G-pinions

It's been a good show. Almost no surprises, but it's worked out well considering - Nintendo has created something brilliant that will fundamentally change the gaming industry forever, and Microsoft has established themselves as being completely relevant without Bungie holding their hand. Sony seems to have spent the last year deciding to stick with the Dual Shock, and forgot to make any games to play it with. Resistance, Warhawk, and Heavenly Sword were all quite good and are probably all must-buys, but definitely not system sellers. While neither Sony nor Nintendo really had any surprises, I'm dying for almost all of the Wii games and could easily live without ever playing the PS3 ones I just mentioned again. Mercenaries 2 might change my mind today (if it is indeed PS3 exclusive), but otherwise I don't have a definitive reason to buy a PS3 at launch. I'll certainly have a pre-order down in case something comes up between now and launch (and I hope it does, I would LOVE to see a game that justified $600), but I'm not holding my breath.

We got some hands-on multiplayer Gears of War time, and it should probably fill the gap nicely between this fall and next year's Halo 3 release. The single player looks quite good too, but the multiplayer is a lot more interesting than I would have guessed. Very team-based, very tactical, and very skillful. Ridiculously violent and dark, of course, but at least it all works contextually. It's also probably the best-looking game of the show along with Army of Two which Tom mentioned. I prefer the art design in Gears, but the character models in AoT are insane.

Viva Pinata looked gorgeous too, and is shaping up to be something I can see myself putting a lot of time into. It doesn't seem to have the longevity and expert options of Animal Crossing, but building the ultimate garden seems llike a blast.

Too Human was a bit underwhelming; since the camera is handled automatically and the combat can be very ranged, it stays pulled out quite far a lot of the time, which pushes in an unfortunately sense of detachment. The art direction and gameplay are definitely impressive, but they need to work on pulling the player in more if they're going to leave the camera in the hands of the designers.

Crackdown is fantastic in concept, and solid in execution. The controls and character gravity need a bit of work, but the chaos you can cause is unrivaled. Achivements for juggling bodies and complete online co-op make it a day one purchase, I just hope they tweak the feel.

Mass Effect rounds out the Microsoft first-party stuff, and certainly showed potential in the short demo we were shown. There were some brilliant ideas at work, like having your conversation options be short and simple in choice, but play out more fully if you actually pick them; you choose "give it to me now", your character says "If you don't hand it over to me this instant I'll insert my laser gun inside your most prized orifice". Well, I made that one up, but you get the idea. The combat didn't look as interesting, a combination of gunplay and not-quite-real-time squad control, but they have plenty of time to make it work. I have high hopes for the game, but what I've seen so far wasn't anything more than I expected.

I've felt a bit overwhemled this year even though it's been a much more focused show for us, so writing has been tough (I'm also a slow, impatient typer). I'll have a much more thorough round-up after things are all wrapped up, I just wanted to chime in with some thoughts. I'm off once more to wander aimlessly around the PSP booth, hoping Jaffe's game magically materializes if I wish hard enough.