The Holmberg forgot he has a wedding he’ll be out of town for tomorrow, so these notes will be short.

Thanks for playing bingo, Gaerma, Rokwynd, and WilliamPall!  We’ll be contacting you all with some gifts soon.

We then talk about E3 a lot, even though we’re all tired of talking about E3.

Current-gen consoles received pledges of support, but not a lot of air time.

The PC was strangely absent from the E3 news.

The portable scene is tempting, but it’s hard to overcome the piles of dust sitting on the hosts’ current portables.

Microsoft’s XBone offerings are intriguing, but not anywhere near intriguing enough to make any of the hosts look past the consoles other issues or $500 price tag.

Nintendo showed off a lot of games that will no doubt be a lot of fun, but are any of them enough to make a Wii U purchase worthwhile?

Sony slapped Microsoft around, and won gamer minds and hearts by maintaining the status quo.

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Business:  Jonathan’s going to miss Gen Con this year, because employment trumps gaming.  Sam will be attending, though, so WotG will still have a presence.

Games Jonathan Played:

• The Walking Dead – an interesting, if cel-shaded, take on zombies and point-and-click adventures.
• Dragon’s Dogma – what Alex thought about Skyrim, Jonathan thinks about Dragon’s Dogma.
• New World Colony – Catan crossed with Risk, and Jonathan’s impressed.

Games Alex Played:

• Crusader Kings 2 – well worth the sale price, maybe not so good at full price.

Games Sam Played:

• Max Payne 3 – once you accept what Max is laying down, the game gets good.
• Ghost Recon: Future Soldier – hear what happens when your pitted against you buddies.

E3 Time: We discuss the good and bad of the Big 3 press conferences, throw in some publisher smack talk for good measure, and lay bare just how bad we are at making predictions.

Next week, we’ve got two, count ‘em! TWO! people on the show who actually attended E3, one of whom is pulling a Jack Kerouac and going on the road, but for games instead of drugs.

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It’s our annual E3 wrap-up show, but this time we’ve got a dude who was actually there! Alex “Seraph” Wawro, of PC World fame, joins us as we discuss what happened at E3 2011.

We start off with a discussion about our general disappointment with this year’s E3 before moving into a discussion of Nintendo’s offerings.  The Wii U intrigues and confuses us.  The 3DS underwhelmed.  The Wii was forgotten.

Sony made a big splash with the PlayStation Vita.  Those of us that are still interested in portable consoles are very intrigued, and very pleased with the price.  Those of us who have allowed our smart phones to dominate our lives… well, we’re good.

Move and Kinect got a lot of lip service of support, but are they really all that vital to our gaming experience.  Three hosts bash the tech.  One defends it.  Can you guess who?  Also, “Lightsaber On!” is best explained via a comic.

Microsoft pretty much just kept on keeping on, with Halo 4 being the big announcement, which didn’t excite any of the hosts like Microsoft probably hoped it would.  We pick our “Winner” of the show (the first time we’ve been unanimous about a winner, by the way), and also name our “Game of Show” (with not so unanimous results).

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I certainly didn’t think I’d be writing this, but I’m calling the 2011 Big Three E3 Grudge Match in favor of Sony this year.  Microsoft presented us with Kinect-ability that seems superfluous, and games that are more of the same.  Nintendo gave us a few 3DS titles, and a bunch of promises for 2012.

Sony’s laid out a strong lineup for this year.  The name’s silly (although it sounds good compared to the Wii U), but the Vita looks to be an impressive setup with a strong lineup.  It should be out by the end of the year, setting up some strong competition for the 3DS, which has been… meh. 

I liked what I saw of the Wii U.  A touch-screen controller that allows seamless switching between the TV and the controller?  Yes, please.  HD Nintendo games?  Oh yeah.  Third-party support that doesn’t require massive reprogramming?  It’s about time.  Too bad we’re not likely to get any of that until Holiday 2012. 

For 2011, the Wii gets… a Zelda game.  Nintendo announced Skyward Sword for Wii in 2011, and that’s it.  I’m all for more Link, but Zelda can’t carry the entire year.  I think it’s safe to assume that’s not really the extent of Wii support, but that’s all we got from the press conference.

Microsoft’s press conference was pretty middle of the road, but again, at least they’re talking about developments for 2011.  Mass Effect 3, Ghost Recon, and more get Kinect support, but I didn’t see anything that couldn’t have been handled better via a headset mic and controller.  YouTube, broadcast TV, and other entertainment options are sweet, but peripheral.  Halo 4?  Not developed by Bungie?  I can’t say I care. 

For me, the biggest announcement from the Big 3 was the Wii U.  I think it has huge potential, but not for this year.  As such, I give first place to Sony, second to Microsoft, and third to Nintendo.

I received both MLB 2K11 and MLB 11: The Show in the mail recently, and after a couple hours with each, I’ve concluded that no one knows how to make a sports game for the casual player anymore.  If you’re new to either of these franchises, you’ll need to devote hours to figuring out what the hell is going on.  Pick up and play just proves frustrating.

On the plus side, both games look pretty.  2K11 has a slick, TV-style presentation, impressive stadiums, and butt-ugly players and animations.  The Show’s players are better looking, the animations are fluid and realistic, but the presentation feels dated and tired in comparison.

If you’re doing anything either than pitching or batting, the controls are obtuse and poorly explained, with little helpful feedback.  The Show solves this by controlling every other aspect of the game by default, while 2K11 lets you suffer.

Early on, 2K11 earns the nod for pitching and batting.  I grok the “motion-controlled” pitching they have going on.  Players hold the right-analog stick in a specific direction to charge the power of a pitch, then make a motion—sweep around for a curveball, a straight shot ahead for a fastball—that determines the accuracy of the pitch.  At bat, pressing the right stick up is a contact swing; back then up is a power swing; left or right is a defensive swing.

The Show has three different pitching modes: press X once, use a power bar (like a golf swing), or use the analog stick.  The power bar and analog stick were too difficult to wrap my head around quickly, while the single button press seemed to determine your pitch location entirely at random.

I can only assume that The Show allows for more player control over pitches, but that was never explained anywhere.  Practice drills exist in both games, but The Show gave very little useful feedback, while 2K11 features very few drills with no retry option, making them incredibly frustrating.

For pure gameplay, I would rather play 2K11, but the package surrounding the gameplay is convoluted, confusing, and annoying.  No favorite team? Really? I like the 2K11’s integration of MLB Today.  I like The Show’s huge variety of game modes.  Unfortunately, 2K11 is a frustrating experience, and I feel like I need to spend several hours researching The Show.  As someone new to both franchises, neither game hooked me.

Page 2: Sony’s “Welcome Back” Package Available:

Technically, Sony launched their “Welcome Back” package last week, but when I tried to connect to the PS Store, apparently everyone else on the planet was doing the same thing.  I did connect to the store once, and then got an error when I clicked on anything else.

Hopefully by today, things will have calmed down, and you’ll be able to get hold of your games.  Don’t forget the PSP gets a package, too. 

The offer expires June 14th, so hop to it, folks.  Which games are you choosing?

I’m going to be really curious about what happens at Sony’s press conference.  Will they talk about the PSN hack or avoid it?  Will the details center on security and stability, or will they try to shift to games and hype?  It should be pretty interesting.

In a way, Sony has the least to worry about with their press conference.  E3 is going to be their moment to finally shape the conversation and direct exactly where they want it, rather than have a laser focus on their network woes.  We’re likely to get close-to-final details on the NGP (including a name).  We’re going to get the maturation of the Move.  We’ll get Twisted Metal, Uncharted, Resistance, and (finger’s crossed) Last Guardian.

This E3 is theirs to lose.  Too bad it’s so easy to imagine them losing it….

Page 2: PSN Fully Online:

Sony has announced that the PSN is fully functional again, as of today, in most of the world.  I know it’s been a long month for a lot of people.  Will the “Welcome Back” package be enough to let you forgive and forget?

Page 2: Sony’s Credit Monitoring Offer Goes Live:

If you’re a PSN member in the United States, Sony has rolled out it’s offer for a year of free credit monitoring.  The service, AllClear ID PLUS, is run by Debix, and the offer is valid until June 28.

Sony’s been attacked multiple times. Square Enix, via Eidos and the Deus Ex website, has been hacked.  Last Pass has been hacked.  Even grocery stores are getting attacked.  If you can take advantage of this offer, it’s probably a good idea, even if you didn’t have much identifying information on PSN.

Sorry about the delay, folks.  Between Jonathan’s semester coming to an end, and a network snafu somewhere between Alex and Jonathan, things have been weird this week.  That said, we’re still here!

Video game news has been exploding over the past few weeks, and so despite Sam’s absence, we’re bringing you a headline show this week.

Portal 2 is the big news for Alex and Jonathan’s gaming of the week, despite Mortal Kombat’s release.  Jonathan gets all philosophical about Portal, while Alex just likes that GLaDOS calls Chell fat a lot.  (That may not be fair to the views expressed in the episode.)  Jonathan talks a bit about Minecraft, and tries to avoid arguing with Alex about Texas Heat and Full House Poker.  He almost succeeds.

Our headlines are dominated by the PlayStation Network outage, with a little talk about new consoles, and a new religion.

• PlayStation Network Down for Fifth Day as Sony ‘Rebuilds’ from ‘Intrusion’ (Updated)
• Sony PlayStation Network Breached, 77 Million Users Private Data Stolen
• Sony sued for PlayStation Network data breach
• Press Release: Some PlayStation Network and Qriocity Services to be Available This Week
• Nintendo announces Wii successor for 2012
• It’s Official, The PSPgo Is Dead
• File-Sharers Await Official Recognition of New Religion

No game this week because, well, there are only two of us.  Sam’ll be back in episode 68, as is NTG.

Until then, have fun!

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