G-pinions

After a solid night's sleep, I feel much more comfortable writing about all the E3 happenings so far. So here goes.


Microsoft's Press Conference - Pretty much what I expected, with a couple of small surprises. They chose to focus on the idea that software would be the thing to push them farther in the market (smart move), and saying that "software is where we've innovated" (mmm not really, Microsoft, hardware is where you've innovated). They showed off plenty of videos from upcoming games (about half of them exclusive), including a ten-minute Halo 2 multiplayer demo showing off all the new bits and pieces. They also brought out several speakers from different companies and from within to show off various major upcoming games.

Doom 3 looks pretty and scary, but as I said in an earlier post, it just doesn't look that innovative or original. Dead of Alive Ultimate looked gorgeous, and the fact that you'll be able to play it online at that level of graphical prowess is fantastic. Conker: Live and Reloaded looked like a lot of violent, goofy fun, if not a bit too tongue-in-cheek for it's own good. Kameo: Elements of Power looks nice, and of typical Rare quality, but the gameplay looked a little boring to me. Fable looked as cool as it's ever been, which is pretty damn cool; the combat looks flat-out awesome. Jade Empire was shown, but not much new material was in the video, and nothing new was revealed. Star Wars: Republic Commando was looking damn good. It's a squad-based FPS, with a very dark look atypical of the Star Wars universe. The graphics looked on par with (and reminiscent of) Metroid Prime, and the squad mechanics seemed to be put to good use. Some other anticipated games were shown, like Mechassault 2 and KOTOR2, but neither seemed especially impressive, at least at this point.

So, games-wise, nothing new, but what's there was plenty impressive. They showed off a couple new Live features, the best of which was their new Live Arcade service. It allows you to download old gems such as Dig-Dug and Galaxian, as well as some newer classics, all simple, fun arcade games designed to play in small sessions. I read elsewhere that the price would be around $10 a game, which seems a bit steep, but the idea is brilliant. Some crappier new Live features include a video chat service (J. Allard, douchebag extreme and the host for the majority of the conference, had an awkwardly forced conversation with Jenny McCarthy as the crowd shifty nervously in their seats) and voice messages. I guess the ideas aren't bad, but the presentation was horrid.

Microsoft also touched on their XNA dealie again, showing off a new video of two great-looking cars slamming into each other, with hundreds of pieces flying everywhere. The whole idea of standardizing development and such so that developers can spend more time on content is noble, but I still have my concerns, including the adverse effect of even less innovation through reliance on it, and the snubbing of smaller developers. Also, I can't stand the mention of Windows integration. People shouldn't be able to use an X-Box controller on their PC, there's just something fundamentally wrong with it. Sit on your couch and take a load off, you stupid nerd.

One highlight of their presentation was Peter Moore (ex-higher up at Sega), who was the only charismatic guy of the conference. His jokes and passion didn't sound forced, and the crazy bastard even revealed a fresh tatoo with the Halo 2 logo and release date (November 9th), proving his commitment to not delaying it any further. The show also closed with the "Gran Turismo killer" Forza Motorsport. All I have to say about that game is "meh." Oh, and the president of EA coming out to announce that all of EA's sports games would be online on X-Box this season (with an athlete there to represent each sport), as would their other games (Goldeneye: Rogue Agent, Timsplitters: Future Perfect, and Battlefield: Modern Combat).

Overall, their entire presentation was high quality through and through (well, mostly), there was just nothing new or surprising. On the other hand, if all they released this year was Halo 2 and Fable, I'd be more than happy, as I suspect many of their fans would be.


Nintendo's Press Conference - Wow, nice job Nintendo. Outside of showing nothing of interest from any third-parties, Nintendo rocked the house. The crowd went nuts after anything was said or shown, the the DS isn't nearly as goofy as I had imagined.

They started by showing off Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, which is looking cool thanks to the whole "evil Samus from the dark world hunting you" thing they've got going on, and the now-expected sweet graphics. The multiplayer was also shown very briefly, leading me to believe someone at Nintendo is as speculative about it as I am at this stage. Star Fox 2 on the other hand, barely looked any different than it did last year. I guess I've just never been a fan of the art design in that series. It's just...ugly. Resident Evil 4 was shown after those two, looking amazing and scary as balls, sickle-wielding undead monks and all. After that they got off to kind of a weird start, seemingly defending themselves and their numbers when no one was attacking them. They showed weird stats like how well the GC has outsold itself in the last quarter versus last year, and seemed to be striving to get across the message that "we sucked about a year ago, but, uh, look out, because we're second again". Thankfully, it was all uphill from there. Their speaker, some dude named Robbie, wasn't a douche (unlike most of the guys at Microsoft) or boring to watch (like the Japanese businessmen at Sony), and that went a long way towards making their presentation compelling. More facts and figures were discussed, including plenty about Nintendo's games-before-everything attitude, and how important value is as well.

Then, out of nowhere, Robbie busts a DS out of his coat pocket, holding it in an outstretched hand like a tiny supermodel as hundreds of bulbs flashed away. He talked a bit about how the specifics of the two screens would work, and how the systems caters to developers more than anything else. He said they were shooting to have it out this year, compretively priced. He then showed off a bit of game footage, including Metroid Prime: Hunters and Super Mario 64x4, two beautiful tech demos that mimic their big brothers and will both probably turn into games someday. He mentioned that you fire in the Metroid game by tapping the screen where your opponent was, which was met by a very torn, confused crowd-reaction not typical of the rest of the presentation. I'm also a bit uncomfortable with the idea to be honest. Anyhow, the proceeded to show a hadnful of video clips from interviews with heads of various big developers, saying how they found the DS an interesting idea and how they can't wait to explore the possibilities and such. I just hope we'll actually see some games that aren't made by Nintendo on the thing. My man Robbie also gave a great analogy for the DS, and Nintendo's approach to gaming in general. He asked when you're driving a car, do you want to go down the same road you've been before, only faster, or do you want to explore a whole new road? Nice work, Rob.

They also touched on some other random bullshit, like wireless GBA connectivity and Video Packs for the GBA, but no one seemed to give a damn in light of everything else going on. A nice reel of games was shown as well, spanning all of their systems. Paper Mario 2 looked great, Geist looked somewhat intreguing, Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat looked odd (you use the Donkey Konga drum controller to navigate a side-scroller), Legend of Zelda: Four Swords looked as pretty as ever, Viewtiful Joe 2 looks how you'd expect it to, Fire Emblem and Pikmin 2 looked like they always have (good), and that's about it for the exclusive ones I can remember (outside of GBA games, which they had plenty of, including a new Zelda). Oh, and Advance Wars: Under Fire looks fantastic, though I forget whether they showed it during the conference or not. There were actually some odd omissions from the stuff that they showed which ended up being revealed later, including a new side-scrolling Mario game, a new Animal Crossing (a game that would work much better with two screens, and a Mario Kart port, all for the DS. Odd, no?

Nintendo's president also spoke a bit about the concept for their next system, codenamed Revolution. He talked about how power won't matter anymore, as it will be about new game ideas and system design. Read Tom's last post for a bit more on that.

As if the introduction of the DS wasn't big enough, Nintendo decided to end their show with a massive surprise - a new Zelda game for GC, featuring an adult Link. The crowd went crazy, and a shield and sword-adorned Shigeru Miyamoto walked on stage, wrapping up the show in some charming broken english. It wrapped up a damn good day for Nintendo. My only complaint is that as good as more Mario, Metroid and Zelda games are, I would have liked to see some new franchises from the Big N. I think people are going to demand more than just those charcaters for the next generation, even if they are all great. Still, a wonderful showing.


Sony's Press Conference - They don't quite have a Halo 2 in their line-up, or the name recognition of Nintendo going for them, but Sony put on a surprisingly good presentation, thanks in big part to the unveiling of the do-it-all wonder handheld, the PSP. Kaz Harai (one of the big guys at Sony) did most of the hosting duties, but unfortunately didn't have as big a hold on the english language as to be able to joke around and charm the crowd. It was actually very business-heavy outside out of the showing of games and hardware, which was boring to watch in-between, but made for some impressive stat-relaying - Sony has sold 170 Million PS1/PS2s, 1.5 Billion pieces of software, and 90% of the business on PS1 was done after the $149 price point, which it reached about the same time in it's lifecycle as the PS2. The future looks good. Oh, yes, and they announced the price drop, but I assume you realized that.

They then brought out Ted Price to show off the online mode in Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal, coming out this fall. It looked amazing, and as fun and chaotic as any game out there. It also runs at 60fps, which is an amazing feat on any system for an online game that looks as good as R&C does. There's vehicles, lots of crazy weapons and modes and levels, constant voice support, the works. As basically the first platformer to go online, it's looking top-notch (as is the single-player game, but that's a given).

Sony also showed video of several exclusive games (including some new franchises) that are all looking great, a good thing for Sony to have right now - Monster Hunter (grr, no voice chat...), God of War, Killzone, Gran Turismo 4, Metal Gear Solid 3, Ratchet & Clank: UYA, Jak 3, Sly 2: Band of Thieves, Hot Shots Golf Fore!, and Getaway: Black Monday (get yer own screenshots). There have also been plenty of sweet games shown since then, that weren't included in their video because they're not published by Sony, such as Devil May Cry 3, Suikoden VI, Blood Will Tell, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War, Shadow of Rome, Kindom Hearts 2, and, of course, Final Fantasy XII.

Their online plans were also discussed, and were fairly different from Microsoft's, and no worse. Sony believes more on extending online play to the casual consumer, which is partially where R&C:UYA comes in to help, and also making sure their online play is free and "not controlled or mandated by [Sony]." Pretty different than the "let's give our current users more stuff to do and run the whole service" approach of Microsoft. I'm glad both companies have a solid but distinguished online plan at this stage.

I'm sure I'm skipping some stuff, but anyhow...they unveiled the PSP! It looks a lot like early renders, with a gorgeous 4.3" screen taking up most of the space on the system. It's got all sorts of technical doodads, including Wi-Fi support, and a cockload of RAM, by request. They didn't mention price, and I'm thinking they won't until Nintendo does. They also showed off a ton of games, including Metal Gear: Acid, a cool-looking as-yet-untitled new FPS, a marble puzzle game, a great-looking new action-looking game of some sort, more of Death Jr. and versions of Tony Hawk, Gran Turismo, Dynasty Warriors (which looked much better than the PS2 version), Hot Shots Golf, Twisted Metal, Frogger, Ape Escape, Wipeout, Armored Core, ATV Offroad Fury, F1 Racing, Hockey, Syphon Filter, Spider-Man, Medieval, Soccer, Ridge Racer, NBA Street, NFL Street, Tiger Woods, and a Darkstalkers game in stunning 2D (and later shown, Devil May Cry and Viewtiful Joe). All of the games looking phenomenal, trumping their PS2 counterparts in many cases. It is unfortunate that the majority were sequels to or versions of existing games, but with 99 developers worldwide and 44 already-announced Japanese games, I think we'll have more than enough original content, if not too much, by the time the launch rolls around.

They also showed the new Spiderman 2 trailer and an Incubus video playing on the PSP, both of which looked and sounded perfect (though it was boring as hell to watch them show off the whole trailer).

I forget how they wrapped up the show, seeing as it was the last one I watched and it ended at around five in the morning, but their overall conference left me with a lot of faith in the PS2's future, and the future of the PSP, which is very important for Sony. It would have been nice to see more original PSP games, but I liked the bit that they did show, and I'm optimistic for the near future.


This has been another one of those all-day posts, so I'll save discussion of multiplatform games and such until later. Keep checking IGN or Gamespot if you want constant updates, or leave a comment if you me to talk more about a particular game or find a video link. Word.