Game Stooge

E3 ‘07: Wrap-Up

• Scribbled on July 15th, 2007 by Devin Grimes
• Filed in Editorial Content, Features, Off Topic

Gaming’s biggest, sensory overloaded week is finally over. Promises of a new, “more intimate” E3 seem to vary in their conclusions, and unlike past years we didn’t really come out with many major announcements.

Microsoft kicked off the expo on Tuesday night with one of the “safest” press conferences to date, sticking only to 2007’s biggest titles. More footage of all the games we’ve been excited about since last year’s E3 were strewn about, with very few surprises in between. Instead we’re left with Assassin’s Creed looking amazing as usual, the admittedly leaked announcement of Gears of War for PC (XP!), and tons of montages displaying the Xbox 360’s software prowess — all wrapped up with a strikingly mediocre look at Halo 3.

A pleasant surprise appeared in a game that many initially brushed off pre-demo, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. While tones and colors seem very muted and dull, excellent lighting effects and visuals left many gamers standing with their mouths open and seem to provide an all-too-welcome change of pace for the series.

Then there’s Nintendo. This quite possibly could have been the year of the Wii once again at E3, but instead we get a damn yoga simulator stealing the spotlight from all the games we wanted to see (Metroid, Mario, Smash Bros.), while barely even glancing over details about the upcoming Mario Kart Wii game. The promises of the Wii Balancing Board seem pretty enthusing — at least to all the “non-gamers.”

With 40 million DS’s in the hands of people throughout the world, you would think we might have gotten a major game announcement. It’s very obvious that Nintendo’s focus isn’t on the hardcore fans, it’s where the money is: casual gamers — and thanks to copious amounts of “Nintendo is the Greatest!” news montages we’re all quite aware of that fact.

Sony kicked off the week pretty well, announcing a $100 price break on the 60GB model of the PlayStation 3 and followed suit in its press briefing by gratifying all the current PS3 owners by displaying quite a stellar lineup of software; all without the “next-gen starts when we say it does,” superiority moniker.

After swirling debates and rumors of a redesigned PSP, Sony followed suit and announced a new model with basically none of the design issues addressed, sans fat-trimming.

Then there’s Killzone 2 — and damn if Guerrilla Studios didn’t redeem themselves. We’d be lying if we said it clearly matched the target video’s visuals, but several moments during the presentation had me thinking “Gears of Who?” Granted I haven’t played nor seen the game for myself, but animations, lighting, and gameplay looks to impress. And we’re not the only ones feeling this way.

Announcements and surprises seem to have come to a halt following the press briefings. Sony ended up screwing themselves over yet again, putting the brakes on the positive vibe left after their press conference, and the rest of the coverage seemed to have climaxed pretty early on, with many hands-on demos from the major gaming publications, reaffirming how good/not good each game was.