RandomNPC – Video Game RPG Reviews, Editorials, and Features

Every year, people ask the same question. “Who won E3?” This is, of course, the hardest question to answer. Winning is very subjective. If you are a fan of shooters, you will think Microsoft won. Casual gamers will think Nintendo took top honors. To decide the winner, one must look at the announcements.

At first glance, one would think that a winner could be decided by games, but really, that isn’t the case. All three systems announced equally impressive titles. So then, the key metric must be peripherals.

Let’s look at Microsoft. Clearly, their big announcement is Project Natal. There is practically endless possibility with it. We watched a person drive a car by holding an imaginary wheel. And then they pulled into an imaginary pit stop, and someone replaced the wheels with an imaginary impact wrench. Clearly, there is a lot that can be done, and that is its greatest strength and weakness. Where to begin? In the right hands, Natal will revolutionize gaming. But without a TON of work, Natal stands to become another Eye Toy, a gimmick that is used once, put on a shelf, and quickly forgotten.

So what about Nintendo? Out of the spirit of competition, we’ll ignore their awful delivery and consider their two announcements: MotionPlus (again) and the Vitality Sensor. With MotionPlus, the Wii will finally give one-to-one recognition of movement. Something that was promised when it was announced. Sadly, it looks like MotionPlus, powerful though it is, is not as simple as one might imagine. Nintendo did some wonderful things with it in Wii Sports Vacation, but the response is not as accurate for other games. And even some of the Wii Sports games felt like the little dongle did little for it. With proper use, MotionPlus will make the Wii a vastly better experience, but early reports are showing that third party developers are having a hard time getting it to work as flawlessly as the coding wizards at Nintendo.

And then we have the Vitality Sensor. Zzzzzzzzz whuh? Sorry. I dozed off there. I took the red eye, after all. What was I talking about? Oh, the Vitality Sensor. Ummm… no. Don’t announce something that sounds completely ridiculous, give us no examples of how you’ll use it, and then move on. You guys should really know better than that.

And last, but not least, we have Sony. They have a motion controller too! And it looks like the spawn of a Wii Remote, a glowing microphone, and Project Natal. At first glance, it looks too silly to even hold in your hand, but in practice, this has the most potential. Let’s face it. Waggle isn’t going anywhere. This thing had the same capabilities of MotionPlus, all on the PS3. Is it innovative? No. Is it downright copying Nintendo? Yes. Is it the first time they’ve done this? No. I predict we’ll see HD ports of Wii games, and Sony will profit handsomely.

As technology advances, there are fewer innovations left. Natal copied (and improved upon) Eye Toy. Sony improved on the Wii Remote. People are going to copy other technologies while putting their own unique spin on things. This is how the industry works. Some things will work, and some things will fall by the wayside.

Natal has potential. It’s a maybe. The Vitality Sensor was promised to help people relax, maybe sleep better. It’s working already, but not quite the way they intended and certainly not to its benefit. The Sony Wiimote looks impressive, but we’ll need to see it in more than just a tech demo. If it does what they say it will, and Sony is good about keeping promises, they’ve got a hit on their hands.

So there you have it. Sony won. Don’t like that answer? Then… um… Hanes won. Why Hanes? 109820982098430984 (give or take a couple) t-shirts were given out at E3. They made a killing.