Xboxen weighing as much as they do, I was unable to bring my 360 with me to Japan. Even though a brand spanking new PS3 was one of my first purchases upon landing, the last few months have been tough from a gaming point of view.

While Resistance proved to be rather excellent,  other big name titles like Minna No Golf 5 and Motorstorm left me completely cold. That the 360 was playing host to triple-A titles like Bioshock and, more recently, Halo 3 compounded my woe.

Anyway, last week I attended the Tokyo Game Show - press pass in hand, due to my work with gamestoaster. The event offered a glimpse into the direction the various industry players are heading.

Microsoft are still trying valiantly to win over the Japanese gamer, with big Japanese franchises like Winning Eleven, Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden and Virtua Fighter all appearing on the 360, as well as cult shooters Rez and Ikaruga. That Rez is coming to Xbox Live Arcade in hi-def bells & whistles form makes me all kinds of jealous.

It was Sony, though, that really impressed me. As well as having the undoubted game of the show on their console in Metal Gear Solid 4, they had such an array of titles on display that crossed every genre and demograph. Whereas currently their line-up consists of banal RPGs and racing games, over the next year that line-up will expand to include  big budget titles like Singstar, The Eye of Judgement, Killzone, Metal Gear Online, Time Crisis 4, beautiful indie titles like Echochrome and fl0wer, as well as some visually arresting, if not truly innovative, RPGs and racers like Valkyrie of the Battlefield and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, respectively. Playstation Home was kept under wraps, while the mysterious Afrika remains little more than a title and beautiful screenshots at the moment.

Add multi-platform titles like Assassin’s Creed, Guitar Hero III, Resident Evil 5 and Devil May Cry 4 to the list, and the next 12 month is looking good.

Until these games start to hit store shelves (Christmas is mercifully fast approaching, so the yearly deluge of games is about to begin), I’ll have to entertain myself with the Japanese-only 20th Anniversary box set of the Metal Gear games.