E3’s Press Conferences
Biiiiig Post incoming! Let’s get right to it!
Microsoft
Microsoft’s presentation was well done. Very big and beautiful with tons of information. I’m so glad they skipped the “Look how bad ass we are” boasting everyone else loves. While great for shareholders it makes for an absolutely boring presentation for the press. Let’s get to the games.
Beatles Rock Band… oh yes please! Unfortunately, the video feed during the conference was so shoddy couldn’t see much of anything as far as actual game footage. The addition of up to three vocal tracks makes for a great expansive experience. Fortunately, they shared the gameplay trailer - and I gotta say whoooo momma! They made vocals quite intricate indeed. Harmonix you have to… HAVE TO implement vocal practice mode now. Seriously, the fact it’s not in Rock Band 2 pisses me off beyond belief, so don’t throw in multiple vocal inputs without adding an honest and effective vocal practice. Also donating the money spent on exclusive DLC for “All You Need Is Love” track for Doctors Without Borders - cute. Adding McCartney and Ringo to the show - nice. Additionally hilarious since they seemed lost.
Tony Hawk: Ride. OK then. The skate board controller looks well constructed - I wish Tony luck on revitalizing his dying franchise but I advise that if this doesn’t work he please just stop.
Modern Warfare 2 looks pretty tasty. I like how the screen is kept clean by having the mini map attached to the gun. I even like how zooming on your target you loose the advantage of seeing that map. And the terrain looks absolutely beautiful. But Dan has a point, the low visibility snowstorm (that looks great) needs to affect the AI. Too many FPS games are being released with gorgeous yet obstructing visuals that affect the player only.
FFXIII - *sigh*. I’ve been jaded by FFXII to put too much weight into the franchise further. The constant release/re-release/re-mastered release/re-master re-release of everything FFVII has only furthered that bitter. I want FFXIII to do well I really do - but I have serious hang ups with FFXII that leaves me worry for the direction of the franchise’s future.
Shadow Complex - what an interesting game! The style is familiar retro arcade-esque, yet incredibly unique and innovative. I really want to see more of this, and am glad it’s being released soon.
Joy Ride. Avatar racing game? Pass. Oh wait… free? Ok then. Wait, I have to buy most of the content? Pass. Oh wait, I can play them if someone else has them? You know - I don’t really care anymore. Moving on.
Left For Dead 2 - I’m interested in. I *LOVE* Left for Dead it’s my favorite shooter by far. But I really wish it’d work like Rock Band where I can install maps from Left for Dead to use in the new release. Tired of shelving previous shooters.
I’m not interested in Splinter Cell: Conviction so much because I have enough FPSs as is. But honestly this biggest lack of appeal of the franchise is Tom Clancy’s name splattered all over the thing. So sick of egotism like that. Use the awesomeness of your game to sell your game - not your damn name. The movie-esqueness of the playthrough was intriguing and I’m sure Luke’s gonna love this game. But I’ll pass.
Forza 3 looks gorgeous enough and I found it interesting they demoed it from first person view and not third. User generated content seems a bit lacking, but it seems only the cartoon-ey family games go further in depth so I shouldn’t expect much.
It’s hard to support Halo after each game release in the franchise cut gameplay out with each release. The original was immerse and long, the second was ridiculously short, and the third… well let’s just say when we got warmed up, it was over. I don’t want to support a franchise that charges $60 for new maps on multiplayer modes. Halo 3 ODST looks great - but will have to give me more than 10 hours gameplay for my investment. I’m done getting ripped off for glorified expansions. Yes, I know the game is dramatically different, but swapping out Master Chief and switching up the UI is not enough to warrant a pathetically short story mode. Additionally if both Halo Reach and Halo 3 ODST do not deliver a long progressive story mode - I’ll be done and never look back.
Xbox Live news was fulfilling as well. Last.fm free to gold members - not bad. Also improving the Netflix experience with instant play and add to queue thru Xbox - nice! Finally adding the sharing of Netflix with friends and family - thank you! You mentioned that before last E3, but we never saw it delivered, this feature is a very welcome one.
The partnership with Facebook and Twitter was an incredibly smart move on Xbox’s part. They do well making sure every home has an Xbox… and this only helps. I originally rolled by eyes - until I realized how much they integrated it - very awesome. Implementing Facebook friends with their Xbox gamertags - such a simple idea but so genius. Seriously. Facebook Connect is simply brilliant - screenshot and upload direct to Facebook, again - nice work.
Sky TV too - not sure about that so much (unfamiliar with them I mean) but again, great way to expand the audience. Integrating and not ignoring Zune - well done, about time you gave an advantage to having both. What about that Zune phone mentioned before tho?
Metal Gear coming to Xbox? Ha-ha!Way to snipe PS3 exclusive two years in a row Microsoft. The fact that Sony refuses to price drop as their headliners get stolen does not bode well for them.
The motion control, Project Natal, I don’t know… so hard to say. Speech Recognition and full body capture is a great idea. But no controllers? It’s hard for me to believe that it does as well as the video shows. For one thing, it’s movements look too general and broad, and I really would like to see it does as well as advertised, but I seriously, VERY seriously doubt it. Even on the demo you can see the bugs. Good luck guys.
Nintendo
New Super Mario Brothers on the Wii - I gotta say is a pleasant surprise. The original platforming levels with a multiplayer aspect is a lot of fun. You see, I’m having issue with party games staying fresh and challenging for all. When you play a mini game frenzy, some friends are better at some games than others. This leads to boredom pretty fast. You could play a pure vengeance game of Smash Bros Brawl - but those have limited set stages and fights could lead to hostility. With the Mario landscape, even with competition, you have the randomness of original Mario landscaping. It leads to more randomness to winning and team work with cooperation.
Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story. Kinda scary, kinda cute - still mostly scary. The Super Mario RPG type of controls tho are some of my favorites.
And Super Mario Galaxy 2? Not too shabby. I love me some Yoshi and the original galaxy game was done so well, it’d be a shame to see it left alone after such a great debut.
Will have to find some footage of Zelda’s new game Spirit Tracks somewhere. Not much info on it during the press conference - but it’s apparently playable on the show floor. Oh! found some.
Wii motion plus is something that amuses me. First, it’s the second year in a row it’s been a highlight of E3. Second… this is what the wiimote was suppose to do in the first place. There’s also a lot of chatter discussing how having true motion capture is a faulty idea - basically asking people to be professionals to be successful in the game. Although, that motivation isn’t really a bad one. The controls do look well done, and it’d be interesting to see how well it compares with the next gen’s attempts. The more in-depth look of Wii Sports Resort was good tho. I, for sure, want to pick that up when it releases.
The Wii Vitality sensor on the other hand… um… yeah. I’ll pass. What the hell do we use that for?
Wii Fit Plus - well I’m glad they finally fixed the biggest issues with the game - especially the inability to set up a pre-designated workout routine was a huge HUGE fault with the original Wii Fit. Unfortunately, their focus is primarily fun, and I really don’t think the that should be the focus with the Western consumer market. We shouldn’t compromise a serious work out routine for fun. And while I do enjoy the balance board peripheral, I think the focus on the board for every exercise is unnecessary and faulty at times. The additional new mini-games are, at first glance at least, more rehashed balance games. I think it’s a step in the right direction, but I hope that they have more to offer than what could fit on a patch for the current Wii Fit.
Conduit, Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles, and Dead Space: Extraction all look promising. I wish all of these hardcore titles weren’t FPS tho. You can appeal to the hardcore gamers without guns, promise.
Metroid: Other M WOW!! I am REALLY intrigued. Seeing Nintendo pair up with Team Ninja was a surprise, a very welcome suprise. High expectations for that project to say the least.
Still haven’t seen any reason to get a DSI - despite what they keep saying. It’s cute I can upload pictures of my friends with cat ears and whiskers to Facebook - except for the fact I’M NOT TWELVE. The Mario Mini game looks good - just haven’t seen why this can’t be a DS Lite game.
Overall, I do have to applaud Nintendo for constantly pushing the boundaries of interactivity. But with a strong opposition from both Sony and Microsoft on better motion control, will a second look at a delayed add-on to the Wiimote be enough to make the console stay #1? Nintendo’s Wii had the advantage of being the only motion control available (six-axis doesn’t count, since it was a joke), and it was worth skipping on graphics for the added interactivity. But now we have next gen games with better presented motion control products, good thing they announced two Mario games to distract everyone.
But without question Nintendo’s presentation did loads better than last year. They were definitely more focused on products and less about boasting. While the conversation dipped a bit when talking about goals, it still had a point. And more importantly, they addressed the desires of hardcore gamers who want more which they grossly neglected last year.
Sony
Overblown confidence is without question the theme of the conference. It’s funny to hear the exact same line of ‘this being the year of sony’ two years now. I know I wouldn’t say it after saying it last year and then failing. At least they immediately addressed the question of “price drop” by coming on strong with “we’re the shit, we got the best shit, and you need this shit”. Seriously guys… get a grip on reality. Perfect family console? Hardly. And if you’re going to bore us with statistics, you shoulda just used your Little Big Planet presentation mechanic… that was good.
Seriously are you guys STILL going on about how you’re awesome? UGH move on to the games already!!
Focus on the past much? Really pushing the success story with “Look how well these things sold”
OH! Finally! we’re into the upcoming games part! Only took… forever.
So now we have a slow boring presentation of Uncharted 2 that somehow impressed an audience (who apparently never seen a single second of Mirror’s Edge/Assassin Creed/Prince of Persia). While I like real time gameplay footage, the level of play chosen certainly did lack uniqueness that sets it apart from any other open world action games. I believe a trailer would’ve done it more justice. Additionally, physics in the game seem to be unsure of itself. A desk can hold back a helicopter gun turret’s onslaught of bullets but seconds later gets sucked away like a sheet paper.
Again with interesting concepts comes Mag. But I don’t believe more players make for a better experience. Especially when you’re speaking of 265 players, I think this really hurts hardcore players. You go from dealing a few dumbasses sneaking into your game and screwing shit up, to dealing with a hundred or so doing this. The appeal of multiplayer FPS is organized teamwork, and I don’t understand how you can get anything like that with a team of 132. I’m perplexed that a game this size will be hosted on PSN (which generally has a lower online player count) which has a reputation of being shoddy online service. Again, very questionable.
Overall Sony seems to have a lack of content, this is apparent with a long preview into each game.
The casual approach Sony took with Hannah Montanna, Pets, Patapon, Loco Roco was brief and selective. Hard to buy into the “family friendly” nonsense with that line up.
I do feel bad that the big headliner of PSP Go! was spoiled for them, I feel worse they went with the name “Go!” *sigh* And adding something like “Sense me” is not a selling point, k? a program that picks my music based on what I listen to and guesses my “mood”? It’s been done so many times before, mostly on online radio stations. Good luck guys - but what Amazon recommends for me based on my music downloads makes me bitter. Trying to blanket-ly assume what people want to hear by guessing their mood is not something I see as a selling point.
And PSP Go! for the cost of a Wii and more than an arcade bundle of a 360? - pass.
Metal Gear: Peacewalker for the PSP. The demo: Here’s snake running. Here’s snake crawling. Here’s him sneaking. Here’s him walking. Here’s him sneaking up to something. OH! He cracked a guys neck! And now he’s walking again. I know Metal Gear games deal with quite a bit of stealth, I just don’t imagine this game has nothing *but* stealth. Altho I have to say - the part in the demo with the cardboard box (at 6:05 of the below video). Hilarious. Awesome.
Assassin’s Creed 2 - Very impressed. The initial look shows vast improvement in AI and user controls. Assassin’s Creed I think is a very well done game and this looks like it has so much more on top of an incredibly solid platform.
FFXIII I talked about earlier. FFXIV. *sigh* Lost a bit more faith in the franchise.
So now we’re at the the new motion controller. Well done with the true 1 to 1 ratio, it does look very accurate and very fast. The combination of camera + wand I think will put this thing over the top of the others. The demo was good - really sold Dan and I with the demo of the sword and shield. Everything about it looked amazingly responsive.
Modnation Racers looks like a lot of fun. At first glance is a simple Mario Kart rip off, but the customizable track and the ease of use on creation tools for the user (like Little Big Planet) makes it impressive. Overall if I had a PS3, I think I would prefer to play it over Mario Kart.
The Last Guardian looks absolutely beautiful. Just awesome. But I know Eiko, and I know Shadow of the Colossus and because of those - I know depressing. I couldn’t bring myself to play it.
Gran Turismo 5, you have a loooooot of hype behind you, you best be the greatest racing game anyone has ever played, especially after releasing the not-so-great promo disc. Some fear your promo experience is too realistic, and yes, that can be a bad thing.
God of War 3 my biggest problem with you is the lack of love I feel for your main character. I like Master Chief and I like Mario, give me someone who I don’t go “GOD what a whiny bitch!”. Adam Sessler said it best “someone get this guy a live journal and a Linkin Park cd”. I applaud your ambition you have for your game by constantly pushing the graphics and gameplay with each new release, it does have me interested - but without a price drop for the PS3 - interested is all you’re going to get from me.
All in all - most of the videos were repetitious. And for home viewing, they were hard to see. I know they want to minimize the videos so the audience at E3 gets the better effect and people have reason to see trailers they distribute on their sites, but on our 52″ TV, I was squinting to see footage and got a freakin headache. Even tho there were highlights - I’m still disappointed with their presentation - mostly because of the same old bullshit of no price drop because we’re the best thing in this entire world attitude. They focused so much on only exclusive content which there wasn’t much of, so they drew it all out. I really wish they would’ve had more confrontation about the “family friendly” aspect they claimed with no show. They should’ve gotten shit for it, like Nintendo did last year by saying they had hardcore games but really had nothing.
Seriously tho, I cannot take any more of this self-promoting bullshit. Get over yourself Sony. “It’s not only exclusive on the PS3, it’s only possible on the PS3″. Really? REALLY?!
Small conclusion of coverage:
It’s definitely the year of interactivity. The demo of the different uses of the motion controllers up and coming was bested by Sony. While Microsoft does have greater advantages with the speech recognition, full body capture, and being the only one that’s controller free, it looks like they set the bar too high. The “Milo” demonstration from Peter Molyneux was decent, but the other implements had noticeable lag/bugs. And while they look minor now, if they don’t improve before release, they will simply be too inaccurate to really use and enjoy. Nintendo’s add on is more accurate than Xbox, but it’s delay is wearing people down. Plus, it’s accuracy honestly looks like it falls behind on Sony’s, which is surprising.
I think all the presentations were good. I really wasn’t expecting much of game releases for this year, so I was happy to see a healthy amount of games for all three consoles. I’m disappointed in the DSI’s lack of presence, and again, Sony you *HAVE* to drop the price. I can’t believe you stay this stubborn with no real reason why. Microsoft, you play dirty pool but you play it so well. Yanking Metal Gear from Sony was impressive. You answered strongly against Sony’s attempt to be the family console by upgrading Netflix, your video store, and the Facebook/Twitter integration.
So, I really like Xbox’s presentation the best - it helped they had so much celebrity padding. But they spent a healthy amount of each portion on all types of gamers. While Nintendo focused on the different audiences, they mostly just talked about it. And Sony’s focus was all for hard core with a smidge of motion control. Oh and plenty of, “we’re the shit” (I’m not kidding guys, I know I keep bringint it up, but you HAD to hear it.)
I’ll be watching G4’s coverage of EA/Ubisoft probably tomorrow (thinking I’ll find time for Left For Dead too), and I want to fit in some time watching the hands on demos from the show floor this week.
Now I’m going. Because I am le tired.
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