ROBOT ATTACK!!

Went to the Gamespot After Hours event last night. My first impression of the PS3 was incredible dissapointment. They only had two games on display... a racing combat game and a Gundam game. The racing game was OK, and it definitely felt 'next-gen'. But the Gundam game was terrible. The graphics were poor, the frame rate was abysmal. Ugh. I've got Gundam games for my PS2 far better than that. Really bad first impression of the PS3.

I went to the event thinking I would be blown away by the greatness of console gaming, but ironically returned wanting to upgrade my PC. After seeing Battlefield 2 and 2142 being played on top-of-the-line Dell PCs and widescreen LCDs, this computer of mine is looking a little long in the tooth. I plan on buying this 22" widescreen HD LCD monitor now (I need it's HD for PS3/X360 play anyway), but do I really want to upgrade my computer just for Battlefield? And maybe Neverwinter Nights 2? Hmm.

Got to play Call of Duty 3, Splinter Cell: Double Agent, and Lost Planet for the X360. COD3 was fun, as COD always is, although the new rag doll death effects need some work. Splinter Cell was incredible, and playing that alone makes me want to buy a 360 within the week, as Splinter Cell releases on Tuesday. The graphics were great, and the multiplayer versus gameplay was pretty fun. Lost Planet was only setup in multiplayer mode, and it seemed OK. Graphically great, the gameplay seemed a bit too shallow and sluggish, but it was a free-for-all deathmatch mode after all. Also saw a demonstration of BioShock.. which was... "O_O" cool. Eye-poppin'.

Still, I dunno if I want a 360. The biggest problem to me is that many of the games I want for the 360 are shooter games (Gears of War, COD3). And playing a shooter on a console controller is blasphemy, IMO. (Where's my mouse and keyboard support?!) Even if these games are lovely to look at, playing a shooter without a mouse just ain't right.