E3 - 2009

[viruszero]

At the time of writing, I have just watched the first press conference by Microsoft...

For those who haven't seen it, here is a breif overview:

- Rockband: Beatles. Yeah, a whole game devoted to the beatles... (Not exclusive, but has a single, yes... A single track that is exclusive for the 360 version.)

- CoD6 - Modern Warfare 2. They showed a brief bit of the gameplay. (Not a 360 exclusive.)

- Tony Hawk: Ride. A game that uses a custom built skateboard type device for a controller. (This game is not 360 exclusive.)

- A demo of Final Fantasy 13, along with the prospective release date of spring 2010.

- Halo 3: ODST. Set just before Halo 3... You play as a rookie soldier.

- Forza Motorsports 3. "The definitive racing game" as called by the designers of the game. A bit pre-emptive but the demo and breif gameplay footage didn't look too bad. The customization tools that allow users to completely customize their car, create videos of it and do all sorts of other neat stuff they wouldn't tell us about.

- Metal Gear Solid: Rising. A new installment of the MGS series... Unfortunately not much was shown about this.

- Splinter cell: Convictions. Some gameplay footage of this new splinter cell game. (This one may be a 360 exclusive, but I can't remember for sure if they said it was.)

- Crackdown 2. Just a trailer for the game.

- A new game (Sorry, the name escapes me at the moment) that is a sidescroller with elements of castlevania and metroid. (Is 360 exclusive and will be available on the XBL market place.)

Then the 360 gets a few upgrades...
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Last.fm
All are added to the 360 in a special custom format.

The video section of XBL made the videos available in more regions and in 1080p (high definition). They also said available instantly... But I'm not sure what that means, because I thought they already had streaming video.


And for the major announcement about the hardware... Project Natal.
Ditch the controller, the 360 (with this software/hardware bundle) can now use full body recognition and voice recognition technology to allow the user to control the 360 with just their hands. (Think the eyetoy or live-eye or whatever Microsoft's camera was called, only expanded a bit.)


So for everyone now... What are your thoughts on these news events?

(I'll post up/edit this post with breif details of the other press releases as I see them so even those who haven't seen E3 can get a basic idea of what has happened.)

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EDIT: Jun 2nd 2009. 2:20 PM

Nintendo's press conference details follow:

- Super Mario Bros (Rev). Taking the classic Mario brothers and redesigning it for the Rev. New graphics and a multiplayer mode that allows up to 4 people to play together. Is set to be released Holidays 2009.

- Motionplus and resort plus. A bit more showing the motion plus addition and 3 more minigames from the series. (3 point challenge, archery, skydiving.) Comes out in July.

- Red steel 2. (Shown at the Ubisoft conference...) Requires use of the motionplus. Showed a demo of it and gameplay footage of one of the levels.

- RevFitplus. Expanding on what the first Revfit did, this adds much more to it.

- Vitaility sensor hardware attachment. Used to detect heart rate. (And allow people to relax more.)

- Final Fantasy: Crystal Bearers. Not much was revealed.

- Kingdom Hearts. A unique version of Kingdom Hearts for the rev... Not much else was revealed.

- Golden Sun DS. Continuing the series from 6 years ago now on the DS.

- Mario and Luigi: Bowsers inside story. A sequel to the Mario & Luigi rpgs from the GBA/DS.

- Mario vs. Donkey kong: Minis march again. Features a custom level designer...

- A new Wario ware. With game creation functions.

- Super Mario Galaxy 2.

- The Conduit. (available in 3 weeks)

- Resident Evil: Dark side chronicles. Apparently featuring Leon and Claire Redfield.

- Deadspace: Extraction. Explains the events that lead up to the original Dead space.

- Metroid: Other M. (2010) A seemingly 3rd person metroid game that is said to explain more of the story of Samus.


So now that Nintendo's conference has ended, how do you think it compares to the Microsoft one? Did Nintendo step up and dethrone Microsoft or is Microsoft's still more impressive? And what do you think of their announcements?

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EDIT: June 2nd 2009. 5:15 PM


Sony press conference details follows:

- Uncharted 2: Among thieves. Competitive/co-op multiplayer. Game play footage and a bit of the cinematics from that level.

- MAG. Live gameplay footage of a 256 player battle. Debuting this fall.

- Assassin Creed bloodlines. (PSP game coming soon.)

- Final fantasy Dissidia. Launches August.

- PSP Go. (not really a secret... but unveiled anyway.) Available Oct 1st at 249 US/Euro.

- Gran Turismo PSP. Talked about many of the features of it. (800 cars in game, wifi trading of cars, multitudes of tracks and game modes.) Also showed a short demo of it. (Releases Oct 1st.)

- Metal gear solid: Peace Walker. (On PSP.) 10 yrs after MGS3. Showed a breif trailer of it. (Coming 2010.)

- Resident Evil. A remake specifically for the PSP.

- Little big planet (PSP). Announced but not much more was said.

- Motorstorm: Arctic edge. (PSP) Announced but not much more was said.

- Monster Hunter. (PSP) Announced but not much more was said.

- Agent. (PS3 exclusive.) 1970's spy game.

- Assassin's Creed 2. Showed a gameplay demo. Based in Italian renaissance with Leonardo Davinci as weapon/tech designer. (Holidays 2009 launch date)

- Final Fantasy 13. (Spring 2010) Showed a video of it, including more gameplay footage.

- Final Fantasy 14. (PS3 exclusive.) An online based game. (MMO.)

- Tech demos of Motion Controller. Think the Rev's remotes coupled with the eyetoy. (Launch Spring 2010.)

- Modnation Races. (PS3 exclusive.) Kart racing with customizable characters, cars and tracks. Showed gameplay footage of creating a track as well as some racing footage. (2010 release.)

- The Last guardian. (PS3 exclusive.) Showed a trailer for it.

- Gran Turismo 5. (PS3 exclusive.) Showed a trailer.

- God of War 3. (PS3 exclusive.) Showed gameplay footage. (Due for release March 2010.)

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Now that all 3 major players have gone and made their announcements, which looks the best? Who made the best showing at E3 this year? Did Sony topple the others? or did Microsoft's first showing hold strong? Or did Nintendo take it?
Please give your reasons for your answer. (Blatant fanboyism will NOT be tolerated. So if your only reason is: "Cause <system or company> is teh roxxors" Then don't even bother posting it.)

[Silver Stryker]

I've been hearing of ODST for awhile now, so I'm apparently looking forward to it.


And I'm always lookin forward to another MGS game(WHO ISN'T?! I'LL BREAK YOU!!! ) But those are the only two points of interest for me so far. Wait--MGS for the 360...?

[Raikon]

Project Natal looks seriously amazing. Looks impossible at first glance.

Also. Metal Gear Solid Rising stars Raiden and is subtitled "Lightning Bolt Action", probably not an espionage game (Well with the "new" Raiden from MGS4, he wouldn't do something like that.)

And if you check Kojima's site, he already announced a 2nd game, nicknamed "MASK". The console it's for is unknown at the moment, or any details.

Splinter Cell is exclusive I believe.

Sony's conference looks promising as well, will look up for it. (PSP GO! didn't really ruin my expectations)

[viruszero]

As far as project natal goes... I have serious doubts about it. I mean it seems a bit gimmicky. Sure you can go without a controller, but can you play any normal 360 games? (Not the ones that are designed specifically for the project natal.) I wouldn't think you could do it very easily if you could at all.

So at best I think it'd be reserved for a collection of minigames at best... Sound a bit like the Rev? Gimmicky motion sensing... Nah, probably a coincidence.[/sarcasm]

Maybe I'll get proven wrong, I can't say for sure how things will turn out. But I still think it'll just be a gimmick for a few games and nothing else. I mean they've had the tech for it since the inception of the eye toy on the PS2 several years ago. So I don't think it's really anything new or spectacular.

Even the voice recognition software, that's been around for years on computers. And it's flaw is that it requires a considerable level of training the machine to be able to recognise your voice and be able to react to you.

[Raikon]

I believe Natal's impossible. It looks...amazing. Then again, I want them to prove me wrong and I believe they can.

Also if you watched the conference, you'll remember Microsoft's bash against the Wii
"Natal's a full-body experience, it's not like sitting on a couch waggling your hand". And then the internet exploded.

Nintendo's conference was good, I believe it didn't top Microsoft but damn, GOLDEN SUN FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF.

[viruszero]

Nah, the Golden Sun announcement didn't impress me, but the Metroid game did catch my attention. It looks quite good and if it turns good enough, I may actually consider buying a Rev.

But yeah, I remember the jab they made and if they go down the Natal route, they're going to even further down the line that Nintendo seemed to want to head.

Though for comparing them... I wasn't actually blown away by either Microsoft or Nintendo. But the announcement of the Metroid game pushed me more towards Nintendo than Microsoft. 'Cause I know that some of the games from Microsoft's are going to be on PS3 as well, whereas Nintendo pretty much is exclusive in it's entirety. Such as Call of Duty 6... Big deal, I know its on PS3 so it doesn't convince me of anything. Even the MGS game, I'm not sure it's exclusive at all... (Note that it wasn't specifically stated to be a 360 exclusive.)
And since I'm not a Halo fan, it is irrelevant to me. Forza doesn't appeal to me that much either, if I want a racing game... Gran Turismo 4, or I'll wait for 5.

[Silver Stryker]

Golden Sun fail...?Whai...? D:

Where do you guys get the E3 information? I wanna see these things for myself....

[viruszero]

As for where I got the E3 info... It was broadcast live on G4 tech TV... (Which is how I watched it.)
As well it was broadcast on the G4 website (About an hour after the live brodcast begins.)
And at least for the PS3, you can download the coverage off the Playstation Network. (I think it's free, but I haven't checked it out for certain.)

[Raikon]

Now that the Sony conference is done, I'll give my opinion, and I'll try to be impartial.

This year's E3 conferences were all very, very aggresive, specially EA's, but also Microsoft and Sony kept jabbing the Wii right and left.

EA conference's Madden trailer was just "GO BUY THE GAME" said several times and in several different manners. Also no FIFA.

Not only with Project Natal ("Better than waggling your hand"), but with the PS3's new motion-controller that's aiming to replace Eyetoy

All of them announced alot of games, very good ones at that, from Forza 3 right up to Final Fantasy XIV.

The games that interested me the most had to be ODST, the 2 Metal Gears (Rising and Peacewalker) and Golden Sun.

Nintendo's conference was rather disappointing in my opinion. It was better than last years, but comparing to this year's Sony and Microsoft ...

Biggest wow was Final Fantasy XIV. I was in complete awe during that trailer, assuming that they actually returned to their roots, an old-school one. And then they showed it to be an MMO. Hopes crushed.

PSP GO is ugh. Good for most people who never had a PSP (But still, they're to lose alot of good PSP games, since they're not putting them all available for download), but for everyone else, the 3000 is still the best choice since I'm not dumping any of my UMDs.

Sony's new motioncontroller, seems alot more precise than the Wii-Mote, and the demo looked good (Lolgiantsword).

Natal still takes my choice as the best thing in this E3. Hopefully Microsoft will pull it off alright, let's not have another 32X/VirtualBoy/Six-Axis here.

Also viruszero: Kingdom Hearts in the Nintendo conference was the DS one (Going to be released in September). There's none for the Wii.
And Call of Duty 6 is going to have exclusive DLC for the 360.

[viruszero]

Hmm, I wasn't sure which system the new Kingdom Hearts was for, as I was typing that portion up from memory.

For myself, alot of them were ho-hum. Most of Nintendo's presentations were for games I had little interest in.
The fit2, resort 2, vitality sensor (which if you've ever seen a hospital like heart monitor that clips onto your finger... that's exactly what this is. ), and then the myriad of Mario games. I find Mario to be highly overrated, while it is true those games have alot of polish in them, I just don't find them all that appealing.
Well, especially the vitality sensor... I mean I see very little practical application for that for a serious gamer. At best it would seem to be something for the casual gamer with the fitness "games" to use to help keep track of their fitness level.


The Microsoft presentations had a few that looked ok, (if I owned an Xbox...) Such as Crackdown 2 looked good. And the Metal Gear Solid: Rising intrigues me. But that's about it from the 360 that I find interesting and would consider buying.

Even the Sony one... I wasn't that impressed either. Seeing as how for alot of it they focused on the PSP, while that's good enough for some people. I'm not as interested in hand held gaming as I am console gaming.
Though I did like the Uncharted 2 bit... And co-op gameplay is excellent, I rather enjoyed the co-op when playing Resident Evil 5.

MAG also had a moment where I was amused... Seeing the system run with a purported 256 people in a single match with little if any noticeable lag and the breadth of the experience. Such as calling for UAV recon and Carpet bombing. (It reminded me of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.) From what I saw, the map was massive which would be great for sniping battles, tank combat, helicopter combat or more.

As for Final Fantasy 14... I too thought it was gonna be an offline single player game... but as crushed when I found out it was an MMO.


In terms of the hardware announcement of Sony... I dunno, I'm skeptical about this too. I mean it looks like it has precise 1:1 motion ratio, but I want to see some games actually use it before I start making too many judgements on it.

[Chaos Tank]

I'm just pleased that they're making a new Golden Sun and that Team Ninja is assisting in the development of the new Metroid game. Can't wait to see how those go.

Otherwise I'm interested in Dead Rising 2 and want more info on the new Metal Gear games.

[viruszero]

All that has really been said, that I've heard, on the new Metal Gear Solid: Rising is that it's going to be cross platform and it will star Raiden... But beyond that, not much else. I guess Konami wants to keep tightlipped on it.

And I'm a bit pleased that Dead rising 2 will be hitting the PS3 this time. Though I sort of hope that they also release Dead Rising 1 for PS3 as well. (But if they don't, then no big deal.)