G-pinions

The last twenty-four hours have been...weird. A console unveiling from bizarro world. First, let's agree that the MTV thing was the worst half hour of television ever produced. The Killers performance - whom I'm fairly indifferent to - was probably the most entertaining part of the show; I wouldn't know though, as I fast-forwarded through it thinking actual content lay ahead (I had my dad tape it since I had to work - on two different TVs so that I wouldn't miss it haha). They showed so little of anything to do with video games that it's not really worth talking about. The fifteen seconds or so of Perfect Dark Zero footage looked like absolute ass, and it was pretty much the only new thing there. If that's seriously the stage of development that they are at, there's no WAY it will be a launch game; five thousand polys a character? Didn't Leon have FIFTEEN thousand in RE4?

As the only aspect of the Frag Dolls I respect, Kat Hunter, puts it: "It kinda pissed me off that gaming has come to a point where we needed people who may have had no idea what the 360 even was, selling the product. Then I realized I believe that the model in the Suave commercial actually uses a $2 bottle of conditioner hanging in my shower, but the truth is, I am pretty darn sure she doesn't." Indeed. It just wasn't for us. The difference between this and the Video Game Awards travesty is that that tried to appeal to gamers as well, embarrassing both parties. The MTV special only appealed to morons, i.e. everyone who regularly watches the channel, that's why it was so confounding for the rest of us.

Thankfully, the night wasn't entirely a disappointment. Media of various games quickly leaked out on most every gaming site on the web, and some of it actually looks pretty great. Well, about half of it. Plenty of what's been shown looks like crap, and it's really weird seeing such a varying range of visual quality for something that is supposedly coming out in sixth months. Perfect Dark Zero, Tony Hawk's American Wasteland, Call of Duty 2, Condemned, Kameo and Full Auto all look more or less like Xbox games, PGR3, Ghost Recon 3, Gears of War and 99 Nights look amazing, definitely next-gen, and NBA 2k6 looks like goddamn Xbox3. Seriously, I'm not going to steal anyone else's media here (plus screenshots wouldn't do it justice anyhow), but go and watch that trailer somewhere, it will blow your mind.

I'm actually anticipating E3 more than ever now. Not only will Microsoft have tons of REAL information and details to reveal, but I'm assuming I'll get to play an entirely different build of PDZ. The newest rumor is that Sony is actually going to show their next-gen hardware at the show, or at least a prototype, so Microsoft better have theirs quite a bit more ready than they had it last night.

Oh, and one more very important news item from yesterday - Disney's new game development studio picked up the Turok license! I don't know whether to laugh or to cry. I mean, the series can't get any worse, but man can it get better.