Where my taru?

E3 has come and gone, but it was great while it lasted. Typically the lavish shows do little for me than an, "Oh, cool" moment or two. This year had my genuine excitement with a particular announcement riling me up.

I hadn't really expected thing one out of Nintendo, and they managed to keep that justified. Attaching 'new' in front of Super Mario Bros. always managed to instantly piss me off, but the four-player co-op looks fairly interesting. Naturally, I expected Online components far beyond their comprehension and I was not surprised there, either. I'll be picking up a used copy of that. And there was Mario Galaxy 2. Why Mario's crowning moment, Super Mario 64, didn't get a sequel is beyond me. But hey, let's reward mediocrity.

But Sony's offerings thoroughly impressed. Uncharted 2 is a new and improved sequel to one of my favorite titles thus far, with a charm from Drake's character that would put even Nathan Fillian to shame. And he was the fuckin Captain. God of War 3 is God of War in high def so I'm already sold. Easily the most viscerally bloody title in a while.

MAG was surprising. Not in the fact that I enjoyed the demonstrations they showed, with the sense of scale and chaotic combat, but with just how much I liked it. The idea of commanding or just being part of 127 dudes and me gunning down 128 other dudes at the same time is flooring and the Zipper guys have the pedigree to pull it off.

Sony's motion controller looked infinitely more promising than the competition's exploits so far. Natal is not only ridiculous, it's redundant. There is the tired promise of innovation and remarkability, but it is nothing the PlayStation Eye has to offer. With the 1:1 ideal of the motion controller, the possibilities are not limitless and are not advertised as such. But those that are there are seriously impressive, with the idea of Nintendo's depth and their own sense of control.

What really dropped my jaw was the announcement of Final Fantasy XIV. Sony's Jack Tretton had just shown the trailer for FFXIII, and mentioned it coming to the console. Then he stood, straight-faced, and just threw it out there. The auditorium was as dumbstruck as I was; Thirteen isn't out yet, and he expected us to believe Fourteen was coming the same year. It seemed like a joke. Even got a few guffaws. But fuck if the trailer didn't start up, a sweeping shot of a nice little vista and the traditional music. Not only was it not a prank, they started mentioning 'returning' and 'joining hands again.' It was the first time in years I'd genuinely been put on the edge of my seat. There was no fucking way it was what I thought it was. Final Fantasy XIV's logo went up and cheers started, but promptly stopped--Online was debuted just under the title. Fuck them, that was when I started cheering. Square Enix's rumored, secret, secretly-rumored Online title was the follow-up to the one of the single greatest titles I've ever enjoyed. As an added bonus, it was on my system of choice and it looked gorgeous. I just downloaded the trailer from the Japanese PSN to watch it in hiyar defz; the scene on the boat looked in-game, and I noticed a Mithra casting something odd. The Galka's animations looked impressive, as did the Hume's. But... I saw no Taru, which is particularly strange considering their forefront of FFXI's announcement trailer. I'm entirely convinced there would be massive uproars over the omission of the Japan-standard tiny cute peoples. They just can't not include them.

In the now, though, gaming is going fairly well. Don't have any sort of funds for new titles, but there's plenty to be had as it is. Despite Rose's low-tier rankings, she continues to be my main force of destruction in SFIV and has helped me climb the ranks. Free Realms has topped 2.5 million players, and I happily remain in the top 10 for a few of the tower defense mini-games. The Uncharted 2 multiplayer beta went live after the second night of E3, and find it works much better than I hoped; the mechanics are surprisingly solid in a fast-paced multiplayer environment, and the community is strong--even in a beta state. For the 'no one on PS3 has a mic' rhetoric, I'm not finding that problem. Fight Night Round 4 was a supreme disappointment as the demo went up the other day, but the Overlord 2 demo helped ease the pain.

Need to upgrade my PS3's hard drive, though. The space is far past its brim, with the amount I download. Rock Band's folder is sitting at 12 gigs already with all the purchased songs, and I've only one real demo sitting on the system right now. Deleted my music to make space, along with a few games I'll just have to redownload later. Too many quality offerings on the PSN. Inconsiderate fuckers.

Edit: Ha. Went through the trailer again and again looking for the elusive Tarutaru, and there they were in the artwork by the title. Only times I'd looked over it weren't high enough quality to really see, and I hadn't bothered checking since. Durr.