e3 '08: Well, it can't get much worse

Hello world, its been a while since I posted here. Two months, to be exact. Summer is always a busy time around my place - I have a huge yard to keep up with - plus I was waiting to write about all the cool stuff I didn't know about yet until after e3. Wow, what a huge disappointment that show was. The only really 'big' announcements from the big three were; Final Fantasy XIII and Mii's, er, 'Avatars', are coming to 360, WiiMotionPlus and WiiSpeak peripherals/functionality for Wii, and God of War 3 and "Massive Action Game" for PS3. Oh yeah, and GTA on DS. I mean, other than a bunch of stuff we already knew about, for the most part, that was it for "wow" at this year's e3, when comparing to year's past. Well, personally there was huge wow factor for me when Microsoft unveiled Galaga Legions for XBLA, designed by the geniuses behind Pac-Man: CE. I looooooove me some Galaga, and if they can do for it what they did for Pac-Man, this game is gonna rule. I'm a little skeptical going off the early video they showed, but who knows, I've got my fingers crossed...

I've been looking forward to the 'big show' every year since the big show was CES and e3 didn't even exist yet, and this was by far the least exciting 'big show' ever. I don't know why the focus has shifted so much by the whole industry, but this is no longer a show for the gamers or gaming press. This is a show for mainstream media nowadays, and it kinda sucks. Well, it sucks if you let yourself get excited for it based on past experiences, that is. But this is the new reality for our favorite hobby that has now gone more mainstream than ever before. Another part of the new reality is that there isn't one 'big show' for the year, but a number of big shows throughout the year (PAX, GDC, e3, TGS, etc..), where information can be revealed closer to release dates. That's just the way it is now, but its too bad that the big companies have decided to trim down their e3 showings this much. I miss the spectacle and excitement of too much information to process in such a short amount of time like there has been at past shows, F5-ing screens like crazy. Oh well.

I do hope that all this negative press about this years show leads to some kind of improvement for next year's show (which has already been confirmed to be taking place). It really, from a gamer's perspective, can't get any worse than this years. I mean, this is my post - for my VideoGaming blog - on e3 - the big VideoGaming show - and its already finished due to lack of excitement to talk about stuff. That`s kind of sad...

-Kimo