June 3, 2009

2009 E3 Conferences (Impression)

Posted in Games at 8:57 pm by KuroNekoXIII

I’ll be writing a little about what I thought of E3 and the titles that came out. I mostly ignore the multi-platform titles as they clash, so I’ll mostly be talking about exclusive or surprising announcements. I’ll apologize before hand and say that this is just rambling of a kid who doesn’t know better. Here are my thoughts.

The Microsoft conference started off their show by displaying the new Beatles Rockband. Which is probably a good choice for numerous reasons I disagree with, since I don’t have the slightest interest in rhythm based games. They gave a good show and provided the people with what they wanted to hear. Games!

♱ Main Highlights:

Forza Motorsport 3
I have played Forza 2 on the 360, and its a good competitor to Gran Turismo which is Playstation’s equivalent. They are both realistic driving simulators which give the players lots of tuning options and all real details such as cars, maps, etc. The graphics for the game is pretty (car models a bit generic at times). The biggest thing that sets Forza apart is the community driven aspect of how Cars can be designed from the ground up (from an existing stock car) and people share these ideas with others through the web. Forza 3 comes back with an improved new looks and an even better garage shop (customization) to let users tweak every detail of the car + and the social aspect has been further embraced with an epic video recorder.

Halo 3 ODST / Reach
We’ve all read the rumors about ODST, instead of playing as a Spartan. You play as soldiers from the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers. When the gameplay demo was shown, it looks exactly like previous Halo games, except you aren’t controlling a spartan. As a ODST, you get special visors and HUDS which help you detect certain objectives. Oh, and they also announced Halo: Reach, which is set way back in the past when there were still lots of spartans (hai, I read the book). Overall, don’t really care for the games, nor did I particular care for the Halo games after Halo 1.

Metal Gear Solid: Rising
Hideo Kojima came on stage to announce this exclusive title for the 360. It seems to be about Raiden and whatnot. There really isn’t much details on this yet, all I can say is that from what I heard in the Sony’s conference… and what Kojima emphasised there for their PSP game. This game seems to lack any contribution from Kojima and the A team. So it probably sucks.

Splinter Cell: Conviction
I am a huge fan of splinter cell and I remember hearing about Conviction awhile ago, not being too sure what it was going to be about. However, from the demo that was shown to us, it looks like it’s going to Splinter cell + some real badass Sam Fisher moments. The ability to be able to schedule pre-emptive strikes (similar to Rainbow Six) and then pop all their heads in a sequence (requiring some aiming & response from player) is an awesome maneuver which makes you feel much more badass. It looks like premise has to do with Sam Fisher out on revenge or desperation as it has something to do with his daughter (not sure if she’s dead or kidnapped, i think the former).

Xbox Live
Microsoft’s Xbox Live is very much a social platform so its no surprise they decided to integrate Facebook (and twitter surprisingly). The whole idea of Facebook would be to create a global social network. Why create their own when a perfectly good one exists already. Therefore saving them having to have users join their social network if they were to create one. This is probably a good move to expand the social aspect of connecting people. Too bad I’m not much of a facebooker~ I do twitter tho. Other stuff includes announcements on the Zune marketplace and some features about Sky partnership for the UK and whatnot. It’s all interesting and good but im not going to go into detail.

Project Natal
First of all, I must of skipped this part of the conference or something, cause I don’t remembering seeing much on Natal… guess I wasn’t paying attention. However, i do know the premise and I don’t want to dwell on it. The idea is to have a extra box (hardware) which has a camera and microphone. The camera scans individuals and items and is able to respond to their movements. The microphone reacts to voice. I think you can pretty much guess what it is. The selling point is  = YOU are the controller (no need for actual controllers). Do I care? No, but Peter Molyneux’s ideas make me feel optimistic for the future.

Other titles were also showed, these include Crackdown 2, Joy Ride, Alan Wake, Modern Warfare 2.

The Nintendo conference started off weakest of the three. With a spokesperson that bores me to death and general business statistics which seriously is just a bunch of bullshit that nobody wants to hear. The audience was mostly silent and probably waiting for the Sony conference which was to start after Nintendo. They did pick up the pace eventually and ended quite well, but still found it to be be overall appalling and my bias against the Wii is totally a factor here.

♱ Main Highlights:

Super Mario Bros Wii
People have been predicting whether or not we’ll be getting a new Mario game or a new Zelda game. This was the first one that was announced. Super Mario Bros for the Wii is basically Super Mario Bros (the one you played on NES/gameboy). Except now its been enhanced to have better graphics and competitive co-op. So instead of the lone Mario, you get to have 3 other players play as well. Besides a few new features and a graphic overhaul there doesn’t seem to be any huge differences. People will probably tell me why its so awesome for reasons I couldn’t care about. Don’t give a damn…

Super Mario Galaxy 2
The first Super Mario Galaxy did very well and was enjoyed by many. I will say that I have never personally played Mario Galaxy. However it does look interesting nonetheless. Perhaps not my type of game though. It was well conceived the first time and I believe people will enjoy this second one, as it seems to have a lot more depth and features than the first game. (I use the word “depth” very lightly, cause i remember saying that Nintendo doesn’t have any XD)

Metroid: Other M
Perhaps the title that most people (sane people) are excited for the Wii is the new Metroid game that is being developed. It is being co-developed by Team Ninja (the people who brought us Ninja Gaiden). It looks like a much more action packed version of Metroid than the other Metroid game that has been released for the Wii earlier in the Wii life cycle. From the trailer, it looks like it might actually be a lot of fun as it looks like its very combo based, hence why Team Ninja is helping. I was never really into the first Metroid game that came out for the Wii, but I blame my hate for the Wiimote for that (and everything else).

Wii Fit/Motion Plus & Games
Yes, they have decided to update the Wii Fit, and make… Wii Fit Plus! It does more than the original Wii Fit and offers all kinds of statistical information that you can track about your health as well as shitty games that no one in the right mind would call games. Moving right along. The Wii Motion Plus!! Yes, Nintendo failed so hard, they had to create a new piece of hardware to attach to your Wiimote to improve the motion sensing because their previous attempt was an utter failure. Finally… more mini Wii games that I don’t care to mention. So that’s that.

Vitality Sensor
I’d rather die than explain to you what this piece of shit is….

A number of other titles were also listed, this include The Conduit, Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles, and Dead Space: Extraction.

The Sony conference was the most exciting of the three. This is coming from someone who doesn’t own a PSP or a PS3. Okay, their pacing and time variations between the different highlights were a bit off, but c’mon, they’ve got some great announcements. Okay, perhaps I’m biased, but I’m allowed to write what I want.

♱ Main Highlights:

Uncharted: Among Thieves
Some people liked when Uncharted was in the Jungle and felt like Indian Jones, but I liked how Uncharted turned out to become much more of an urban action experience. The gameplay, humor and scenes that are depicted in this game are just amazing and fun. When it showed the main character standing on the top of a tower, you were able to see the entire town as there was literally no draw distance and everything looked beatiful. There was a scene in the game demo that showed the main character in a building avoiding the helicopter thats ripping bullets into the structure from the outside. There came to a stage where the building’s infastrcture was so badly it damaged it wasn’t able to hold itself up anymore, and the building started to collapse whilst you were still in it (obviously you had to jump out last second or get killed). That was an awesome scene to see happen.

MAG
If you have played Battlefield or any similar type of games then you would understand what MAG is very easily. It is the type of game where there are two armies and you have objectives to achieve in order to achieve victory. The main difference between MAG and games like Battlefield is that instead of a usual number of 16 or 32 players in a server, this supports up to 256 people on the map at once. That’s a HUGE scale! I have always loved to be just 1 soldier of a squad whilst a huge scale war is happening all around me! Brilliant! Will it work? I highly doubt you will ever fill up the servers and get any type of teamwork out of the 172 idiots that would be on the server. Though the concept is awesome. I also fear lag issues.

Final Fantasy XIII
Besides showing off a little with how summons worked ingame, they also showed us a brand new trailer which was english voiced. The dub quality is decent like the previous Final Fantasy games. If i had the option in jap, I’d obviously take it but it won’t bother me THAT much to have it in English because at least there is some acting and emotion to their voices instead of the usual crap or emphasis with other dubs. Looking forward to this, don’t really feel like talking about it cause I’ve raved on it before.

Final Fantsy XIV
Now, this came to me as a huge surprise when I was watching Sony’s press conference Live. Straight after showing us a new trailer of XIII, they immediately decided to surprise everyone with an exclusive game for the PS3. Final Fantasy XIV! You could feel the entire crowd’s godly surprise as everyone almost choked. Though as cool as the feeling was, the dream was short lived as the words “online” sinked in. Oh… its a sequel to Final Fantasy XI, the stupid mmorpg. Fuck you.

The Last Guardian
People who brought us ICO and the Shadow of Colossus, this is bound to be a great title to wait for, however there didn’t seem to be a release date. Therefore the chances of this coming out is probably 2011 so I will not even bother talking about it.

God of War III
A game that many people love, it is a fast paced action game where you control the character know as Kratos and kick mythological ass. God of War III promises to deliver God of War II mixed with Uber juice to give you something that is better than what was already awesome. This time it seems to be at a much greater scale and it obviously looks much better. The demo showed us that GOW3 is going to be gory (guts ripped open, intestines on the floor, pulling heads off, etc.), have different weapons and in the demo in particular it showed Kratos fighting mini-bosses after mini-bosses even though the MAIN boss was in the scene the entire time hauling big shit around the place lol. It looks like fun lah.

Assassin’s Creed 2
The concept of Assassin’s Creed is very good, and the first game has demonstrated how a sand boxed action game can be successful. What the first game lacked however, is the amount of things there is to do as most of the missions you are sent on become repetitive. It’s either a matter of pickpocketing someone or listening into conversations and whatnot. In Assassin’s Creed 2, hopefully they have solved exactly like. The gameplay footage that was being demo’ed showed the ability to have machines (such as flying) and new gameplay mechanics, which is all well and good – I hope they will listen to what the players have been saying and increase the amount of variety when it comes to side quests or missions.

PSP Go
A PSP that doesn’t use UMDs and uses the Playstation Network as its source of games. Exactly what I want, except for two things. The first being that its ugly as fuck… (not so bad when its closed… but you’d only look at it opened wouldn’t you? That’s how you PLAY!) and second of all the fact that I wish it had 3G or some similar technology so that it can connect to the Internet on the go. Oh yah, its also bloody expensive for no reason.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
Hideo Kojima <3 came on stage to announce the next MGS title. However, instead of going on the PS3, this is actually being developed for the PSP. It is going to be a sequel of MGS3 (which chronologically is the earliest in the time line of the story). Kojima is putting a lot of effort into this title and has his A team working on it to make it feel like an actual MGS game as oppose to the spin-off MGS games that have been coming out on the PSP throughout its life cycle. The trailer really made the game look like MGS (exception: MGS4, thats a whole different cake) and has everything that an MGS game would have. It even ended on a funny note with the classic hiding in a box (MOTHER F@CKING SNAKES IN A BOX!). The reason why i think the xbox 360 title of MGS is going to fail is because of Kojima’s emphasis on how all the hard work and skilled staff is working on THIS game… therefore the 360 NEXT-GEN game must suck right?

Sony’s Motion Controller
Now, I could treat this in two different ways, be cynical and say. Why must every one of you god damn companies have some kind of motion bullshit. However, technology is moving forward and we need this crap, so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. Sony’s Motion controller system is very similar to Microsoft’s except that you do have a controller, as they mentioned that the concept of buttons are still important. From what I can tell, the camera is able to pick up movements VERY accurately and reacts to everything the demonstrator does (whereas Natal seems to lag, or not be precise). The sword fighting and the archery looked quite epic to be honest. The main concern with this system is how light the controller is, and how fast the bloody game (prototype game for the purposes of demonstrating) reacts to his gestures. He was swinging a Bastard Sword as if it was nothing. Though this is early in the technology and they might be able to think of ways to deal with that if they should adopt it for games. At this point, the Natal probably seems more promising for some reason… but who knows

Other titles that were also shown in the show include Agent, Grand Turismo 5 and Modnation Racers.

(That’s the end of what I have to say… forgive any bad grammar XD I’m lazy)

P.s.  This year’s E3 kicked ass compared to last year, it’s finally back to the way it should be.

Permalink