Took a blog hiatus this summer. Here are some old posts that never went out...
Buzz
June is a HUGE month for gaming because of E3.
This year I watched the three major press conferences from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. It was quite a contrast as each company seems to be taking a very different strategy for 2011.
Sony was Sony: A premium hardware company with middling software and services. They announced new hardware in the NGP and a ton of awesome looking games. This was my favorite show but admittedly it was just more of the normal Sony strategy.
Microsoft was notable in two ways. They were only company to have female presenters, as in tons of them plus children. Lots of children. And it was notable in that every presenter talked about Kinect. With a nod to the Halo hardcore that Microsoft is known for, there was an obvious effort to rebrand the console from core-gamers (14 to 35 year old men) to family gaming (Kinect, Sesame Street, children). Time will tell if Microsoft sticks with this new strategy and how well it works. (It wont work without more Kinect software...)
Nintendo was Nintendo. Long on nostalgia and short on details. Most of their presenters were Japanese with English translators and as a non-Nintendo fan, most of it was inscrutable to me. Since I dont have any history with Nintendo, their content did not resonate with me. The Wii U was announced and shown and I was baffled by it. I had to go read articles elsewhere to even understand what it was which is not the sign of a strong product demo... Nintendo seems to be struggling to find something to do after the Wii.
E3 games that caught me eye were the Lara Croft reboot, Call of Duty 4, and the Battlefield 3. Battlefield being one of the few games to lead on the PC.
New hardware was shown. The NGP (or Vita) from Sony. Sorry, I cant stand the Vita name and will hang onto the NGP for a while. Then there was Nintendo's rather bizarre Wii U. Is it a handheld? Is it a controller? Whatever it is, I dont think its for me and I think Nintendo's success with the Wii is something even they wont be able to maintain.
Rage. iD shooter + Bethesda RPG = caught my interest. Looks pretty good so far.
Prey 2 also got my interest as it sounds like an open-ended FPS+RPG. I passed on the first Prey but this sound different and better. (So why keep the brand at all?)
Frozen Synapse is a PC game on Steam that is getting buzz this month.
Playing
This month is all about Infamous! on my PS3. Not the best game ever but the closest thing to the fun I had in Crackdown. It makes me feel like a super hero and reminds me of City of Heroes years ago.
Im also slogging my way through Demon's Souls still. Tried some PVP matches. Other people always come into my world and wipe me out so why not bring to pain to other strangers for a change? Well I and got completely smoked in every match I did. Good grief!
Was feeling the need for some strategy so I fired up Daw of War: Dark Crusade. This game is a mix of Risk and an RTS. Got it in a Steam pack and never played it until now. Pretty good stuff. Makes me wonder why this hasn't been done more often.
Claire got me into Diner Dash on iOS. Kept me entertained for a few hours.
Bought
Thank you Sony! This month I got free copies of Infamous and Little Big Planet on the PS3. Two games I wanted to play but didnt way to pay for.
Finished
Nothing finished this month.
