How about that E3?

[Shaun Hatton]

It's technically just the day BEFORE the whole thing starts and I'm already exhausted just thinking of all the stuff I have to write.

Follow our live blogging and such on the the site!

[rey-o]

Soooooo is this where we can post some of our own thoughts?

I'll start with Nintendo:

New Super Mario Bros. Wii looks pretty fun. Four Player platforming shennanigans can be really fun. LBP did the same thing, although I always felt like the mechanics of jumping and movement in that game never felt right. Or maybe it's just that they simply didn't move like how I'd expect them to, ie. like Mario.  I’m sure that Nintendo can put a really fresh and polished spin on it. Key word polished. I'm also expecting some cool competitive modes in this new version, since the DS game was really great with that.

A great way to start a conference.

The middle bits of the Nintendo bit were kind of lacking, my eyes glazed over with Wii Vitality, which is yet another peripheral, and seemingly another step away from what we would typically call “games” or even “fun”.

Regarding Motion +, I’d have to say I’m a little nonplussed about it. Simply because I though the wiimote was already capable of doing all of this stuff already.

It seems to me that if you really want so called "hardcore" experiences, that the DS is the place to go. We quickly caught a glimpse of a GTA style game, which was shocking to see running on DS hardware, and also a handful of RPGS, which is like kryptonite to my productivity when it comes to handhelds. I simply can't put them down! So I'm really excited about the DS. I don't plan on upgrading to the DSI until we start seeing something like an RPG leverage it's unique abilities. Pokemon heart gold/soul silver anyone?

Thankfully the Team Ninja/Nintendo announcement really brought things home in a big way. I’m not a huge fan of Metroid in either it’s 2D or it’s FPS incarnations, but I totally appreciate the sentiment. To be honest I'm not even all that into Team Ninja and their efforts. Having said all that I still can't help but be excited for this. Watching the video, I'm a little baffled as to what type of game this really is. At times it seems to be 1st person, and in other shots we get glimpses of side scrolling, and even 3rd person. Could it be possible that this game does it all? The mind boggles!

 This was the perfect response to all the fans who felt like Nintendo has forgotten their true supporters.

As for Galaxy 2, I’m excited, although I should say there is a bit of…how to say…conflicted?

Galaxy is one of the highest rated games on Metacritic/Gamerankings (I think just shy of Ocarina), and no doubt that this new game will likely earn just as much praise. So more Mario fun is definitely a plus. As I mentioned above, Nintendo just really knows how to polish a game so that it's simply a joy to interact and play with. It's pretty much impossible for this game to be anything short of fantastic.

I do feel that since the original was so innovative, I was hoping a sequel would be equally as groundbreaking. It also strikes me that Galaxy 2 seemed like more of  an expansion pack DLC rather than a new and fresh experience. But I dunno, it’s early days for it so we haven’t really seen anything of it just yet.

Anyway that’s my little rant about Nintendo. Overall I thought it was ok, although it somehow lacked the thrills of the other two.

In all three cases, I think the true gold will be found on the show floor as news starts coming in about the smaller games that may not have been mentioned in the conference. There might be some hidden gems among them. For now, I'm marking Nintendo with a penciled in B dependent on what we see over the next few gems.

[Shaun Hatton]

Awesome thoughts, Rey-O! I've been so busy keeping up with events and articles that I've not had the chance to dig into the forum till today. Adam and I recorded a podcast last night which I hope to have available today for download, barring any unforeseen delay in production. Seems this E3 had a little something for everyone, which is great.

[rey-o]

Hey thanks Shaun, I'm going to give that podcast a listen!

For the sake of completion, I'll briefly go over I think Microsoft and Sony faired at E3.

Microsoft:

Lets get Project Natal out of the way first. I think what we saw was promising, especially Milo. I do have to say that there was a bit of a disconnect between what we saw presented live and what we saw on video. Milo was really advanced, and yet the live "painting" demo was laughable. Ultimately we can't really take too much from what we saw since it's so early in development. Same goes for PS3 motion camera.

In terms of entertainment, they won hands down. Bringing in huge celebrities is a great way of getting attention, and in the case of Tony Hawk and Steven Spielberg, they genuinely sounded interested in their presentation. As for The Beetles and the Beetles ladies, not so much, but you can't really rip in The Beetles, so I'll leave it at that. Microsoft really kicked off E3 with a bang.

Out of all the games they showed, Alan Wake and Splinter Cell Conviction really grabbed my attention. Alan Wake for it's use of light/shadow as a gameplay mechanic and atmosphere, Splinter Cell for it's flashy way of displaying mission objectives and memories.

Sony:

I felt like Sony had a huge uphill battle if they wanted to really impress and wow over the fans. Overall I'd have to say mission complete.

As far as their own motion controlled stuff - it looked pretty neat but it was in an even more experimental stage than Microsoft's, so again there really isn't much to say except "promising". I believe they had the EyePet on the show floor though, and from what I've seen it looks like fun, despite being something not in my age bracket.

With all of these gaming shows, my eyes usually glaze over whenever FPS' are shown, so I was glad to see that Sony kept that down to a minimum. MAG looks like fun for shooter fans, although it did seem a bit overly complex (check out all the HUD info).

The two big standouts for me were Uncharted 2 and The Last Guardian. Uncharted 2 looks like a graphical powerhouse, and if the original game is any indicator, it's all backed up by rock solid gameplay. The Last Guardian, I could talk for days about how much Ico and SOTC meant to me, but lets just say, I'm just really...really excited.


I know I'm missing out lots of stuff (Modern Warfare, Tony Hawk's Ride, FFXIV) but I'm just sticking to the few things that really stood out to me. I think that both Microsoft and Sony both had a good show, and I'm just going to call both a tie at B+. It all comes down to personal tastes.

As far as who really won E3? That's such a tough call, and I'm going to throw a curveball and say it was specifically  the Nintendo DS. Mostly because of Scriblenauts, which, from the sound of it, doesn't even sound possible on any piece of hardware, let alone the DS. It's also the one place to play a metric ton of RPG's coming out in the next few months, so yay to that. Golden Sun DS, Mario and Luigi, and heck even Dragon Quest IX is on the horizon. I love my DS!

[Shaun Hatton]

I'm amazed at how much your points reflect the ones Adam and I were talking about. Natal does look good but I admit everything seemed very rehearsed. I'm looking forward to getting some hands-on time with it at some point, and I do expect it to work - but it really seems like it does something impossible.

Sony's stuff looks interesting. Definitely more of a prototype at this point. They mentioned analogue triggers, which is something that really should have been on the Wii Remote.

Some E3 thoughts I didn't mention in the podcast:

- It's amazing to see how petty some of the company spokespeople can get in their presentations with their snide passive-aggressive attacks at other companies. Last I checked, they weren't school kids - so why are they acting that way?

- Every company seemed to be heading in the same direction in terms of philosophy and market targets. This leads me to the One Console future. Three consoles/generation just to play all the great games available is too much for both entertainment system real estate and our wallets.

[rey-o]

Your right about the juvenile comments PR/dev's sometimes sling at one another. It certainly doesn't paint the industry and it's appreciators in a good light. I have to admit I do find it pretty entertaining though, in a supermarket tabloid 'he said/she said' sort of way.

The one console future, man, will be ever see it? Not any time soon, I suspect. Mostly because it'd require the very same people (you know, the ones who make catty remarks towards one another) to play nice.

As far as getting around to playing all the cool games we've heard about, I'm pretty sure I'll get around to mostly all of them in the fullness of time. I only have one console from this generation (the PS3, and if you count the DS) but eventually, I'll fill out the rest of my dance card - maybe not this year or even the next. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm really really patient!

[Kigh_all]

I think it's safe to say the majority of us are from a Generation that knows nothing except constant console war. We've pledged our allegiances to one side or another time and time again! My mind reels at the thought of a one console future and whether i'll live to see it :P

[Jorge]

I think there will be peace on Earth before a one-console world.