E3: What I'm Into

I feel really badly that I haven't posted in so long, but I've been so busy! (Not to mention that my camera has gone MIA...) I'll be updating on all that later though, but for now something more immediate.
I'm currently sucked into the G4 coverage of E3. This all started probably last year when I sat down to watch this same spectacle in an effort to get a jump on all the news for my gamer husband who was at work. It became clear though that I got much more out of the show than he ever did. I love the spectacle of the show and I love seeing what's new and coming up. I do play video games, but not like most people do and certainly not to the extent that my husband does. My tastes range from Hello Kitty games to the last "serious" game I played being Bayonetta. I love casual games, Mario - anything, and anything with a fun plot that I can button mash through.

This year, we started off the day with XBox360. Currently our 360 is away for repairs because of an error message we recieved (no red ring though!). However I'm already looking forward to the Kinect technology. First of all I was wowed by cute tiger cubs (the cuteness begins about 1:35) in Kinectimals and then an Ubisoft fitness game called Your Shape Fitness Evolved. Most of the Kinect products seemed like Wii ripoffs, but at the same time I especially liked the fitness interface that I've been complaining about with the Wii Fitness and Balance Board. I will definitely have to wait and see a price point for Kinect to see if it's something I'll be willing to try out for what is essentially a novelty.

Next up were developer presentations EA and Ubisoft. EA didn't really have much to offer me as I'm neither a sports fan or really into the big realistic shoot-em-ups. The one title that did perk my interest though was Need For Speed. I love racing games in all forms as long as they're relatively easy to pick up and play and when they pointed out that you could race as the police I was in.

Ubisoft definitely had the highlights of the day, but most of the things I'm truly excited about probably won't be out anytime soon. First off was Battle Tag which was described as laser tag meets a first person shooter. Nothing says fun like getting a laser gun and running after your husband with it. Next up on my list was Innergy which promised to teach me to relax and give me a happy brain. Two things I desperately need. Last up on my radar was Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. I've been wanting to get into Assassin's Creed since the beginning but have been wary of it being too complicated for my tastes. I think I'm just going to have to dive in, buy the first copy used and find out if there's a "toddler mode" just for me.

I think what really upsets me about this whole G4 TV coverage and media coverage of the "gaming industry" in general is that they just don't cover the things that I'm interested in and what they do mention of that ilk gets scoffed at which frustrats me. For instance the Innergy game that I'm oh so interested in has already stirred up some web chatter that it's a waste of time and totally not a game and... I don't care. This is something I would pay good money for and if someone else would rather put their money down to snipe zombies then good on ya, but don't talk smack about the happy brain breathing game or the cute tiger cub.

Tomorrow will be the big day with Sony and Nintendo so we'll see what will be on my need to buy list this holiday and coming year. Last year Nintendo announced Super Mario Brothers Wii and Super Mario Galaxy 2, and then the Sony presentation totally won us over by using a Queen song in order to get us to buy a PS3. (I shudder to think what they will get us to buy this year.)