really saw where Alex went to before the destruction of the machine). This also means Earth-2 Superman will be dead as well and he will probably be the one to kill Prime, which goes against his beliefs when IC began. He'll realize the only way for there to be a resolution is for Superboy Prime to die and he'll handle it himself.

Conner Kent's death was a bit of a cop out and his death doesn't equal Supergirl or Barry Allen's death in COIE. I've never been a big fan of Superboy, especially when he was born after the death of Superman as a genetic combination of Superman and Lex Luthor. It's also a bit of a cop out if you read Teen Titans this week, the first one year later chapter for that book. At the end Robin is seen as trying to recreate Conner with Superman and Luthor's genetic material. I believe he is on his 96th try (don't have the issue in front of me at the moment) and all have failed, but he continues to try. Geoff Johns is writing Teen Titans, so we should not be surprised that it would tie into IC and the upcoming 52 pretty tightly.

One thing that caught me a bit off guard is that Superboy Prime said the Flashes tied him up by a red sun for years. He doesn't explain whether the Flashes watched him during this time or anything, but he escaped and built a suit (that looks Anti-Monitor like) to give him continual yellow sun energy. The problem is that it was a known fact that Prime was not vulnerable to the red sun like the modern day Superman is, so I don't know how the Flashes kept him at bay for years using just that. It was also funny to see Prime say that Black Adam's punches only tickled and he joked about a weakness to magic.

The next one should be exciting and hopefully 52 will be exciting as well. It's a good time to be a comic book reader.

DC Comic Book Catch Up

Well, Infinite Crisis #6 was moved back from last week to this week, so I thought I would catch up on comic books before the bomb is dropped tomorrow. Let's start with IC and the One Year Later books.

Infinite Crisis #6: This is the big one, the penultimate chapter of the series. Last issue we saw that Superboy Prime (the Superboy that stayed with Alexander Luthor of Earth-3 and Superman and Lois Lane from Earth-2 at the end of Crisis on Infinite Earths) was back from his trip with the combined Flash force (Bart, Wally, Barry from the future and Jay) with Anti-Monitor gear on looking ready to kick some major butt. The last battle Superboy Prime was in he killed a few old Teen Titans and beat up the Superboy of the current Earth pretty badly.

The rumors have been flying that this is the issue where a major someone (or someones) bites the dust. All signs point to Superboy of our Earth, especially after he and Wonder Girl had sex in the Titans annual before he went off to fight with Nightwing against the Alex Luthor weapon. Much like horror movies, you have a target on your head if you're under 18 and have sexual relations. There may be more people biting it as well. Heck, Alexander Luthor better watch his back. If Superboy Prime ever finds out that he was duped he can get in line with Superman from Earth-2 to pound the living daylights out of Alex. I can't wait to read this issue, I mean just look at Superboy Prime in Jim Lee's variant cover:



One Year Later: There are a few people we can take out of the death talk above. The biggest one would be Dick Grayson (Nightwing). He's obviously alive and well (and doing one night stands) again. I wonder what the heck happened between he and Barbara considering he proposed to her in the Nightwing before One Year Later. Other obvious characters still alive include Superman (more about him later), Batman and Robin (Tim Drake).

Most of the books have not been all that great in One Year Later. The Superman 8-part story certainly stands out of the crowd though. Clark Kent has lost his powers, possibly been powerless the whole year. He's back to being an investigative reporter and relying on his superhero friends to help him on occasion. Lex Luthor has fallen from grace in LexCorp and it sounds as if it is about to be sold. Lex is corroborating with the likes of Toyman and Metallo and is back to his old "scientist in a dungy place" spot in life. Even though "the alien" is gone, he is still up to old tricks. Obviously Clark will probably get his powers back by the end of this 8-parter, but while we're getting there I have to say Geoff Johns and Kurt Busiek have created a wonderful story.

In the world of Batman there is also an 8-part story. It sounds like Bruce, Tim and Dick all went to the Middle East for the year to train and become a better "family" unit. Who knows if this idea is going to stretch to Robin and Nightwing, but it would be interesting to see what happened to them in the year missed. The first part of the story was fantastic, but the second part felt a little too much like the old days with everyone back in place (Jim Gordon is commish again, Harvey Bullock is back as well). From what I can grasp it seems Harvey Dent (and/or Two-Face) has taken to becoming a vigilante while Batman was gone and at the end of the 2nd part it looks like Magpie was eliminated (is that a shout back to Legends that I hear?). Now I wonder if this will clash with the supposed fact that The Question becomes Gotham's guardian while Batman is gone for a year...we shall see.

Firestorm is interesting in the fact that it is now Jason and Lorraine as Firestorm instead of Jason and Prof. Stein as it was before the leap. The interesting thing is I thought Lorraine was getting out of the superhero business, but she has the added benefit of being part of Firestorm AND being able to change into Firehawk. Of course there is that little matter of not being able to be apart by too much of a distance...

I can't think of any others that stand out. Teen Titans starts its jump tomorrow, which is of course perfectly timed with IC #6 and the rumor of Superboy's death. With TT being written by Geoff Johns chances are it will be well tied in to IC and the upcoming 52 storyline.

Well, onto Marvel...

Marvel Comic Book Catch Up

On the other side of the fence we have the upcoming Civil War in the Marvel comics universe. They've been running The Road to Civil War lately in Amazing Spider-Man and Fantastic Four. So far I'm not super hot on it with the prelude, but the overall story sounds intriguing and The New Avengers: Illuminati that came out last week really helps set the stage for what is going on.

Tony Stark gets together a group of the most powerful and smart people in the world: Reed Richards, Dr. Strange, Namor, Black Bolt and Charles Xavier after the original Kree-Skrull war. They decide that this group will meet whenever anything serious comes up so they can become a combined effort instead of groups here and there (like the Avengers and the X-Men). For years it seems this group doesn't get together, then the Hulk attacks Las Vegas and they meet and decide to throw the Hulk to another world (which is of course being spelled out in the Planet Hulk arc). They also explain how Nick Fury was there at that point in time and not underground...S.H.I.E.L.D. created Life Model Decoys of Fury to keep up the illusion he was still around.

Tony then assembles the group again, this time to talk about the upcoming Superhero Registration Act that is going to pass through Congress. Tony wants the group to stand behind the bill to show solidarity and not be against it so they can bend the legislation to their liking. Some people don't like the idea of civil liberties being destroyed by every superhero having to give up their identity. The Congressional hearings are being spelled out in the Amazing Spider-Man arc. This will of course all build up to the Civil War in May where heroes choose sides (supposedly Tony is on one side and Captain America is on the other) and Spider-Man is the dead center focus of the whole thing as he decides which side he should be on, especially given how much Tony Stark has given to him since The Other travesty (a new costume that is growing on me for instance).

At this point I'm more excited about Civil War than the fallout from Infinite Crisis. Chances are just like House of M many people will feel disappointed by Civil War, but it seems Marvel has been planning this almost as long as DC had been planning Infinite Crisis.

Also of note with Marvel: please do Dan Slott a favor and put The Thing on your monthly pull list. Dan Slott is a gifted writer who has great ideas, but neither this book nor She-Hulk are really lighting up the sales charts. I can tell you both books are good, but Dan himself has put the future of The Thing in comic reader's hands and I hope enough people go out and buy it and keep that fantastic book going.

Kingdom Hearts II (PS2)

Most of the weekend was spent with this game. I am so far amazed by this game. The camera is better and the Gummi Ship minigame is more exciting. The story is highly confusing early on even if you've played Chain of Memories on GameBoy Advance before this, but everything goes back to normal after the multiple hour prelude (yes, the KH2 logo is not shown until hours into the game).

There are a lot more cutscenes in this game and I would dare say this game comes close to matching the Metal Gear Solid games in the amount of cutscenes to gameplay time. As many of you know, I love the MGS games, so it should come as no surprise that I absolutely love this game as well. I'm about 11 game hours in so far and don't see myself dropping this game because it just sucks me in. The best thing about this game is that my wife can grab the controller and look around for treasure chests and do a lot of the legwork while I am employed when big fights or boss fights come up.

There are some reviews out there (especially pointing toward IGN) that I shake my head at. The difficulty is indeed not much, but then again the first game wasn't all that difficult either. Maybe some people have been skewed by Chain of Memories and its difficulty, I don't know. My wife and I can attest to the fact that Kingdom Hearts II isn't so much about difficulty, but more about being a family-oriented game. You also have to realize that there are a lot of children out there that will be playing this game and if the developers skew the game toward them it isn't going to be so difficult. Saying the game is disappointing because of its difficulty is a slap in the face honestly. I can already tell this game will take longer to beat than the first one and all the reviews support that idea saying it takes 40-50 hours to beat. That is a long game and there's no way you could keep children's attention for so long with more difficulty.

Bottom line is Kingdom Hearts II is a fantastic game and they've fixed everything I had a problem with in Kingdom Hearts. Anyone who likes Square or Disney should pick up this game and enjoy it for a long time.

More Oblivion

Well, I got some Oblivion playing done in-between Kingdom Hearts II marathons this weekend. In RPG games like Oblivion (the "do anything you want" type of RPG vs. the more linear Japanese/Console RPG) I tend to reach a point where things are no longer exciting, a wall if you will. Yes, I could be doing a myriad of things outside of the main quest, but I find myself attracted only to the main quest and actually bored with the game outside of that. This of course makes Oblivion the type of RPG I like, that being a more linear one. The problem is that going through only the main quests will make Oblivion a short game. The beauty of the game is that someone with the style I have will be just as happy with the game as someone that likes to just go off and do things for hundreds of hours. I still think Oblivion is a really good game, but taking it from a linear perspective (main quests only) it is actually shorter than many other RPGs, including one I will be posting about next (Kingdom Hearts II). Oblivion however has a leg up on many other RPGs though in the fact that it is so dynamic that any person playing the game can find their own enjoyment in it.

I really like Oblivion, but I also realize I am going to hit my wall with the game pretty soon. I'm just happy to say I stayed with this game far longer than I did Morrowind. Maybe Bethesda just made this game more accessible to the masses than Morrowind was, I don't know. Oblivion really is a great game, but my time with it will be coming to an end soon.

Upcoming Reviews

My Far Cry Instincts Predator Review recently went up and I wanted you guys to know what else was coming up. Chances are good I will be playing a marathon session of Kingdom Hearts II this weekend. I have yet to play it because I was trying to finish Far Cry before touching this. I should have a KH2 review up at some point and I also hope to get some more Oblivion gametime in and do a review of the PC version of that. I think most people already have that game and think it's great, but I'd like to do a review nonetheless.

Far Cry Instincts Predator Review (360)

I am a big fan of the original Far Cry game on PC and recent news is that UbiSoft has picked up the Intellectual Property on the name Far Cry as well as license to use the CryEngine (version 1, since version 2 is being used in the upcoming Crytek/EA Crysis) platform for any game they make. That's a pretty smart move for UbiSoft, although I hope they bring out more PC releases in the Far Cry universe.

Far Cry Instincts Predator is the Xbox 360 release of both Far Cry Instincts from last year on Xbox (87% cumulative score) and of the same day released Far Cry Instincts Evolution, also on Xbox. Obviously with the 360 game you get improved visuals on both games and it costs you $60 whereas it would now cost you $60 to get both games on Xbox.

The graphics are indeed very nice in this game and although I haven't played Instincts previously on Xbox I have heard that the 360 version basically has better water effects and higher resolution textures (but the same textures) than the Xbox version. Bloom is also in full effect as well as the sun shines off the sand and the draw distance is very far away. There is some small hiccups in framerates, although it only happens when the game is being autosaved. In the end though I find it hard to say the overall graphic presentation is better than the original PC game. This could be due to the fact that UbiSoft has worked on the console games internally and have not used Crytek as the developer, but I'm not sure. Overall though the graphics are quite good, but not up to the levels of, say, Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter.

The gameplay itself is very much hit and miss, but much of my bias may come from having played the PC game well before touching the console versions. Control is just not as smooth with the controller as it would be with a mouse and keyboard and it doesn't even come close to being as smooth as the Halo games for a direct FPS console perspective. The enemy AI is a bit stupid for its own good. Unlike GRAW they will run right for you and won't run away from grenades. The whole sound reaction by the enemy is good, but not nearly as refined as it was on the PC. Early on in the game I felt as if the game was on rails, but then I reached the next level and found that I could go through the jungle instead of just staying on the path all the time. I enjoyed the openness of the PC version and was glad to see it here as well.

Obviously the big draw of the original console game was Jack receiving feral abilities as the game went on. The feral abilities are very cool and bring something extra to these games that was not present on the PC version. The only problem with the feral abilities is that where you gradually acquire them in Instincts you have full use of them from the beginning in Evolution. This also points out another big minus with this game in the fact that you have to go through Instincts before Evolution even opens up for play. Anyone that has played the original game may not want to go through it again in order to play the new game. The new game also is shorter than Instincts and the levels are just not as exciting.

Along with all that you also are able to make maps for multiplayer use as well as play on Xbox Live (with 22 maps right off the bat). I played a couple games and enjoyed them and will probably follow this post up with a more in-depth multiplayer experience post in the coming days. The cool thing about the map editor is you can make a map and put it up online for people to download and play on it. Multiplayer is going to be a huge selling point for this game.

In the end Far Cry Instincts Predator is an easy pickup for anyone with an Xbox 360 that did not play the original game on Xbox. If you did play it on Xbox, you may want to steer away from paying $60 for the original and the shorter Evolution story. I highly recommend this game, but it certainly isn't at the level of recent releases GRAW or Oblivion in the single-player genre, but it is a great multiplayer pickup.

Catch Up

Sorry for having nothing the last few days, work has been hectic, but I have gotten in enough playtime with Far Cry Instincts Evolution to write a review for it and that will be my next post. Also upcoming will be a comic book post about the Marvel and DC big events going on. I was going to do one on Tuesday, but I realized Infinite Crisis #6 got pushed from this week to next, but there is enough going on with One Year Later and the Road to Civil War to warrant a post, possibly later today.

Far Cry Instincts Predator (360)

Well, I was happy to find Far Cry Instincts Predator in my mailbox today. I have yet to play it, but I hope to play it later tonight and get some impressions up. I'm pretty excited about this game, but I know a lot of people will be skittish on this game because it includes the Xbox game (upgraded) and a version of the new regular Xbox game as well made for the 360. I still think it's going to be awesome and if it's anything like the PC version I'm going to love it.

No Kingdom Hearts II until tomorrow, so I have this and Oblivion to play for at least a day before I become sucked in.

Kingdom Hearts II (PS2)

This game also comes out this week and it will grind to a halt both my playing of Oblivion and Far Cry Instincts Predator. You may be saying, "what, are you crazy for stopping Oblivion to play KH2?" Well, there's a variable that becomes important with Kingdom Hearts II and that would be my wife. She loved to watch me play Kingdom Hearts and she also enjoyed playing the game herself until the action parts came off and the controller was handed to me. Since this variable is present, Kingdom Hearts II will become the highest priority game and hopefully I won't have to work too late all week and I can play and enjoy it for long stretches.

Far Cry Instincts Predator (X360)

My copy should show up sometime this week and I'm pretty excited. I am a big Far Cry fan and make no excuses about it. I never picked up or played Far Cry Instincts on Xbox, but now I don't have to since that game is included with the new Evolution storyline in the Xbox 360 version. I plan on having some impressions and maybe a review up, but my next post explains why that may not be possible.

Oblivion

Well, I have to say I am humbled. I was not too excited by Oblivion, spelled out in this thread last month. I was e-mailed by a bunch of people to at least give the game a try. I went out and bought the PC version because I'm in the camp where control just isn't the same on the consoles for a game that is also available on the PC unless it is sports games.

All I can say so far is WOW! I did not enjoy Morrowind at all and I think I'm liking Oblivion more simply because tasks are well explained and you also have access to the quick trip via the map. I am also enjoying going off on my own and doing things outside of the main story, but the main quests are also sucking me in. I don't have a whole lot of hours under my belt because work has been busy and I had a busy weekend, but when I've had a spare moment I've played Oblivion. The graphics are very nice and I will probably tweak them to get somewhat rid of the undetailed horizon shots outside, but overall the graphics are fantastic and the frames only drop when there are a lot of characters on-screen at the same time.

I only have one minus early on and that is that you can become over-encumbered way too easily. I personally was trying to hold onto expensive items so I could sell them to merchants and increase my gold, but many times I had to drop my stuff somewhere, pick up the stuff I want to sell, sell them and then go back and pick up my good stuff and re-equip myself. It is a bit of a chore, but I can understand the encumbrance needs in the game.

So far I agree with all the reviews and would easily put this in the 90s if I still did reviews on that scale. I hope to have a review coming up, but I need a bit more time with the game. From what I have played though I recommend picking the game up and playing it, it really is excellent.

GRAW Impressions

I haven't had a whole lot of time to play GRAW, but what I have played I've enjoyed. Much like Fight Night Round 3, the game is presented in a 1.85:1 ratio on a standard television, so your whole screen is not used up. The graphics are fantastic and the game itself is fantastic as well. I thank all the people that e-mailed me about how great this game is. I have yet to play online, mostly because of lack of time to play the game. I've been working some long hours lately and haven't found time to sit and play some co-op or whatever online. I can guarantee if the game is this fun alone it will be really fun with other people.

I do have some minuses though, but they should come as no surprise. The sunny exterior is a bit too bright, especially when trying to read text of your next objectives. I like the fact that this is a realistic portrayal of Mexico City (it is the most smog ridden city in the world after all), but maybe they should have changed the text to a different color or something. Maybe this alleviated with an HDTV and I only see the problem on a standard TV though.

The other minus comes as no surprise to anyone who's played the GR games before. Your squadmates are stupid idiots that like to stand in the line of fire and not take cover, even when you point them in the direction of cover. It is nice they have added the ability to heal your teammates, but given that they usually are not behind cover when they die it makes it difficult for you to heal him and not get hit yourself. This of course makes the game more difficult than it should be, but if you're patient you can make it through the single-player portion.

Overall though this game is the best original game on the Xbox 360 hands down...at least until I play Oblivion or Far Cry probably.

Batman Beyond (DVD)

I haven't talked a whole lot about DVDs recently, probably because there hasn't been a release to really talk about (although King Kong comes next week). Some people may know I'm into both comic books and animated series based on comic books. This week we saw the release of Batman Beyond Season 1 and Justice League Season 1. I haven't picked either up yet, but plan on doing so. I'll talk about JL later, but I want to devote a lot of this column to Batman Beyond, possibly the last great Paul Dini/Bruce Timm collaborative effort (Dini only wrote episodes of Justice League after this). I still consider the 90s series Batman: The Animated Series to be one of the best American produced cartoons of all time.

Batman Beyond was set 20 years after Bruce Wayne had last donned the Batman gear. A boy happens upon Bruce Wayne getting beat up by a bunch of thugs and helps him. Bruce asks the kid to take him to Wayne manor, where the boy comes upon the Batcave. His name is Terry McGinnis and his father was recently killed because he was going to spill the beans about Wayne Enterprise's new CEO and his corruptness. Bruce made a new Batman suit, but was not able to use it himself, so Terry takes it to avenge his father's death. Eventually Bruce allows him to become the new Batman to save the corrupt city of Gotham and becomes a mentor for Terry. Bruce is now in his 50s and gets around with the use of a cane, but he can still rumble with the best of them.

The series only lasted 3 seasons (13/26/13 episodes) and the last one was difficult to sit through since there were huge gaps between new episodes. Obviously the second season was the best given it was double the length of the other two seasons. Towards the end of the 3rd season Warner Bros. released the edited version of Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, a movie that was supposed to come out in theaters like Batman: Mask of the Phantasm did in 1993. For some reason Warner decided to send it straight to video. The rumors around the internet by people who had seen the movie had said it was quite adult in nature and rumors began to swirl that the release in 2000 was going to be an edited version. When it finally came out in December, it was indeed the edited version. Those who had seen the unedited version (which now included me) started up petitions for Warner to release the uncut version of the movie. Eventually in 2002 we got the uncut version on DVD and it was fantastic, as detailed in my review of it on DVDTalk (yes, I was a reviewer at DVDTalk before I was a game reviewer). Two years later we started getting WB Animated stuff in proper season sets on DVD.

Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker is a better movie than Mask of the Phantasm to me. The movie explains the last mission Bruce Wayne went on and why his leg is injured. It also delves into Joker torturing Robin (Tim Drake) into telling him that Bruce Wayne is Batman and Joker brainwashing Robin into becoming Joker, Jr. This section of the movie was edited the most in the cut version, the biggest of which was Tim actually shooting the Joker dead for doing what he did to him. In the time of Batman Beyond it seems the Joker is back from the dead and Bruce and Terry try to figure out how he's still alive and stop him. The twist is very cool and I highly recommend you pick this movie up along with the Batman Beyond Season 1 release this week.

Justice League, by contrast, is an altogether okay effort. It does not reach the highs of previous WB Animated series and is just kind of there. It is cool that they collect the whole first season (26 episodes...2 3-part stories, 10 2-part stories) and will make it more easy to watch than it was to see one episode every week. It will also be cool when the second season comes out. Then they went and changed it to Justice League Unlimited and used more standalone stories with other JLA characters along with the main 7 from the previous seasons. I didn't like Unlimited as much and we will soon be at the end of the series on Cartoon Network and I can tell you the series ender leaves things wide open for another story that will probably never come. I certainly recommend the cheaper Batman Beyond season than Justice Leaugue.

More PS3 Stuff

I'm sure many of you are thinking I'm anti-Sony at this point, but I'm really not. I try to be an equal opportunity game player. I've owned two or more consoles at each major point in gaming post-Atari downfall (NES/Master System, SNES/Genesis, Playstation/N64, Dreamcast/PS2/GameCube/Xbox) and eventually I plan on owning the PS3 and the Revolution more than likely. I'm not sure on the amount of PS2 games I reviewed for Console Gold (now Gaming Trend) versus games I reviewed on Xbox, but I can only guess they are about even if not skewed toward the PS2. With that out of the way, let's get on with the show.

Halo 3 has come up in conversations again in forums I frequent. Yes, Bill Gates once said it would release when the PS3 released, but he later recanted that statement. If I was a betting man I'd say Bungie won't have Halo 3 done in time and polished enough to be released alongside the PS3...but if I was Microsoft/Bungie I would push hard to get Halo 3 done and polished by the time the PS3 comes out in North America.

What leads me to say the game won't be done? Well, Microsoft first unveiled Halo 2 at E3 in 2003 and the game came out a year and a half later. There were plans for it to be out before E3 2004, but that didn't happen (as we all know). Chances are that Halo 3 will have its unveiling at E3 this year, but I don't think it'll be coming in 2006...more than likely we're talking 2007. Who knows though, I could be wrong.

If Halo 3 would magically appear at the release of the PS3 I think it would be a serious blow to Sony. The 360 would have its definitive "killer app" (not to say there isn't now or in the near future going to be a "killer app" on 360) and it would sell systems like gangbusters just like Halo 2 did in 2004. By then 360s should be readily available and Sony would probably be facing an uphill climb.

There is the outside chance that Gears of War could end up being the major game at the holidays for the 360. I can only guess the game will be pushed to there. People say that it is an unproven game, but then so was Halo before it came out on Xbox. There is also a chance that the "big game"(s) haven't even been announced, which I alluded to in my last post.

It will be interesting to see Sony's upcoming announcements on the PS3. I wonder if they will hold off on a final price until the last minute like Microsoft did with the 360. I also wonder if they'll do the 2 SKU thing as well (one with Hard Drive, one without). I am still in the camp that says they will release it at the $499 price point, possibly without the HD (meaning even more $$$ with the HD). That price will be tough to swallow, especially with a possible drop in price of the 360 (if the PS3 comes out I forsee MS trying to capture as much market as it can) and the rumored $199 price of the Revolution.

I still question what type of game lineup Sony will have in North America and Europe outside of ports of games done months earlier (Madden, the rest of the EA Sports lineup, UbiSoft's lineup, etc.). Given that final dev kits will be out in late May/June that doesn't give Japanese developers much time to get a game done and localize it here and in Europe, especially an RPG. Microsoft had mostly North American/European based companies in its launch group (Activision, Electronic Arts, UbiSoft, Microsoft, 2K Games) with a couple Japanese companies (Sega, Namco). I think Microsoft can prosper even without putting a dent in the Japanese market; for Sony I think North America and Europe are just as important as Japan to build their market base.

In the end I'll buy a PS3 eventually...Metal Gear Solid 4 pretty much sews that fact up. Will I be in line in November? Depends on the price. If it's $500 and/or the launch lineup is weak I don't see myself braving the weather again in order to get the newest system. That's just for the console itself, that doesn't take into account the cost of games, extra controllers, accessories, etc. Maybe we'll know more at E3...we can only hope.

Sony Goes Worldwide

Well, Sony is indeed going to attempt a worldwide release of the PS3 in November. It also sounds like a hard drive will be a necessary item, but may not be on the machine when it launches. Um, what? I can't believe Sony would be telling the developers to use the hard drive and then not have the hard drives installed on the PS3 when you buy it. It sounds like the hard drive is the central point for everything: PS3 games, compatibility with PS2/PS1 games, Sony's online component (which will be "free", but we'll see if they also allow something akin to Xbox Live Gold at a premium), etc. They better put the hard drives in with the system or they'll have more problems than Microsoft did with the two SKUs.

They also said that they won't fall into the trap that Microsoft did with manufacturing. They say they'll build 1 million units a month and have 6 million out by March 2007. The problem with this is that they would have to divide that initial 1 million at launch equally between at least Japan and North America and slightly less in Europe. This means that in the end North America will have less units to buy than when the 360 came out and Japan will have more...so the statement is a bit deceiving (big surprise from Sony).

The other news tied to the PS3 is that dev kits will be finalized in May and developers will get them in June/July which creates a situation similar to Microsoft with the 360. I don't know what technology the developers already have available to them for the PS3, but it would be interesting to see if it is at the same level as the 360 developers had at the same moment as well. Things are getting pretty exciting, although I don't know if I'll be waiting outside to get a PS3. Probably depends on price and the games available (I'm going to guess the launch lineup will be weak because there's a lot more Japanese companies to play with when it comes to Sony than with Microsoft...localization will be a factor more than likely).

In other news, the PSP will drop in price by $50 at the end of this month in North America putting it at $199.99 for the basic pack. They will also unleash a firmware upgrade adding more functionality to the PSP as well.

You Saw This Coming, Right? (Sony)

So, rumors are swirling that Sony will announce tomorrow (well, today in Japan at this time) that the Japanese release of the Playstation 3 will be delayed to November over Blu-Ray copy protection issues. No word of the effect on the North American or European release schedule as of yet.

First off, if Sony does indeed announce at their shindig that this is over Blu-Ray copy protection I have a bridge in New York I'd like to sell you. There could be a myriad of reasons why they are pushing it to the fall and maybe they'll grow some testicles and actually tell us why, but I doubt it.

Chances are if the system is coming out in Japan in November that there won't be a North American release until at least Spring 2007. Yes, Sony could attempt a worldwide release, but they never have in the past and I don't see them sacrificing half the stock to North America and basically thumbing their nose at the Japanese consumer.

Here are Sony's release dates on their other systems:

Playstation
Japan - December 3, 1994
North America - September 9, 1995
Europe - September 29, 1995

Playstation 2
Japan - March 4, 2000
North America - October 26, 2000
Europe - Not sure

Playstation Portable
Japan - December 12, 2004
North America - March 24, 2005
Europe - September 1, 2005

Given that the PS3 has a lot more parts than the other 3 combined probably, chances are that the releases would be paced more like the PS2 than the PSP between Japan and North America, so we're talking May 2007...right around E3 probably.

Of course, is any of this really a surprise to anyone? Were you really clutching onto the hope that the PS3 would indeed be out this Spring even though little to no games have been shown up to this point? The first clue this week should have come yesterday when it was unveiled that God of War 2 was being worked on for the PS2 (NOT the PS3) with most likely a February 2007 release. Why is this game not leading the charge into the new generation? Think about that for a moment.

Another interesting point in all of this is that some developers may be sitting on done or close to being done games for the PS3. Remember when EA showed off Fight Night Round 3 and pointing out that it was running on PS3 hardware? Chances are good that EA has a pretty much done copy of FN3 ready for the PS3 that they now have to sit on for a year possibly. Same goes for other upcoming EA games like Madden 2007 and probably other developer's games as well.

You may think I'm an anti-Sony person and I'm really not. I just think Sony as a company has been going downhill for a bit now in all aspects of business, not just the gaming division. Who's to say with the delay that Microsoft isn't going to attempt to buy some PS3 exclusives in order to bring them to Xbox 360? Why would developers eat money on games close to being done while waiting for a system to come out?

Microsoft is left with a golden opportunity and I think they've been keeping quiet on games coming out after May. I think they're going to unveil a lot of stuff at E3 this year, stuff we haven't even heard of yet. Chances are there will be lots of 2nd generation games available around the holidays this year and Sony will be left holding its PS2 system for the second holiday in a row. The PS2 has an impressive amount of games in the pipe, but Microsoft and Nintendo could gain a lot of ground if the PS3 doesn't surface until later this year or next year.

We should know more tomorrow about the PS3 and its future, I just hope Sony mans up and tells it like it is instead of hiding behind Blu-Ray copy protection as the reason this delay is happening. They won't of course, but we can always dream, can't we?

Catch Up

Yeah, it's been a week since my last post. I've been pretty busy at work and haven't found the time to sit down and type out a few things. Now I'm back for at least today.

GRAW Update: I've given into the pressure and its on the way to me. I attempted to rent it this weekend and only Hollywood Video had it available, but since I worked late on Friday I missed the one copy they had locally. I had a few e-mailers tell me they liked the game a lot, so I decided I should check it out for myself. I'm not big into the group-based tactical games, but I'll give it a try. Later this month I have the new Far Cry on 360 to look forward to.

Elder Scrolls: Oblivion Update: There is a new video available today for the 1 week countdown. I have to say I am becoming more interested in this game, but I don't know why. I didn't like Morrowind in the slightest, but maybe I didn't give it enough of a chance. Now I sit here wondering if I should pick this game up, but then the question becomes: which system?

Maybe you guys can help me out there. This is my PC system:

3.2 GHz Pentium 4 HT
1GB RAM
Radeon X800 Pro 256MB card

Is the game going to run well or should I just give in and get the Xbox 360 version (which, of course, is more expensive)? I played the Xbox version of Morrowind and have to say I didn't like the control of it over the PC version of Morrowind...would that lead me into the direction of the PC? How many mods will be out there that the 360 will most likely miss out on? I have a feeling if I go the path of renting that I'll find myself shut out again at the local video stores. Maybe it's time to try Gamefly? Your e-mails are appreciated on any of those questions or if you want to tell me which version you're getting and why (if you have both choices).

The next post will talk about Sony and the rumors of the impending announcement tomorrow.

GRAW Redux

Woke up this morning and found the rumor about a midnight gag order was just that...a rumor. I still hope I'm wrong about all this though.

Update: I see there are at least two online reviews now, both tied to the Fox/IGN machine.

- IGN's Review (9.2)
- Team Xbox's Review (9.0)

I don't take much stock in the main IGN reviews, but I do tend to agree with Team Xbox's assessments on games. I also see via GameRankings that both EGM and Game Informer gave it a 9.5, which means the 3 reviewers at EGM equaled out to that score.

I have to say I am now impressed, although I think the main draw is still with the online component as it always has been with the Ghost Recon games in the past. It does sound as if the graphics take a sizable drop going online though, which is too bad.

RIP Kirby Puckett

As some of you may know, I've lived my whole life up in the frozen north of Minnesota. I grew up cheering for all the sports teams up here and continue to this day. I can honestly say though that there probably isn't another sports person as big as Kirby Puckett around these parts. I'm sure you already know, but Kirby Puckett passed away today after a massive stroke at the young age of 45.

I had the pleasure to both see Kirby play as I was growing up and meet Kirby in person after he was out of baseball. He did a lot of good things up here in the area (he had several charity drives where millions were made) outside of sports, but he quietly relocated to Arizona after he was found innocent of sexual abuse charges and dropped his Vice Presidency in the Twins organization.

All I heard on the talk stations around here was how even early on in his career he made it known that he didn't think he'd live to age 50. Many people in his family died from heart troubles before they hit the age of 50 and Kirby evidently figured he was no different. He didn't help himself much after he was divorced and moved to Arizona. News reports say he was over 300 pounds at one point. 300 pounds on a 5'8" guy is not a good thing. He also was supposedly depressed, althoug he had plans to remarry in June. I don't think he ever got over the stories that tarnished his life after baseball and maybe he felt Minnesotans had abandoned him, but I think that was an incorrect view of the situation. I'm sure he's up in heaven smiling down on a state filled with grief over his death.

There was a local sports writer who went to a Children's Hospital recently and asked 50 sick children who they thought was the best sports player in Minnesota. All 50 children said Kirby Puckett. These are just children that probably never saw Kirby at all (remember, he finished playing 10 years ago), which means that their parents are handing down the legacy of the great Kirby Puckett to their kids and I also hope those children teach their children the same thing.

It's a sad day up here in Puckettland and I can only hope if the state ever does build a new baseball stadium that it will be named after Puckett, the most famous of all sportspeople here in Minnesota...past, present and most likely future.

Touch 'em all Kirby Puckett...touch 'em all...

Where are the GRAW Reviews?

I'm becoming a little hesitant on trying out Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (or GRAW for short). I have a feeling the game may not be everything people hope it will be. The reason? There's no advance review as of yet and the game ships tomorrow. Generally with high profile games there are reviews before the game is available. With GRAW there are two things to be apprehensive of:

1. The rumored demo never surfaced on Xbox Live Marketplace
2. No reviews yet and the game is shipping/available tomorrow

The first one puts up a red flag. There were rumors (I don't know where they were started) about a demo going up last week for GRAW. To this day there isn't one available on the Marketplace. This could be a sign the game is not all it is cracked up to be. The second one doesn't necessarily put up a red flag, but most sites already have reviews of Burnout Revenge for the 360 shipping tomorrow as well. I would argue GRAW is the bigger release since it is an original property, yet no reviews yet. There are rumors of a midnight (Pacific Time) gag order on reviews, but we shall see.

I hope I'm wrong, but I have a feeling this may not be the game everyone was hoping for. When Rainbow Six: Vegas was unveiled by EGM (via 1Up) yesterday it was also stated that they had a GRAW review in the new issue. Thing is 1Up hasn't posted the EGM review as of yet...conspiracy? Who knows.

I still stand by my statement that the next key game on 360 is Far Cry Instincts Predator coming out later this month. If there are advance reviews (remember, this game comes from Ubisoft much like GRAW) I think it's a good indication Far Cry is all it is cracked up to be.

So, buyer beware on GRAW for the moment. I'd hate for you to shell out $60 on a bad game.

Black (Xbox) - Review

The other game I picked up to rent was Black on the Xbox. I had to take out my Xbox and hook it up again (gotta love that Backwards Compatibility on the 360, eh?) in order to play the game. I didn't have any sort of high hopes for the game at all. I knew the game would look good, but would it blow me away with its gameplay as well? Short answer: not really. If I could say one thing to Criterion it would be that it may be smart to keep working on the Burnout series over an FPS game.

Black is certainly a great looking title for the current generation of machines out there (PS2 and Xbox), but it's tough for anyone that owns the Xbox 360 to readjust to the fact that the game is not going to look as good as something like Perfect Dark Zero (just as a genre comparison) or Call of Duty 2. I personally never noticed any slowdown in the game and with all the lighting effects going on I found that to be pretty surprising. Criterion isn't necessarily known for having awesome graphics (even Burnout Revenge could be seen as less than Need for Speed: Most Wanted graphically on the Xbox for instance) so Black is a nice change of pace in that regard.

Beauty, in many cases, is only skin deep though. That old saying fits Black quite well. The story of Black is very nonsensical and I almost wish they would have done CGI work with it instead of actual people in live action sections. They revolve around the main character (Keller) being chained up and talking to a shadowy government type via a poorly acted interrogation session. Keller describes the last 4 days (the subsequent 8 missions that make up the game) and his hunt for the Seventh Wave group and their leader Lennox. Needless to say once you reach the ending it is quite brief and you wonder why the heck they ever put those cutscenes in.

The gameplay in Black revolves around unending destruction with your weapons. The game is rated M, but surprisingly there is no blood spilled in the game (this is an old EA edict from long ago) so I'm guessing the rating is simply for the extreme killing and violence that goes on. There is an almost unlimited supply of ammo for the AK-47 (the gun you will probably use the most) while the other weapons have ammo here and there and serve their purpose around the area you pick them up in. You can only carry two weapons at one time and you can also get up to 3 health packs that can be used by hitting the d-pad down. Health packs are very important because you often come under overwhelming odds and this game isn't like Halo or Call of Duty 2 where you can hide for a while and rebuild your health meter. Many of the guns are quite cool, but you will find you rely on the AK-47 a lot because of the ammo situation over other guns.

Everything sounds great in Black at the moment, but there are 2 glaring problems with the game:

1. The AI of the enemy borders on the infantile
2. The game is just way too short

The first problem is that the AI is stupid. You will see this in the first mission right off the bat. You turn a corner and see some cover availability. As you run toward the cover you are shot at by someone at the 1 o'clock position. When you reach your cover you crouch. The enemy no longer fires at you. This is weird because the cover you are against can be batted away by an automatic gun if shot enough times. The enemy won't fire until you stand up again and start shooting at them. The only enemies that will continue to shoot at you will be the ones on higher ground. There are also times when you can run up to an enemy and they won't fire at you. They obviously heard you running toward them, but they don't care. You can just unload a clip into them and continue on.

The second problem is that this game is just too short even if you do take the secondary objectives into account (you have to finish a greater number of them as you go through the difficulty levels). It took me 6 hours to plow through this game and that is on the pretty short end for an FPS game nowadays. There are better FPS games out there than Black even on the consoles (Far Cry Instincts and even Killzone come to mind when you think outside of the big ones like Halo) and each one last longer than this one.

In the end Black is a nice little distraction and I would recommend that you rent it because you will beat it within the rental window. There's no reason to drop $40 on this game because you'll have no wish to go through the game again once you beat it the first time.

Fight Night Round 3 (Xbox 360) - Review

Well, I was not lucky enough to find a copy of Fight Night Round 3 on 360 last week to rent, but on Friday there was one available at the local Blockbuster so I picked it up. I won't bore you with many details about the game because my thoughts are much the same as Dubious Quality and Sports Gamer have.

The graphics are fantastic, although I don't have an HDTV as of yet. Even with the 1.85:1 screen on my regular square TV I have to say the graphics are really good. I do feel sorry for anyone with a smaller square television though. The game is presented in 1.85:1 mode and so it doesn't take up the whole screen. Obviously if you have an HDTV your jaw will drop over this game, but a regular TV will work just fine.

After some time with Fight Night Round 3 I'm not sure it is better than last year's iteration. I'm not sure why EA got rid of the ranking system and put in the stupid "popularity bar". You have no clue when you choose a contract that you would be able to vault up the meter unless it actually says, "your popularity will increase with a win" tied to the contract. The mini-games are actually more stupid than last year's ones. You also can now only choose a trainer and you don't pick a cutman and escort(s) like you did last year. They added a Rivals mode as well, although it is poorly implemented. When you start your career the computer will pick your rival and you won't know who it is until you meet him.

Gameplay has been tweaked, for better and worse, since last year. The haymakers take longer to land and to me it seems as if the AI is a bit dumber this time around. I play the Fight Night games mostly by myself and Round 3 has the same problem Round 2 had: after a while it gets boring. Getting out of the amateur ranks goes pretty fast this year, but when you get into the pro ranks you find that it takes a lot of fights to get a championship opportunity. As Dubious Quality (linkes to actual post) pointed out, it took Bill over 30 fights to get a championship bout. There is a way to know when you have a championship bout though as the title icon above the contract will light up although if you don't look right at those icons you wouldn't know. Halving the amount of fights would make this game more appealing to a player that plays alone, although the developer is thinking more fights = more gametime. The game AI isn't good enough to challenge you though and you get bored after a while with winning almost every round and then beating your opponent to a pulp later on.

I would not recommend buying Fight Night Round 3 on Xbox 360 unless you have never played the series or you want great graphics and gameplay. I'd recommend renting it because it isn't worth blowing $60 on. I have yet to play this game online, but I do hear that is one of the saving graces for the game and I wouldn't be surprised about that as long as there is no lag.

I'm not into the whole ratings thing anymore on reviews and I'd rather recommend or not recommend games (to buy or rent) to people instead of give it an arbitrary number. My next review is coming up.