0 aGamesCom 09

At GamesCom 09, lots of information has come to light. Most notably, a major overhaul PS3 has been announced, Fable 3 is announced and looks to be featuring some very weird features, and The Old Republic is suddenly coming out on only one system. Can you guess which one?

PS3

Apparently, Sony has decided that they needed to keep with previous iterations of the Playstation and release a slim PS3. It uses a stand to prop itself up, and features a $100 price drop from previous Playstation 3's. However, this PS3 will only come in 120 GB versions. Personally, I think this new PS3 looks absolutely ugly as sin- like a third party electronic device. It has lost all style points in my book. Even the logo looks uncool as compared with the old one. The Slim also will not support backwards compatibility.

In fact, backwards compatibility is, according to John Koller from Sony, is not a marketable feature and will not be appearing in the foreseeable future of the PS3. I don't know if that's true, the marketability, that is, but I know that I made sure I bought a backwards compatible PS3. That's a lot of games they are completely leaving in the dust! It is true that more buyers buy for Blu-Ray, and did especially when it was the cheapest Blu-Ray player on the market. But now? People want a library of games. That's why they're buying the 360. I have been to many, many sites where the edge is given to the Xbox for the incredible volume of games.

Also worth noting, the standard PS3 has also seen a price drop to $299.

Fable 3

Not far in the wake of Fable 2, the sequel is promising to surpass its predecessor as the self-proclaimed premiere Xbox RPG. Peter Molyneux has announced a few features, including the ability to judge people (ooh!). The most important feature, though, is the integration of motion controls in character-NPC interaction and gestures. I think it's a positively atrocious idea, but whatever. How do you claim that Natal is a casual gamer experience, and then say that Fable is supposed to be a supreme RPG (implicating hardcore gamers). Make up your mind! There better be an option to use regular controls, too.

I haven't liked Fable since the first one, where they had one of the best games of all time (albeit was a bit short), so I don't care. But Molyneux is really pushing this Natal nonsense.

The Old Republic

A game I was looking forward to (until I learned about the inevitable monthly charge) for a long, long time is Star Wars: The Old Republic. Reportedly an MMO coming to the PS3, 360, and PC, this was supposed to be a spiritual successor to the Knights of the Old Republic series.

Apparently, console gamers can keep dreaming. Though KOTOR was originally a console game, later ported to the PC, SWTOR is officially only coming to the PC. Fun stuff! Sure, it's better suited to a PC, but the point was it was going to finally bring MMO gameplay to the consoles.

Fun stuff!