Yep, the X-box, and the 360 now, definitely had more than just FPS, Sports and Racing games.

Unfortunately they still lack in the areas I like, namely platformers, japanese RPGs (though Blue Dragon will change that, but is just 1 game), and quirky japanese games.

But I wouldn't say they're is a dearth of variety. Just a dearth of the genres of games I like to play. But that's just because I have limited interest in gaming these days and fairly narrow tastes to begin with.

This is the one that angered me. This is still a very new platform and Sony had little to say about it at E3. The game lineup shown for it was pathetic compared to what was shown for the DS. There are a few games to look foward to, but overall it seems like an unwanted stepchild.

Did you watch the same E3 as everyone else. The gaming media seems to be in agreement. Sony's E3 showing was abysmal. The price is ridiculous. Their games don't come close to living up to Sony's promise and hype, at least in terms of graphics. They look no better than 360 games. They ripoff Nintendo with their new controller. They ripoff Microsoft's release strategy of 2 SKUs, after ridiculing Microsoft for doing the exact same thing. They will copy Live and Live Marketplace as much as possible. They release a retard pack for $500 which has no HDMI, no Wi-Fi, and no Memory Stick/Compact Flash reading. Plus it can't be upgraded. Other than three or four great looking games, they're software lineup did not look all that good either. Sony deserves every bit of criticism they get. That's what you get when you get arrogant and cocky, and take your fans and your competition for granted. Their E3 showing deserves no better than a D.

Microsoft had a strong show. Their software looks great. They're Xbox Live service is already kickass, and getting better all the time. Xbox Live Arcade is a hit, and they announced many great new titles for Live Arcade. Microsoft flooded Live with a lot of great E3 content, though more demos would have been appreciated. Their console now looks like a bargain thanks to Sony. They no longer have any shortage problems. They announced Live Anywhere, and that's a huge announcement. Plus, their console has strong demand in North America, Europe, and Australia. On in Japan are sales bad. However, after this E3, it wouldn't surprise me if sales pickup. About the only area I can criticize them in is they did nothing to address backwards compatability.

Nintendo had a great showing. It's a fun product with some great innovation. It will be inexpensive. It was have some of the best first party software available. Personally, it's a toss up between Microsoft and Nintendo for the winner of E3. I'd give Nintendo an A. One thing is for sure. Sony finished a distant third.

You can also add Rayman. It was later announced for PS3 and 360. Sooner or later Rare is going to add more platformers to the 360 lineup. I imagine at some point you'll see a Banjo Kazooie title, as well as a Conker game added to the 360's library. I also think people are underestimating the Viva Pinata title. I can see that being a big hit. Hell, it looks incredible and the demo actually looked like it could be fun.

Microsoft has plenty of diversity, and that will only get better. People underestimate that variety simply because it has a lot of shooters. But shooters are popular. Otherwise there wouldn't be so many.

My overall quick thoughts from all 3 days:

PS3 will be cool, but they didn't show much at E3 to back this up aside from the insane technology behind the 'Eye of the Beholder' card game. They seemed to focus mainly on the PSP, which in my opinion is getting some great games (Lumines 2, Loco Roco, Ratchet, Gitaroo Man, Metal Slug...) finally!

Microsoft had some great games as well, and I think Dead Rising stole the show as the most fun on that console. The Stranglehold and Gears of War presentations were pretty cool, Saint's Row is great as expected, and Lumines on XBOX Live is perfection.

Lastly, we have Nintendo. They are a mixed bag for me, on one hand the Wii is fun to play, on the other the graphics look like poop and the detection is very spotty. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt on the console/games being early in development. Warioware was easily the best on the system as expected, and Metroid seemed to be popular but I see the system as an Eyetoy or a DDR game...fun sometimes or with friends, but not an actual gaming console. If it released at $99 or $149, it would be fantastic, but I see it collecting dust quickly after the gimmick wears off.

The DS lite is much better than the old style DS and I will be replacing mine in June for sure. Super Mario DS is awesome, possibly the best game on the DS (Thanks for the free copy Nintendo!) and Zelda would be cool if it wasnt 100% on the touch screen. That feature made it almost unplayable, as you hand blocks half the action and there was far too much tapping going on. Apparently they are aware of this and hopefully will change it.

Overall I had fun most of the time at the show but couldn't help be a little bored at the mundane selection of titles overall. I was really hoping for more PS3 variety and overall variety on the game floor. Everywhere you looked there was a WW2 shooter/RTS, or a Dungeon Crawler/RPG. The industry needs a little more orginality next year to really WOW me.

I know you're a big Sony fan, and that's fine. But that system did not look like a monster of a console, as you call it. In fact, every site I frequent such as IGN, Gamespot, and 1Up thought it was a disappointment. I think in the end it will be a fine console with some great games. But Sony forgot that games are more important than features, and price does have a limit.

Funny enough, Rockstar's Table Tennis looked to be a big hit as the show as well.

I thought Sony's conference, while not impressive, was good. It's too early to tell on games but MGS4 looks really, really good as did Heavenly Sword and Assassin's Creed. Sony should be criticized for copying Nintendo for it's motion controller and having 2 different versions of the PS3 at launch, with the $500 version not even worth picking up. Sony needs to fix that before launch. To say Sony failed is ridiculous.

Microsoft was far from good as well. Their 2 big titles, GTA 4 and Halo 3 won't be out until late 2007 which leaves them with one big game to look forward to this year - Gears of War. The new RPG from Bioware, Mass Effect, looks good and they have another big RPG coming from Final Fantasy creator called Blue Dragon but both those games we won't see until 2007. The game line-up MS has for the 360 this year is pretty lame, imo. Microsoft showed me nothing that will get me to run out and buy 360 right now which saves me money because now I can wait until a price drop happens.

Nintendo was the best of the show! It wasn't just the Wii either. Their line-up of games coming for the DS and GBA are very impressive and they're going to continue to dominate the hand held market, especially with the DS Lite due out next month. I can't wait to get my hands on a Wii controller and try it out, it looks like it will take gaming to a whole new level. Plus, with the big first party games(Mario Galaxy, Zelda, Metroid, Super Smash Brawl, etc) coming Nintendo should have a strong launch. I think you're going to see alot more 3rd party support for Nintendo this time around and it's quite possible Nintendo may be 1st or 2nd in the next gen console war.

Overall my grades would be as follows:

Nintendo - A+
Sony - B-
Microsoft - C

I never said they had no platformers etc., just that they don't have enough for me to warrant a purchase, especially after I ended up regretting my X-box purchase as I just didn't find enough games I loved to justify the $200. The 360 has yet to show me that it will be any different and offer any more than 1 or 2 AAA games a year in genre's I like. And the AAA part is important, as most of the platformers that were exclusive to the X-box weren't very good (Blinx, the Voodoo whatever game and so on).

The X-box and 360 are fine hardware and have good game libraries as a whole, they just don't offer enough (yet) in the genres I like to be worth the money (especially at the 360's current prices).

I agree with your assessment. I guess with the PS3 coming out in Nov @ $500 and $600, I guess Microsoft feels that it doesn't need to push the 360 further ahead.

I'm intrigued by the Wii controller and believe that we really won't know how truly revolutionary it is until we see how the games use them.

But E3 is just a snapshot in time. I'm curious to see what these 3 do between now and the launch of the other 2 systems.

Even at that price tag PS3 will be big. Dead Rising was the top game I enjoyed at the show and I mainly credited that to Capcom and not pointing it to being Xbox's real doing. Besides that title, the Xbox booth was utterly worthless to me. Viva Pinata had some novelty but not my bag.

I didn't even notice it until I was reading the Halo 3 trailer thread. Thanks for adding me in.

Okay then - how about this? Apparently, the PS3 WAS in playable form:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100572

How is that even close to being "variety"? Where's the platformer? Japanese RPG? (sorry, Far East of Eden is laughable) Action RPG? Puzzle game? Strategy game? It's all Action, Action, Action, be it FPS or TPS (Third-person shooter). And you cannot compare this to the PS3 because XBOX 360 has been out for 6 months now, and to not show any of the other genres coming up for the next year or so is just completely lazy. As I repeat - I DON'T PLAY FPSes. If Microsoft wants me to buy the system, they'll have to start making games that actually appeal to me. Otherwise I'm down with Wii first, then PS3 when the price drops by $100.

Maybe they did what Nintendo did. The Wii units on the floor were shells and the games were running on Dev kits. However, Nintendo had actual working units, but those were only shown off behind closed doors.

I like the added features for the PS3. I'm starting to change my mind and consider getting one

Funny site

I just saw the video for Genji 2, and my god - that game TRULY looks like crap. Why in the world did Sony bother "demoing" such garbage at their press conference, while Motorstorm wasn't even shown there? (Motorstorm was playable on the 2nd day, and boy it looks friggin' great).

After finally catching up on all the conferences, reading a bunch of articles and watching a bunch of videos, I'd rate the companies showings as follows:

Nintendo: A-

-Great showing for the Wii and DS. Tons of games I can't wait to play on both, especially the DS. Gave it - for not announcing the Wii price and capitlizing on the high PS3 pricetag.

Sony: C

Several PS3 games look/sound interesting but absurb price. Showed next to nothing for the PSP

Microsoft: C-

Some nice looking games, but as usual, nothing in the genre's I like.

Actually, a number of new PSP games were announced at E3 that I am interested in, including:

Silent Hill: Origins
Dungeon Explorer
Disgaea
King's Field
Metal Gear Solid: Special Ops
Legend of Heroes II (I hope it's better than the 1st)
Earthworm Jim

They got little attention, and none of those games interest me personally. Again, mostly PS2 ports or spinoffs.

If I'm going to play a portable (only game at home) it has to offer something I can't get on the consoles, otherwise I'd rather take advantage of the better graphics and sound on my hometheater.

That's why I love the DS. 2D games are non-existent on the consoles, and the touch screen makes for unique games as well, thus it's worth playing at home over the consoles IMO.

It's not that there were no PSP games, it's just that there such a glut of DS announced or shown off there that it was easy to overlook the PSP.

Big Brain Academy
Break 'em All
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol
Children of Mana
Cooking Mama
Contact
Custom Robo Arena
Deep Labyrinth
Diddy Kong Racing
DK: King of Swing DS
Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime
DS Air
Elite Beat Agents
Final Fantasy III
Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles - Ring of Fates
Freedom Wings
Harvest Moon Puzzle
Hotel Dusk: Room 215
Kirby DS
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
Lunar Knights
Magical Vacation
Magnetica
Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis
Megaman ZX
Milton's Castle DS
Panzer Tactics DS
Phoenix Wright: Justice For All
Point Blank DS
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team
Pokémon Ranger
Star Fox DS
Touch Detective
Yoshi's Island 2

...to name a few.

$35 x 13 =

Most likely games like Cooking Mama and Elite Beat Agents will be $29.99.

Oh, well I guess I can afford them all then!

I know $35 for each was a stretch, but I doubt I'd get all 13 of those anyway. Really only 3 of them are must-haves for me at this point, DQ, LoZ, and PW. Everything else ranges from highly to mildly interested in.

Disgaea port? ****, now I have to find a deal on a PSP. I've wanted to play that for ages, but not much time at home with the baby and all. Along with a few other titles that have been showing up, that clinches it.

Not a port apparently:

http://www.rpgfan.com/news/2006/1234.html

Fans of Disgaea have a lot to celebrate however. The PSP will see a new Disgaea title with multi-player capabilities. NISA wasn't able to confirm how many players or how multi-player will precisely work, but they did note it would be an integrated feature, and not merely an additional mode.

A bunch of interesting PSP games (admittedly ports/spinoffs) to me are:

Power Stone Collection
Dungeon Siege: Throne of Agony
Dungeons & Dragons: Tactics
Gitaroo Man Lives!
Blade Dancer
Mercury Meltdown
WTF
Final Fantasy: Crisis Core
Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth
Talkman
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories
Lumines II
Gangs of London
Battlezone
Sonic Rivals
Tekken: Dark Resurrection
Field Commander
Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception
Killzone: Liberation
Bomberman
Super Monkey Ball Adventure
Every Extend Extra
Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded
Metal Slug Anthology
Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins
Capcom Puzzle World
MotoGP
ATV Offroad Fury Pro
Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters
Monster Hunter Freedom
LocoRoco
Graduis Collection
Spectral Souls