So I got ahold of my copy of Scribblenauts early (thank you Gamestop for hiring people with no intelligence), and though I don't have time right now to write out all my thoughts I will say this:

Game of the Year.

I'm working all night every night this weekend so I'm hoping to do enough playing to sit down and write a review for this by Monday. Its been a long time since I've been truly floored by a game, and this has definitely floored me, from the level design, to replayability, to the sheer amount of time and effort that went into this, I'm am completely blown away.

To everyone out there, get this game when it officially lands on store shelves on Tuesday. A must buy for any DS owner, of any age, of any gender. Now if you will excuse me, I have to get back to Scribblenauts.

So I'm finally finding myself being pulled back into the world of Racing Simulation games and much to my surprise this time it isn't Gran Turismo, but rather Forza Motorsport. Now I missed out on the first 2 when they came out, it wasn't that I thought they were bad, I had just had my fill of the genre since I played Gran Turismo 1,2, and 3 religiously and played a fair bit of 4 as well.

Coming into Forza 1 just recently brought me back completely, I found the series to contain a level of depth I felt Gran Turismo was missing. Then shortly after coming across Forza 1 I stumbled onto Forza 2 and Marvel Ultimate Alliance bundle for only $10 at Gamestop (mismarked from the usual $15) so I snatched it up and have been loving Forza 2.

Now I'm not going to go on and on about all the new features and changes we all already know about, nor am I going to go into detail about how and why I think Forza is going to do better than Gran Turismo at this point. I will however say the following:

1.) I think Forza 3 will score at least a 9.5 if not a 10.

2.) I think Forza 3 will score higher than Gran Turismo 5.

Later on this upcoming week when I have more time I'll sit down and type up my reasoning behind the above statements so keep an eye out for that (those of you who follow my blog). That's it for now, I've got more gamerscore to earn (hoping to break 10,000 here soon) and got my labor day weekend to enjoy before I get to go back to work on Monday. Have a weekend everyone!

So I now have another person tracking me and its been since January 2009 that I posted a new blog entry so I figured I'd chime in my two cents worth about recent events involving the gaming community.

First things first, the big one. E3. Overall I found this year's E3 to be great and I'm really glad to see that most of the developers took to it like a fish does to water. Most everyone had awesome shows and things seem to be back to their former glory. I'll breakdown my thoughts on the shows I actually watched.

Nintendo

First off I just want to say that last year I was rather disappointed despite a few good things coming from their conference. This year I wasn't holding my breath on much and I must say I felt rather blind sided by this year's E3. New Super Mario Bros. Wii seems like Nintendo slipped into my head at night and is making a dream come true. I was floored by this game and can't wait to really get my hands on it and see what all the game has to offer. I've been wanting a great 2D side scrolling Mario game for years now and this really seems to be fit the bill for what I've been wanting. Not only that but it supports up to 4 players at one time and really seems to be taking the series back to its roots the way the DS edition did a few years ago. Definitely going to be a great seller and bring the newer generation into the world of gaming I grew up with.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 also caught me way off guard, I wasn't expecting another Mario based game anytime soon and figured that when they lead into this one it would be Mario Party or something like that. Even though its kind of like Super Mario Galaxy 1.5 I still won't complain simply because the trailer looked amazing and it seems as if like 95% of the content is brand new. Plus with the return of Yoshi in his original capacity this is definitely got Game of the Year written all over it. Day one purchase for sure.

Wii Sports Resort looks to be another promising game that I can't wait for, mostly due to Wii Motion Plus being bundled with it and the amount of new sports being offered up should be a great way to showcase the new attachment in many different ways. Maybe not a day one purchase but it certainly will find a place on my shelf shortly after it comes out.

Metroid: The Other M looks incredible. The trailer was amazing, Team Ninja and Nintendo working together sounds awesome, however I do have some worries about the game. First off I'm really hoping this won't play out more like a Ninja Gaiden game and that it will keep the core aspect of Metroid (exploration) in tact. I also worry that the focus on combat will be shifted from a shooter to a hack and slash game. Hopefully though the core gameplay will remain untouched and it will be keep the core elements intact while bringing in some very interesting aspects to the gameplay. My guess is it'll end up feeling like a Zelda game with Samus having to run around a "core" area of the planet and then entering different dungeons via a gateway of some sort.

The Legend of Zelda not making an appearance at the main show was a let down but the hints given at Miyamoto's roundtable conference certainly have me interested. Currently I think Retro Studios is heavily involved with the project since it appears that they haven't been up to much and now with Team Ninja leading up the next Metroid game, it really makes one wonder where they've been. With Miyamoto talking about the changes he'd like to see in the gameplay and after seeing how well Retro Studios did with Metroid, I wouldn't be surprised at all to see their name on the box. Miyamoto suggested that we'd see the new Zelda by the end of the year and Reggie said we'd be seeing what Retro Studios has been up to sometime later on this year. So my guess is either they are working on the next Zelda installment or they are hard at work on either Donkey Kong Wii or Kid Icarus Wii.

Overall I was very pleased with Nintendo's show, they really seem to be coming about to where they started as a gaming company and with other great games like Golden Sun DS announced, I have high hopes that Nintendo can turn things around and continue with their dominating streak.

Microsoft

Here's another show I was really impressed with, not only because of Natal (despite a few flaws) but just the games being offered up and the deals they have worked to bring their customers the best gaming experience for a great price. I'll kick this one off by saying I'm pumped for Left 4 Dead 2 and Crackdown 2. I just recently got into Crackdown and love it and Left 4 Dead was a day one purchase for me that I haven't been able to put down since.

Alan Wake is another game that looks incredible to me and I'm really curious to see more. The gameplay looks great, the graphics are amazing, the style really draws the player in as Alan narrates the game and tells the story as things unfold. This one is now on my radar and will stay there until I get my hands on it and try it out for myself.

Splinter Cell: Conviction looks to be the first Splinter Cell game to really draw me in and make me want to play it. I've played the others but they never really reached out and grabbed me as something I'd want to buy or rent. This one seems to offer up more things that appeal to me as a gamer. With the ability to approach missions however I want and really leaving things up to the player, that is definitely something up my alley since I hate being forced into one way of doing things.

Project Natal was definitely impressive to me, even without Milo and all. The concept of what they are going for and offering really seems to be a whole new take on gaming and definitely going a different route than Nintendo and to a lesser extent the Wii spin off Sony came up with. The ability to navigate through menus, use voice commands, and even the facial recognition and the overall function of the camera are astouding. I'm really looking forward to seeing what else this thing can do and how it will impact gaming as a whole.

Halo: ODST wasn't something I was interested in at first. I've never been a Halo fan, first Halo game I owned was the third one simply because my buddies at work play it and I got tired of getting whooped on constantly. However the new approach of ODST and the fact that its become a whole other game and not just an expansion really brought me into this one. Like I said before I love a game that leaves thigns up to me and this one seems to be heading that direction as well.

Overall I think Microsoft did a great job delivering and offering up a huge variety of gaming elements to its customers. Bringing in things like Twitter and Facebook (neither of which I use) is rather cool for those who enjoy that, updating Netflix so I can browse through all their online content is amazing, Games on Demand is absolutely great, full 1080p movies and I don't have to download them is a win in my book, and Last.fm is also outstanding as well. 1 vs. 100 is a blast and they are bringing all this and more to Xbox Live without increasing rates at all. I'm definitely impressed with Microsoft and can't wait to see what else they have going on.

Sony

Now here's where I stopped being impressed. I really thought Sony was going to deliver a great show this year but I felt slightly let down. Honestly I was thinking this would be it when Sony would convince me to get a PS3 and finally enjoy what all they have to offer. Well first off I really felt like I was just seeing gameplay footage to a bunch of games that were announced at last year's E3 and even some before that. Games like Uncharted 2 look ok, but I can't help but feel like its a cross between Tomb Raider and Indiana Jones, plus with multiplayer added in that further turns me away because it just doesn't seem to fit the bill of what the game is going for.

M.A.G. to me seems way over the top and doesn't really seem to do anything new beyond "Only on PS3" which instantly makes me think this game isn't worth it now. During the demo I just felt like I was watching a Counter Strike match and I hardly saw anything close to 256 players despite the fact that the developer said they had 256 players in it. Then after a short bit and one little gun fight, the demo ended suddenly before things could really take off. To me I feel like 256 players is way overkill and honestly will hamper the game in the long run. Its hard enough trying to get 5 people to work together, now imagine trying to get 128 players to work together, its just not going to happen. What's worse is squad leaders and such get special powers that you will NEED to get through the match. Things like calling in Air Strikes and what have you seem like it could be a clutch move, however get someone in that spot who just wants to run and gun and that leaves you high and dry. I can easily see 256 players not playing well together and matches becoming one big cluster $%^& that no one wants to deal with.

On top of that the match demoed was an hour long and this is an exp driven game here. Someone like myself doesn't have an hour to sit and play through one match all the time and it seems like another drawback. A game that I can pick up and play for abit and get some where appeals to me more so than a game that will consume hours at a time to play thorugh. The only good things I really saw was the map size which seemed to be a decent size but then again I saw such a small amount I'm not really sure how big and how indepth the map really is.

Little Big Planet on the PSP was another meh thing to me. The first one didn't appeal to me and neither does this one. Games that rely on the community for new content aren't the best ideas out there since most people can't design a great game level. Sure some can, but once you play through a level and know how to get through it what is the point? Same thing with designing a level, you spend hours working on it and then you know the ends and outs of it. Great!

God of War 3 I'll just say isn't my cup of tea. Never been a big hack and slash fan and the first 3 didn't appeal to me and neither does this one. Just seems like another Ninja Gaiden type game that I would pass on without much thought about it.

The PSP Go! started off as a great idea, I've been a huge supporter for Digital Distribution for years and this seemed like a step in the right direction for that.... until the price was announced and it was brought up that it doesn't support UMD's. Congrats Sony, its $250 which is $80 over Nintendo's DSi which is ALREADY OUT ON THE MARKET! Plus if you buy it, all those great UMD's you already bought, well you can't play them unless you keep your old PSP around, so much for trading up right? Then to top it off they threw in 16 gigs of memory, which isn't bad but its not alot either. If you are like me and typically own 20+ games for a system, 16 gigs won't get you that far and before long you'll be stuck using SD cards to store your games. Now they added in a touch screen which means games will support it but if you're rocking the older model then you'll be left out on that one. The one thing they needed to fix they didn't even bother with, which was ADDING IN ANOTHER ANALOG STICK!!!

Honeslty Sony you should have just launched the follow up to the PSP, added a second analog stick, and beat Nintendo onto the market to hopefully get the drop on them and take an early lead. Instead you've suckered yourself into expanding the life of a platform that isn't performing as well as others, will isolate anyone who adopts it, and is coming out well over a year after your competition launched their latest addition to their handheld unti. Sony you are going to find yourself behind the curve again and attempting to play catch up.

Overall I felt Sony was more or less saying "Why are you complaining? Look at all this great stuff we've done for you!" Especially when they rolled the clip about Home which I find to be rather funny. Instead of adding new features to their online service, they instead choose to talk about how great the features are that are already there and kinda mentioned a few upcoming things for Home which shows only 7 million of the 22 million PS3 owners use this free service and have spent about an average of 56 minutes on it total (per person). I think there's a reason to this and its simply because this is a virtual chatroom.

Sony's Motion Wand left me thinking "Wii Motion Plus already does this, doesn't need a camera, and is already out on store shelves and being heavily supported by first and third party developers alike. What's the point of this Sony?" The demo felt very slapped together and I feel like it was only done because of the great demo for Natal and Wii Motion Plus. I saw nothing overly new or interesting there that someone else isn't already doing in some way, shape, or form. It felt like one of those "Me Too!" kind of things that probably won't be widely supported and we won't see for a long time.

Sony's show overall left alot to be desired and once again Sony found themselves eating their own words after lefting Jackie boy back on stage. The Final Fantasy XIV bit about it being a PS3 exclusive was great, especially with Square Enix coming out right after and saying "Its going to be on the PC as well and we are already in talks with Microsoft about bringing to the 360 too." Plus its an MMORPG which I'm sure most of us out there will pass over after playing Final Fantasy XI and realizing how bad that was.

This wasn't as bad as their 2005 show, but it definitely wasn't a good one either. I'm really wondering what they were thinking coming into this. Their sales are slipping, they hardly brought anything to the table, and it seems like everytime you turn around something else isn't going their way, especially when you see articles like the one where Sony said the PSP Go! is $250 because its new.

Nintendo and Microsoft really brought their A game this year, but Sony it just felt like an expanded look of last year's E3. Unless Sony makes some serious changes here soon, I see another year coming and going where Sony under performs.

Since its launch Sony hasn't exactly been on the ball with the PS3 in terms of advertising and securing quality third party titles that weren't intended for the PS3. I'll start from the beginning of it all and slowly work my way up to the present day.

To begin with Sony launched a year behind the 360 and with a $600 price point; it looked rather unattractive to the average consumer. Now the Bluray player was something of a good idea, including a DVD player in the PS2 was a great idea and helped push PS2 sales through the roof since it was cheap DVD player at the time. However with the PS3 there was a format war waging when the PS3 launched. HDDVD vs. Bluray was a major thing and caused most to sit back and wait and see routine until there was a definite winner. As we all know, in the end, Bluray came out on top and HDDVD slowly faded out of the spot light. This is when the next major hang up occurred for Sony's newest console. HD.

Now Bluray will give you an amazing visual and audio experience when it comes to movies however that ride on the hopes that you have an HDTV already setup in your living room. If you are like most households out there, then you probably have an SDTV sitting in your home and thus you won't be able to see what all Bluray truly has to offer or take advantage of the HDMI abilities and the increase in picture and sound quality it brings. So with one of the major selling points of the PS3 suddenly useless to most people out there (this is still an issue with most people as well), Sony was left with a $600 gaming console that for a long time, despite a few gems, didn't have much of a gaming line up to speak of.

The next major issue was the lack (and this is still something of an issue as well) of an HDMI cable included with the console that promised a vast library of 1080p games, it didn't even come with component cables. Many were stuck forking out $50-$70 for HDMI cables when the console first came out just to get the most out of their newest purchase. This was a rather bad move on Sony's part since they talked up the HD capabilities of their console so much, yet right out of the box it didn't have what was needed to achieve those graphics. This also took away from the Bluray experience and made an already expensive console even more pricy.

Sony made a huge blunder with the PS3 just like they did with the PSP; they tried to make a game machine do too much. PSP was supposed to be the walkman of today's world, now it's been reduced to massive hacking and pirating with a good game from time to time but overall its overshadowed by its weaker brother the DS. The PS3 tried to appeal to many with its multimedia functions and riding heavily on Bluray catching on quick the way DVD did with the PS2. Sony tried to force too much on the consumer and give them more than they could handle with a console. It was then that the primary focus of the PS3 was lost, the games. Without great quality games and a steady stream to follow, there began to be fewer reasons to hurry to the store to hand over $600 for a console that didn't offer much.

Price cuts came and went without too much of an overall impact, the cheapest entry point is now $400 for an 80 gig model which isn't a bad idea, however this came after many SKU revisions and the introduction of the Dualshock 3 which finally gave Sony's console the rumble feature it had been lacking from the get go. This in turn made the Sixaxis rather worthless and many were left shelling out $55 for a new rumble controller. On top of all this and many SKU cancellations the PS3 lost its ability to play PS2 and PS1 games that the first consoles get to enjoy. Now when you purchase a PS3 its best to keep that PS2 handy since the PS3 won't be playing any PS2 games anytime soon.

One would think that dropping $200 from the original price point would be the turning point for Sony when they'd find their stride and get back into the game, but that wasn't to be since Microsoft cut them off short when their console dropped to the lowest price point this generation of $200 for the Arcade Edition. Now with Microsoft having a console cheaper than the Wii and the PS3 being double that, the only thing that could make it worse would be the economy going down the drain… and that is exactly what happened. Now people have a death grip on their wallets and aren't letting go too easily, the $400 console is still too expensive for the average person to splurge on, especially when you see so much Xbox 360 advertising everywhere touting the $199 entry price point.

For those of you who haven't been keeping up with the world of gaming, you are probably wondering why the PS3 would be struggling when it offers so many quality exclusive titles from last generation like Grand Theft Auto, Final Fantasy, Devil May Cry, Ace Combat, Tekken, and even Way of the Samurai, however those and many other "PS3 Exclusive" games suddenly found themselves going green and making the leap onto the Xbox 360 platform. What could be worse than this? Well Sony not taking anything back from Microsoft. Now throw into the mix that though many of the games that are multiplatform are having exclusive downloadable content released for the Xbox 360 and not the PS3 (the biggest ones being Grand Theft Auto IV and Fallout 3), it's just another blow to Sony.

Here comes one of the worst things for the PS3 though, now over 2 years into its supposed 10 year life span, developers don't love the console. Many are finding it difficult to develop for and it shows, games like Fallout 3 look and perform better on the Xbox 360 and the rating even shows it. Others like The Orange Box are better on the 360 and though the PS3 has superior hardware, on multiplatform games the Xbox 360 looks just as good if not better in some cases than the PS3. Some developers like Valve are now stepping up and saying they want to only develop for the 360 since its easy to program for and is very similar to that of the PC. Few developers are saying the same about the PS3.

Now before some of you get all upset, I will say the PS3 has had a number of hits, from the perfect scoring Metal Gear Solid IV to the critically acclaimed Little Big Planet and the heavily anticipated Killzone 2, Sony does have a few good things going for them, the question is will it be enough in this economic down turn we are in. With the prices of Bluray players falling and Sony no longer able to tout being the cheapest on the market and with the battle for games and exclusives becoming more fierce, can Sony keep pace with Microsoft, who though slated with hardware issues from the start of the 360's launch, has pulled through well and done a lot to gain ground on Sony and even overtake them this generation.

Sony struggles in regions they once dominated (namely Japan which has been claimed in the name of Nintendo) and struggles to hold down exclusive titles, and some that do find their way strictly onto their system from third party developers often aren't greeted with the best scores and have even been the end of a publisher (see Free Radical, the makers of TimeSplitters). With Sony's lackluster advertising efforts and banking on technology that is still too expensive for most homes and hasn't fully caught on (HDTVs in mid 2008 finally caught up to SDTV production), could this electronics giant who, for the past two generations of gaming been unbeatable, finally sealed their own fate?

Only time will tell at this point, but with negative news all around about the PS3 and the PSP as well, things do look grim for Sony's latest entry into the console wars. However with 2009 shaping up to have a great gaming line up and with the hopes of another price cut (and a possible redesign) looming overhead, this could be the year the PS3 really finds its stride and starts truly making a better effort in this console war. Some may say 2008 was a great year for the PS3, and it was in many ways, it saw several successful game launches like the already mentioned Metal Gear Solid IV (which makes the PS3 the only console with an exclusive perfect scoring game), Little Big Planet (the level building game that lets you build about any 2D side scrolling platform idea you can come up with), and Resistance 2, 2008 was definitely a step in the right direction. Sony will need many more steps similar to that which we saw this previous year, and only time will tell if they can keep it up and move ahead.

Well after being out and about all day long shopping for Black Friday I can pretty easily say that I doubt Sony is going to do much this holiday season if what I saw is any indicator to what the overall sales will be long. During my 8 hour shopping spree I saw a total of 3 PS3's being sold while I saw countless people with 360's (from Arcade to Elite) and about the same amount with Wii's.

After waiting in line at a Best Buy in Sacramento, CA for nearly 2 hours I only saw one guy buying 2 PS3's and when I hit a Game Crazy to pick up Rainbow Six Las Vegas 2 I saw someone buy another one. Everywhere I was, from Best Buy to Game crazy to K-Mart to Target and several places in-between. Everywhere I went it was the same thing, 360's and Wii's flying off the shelves, games and everything were being bought up super fast, yet the PS3's stuff seemed almost untouched all over. Beyond the 2 people I saw buying a total of 3 PS3's there was nothing being bought from Sony or for their console.

Sony has really shot themselves in the foot this time, offering very little in terms of bundles and deals, and with the competition being so much cheaper than them, they don't stand a chance this holiday season. I'm going to call it now and say Sony is going to come up really short after the NPD numbers come out for December, with the 360 gaining a lead over them and the Wii furthering its lead. Sony could have made alot out of this holiday season, especially with Bluray winning the format war and that could have been a huge selling point for them.

However I think Sony is about to lose its Bluray standpoint if this Black Friday's price points for Bluray players are any indication that prices are going to see a huge drop. The Sony BDP350 Bluray player was between $180 and $250, while other Bluray players were much cheaper (though not as nice). If Bluray players overall all below the $200 price point, that just makes paying $400 for a PS3 that much more out of the question, even for Bluray.

Ok, I love the Mario Kart series and I think Mario Kart Wii is a great game that brought alot of new stuff into the series. I love the bikes and the new courses, I don't really mind the reworked drifting system since I hated "snakers" in the DS version when it came to online play. And until recently I thought Mario Kart Wii has a great online system, that is until I started getting screwed every match. I've been playing alot online recently and was close to pushing a score of 7000 in battle mode (don't overly care for 12 person races) when I suddenly it a spell of getting crappy people on my team.

Now I don't expect to win every match, in fact losing is fine with me especially when I learn a few things to help me out later on. But when I see the other team has 4 people, all with scores around 6000, and then my team has me with 6800 and everyone else is like 5000 or less, I can't but help to feel like I was screwed. Now I understand this happens every so often, but lately every time I log on it happens, or when I do end up with an ok team in the last 30 seconds I get pounded on and end up either A.) losing all my coins just before time runs out or B.) get killed and lose a few points I've racked up.

Now the thing that irks me the most about all this is that no matter what, my score goes down. My team loses but I score the highest amount of points (in most cases all the points) I lose at least 50 points. My team wins but I don't do so hot, I lose about 20 points. My team wins and I do good, I gain 30 points... Ok what the heck is going on? Am I just on a bad streak right now? Or is this something that happens alot? I'm not sure but now I'm worried to get on and play because everytime I do I end up going down about 300 points or so before I get annoyed and signed off and what's worse is if I find a good team to work with it gets switched up the next match and I'm with the terrible people I just beat.

So in short my first blog post is a rant, I know I'm whining but damn it annoys me that this is happening. Perhaps I need to finally get back on Halo 3 or something becaue I love online matches and if it wasn't for Brawl being so damn laggy I'd get on there more. Maybe I just need to get back into PC matches again but my stupid laptop for some reason hates the source engine and won't run Half Life 2 Deathmatch or anything like that and most of the time my wife has the desktop tied up in other things.

Just gggrrrr.....

And for those of you out there looking into this, send me a message if you are up for some online play for whatever games, if I got them I'll take ya on.