E3 2009: Sony Press Conference

Sony's Press Conference really delivered some surprises though where spoiled prior to their presentation.  My favorites where the following 3...

1. Final Fantasy XIV Online was revealed even before the release of Final Fantasy XIII.  This looks to be the successor to Final Fantasy XI.  They showed a CG trailer but no in game trailers just of yet.  The classes seems to be the likes of it's predecessor.  I just hope it wasn't as slow as it was.  I am a hardcore FF fan and forced myself to play XI and I enjoyed it presonally.  But with my other gamer friends playing the game, they didn't have the same sentiments.  Lets all hope that this one will make it big.  Let's give Square, the best RPG makers in my opinion, another chanced in the MMORPG realm.

2.  ICO's creator Fumito Ueda finally reveals its new nexgen game The Last Guardian codenamed Trico.  I love this team because they are not pressured and will not be pressured to a release date.  They concentrate on the quality of the game and will put their full power and creative knowledge and know how to make it the best game and they have done this with ICO and Shadow of the Colossus.  And now Last Guardian, looking just as stunning and incredibly amazing.  The best graphics in a game I have seen up to date.  The feathers on the creature was staggering.  Each feather moved in its own physics and the game play and the kid was just awesome.  The music really give an epic feel to the whole presentation.  This will surely live up to its reputation no doubt about it.

3.  God of War III was the closer of the whole conference.  Looking ever so stunning and everything that the series has been made famous.  Showing Harpies, Chimeras and giants, the demo had to be cut short because of time.  God of War will surely live up to the expectations of God of War fans everywhere.

That was it with Sony.  I expected it to be dull and short of expectations for Sony fanboys because of the bombs of Microsoft with the Kojima surprise and the introduction of Project Natal but they didn't let that stand in Sony's way.  They have surely delivered.

That's it, Sony is coming back!

E3 2009: Microsoft Press Conference

Lots of things was announced to the public from Microsoft.  Probably the major announcement was Project Natal.

But before we get into that lets talk about the other big announcements that I am taking note of.

1.  Final Fantasy XIII in-game graphics on the Xbox 360.  This was awesome and who ever said that PS3 games won't look as good as it would on the 360 is completely incorrect.  Square probably makes the best graphics in any game and for this company to push the graphical boundries of the PS3 and make it look just like it on the 360 just states that the 360 can make any game they conjour up on the Sony system, graphically anyways.

2.  Kojima has now joined the team of supporters for Microsoft.  They have announced that they have rights to the Metal Gear Solid francise but the game that they have revealed for the first time was Metal Gear Solid: Rising with main character Raiden.  I don't know about this move.  Not alot of people really like Raiden.  Everybody loves Solid Snake so please just give us more that.  Everyone said Metal Gear Solid 2 sucked because of Raiden so it will be a challenge for Kojima to pull another blockbuster game.  But since it's still MGS, I'm still buying it.

3.  Now the biggest announcement was Project Natal.  Is Microsoft copying Nintendo or is this a new thing.   There is no controller.  The Natal paripheral senses your whole body.  You can walk, you can jump, you can swing, turn, almost about anything and it will sense it.  They even stated that it is a real-time motion capture device.  In the beginning they showed Tony Hawk RIDE and then they show this and showing a kid playing askateboarding game using Natal.  This kinda messes up the marketing of the Tony Hawk game.  This also finally makes Xbox 360 the 2nd competitor in the motion interactive gaming.  But Microsoft is no controller.  So many ideas will emerge from this concept of gaming.  I say there will be a controller vs. no-controller culture that will take over the industry.  What are you predictions?

So those are the highlights of the Microsoft Press Conference.  There are lots more big announcements like Splinter Cell Conviction, Alan Wake dated, Left 4 Dead 2 and others.

That's my insights in Xbox.