Back for a E3 review

Despite me taking a sabbatical for a indefinite amount of time, I felt that I should at least comment on my thoughts from the E3 expo that happened a few weeks back. Needless to say, I was interested in what was going to happen because I hold the personal opinion that we’re nearing the ceiling in terms of graphical enhancements. Outside of facial expressions and background details, I don’t think we can get much better than what we’re at now. The only real advancements we can make is to make it easier to make these pretty graphics for the developers. That being said, it’s not come down more on innovation, gameplay and creativeness for Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft.

And it looks like Sony and Microsoft succeeded, and Nintendo fell on its face.

I love PS3/PSP System Updates!

If there’s one thing I like, it’s a nice clean user interface. I don’t like a lot of clutter and I like things to be out-of-sight-out-of-mind. I’ve been able to experience both the Wii and the 360s interface, but I think I like Sony’s most of all. I sure am sounding like a fanboy of Sony, lately – but the truth is I thought it was pretty neat even when I was pretty disgusted with Sony.

But that’s not really the point of my post – the point is that not only do I love their XMB, but I love their updates as well. Having owned a Wii, there would be a lot of times that I had an update waiting in the morning only to install it and find that it’s just a quick patch or something. But when I got word that both the PS3 and PSP’s system are getting updates I can’t help but compliment Sony on their constant attention towards making their system run better.

Review: Monster Hunter Freedom

Monster Hunter Freedom was the second game I bought for the PlayStation Portable. I had bought this without doing a review because a friend of mine had the second game and really liked it. And for the most part we agree on game genres – we both think Final Fantasy 6 was the best Final Fantasy of the series – so for the most part when he likes a game it’s assumed I’d like it too.

But unfortunately, it wasn’t the case with this game. And with this game it’s not that the game was bad – although there were quite a few things that irritated me – the main problem I had was the amount of time it took to do simple tasks. And it’s the kind of game that I think is only appreciated by a select audience. I get what Capcom did with this series, however I just couldn’t do it. And if you care to know what I’m talking about, read on.

Article: Should Sony, Nintendo be scared?

Article: Games are serious business for Apple

Summary: Apple has already produced more titles on the iPhone/iPod Touch (which I’ll refer to from here on out as the iTouch) than the Nintendo DS. Apple is climbing the ranks of mobile gaming and maybe Nintendo and Sony should be prepared for a new competitor in the ranks.

Enough.

This is a very stupid and inaccurate article. And I’m going to prove it by two points and point out some hypocrisy with my third point. If you stop reading right here, then go away with this: Apple’s iPhone/iTouch games are nowhere near the equivalent of the gaming on the Nintendo DS or the PlayStation Portable.

Demo Review: Syphon Filter – Logan’s Shadow

Syphon Filter: Logan’s Shadow is the first PSP demo that I downloaded. I wanted to see a game that could show the power of the PSP and this did a good job of doing it. I can’t remember the storyline offhand so I can’t comment on that. But I did get to play the first level completely so at least I have something to base my review on.

The controls, starting off, are weird. The lack of the second analog stick makes aiming difficult. Movement is fine – because it’s done by the analog stick – but in order to aim you use your four buttons. This can be a pain because you can’t get the preciseness that you normally would off of a second analog controller. But honestly, I was able to get used to it relatively fast and if I bought the game, I’m sure I’d get the hang of it. It’s not going to influence my decision. But other than that, the controls aren’t that bad. You directional pad toggles all your different views (like Splinter Cell) and your shoulder buttons are your attacks.