E3 2010 in Review: Who 'Won' at E3?

I don't think there's any question that Nintendo has won the show this year. 3DS has captured the minds of gamers. It's not simply that it can play games in 3D, the quality of the graphics is impressive. Without knowing a price, or when it will be released, every gamer I know plans to get one at launch. If the system is available this holiday season, I will be preordering as soon as the option becomes available. Frankly, I don't believe it will be possible to get the system any other way. It will be 2006 all over again. It took months for the Wii's sales to drop off to the point where they could reliably be found on shelves. I firmly believe the 3DS will follow suit.

That said, I can't really agree with the general assessment that the Move is relegated to third place. Move and Kinect each have their own issues, but I find the Kinect's issues more troubling at present.

The Kinect is a remarkable piece of technology, and Microsoft should be given full credit for trying to innovate in the field of motion control. It's unfortunate that Microsoft, the software company as you say, isn't really doing anything innovative with this product. Yes, you can drive menus with your voice and your hands. This is pretty neat, but as reviewers have discovered, the voice commands aren't particularly sophisticated. The 360 makes no differentiation between two voices. The best I can say is that it's implemented well. It's implemented, perhaps, for the first time on a home console, but we've been able to execute Voice Commands on PC for over 15 years, there is no current evidence that 360 will offer much in the way of calibration or personalization. This is little better than a limited Voice Commands you can perform in some Nintendo DS titles. Controlling the menu system with your hand is a classy feature, but its implementation is really no different than that of a Wiimote. Yes, your hand is being tracked rather than an infrared beam, but similar things were done with the Eye Toy seven years ago on the PlayStation two.

Super Mario Galaxy 2: Update

I have a pre-ordered copy of Super Mario Galaxy 2 waiting for me at home. Quite a brilliant way to start the summer don't you think? I expect that I will be writing impressions and a review within the next few weeks and perhaps, I could well have another addition into my favourite video games of all time list.

Red Steel 2 Review

 This is a quick review of Red Steel 2 that I wrote for my unviversity newspaper that I have been meaning to post of quite some time. Enjoy. 

The original Red Steel was a heavily hyped mess rushed out for Wii’s 2006 launch, one that failed to deliver on all its promises of precise aiming, visceral swordplay, and impressive graphics. But non the less, it happened to become one of the Wii’s best selling third party offerings, and now the completely overhauled sequel is one of the best first person shooters (FPS) on the system and a shocking reminder of how good a Wii-exclusive shooter can be.