E3 2006 Console Impressions

Posted by Yuri Goldfeld May 22, 2006

A few days ago, we posted my impressions of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2006, with a focus on PC titles. 2404 is a PC gaming site, but that is in no way meant to imply that we think consoles are worthless. In fact, some of us are avid console gamers, and, besides, what happens in the next-generation console war affects us quite directly, both technology-wise and because companies are more and more reluctant to release PC-only titles that aren’t either real-time strategy or MMORPGs.

Surprisingly, and somewhat out of pattern, this year’s E3 seemed a lot more impressive from the PC side when compared to consoles. This is easy to explain: Current-generation consoles are getting very little attention, and only one of the next-gen systems is actually out, so there simply aren’t many games to show off, yet. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s recent attention to PC gaming--really, a thinly veiled excuse to advertise Windows Vista among gamers--seems to have reenergized it, and, as last week’s PC summary shows, good things are in the near future.

Nevertheless, it was a thrill to try out some upcoming games for the Sony PlayStation 3 (which had, up to that point, been just words and rumors) as well as Xbox 360, whose software library is finally growing to a respectable size. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to play the Nintendo Wii (ugh, I still can’t believe they called it that) – see below for reasons.