E3 2011: Day 2: Less Stuff then Day 1...

Not much new to report out of E3 today as far as I'm concerned. Modern Warfare 3 made an attempt to regain my interest today. For the first time in all of the hype, they showed me something new... and barely mentioned that it was new... Take a look at this preview:



Still just MW2 - Part 2, but we do get the XM25 25mm Grenade Launcher. It is a real gun, and it looks like it works in real life similar to what is shown in the game. However, it will take more than one new weapon setup to compete well with BF3. Observant viewers will also notice two other subtle changes: first you can (at least in some cases) set you're optic off center to use your iron sights. Second, they're calling the drones Reapers now, instead of Predators. While both are still in service with the Air Force, Reapers are much more common in combat strikes now, and are actually capable of carrying the amount of ordinance portrayed in the game.

In other much less interesting but amusing news: Both Sony and Nintendo announced new systems today. Sony (after apolagyzing for 20 minutes for the constant hackings...) introduced the Play Station Vita, the successor to the PSP.

Looks like a fancy PSP with a touch screen, and (finally) a second thumbstick. It will be available in a $250 WiFi model, and a $300 WiFi + 3G model... on AT&T... suck.

Nintendo's announcement was kinda only half of one. They showed off the Wii U, and new controller for the Wii's still under development replacement. However, since the new system isn't running yet it seems, they only showed off it's backwards compatibility with the current Wii system.

As you can see, it is a full mobile gaming system for a controller, including a large touch screen and full motion sensing tech. It also looks bulky, which will make motion gaming dicey at best... and the full touchscreen will make it expensive and drain batteries... I don't have a good feeling about this idea. Good thin I'm an X-Box user...

Oh, back to shooters, today the Battlefield team announced that despite initial reports, the amazing graphics in BF3 will not be dumbed down for the X-Box360 version. The only difference now between the two is that multiplayer won't be quite as huge on XBL (like 24 player games on XBL vs. 64 on PC.) That alleviates one of my few concerns about the game.