E3 2005 The Big Three

E3 2005 was definitely a show to remember, it is not often that you have three new consoles all at one show, two of which had not been seen before. Microsoft started their unveiling the week before on MTV, if you did not see the presentation you didn’t miss anything special. The unveiling was littered with celebrities and bands with no real details on the system itself. It was not until Monday’s press conference did we see or hear anything concrete about the Xbox 360.


Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 will capitalize on the success of Xbox live, with new downloads and a way to customize a type of home page where you can keep track of your friends, download music and even movies, store pictures, and some other unannounced goodies. The 360 will feature four wireless controllers similar to the current S Controller, all games will be in HD and feature some very nice graphics. After the press conference Microsoft did share that the games at the show were only running at 1/3 of the system’s proposed power, which is quite impressive. If you have not seen the console itself it is much smaller than the current Xbox and is a bright white, one of the new features that is the main focus of the 360 is customization, you can add special face plates to the system and your Xbox live page can be arranged with features that you can buy through the service. Microsoft had a few units on the show floor, one of the most popular was Burnout Revenge, while the game looked nice it really just looked like a polished version of current Xbox titles but this could be due to the fact the system is only working on 1/3 power. The big question with the 360 was backward compatibility, which Microsoft gave the response that some of the most popular Xbox titles could be played on the 360 but not all. This is because of the new graphics processor, the Xbox 1 titles playable will be run off of an emulator. The 360 is scheduled to ship this holiday season, and will come with a hard drive of unconfirmed size and free Xbox live service.


PS3
Next came Sony that took the show by storm by showing the PS3. Let me start off by saying this about the PS3, it is a beast of a machine. Microsoft wanted to hit the market with the most powerful machine and even boasted that the 360 was it. Sorry Bill Gates you were mistaken. The PS3’s new Cell Processor is unbelievable, each of the processing units functions independently allowing the system to bring out the greatest graphics ever seen. When this system ships next spring it will have better graphics and gaming than the fastest computer on the market, which is an amazing feat. The PS3 has 1080p video outputs, Wifi along with new online play, a detachable hard-drive, wireless controllers (up to seven) featuring Bluetooth, use high-def Blu-Ray discs, and best of all it will be able to play all PSONE and PS2 titles. When the system comes out it will be one of the first to play HD movies, a major selling point that Sony is going to capitalize on. The system also has a cool feature, if you have two wide screen 16:9 TVs you can hook up one PS3 to both and have a 32:9 panoramic game. The press conference was dedicated PS3, making hardly a mention to the PSP and the same went for the show floor. Sony had a behind closed doors 10 minute feature on the PS3 which the line ran up to 4 hours long, some great new games for the PS2 and only a few games for the PSP most of which were more sports games.


Revolution
Then came Nintendo’s conference a day later than Microsoft and Sony which revealed some things that no one expected. At the show the world got the first look at the Nintendo Revolution, which is a sleek new system that is only the size of 3 standard DVD cases stacked flat on top of each other. Nintendo is still keeping very hush hush about the new system only giving tidbits about what it’s all about. The Revolution will be WiFi out of the box, which will hook up for online games. The system will have 512 MB of internal flash memory, two USB ports, and use wireless controllers much like the Wavebird. Revolution will use 12 cm optical discs along with current GameCube discs. While Nintendo refused to comment or show the new controller design that is to make the Revolution truly unique they did share that you would be able to play any Nintendo game on the Revolution. What this means is that you will be able to download any first party NES, SNES, or N64 game through their online service at a marginal cost. This gives the Revolution a library of thousands of games at launch and there is talk of trying to support 3rd party games in this download feature as well. Nintendo is calling this new era for them “All Access Gaming” where anyone can play their games and the new controller is supposed to play into that philosophy. Nintendo promises a new Mario, Zelda, Smash Brothers, and Metroid Prime 3. The Revolution is set to ship sometime in 2006 and information on power and other features are to be announced later this year.


Game Boy Micro
Nintendo also showed the new GameBoy Micro, while it is not a successor to the GBA, it is a new sleek style that is smaller and lighter than an Ipod mini. The battery life is said to be at around 10 hours and the new screen is clearer than ever and looks great, they even added the feature to adjust the brightness a first for the GameBoy. The Micro will also have a wide selection of face plates, much like the one shown, at the show there were around 15 different face plates to chose from with more sure to come.