Anyone who has been visiting this site for a while knows that I’m a long term pro wrestling fan thanks to Showtime getting me hooked back while I was young and impressionable.  I rarely watch wrestling anymore but one of the things that always held the most mystique for me as a fan was the championship belts.  These fabled emblems of leather and gold were always intriguing, maybe because as a kid they never really spent alot of time focusing the camera on the belts (or selling anything that even remotely resembled them, anyone remember those horrible foam strap belts from the 80′s?).  It was always major news for me if they happened to actually change one of the belts as they did when Hogan introduced the classic Winged Eagle design of the World Championship.

Anyways, last Monday night I found myself doing a little channel surfing and I stopped on Monday Night Raw long enough to see an old Bret Hart walking down the isle with new WWE Tag Team championship belts!  I couldn’t get a very good view of them but they looked, well different is the word I would use, so off to the internet I went.  This is about a big a deal to me as a pro sports team changing uni’s.  I couldn’t find any glimpses or mentions of the new straps.  I gave up only to rekindle my search a couple of days later where I finally found what I was looking for, behold the new WWE Tag Team Championship belts…

Yeah I got nothing, seriously spartan helmets?  We came up with silver spartan hemlets?  After the spinner design of the World Championship, the Diva’s tramp stamp belt and the recent ECW Tin Foil World Championship…well lets just say maybe I don’t want them to introduce any new belts anymore…

Words can’t even do it justice.  What you see above is a picture of the “Air Jordan Legacy Showcase” that features every one of the 25 Jordans done up in sweet Carolina Blue Nubuck.  The results are simply some of the best looking Jordans I have ever seen.  If these were to release tomorrow, well I don’t know what I would do but nearly every single pair on the table would be a must have with the exception of possibly the XX (what can I say that ankle strap is weak).  Thanks goes out to sneakernews.com for the pic.  here is a link to their website where you can find more detailed pics of each shoe.  Better get a bucket cause if you are a fan of Jordans you’re going to be drooling…

SNEAKERNEWS.com

Because something big might be on your horizon. What would you say to moving up from a Band Manager to an Office Manager…or a Regional Manager of a small paper company if you will? That’s right rumors floating around have Murray Hewitt, aka Rhys Darby in real life, up for the role of Michael Scott’s replacement in NBC’s sitcom “The Office”. Will it be any good? Well the show has more than run its course and most fans are ready to just give it up. That said, Rhys might be the only person outside of Ricky Gervais himself that can be as awkward as Steve Carrell so who knows. Stay tuned…

Think Lebron’s decision was a big deal?  Wait till you see Bill Simmon’s…

So, the big three have all had their moment in the sun for 2010 and while who pulled off the best showing will be dictated by your fanboy interpretations lets take a moment to review each of the three keynotes and see who pulled off the best showing of E3 from as unbiased of an opinion as I can give you.  I’ll be using a ‘+/-’ system to assign my pluses and minuses of each keynote.

Last up its…

- They choose to kick things off by hyping the PS3 3D compatible games.  Compatible if you have a 3D tv and accompanying 3D glasses.  So invest $3000 in 3D equipment and your all set!  Oh and then you have to wear glasses while you play!

- Killzone 3 is next and its in 3D.  Were either of the first two Killzone games any fun?  I don’t seem to recall either being great games but maybe I’m forgetting something.  Either way its no Gears of War or Halo thats for sure.

+ Super montage of 3D games was next and overall I like the lineup; Motorstorm 3, Ghost Recon, Tron, NBA 2k11 (aka the Michael Jordan comeback tour), Sly Cooper HD, MLB 2k11, EyePet and Gran Tursimo 5.  I like the lineup but I like the lineup as regular games so I’m not sure if the 3D is an overwhelming plus here or not.

- Mortal Kombat fatality in 3D…ewwww

+ Sorcery is essentially a non licensed Harry Potter game for use with Move.  Looks fun and I like the idea of the move controller being used as a magic wand but they were definitely having some control issues, here is hoping that’s not a sign of the finished product.

-Tiger Woods 11 looked pretty good but it doesn’t seem any different then what we already have for golfing on the Wii, that and its not a PS3 exclusive game.  There’s that theme again!

+ Heroes on the Move: All of the Playstations greatest platforming heroes (Jak, Daxter, Sly Cooper, Ratchet and Clank) in one title sounds pretty good to me but its supposed to be a moved based game and we don’t exactly know how the control will be implemented.  Here is hoping for the best.

- Pricing for the Move seems confusing to me at $50 for the move and $30 for the navigation controller but I guess its actually the same as the Wii-Mote/Nunchuck idea.  Also available in a $100 bundle with the eye camera and Sports Champions.  So for those of you scoring at home, for the complete Move experience you will need 4 pieces of hardware: 1. PS3 2. Eye Camera 3. Move itself and 4. Navigation controller.  Is that confusing enough?  Maybe I’m making more out of this then it really is.

+ New Time Crisis that uses move as the gun.  Never been a fan of Light Gun games personally but Time Crisis was one of the best and it has alot of fans.  Nice move showing an experience you only get on PS3…hmm where did that idea come from?

+ God of War: Ghost of Sparta.  Good looking game but I’m sorry I own a PSP and even I acknowledge that its a dead system.  Sony just needs to pack it in and give up on the handheld market or move on to a new version.  When your local Walmart or Target only carries a handful of titles you’ve got a dead system and no I doubt its because everyone is downloading games on their PSP Go!

- Mythical announcement of 70 new PSP games released between now and December but said titles were not announced.  Guess the aforementioned retailers above will need to increase their shelf space!  Seriously though when they thrown out 70 games and don’t say more more then “Patapon 3!”  does that mean anything?

- Um Sony took time out of their E3 keynote to hype up a second season of The Tester…really?  Does anyone care about this?

+Little Big Planet 2 – Looks to take everything about the first game and increase it tenfold.  Of course all the info shared here was pretty much shown two months ago in Game Informer but…

-——PlayStation Plus: Okay let me see if I have this straight.  Since the days of the PS2 network adapter Sony has gone on and on about their free online service and how they were so much better then XBOX Live because they were free and blah blah blah.  Now suddenly we just have to have a pay version of that service with “exclusive” content only available to the Plus members much of which I’m sure will be mimicking XBOX Live or taking away content from the current free model (already announced exclusive demos) …I’m sorry Sony but this totally sucks the big one.  Its like you decided to hype up the fact that you are punishing your fanbase by making them pay for a service that you couldn’t even be bothered to explain.

- Medal of Honor: again, spending time at your keynote to hype a game that will appear on the competitions systems is just stupid.  Unless you don’t have enough exclusive content to fill a blasted 2 hour press conference…OH WAIT YOU GET AN EXCLUSIVE HD REMAKE OF A PREVIOUS CRAPPY MEDAL OF HONOR GAME IF YOU BUY THE PS3 VERSION!!!  EXCLUSIVE CONTENT, SUCK IT XBOX!!!

Sorry about that I really don’t get these guys…

- So then they follow that up with Dead Space 2.  Yes its a cool looking game but see the rant above…its an XBOX game too!!!!

- Portal 2 is shown and I guess its part of the Sony conference because they paid Gabe Newell to come on stage and say that the PS3 version is the best console version!

—Mafia II, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood…for those of you scoring at home Sony just spent the last 15 minute hyping up really awesome games that you can buy on the XBOX.  But oh we have exclusive content, no we do!   AHHHHHHHH!!!!

-Final Fantasy XIV: thats right I just gave a “-” to a Final Fantasy game.  Why?  At last years E3 when they announced this it was a huge shock and one of the delights of the show.  In the last year the Alpha has come out and for all intents and purposes this game is Final Fantasy XI but with prettier graphics.  I don’t get it, has Square learned nothing from Final Fantasy XI?  Was it really popular enough that the world was clamoring for a sequel?  After Final Fantasy XIII and now this I’m starting to lose my faith in Square.

+ Gran Turismo 5: Finally a really big deal.   Sony can’t bring this one to market soon enough.  If you remember, Gran Turismo 3 was a system mover for the PS2 when it came out and this is poised to do the same as long as its not too late.  November 2 is the release date, ahh thats only like a year later then the previous release date…so that sucks but great looking game anyway.

+InFamous 2: Would have been cooler if it hadn’t been fully revealed in the Game Informer Magazine I recieved last week…

+/- Lastly Twisted Metal…Seriously Twisted Metal in 2011?  That kind of announcement just goes to show how weak Sony’s stable of first party games really is.

While Sony’s presentation was definitely better then Microsoft the whole thing left me feeling flat.  They spent a good chunk of the presentation hyping games that are not Sony exclusive.  It doesn’t exactly scream out why I should buy a PS3.

I’m a little concerned by the lack of hype surrounding Move also.  I know they showed it off earlier in the year so it didn’t need a grandiose reveal here but where exactly are the games for this thing?  I have yet to hear anyone say why it gives me a more compelling experience than the Wii I already have sitting in my living room.

Overall I have to say I was underwhelmed by the presentation.  The only bits of shocking news were an actual release date for Gran Tursimo 5 and Twisted Metal…

Both Sony and Microsoft have a lot to learn about hyping what makes you different then everyone else and not experiences that you can get on any system.

To summarize for 2010…I have to say advantage Nintendo.

Sometimes explaining something would only make it worse so enjoy:

Thanks Joystiq for sharing the greatest thing you have seen at E3!

So, the big three have all had their moment in the sun for 2010 and while who pulled off the best showing will be dictated by your fanboy interpretations lets take a moment to review each of the three keynotes and see who pulled off the best showing of E3 from as unbiased of an opinion as I can give you.  I’ll be using a ‘+/-’ system to assign my pluses and minuses of each keynote.

Next up its…

+ Personal bias as it may be, Reggie is just the type of guy who should be handling these keynotes.

+ Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: Its nice to see the Wii finally living up to those promises from E3 2005 with the sword and shield gameplay.

- Technical difficulties (at least I hope they were) during the Zelda presentation really screwed things up.  Not a good time to have problems with your Wii-mote signal.

+/- Mario Sports Mix: The Mario sports games are usually good mindless fun but the fact that multiple sports are being crammed into one title has me concerened that we may be looking at another Minigame bundle rather then full fledged sports games.

+ Wii Party -  Mario Party meets the Mii’s.  Kinda odd to see Nintendo cannibalize  the Golden Goose that is Mario Party but they have a pretty good track record for these types of games and I’ve heard good things about it.

- Just Dance 2 – For all I know this game could be the coolest thing at E3 but I’m not a “Just Dance” kind of guy so its gets a “-” by default.  Strange to see Nintendo spend time on this during their keynote but it is a Wii exclusive and the first one sold a buttload of copies for a third party game so I can see where they are coming from.

+/- Golden Sun: Dark Dawn – The first Golden Sun (or was there two?  I can’t remember) was a very fun “classic” Japanese style RPG and its big for a first party game.  Hard to get excited about a DS game when we know the 3DS is coming though.

+++++ GoldenEye 007 – I heard rumblings of a remake of this game a while back and then over the weekend the trailer for it leaked out on the web.  All I have to say is it looks great and sparks very fond memories of the original.  I can’t wait!

+ Epic Mickey – This game looks really cool and hearkens back to some of the really fun Mickey Platformers from the 16 bit era.  A big win for Nintendo here as its exclusive to Wii and will appear to casual Disney fans and more hardcore gamers, even if they won’t admit it.

+ Kirby’s Epic Yarn – Okay the premise for this game seems a little hokey, I will admit but the unique gameplay and art design reminds me of another strange Nintendo creation…Paper Mario!  Never been a big fan of Kirby games personally but I won’t let that detract.

+ Dragon Quest IX – I’m a big time RPG nerd but I never got much into the Dragon Quest series.  That said, it may be hard for some outside of Japan to realize what a huuuuuge deal it is for this game to be a DS exclusive.  And its fun too!  Not exactly earth shattering news since its coming out next month but still something to hang your hat on and once again, its only on Nintendo!  Take the hint Microsoft and Sony.

+ Metroid: Other M – Coming out in August!  Looks great from the gameplay I have seen.  Another win in the Nintendo franchise although not exactly new info.

+Donkey Kong Country Returns – Looks to be more of Nintendo doing what Nintendo does best.  Knock them if you want but what they deliver is great first party games that sell and this looks to continue the trend.

+++++ 3DS – Since this is major news lets give it its own breakdown section:

• Real 3D with no glasses.  The major stumbling block preventing the 3D revolution everyone keeps talking about is eliminated.  Now if games can utilize it in a meaningful way…
• Nothing shocking from the form factor here, its exactly what you would imagine if someone said “DS with a larger 3D screen at the top”.  The only shocker is the Analog stick over on the right hand side, or Slider as Nintendo is calling it.  Early hands on reviews say it feels great and is waaay better than PSP’s horrible analog nubs.
• Improved Graphics.  I can’t stress this enough, even if you strip out  the 3D part the games appear to deliver almost Wii quality graphics and performance.  That alone will move systems.
• Motion and gyro sensors.  These are pretty much a must have if Nintendo wants to compete in the Apple hand held gaming world (and they do or rather they want to crush it).  Now all those iPhone games can be ported to the 3DS…if it has multi-touch.
• One Camera inside and TWO CAMERAS ON THE BACK!  Holy Crap it takes 3D pictures!  Didn’t see that coming.  Not sure what you do with those, other then view them on your 3DS right now but its said the effect works really well.
• You’ll be able to play Hollywood 3D movies on your 3DS.  Wow that’s pretty big right there.  Guess you’ll be downloading the movies ala Netflix?  Good thing it has an SD Card slot.
• Wow a new Kid Icarus game!  At long last the beloved franchise from my youth returns.  I’m hoping for a pass code system so I can enter “ICARUS FIGHTS MEDUSA ANGELS” again.  It sadly looks a bit like an on rails shooter.  Hopefully there is some platforming involved too.  Oh and by the way, it looks like a Wii quality game on the 3DS.
• Something was mentioned about Wi-Fi functionality that would automatically search out other Wi Fi points or 3DS systems even when closed and download content.  Oh and its free whatever it is.
• Nintendogs + Cats – Not personally excited about this but the original Nintendogs was a system selling piece of software for the DS early on.  Now its back with better graphics, cats and 3D frisbees!
• The list of developers and titles in development for the 3DS reads like a who’s who of gaming.  Capcom, Konami, EA, Activision, Square, Sega, THQ, Ubisoft, etc… with titles like Dead or Alive, Ninja Gaiden, Kingdom Hears, Final Fantasy, Saints Row, Madden, Street Fighter, Resident Evil, Assassin’s Creed, DJ Hero, oh and Metal Gear Solid on the way.  Notice anything about that list?  That looked a lot more like a list of titles for Xbox or PlayStation then it did for Nintendo.  I’m thinking the third party developers are excited by this new hardware.

Overall, it was Nintendo doing what Nintendo does best and for the most part they hit it out of the park.  Its a little hard to go back and remember anything before the 3DS since that was such a big piece of news and early on has my vote for announcement of the show.  No major concerns other then it feels a bit like Nintendo is content to pump out titles of existing franchises rather then reach for anything new.  Then again, a new Zelda game, new Metroid, Donkey Kong, Kid Icarus…this is what everyone asks for from Nintendo isn’t it?

The only real concerns for Nintendo were that we weren’t given the full spectrum of info on the 3DS and the devices that are available for hands on demos are development kits, not the finished products.  So there is still time for Nintendo to pull out some suprises or disapointments with the final hardware and specs (Multi-Touch for the touch screen would be a nice way to compete with the iPhone).  That and no price was given but if history has shown us anything its that Nintendo won’t sell a system at a $300+ pricepoint and for good reason.  I’m guessing we see a price drop on DSi/DSi XL later this year and the 3DS comes in at around the $200 pricepoint.  Then again, with all the tech that is being crammed into this little bugger that may end up being closer to $250.

Thumbs way up for Nintendo.

(on a side note its late here…I’ll try to post my thoughts on Sony’s keynote tomorrow…)

Well its here and while not fully unleashed on an unsuspecting public (or fully revealed) it seems that first impressions are very positive for Nintendo’s newest Handheld wonder.  Check out Nintendo’s official site for the 3DS for more info LINK or check out your favorite blogs for folks who have actually spent some hands on time with the unit…Joystiq or Engadget

So, the big three have all had their moment in the sun for 2010 and while who pulled off the best showing will be dictated by your fanboy interpretations lets take a moment to review each of the three keynotes and see who pulled off the best showing of E3 from as unbiased of an opinion as I can give you.  I’ll be using a ‘+/-’ system to assign my pluses and minuses of each keynote.

lets start off with…

- Call of Duty: Black Ops: Sure it may be a great game but I’ve never understood the logic of hyping a multi-platform game at your E3 keynote.  Its like giving free pup to the enemy.  Oh my bad you get first dibs on “exclusive” downloadable content!!!!

- Same goes for MGS: Rising, only no comment on exclusive XBOX content unless I missed something. Is it really a big deal to say “hey this game will be on our system to so there!” I thought the whole point was to show people why they have to have an XBOX but what do I know?

+ Gears of War 3:  Not my cup of tea but this is the XBOX bread and butter and exactly what they should be hyping.  Experiences that you only get on XBOX with a proven franchise.

+ Fable 3: great looking game in the fun Fable series but this isn’t exactly mind blowing news, its was shown months ago.

+/- Codename: Kingdoms: the claim here is that what was shown was actual in game footage.  I’ll believe it when I see it.  Not enough shown to form an opinion but it looks pretty.

+ Halo Reach: Again, great game for an XBOX only experience but I’m getting the been there done that feeling from the whole presentation.

++Halo Reach pt 2: scratch that last comment they just showed space combat!  No idea if its any good but that was definitely a suprise.

- Kinect: Reggie from Nintendo called, he said its not 2005 and he wants his presentation for the Wii from that year’s E3 back…okay that was a cheapshot lets break this down fully:

• Netflix, Facebook. Last.fm, yadda yadda yadda.  When every piece of electronic equipment I own allows me to tweet, stream music and download movies its hardly exciting to see it on my XBOX, although they did show Justin Bieber during the montage.  Bieber Fever!
• The notion of motion/verbal controls to access the XBOX is intriguing.  Then again it was fun for the first week to point the Wii-mote at the TV and select a menu so maybe  saying “XBOX Play” will get old too.
• videoKinect is cool but that implies that people I would want to have video chat with will own and XBOX 360 AND (emphasize that) the new Kinect unit.  Hmm Showtime I think the only person I know that might apply to would be you!
• ESPN on Demand…yawn (and I love sports!) and its essentially a pay service as it comes with XBOX Gold.  I suppose that’s cool if you already pay for it but I do not (no Wi-Fi on my XBOX means no internet connection and I’m too cheap to spend $100 on the Wi-Fi adapter)
• The games, well underwhelming is the nicest thing I can say.  A year ago we were promised little boy companions (not that I want that) and virtual AI that would interact with us.  A camera that takes pictures of objects from real life and scans them into the game.  Basically an immersive integration of life and video game.  What we got was Wii-Sports, err sorry Kinect Sports.  I’m not saying the games won’t be fun, but this is hardly earth shattering (or worth the rumored $150 price point just for the Kinect unit).  Stand here, wave your arms, jump up and down…haven’t we done this before?
• Oh Snap, they just showed a dancing game with Bel Biv Devoe’s Poison!  Where do I sign up?
• 15 titles at launch and we basically have a bunch of mini game games, fitness games and a couple others.  How Wii-Ish!  If its not broke, might as well copy the heck out of it!
• Star Wars Kinect game shown, appears to be some sort of “on rails” lightsaber game.  Guess that could be fun.
• Last bit of Kinect was a demo of a new Forza game.  What was really interesting about this was the ability to “virtually” walk around the car, open the door and climb in.  That’s the exact type of immersion I was hoping for out of this thing but I can’t help but think I’ll feel like an idiot driving around with a pretend steering wheel in my hand.  Not to mention my arms will probably get tired, in real life I rest my hands on the steering wheel you know.
• This has nothing to do with the keynote but I do have one major concern with Kinect which also may be the flip side to the biggest benefit.  That is no direct connection to the game because there is no controller.  From what I have heard from people that have worked closely with the unit is that without a controller there is no physical interaction or feedback from the game and therefore no immersion.  Whether this is something we all just get used to over time or whether it proves to be the Kinect’s undoing?  Only time will tell.

-  Last and possibly least, a new XBOX “Slim” console which is the XBOX you know and love but better because it includes a 250G HDD, built in Wi-Fi and a special port to provide power to your new shiny Kinect camera.  This of course pisses me off to no end as my XBOX broke a few months ago and I reluctantly went out and plunked down the money for a new XBOX Elite (WITHOUT WI-FI DANG YOU MICROSOFT!!!)  Here is for hoping the price of the Wi-Fi adapter will drop but I’m guessing it won’t, it will probably just disapear and show up on ebay for 5 times as much.

– Oh and to end the show, they gave everyone in the audience a new XBOX “Slim”.  Hmm A room full of video game journalists who will be rushing out to report on your keynote and you just gave them a new $300 system.  Sounds like a bribe doesn’t it?

Overall I have to say I was very underwhelmed by Microsoft this year.  The presentation was totally awkward,  there wasn’t much in the way of surprises or home runs from a software or hardware perspective, and I was really disappointed that the potential shown by Natal last year doesn’t appear to be realized in Kinect.  As an add-on piece of Hardware its all about penetration in the market and I really think that might be where Microsoft and Sony fail in their attempt to chip away at Nintendo.  What about Kinect or Move is going to make 50 million people run out and buy it?  What is really disappointing is that no price was given for Kinect which to me says “hey this isn’t really something we want everyone talking about right now because it could give us a black eye”.   Of course Nintendo followed up that approach with their reveal of the 3DS but that is another post.

Overall, I have to give Microsoft a thumbs down.

Or not.

Seriously, did we walk into the marketing department and say hey we want a new brand but we really liked what we had 20 years ago.  Any chance we could use that but change it from purple to navy blue so that all of our fans who haven’t bought merchandise in the last 20 years can’t just break out the old stuff and call it good?  I got news for you, that’s not retro, that’s lazy.  Its like they had someone design their new image from the Chris Creamer message board…not that there is anything wrong with that…

To make matters worse, if you can (thanks B-Rob), they are keeping the “Mountain” logo as a secondary logo and updating it with the new colors (which is now the 4th different color variation on the same logo, aka LAME!!!) and let me just say it looks horrible.  I couldn’t find a good picture of this, probably because nobody wants to look at it but here it is in all of its navy blue, green and yellow glory on a new T-Shirt…

WHO ARE THE MARKETING GENIUSES THAT CAME UP WITH THIS!?!?

Go Jazz!  Seriously go, get out of here!