Have Valve delivered the killer blow?

Sony’s E3 press conference was on the whole very good upto the part when Valve’s Gabe Newell took to the stage and announced Portal 2 is coming to the PS3. The cheer from the astounded audience was reconciliation at its finest. The roof was raised and imaginations went into overdrive, especially mine. Portal 2 and Steamworks on PS3, bloody awesome; “The PS3 is the most open console.” Gabe Newell reiterated.

What does this mean for the PS3 gamer? Steamworks, how much of Steamworks will be developed for PS3 is unknown, but for game developers this is a perfect way of delivering content which can be easily updated, so the end product, the consumers experience is what it should be, first-rate! At the moment we don’t specific details but, surely this opens the door for smaller developers to bring content to the PS3.

My biggest wish would be Counter Strike: Source 2.

Kinect!

So after almost a year of speculating and more speculating Microsoft’s Project Natal is officially named Kinect (Connect) which we actually like and in less than 2 hours (6PM GMT) we get the full juicy details. Microsoft’s E3 Press Conference, can Kinetic be the start of something magnificent or will this be Microsoft’s ticket to the shovelware shelf?

Hopefully Kinetic can inspire big name developers to actually bring something fresh and re-invigorating to the Xbox 360 as FPS (First Person Shooters’s) are ten a penny, and this year is no exception. Crysis 2, Medal of Honor: 2010, Call of Duty: Black Op’s and Halo: Reach set to arrive in the coming months. Same engine, different skin?

The only good thing listed above is that Crysis 2 will be powered by Crytek’s CryEngine 3, and if it plays as good as it looks, and big “if”, if CryEngine 3 does the business that so called top dog, UnReal Engine 3 and it’s ageing technical-grade will actually have something to think about. Like bringing out UnReal Engine 4, before the next decade starts. CryEngine 3 powered games and Kinetic could be awesome sauce times ten.

Could games like Enslaved: Journey To The West, Trials HD More >

Shovelware!

Shovelware! Large amounts of software of little value or use, I put that word into WordWeb just to see what it would come up with? Shocking to think this type of software makes / keeps Nintendo’s none HD console alive. But as E3 gets almighty closer, the serious console gamer, the Xbox and PlayStation fan must be praying that this infernal curse will not strike their beloved machines.

Project Natal, PlayStation Move, okay we don’t know much about Natal, and Move, well it’s simply taking Nintendo’s technology and slapping it into a machine that only does everything. There is massive potential, but the sceptic in me says the word “Party” will be added to most things PlayStation3 and Xbox 360.

God I hope not. I can imagine playing games like Trials HD with Natal and implementing Move into some cracking First Person Shooter (Medal of Honor: 2010) or the ultimate Star Wars game, not “Party arcade plus!” year in year out.

Sony and Microsoft have a real opportunity to take motion control to a whole new level, lets hope they don’t disappoint!

Earthworm Jim!

Earthworm Jim, was once an ordinary Earthworm who did very Earthworm things such as flee from crows and eat dirt… But one day, in the space above Earth, the evil Psy-Crow had cornered a rebel spaceship pilot who had stolen an “Ultra-high-tech-indestructible-super-space-cyber-suit” built by Professor Monkey-For-A-Head.

The suit had been commissioned by the evil Queen Pulsating, Bloated, Festering, Sweaty, Pus-filled, Malformed, Slug-for-a-Butt so that she could further conquer the galaxy. In the ensuing space fight, the suit was dropped to Earth, and fell on Jim. By a stroke of luck, Jim managed to land within the collar of the suit, and it ended up mutating him into the large and intelligent (at least by earthworm standards) superhero he is today.

WOW and WOW again! XBLA is really going for it this year. With Earthworm Jim, Breach, Blacklight: Tango Down, Sonic 4, Hydrophobia and Green Beret arriving this year, it makes you seriously think about cancelling some of those supposedly triple A pre-orders.

[Source]