E3 2009: thoughts and impressions.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Written by: Julian

Well it’s been quite some time since my last post and it’s no surprise (well to me at least) that I couldn’t hold up to the promise of blogging on a more consistent basis. Anyways, I managed to tear myself away from the uncharted 2 beta to write my thoughts about the E3 that just passed. Oh and a side note, I won’t bother saying that I’ll try to blog more cause I know my laziness will get in the way. So enjoy!

Well the Electronic Entertainment Expo or E3 was a week ago and I just wanted to share my thoughts on the press conferences of the big three: Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony. Before anything starts I want say that I was a little underwhelmed by the entire show. Although there were a few things that caught my eye and got me excited everything else was lacklustre. Aside from those few titles this E3 was somewhat mediocre, and of course this only my opinion so don’t spaz out if you don’t agree with any of it.

MICROSOFT

Alright let’s start things off with Microsoft. I’ll have to admit I was flustered on why they would begin their conference with The Beatles: Rock Band only because it would be coming to all platforms, and I would have assumed that the first thing they showcase was an exclusive title. But after the introduction, albeit a bit lengthy but nevertheless entertaining (it is after all a Beatles game!) it was clear on why they chose that title to headline their press conference. After it all settled down we got a live demo and a visit from Yoko, Mrs. Harrison, Paul McCartney and Ringo! That was pretty cool. The release date for this title is September 9/2009 and you can bet on me getting it on launch. Not only because of the instruments, but also cause my 1st gen Rock Band equipment is starting to degrade.

Another bright-side of this conference was the live demo of Modern Warfare 2. What I liked about the first Modern Warfare was the immersive single-player, and I hope that they continue that trend in the new instalment. Personally I don’t think I’ll be getting Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 2 on launch because of the fact that I played Killzone 2 and I like the controls a lot better in that game. (Queue the hatemail/flamewars from the fanboys)

The next title that caught my eye was the new Splinter Cell game, Splinter Cell: Conviction. It shows a lot a promise, I mean from a personal standpoint the stealth genre died after MGS 4, but this can revamp the genre and take it in a new direction. I like it so much because you can pretty much say “fuck stealth kills” and go Rambo-style through the missions. Sadly it is an XBOX360 exclusive which sucks for PS3 owners like myself.

Project Natal. Hmm when I first saw it, I pretty much thought it was a eyetoy on steroids. You have to give kudos to Microsoft to including pretty much any activity you can think of on the trailer. Even though some of the demos were pretty much ridiculous. For example, the dress simulation, the one where the two girls are talking about dresses and how one of the girls picked a dress out for the other one. When I first saw that I was like “What the fuck?”, because we all know tweens are on their Xboxes chatting and discussing fashion. Seriously who gave the green light for that? I mean fine, I understand you’re trying to reach out to a different demographic but do you honestly think that a tween will buy a 360 just so they can do that?!? Not to mention they have other outlets in which they can already do that. That was just stupid. Oh and another problem I had with the trailer was the last part, where the mom or whatever the fuck she was, turns off the unit by speaking. Now they should have said, Project Natal: for lazy motherfuckers. Because if you find it daunting to press a button to turn off anything then you are by far the laziest person in the world. Now I know this would probably get the fanboys riled up because I haven’t said much about the peripheral itself, so I’ll get that over with now. From what I can tell it definitely shows the capability of future gaming, I mean this possibly be the closest thing to virtual reality. Now I’m not saying it is, and I’m not saying it isn’t either. Project Natal is in its early stages and it’s not fair to judge it right away, so I won’t. But it has the potential to be something great, aside from the retarded trailer.

Well that was pretty much all from Microsoft press conference that was worth remembering. Oh and I almost forgot, an honourable mention, the Square Enix presentation. Great stuff, plus the chick translating was hot.

NINTENDO

Nintendo….. Wow where do I begin? Oh right, this press conference was boring. I can’t believe I sat through its entirety. Maybe it’s just me but Nintendo’s conference was just weak. No Shigeru Miyamoto? Consider that a fail. It was like Nintendo went to a gun fight with facts and figures. I’m having a hard time jogging my memory of any blog-worthy titles.

Well for starters, I’ll start with the title that came at the end, Metroid: Other M. A Metroid game developed by the Team Ninja staff? That’s a win right there, plus Samus blowing shit up and guts flying all over the place is always good.

Umm The New Super Mario Bros. Wii looks pretty fun. That is of course you have four friends. If alone I assume your Wii would collect dust as is most likely the case now. Well this goes for most of the Wii titles; fun with others, not so much alone.

Another title that looked cool was Super Mario Galaxy 2. I don’t own a Wii but I have played the first instalment and it was fun. The second one has Yoshi. That’s awesome. If I owned a Wii I would get it. But I don’t, so I won’t.

Wii Motion Plus? Don’t see a point, I figured the Wii-mote did all those motions already. But I can’t really tell the difference unless I get it in my hands. Wii Sports Resort, *sigh another mini-game errrm game. Seems like that’s what the Wii is good for. Well I think it’s safe to say that the general public is sick of these type of games. Oh and since I’m on the subject of the Wii Motion Plus, did anyone else notice the trailer for it? A bit racist anyone? Maybe it’s just me but Nintendo pretty much reinforced every racial stereotype out there. But I’m sure there will be some out there that will say “oh we can’t have a black samurai, or it just makes sense that a black guy is the one shooting basketball, or even well Chinese people are good at ping pong.” Granted those are valid points, but how about a mix up? Make the black guy a ping pong player, or even the archer. That’s just a thought.

Style Savvy. WHAT. THE. FUCK. And to think I thought I couldn’t see something worse than that Natal trailer and along comes Style Savvy. Hey maybe it’s because I’m a male, and not a tween, but I don’t see how anyone could buy this game or let alone play it. Who wants to do fashion/inventory simulation? If you hate someone get them this game.

Out of the big three, I can confidently say that Nintendo had the weakest showing. I found that their conference rather boring, and for the most part it was very timid. No flash, just the bare bones. However I feel I should note another honourable mention: when Reggie Fils-Aime and that other dude were trash talking before the “3-point” shoot-out. Reggie getting the victory = win, the trash talking that led up to it = fail, it was horrendous. I mean I was actually contemplating of making myself deaf during their “verbal throw-down”.

SONY

Lastly, the Sony conference. Let me start by saying that I do own a PS3 if you want to call me a fanboy go ahead but like most people, I think that as of now the PS3 library is sub-par compared to either the XBOX 360 or the Wii. Sony’s conference started off slow, taking the same approach as Nintendo;  butchering the crowd with facts. Honestly I couldn’t care less but whatever it eventually led to some killer gameplay of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.

Now the first Uncharted was visually astounding. And the second certainly follows suit. But it does so much more tackling a larger environment. Suffice to say I was excited just seeing that demo and when I got on the multiplayer beta I was sold. Not at first, but a couple of playtimes through I got hooked and now I play it more than Infamous the game the beta was shipped with. To top it off, it has three player co-op that’s just awesome.

PSP Go. Geez they didn’t even put a second nubbin. Now that’s an insult. But what the real insult is the fact that they said they listened to public and gave it what it wanted. Fuck I think everyone wanted a second joystick nubbin! Seriously, who wouldn’t want one. If you look at the screenshots they could have easily placed a nubbin where the start and select buttons are and move those up. Oh an added bonus: they made it UMD free, which is nice I guess if you don’t like carrying UMD’s around. It’s pretty much the more portable version of the Playstation Portable, if that makes any sense.

Oh and that’s not all they announced a Hannah Montana PSP Bundle….. Oh my God why?!?! It seems that Sony is trying to get into Nintendo’s share of the portable market. I don’t blame them but I have to say Nintendo has got that locked down.

Next up, Massive Action Game or MAG for short. Hmmm 256 multiplayer war online? I think I just heard the internets explode. If it works then this could be one of the most insanely hectic online experiences ever. 256 players online! It’s like fighting a fucking war. But I just imagine player drops, game crashes and of course uber-lag.

Following that Sony demonstrated their attempt at motion gaming. With what maybe the most ugliest peripheral ever made. It pretty much looked like a Wii-mote with a tumour. At first I thought it was going to be Wii-mote rip off but as the presentation continued it got a lot more interesting. I was especially impressed with the archery simulation. And when one of the demonstrators said he would hold the bow “gangster” style that was just plain awesome. Like the Natal, I’ll reserve my judgment for a later date when more is known about the device. I hope to God they change the look, it’s just terrible.

Sony saved the cream of the crop for last. God of War 3. That’s right the first instalment of the trilogy to make to next gen. Suffice to say it looks amazing. I think everyone was pretty much amped up after watching the live demo. You can even hears the moans when they had to end the demo right before the fight with a titan.

So those were my impression on E3 2009, all in all it was ok. Too bad it’s still closed to the public but at least they brought back the booth babes. There were a few games that I didn’t include, but feel should at least get an honourable mention. They are: Final Fantasy XIII/XIV, Hard Rain, Wet, Alan Wake, Brutal Legend, and Lost Planet 2. I would have said Metal Gear: Rising, but since it will most likely be a Raiden heavy game I had to pass. It’s just not MGS without Snake.