So everybody, how well do you think E3 went this year? Was it as good as you hoped or was it dissapointing. Overall I thought it was really good this year. I felt a little dissapointed because there were no real surprises this year. Just about every single game slipped out before it hit E3. It would have been nice to be surprised by at least a couple games. the content shown was awesome though. I really enjoyed seeing new footage of Halo 2, Sonic Heroes, Half-Life 2 and many other games. Overall I give this years E3 an 8.5.

I thought E3 was pretty good, I was pleasantly surprised by Viewtiful Joe and Gradius V.

Were you surprised with the PSP?

I personally don' t care about the PSP. Handhelds are fun and all but I' ll probably just stick to my brothers GBA whenever I have the urge to play on something increddibly small. The PSP has potential, but the handheld market is dominated by Nintendo. Sony can try to take them out but it could be a struggle. Anything can happen in the videogame market though.

I certainly was surprised at first by the PSP (and now the PSX). But the more I think about it, the more I think they were both going to happen sooner or later. I remember that there was a rumour a while back saying that Sony wanted to make a handheld that would be as popular as the walkman. And the specs of the PSP certainly show this. I have to say though, its nice and dandy showing specs, but we have yet to see any games. Once I manage to play it expect me to comment. Here is my comment for the other handheld at the show:

At the SCORE event for retailers in April, I finally had a chance to play on the N-Gage, which absolutely appalled me. The 2 games I played were Sonic-N and Tomb Raider.

Sonic-N is the same game as Sonic Advance, but for the N-Gage. I was told the version of Sonic-N on display was a close to final version of the game, which disappointed me as it didn’t even run at the full screen of the Console/Mobile. Also, the resolution was POOR. Seeing all those bit huge blocky pixels gave me a headache.

Tomb Raider on the N-Gage seemed to be the same as the original Saturn/PS1 version. I thought I was going to be amazed seeing it run on a handheld. I was wrong. The game ran at some ridiculously low frame-rate, the controls were horrible, and the game also suffered the same problems as Sonic -N.

The other problem with the N-Gage is that is it DESIGNED AS A MOBILE THAT CAN ALSO PLAY GAMES, not as a games machine. Changing the game meant pulling the back cover off the phone, removing the battery, and then changing the game in the same fashion as one would change a Sim-card. I feel gamers would get too frustrated with this. Also to play games one needs to travel through the menus and find it first. While playing a game an accidentally push of another button on the phone will bring up the nokia 7650 style menu, which one has to go through again to find the game. The phone will also not work without a Sim card. Most people who but this phone will not pay $300, but will instead but it for about £70 on contract, with mobile phone operators subsidising the costs as they do right now for most handsets.

Anyway, time for PSX chat now. I know this isn’t E3, but I still find it relevant. After reading an issue of T3 Magazine with a bit of coverage of the " PS3" , and seeing their impression of the design of the system, the PSX only makes sense. T3 had said that the PS3 would be a complete home entertainment machine, with a similar entertainment spec to the PSX. It also makes me think the PS3 may evolve from the PSX rather then the PS2.

Billy Hatcher really surprised me this E3. I really want to get my hands on that demo disk out in the US Containing the 1st Level of the game. Maybe someone won’t mind lending it to me for a few days.............

Many people are reffering to the PSX as the " PSXbox" on the internet now. Frankly, I can' t really disagree. This may come off as fanboyish but in all reality this seems like a rip off of the Xbox. It now has a builytin HD and network adapter. Sure, they talked about this but mainly after the Xbox did it. Yes they have a TV tuner and DVD burner but you can get those seperate from the xbox with better quality. It' s funny though because PS2 fanboys can' t talk about the Xbox being more of a PC or being to big anymore because the PSX seems to be almost identical. I actually am quite intrigued by this new system and would prefer to pck this up over the regular PS2(I' m looking into buying one) but with an estimated price of $600 I' d wrather just get a regualr PS2 and buy a DVD burner for my computer. Also, I have talked to my nieghbors who are big Sony fans and they feel they have been screwed because they got the original version. They really don' t feel like trading in their old one and having to pay a butt load more for an upgrade.

On a finishing note, I feel this was a desperate attempt by Sony to get money now that their PS3 plans got screwed over. Since " The Cell" chip that was going to power their PS3 is not going to be finished until at earliest 2003 they want to get something out their to gain a profit off the dilema.

The other thing that bothers me about the PSX is the lack of a standard memory card slot. I' m sure any hardcore gamer would feel the same. all our old PS1\PS2 saves are usless on the enw machine.

The other thing I am wondering is what will the sound quality be like on the new machine?

Man I didn' t even realize that they didn' t have the memory card slot until you mentioned it. That really sucks!

E3 kicked ass! at least it did for me

I got to do interviews with Yoshinori Yamagishi, Takamasa Shiba and Yasuhito Watanabe from Square-Enix, I got a Capcom booth tour, I shared a taxi with Charles Martinet (Voice of Mario, Luigi, Wario, etc) I met Shigeru Miyamoto, Yuji Naka, Hideo Kojima and a guy dressed as Mega Man!

As for the games, I was really impresed with mario Kart, F-Zero, halo 2, Viewtiful Joe, Dragonguard, Sega GT online, the list goes on.

It was a really good show and I had a blast, I can' t wait till next year.


Yuji!


Hideo


Pikachu