E3 Day 0 and 1: Press Conferences

Good evening, all, and welcome to the beginning of my special couch-bound coverage this year's E3 convention.

No, sadly I'm not attending the proceedings in Los Angeles this week (neither are the rest of our crew, Chris "The Gamerologist" and Nick "The Walls"), though we'll have to rectify that in the future. But, thanks to the power of the interwebs, all of the big events and presentations are available by live-stream on any number of websites, from G4 to GameTrailers to IGN and of course the respective sites of the companies themselves.

Being a workin' man, I couldn't rightly sit and watch the early press conferences at my desk (unfortunately). But I did follow the live blogging of a number of sites, and at least three dozen Twitter feeds that posted the same thing one after the other. It was quite an interesting day, and surely a testament to the role of social media in the gaming space.

But, let's get to the conferences:

Sony Ericsson Xperia Play Commercials: From Terrible to Incredible

Sony has had a rather checkered history with their advertising in the past. From the creepy baby doll in a white room to advertise the launch of the PS3 to the very, very inappropriate ad for the new white PSP in Amsterdam, their advertising for their gaming systems has been... less than stellar. Since the introduction of their "Kevin Butler" ads in late 2009, that trend seems to have changed (lesson: humor is always better than creepy), and we've had two years of great PS3 ads.

PlayStation Plus Thoughts

For three-plus years I worked at a Barnes & Noble Bookstore. Aside from sating my bookworm desires and giving me complete control over the Star Wars 'bay' in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy Department, I was also required by management--and corporate policy--to advertise, inform, and sell our customers the Barnes & Noble Membership Card. For twenty-five dollars (plus sales tax) you were given discounts on books, movies, music and more. The membership program was a major component of a cashier's job, and I could understand the reason --  most studies show that people don't use member cards much, and thus don't recoup the cost of the initial investment -- but it was a chore to sell the damn things. Why, you ask? Because most people don't use member cards much, and... yeah, you know where I'm going. People are smart, and most won't shell out money for discount programs, even those who would probably benefit most from such things.

PlayStation Plus... sky-rockets in flight?

Editorial: 2011 - Year of the PlayStation (Part 3?)

Numbers don't lie. Well, they can. Ask a mathematician why 1+1=3 and have your mind BLOWN. But most of the time, numbers don't lie. In four years of competition, the Nintendo Wii has dominated worldwide console sales, and it hasn't even been close. Even with a year's headstart, the Xbox 360 has only managed a about 60% of the sales of Nintendo's motion gaming juggernaut.

And lingering in a (comparably) distant third place is the console you know by now is dear to my heart, the PlayStation 3.

(A quick aside: if you're not altogether excited for my views on the PS3, or think I'm being biased in my overall game coverage, go back and read my formal introduction, then go read some of the Gamerologist's other pieces. I'm probably not going to be your cup of tea.)

New Year, New Games to Play, and a Look Back

In just under six hours, Pacific Time, the year 2010 will be over. It's been a pretty big year for me: new home, new relationship, new responsibilities at work, and a brand new blog that has been so much fun to work on (as infrequently as my brethren and I make the effort to do so).

2011 is poised to be a stellar year in the gaming industry. The first full year of the Xbox Kinect, the arrival of the Nintendo 3DS, a metric ton of stellar first- and second-party exclusives for the PS3, and who knows what else is on the horizon. In the next week or so, I'm going to share my thoughts on what I envision as the Year of the PlayStation (shocking, right? Me, writing about PlayStation). But before I do that, I thought I'd share what games I played this year, and what still need to play more of next year:

Games Finished
Assassin's Creed
Assassin's Creed II
Assassin's Creed Brotherhood
Enslaved: Odysssey to the West
God of War
God of War II
God of War III
God of War: Chains of Olympus
Guitar Hero 5
Heavy Rain
inFamous
Red Dead Redemption
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus
UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves

Games Played But Not Completed
3D DOT GAME HEROES
Battlefield 1943
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Brutal Legend
Burn, Zombie Burn!
Civilization V
Critter Crunch
Flower
Ghostbusters: The Video Game
God of War: Ghost of Sparta
Grand Theft Auto IV
Gran Turismo 5
LittleBigPlanet
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2
MLB 10: The Show
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe
Mushroom Wars
Shatter
Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions
Transformers: War for Cybertron
WipEout HD
Zen Pinball

That's WAY too many games in a year! But just wait, 2011 looks packed too! And there's still a lot of games out there from before I bought my PS3--and quite a few from 2010--that are still worth a look.

What did you, my gaming friends, feast upon in the virtual world for the last 365 days? Let us know!