E3 2010: Thoughts on Microsoft Conference

Microsoft is ready to make a lot of money this Holiday season...

Microsoft was really focused on Kinect (formerly known as Project Natal) today during their conference at E3. Fortunately, this is not necessarily a bad thing because the device is more fleshed out this time around and some of the things that one can do with it are pretty neat, especially the futuristic voice command. Then again, some of its applications failed to impress big time, like all the arm waving action. The conference is a lot more entertaining this year though and here are the things that really interest me:

1) Gears of War 3 looks awesome with nasty new enemies and finally, a playable female cast! Halo Reach however doesn't seem to be that exciting and tries too hard to be epic, especially the fact that Bungie jumps the shark and went for the uh, spaceship battle route...

There was a bit of raging happening on stage during this demo play.

2) Metal Gear Solid: Rising's cut everything mechanics is incredible: you can slice up anything in the game - the environments and the human opponents - to pieces with deadly precision. This may turn out to be better than Guns of the Patriots... Probably because Hideo Kojima doesn't have his own filthy hands all over the game!

Robot spine is not as mushy as a real human spine!

3) The new X-Box 360 "Small" will be available for purchase by the end of this week! It looks super sleek and incredibly modern - almost as good looking as the PlayStation 3 as a matter of fact (the original, not the nasty slim). I definitely want one but since I already have two and this sexy new model is priced is at a high $299, I will have to pass for now. It's probably a good thing to not adopt this one too early - it may still be cursed by the red ring of death!

Whoa! That power button is so mesmerizing to look at!

4) Kinect Wins:

Ubisoft's Your Shape exercise program is very promising indeed. As long as it has
a solid routine generator, this may be the best home workout program ever!


Since I am getting the PlayStation 3's EyePet, I am interested in Kinectimals as well.


The VideoKinect is cool but why can't we already do this with the current 360 camera?

5) Kinect Fails:

New 2011 Forza game: Kneeling down to check the vehicle's rims is stupid.


Waving to the Kinect camera to log in is rather lame.
The Kinect's user interface's similarity to Sony's EyeToy games is even lamer!

If I really, really want to learn how to dance, I'd probably hire Mary Murphy.

The game should be called Kinect "Casual" Adventures!

And how do you control the acceleration again?


We at Microsoft want to steal away Nintendo's core audience!

6) Later this year, Windows 7 users will get avatar implementation with their Live service. No mention of it being on Vista and XP so I think that those two are going to be left in the dust. You go Microsoft with your bad self.

LASTING IMPRESSION: 3 out of 5

Games Played 06/07/2010 - 06/13/2010

- 06/07/2010 -
Culdcept - PlayStation 2
Final Fantasy XII - PlayStation 2
Forza Motorsports 3 - X-Box 360
League of Legends - PC

- 06/08/2010 -
Culdcept - PlayStation 2
Forza Motorsports 3 - X-Box 360
ModNation Racers - PlayStation 3

- 06/09/2010 -
Blur - PC
Culdcept - PlayStation 2
Earthworm Jim HD Demo - X-Box 360*
League of Legends - PC
Neo Geo Battle Coliseum Demo - X-Box 360**

*Groovy platforming fun, just like I remember it. Only prettier.
**The bad loading time form the PS2 version is gone!

- 06/10/2010 -
League of Legends - PC
Silent Hill 3 - PlayStation 2
Super Street Fighter IV - X-Box 360

- 06/11/2010 -
Culdcept - PlayStation 2
League of Legends - PC
Super Street Fighter IV - X-Box 360
Transformers: War for Cybertron Demo - X-Box 360*

*It's a boring multiplayer demo but at least the graphics are incredible.

- 06/12/2010 -
Ape Escape 3 - PlayStation 2
Arcana Heart - PlayStation 2
Culdcept - PlayStation 2
Dissidia Final Fantasy - PSP
Persona 4 - PlayStation 2

- 06/13/2010 -
Culdcept - PlayStation 2
Dissidia Final Fantasy - PSP
King's Bounty: Armored Princess - PC
League of Legends - PC
Super Street Fighter IV - X-Box 360

Kinect? Ewww...

Microsoft has announed that "Project Natal" - that cursed camera for the X-Box 360 that allows you to control games without holding anything in your hand a.k.a. the casual gaming generator - has been renamed "Kinect". This unveiling was done through a performance by Cirque du Soleil: I have scheduled my DVR to record the show just to witness how we all need to be as nimble as a circus performer to play Kinect. The original name was bad but Kinect is just... Terrible. I have a feeling that they wanted to name it "Kinetic" but oh, that would be so unwise because it will sound like using it takes a lot of work (it does!). Well, at least it reflects the product properly: something that will have you moving and exhausted after a brief period of time? We all better watch out, this may be the end of real gaming on the 360 as we know it. Oh well, at least we still have the PlayStation Move and the Wii-Mote to fall back to I suppose.

They are both very similar in name and content, so don't confuse the two, okay?

L.G. vs. Summer Heat = PSP Fail

It's not officially summer yet but it has been really hot over the last couple of weeks. Here's something that you may not know about yours truly when it comes to energy conservation - yeah, this is coming from a guy who has a lot of game consoles hooked up to the wall: I try not to use the air conditioner unit in the summer, which is of course, easier said than done. I have been more successful when it comes to saving money on gas during the winter time because I can tolerate the cold weather pretty well. Heat however is a different story and I was expecting that my new place would able to keep it things cool inside with proper window ventilation. However, both my significant other (who happens to love the heat) and I agreed that it was getting a bit too hot a week ago so we both ran for the thermostat. Unfortunately, we found out that the AC was not working - I think it's the compressor - but lucky for us, there is always a nice strong breeze coming into house that accompanies this scorching heat so we have been using that as a back-up before we fix the AC.

Who needs an expensive energy hoarder when you have one of these, right?

That decision proved to be a fatal one for my PlayStation Portable system however. I had placed it next to the wall underneath one of the opened windows inside my Game Room. One of my heavy Komainu statues that was placed next to the window was knocked down by the heavy gust of wind and it fell right on top of my PSP. I didn't even think that the fall would cause any damage to the unit until later a day or so after the accident. The top right hand corner of the screen has three deep dents on it due to the accident and they can become pretty distracting, especially against bright backgrounds.

I am usually very careful with my PSP...

This is the reason why I now have the PSP-3000 listed in my Purchase List. I really don't care much about its ability to connect to the TV - PSP games do not look great on the big screen - but I know that the newer unit has a better LCD screen that eliminates the ghosting problem found on the launch PSP that I have. This is nothing too crucial however so it's probably going to be a while before I get the PSP replaced. I am still secretly hoping that Sony will release a device that allows UMD discs to be installed on the PSP Go. Maybe my eyes will get used to the dents and I won't notice them after a while. I sure hope so because right now, they are driving me insane!

Always keep your PSP protected... I knew better and I regretted my indecision.

League of Legends: A Strange Coincidence

Have you ever woke up in the middle of the night everyday for a period of a couple of weeks, looked at the clock and saw that the time would show repeat numbers like 11:11, 2:22, 3:33, 4:44, et cetera? Well, I do that every now and then and though I don't attribute the phenomenon to anything supernatural, I can't explain why my body would select those specific time for me to suddenly awaken. It does freak me out though whenever it happens, especially on consecutive nights... as if I have received an omen from the galaxy that something is about to happen. Well, I was perusing the store section of League of Legends the other day, I saw this:

Does this mean that I will find a regular team to play the game with?

Nasus is currently on sale and even though I already own him, I was curious to see if the sale also discounted the Influence Point price for him versus just the Riot Points (real money) price. I still don't have the answer to that question though because I don't know how much Nasus would usually cost IP-wise. The Riot Points I still have is the remnant of the prepaid card I got when I bought the retail Collector's Pack. Odd, isn't it?