E3 2K10

["Wildfox" Meta S. Foxx]

Well folks, E3 starts tomorrow. Any ideas on what's in store for new games? And what are you all looking forward to seeing?

[Sinful Orchid]

I'm hoping some news about the KI arcade for the 360. They mentioned they wanted to bring those games back on the Box of X (got that term from Todd's brother). I'm also hoping for news on a new Star Fox game and Beyond Good & Evil 2. It'll be nice if they mentioned a new BloodRayne or a new Mortal Kombat game, but I'm not getting my hopes up on that.

Oh, and there was some drawings/picture of a new McGee's Alice, so I hope they mention that some more. I heard there will be a Mirror's Edge 2. I still need to play the first demo some more to get used to it.

["Wildfox" Meta S. Foxx]

Okay, so Microsoft's Press Conference was today. Sadly, it wasn't anything spectacular. The only thing they got to talk about and pretty much show off was Kinect (formally known as Project Natal) and the newly redesigned Xbox 360 (which I'm sure if you've turned on your Xbox 360 by now, you've probably seen it). Rare was nowhere in sight during any of this. There was no mentioning of any Rare games to be made or remade (this is backed up by Rare's Twitter which I do follow, and they mentioned nothing about new or remakes of games instead just gloating on and on about Kinect...it also doesn't help that they're site is still down either). No, no, I take that back. I just got off of Rare's site and found out that there is a new project from them, but that's just the sort of good news. What's the bad news? Their latest project is Kinect Sports, literally an Avatar based sports party game that works only for the Kinect thingy. Kind of sad, isn't it?

Other than that, there was nothing for M$ to share. Just Kinect, the new smaller 360, Halo: Reach, Gears of War 3 (which I'm so sick of seeing that stupid game it's not even funny), and Fable III. If there was a theme present in M$ PC, it sure as hell wasn't obvious. There was nothing exhilarating about it, not even the Kinect garnered any kind of good press. Just M$ doing what they do best...trying to garter money from us gamerfolk.

Here's the full M$ Press Conference video courtesy of G4TV (it's an hour and a half long so be prepared to sit a while): e3.g4tv.com/videos/46342/E3-2010-Microsoft-Press-Conference/

So far the best thing I've seen out of today's events was the new Need For Speed game. And thank God for it! Criterion (famous for the Burnout franchise) is finally taking NFS back to its roots, back to the classic era before all of the Underground crap. Needless today I'm definitely looking forward to that one.

Ubisoft's PC is tomorrow going on right now (mistake). Nintendo, Sony, and Konami's PC are tomorrow. Let's all hope that Ubisoft mentions something about BG&E2 after the crazy rumors we've had to put up with the last couple of weeks. If you don't know what I'm talking about, rumor had it that series creator Michael Ancel parted ways with the developing studio, Ubisoft Montpelier, citing creative differences for the game, and was going to create his own in-house studio to work on "classic" games. However, Ubisoft dispelled those rumors earlier this month and assured all of us that the game was still in the works. I don't know what to expect from Nintendo's side, but I'm hoping that somewhere in their PC is a mentioning of Star Fox (hopefully with Platinum Games at the helm), but if I had to guess, it's going to be probably Zelda hyped. As for Sony, I'm dreadfully hoping that there is a mention of Uncharted 3 and another Sly Cooper game, but I'm holding my breath on Sly Cooper since Sucker Punch is too wrapped up in milking InFamous to death. Maybe a mentioning of Jak and Daxter PS3 game would suffice, too, but I know Naughty Dog is wrapped up in trying to finish the Uncharted series so I won't hold too much on that one. And maybe we'll get more insight on PlayStation Move.

["Wildfox" Meta S. Foxx]

Well Ubisoft's press conference has come and gone, and to tell you the truth, it was kind of a bit of a letdown as well. Absolutely no mentioning of Beyond Good and Evil 2 within the nearly 75 minute segment, but what did we get?

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
Shaun White Skateboarding
a Laser Tag game
something called Innergy
Driver: San Francisco
Ghost Recon: Future Soldier
something called Your Shape: Fitness Evolved (for that Kinect thing)
Raving Rabbids Travel In Time
a new Rayman game (this I AM interested in)
a few other new projects
and a Miachael Jackson dancing game


Um...thoughts?

["Wildfox" Meta S. Foxx]

Well the first two days of E3 were kind of a big letdown, but so far today, I'm sorely impressed.

Let me start off with the Big N's PC. Nintendo, by far, has the most impressive PC at the expo! The new Legend of Zelda game, Skyward Sword, looks really impressive and is a step far above what we saw in Twilight Princess. One of the best features is that you can actually use the shield which is now assigned to the Nunchuck. The game uses the WiiMotion Plus, and does a really great job of it. Check out the trailers for this one. I think you'll enjoy it.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn on the DS looks really impressive as well, and takes a turn in gameplay as a turn based RPG as opposed to a tactical RPG.

However, one of the biggest bombshells that Nintendo dropped was the trailer for the one and only GoldenEye 007! This is not the same GoldenEye you saw on the N64. No no. Activision and Eurocom have gone all out to make it a complete reimagining of the game, and by God does it ever look epic! And the best part is, it's a Wii exclusive!!!

One thing I'm glad they did was show off one of the best ideas I've ever heard of in a long time, and that's Epic Mickey. This is a Mickey Mouse game, and it's pretty bad ass in my opinion. It's like an action-adventure/platformer/RPG hybrid rolled into one. The gameplay and mechanics look really impressive and I'm just basking to see what the final product looks and feels like.

If you've been missing a lot of Kirby on a home console, you're going to get your wish. Kirby is getting his first new home console release in seven years in Kirby: Epic Yarn. This one you have to see for yourself. I don't think words can explain how sweet this one looks.

If you've kept up with Metroid lately, you already know about Metroid: Other M, the 2D side scrolling adventure featuring Samus that's being developed by, of all companies, Team Ninja. This game looks great and will be ready for us on August 31st.

Anyone remember the old Donkey Kong Country games on the old Super NES? Those were my favorite SNES games, and I played all three of them to death. Now, guess what? IT'S BACK...and with a vengeance! Retro Studios, famous for giving us Metroid Prime, as taken a break from Metroid and has decided to give us old school DKC fans a true sequel to the old school with Donkey Kong Country Returns. My jaw dropped when I saw this. It's back to the original 2D platform and has a number of new twists added in.

Well we were all speculating that there was going to be a successor to the DS, and Nintendo finally brought it into the limelight. The new 3DS actually looks really impressive. What's new on the system? Well for starters, the top screen is now improved to a 3.5" widescreen display, with a special 3D slider control that lets you adjust the 3D effect, including turning it off completely (so the 3D is not mandatory) and this is all done without the stupid 3D glasses. Above the control pad is a new Slide Pad for analog control, so now you have analog control for DS. In addition, system also has motion and gyro sensors for inapt motion control. Graphics are going to be much improved for the system, so those concerned with cosmetic makeup of games will probably get turned on by this. The system is compatible with all DS games including DSiWare titles. It has two camera lenses on the outside that allows you to take pictures and view them in 3D. The last nifty little feature is that Nintendo is allowing for motion pictures to be seen on the system in full 3D. No titles have been announced yet, but on the show floor, they were showing off trailers for movies from Dreamworks, Disney, and Warner Bros.

So what's one of the first games to be released for the system? You're not going to believe this. After 15 years of not having another game since it's release on the NES, we are going to be treated to...Kid Icarus: Uprising! The trailer for it look phenomenal, and even had an intro of Pit saying "sorry to keep you waiting." Major highlight of the PC.

Well if I had to sum up Nintendo's PC in one word, it would have to be "Classic." They seem to have an edge on this by doing what they do best, giving us new ways to enjoy the classics. Only one of their showings was new, that being Epic Mickey, but to be honest, the Nintendo classics really stole the show, and the GoldenEye reimagining really got everyone pumped. People have been waiting for a rerelease of GoldenEye for a long time, and we're going to get it and a lot more.

The only downside is that once again we did not get any mention of a brand new Star Fox game...only a 3D remake of Star Fox 64 for the new 3DS, but...well...I guess we should wait a while longer for something to surface, though I wish Nintendo would get back on the ball with that. If Platinum Games wants to do a Star Fox game, I say let them. What would be the harm in that? Seriously!

I know no one will hardly care, but I AM going to post my thoughts of Sony's PC later because from what I've been looking at, I'm psyched as hell at what they're giving us!

["Wildfox" Meta S. Foxx]

This one took longer than I thought, but I finally got around to watching Sony's PC after downloading it part for part off the PlayStation Store. So here's my take on their showings.

Overall, I really loved what they had to offer. The announcement of the long awaited return of Twisted Metal really got me jarred up! It's been years since I've indulged myself in some Twisted Metal action, and Sony finally saw fit to bring it back. Sony's main theme for their PC was the notion of 3D in their upcoming titles. For those that don't know, this takes advantage of a new wave of 3DTVs that are currently out on the market (though don't get your hopes up, they're expensive as hell to own right now), and every game that they showed takes advantage of this. For their PC, everyone who was in attendance were given 3D glasses to view most of the trailers and live demos that were shown. Aside from the 3D theme, Sony's other focus was their new motion controller, the PlayStation Move. Essentially, it's just their version of the Wiimote and Nunchuck (the main controller is a small wand with the familiar face buttons and a color changing bulb on the top with the sub controller, called the Navigation Controller which has a D-Pad, Analog stick, PS Home, X, Circle, L1, L2, and L3 buttons), but this one kind of works a little different. The PlayStation Move controller in most cases utilizes the PlayStation Eye camera accessory (I own one of these for mine already) for added motion capture, and you don't necessarily need the Navigation controller for many games. The two controllers, unlike the Wii controllers, don't have interconnecting ports on the bottoms, so you have absolute freedom of movement with these. Pretty nice that you have absolute free movement without the need for extra wires. Moving back to the subject of games, they had a load of other titles to announce as well, such as (finally) a release date for Gran Turismo 5 which will be out in November of this year (I've been waiting for this a long time). We got more screenshots and demos of LittleBigPlanet 2 (a game I recommend for everyone here if you like to be creative in games), announcements for InFamous 2 (which got my hopes up for anything Sly Cooper related, but just wait), SOCOM 4, as well as a new title called Heroes On the Move, which features their top three mascots (Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, and Sly Cooper and Bentley) in one game facing off against new enemies. That got me really excited that I got something not only Sly Cooper related, but also something Jak and Daxter related as well (considering that Jak and Daxter have yet to make an appearance on the PS3, though at least Daxter was a DLC in the game Pain). However one of the biggest highlights for me that night was the announcement of the Sly Collection for PS3! Essentially, it's all three Sly Cooper games redone on PS3 on one Blu-ray disc. I don't care if I already own all three games on PS2...I'm still getting the update! And hey, this pretty much raises the speculation that after Sucker Punch is done with InFamous, they might have something new for us Sly Cooper fans, since at the end of last year Sony, you know, redid and released both PS2 God of War games on PS3 before giving us God of War III back in March of this year. So that I'm excited about.

On the PSP front, we got some interesting titles as well, including God of War: Ghost of Sparta, Phantasy Star Portable 2, Patapon 3, a really good trailer for Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, and something else I've been waiting on for years on end...a game within the Parasite Eve universe! Square-Enix debuted the trailer for the game, The 3rd Birthday, which is set to be a spin-off of the main Parasite Eve games, but might come off as a sequel. Details of the game are slim at the moment, but the game does feature main character, Aya Brea. Finally, Parasite Eve is back, and I needed it so.

One of the most surprising and shocking announcements made during Sony's PC was the announcement that Portal 2 was going to be arriving on PlayStation 3 alongside it's other platform cousins. But what made this all the more shocking is that this announced was made by none other than Valve's Marketing Director, Gabe Newell, an individual that was deemed the PlayStation Community's biggest mortal enemy for some comments he made towards the system. So not only did Newell announce the PS3 version of Portal 2, but he also stated that the PS3 version is also going to utilize features of Steamworks (which if you have an account on Steam, you pretty much know what it is) which the PC and Mac versions use, and the PS3 is the only console that will have this, making it, in Newell's own words (and if you don't believe me, look for the video on YouTube because I can guarantee you he says this), "the best version on any console." Well it looks like I'm getting my Portal fix after all!


Well, there were a few hits and misses with Sony's PC, but overall, I think they were right up there with Nintendo, though Nintendo in my opinion won the battle by about a gnat's wing. Although I was disappointed with no mentioning of Uncharted 3 (Naughty Dog wasn't even in attendance), I really loved what Sony had to offer, and I can't wait for the number of games I did mention here.

[Sinful Orchid]

Sad that there wasn't news on Beyond Good & Evil 2, or any mention of the KI arcade on Project Natal...which a little surprising since Rare is the one who brought it up some time ago..but, it is Rare we're talking about.

[MacDaddyNook]

I have to say, it's about time Nintendo finally stepped up to the plate with their games. The past few years have been focused on casual wastes like Wii Music and the Vitality Sensor, it made me happy to see they actually are focusing on the games Wii owners actually want to play. With that said, some of the games caught my eye more than others. I'm really excited over the new Donkey Kong Country and Kirby games, but I'm foaming at the mouth for Epic Mickey (mostly since I've been following it since the concept art leaks a good while back). Zelda's looking good and so does Kid Icarus, even if it seems like it wants to be a Star Fox game with a Kid Icarus face. Mario Sports will also be fun, though I was hoping each sport would have its own game with more depth added (so far, they all look pretty same-ish to me). I'll pass on Metroid for now, since I'm not much of a fan of the series, as I will with Golden Sun since I'm not too into the turn-based RPGs anymore, aside from Pokemon. Wii Party was thankfully the only casual title, and I highly doubt I'll ever get it and that goes double for Nintendogs and Cats since the first Nintendogs was pretty boring.

Microsoft wasn't as strong as it was last year. I like how the new 360 looks, but I already have one, so there's no point in getting something I already own. Kinect looks good, but I'm hearing it'll be on the pricey side, so it may be a while before I get it. Still, what was announced for it looks pretty solid and pretty fun.

As for Sony, I honestly didn't pay any attention to them since I don't have a PS3 or PSP, so nothing they had was relevant to me. Still, it's nice to see Twisted Metal and Sly Cooper getting some attention, now if only they could bring a HD Jet Moto, that'd be nice to see.

["Wildfox" Meta S. Foxx]

I'd say now's the perfect time to get a PS3 if you ask me. There's plenty to like on there. I know you and Orchid would both love LittleBigPlanet if you like creating your own levels and such. The new God of War game is bloody awesome! The Ratchet & Clank Future games are sweet as well (especially the third one). Of course my top recommendation is the Uncharted games! Those are must plays!

About the best thing one can get to HD Jet Moto for now is Wipeout HD, actually. I have it, and I enjoy it! Plus the PlayStation Store has a lot of other great downloads as well, plus a host of movies (a hell of a lot more than that Zune video thingy the 360 has) and TV series to own.

If the two of you ever one day decide to come to my side, give me a buzz. I'll square you away.