Well E3 certainly was a very interesting conference for Sony, and the future of Playstation 3, however interesting is not always a good thing.  The biggest complaint among gamers leaving the conference was the price of Playstation 3.  With a starting price of $500 for the 20 GB model, and a $600 price tag for the 60 GB model, many gamers are no longer able to afford buying a new Playstation 3 console, especially when Microsoft and Nintendo are offering their systems for substantially less.  It is understandable that Sony is including a lot more features in the PS3, then it ever did in the PS2, but the question is whether a $200 price increase from the PS2 launch is justified by the addition of a hard drive, wireless controllers, brand new hardware within the console, and all of the other new features?  Personally, I am really excited about all of these new feautres, but I’m puzzled why Sony is not able to offer a bare bones version of PS3 for somewhere in the $300-400 price range.  Sure Sony can not stay financially stable and offer the full PS3 for $300, but if they took out the hard drive, used slightly less powerful hardware, and used slightly less powerful graphics couldn’t they offer something at a lower price?

$500 is quite a bit of money for a gaming console in today’s electonics market.  For $500, you can buy a decent PC.  For $500, you can buy a nice television set.  For $500, you can buy a nice stereo.  $500 just seems too much money for the base model of a console.  Throw in the cost of an extra controller, a memory card, and a few games, and you are looking at an initial price of almost $700.  The question is whether or not there is any game out there on the market that you want to play on PS3 so badly that you will be compelled to shell out all that cash.  Sure, PS3 is going to be the must have gift for Christmas 2006, and it will most likely sell out within stores within hours, but I think you are going to see a lot of the casual gamers turning away from Sony, and choosing to purchase an Xbox 360, or a Nintendo Wii, simply because of cost.

Hopefully for Sony’s sake, and PS3’s sake, they will be able to lower the prices soon after the launch.  It would be a shame to see  Sony lose its market share to Microsoft and Nintendo simply because of pricing alone.  Overall, the PS3 console is amazing, but price is defintely going to be a major problem.

We finally have aquired some photos from the Sony booth at E3. Enjoy!

At E3 2006, we got our first glimpses of Madden 07 on PS3, and it was very impressive. Not only did Electronic Arts deliver a spectactular video of Madden 07, but a working demo of an actual game within Madden. After all, last year at E3, EA only delivered a short clip of one player in one stadium in one game in their preview of Madden 06 for Xbox 360. Though not a lot of information was released about the game, a few new features were announced.

The first new feature is called Run to Daylights. This new feature allows you to block for your running back as the lead blocker, and open up huge holes for your back to run through. Using the right analog stick you are then able to choose which type of block to throw upon the defender. Flick the analog stick up and you will do a pancake block, or flick it down to perform a cut block. The computer AI will control the running back and do its best to follow your blocking.

Another new feauture in Madden 07 for PS3, is a new mini-camp mode. In the new mini-camp, you walk around a practice field, and have the ability to showcase your speed in a 40 yard dash,or your strength by bench pressing. All the practice will gradually improve your players, and allow them to perform better on gamedays. However, as in real life, there is always the risk of overtraining and injuring yourself in the process.

The last notable improvement in Madden 07 is the new graphics. There is field degradation, which simply means as you run and chew up the grass, the grass will turn to dirt, and get in worse and worse condition the more plays you run there. Likewise, when it is raining there will now be puddles on the field, only adding to the realism.

Our initial impression of Madden 07 was very good. It is still early, however Madden 07 appears to have all the components of past Madden games, which have proven to be successful. As new information is announced, we will update this preview, and hopefully have a nice juicy preview in time for the November 2006 launch of Madden 07.