G-pinions

If you haven't been paying attention, the past few weeks have featured a murderer's row of video game news. With all three companies having press events and exhibitions for their next generation consoles, I am officially overwhelmed with all the happenings. One thing is clear - all three of these systems should be mandatory for any person who even remotely likes video games. It's a good time to be a gamer. After Sony blew people away at last week's Tokyo Games Show, Microsoft really needed to bring something to the table at their X06 event. They seem to have America firmly in hand right now, but the juggernaut is looming. If they don't have some huge games next year, Sony will blow them away once again. Well, they certainly had some announcements today, but I'm not sure it will be quite enough.

First off, Rare finally announced their next game. Banjo Kazooie 3 (Banjo Threeie? I hope not...) was officially announced for the Xbox 360. There is no release date yet, and not even a screenshot has been shown, but I fully expect this to come out next summer. After all the backlash Rare has received for delaying games well past relevance, I can't imagine MS would announce this game unless it was deep in development. Also, they can't release it late next year since both Halo 3 and GTAIV are coming. So next summer we should have the two best 3D platformers from the 32-bit era going head-to-head on opposing consoles. Mario Galaxy versus Banjo 3. Man oh man; I cannot wait to get my hands on those.

The only question that remains (I am so confident about the release date I am not even questioning that) is who is developing this. Rare has already said that the Banjo team is working on Viva Pinata. So who the heck is working on Banjo? Is it the Jet Force Gemini team? The Conker team? I have no idea, but I am a little worried about this. Banjo and its sequel are still the best pure 3D platformers I have ever played. I hope they continue down the same glorious road I have enjoyed so thoroughly already. But we will have to wait and see on that front.

The Big News, as far as I am concerned, is the apparent exclusivity of BioShock. I say "apparent" because very few huge 3rd party titles actually stay on one console. With these overwhelming development costs, it just doesn't make financial sense to strand a superb game on one platform. But MS must have shelled out some cash to keep this one at home. And I have an idea why:

The PlayStation 3 is much more powerful than the Xbox 360. Remember the gap between Xbox and PS2? This is much larger. If you've seen the PS3 videos from TGS, especially Ridge Racer 7 and Motorstorm, you will see games that look far superior to anything on the X360. If I was Sony and knew Irrational Games was working on this for my platform as well as MS's, I would make sure the graphical difference was known. BioShock is the best looking X360 game I have seen, even better looking than Gears of War, so it is very important for MS to have this on their platform. It shows that the X360 can sort of compete with the PS3. If MS didn't lock this game up, Sony should have funded PS3 development. It would have been a huge blow against the X360 to have a far superior version of BioShock available on the competing console. I'm sure we will see this scenario play out sometime in the next year or so, but I think Sony missed a perfect opportunity to really show off the power of the PS3. It's one thing to see these PS3 exclusive titles look amazing, but if you could have the same game, side-by-side on both platforms, that would be all the marketing Sony would need.

It's funny how I somehow turned good X360 news into bad news, eh? So what else did MS announce? Peter Jackson and his development studio are working on two X360 games. One is a completely original IP and the other is a Halo spin-off. In other Halo news, the developer of Age of Empires is working on a Halo Real Time Strategy game. To tie these stories together, I would be pumped at the prospect of any Halo spin-off... except for an RTS. I don't play PC games and they clearly do not work on consoles. As long as the Peter Jackson's project isn't another RTS I am really pumped for this. And I can't wait to see this original game. I assume it will star puppets and offend anyone older than 13.

Finally, Doom is coming to Xbox Live. In fact, it may already be out. Now, 800 points ($10) may seem like a lot for a 15-year-old title, but it has enticing upgrades. First, there is a four-player deathmatch mode. Since it's both online and offline, I am intrigued. I love old school FPS and never had a chance to play deathmatch Doom back in the day. Also, there is co-op. Four Player. Online and Offline. That's all I needed to hear. My GamerTag is Gigglepoo. I would love to play some co-op Doom with you.

And now my lunch period is up!