Anyway, let's start with Nintendo's first.
Living up to its casual gamer mantra, Nintendo has announced a huge pile of casual games to delight that audience.
#1 Wii Sports: Resort
Riding from the success of the pack-in title, Wii Sports, Nintendo is following it up with Wii Sports in a summer theme. I'm not exactly warming up to the game's concept as of now, and that's because it only adds Jet Skiing, Frisbee and Swordfighting. God, I hated swordfighting in Bleach. I don't know what's gonna make me like it now.
It also ships, however, with the new MotionPlus accessory for the Wiimote. I mean, the Wiimote itself is already motion sensitive, but the company states that this accessory will make the experience even more intuitive and life-like. Hmm...
#2 Wii Music
Remember that tech demo Shigeru Miyamoto demonstrated a long time ago when the Wii was getting released? Well, it's becoming reality.
Using the Wiimote and an extra pair of drums that come shipped with the title, Wii Music will help anyone do music without having to match the rhythm or beats and fail.
You can play the violin, saxophone and the drum using the Balance Board as well.
I don't see how the team at Nintendo will prolong the novelty of all this shallow gameplay, but it would be astonishing if it got at least a 7.0 on GameSpot.
Still, it looks pretty good at parties.
#3 Third party titles
Nerds get their Star Wars wish as Nintendo presented Star Wars: The Clone Wars featuring light saber duels and more. In my opinion, it's gonna suck.
Shaun White Snowboarding. It's old hat, but it looked really fun on the Wii Fit Balance Board.
Another game that's old hat is Rayman: Raving Rabbids TV Party, but it looks extremely funny especially with your butt controlling the Wii Fit balance board!
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is coming to the DS with its own engines and sandboxing as well.
And despite some bad critical reception for Guitar Hero: On Tour, it's getting a new installment called Decades.
And then, there's Call of Duty: World at War. This new CoD transports everyone back to World War II, but now, it's the Japanese you are fighting instead of Hitler's army. It features the flamethrower, and hopefully will also have the online capabilities of its next-gen brethren.
#4 The DS and the airport
A representative relates, "If you're like me, a person who spends way too much time on the airport, my time is almost always spent playing my DS. But what if the DS provided me with some great information like the nearest ATM or Mexican restaurant when I land? This is all being tested."
The title is called Cooking Navi or something like that, and I don't know how all of this will work.
#5 Animal Crossing: City Folk
It's the cutesy simulation title everyone loves: it's Animal Crossing!
OK, I'm not that much of a fan of these kinds of games except the Sims, but I have to tell you that the probability of this game being a system seller is high, especially since it will also be the first game to feature voice chat.
Yes, you read right: Voice chat.
Voice chat isn't as private as people would like, though, and that's because the voice chat accessory is made to look like a loudspeaker. Hmm..., I'd like to see how this will go.
Anyway, there are also new features in Animal Crossing: City Folk, most notably being able to take the game online, as well as sending messages to a friend's PC or cellphone. That's actually pretty cool.
Of course, this feature has been much requested, and I think the game will unveil even more surprises once it releases in the holiday of 2008.
#6 Vague Announcements That We're Keeping An Eye On
Nintendo is still not unsheathing its potentially huge collection of secret games that are being lined-up especially for hardcore fans. Satoru Iwata, CEO of Nintendo said that the Mario and Zelda teams are on to something big, and Shigeru Miyamoto confirmed, also vaguely, both.
"We're still looking for unique ideas... and we even toyed with the idea of first-person Zelda.," says the legendary Mario, Donkey Kong, and Zelda creator.
Overall
Overall, there's not much in store for the Nintendo gamers out there, but I have a fuzzy feeling that this is just a spoonful of what's to come. Nintendo is definitely taking the mysterious-ness a little bit too far, but that's just gonna make fans crave for more.
And then there's
Sony doesn't disappoint compared to Nintendo, and that's because they unveil some really, really cool blockbusters.
#1 Ratchet and Clank Future: Quest for Booty
Ratchet and Clank return for a new adventure- a pirate adventure. But it's only available through the online PlayStation Network so yes, it's a downloadable.
#2 Resistance 2
One of the best launch games in the PS3 has come back! Will it surpass the first?
#3 God. of. War. III!
Yes, it's finally been announced! God of War III looks like a great epic mythological tour of one of the most famous modern game characters: Kratos. Sony teased everyone with a trailer, and that's about it.
In the end there will only be chaos.
#4 Little Big Planet
Once again, this little bubbly platformer impresses with its custom, user-friendly construction of levels and online sharing features, thus causing more excitement among the PS community. It ships in October.
#5 Resistance goes to PSP
For the first time, Resistance Retribution for the PSP gets shown. And it looks really nice!
#6 inFAMOUS
It looks really promising and it's about a guy named Cole who survives an explosion and gets some neat electric superpowers. The twist in this game is that you are free to do what you want, and it's either you ruin the fictional city of Empire or enrich its citizen's lives. It's all up to you.
#7 Gran Turismo TV
Basically, it's a feature found in existing game Gran Turismo 5 Prologue that enables you to watch licensed videos online. Top Gear has been announced to provide some content, as well as a Ferrari feature.
#8 PS3, even cheaper!
There's no word on what's gonna happen to the older 40GB model, but one thing's for certain: the 80GB model will have a huge price drop and will cost $399! Now that's a compelling reason.
#9 Games, even cheaper!
Warhawk, Oblivion, Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Need for Speed Carbon, Resistance: Fall of Man get the Greatest Hits pasted on every cover, and that means they're cheaper.
#10 Don't forget: The PS2!
Sony says that 130 Titles are coming to the PS2 this year, and will include Lego Batman, and more family-friendly titles.
#11 PSP game sequels!
Patapon 2, Loco Roco 2 and Midnight Club LA are the newest titles announced. Cause for PSP owners' excitement? Hell yeah.
#12 DC Universe Online
This is basically an online game that features heroes from the DC universe, although you can also make your own.
#13 MAG
MAG is a title that will allow for whopping TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY SIX player battles! They will be divided into squads and will have different skills.
#14 Video Store
Like in iTunes, you can buy movies in the PlayStation Video Store!
As you can see, I was even more hyped up in the Sony conference than in the Nintendo conference, because almost everything they showed was really, really cool. Ironically, I don't even own a PSP or PS3!
Sony is so gonna have a good year. I guess FF13 is not gonna be the end of the world after all!
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