My Take: Microsoft E3 Conference

[Dave Gray]

Sorry this is late, but I had to watch the conference on delay, and I just forgot about it.

First off, XBOX360 has been out for a year, so there wasn't a whole bunch of console talk.  It was all about games, games, games, and a promise to integrate games better with Windows.

The best game of the show (all systems), in my opinion, was Gears of War for the XBOX360.  It's a super-sweet, violent, over-the-shoulder shooter set in the future.  It looks really solid.

Another big announcement was that Grand Theft Auto 4 will be released for the 360 and will have exclusive downloadable content.

Resident Evil 5 was announced for the 360.

A new Splinter Cell game was shown, where Sam Fischer becomes the bad guy to infultrate some terrorists.  It looks very cool.

And a teaser trailer for Halo 3 was shown where Master Chief does some very impressive standing.

...there were other good looking games, but above are the highlights that I can remember.

Overall: This solidified my urge to pick up a 360 later on....I am hearing rumors about a price drop to battle the PS3s launch.  That might be a good time for me...after a few more good games come out.

[Brian Fein]

I've been fighting the 360 urges.  I typically skip a console generation, but with all the stuff that's coming out for 360 including those you mentioned, it seems like I'm going to have to break down and pick it up. 

Halo 3, GTA4, and Splinter Cell 4 would make it worthwhile in themselves, not to mention RE5 and Gears of War.

[Jeno]

Seems like a really smart bit of business by Microsoft to me, to land the Game Titles that they have, along with an arranged price drop to co-incide with the release of the PS3, makes the 360 not only the cheaper model, but it is now certainly increasing in its popularity and competition to the Playstation.

One criticism i always heard against the Xbox was that there was not as many Quality games available for it as there was the Playstation 2. It's good to see that Xbox have been equally focused on developing the console, as much as developing the games available for it.

Playstation seem to be just talking about the excellent Specs available for the PS3, rather than how they plan to utilise them.

[Brian Fein]

I think when XBOX first came out, there were less games, but as time went on, the games for XBOX got more and more.  As of now, I don't think there are any games PS2 has that XBOX does not.

[Fau Teixeira]

the PS3 however will be a blu-ray dvd player .. and for the price (599) is the cheapest blu-ray dvd player on the market

[Jeno]

the PS3 however will be a blu-ray dvd player .. and for the price (599) is the cheapest blu-ray dvd player on the market

Fau, yeah thats cool i'm sure it's DVD Player kicks the shit out of the Xbox one, and that is surely an advantage for the PS3.

But i'm not too concerned about the DVD capabilities of the 360 OR the PS3, it's about the games for me.

[Brian Fein]

Exactly.  I'm not in a hurry to get Blu-ray players.  Personally, its not worth it to me.  I'll wait until the technology is more developed (a.k.a. cheaper) and buy a dedicated blu-ray/dvd player.  I don't understand why Sony's putting so much focus on blu-ray player when there aren't really many blu-ray options available in your local best buy (if any at all).

Sony's a year late and about $200 short on this one.  Someone dropped the ball big time, IMHO.

[Jeno]

Exactly. I'm not in a hurry to get Blu-ray players. Personally, its not worth it to me. I'll wait until the technology is more developed (a.k.a. cheaper) and buy a dedicated blu-ray/dvd player. I don't understand why Sony's putting so much focus on blu-ray player when there aren't really many blu-ray options available in your local best buy (if any at all).

Sony's a year late and about $200 short on this one. Someone dropped the ball big time, IMHO.

Definitely, XBox Rules.

[myami54]

Sony is into blu-ray players because they created the blu-ray dvd format. Toshiba has the hd-dvd format. So now their is going to be a format war like beta and vhs. Microsoft is on board with hd-dvd. They will have a player later on this year that connects to the 360 via usb.

[Brian Fein]

That's fabulous.

All we need is more formats on store shelves.  DVD, HD-DVD, Blu-Ray, PSP, VHS...  What the hell?  How many different ways can people watch the same movies?