Commentary on E3 - Part 3: Miscellaneous

The PS Vita and the Wii U were the only real 'big' announcements of E3 2011. Everything else was either an upgrade to existing systems or more information on games we already knew about. In this last part of my E3 commentary, I'd like to share my views on some of the things on show at E3 that don't really warrant a full blog entry, but can be summed up in a paragraph or two.

New New New Xbox Live Experience

I appreciate that Microsoft are still improving their existing console, despite how close we are to the next generation. Something I've enjoyed about the current consoles is all the extra services on offer that turn your games console into more of an entertainment centre. Sure, a games console should be, for the most part, all about the games, but it is convenient having those extra services, such as BBC iPlayer and LoveFilm streaming on the PS3. Live Television is along the same lines of convenience. I'm not sure what it'll entail here in the UK, but I can imagine it might double as a Freeview box, offering a small selection of free channels. But wherever you are in the world, it just means you have even less reason to turn off your Xbox 360 during your downtime.

Adding Youtube to Xbox Live is a no-brainer. It opens up an easy way of bringing Youtube to your living room TV, meaning you can now waste all those hours watching funny cat videos from the comfort of your sofa! The future is here.

I don't own an Xbox 360, but I'd be very happy with these new additions if I did, and it would've been nice to see Sony announce similar new services to their own dashboard.

Kinect

Following the showcase of new titles supporting Kinect controls, I'm still firmly in the camp of "it's not for me". Mass Effect 3 was probably one of the best examples of this. It may have sounded 'cool' on paper to be able to communicate with other characters by voicing your responses to the TV, but when it was shown at Microsoft's press conference, it just looked awkward. For starters, in Mass Effect you've always picked a general summary of the response you want to give, and Shepard then communicates it in his own way. Voicing your response and then having Shepard say something completely different just doesn't feel normal. Furthermore, with the inclusion of voice commands to order your squad around, I can't see myself wanting to be constantly yelling at my TV. That just sounds tiring.

I also still have no inclination to pretend I'm holding a gun and play out character actions, when using a controller has always got the job done just fine. Playing games with Kinect still appears to be very limiting compared to playing with a controller, and probably makes games more difficult than they need to be.

But I'm not the target audience of Kinect. The people Microsoft are trying to appeal to are more on the casual side of gaming interest, and just want to have a bit of fun with new technology. I understand that, but the amount of time spent on Kinect at Microsoft's press conference meant that quite a large chunk of it held no interest to me or, I'm sure, many 'core' gamers.

Pikmin

I was a massive fan of the Pikmin games on the Gamecube, and thought it was a brilliant effort by Nintendo of bringing an almost RTS style game to a console and making it work well. I was very happy to hear that a new Pikmin game is still in development, and I'll be interested to see how it'll make use of the Wii U's controller, as an extra screen could be valuable in improving the game's control scheme even further.

Uncharted 3

Watching the trailers for Uncharted 3 reminded me just how much I enjoyed the characters in the second game. These are some very strong personalities that were instantly interesting despite the fact that I missed the introduction to them by not playing the first game. The third entry in the series looks just as cinematic as ever, and it's honestly becoming difficult to tell apart from Hollywood films. That's a good step forward in an industry that's still fighting to become as accepted a medium of entertainment as film, television and literature.

Final Fantasy XIII-2

I'm going to agree with Square-Enix's decision to leave the battle system mostly unchanged in the direct sequel to Final Fantasy XIII. It was one of the successes amongst the flaws of the first game, and the familiarity with it may come in handy when new mechanics are to be introduced, such as the intriguing new "Feral Link" system, that has you fighting alongside a beastly companion, akin to a World of Warcraft hunter.

The reason FFXIII-2 interests me in particular is that, while the game was flawed, I did enjoy the world and characters of FFXIII. Hopefully, Square-Enix will take note of the complaints against the first game and make it a worthwhile return visit to its world.

Playstation 3D TV 

As far as I know, this hasn't received a lot of attention from the gaming press, which I find surprising. Obviously, an affordable 3D TV is Sony's way of pushing 3D gaming on the people who are still unable to play 3D games on the PS3, which I imagine is a large majority. But the interesting thing about this TV is its ability to display separate images to two different players. 3D or not, I think that's a really cool feature. It combines the fun of having your friends in the room with you and the convenience of having an entire screen to yourself as you would when playing an online multiplayer game.

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There were many other trailers I enjoyed watching, but mostly for games I was already planning on purchasing anyway. You can't really get me more excited about games like Bioshock Infinite or Mass Effect 3 because I'm already as pumped about them as you can get.

All in all, it was a fairly tame E3 this year. There was nothing particularly groundbreaking announced, but there was enough to assure us that there's plenty to look forward to in the coming year.