Los Angeles Diary #3

Lots of press conferences today, but not much in the way of big news. The gaming press barely batted an eye at Nintendo's new step aerobics peripheral, but I suspect it's going to be one hell of a seller. Perhaps the coolest quote to come from a Nintendo exec's mouth was "the best game design lets players of all skill levels play on a level playing field." I suppose that makes the Wii a Care Bear console.

Sony was turning away journos. They were the only of the three console manufacturers to do so, which I find highly suspect when you're trying to claw your way out of third place. They did have the best snacks, though. So maybe they know what they're doing. Some thoughts on Sony:

• The new, 33% smaller PSP looks exactly like the old one. How do you sell that to uniformed buyers? The Nintendo DS was radically changed. No matter how slick the PSP looks, do they honestly think the form factor can't be improved?
• Chewbacca joined Sony exec Jack Tretton onstage to hawk the Star Wars-themed PSP and nobody had the wisdom to feed him the line, "let the Wookie win."
• Metal Gear Solid 4 may be the most bizarre, pseudo-mainstream game ever made. The new trailer's final fight sequence played like a mash up of scenes from Brokeback Mountain, Kung Fu Hustle and Riverdance.
  
• Sony made no mention of Final Fantasy XIII, which leads me to believe that we won't see the game until Holiday 2008...in Japan.
• Sony also didn't bombard us with news of HD movie downloads. The fact that I can't watch Casino Royale on my PS3 hard drive is apalling. Where's that $599 of synergy I bought?

In other news, I sat through the Fallout 3 demo, which looked mostly promising. The setting is cool, the humor is there and the quests look like you can tackle them from multiple angles. I still got the feeling that the game could produce option fatigue. It also seemed like the twitch shooting was a more convenient option than the turn-based targeting. Bethesda's still got a year to work out those details. I saw tons of other stuff, but not much else is worth bending your ear over besides the Rock Band party.

EA filled the Troubadour and treated us to two Rock Band tunes performed by the game's developers. Then The Eagles of Death Metal and Queens of the Stone Age played loud, blistering sets. The show easily ranks at the top of my video-game related experiences. I only wish the game had been playable on the premises.

I'll try to blog about my last day of E3 early Friday morning.

Rock Band Party Flickr Set.
Square-Enix Stuff For Tim