At this year’s E3, Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft had plenty to show for their upcoming line up. They discussed an onslaught of new peripherals, ways in which 3-D will be affecting games, and even mentioned a game or two. However, everything that was presented is heading towards the current consoles. Sony’s Move, an arguably glorified Wii knock off with better graphics, doesn’t really seem all that impressive. We’ve all been there and done that and, quite frankly, I like my controller just fine. I’m not in any rush to change the way a play games when it seems counter intuitive to my normal play style. FPS where I use motion controls to do everything? I’m definitely not sold. Microsoft’s Kinect seems more interesting, but runs into a similar problem. For all the promises of Minority Report like menu browsing, I have a problem getting over the self-awareness that I am standing (yeah, not really so keen on the idea of standing all day) in front of my T.V. waving my arms around like an idiot. The only thing that really got me excited, in terms of hardware, was the Nintendo 3DS.

Now, I don’t really care about 3D. There are some people who do and others who hate the idea. But after seeing the near Wii quality of the graphics, I must fully admit to be very excited about it. And I get to play Ocarina of Time on it? Can you say jizz in my pants?

It’s not just the possible remakes. I already really like the DS, and with the 3DS it looks like everything about the little hand held is going to get all the better. But what about on the console front? There doesn’t look like a “new generation” of consoles is anywhere in sight and I don’t really see that as a problem. In fact, I wonder if the next generations of console will be anything like the past ones. Speaking of just graphical ability, games look great. It doesn’t really matter to me if they look a little better because things look fine the way they are now.

Could graphics be improved? Sure, but is it really needed? I don’t think so. I can see a case being made for creating more powerful consoles that allow developers to create more complicated worlds for gamers to lose themselves in, but current games seem to be doing a really great job of creating those worlds without the need of crazy power improvements.

                The improvements I want to see in the games industry have little to do with console power. I want developers to work on their craft. I want better overall stories and character development. I want something that captures my interests intellectually. I want to something other than a FPS on the store shelves. I want to see a game without a number after the title. I want this yearly installment crap to end. And more than anything I want my damn Final Fantasy 7 remake.