Initial reactions:

• A new zelda game with Wii Motion Plus. It looks like it actually matters for the gameplay this time instead of just replacing button presses with waggle. Looks to be good for those of you who are still entertained by playing what is more or less the same exact game every couple of years. Not enough new to interest me.
• I don’t understand Nintendo’s statement that the ultimate goal of entertainment should be to have universal appeal and to cross culture, age and gender when there are clear differences between them. Some of my favorite games and movies have been made for niche audiences. For example, System Shock 2 is a hard sci-fi horror first person shooter with a ton of RPG elements. Certainly not a game that appeals to everyone. However those same elements that limit it’s appeal are exactly the same elements that make me love it to death. I would hate to see what Nintendo would have done if they attempted to make it. No two people are exactly the same and everyone has their likes and dislikes. It seems Nintendo never really picks a group of people and commits to satisfying them. Maybe that’s why none of their games have really appealed to me all that much since they are trying to appeal to everyone at once. Just a thought.
• Wii Party. Yet another Wii game with party in the title. I bet it will sell.
• The Just Dance 2 game seems really pathetic now after watching the Microsoft Press Conference and realizing that its only tracking hand movements since you are holding the controller while the 360 dance game actually tracks your entire body: arms, legs, head, everything.
• The Goldeneye Remake looks pretty cool. Glad to see they are updating the gameplay and changing the levels around a bit. As much as I loved it on the N64, I doubt it would have still held up today unchanged. I know some purists will hate it, but I am all for it. Although what is up with having Daniel Craig as Bond? That doesn’t seem right to me. I hope this is an early build and that the final game wont look like a budget title.
• Its good to see Warren Spector as it has been a pretty long time. They said Epic Mickey was exclusive to Wii, but I have heard its not exclusive forever. Hopefully true as the game looks pretty good.
• Metroid Other M looks pretty good. Hope it actually controls well.
• I really don’t care about the 3DS at all. Just like 3D did not change anything with movies aside from make them look a bit nicer, it wont change games in any meaningful way. Personally I don’t really care, but I didn’t care about the DS or the Wii either and the both sold amazingly. So what do I know? Clearly nothing. Hopefully it comes with the fog machine though. That would be pretty awesome.
• They said they updated the graphics on the 3DS, but Kid Icarus looked terrible.
• Nintendogs has Cats now!!! What!!??!! NO WAY!!
• Wow, that was a pretty boring press conference.
• When are they going to stop messing around and make a real new Star Fox game? No the 3DS one does not count.

Pretty good press conference this year. Here are a few bullet points of my thoughts.

• Driving vehicles in the new CoD looks good. Nice to see them coming back into the series. Hopefully they will not be in multiplayer though.
• Gears of War 3 Co-Op looks pretty good. They are clearly giving it more thought. Hopefully trading weapons isn’t the only new interaction between players. It is also nice to see that they are getting a bit more creative with the Lambent Locusts instead of just having them glow a bit and explode when you kill them. The visuals look improved a bit, which is pretty impressive considering how good the last one looked.
• Metal Gear Solid Rising is not at all what I was expecting. However it does look pretty cool. Sword gameplay that appears to actually work well. I will be checking this out. Now I just have to start playing Metal Gear Solid 4 first.
• Natal now named Kinect. Can’t say that I love the name, but I don’t dislike it either. Sounds like a very focus tested “neutral” name to me.
• Lots of new dashboard stuff announced for Kinect. The “Kinect Hub” was a smart idea. The video chat interaction to Live Messenger was a good idea, however I doubt I will ever use it. I have had a Xbox 360 Vision Camera for a long time now, and only video chatted with people maybe twice.
• Interesting selection of Kinect games. Naturally Microsoft has its own versions of Wii Sports and the like. However they actually look pretty decent, and way more interesting then what the Wii offers. Some of the interactivity there is pretty cool. Clearly demonstrates why full body tracking is superior to holding a motion sensing controller. I will be interested in seeing what Sony shows off tomorrow, but at this point I can’t see a physical controller setup beating this.
• Tons of ESPN content coming to live for free. I can see a lot of college students happy about this one. Especially those without Cable TV. I don’t follow sports at all, so I don’t really care at all about this. However the fact that its free to gold members is pretty cool. I was expecting some sort of subscription fee.
• Crytek is making some sort of medieval action game exclusive for the Xbox 360. The trailer showed absolutely nothing, so why even bother announcing. Perhaps once Crytek makes a game with gameplay that lives up to the visuals I will start to care.
• Halo: Reach single player looks pretty good. The animations on the Elites look more fluid then ever, and the environments look properly large and detailed. The graphics are not mind blowing by any means, but it is a step up from both Halo 3 and the Reach Beta. They show a little bit of space vehicle combat at the end. Could be cool, but from the little they showed it looked mindless and not at all tactical. Plus, who wants to fly in 3rd person. First person please!
• New smaller Xbox 360 console. This time with a larger hard drive and new case design. Personally I am not digging the new case, however the fact that its (hopefully) more reliable and comes with a bigger hard drive for the same price as the current elite means that there is no reason for any new buyer not to go with this. I just bought a new Xbox 360 in March when my previous one broke for the 3rd time and was finally out of warranty. Why oh why couldn’t it have lasted until now. Oh well.
• Overall it was a good press conference. Not as good as some of the previous ones, but still solid.

The Nerd examines the final game from Action 52′s lineup: Cheetahmen–and more.

What an interesting time for this announcement to come out. Earlier today I was actually considering taking out my old Dreamcast console and playing some games. I still consider the Dreamcast to be one of my favorite consoles, and I am happy to see some of these games get a 2nd chance. A lot of the games were ports of actual arcade games, so it they should fit in nicely with the rest of the titles on PSN and XBLA.

The first two titles, Sonic Adventure and Crazy Taxi, will be coming sometime this fall to celebrate the 11th anniversary of the Dreamcast. They are certainly not off to a bad start, but there are a number of other games that I hope we see eventually. Ikaruga, Rez, and Marvel vs. Capcom 2 are already available on XBLA, so the other titles that I hope make it are: Jet Grind Radio, Skies of Arcadia, Power Stone 1 & 2, Armada, StarLancer, Resident Evil Code: Veronica, San Francisco Rush 2049, and Shenmue.

The games are not just straight ports either. They are getting various enhancements such as higher resolution visuals, surround sound, and achievements/trophies. It looks like I might not need to break out the old Dreamcast after all.

“The Dreamcast is fondly remembered by a large community of dedicated fans as a console that was ahead of its time in terms of graphics, quality and online gaming” said Haruki Satomi, VP of Digital Business at SEGA of America and SEGA Europe. “There are few things that are more requested from us than making Dreamcast classics available for download in today’s digital market place. We’re very excited to begin offering gamers our beloved Dreamcast titles again on the current console systems.”

Well, Pendulum’s new album Immersion is coming out in less than a week and they have released samples of all 15 tracks. I really cannot wait for this to be released. All of the tracks sound great. Immersion will be available on May 24th.