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Link to original post: [drupal=1700]E3 Press Conferances, Day One.[/drupal]
So, the first day of E3's over. I didn't go (five-hundred for a ticket is just to much for me) but I did check of the press conferences on Gamespot and G4. By the way, if any of these sound weird it's because it's my train of thought that you're reading.
Ubisoft:
NOTE: I ONLY CAUGHT THE LAST HOUR OF THE UBISOFT PRESS CONFERENCE AND I CANNOT FIND THE REST OF IT ANYWHERE SO THIS IS BASED OFF OF WHAT I DID SEE.
So we got a new Splinter Cell, and a lengthy game play demonstration. Although the Splinter Cell games never really interested me, I’ll admit that this one looks like it’s going to be worth my time. Seriously, Ubisoft looks like they’re going all out with this one. After that we get about fifteen minuets of them rambling on about games for girls between the ages of ten and twelve. Shortly after we get a little preview of a Wii Fit nock-off, only it uses a camera. But they get back on track with a new Rabbids game called “Rabbids go Home.” Although I’ve never played a Rabbids game it’s been interesting to see it evolve from a Rayman spin-off to their own games. Anyway, the new Rabbids reminds me of that one game where you play the weird looking guy rolling of everyday stuff into giant balls, then making them explode into a star, crossed with Tony Hawk. Speaking of which, what ever happened to Tony Hawk? He had a run of interesting games starting on the Playstation and Nintendo 64, then had a number of titles for the PS2 and Game Cube, and after that he had maybe one or two games for the Wii and disappeared.
Okay, moving on… after that we had a brief mention of No More Heroes 2, and then a trailer for the new Ninja Turtles fighting game. The game’s being made by the guys who developed Brawl (so it’s being made by Sora), unfortunately, if the trailers have anything to say then it looks almost EXACTLY like Brawl only with Ninja Turtles characters (Rafael for top tier!). But then they ended their little show case with a cinematic trailer for Assassin Creed II, and I need to be quick to remind everyone that a cinematic trailer and a game play trailer are two different things. Just because the cinematic trailer looked cool doesn’t mean that the game play will be as awesome as the trailer. That said, the trailer is really, really cool. And I mean really cool, in short, it was awesome. Although I am somewhat pissed at them because the words “Prince” and “Persia” were never used in a title.
EA:
So they kick off with an unimpressive trailer for Dante’s Inferno, which looks like it’s just going to be another Spectacle Fighter (games like God of War, God Hand, Madworld)… thanks, but I’ll stick with Devil May Cry. They go on to talk about the Sims 3, I never cared for the Sims and from what they’ve said I don’t think it’s going to convert me into a fan. But if you are a fan, your going to like it, probably. After that we get a guy talking about some little girl’s pet game. A Pajama party game, and things like that.
After getting through that bull we get a guy who loosely resembles Ray Ramano talking about a new Need For Speed. Another series I never cared for, but the guy says that it’s “deep” with in-depth cockpit view and the thing called “driver profile.” Which levels up different driving styles like aggressive and precise. If you’re into racing games then this game was pretty much made for you, otherwise I don’t think it will convert a non-fan.
Next up was a fantasy game called Dragon Age: Origins by Bioware, which I said to be “revolutionary” to the fantasy genre. To be honest, it really doesn’t look much different from any other fantasy game. Yeah, a bit more violent and brutal… but really, was crap scremo music the best choice for the trailer? Either way, it has my interest… after that Bioware shows off Mass Effect 2. I never played the fist one, but it looks like they’ve put a ton of effort into this one. It appears to learn toward the “shooter” aspect this time more so than the RPG aspect. Yeah, I’m going to pick this one up when it comes out… if my PC isn’t still crap by that time.
And suddenly, we cut to a bunch of people playing sports… so EA is sticking with their usual strategy of “re-release the same sports game two billion times.” None of the games look any different then they did last year, so yeah… if you liked EA’s other sports game then you’ll probably enjoy the new ones for this year. The Saboteur was next on the list of games, we got a cinematic trailer that looks pretty interesting… I really don’t know how I feel about this one, to be honest. Another stealth-’em-up? Not sure, just so long as they don’t try to be both a stealth game and a high-speed TPS (Third-Person Shooter) at the same time. Oh yes, and the Nazi’s are the bad guys again, but this time it’s about the French Resistance. I really can’t say how I feel about this one, mixed to say the least.
Brutal Legend was next up on the list, putting a smile on my face. And yes, it looks as funny and awesome as ever, no change here. Oh yeah, and Ozzie’s in it. I can’t freaking wait for this game, it’s going to be too good. Okay, now we have Crytect, just looking for new ways to **** my graphics card. Also, Crysis 2, and it’s going to be on the PS3, 360 and PC. Not much was mentioned other than that on Crytech’s part, but moving on.
The guys who made the first two GTAs, Real Time World, is joining up with EA. Real Time World announces and new game called APB, which is basically a GTA MMO. But from what he said it really boils down to “criminals” or “cops.” If I ever play this game I’ll probably end up being a rouge cop, or something like that. But you know that everyone will be a criminal.
Shortly after, we got something I actually care about: Star Wars, then I heard that one of the guys was from Bioware. Guess what? A new KOTOR game, this time it’s an MMORPG, great… oh well. I like Star Wars, I like Bioware, this might just be a WoW killer. They’re shooting for narrative driven, but that going to be quite a challenge for Bioware because most MMORPGs are game play driven. We get a trailer for the game, and I’m feeling good about this one. The previous two KOTOR games were great, no doubt about it. So I have full confidence in Bioware that they’ll make a pretty cool game. There was no Valve, disappointingly…. I was hoping for Half-Life 3 or at least episode 3. But whatever, Knights of the Old Republic is just as good.
Microsoft:
I’m going to drop the fact that I don’t like the 360 now, alright, here what we have. We start off with a trailer for the Beatles goatherd games. I never really liked the Beatles (wells that unfair, I like some of their songs) but if you like the Beatles and you like Rock Band then here you go, this is for you. Oh yes, and the end of the trailer is about as trippy as it’s going to get. We get a brief history of them and a guy talking about how awesome they were and all of that fun stuff. The game play looks like it’s pretty much unchanged, it’s same old Rock Band. Makes sense, why mess with a winning formula? So the first part of the show was talking about how awesome the Beatles were, taking forever to move onto something else.
But when all of that was out of the way, a guy with the sound a little out of sync with his lips talks about how the new 360 interface which came out last year (which is almost exactly like the PS3’s, by the way) is totally awesome and that in the future they’re going to improve the system some more. And then Tony Hawk appears, there’s Tony! Hey, and there’s going to be a new Tony Hawk game. Hopefully it’s going to be like the only good Tony Hawk games (Pro Skater series), but of course it’s a 360 exclusive. Sorry… bias coming back… anyway, now they have this motion-sensing board that looks like it’s pretty fun to use. Hopefully it won’t end up being a pain in the *** to use.
After this we get another shooter for the 360, what a surprise! Actually it’s Modern Warfare 2, cool. From what I played of the Multiplayer, I though Call of Duty 4 was pretty neat. The game play doesn’t look like they’ve really changed too much, in truth I didn’t see any real visible difference in terms of game play and things to that end. So, yes, Modern Warfare 2 looks as fun and as cool as ever. And to be honest, watching to game play made me suddenly want to play game… so yes, it looks like it’s going to be a barrel of monkeys.
Next up we get Final Fantasy XII, a translator lets us non-Japanese speakers know what he’s saying. They showed us Final Fantasy XII on the Xbox 360, and you know what? It pretty much looks the same as on the 360 as it was on the PS3, in terms of both game play and graphics. I’ve already had my hands-on with Final Fantasy XII so I skipped right on to the next game, well…. I’d tell you what it was but the guy’s mic was crap. From what I can see is just another shooter, only it’s a side-scroller. In truth, it looks like it’s pretty much exactly like Super Metroid in terms of game play, only with Havok physics.
Alright, so after that we have a game called Joy Ride, which is a racing game in which yourMii Avatar goes on a cartoon racing adventure. But now for a real game, in which the tag line is “The City in infected, you are the cure” and so I added, “and the medicine is bullets.” The game is Crackdown 2. Oh yes, and now for an even better game, because it’s made by Valve. Left 4 Dead 2, and it looks as cool as ever (why no PS3 port, man!?). A trailer for the new Splinter Cell, which I already saw in Ubsoft so I just skipped it.
Afterward was another racing game, and guess what? There’s cars in it, you go fast, it looks nice. Pretty much the same old same old as far as racing games go. Okay, now for a game from a series that I like, Halo 3: ODST. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m no fan boy of the series, I just though they were fun games. Okay, now that that’s out of the way, Halo 3: ODST pretty much looks like Halo 3 only with a new interface and main character. Oh yes, and it also looks like it’s trying to be a survival horror game, how cute. Oh, and the cheep-*** Halo 1 pistol is back, cool. Something cool though, you’ll flash back to previous soldiers who died and you get to play the whole thing from their point of view. Pretty cool, Halo 3: ODST looks like it’s shaping up to be a pretty cool game, no way in hell I’m going to buy a 360 for it but if it comes out for the PC I’ll probably pick it up. Also, Bungie announces a new game, Halo: Reach. Okay, hold on a second, is Bungie just incapable of making a non-Halo game? How long are they going to milk this series with countless spin-offs?
Alright, so after that we get a new game called Allen Wake, a Survival Horror that sure as hell has my attention. I just hope that it doesn’t end up sucking terribly, or becoming a Resident Evil cone. But at this point it reminds me more of Silent Hill over anything else. They moved on to talk about how now the 360 has music from Last.fm, what’s next? A Smoothie Machine with your Xbox? The movie aspect is going to be greatly improved, and now you can watch TV on your 360, like it’s a cable box or something. What doesn’t this thing do? So they’re improving their videos and such. Oh yes, and now Facebook is getting involved with 360, making the 360 a freaking Swiss-Army Knife. To wrap this whole thing up, Hidio Kajima himself announces that MGS is going straight to the 360. And they’re going to kick it off with a new Metal Gear Solid game, staring Raiden. I’ve never really been a fan of Metal Gear Solid but hey, more for the fans.
And here’s something new, now you don’t even need a freaking controller to play your Xbox 360. It’s called Project NATAL, ever use the PS2 Camera? Think that only it doesn’t suck, but here’s my question: are we going to have the Wii syndrome? Where it looks cool and is good in theory but in practice it doesn’t work as well as one would think? Basically, Microsoft is trying to go with what I like to call the “Wii Strategy.” You know the strategy, and it appears that Microsoft is trying to do just that. But still, NATAL… that’s an amazing leap in technology. It looks like what the Wii has always been trying to do but…. Only Microsoft has succeeded. My theory was right, in about twenty five years we’re all going to be working in the salt mines of Zorkon IV, ran by overlord Gates. But at least I can say that I freaking called it. Okay, now getting to my point, NATAL is incredible, looking at the tech-demos it works just as well as they’re saying. ****, looking at what Microsoft is doing as a whole, I might end up getting a 360... Seriously, Google NATAL right now.
So, the first day of E3's over. I didn't go (five-hundred for a ticket is just to much for me) but I did check of the press conferences on Gamespot and G4. By the way, if any of these sound weird it's because it's my train of thought that you're reading.
Ubisoft:
NOTE: I ONLY CAUGHT THE LAST HOUR OF THE UBISOFT PRESS CONFERENCE AND I CANNOT FIND THE REST OF IT ANYWHERE SO THIS IS BASED OFF OF WHAT I DID SEE.
So we got a new Splinter Cell, and a lengthy game play demonstration. Although the Splinter Cell games never really interested me, I’ll admit that this one looks like it’s going to be worth my time. Seriously, Ubisoft looks like they’re going all out with this one. After that we get about fifteen minuets of them rambling on about games for girls between the ages of ten and twelve. Shortly after we get a little preview of a Wii Fit nock-off, only it uses a camera. But they get back on track with a new Rabbids game called “Rabbids go Home.” Although I’ve never played a Rabbids game it’s been interesting to see it evolve from a Rayman spin-off to their own games. Anyway, the new Rabbids reminds me of that one game where you play the weird looking guy rolling of everyday stuff into giant balls, then making them explode into a star, crossed with Tony Hawk. Speaking of which, what ever happened to Tony Hawk? He had a run of interesting games starting on the Playstation and Nintendo 64, then had a number of titles for the PS2 and Game Cube, and after that he had maybe one or two games for the Wii and disappeared.
Okay, moving on… after that we had a brief mention of No More Heroes 2, and then a trailer for the new Ninja Turtles fighting game. The game’s being made by the guys who developed Brawl (so it’s being made by Sora), unfortunately, if the trailers have anything to say then it looks almost EXACTLY like Brawl only with Ninja Turtles characters (Rafael for top tier!). But then they ended their little show case with a cinematic trailer for Assassin Creed II, and I need to be quick to remind everyone that a cinematic trailer and a game play trailer are two different things. Just because the cinematic trailer looked cool doesn’t mean that the game play will be as awesome as the trailer. That said, the trailer is really, really cool. And I mean really cool, in short, it was awesome. Although I am somewhat pissed at them because the words “Prince” and “Persia” were never used in a title.
EA:
So they kick off with an unimpressive trailer for Dante’s Inferno, which looks like it’s just going to be another Spectacle Fighter (games like God of War, God Hand, Madworld)… thanks, but I’ll stick with Devil May Cry. They go on to talk about the Sims 3, I never cared for the Sims and from what they’ve said I don’t think it’s going to convert me into a fan. But if you are a fan, your going to like it, probably. After that we get a guy talking about some little girl’s pet game. A Pajama party game, and things like that.
After getting through that bull we get a guy who loosely resembles Ray Ramano talking about a new Need For Speed. Another series I never cared for, but the guy says that it’s “deep” with in-depth cockpit view and the thing called “driver profile.” Which levels up different driving styles like aggressive and precise. If you’re into racing games then this game was pretty much made for you, otherwise I don’t think it will convert a non-fan.
Next up was a fantasy game called Dragon Age: Origins by Bioware, which I said to be “revolutionary” to the fantasy genre. To be honest, it really doesn’t look much different from any other fantasy game. Yeah, a bit more violent and brutal… but really, was crap scremo music the best choice for the trailer? Either way, it has my interest… after that Bioware shows off Mass Effect 2. I never played the fist one, but it looks like they’ve put a ton of effort into this one. It appears to learn toward the “shooter” aspect this time more so than the RPG aspect. Yeah, I’m going to pick this one up when it comes out… if my PC isn’t still crap by that time.
And suddenly, we cut to a bunch of people playing sports… so EA is sticking with their usual strategy of “re-release the same sports game two billion times.” None of the games look any different then they did last year, so yeah… if you liked EA’s other sports game then you’ll probably enjoy the new ones for this year. The Saboteur was next on the list of games, we got a cinematic trailer that looks pretty interesting… I really don’t know how I feel about this one, to be honest. Another stealth-’em-up? Not sure, just so long as they don’t try to be both a stealth game and a high-speed TPS (Third-Person Shooter) at the same time. Oh yes, and the Nazi’s are the bad guys again, but this time it’s about the French Resistance. I really can’t say how I feel about this one, mixed to say the least.
Brutal Legend was next up on the list, putting a smile on my face. And yes, it looks as funny and awesome as ever, no change here. Oh yeah, and Ozzie’s in it. I can’t freaking wait for this game, it’s going to be too good. Okay, now we have Crytect, just looking for new ways to **** my graphics card. Also, Crysis 2, and it’s going to be on the PS3, 360 and PC. Not much was mentioned other than that on Crytech’s part, but moving on.
The guys who made the first two GTAs, Real Time World, is joining up with EA. Real Time World announces and new game called APB, which is basically a GTA MMO. But from what he said it really boils down to “criminals” or “cops.” If I ever play this game I’ll probably end up being a rouge cop, or something like that. But you know that everyone will be a criminal.
Shortly after, we got something I actually care about: Star Wars, then I heard that one of the guys was from Bioware. Guess what? A new KOTOR game, this time it’s an MMORPG, great… oh well. I like Star Wars, I like Bioware, this might just be a WoW killer. They’re shooting for narrative driven, but that going to be quite a challenge for Bioware because most MMORPGs are game play driven. We get a trailer for the game, and I’m feeling good about this one. The previous two KOTOR games were great, no doubt about it. So I have full confidence in Bioware that they’ll make a pretty cool game. There was no Valve, disappointingly…. I was hoping for Half-Life 3 or at least episode 3. But whatever, Knights of the Old Republic is just as good.
Microsoft:
I’m going to drop the fact that I don’t like the 360 now, alright, here what we have. We start off with a trailer for the Beatles goatherd games. I never really liked the Beatles (wells that unfair, I like some of their songs) but if you like the Beatles and you like Rock Band then here you go, this is for you. Oh yes, and the end of the trailer is about as trippy as it’s going to get. We get a brief history of them and a guy talking about how awesome they were and all of that fun stuff. The game play looks like it’s pretty much unchanged, it’s same old Rock Band. Makes sense, why mess with a winning formula? So the first part of the show was talking about how awesome the Beatles were, taking forever to move onto something else.
But when all of that was out of the way, a guy with the sound a little out of sync with his lips talks about how the new 360 interface which came out last year (which is almost exactly like the PS3’s, by the way) is totally awesome and that in the future they’re going to improve the system some more. And then Tony Hawk appears, there’s Tony! Hey, and there’s going to be a new Tony Hawk game. Hopefully it’s going to be like the only good Tony Hawk games (Pro Skater series), but of course it’s a 360 exclusive. Sorry… bias coming back… anyway, now they have this motion-sensing board that looks like it’s pretty fun to use. Hopefully it won’t end up being a pain in the *** to use.
After this we get another shooter for the 360, what a surprise! Actually it’s Modern Warfare 2, cool. From what I played of the Multiplayer, I though Call of Duty 4 was pretty neat. The game play doesn’t look like they’ve really changed too much, in truth I didn’t see any real visible difference in terms of game play and things to that end. So, yes, Modern Warfare 2 looks as fun and as cool as ever. And to be honest, watching to game play made me suddenly want to play game… so yes, it looks like it’s going to be a barrel of monkeys.
Next up we get Final Fantasy XII, a translator lets us non-Japanese speakers know what he’s saying. They showed us Final Fantasy XII on the Xbox 360, and you know what? It pretty much looks the same as on the 360 as it was on the PS3, in terms of both game play and graphics. I’ve already had my hands-on with Final Fantasy XII so I skipped right on to the next game, well…. I’d tell you what it was but the guy’s mic was crap. From what I can see is just another shooter, only it’s a side-scroller. In truth, it looks like it’s pretty much exactly like Super Metroid in terms of game play, only with Havok physics.
Alright, so after that we have a game called Joy Ride, which is a racing game in which your
Afterward was another racing game, and guess what? There’s cars in it, you go fast, it looks nice. Pretty much the same old same old as far as racing games go. Okay, now for a game from a series that I like, Halo 3: ODST. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m no fan boy of the series, I just though they were fun games. Okay, now that that’s out of the way, Halo 3: ODST pretty much looks like Halo 3 only with a new interface and main character. Oh yes, and it also looks like it’s trying to be a survival horror game, how cute. Oh, and the cheep-*** Halo 1 pistol is back, cool. Something cool though, you’ll flash back to previous soldiers who died and you get to play the whole thing from their point of view. Pretty cool, Halo 3: ODST looks like it’s shaping up to be a pretty cool game, no way in hell I’m going to buy a 360 for it but if it comes out for the PC I’ll probably pick it up. Also, Bungie announces a new game, Halo: Reach. Okay, hold on a second, is Bungie just incapable of making a non-Halo game? How long are they going to milk this series with countless spin-offs?
Alright, so after that we get a new game called Allen Wake, a Survival Horror that sure as hell has my attention. I just hope that it doesn’t end up sucking terribly, or becoming a Resident Evil cone. But at this point it reminds me more of Silent Hill over anything else. They moved on to talk about how now the 360 has music from Last.fm, what’s next? A Smoothie Machine with your Xbox? The movie aspect is going to be greatly improved, and now you can watch TV on your 360, like it’s a cable box or something. What doesn’t this thing do? So they’re improving their videos and such. Oh yes, and now Facebook is getting involved with 360, making the 360 a freaking Swiss-Army Knife. To wrap this whole thing up, Hidio Kajima himself announces that MGS is going straight to the 360. And they’re going to kick it off with a new Metal Gear Solid game, staring Raiden. I’ve never really been a fan of Metal Gear Solid but hey, more for the fans.
And here’s something new, now you don’t even need a freaking controller to play your Xbox 360. It’s called Project NATAL, ever use the PS2 Camera? Think that only it doesn’t suck, but here’s my question: are we going to have the Wii syndrome? Where it looks cool and is good in theory but in practice it doesn’t work as well as one would think? Basically, Microsoft is trying to go with what I like to call the “Wii Strategy.” You know the strategy, and it appears that Microsoft is trying to do just that. But still, NATAL… that’s an amazing leap in technology. It looks like what the Wii has always been trying to do but…. Only Microsoft has succeeded. My theory was right, in about twenty five years we’re all going to be working in the salt mines of Zorkon IV, ran by overlord Gates. But at least I can say that I freaking called it. Okay, now getting to my point, NATAL is incredible, looking at the tech-demos it works just as well as they’re saying. ****, looking at what Microsoft is doing as a whole, I might end up getting a 360... Seriously, Google NATAL right now.
