This was pretty much copy-pasted from the journal entry I just made on deviantART, so this is without all the bolded parts and stuff. Excuse it being really long, somewhat over-exaggerated at points and… yeah, just really long. It'd best to read it there, I suppose: toadsanime.deviantart.com

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If you care about gaming at all, no matter whether you support Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony or Indie, this will be important to you. Severely important.

First off below is an explanation to Microsoft's new master plan that will change the gaming market forever.

At the bottom is what was announced by Nintendo at the conference, including a new Wii Mario game and a new Metroid one.

To me, E3 lines up as one of my most important events of the year altogether, and stands next to the likes of Christmas and the two yearly MCM expo's. It really is that big for me.

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Part 1: MICROSOFT'S 'NATAL SYSTEM' VIRTUAL CONSOLE-LIKE MASTER PLAN AT E3 THAT WILL CHANGE THE GAMING MARKET FOREVER.

THIS IS WHAT I'M REFERRING TO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03thQvGRVvQ

Right, so I've just checked up on the updates and announcements made at this year's E3 before watching Nintendo's live-feed conference which was on today. It would seem that yesterday an announcement was made that will entirely change the gaming industry forever, and could certainly pose the demise of every other gaming company.

This comes in the form of Microsoft; it comes in the form of the XBOX 360, and it comes in the form of the codenamed Natal system. Watch the advertising trailer of it to understand what I'm talking about; linked above.Seriously, watch that. Whether you care about games or not, this will BLOW YOU AWAY.

That thing is pratically a virtual console. As a gamer, this both excites yet worries me. I'll try to be as unbiased as possible in this journal, though being a Nintendo fan, it's somewhat difficult. I'm the kind of fan that still buys other company consoles and loves them, though, fortunately.

Anyway, I'm sure your initial reaction by that video is pure astonishment and amazement. It was for me, too, though it took me about 5 seconds to ask myself what was to come of Nintendo.

I mean, this can effectively be cited as an extreme upgrade of the Wii's technology. This has the potential to completely wreck Nintendo and replace its current top spot, especially if the Natal system works as well as it does in the promotional video.

Apparentely, according to currently unevidenced sources on the internet, this unit announced yesterday will cost a minimum of £200 to buy seperately. In the video, the unit works perfectly - but then again, so did the Wii in theirs and we all know that didn't exactly have perfect motion sensing. Apparentely, the avatar on screen even screwed about and was irresponsible of the people testing it on stage at the conference yesterday. I say apparentely as I didn't watch the Microsoft live feed personally as I expected nothing special.

Some call this just an upgrade of Sony's failed 'EyeToy'. However, I'll admit that I don't believe this is so. This is something entirely different, and even if it doesn't reach out to Wii's casual gaming market and non-gamers as it hopes to do, it'll still be astounding for XBOX 360 owners. It probably will grab Wii's audiences though, to be honest, and I've already noticed a recent decrease in people's interest in the Wii. For non-gamers, it was just a moment thing. It's not special, new or weird anymore, so some don't play on it and sell it off.

This is< new, though. The Natal system features full-body sensing and movement, full voice recognition, scanning capabilities, full facial recognition and so on. If you watched the video, you would know. This is set to change everything and could appeal to a whole new market.

Its only downfall is its uprise, though. For starters, there's no controller, and I like the concept of controllers. Second of all, everything needs body movement, and I don't think all gamers will be bothered to do that. Games are meant to be played for relaxation and a means to escape reality - bringing reality closer and making us exhausted through movement is pushing further than what the Wii did, and I say this in a negative way. I didn't completely like even the Wii's premise, to be honest. If gamers turn this down, especially what with there being a possibly heavy price tag, it's likely that non-gamers, which is clearly the target audience, will think the same.

In any case, this console which was once thought to be the most hardcore of the lot is now certainly transforming into the most casual of the bunch.

Fortunately, unless Microsoft reaches a handheld market, which they'll probably reach at some time, Nintendo still has the handheld market to reign. Otherwise, we're seeing ourselves go back to the days of being behind the game as we were with the GameCube.

That will mean Nintendo will revert back to their hardcore audience.

However, they've lost a lot of that audience through disloyalty towards it. Since the Wii was released, I claimed that Nintendo would regret putting the hardcore audience as their last priority as if they were again overtaken, that audience would no longer exist. It's a theory that's appearing to become a possible reality.

This might pull off, it might not. Really, it all depends on whether it works as well as it appears to in the video. If it does pull off well and sells well, it'll change the gaming industry forever. As they have built upon the Wii, other companies will build upon the Natal system, meaning that we'll probably never see another game controller on a games console, and instead this new concept will continue to evolve as the dominating gaming industry concept.

We'll just have to see how things go for Microsoft and Nintendo. It looks like Sony is completely out of the picture if they don't do something quick, though.

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Part 2: THINGS ANNOUNCED/MENTIONED BY NINTENDO THIS E3:

Wii Fit Plus, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Wii Sports Resort, Wii MotionPlus, Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days, Final Fantasy - Crystal Chronicles: Crystal Bearers, Mario & Luigi RPG: Bowser's Inside Story, Golden Sun DS, Women's Murder Club - Games of Passion, COP - The Recruit, Style Savvy, DSi, Flipnote Studio Movie Maker, Mario Vs. Donkey Kong - Mini's March Again, WarioWare: Myself, Facebook/DSi interaction, Wii Vitality Sensor, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, Super Mario Galaxy 2, The Conduit, Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, Dead Space - Extraction, METROID: OTHER M by Team Ninja and Nintendo. It's an Adventure/Horror game, not an FPS</b>.

The conference ends there, with the whole show building up to that last Metroid trailer. They even put its priority above Super Mario Galaxy 2, and it got the biggest applause of the conference.

Not as bad as last year's conference, but I expected more somehow, like something to fire back at Microsoft's new master plan. There was no mention of Sin and Punishment 2 and I think everyone expected something Pikmin-related, too. Still, a new Wii Mario game, and a Metroid game that looks like my next most-wanted game; the last two being Mario Kart Wii and Smash Bros. Brawl.