[It appears that the office internet seems to be functioning somewhat normally today!]
Normally, E3 is an exciting time; a glorious week where I spend every free moment frantically refreshing Google Reader and doing the arcane mental calculus required to make sure I have enough money saved up to buy all the things that need to be bought.
(*apologies to Hyperbole and a Half)
But I’ve been saying for a while that I had pretty low expectations for this year’s E3; I never thought it was going to be all that exciting. Most developers are seemingly reluctant to release new and exciting IP this close to the end of the current generation, and the console developers themselves can’t really reinvent the wheel at their keynotes at this stage of the cycle, either. Nintendo has the WiiU to push; that’s really about it, as far as hardware.
Even so, it’s hard not to be totally underwhelmed by this year’s keynotes. I was really hoping Sony would be able to sell me a Vita; did they even mention the Vita, beyond COD:BLOPS2 and AssCreed3? Likewise, Nintendo went to great lengths to say that they could only spend about 5 minutes on the 3Ds during their presentation, and most of the 3DS section was spent apologizing for their lack of presentation time, rather than maximizing what they had. Microsoft’s “SmartGlass” thing sounds intriguing, but it also seems mostly like a way to render the WiiU’s new tablet controller irrelevant; and in any event, the only big exclusive stuff they have coming out this year is the usual – Halo 4, Gears, and whatever that Forza Horizon thing turns out to be.
If anything, I do have to give Sony a lot of credit for not totally giving up on new IP – I’m really intrigued by Beyond and The Last of Us, both of which have been picking up a lot of positive buzz. (Not as sold on the new God of War game, though.)
In the meantime, I’ve been thoroughly devoted to Diablo 3. It does seem to be running smoother! My monk is now at the beginning of Act 3, either Level 46 or 47, and thoroughly decked out and dealing much damage.
I can’t be certain that my office’s internet hasn’t totally crashed, so I’m going to cut it short here. Look for a CouchCast coming up later this week, though, wherein Gred and I will continue to whine and moan about what we’ve learned about this year’s E3 purely through hearsay and Twitter gossip.
Shouts From The Couch 