E3 Press Conference and Show Impressions

*sigh* Do I really need to do this? Well, no one is begging me to say my thoughts except myself (that I needed to let all of my feelings of the big event out). So, I’ll now explain my thoughts about what I thought of this year’s E3. If you want the final resutls of the conferences and the other events, etc; just skip down to the bottom of the page, otherwise continue reading.

Now then, let me start off with a warning by saying that I didn’t see all of the conferences, but one of them I have read and watched some information about it and will give my opinion about it, but for now, I won’t tell you which one it is. And also, these are my opinions, if you disagree with me about some of my thoughts, that’s fine but no rambling on how “wrong” I am or else you’re making yourself look like an douchebag in the process.

Let me start off with Microsoft, I had a bit of hope going for them but this turned out to be a bit of a mixed bag. But first let me state the positives (that I think about the conference)…

One of the games that I was finally happy to see at the conference was Remedy’s Alan Wake, it’s been a while since we’ve seen anything new about this game and it’s the also the first time we’ve seen gameplay and how it works out, I’m also hoping for a good story as Remedy did the first two Max Payne games and they both had great storylines and this one feels like a movie based on a Stephen King novel with the shady town, the shadows and everything. So, it’s a pick up for me next year.

A surprise happened at the conference was Cliffy B and Epic Games latest showing which was to my surprise was a Gears of War 3, it’s Shadow Complex. It’s an XBLA title that uses the Unreal 3 Engine and it looks like a homage to the original Metroid games as you go through stages in a lush 2.5D world in a non-linear pattern, it’s nice to see a 2.5D game from time to time and I’ll be checking it out as it comes along.

Another surprise was Hideo Kojima making an apperance at the conference presenting a new MGS game subtitled Rising, although I wasn’t going to be too fond of it since I feel like the franchise should have ended at 4, but since it’s more focusing on Raiden, it should be something different. While not an exclusive, MGS: Rising should be something to look forward to. (I didn’t mind Raiden in MGS 2 to be comepletely honest.)

Two more surprises that came out was Crackdown 2 and Splinter Cell: Conviction. When the first Crackdown came out, most people ignored the game in-favour of the Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta Demo, I was Not one of those people since I was never interested in Halo in the first place. But Crackdown 2 is something that I’m excited it about that if they fix a few problems with the first one (like some driving issues and minor glitches) as well as expand on the first one (as they are with 4-player online co-op), I’m all set to go. While I don’t think Splinter Cell: Conviction will be an exclusive, it left a really awesome impression on me as it changed everything that we seen before but now for something fresh (you can be stealthy like the past games but can do hand-to-hand attacks and gunplay, it’s a little more diverse and more brutal and doesn’t try to act the previous ones (since I wasn’t impressed with the original to be fair with everyone).

But that’s were all the pluses end there, now onto some negatives that I find with this conference…

Final Fantasy XIII, NOT AN EXCLUSIVE! XD Plus, I’m not as keen as a few people are but I may check it out. (This is a minor flaw btw, so it’s not a real negative but we all knew that it’s nothing new since it was announced last year as a multiplatform game.) This is also the same with Rock Band: The Beatles, This game is taking the same route as Guitar Hero is (which is kinda bad in a sense of milking out but not as worse than GH), I’m not a fan of The Beatles (I’m sorry to those who are) and since Rock Band came out FAR too late in Australia, I feel like I shouldn’t matter anymore and just import Rock Band 2 on the PS3 and play that with the GH:WT instruments.

Tony Hawk’s Ride, I’m not really for the newer Tony Hawk games anymore since the franchise has sorta died for me when American Wasteland was released and also having the skateboard perephiral isn’t that impressive, so no buy for me. Another game on Activision’s list that I’m not looknig forward to (which is not an exclusive either) is Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 2 and while I did enjoy the first one, I didn’t think it was “incredible” as some people mention out to be because (to be honest) it felt more like the same COD but with a different setting. While the Single-player had some really cool moments (like the training, title screen and the ending shootout) but the entire single-player was really short and since I’m not much of a Multiplayer gamer, I may skip this as a buy but I may check it out for the hell of it (to see if it’s improved like Gears 2 was).

JoyRide? Pfft… While to have a free game on the XBLA is cool but this game looks like Mario Kart with Trackmania mixed together, so no go for me. Forza 3? Nope, because I’m not a fan of racing simulation games (like Gran Turismo) since I think the steering tries to become too realistic that I don’t like the feel of it as compared to Arcade racers (like Burnout and Ridge Racer).

The two Halo titles, Halo 3: OSDT and Halo: Reach. Why am I not surprised to see Halo still dragging on? But I am surprised since Bungie seem to be incapable of making something different that isn’t an FPS since Oni on the PC/PS2. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying Halo is a crappy series but seriously, it’s one of the many reasons why I can’t stand much FPS games these days and it should have ended at 3.

And finally the new Project “Natal” and adding Facebook and Twitter to the Xbox 360. First of all, if you don’t know what Project “Natal” is, it’s essentially the Eye Toy for the Xbox 360 with more added crap like a Built-in voice reconigition microphone. While not much has been stated about this camera, rather than a few demos on how it’s capable of using your avatar to move around, controlling your Xbox Dashboard with it as well as a few games to display it’s capabilites, but I’m not entirely convinced since it feels nothing more but a knock off of the Eye toy. But to my surprise during that event was Peter Molyneux of Lionhead Games (which has done both Fable games) had an interesting project to go into “Natal” which was “Milo’s World” which the user interacts with a 3D rendered boy on screen and can talk different things and do activities with him. While it is a unique concept, I am not so sure if it’s going to work out well and with the recent promises that Molyneux has troubles to deliver, it may seem a bit hard to believe if it would be anything “revoluntionary”. Now as for Twitter and FaceBook, I only have one sentance to say… Whatever is created on the internet, Stays on the internet. Because I have a really hard time believing how people can have website materials onto the home console, it just can’t work (well, at least for me that is) since it’s best on the PC.

So overall, Microsoft wasn’t too bad with it’s interesting line of games that I’m looking forward to, but hurts the line up with the attempt to milk out Halo and also putting out “Natal” (which shows a bit of promise but not by much) and these services which is not worth it for the Xbox 360, it’s catering to what the Wii’s image is but only more sillier. Now with that out of the way, now onto the next conference I saw…

Nintendo…

I know a lot of people were thinking that that their press conference was going to suck worse than last year’s (which I did not see but heard it was a huge embarassement) but I begged to differ when I saw this (and let me warn you, I may end up cursing a lot in this part).

Now granted, it was a little lackluster compared to the other two conferences by Microsoft and Sony… HOWEVER, this conference was an improvement over last year’s event. But I’ll explain all that by first starting with the good things I saw this year’s conference.

Starting out with a surprise I know called Final Fantasy: The Crystal Bearers. I never played any of the Crystal Chronicles games before and while I think the FF franchise needs to be put to rest but this was a really interesting looking game to me, I may check it out sometime.

Three interesting DS titles were showing, the first one I noticed was the 3rd installment of the Mario & Luigi RPG games subbed “Bowser’s Inside Story”, Ubisoft’s C.O.P: The Recruit and finally (and you know it) Legend of Zelda: Track Spirits. While I never played any of the Mario and Luigi games, this one seems to a little intriguing as it seems to play like Super Mario RPG (on the Virtual Console) as well as a few interesting puzzles in the game. C.O.P looks to be a interesting title since it combines 3rd-person shooting and driving into one cartridge but I’m kinda fearing it since Ubisoft has been notorious for putting out forgettable titles on the DS but this shows a little bit of promise. Spirit Tracks is an odd choice for me since I’m no fan but I do like Zelda games and I have tried Phantom Hourglass and I do know that some people didn’t like that game but I thought it was good, I may get that at one point.

Awesome Third-Party titles for the Wii. Now before I continue on, I need to rant about this comment that I’ve been hearing about “Oh, Nintendo are so lazy and cater so much to the casual gamers that they can only rely on the Third-party developers to make their Hardcore games for the Wii and they’re so shitty that no one wants them!”, Now first off I want to ask this… Since when did Nintendo, Microsoft or Sony develop their own games by themselves? They never did, while they do develop games for their systems, they all heavily rely on Third-party developers to make the games for the systems, like Microsoft relied on Epic Games to develop Gears of War 2 (Exclusively) on the Xbox 360 but no matter if it’s a console exclusive or anything, Epic Games will develop games on any console. So, I don’t know what people are bitching about.

But back to the 3rd Party titles, I’m talking about Sega’s The Conduit (but High Voltage software have more up their sleeve for the Wii), EA’s Dead Space: Extraction and Capcom’s Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles (but I’m not so sure on RE since The Umbrella Chronicles wasn’t that good in my opinion but then again, I’m not an RE fan, but I may give this one a chance) and also third party titles that utilise the Wii Motion Plus accessory, starting with Ubisoft’s Red Steel 2 (I didn’t think the first one wasn’t that bad imo afterr giving it a second try), Sega’s Virtua Tennis 2009 (designed as equal to the HD console versions) and EA’s Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2010 (Haven’t played a Tiger Woods game since 2003 on the Xbox). This show’s that the third-party titles for the Wii are improving since they have can now pay more attention to the console’s capabilities, utilise the Wiimote better and hopefully these games can be just this good as the other consoles, so no more of this “shovelware” BS that the Wii had (but seriously, every console in the past has “shovelware” no matter how powerful the system is).

But the biggest surprise that I was very happy to hear (along with Nintendo’s plan to make a Trilogy disc for the Wii) is their team up with Team Ninja to develop Samus Aran’s backstory in Metroid: Other M. Now, I did notice a few criticisms against this game which I feel the need to address. #1: “Team Ninja? Oh the same asswipes who does the DOA series, what are they gonna do? Give Samus a Boob job and have her playing Volleyball?”, No! Team Ninja isn’t just well known for that (Maybe not so much anymore since Itagaki left) but well known for the 3D Ninja Gaiden games which are truly awesome but so hard and by looking at the trailer for Metroid: Other M, it looks like it has elements of Ninja Gaiden with Metroid in it which I thought it wasa big surprise. #2: “Why do we need to know more about Samus’s backstory? We already know what it is!”, Well me personally since I’m not much of a Metroid fan, I don’t but even if we already know the backstory, so what? It can be fleshed out and be more elaborated to know how we know Samus today and finally, #3: “A new mature franchise, ey Reggie? Well, you are fucking liar”, Reggie Fils-Aime (President of Nintendo of America) NEVER said it was going to be a “new” franchise, it was going to be “a fresh look at a storied franchise” (if I got that right), something that is new within an exsisting franchise! And I’m happy that Nintendo is doing this because this looks impressive (for an early trailer though) and I’m now expecting a challenge since Team Ninja has been known for creating difficult games (like their teamed company Tecmo).

Now there are a few other interesting things to note like Kingdom Hearts DS, Golden Sun DS (My brother is looking forward to both of those titles), New Super Mario Bros. Wii (may be cool for some people but I was rather hoping a sequel to the NSMB on the DS), Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Yoshi is back! ) and some DSiware games but I’m not looking forward to them as much as a few people are. But now with the good stuff out of the way, now onto the bad…

How much can Nintendo keep stroking their egos about how many Wiis and DS systems have sold? We know that already, they sold more than anyother system in this generation but seriously, stop telling us this! It’s not worth mentioning anymore! Jesus… *facepalm*

Wii Fit Plus and Wii Sport Resort, What can I say? Just because they worked the first time, doesn’t mean it’s gonna sell well again. The main reasons why Wii Sports sold well (and became the top selling game of all time) was because it came with the console (like Super Mario Bros. with the NES) and why Wii Fit sold well because it was a unique accessory that also served a very good purpose for those who wishes to get fit and healthy (as well as destroying the statement of “Video Games are not healthy”), so what’s the point of making a sequel to them? Yes, Wii Sports Resort has some different games (including a more improved version of Golf) and Wii Fit Plus has more additions, different games for you to excercise on (including a Mario Bros. style game) and you can get this with a Balance board for those who haven’t got it already but the first one sold 15 million already. So, I’m not looking forward to those titles because I’m planning to get a Wii Balance board in the future because I want to play Shaun White Snowboarding (as well as the announced sequel) and hoping for some new games that can utilise the board itself and as for Wii Sports Resort? If I wanted to get a game that uses the Wii Motion Plus, I’ll get something else with it, which I’ll talk about next.

Now for something we already know, Wii Motion Plus. Why bring this up again? We’ve heard about it last time, so what’s the point? Plus, Nintendo is charging us to have this add-on to have more accuracy which is something that should have been perfected in the first place. So I think the add-on should be given to Wii Users for free (via phone call or email like the Wiimote Jackets), but a good thing that there are games coming out that uses this add-on (as I mentioned earlier) and some are going to be bundled with the add-on (games like EA’s Tiger Woods PGa Tour 2010 and Ubisoft’s Red Steel 2) but probably add more cost to the price but it wouldn’t bother me if the game (by itself) is retailed for $79.95 and the bundled pack could be at least $99.95 (like some Wii games), so that’s good enough for me.

A Murder Mystery DS game from novelist James Patterson… Woo… Next! Wait, a fashion game for girls? I don’t mind encouraging the female audience into video games but I’m not so sure about this one.

CEO of Nintendo Satoru Iwata comes on stage to talk about Nintendo’s next Wii accessory known as the Vitality Sensor, an add-on to the Wiimote that attachs to your finger to read your pluse. When I saw that, I nearly thought to myself “Have you lost your mind?”. I mean, what use will it be? More games towards the casual audience or what? Well, I can’t judge too much about the whole thing since we know very little of what games are going to be compatible for this accessory, however Suda 51 stated that he has ideas fot the Vitality Sensor (so, that’s something interesting to look out for).

And to top it all off is the ability to use your Nintendo DSi to upload pictures that are taken from the DSi camera (and possbily edited if you wish) onto Facebook. I don’t even use Face Book (well, not anymore) nor do I even care. I may have cared if I could upload my pics from a DSi (if I ever have one, which I may in the future) to Photobucket.

So… What do I think of Nintendo’s conference overall? Well, It could have been better but I’m happy to say (and I may get hate for this) that Nintendo has pulled it off this year (No joke, I’m serious). It is WAY better than last year (which I did not see last year but I did hear about it and it seemed an embarassment for Nintendo) because at least this year wasn’t some crappy lecture on a game that no one was going to care (Wii Music), seeing the VP of Nintendo America Cammie Dunaway playing Shaun White on the Wii Balance Board or (possibly the worst part for everyone which is was also a surprise) annoucing only one hardcore game at E3 and it was just a logo (which didn’t sell because no “hardcore” gamer buys them and that’ll be a rant for another time). So, would anyone would have prefered last year than this year? No, because at least this year, Cammie didn’t embarass herself (although I think she shouldn’t be on the stage but that’s not the point), they didn’t lecture us on one crappy game and best of all, harcore games from Nintendo and better support from 3rd parties! And for those who think video games should ALWAYS have blood, gore and all of this other stuff that is considered “hardcore”… You sir, are a lost cause (seriously). (To me, a true “hardcore” game is difficulty.)

Now with that out of the way, We’ll move on to the final conference (which I did not see due to work and it was a very late night as it was after Nintendo’s conference but I have read about it).

Sony. They haven’t had a big showing over the past years since the PS3 started on a bad foot but will this year be better? We’ll start with the negatives before I talk about the positives.

Right from the bat, I noticed one thing that can go wrong for sony and it was two words… PSP Go. A supposed predecessor to the original PSP (which I happily own) and the PSP Slim and Lite. While the design looks pretty nice and stylish, it still retains the one flaw that still hinders since the launch of the original PSP, the lack of a second analog stick. While it isn’t a huge problem for me since I got over it when it came out but the Dual analog sticks have been a staple of Sony’s controllers since the first Dualshock controller on the PS1. But what really hurts the PSP Go for me is that there is no UMD support and all games have to be bought via download… What the fuck?! My biggest problem with the PSP Go is that since there is no UMD support, it feels like it’s catering more to the game pirates who hack their PSPs to play roms of old games (which is fine for me) and also play newer games on the PSP illegally (which I’m not cool with it) and also if I wanted to get a PSP Go, how am I going to play my old PSP games? (that are on UMD discs btw.) But supposedly, Sony is trying to develop a way to have everyone put their UMD games on their brand new PSP Go at no extra charge, so that’s a good thing but there’s one more thing that could really stop people from getting the PSP Go and what is that? The retail price… $250US (roughly $318AU). A bit too steep I might ask unless if you want to trade your PSP with a few games at a EB or so to get it cheaper. So, I really don’t think I’ll be trading in my PSP anytime soon, while it may have a few things going for it, I feel like it’s only a minor update and somehow (but not intentionally) encourages more game piracy (I’m sorry but it’s true).

Now onto the next big surprise which is something that may be better from the other but is it going to do any better? I’d really doubt it. I’m talking about Sony’s Motion Controller… Now I can’t criticised too much about it since it’s in the prototype stages at the moment and while it is good to see on how Sony was able to intergrate the 1:1 movement into the controller and from what I’ve seen in a video demo, it seems to have a bit of promise if the developers know what they’re doing. However I have two big flaws about this new controller, first off (like Natal) the motion controller feels like an expensive cash-in to Nintendo’s big success with the Wiimote and even if the controller may be better than the Wiimote (since you wouldn’t have to pay extra for the Motion Plus) but is it ever gonna kick off like the Wii did? I just have a strong feeling that it just won’t and to make matters a little worse (and this is the 2nd flaw I have with it), from what I’ve seen in the video somehow requires the Playstation Eye to use the controller with. Now with the Playstation Eye being an improve version over the original Eye Toy camera but since there’s not many good titles to make people think a reason why they should have the camera, I don’t see why I should bother now for the controller. If I was wanting to get the controller for a game that I would like to play with it, I’d have to buy the controller and the camera and that would cost more than the Wii Motion Plus! Now, I’m not sure if you actually NEED a Playstation Eye to use the motion controller with (since Sony hasn’t stated anything yet about the controller having it’s own Sensor, hopefully not as crappy as Namco’s G-con 3 gun, I’ve rented that with Time Crisis 4 once, it barely functions) but if they say you do need it, I am literally going to freak out in agony and start destroying my old Eye Toy. I didn’t mean to be harsh about an accessory that is still in development but since Sony has made a lot of mistakes in the past, I’m not trusting this one. Unless if they can sell me with something (like a game, a smart gimmick, deal or something), then I’ll say to them “Good luck trying”.

Now, I have one more thing to say about the conference is an upcoming PSP bundled with Hannah Montana. Whoopee, a PSP with a game based on a cash cow produced by Disney. Seriously, what happened to the good old days?

Now I’ve finally gone out the negatives of the Sony Press Conference, now I’ll finally get on to the good stuff. Something that we can all care about and that is…. GAMES! One thing that I’m really happy that Sony has got more games to offer than last year for the PS3 and PSP!

I’ll start off with what they showcased for the PSP that a lot of great games coming out that I’m excited for (which I’ll list them later) and they have an offering to what we can get for the PSP in the future on either via UMD or via Download on the PSN.

Speaking of the PSN, I’m surprised to read that they’re putting out 50 PSone classics to download onto the PS3 or PSP including (the most anticipated of the bunch and recently released) Final Fantasy VII.

Another big surprise I heard was Rockstar Games announcement of Agent for the PS3 and while it was quite little to mention (since Rockstar is an exclusive company), we can hope the better for this game (and hopefully L.A. Noire if they’re still working on it).

And finally, the biggest surprise that I’m happy to hear is the long line of games that are coming out for the PS3 including some exclusives that I’m quite psyched for (like God of War III, hoping it comes in a bundle with the first two games on Blu-ray and possibly, The Last Guardian which my brother will want) and some I’m not so excited for (like MAG and FF XIV) but I’ll cover them in a moment.

So overall, there’s really not much to say about Sony (especially since I didn’t see the actual conference) and while in the hardware department, it’s nothing really special (and loses the surprise since the PSP Go was leaked before E3) but the line up of games they showcased has promise to show that Sony isn’t backing down with the PS3 and PSP.

So those are all the press conferences of E3 2009, I’m not going to go through with the whole rating system to see which one is the best but I can say that all of them did their best (more better than last years that is since E3 is back to it’s original form) and they all had a fair share of offering what awesome things that we can expect in the future of gaming. I wish the best to Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo and all the third parties developers/publishers in their efforts.

Now, It’s time for the list of games that I’m excited for that were shown at this year’s E3: (Source: Wikipedia and various game sites)

• Alan Wake
• Heavy Rain
• Brutal Legend
• Mass Effect 2
• Darksiders: Wrath at War
• Crysis 2
• Dante’s Inferno
• Battlefield 1943
• All 3 Wii games by High Voltage Software (The Conduit, Gladiator A.D and The Grinder)
• Uncharted 2
• Dead Space Extraction
• Resident Evil Archives: Resident Evil
• Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth
• Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
• APB
• Borderlands
• Shadow Complex
• Dead to Rights: Retribution
• Bayonetta
• Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
• Muramasa: The Demon Blade
• Sin & Punishment 2
• Bioshock 2
• Mafia 2
• Wolfenstien
• Crackdown 2
• Deamon’s Soul
• Trauma Team
• Shin Megami Tensei: Persona
• A Boy and his Blob
• King of Fighters XII
• Splinter Cell: Conviction
• MGS: Rising
• Metroid: Other M
• Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny
• Tekken 6
• JU-ON: The Grudge
• Ragnarok DS
• Nostalgia
• Red Steel 2
• Cop: The Recruit
• Dissidia: Final Fantasy
• Nier
• Final Fantasy – Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers
• God of War III
• Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Not as keen as the original but I’ll check it out)
  
• Mario & Luigi: Inside Bowers Story
• No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle

Now for the games that I’m either not interested or not so keen on as other people are (I will give reasons why as well):

• Guitar Hero 5 and DJ Hero (Stop it, Activision)
• Assassin’s Creed 2 (I’m sorry but the first one is kinda tedious and I’ve yet to finish it)
• Modern Warfare 2 (May check it out but I’m not expecting anything)
• Tony Hawk’s Ride (Let the series die, Peacefully)
• MAG (Meh, almost trying to be the same as Socom but as an FPS and Socom never interested me, so why this?)
• Final Fantasy XIV Online (How long can you drag the franchise out, Sqaure?!)
• Gran Turismo and Forza games (Main reason: I don’t like Racing Simulators, I prefer Arcade racers)
• Rock Band: The Beatles (I know some people are into this but I’m not as it’s MTV’s attempt to do what Activision is doing with Guitar Hero)
• Mario & Sonic at the Winter Oylmpic Games (I may give it a rent at best)

Now, I’m sure I maybe missing a game or two on my list like Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom, The Sabotuer, Singularity, Dark Void, Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, Professer Layton 2, Left 4 Dead 2 (already?!), Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier, etc. but the reason I didn’t add them was because I’m either not too familar with them or still undecided if I should care or not. So, I’m sorry if you were expecting them to be on my top list but as I’ve said, I’m not sure or haven’t heard much about.

But first I do would like to mention some games that were MIA at E3 that I hoped it was showcased but didn’t for what reasons they are unexplained…

I’m talking about The Last Remnant on the PS3, Final Fantasy XIII Versus, Yakuza 3 (Please Sega!), Splatterhouse, Fragile, Edge of Twilight and possibly a few others which I can’t think of.

There were also games that are showcased like Red Faction: Guerilla, inFamous and Little King’s Story but what’s the point if they’re already released. I can just get them and play them and discuss my thought like a review.

So, that finally closes my long running E3 blog, I hope you’ve all enjoyed it and it’ll be the last blog that I’ll talk about video gaming for a while and while I do have more blogs in the works around that subject, they’re gonna have to be hold off for anothe time.

So until next time, Take care.