E3 2009 is now behind us, but, with it's passing, managed to leave us with both gut wrenching anticipation for the next several months, and a severe case of drymouth from drooling over what we will soon have. It seems all the cool kids are blogging their favorite things about the show so I figured I'd do the same. I watched all 3 of the major press conferences on Gamespot (Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft). Watched the EA and Ubisoft on G4, and read up on everything that caught my eye from everyone else.

As far as the Big 3 go, for the most part I'm liking what I see. The biggest drag was the Nintendo conference. Which was 73 minutes of bad jokes, uninspired people, and not very good games. The 'motion +' would have been cool, had I not expected that from the Wii when I bought it, and not already seen Sony's and Microsoft's products. The games were just more of exactly the same thing Nintendo has been showing for years. The only things I enjoyed watching from the Mario press conference was the Motion + basketball, and Dead Space extraction.

Then we have Microsoft. It took a lot of effort for me to make it through 9 minutes of the Beatles at the beginning, but I couldn't make it through the Tony Hawk segment after that. I had to watchmost of it latercause I fell asleep during the Skateboarding. Once they got past that it was pretty good. Modern Warfare 2 and Final Fantasy XIII always look awesome, but they're multi-platform and I'll be getting them for my PS3. The new Splinter Cell looks awesome, and I might just pick that one up...maybe. Forza Motorsport is definately NOT this generations dominate racing game, that belongs to Gran Turismo no matter what you say....unless they give a free Audi to everyone who buys the game. Metal Gear Solid Rising could be good. It's also multiplatform though. "Lightning bolt action" Lol I prefer Tactical Espionage Action myself. But then We have project Natal, which looks absolutely fricken cool, if they can make it right. Natal was the best of the three new (or upgraded) control schemes at E3.

Sony was the one I was most interested in. Yes, I'm biased, andno, I don't care what you think about the PS3 or the 360. I have my opinion, you have yours. The New PSP looks cool but I probably won't buy one, mainly because I like to have hard copies of all the media I own. I still have one of the 6 lb original PSP's lol. I am, however, ecstatic about the game support and the upgrades (PS store, movies, games, etc) that Sony is giving the PSP. Especially Assassins Creed. On the PS3 side again it is Assassins creed that stole the show for me. That game just leaks awesomeness from every pour. Naughty Dog is doing a good job with Drake, but I have the multiplayerbeta and I'm not really into the multiplayer aspect. It loses alot of it's personality when played that way. Final Fantasy XIV could have been left in the box for all I care. I want another MMO about as much as I want both my thumbs to rot off. I would have much rather seen something new about Vs. XIII. I liked their new controller though. Not as much as the Natal, but enough. I'm thoroughly intrigued by MAG,which looks like it could be a lot of fun.

As far as other games go, a few new ones have made my tracked list, Including Dragon Age: Origins,Rogue Warrior, and The Saboteur. While it was cool to get info on Bioshock 2, Army of 2, and Alpha Protocol.

Good on Sony for finally releasing Final Fantasy VII, albeit the original version and a download, but at least people can play it.

Prototype next week.

Hope you are all doing well.

So I just read laughlyn12's blog post about being a gamer in the work environment, and while I agree with what he says, I have found the opposite to be true in my workplace's.

When I first got out of high school I joined the Navy. In the Navy you spend many long hours with absolutely nothing to do, so it's only natural that video games would thrive in that kind of environment. Everybody I knew played at least some form of video game. Whether role playing games, sports games, shooters, or some combination. It was as natural to ask someone what video games they liked as it was to ask what kind of music they listened to. Games also had the effect of bonding people together. Whether from having four people playing goldeneye together, or having a shipwide Madden tournament. It was something everyone did, andperhaps it was the people who didn't play games that felt outcast.

Now, though, I am out of the Navy, and people have a lot more options to fill their time, yet I still find that video games are natural points of reference in our society. We have all done it. Quoting lines from movies, or lyrics from songs, talking sports or whatever hobbies we have, video games included. When the new Punchout came out earlier this week I had no less than 5 conversations about it with various people. We talk about upcoming releases, hardware, and classics we want to see remade. Alot of the topics you find right here on Gamespot make it into every day conversations, smoothly, without anyone getting red in the face, and draw in people we might not have known before.

I work with all kinds of people, of all ages, and you do see the generational gap in people who play games, but that line is becoming more and more fuzzy. My boss and I had a conversation about Guitar Hero after he picked it up for his son and got addicted. Friends of mine 20 years my senior play games all the time. Introduced to the hobby by their kids, they enjoy them as much as anyone.

Just a different perspective on a good idea...

Excellent blog laughlyn

Ok so lets start at the top.

I bought a new computer yesterday. I upgraded my old Dell Inspiron 6000 (1.6 Ghz pentium , 2 GB RAM, 60 GB HD) to a new Toshiba Satellite (2 Ghz core Duo, 4 GB RAM, 320 GB HD) and picked up Fable for it, since I still don't really play the 360 and I wanted to play Fable, it was $20 at Gamestop.

Since my last review (Deadspace? lol) I've completed Fallout 3, Resistance 2, Bioshock, and Killzone 2. I've also played Prince of Persia, GH Metallica, The genesis collection, and right in the middle of Wolverine. I have yet to finish Shivering Isles, Genji, Folklore, Ghost REcon Advanced Warfighter, Okami, dark sector, and Rogue Galaxy, and I haven't even played GH aerosmith and Quantum of Solace, both collecting dust (Best buy had em for $10 each, couldn't resist.) So now I'm stuck in the unenviable position of having too many games to play before the release of my next game, which will either be Infamous or Prototype depending on reviews of inFamous.

I also upgraded my motorcycle from the Yamaha Virago 250 to the Kawasaki Vulcan 500. I'm happy about this since I got a sweet deal on the new bike, and if it ever stops raining I'll add to the 300 miles I've put on it in the 2 weeks I've owned it.

I'll try to write reviews for the games I've finished. I hope everyone is doing good.

Later