E3 2012

Thankfully I'm home in time for E3 all this week. Big announcements but a substantially smaller number of games so far than I'm used to. Normally I'm used to 20 or 30 big AAA titles and this year it looks like 10 to 15, which is both good and bad. Some of the announcements aren't for games until early next year, and that is a long time to wait. I'm seeing a lot of focus on the casual games and the elderly and children etc. Nothing really wrong with that though I suppose just not my thing. This might be a little bit of a dry year which should give me all the time I need to really enjoy the normal 3 to 5 games I usually pick up. I skipped out black ops entirely last time I'll skip it again, medal of honor is very tempting but I'll probably skip it as well, I declared my end with the halo franchise and I meant it and from the vid I'm partially glad as such. Halo 4 won't be a bad game but it's practically not halo anymore from what I'm seeing so I'll undoubtedly end up playing it at some point in my life but not before it hits the 10$ or less box at gamestop. Some how I always end up getting god of war, never been my kind of game or series but I got a free copy with my ps3 and another free copy from a friend so I inevitably played it so thankfully I can avoid it till early next year when it comes out but somehow I know it'll find its way to me in the end. Gears of War IDK yet I've been all over the series thus far and no reason not to get it but I'm just not feeling it this time I'm going to have to get a demo or something before I reserve.

I know I'm going to reserve Last of us, it's just looking and sounding great so far and the video makes it seem like it's right up my alley. Dead space 3 I'm a little underwhelmed by but that's just because DS2 felt a little light in the end, though I still know that it'll probably be one of the games I enjoy this year. All these games are set for later part of the year though like Borderlands 2 which I already have reserved that first game was so amazing that if they simply released 2 as a giant DLC pack I'd have reserved it at full price. This leads me to my question of what are we getting for the summer? This summer is going to be dry indeed, prime for a juicy indie title or a surprise we weren't expecting. Almost reminds me of the summer when prince of persia came out on xbox, there just weren't any other good games that summer and it came out of nowhere to blow my mind, that was it's critical success was simply being in the right place at the right time regardless of quality which was actually great anyway. I'll be keeping a close eye to see what comes out that's for sure.

Moving outward don't forget about all the console bonuses going on. Right now PSHome has an E3 booth with all kinds of goodies, not to mention the new X7 club with a few freebies and that FLIRT game which is hard to find a partner for. Konami has some cute new outfits and Hideo Kojima is at E3 this year so I'll be interested to see what he does. Undoubtedly xbox will have some avatar items throughout the week so check regularly. Right now if you visit the PSHome area hall of the elements there's a free "magic symbol / seal" just for visiting that's kind of nice. There's also an addictive mini game they're advertising for something to do with a dragon and eggs w/e it's a featured thing and if you kick enough of these eggs around you get sakura blossoms blowing around you as a reward among other rewards and it looks absolutely amazing I'll be playing that probably all week in hopes of getting some of the other great rewards. This week will definitely be going to Sony not only on the console front but at the conference front as well. They're doing what they do best and pushing a few select great titles rather than Microsoft's approach of spamming good games with maybe one or two great ones. It's clear Microsoft is prepping for their next gen in the next year or two while Sony is starting to come into their own. They're holding solid to that "10 year life cycle" and now that devs are getting better with the console it's really showing and things can only go up from here.

Enough rambling, get back to enjoying the week, feel free to leave ideas comments suggestions and other thoughts.