Another E3 has come and gone like my sex life. This is the new E3, reformatted like an Ebayed harddrive it's now smaller and less attractive than ever, like Jessica Simpson. The shrinkage of E3 has resulted in a show shorn of excesses but focused on substance. So... not that much like Jessica Simpson.

This year's E3 has shown us the usual list of things I can't wait to have. Little Big Planet, Haze, Home, WiiFit, Metroid Prime 3, and Megan Fox. She wasn't at E3 as far as I know, she just pretty much deserves to be mentioned. In any case, all these things are coming soon for a trifling investment in new hardware, such as a PS3, Wii Balance Board, Wii Zapper, PC video card, or taser gun and a stout length of rope.

For those who do need some hardware to enjoy the bounty from E3, Sony came to the party early with a pre-E3 announcement of a pricedrop. That pricedrop vanished into the mists like quiet self-reflection at a panamanian cocaine party. Gamers excited about the drop in p...

Another E3 has come and gone like my sex life. This is the new E3, reformatted like an Ebayed harddrive it's now smaller and less attractive than ever, like Jessica Simpson. The shrinkage of E3 has resulted in a show shorn of excesses but focused on substance. So... not that much like Jessica Simpson.

This year's E3 has shown us the usual list of things I can't wait to have. Little Big Planet, Haze, Home, WiiFit, Metroid Prime 3, and Megan Fox. She wasn't at E3 as far as I know, she just pretty much deserves to be mentioned. In any case, all these things are coming soon for a trifling investment in new hardware, such as a PS3, Wii Balance Board, Wii Zapper, PC video card, or taser gun and a stout length of rope.

For those who do need some hardware to enjoy the bounty from E3, Sony came to the party early with a pre-E3 announcement of a pricedrop. That pricedrop vanished into the mists like quiet self-reflection at a panamanian cocaine party. Gamers excited about the drop in price stood slightly confused as it evaporated away like drops of urine on a toilet seat, leaving just the dark yellow residue of a minor package upgrade.

I have to question this move by Sony, especially in their joyous decision to liberally shaft Australia in particular. Aust. is not getting even the yellow residue price cut the US is getting, with the current product being dropped in price (until they sell out of them) and a higher spec machine at the original price. Oh no, Australia gets to keep the lower specced machine at the existing price, but we DO get more stuff with it.

The problem with the PS3 has never been that it doesn't represent a lot of "stuff" for the price. The latest cutting edge technology, the ability to press sandwiches for a tasty open faced turkey club, and the dubious benefits of Blu-ray all in one place! Speaking of dubious benefits, Australian PS3 players will get Motorstorm and Resistance: Fall of Man with the package. This is presumably Sony's way of saying "Well, there aren't any other games... so you might as well have these ones."

Personally, it's the first time I've seen a hardware bundle including a free admission of failure, an interesting marketing move. For now Resistance: Killing in a Church and Motostorm are among the best of the three games available for the system anyway, but closer to the end of the year when there are games out that aren't a year old (in real territories) that "freebie" is going to start to be frustrating.

The real problem with Australia is not the price itself. We accept (to a degree) that the machine is expensive. Blu-ray has forced up the price of the PS3, giving it cutting edge hardware and features at a price that stings. But that's life. The problem is not the price, it's the price disparity between territories.

I pasted this from a post I made on the forums. Deal with it.

At current exchange rates the PS3 (in the smaller $499USD system that equates to what we get now) should be $575 or so. Factoring in an additional 10% - 15% (hell, let's make it 20%) "arse end of the world" surcharge that tends to be added on to anything that comes into the country gives closer to $690. What the hell, let's take it up to a nice round $700.

While the addition of another controller is cool, the addition of Motorstorm and Resistance, two games I WOULD NOT BUY, is of lesser appeal, and certainly does not equate to $300 of value.

What happens to that other $300? As far as I can tell it's made into a papier mache fist and rammed up our ass.

At the present rate of $599USD = $688.20AUD + 20% = $825AUD. That's a $175 fist. Still unacceptable, but positively beloveable when compared to it nearly DOUBLING.

That being said, the fist was nicely lubricated with a hefty dose of Little Big Planet, Killzone 2, Home, Haze, and Lair. Four letter titles are big this year. These games really show what the "next gen" is capable of.

The PSP has also had a much-talked-about revamp, but even I don't really care that much. It's being made slightly smaller, and the battery is also being made smaller, though with the same lifespan thanks to some other improvements. The biggest change is the addition of TV-Out functionality. What I haven't been able to work out is how the hell that could possibly look GOOD. The PSP has a resolution of 480 x 272, presumably meaning UMDs/games are the same resolution. This is not only NOT high def, but it's substantially lower (about half) of standard definition. This is a vastly lower resolution than VHS. When viewed as a proportion of a 1080p screen, for example, the actual pixels would take up a space in approximately the top left 1/16th. Now imagine you stretched that out to the full size. You'd have pixels the size of your face. Thankfully most of the movies on UMD are utter crap anyway.

Fact is the PSP didn't really that much need a hardware revamp, and what it did need (longer batterly life, etc) was ignored. What it needs most is actually a firmware update. To enable the multimedia functionality to not suck.

In other companies, Microsoft made E3 history by not getting anything tattooed anywhere. They showed some nice game videos, but by and large didn't have that much. Having a working Xbox 360 at the moment is like finding the Golden Ticket, so hopefully by the time your console comes back (September anyone?) there should be some nice shiny games on the way.

Mass Effect looks fan-diddly-tastic, and Blue Dragon is intriguing. Halo 3 actually is finally starting to interest me. I've played through the first two, and really didn't see what all the fuss was about. Still, if I want a lame, uninspired shooters with crappy controls at least I know where to go. Nevertheless, Halo 3 DOES look interesting.

Last but not least, Nintendo were there. I watched the Nintendo show through. There were a lot of graphs and montages. I love a good montage, but the music wasn't stirring enough, and I didn't see the Wii becoming noticably more powerful with each passing minute. It's still less powerful than an Xbox 1, still has fewer games than the PS3, still has a bevy of games that are based on children's movies or TV shows, and still doesn't have the "big games". Mario, Metroid, Super Smash Brothers, are all incoming, but until they hit the Wii is desperately short on titles. Reggie can rant all he wants about bringing in non-gamers, but some of us are gamers. And we want games.

I'm not declaring the Wii dead or anything. I'm just saying some games would be nice. And they're on the way. The WiiZapper and WiiFit are interesting, though the zapper is really just an add-on for the controller, and doesn't do much more than the gun add-on that was shown at last years E3. WiiFit looks interesting, but I don't really see a whole lot of scope for that balance thingy beyond that. Time will tell if it's just a gimmick that doesn't really get used by anything else. (I'll put $20 on that.)

With E3 gone and done there's going to be a bit of a quiet time.