Today we see the start of a hectic week on the tech calendar. Once Apple leaves us stunned today with their WWDC we'll be treated to more excitement with this year's E3 event from tomorrow all the way to Thursday. Anything can happen at E3 and with 3 days to grab the headlines, what do the big companies have up their sleeves? What should we expect, and what should we look out for? Here's Gaj-it's top 5 things to look out for at 2011 E3.
1. Will the Wii 2 Impress us?
It's known as Project Cafe but I prefer to call it the Wii2 because Project Cafe is an awful name, don't you agree? Whatever we call it it's going to be the biggest news of the event (whether it's for all the right reasons or the wrong ones.)The Wii revolutionised the game console, it took the beast out of the teenager's bedroom and slipped it into every family living room across the country with fitness, dancing, and Mario Karting titles providing a new way to play video games and a new way for the family to interact. It's going to be exciting to see what Nintendo are going to do with the Wii but it's going to take a lot to persuade the consumers to dump their Wii 1 for a new one. After 3DS I can't help but feel Nintendo are trying to push things down our throat too quick. Another thing to note is that there has been talk of Microsoft planning some 720 news to steal Nintendo's thunder. Stranger things have happened. The Wii 2 represents the first in range of next generation consoles
2. How Will Sony Recover?
Sony lost a lot of fans, a lot of trust and probably a lot of shares after the PR nightmare that was the network hack fiasco. But what's happened, has happened, Sony could use the event to talk about security but they'll probably want to shift the attention to something else. What that is, we'll find out over the next few days. Who knows maybe there's a Playstation 4 on the way. After Project Cafe, the door is wide open. It's almost certain that we'll get some NGP news but we've been expecting this for a while and it might not be enough to wow critics (and millions of disgruntled PS3 users.) I think there's more, in fact, expect big things from Sony.
3. Are Microsoft Going To Steal The Show?
These days it's Apple, Apple, Apple, Apple, Apple, everywhere and all of the time. You can't complain though, Apple do what it takes to get into the news, whether that's unveiling a new product, insulting Google or denying antenna problems. But what about Microsoft, they might seem like a bit of a joke at times, but they're a massive company, capable of big things and surely, they're sick of Steve getting all the attention. After today's Apple announcements (whatever they may be) Microsoft will need to be on fire at E3 to grab some serious media interest. All eyes are on Kinect, will they focus on it, or leave it alone? The hacks and mods over recent months have shown the true potential of the Kinect, if Microsoft were watching, who knows what we'll see.
4. Which Game Will Come Out Tops?
Lot's of games. There's going to be a huge amount of games announced. Some surprises, some not. But out of that huge sea of games, which one's going to come out on top. We see the return of classic game franchise: Tomb Raider, Battlefield, Max Payne, Zelda and Soul Calibur and something to do with Halo, some say, Halo HD.
5. The Big Battle
When it comes to software, all eyes will no doubt be on Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3. Both titles have dished out impressive looking trailers and there’s a split emerging in the gaming community with fans arguing over which game will be better. Obviously they are two completely different games offering different angles to the FPS genre but there can only be one king of the mountain. Which one will it be? C.O.D has been on top for a while, surely it can't stay there forever. Plus Battlefield gives us the vehicles we truly love in combat games, and some critics aren’t a fan of C.O.D.’s new elite subscription service. But then, C.O.D is the most powerful game franchise around.