The Full Circle: 360 News Report 06.05.09
Posted by Joe Roche on 06.05.2009
Before we leave E3 2009 behind for good it's time to wrap up the week that was on the convention floor the only way we know how. This week we'll cover the major announcements, the major letdown and everything in between as 411Game's Joe Roche takes you around The Full Circle.
It's the Friday after E3, the convention floor has been cleared of swag, the press conferences have come and gone, and James Cameron is just about to wrap up his speech about Avatar. It was a fun filled week in Los Angeles for the annual E3 expo and as we get ready to head into the weekend there is only one thing left to do to put a nice neat bow on the entire thing – take you all around The Full Circle. [Ed. Note – This column is super long this week]
Metal Gear Megaton During Microsoft's E3 Press Conference Hideo Kojima took the stage with Don Mattrick to announce that he is bringing the next chapter of the Metal Gear Solid franchise to the Xbox 360. The game will be called Metal Gear Solid: Rising, and feature the newly awesome Raiden.
It would be impossible to talk about Microsoft at E3 without mentioning the fact that Hideo Kojima is bringing the Metal Gear Solid franchise to the Xbox 360. For the past few years Microsoft has seemingly designed their E3 presentation to revolve around their lineup of games that we all had hoped/expected to be in development, and one major surprise. Two years ago the Epic crew unveiled the first glimpse at Gears of War 2 (ok just a teaser trailer but still), last year it was announced that Final Fantasy 13 was coming to the Xbox 360 and now Raiden on our favorite console. The most amazing part of the announcement was that it wound up being lost in the shuffle of some other things that happened, but in my mind as far as actual video game's on the horizon this is the one that left me the most excited leaving the convention (hypothetically since I was not actually at the convention). I know Raiden is a much maligned character to those of us who did not play Guns of the Patriot but apparently he's been redeemed so I will reserve judgment until what I imagine will be holiday 2010 when we can see Metal Gear Solid: Rising in action. [Ed. Before you jump all over me yes I know that Metal Gear Solid: Rising will be released on the PS3 as well.]
Take a Trip to Point Lookout Bethesda announced during E3 that the next installment of Fallout 3 DLC, titled "Point Lookout" will be released on June 23rd. The DLC takes you to a very creepy, almost Silent Hillesque port town, and while there you will do all the things that make Fallout 3 so enjoyable.
Unlike previous Fallout 3 DLC the trailer for Point Lookout makes it very clear that "you are not welcome here." So it's obvious that the locals are not going to be receptive to my maniacal, pseudo intellectual shotgun wielding maniac from underground when he strolls into town. I have to give Bethesda a lot of credit for the support they've shown Fallout 3, and once I finish my review obligations I am going to download the entire DLC package for Fallout 3 and really get myself immersed in the game once again. I imagine that it'll be around the time Point Lookout comes out so who knows perhaps I'll stroll into that port town the next time I pop in the disc.
L4D2 Surprise! During Microsoft's E3 Press Conference it was announced that Valve will release Left 4 Dead 2 exclusively on the Xbox 360 on November 17, 2009.
Before getting to the controversy surrounding this game the trailer (see below) ends with the phrase "and if we run out of bullets, baby they gonna wish we had em" as you see a chainsaw being reved up. If that isn't the best selling point for a game ever then I don't know what is. However, not everyone was excited about L4D 2, especially those who thought Valve would support the original Left 4 Dead for a long time in the future (I was one of those people). It turns out that Valve had every intention of keeping up to date with Left 4 Dead; however when they started to open it up and tinker with things to add some updates they released that the canvas they were working with was flawed. I imagine that they've fixed whatever it was that they didn't like about the original and Left 4 Dead 2 will have a much longer life span then the first installment. I don't think people need to worry about the Left 4 Dead franchise turning into a yearly drop because that just isn't how Valve operates. With that in mind the game looks awesome, and doesn't seem to change much from the original except for adding some bayou accents, which is never a bad thing in my book.
Project Natal At the end of the Microsoft press conference at E3 they debuted Project Natal. Essentially Project Natal is a full body sensor, motion capture device that allows you to control the Xbox 360 without a controller.
Can someone please try to explain Project Natal better then I did up there? Honestly there are moments in our video game lives where the entire world comes to a screeching halt and you're left to ponder where we go from here. The entire Milo presentation by Peter Molyneux made me feel like we were living the movie Simone (although it wasn't terrible). I have no idea how to explain what happened during the however long Project Natal was shown off, and I've watched the presentation about three times since it debuted. You control your on screen avatar with your body, you can sign into Xbox Live by standing in your living room, you can turn the console off with your voice, you can interact with the characters in a game with the object recognition. It is, in many ways the most frightening thing I've ever seen. Now I have no idea if it'll work – I mean I've heard from people who actually experienced Project Natal that it does in fact work, but I mean in a more simplistic way – will people want to play video games with their bodies? I watched the Ricochet demo and I came away unimpressed, not by the technology, but by the game itself. I think of driving games, or skateboard games, or golf games and I think that having a physical object in your hands adds to the realism – even if you're just holding a golf club shaft in your living room with no buttons. In the real world you can't drive without a steering wheel, so why would doing so in a video game be more realistic?
On the flip side controlling the Xbox dashboard with your hand was awesome, and recognizing your Xbox Live login through facial recognition software is unbelievable, oh and Milo is about five years from rising up, becoming self aware and overthrowing the United States Government. Hopefully someone called Christian Bale about this Project Natal thing, his gravel voice may be needed.
Perfect Dark on XBLA Somewhere lost in the shuffle of E3, Major Nelson confirmed via his Twitter page that Rare's Perfect Dark will be making its way to XBLA this winter.
This is pretty exciting news. Apparently the game will run in full 1080p, I imagine as homage to the move to run everything in beautiful 1080p from the Xbox 360 console. Not much else was said by Major, he was limited to 250 characters after all, but I enjoyed the hell out of Perfect Dark the first go around, and I have always enjoyed the series so I look forward to getting my hands on this one later on this year.
The Viewing Room
Metal Gear Solid: Rising debut, Lighting Bolt Action.
This is the video that Microsoft showed for Project Natal. Save this to your computer so that your grandchildren will know when the machines began to take over the world.
Adam leads us off this week: We are probably gonna get some more Halo3: ODST info. Like maybe a release date and some gameplay.
Boy did we ever get some footage of Halo: ODST, including actual game play footage. The game looks very much like what you'd expect from a Halo game. I loved the visor, and from all reports the "Firefight" multiplayer feature is very much like Gears of War 2's Horde mode, and frankly Horde was so good that I think Halo using that game type is all win. But on top of Halo: ODST we also saw the unveiling of Halo: Reach which was unexpected but welcome.
The always great Wyatt Beougher chimes in: Good luck with the whole job thing, Joe, but with a law degree, I can only imagine you'll land on your feet. That said, here's some gaming-related thoughts:
-I, too, have the Lost and the Damned sitting on my hard drive, untouched. I'm finishing all the miscellaneous quests in Fallout 3 and wearing out UFC 2009 Undisputed, though I expect to enjoy about three weeks off in June, so that should give me time to knock those two games out and get back to GTAIV.
-While Guida's hair problem is perplexing, I'm more soured by the lack of Randy Couture and Shane Carwin, among others, in Undisputed.
-I had heard somewhere that this AVP is supposed to be like the one that came out for the Atari Jaguar (did I just date myself there?). If that's the case, as one of the few people who owned a Jaguar while it was still a (somewhat) viable system, I can honestly say that AVP was an AMAZING FPS for its time, and playing as a Space Marine was completely different than playing as a Predator, which was completely different than playing as an Alien. If they can replicate any of that magic, I'll be thrilled.
-I watched the E3 preview on SpikeTV last night, and I think the motion control system Microsoft is going with is going to suck, actually. It looked like that crappy PlayStation camera deal and featured a guy swatting flies. Wow. I'm honestly blown away here.
-Chalk me up as one of the few people who don't own a WiiFit. My Wii stays at home and my 360 travels with me, so I haven't dropped the extra hundred on the WiiFit yet, but, as mentioned, with time off coming up, it's a definite possibility, if only because I want the full experience (no matter how poorly it detects) for Punch-Out.
I have nothing much to add here except that we were all blindsided by the Microsoft motion control system. There is still a peripheral in the works for the 360 that is more like the Wiimore, but that Natal thing really caught me, and I think everyone else by surprise.
Todd Vote:Alan Wake, that is the only thing I really feel we NEED to see out of Microsoft this week.
Well Todd, Remedy delivered with the Alan Wake video and gameplay footage. All reports from the floor are that the game plays really well already and looks beautiful. How do you feel after now seeing the game, and knowing that it is actually coming?
Byzdalmyt: I thought you may have some impressions of the Fight Night 4 demo, but it may have come out after your column was posted.
I actually have a review of the demo in the works my friend. I've put a lot of time into the demo and I really love the improvements from Fight Night Round 3 (which I still enjoy). Hopefully by the time you're reading this column today there will be my FNF Round 4 preview on the site. Also keep an eye out for Ramon's hands on impression of the game after he got to meet Sugar Ray Leonard at E3 that bastard.
AndrewCrow: Hrmmm...another AVP game...wonder why they can't just do a survival horror/FPS hybrid just about Aliens. Think RE5, Killzone, and Left 4 Dead with *just* Aliens, and that's my ideal game for that series.
Can't argue with that – the game you just described Andrew sounds awesome.
Rod Oracheski "I had heard somewhere that this AVP is supposed to be like the one that came out for the Atari Jaguar (did I just date myself there?)."
It's the same developers.
Indeed it is the same developers; we shall see where they take the franchise with the current generation of consoles.
The Hot Button
Today's Topic: E3
Going in a bit of a different direction this week because I covered a bunch of Microsoft's E3 announcements above I thought I'd talk about the show as a whole in this space.
As we leave the convention behind I thought the show had some great moments, and also left a lot to be desired. My greatest hope was that Microsoft (and the other two consoles) would spend some time showing off their lineup for the second half of this year as we headed into the holiday season. However, it seems as if the majority of the games shown, or at least those that got people talking are aimed more at 2010, leaving something of a void for the Christmas season.
As much as I'd love to praise Microsoft and criticize Sony and Microsoft, I think Microsoft may have been the greatest offender of the old – announcing games that are 10 months away strategy. It's a Sony staple, and they did not disappoint this year with God of War III, The Last Guardian, and Final Fantasy 14 (perhaps their three biggest announcements) slated for 2010. As for Nintendo, I thought their press conference was horrendous to listen to, it was drawn out and tired and full of boring. However they did make some pretty big announcements and to me the two most intriguing were Super Mario Galaxy 2, and Metroid: Other M both of which are slated for 2010 (or beyond). Our beloved Microsoft gave us Crackdown 2, Halo: Reach, and Alan Wake – all coming in 2010.
Of course there were 2009 announcements that piqued my interest. Left 4 Dead 2 in November, Splinter Cell: Conviction New Super Mario Brothers Wii, and the non console exclusive titles like Assassin's Creed 2, and Bioshock 2 will all be out before the New Year rolls over.
But we'll have plenty of time to talk about what disappointed us about E3, and we'll be able to discuss how we wish such and such a game was coming out earlier down the road. For now allow me to take a moment to hand out some awards.
Best Press Conference: Microsoft. Call this a homer pick, but I would find it very difficult to take someone seriously who voted for anyone other then Microsoft. The games they showed off were phenomenal, the exclusives looked great, the multiplatform games looked solid running on the 360 and the press conference had a good flow. For all the impressive things shown by Sony, their press conference was organized in the most sloppy manner I could possibly think of, and Nintendo bored me to tears. While Microsoft didn't do anything spectacular, I thought overall they had the best event, and the announcement of Natal dwarfed Nintendo's MotionPlus, and Sony's motion controller so that puts them over the top.
WTF Award?: James Cameron. There were three choices for this award, Stephen Spielberg from the Microsoft event, Joel McHale from the Ubisoft event, and the eventual winner James Cameron from the Ubisoft event. Honestly the other guys had no chance, James Cameron spoke for 14 minutes, it felt like 40, and if you can tell me one important thing about the video game Avatar (or hell even the movie Avatar) that came from his speech I'll eat my shoe.
Welcome Back Award: Splinter Cell: Conviction. I almost gave this one to Alan Wake but even though we've seen Mr. Wake in action there is still plenty of time for that game to be pushed until next E3 so I'm giving the award to the fully playable, bad ass, urinal smashing Sam Fischer. I loved everything about the demo of Splinter Cell: Conviction and while it wouldn't have received my vote for Best of E3, it did it's job getting me excited about a game that I had honestly forgotten about before this week.
Good To Be The King: Ramon Aranda. For the aforementioned opportunity to meet Sugar Ray Leonard. I mention this only because I'm jealous. Not only did Ramon get to put his hands on Fight Night Round 4, but he got to have his picture taken with Sugar Ray and frankly if he wasn't my boss on two different fronts at 411mania I might take some choice words in this space.
That's Why We're Here: Castlevania: Lords of Shadows. By all accounts the Konami press event at E3 was the least impressive gathering of video game writers imaginable. I couldn't think of something I'd want to do less then watch demos for upcoming ________ Revolution games. However, because Kojima is under the banner there was a chance something interesting would come out of the event, and as it turns out that something interesting was Castlevania: Lords of Shadows. When you combine the Castlevania series and Kojima magic is happening, and the game appears to be a reboot for the franchise (a much needed reboot at that), and appears to take heavily from the God of War franchise. There is also this caveat, we saw this game last year at E3. No honestly we did – it was called Lord of Shadows, looked exactly like what we saw from Konmai and featured the exact same character names, and boss battle in the demo. The only difference appears to be the name Castlevania, and Kojima – which is actually a pretty big leap if you think about it.
The End is Near: Milo. Lionhead Studios will forever be linked to the beginning of the decline of western civilization with Project Milo. When the robots become self aware and rise up to destroy humanity we will all point to Milo, and Lionhead Studios for the beginning of the end.
Best in Show: Assassin's Creed. I fought with myself in many different directions with this one, but at the end of the day the Ubisoft game met my two main criteria (1) did it look awesome? and (2) will we be able to buy it before Christmas 09? I thought there were a bunch of games that warranted special attention but at the end of the day Assassin's Creed left me salivating for more. This could have easily gone to Splinter Cell: Conviction, God of War 2.5, or Metroid: Other M but when all is said and done, no matter how terrible their press event was Ubisoft blew me away with how great Assassin's Creed is to the point where I picked up the first title and intend on spending a lot of time with it over the weekend.
So those are some of my thoughts – what awards would you invent to hand out from E3 this past week?
Kojima is doing very little with Rising (both versions). It is being developed by a completely different team. His MGS team is making Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker for the PSP. So, I wouldn't be really sold on the "MGS on the 360" stuff. It could turn out to be a Dirge of Cerberus type spin-off.... >__>
Posted By: David (Guest) on June 05, 2009 at 02:07 AM
BTW, I would call that a homer pick. I'm not entirely sold on Milo or the Natal. Honestly, if you actually blindly follow Peter Molyneux, you need to get your head examined. How many times has he crushed the trust of gamers everywhere????
The Natal...I will need to see some actual games that take advantage of the camera. *shrugs* What keeps it from being another Eyetoy? So, you can just call me a skeptic. On a side note, do you think they can release that for a reasonable price? They are charging $150 for 360 HDDs, $100 to use Wi-Fi on the 360, etc. Oh well...
It was cool that they are joining the club on releasing retail games over XBL. It would be cooler if they didn't believe in price gouging.
Posted By: David (Guest) on June 05, 2009 at 02:16 AM
Microsoft's was definitely the most well put together of the conferences. Nintendo screwed up by having something neat so start off, then having the conference go straight to hell for about an hour, and then return with two awesome games. Sony was just flat-out boring, outside of the Uncharted 2 demo.
Best press conference is definitely MS, but I think my favorite as far as announcements go was Nintendo, because honestly, when I play the Wii its usually Brawl/Galaxy or a VC game or a Gamecube game. So the fact that THREE awesome games are coming to the Wii thrills me.
Posted By: Drew Robbins (Registered) on June 05, 2009 at 09:48 AM
"Well Todd, Remedy delivered with the Alan Wake video and gameplay footage. All reports from the floor are that the game plays really well already and looks beautiful. How do you feel after now seeing the game, and knowing that it is actually coming?"
Alan Wake looks awesome, I can't wait to finally be able to play, what was originally supposed to be a launch title.
All three consoles did a good job at this years show. There is something on all three systems that I want to get my hands on.
David... Kojima announced the damn MGS game for the 360. That says something of his involvement. You think there is anything that goes out of kojima studios that Hideo himself doesn't have his hands in? Come on man, take off the blinders.
Milo is scary as hell. At first I was really blown away by the little bastard but then I thought of The Matrix, and Skynet.... after that I went to bed and curled in a ball muttering something about "no fate"....
Posted By: Todd Vote (Registered) on June 05, 2009 at 10:07 AM
I hate first person shooters, but after seeing the trailer for Modern Warfare 2, I might give it a try. Splinter Cell looks great too, never played the franchise, but might try this one out too. I agree that Milo might take over the world in a few years, its like something out of "Maxium Overdrive". It looks really cool though. But playing "human breakout" or whatever that ball game was when debuting the motion sensor doesnt impress me. Playing "Fight Night Round 5" with it WILL impress me.
Posted By: dogpound7382 (Guest) on June 05, 2009 at 10:41 AM
Where was the Hulu announcement or at least a browser? My Xbox is becoming more and more the critical hub in my entertainment strategy (yes, I work in consulting). Netflix, content directly from USB connected drives, and streaming through PlayOn. What I hate is while Microsoft wants to make the Xbox a central part of the home entertainment experience, they seem to ignore the biggest thing out there, the internet. The web is fast replacing tv as the entertainment medium, just look at viewing patters against increased web browsing.
And yes, I realize that browsing the web from your tv kind of sucks, but at least offer the ability to go to Hulu, YouTube, CBS.com, and other video sites directly if you aren't going to integrate them within the dashboard like Netflix.
One more suggestion, cut a deal with DirectTV here in the US. Similar to their deal with Sky, it would make sense for those that don't want to or can't put up a dish.
I think Microsoft is really on to something with their strategy, I just would like to see them push it further and faster in the entertainment space.
Oh yeah, cool games as well.
Posted By: Wii60 (Guest) on June 05, 2009 at 10:44 AM
I should have mentioned the fact that MS once again dropped the ball with NO INTERNET BROWSER FOR THE 360.
Gimme a break you're effin' Microsoft you're telling me you don't have a dying internet browser on the market right now that you could add to the 360 so that I could do everything that I want to do from my couch instead of my office?
Posted By: jdroche (Guest) on June 05, 2009 at 11:24 AM
I guess you were scooped by IGNorant when Kojima said that he had very little do with Rising. His team, and himself, were building Peace Walker for the PSP. He was just a name that Konami through onto the game...You can actually look it up yourself if you don't believe me. >__>
Posted By: David (Guest) on June 05, 2009 at 11:29 AM
Dave's in full-fledged desperation mode to try and downplay MGSR for some reason.
It's so odd, because he "loves" the MGS series. Wonder what could have turned him against it.
Posted By: Rod Oracheski (Registered) on June 05, 2009 at 02:00 PM
David just so we're clear -- you will also hate MGSR on the PS3 right? since it's coming to both platforms.
Posted By: jdroche (Registered) on June 05, 2009 at 02:41 PM
While I give credit to Microsoft for having a slightly more original Wii ripoff than PS3, I think it's pretty safe to bet that by the time Microsoft gets their thing working, it'll be too late and won't have any games supporting it.
The Wii Motionplus is going to be much better because it's going to have the kinks worked out, it'll work and have games for it. Whereas Microsoft and Sony will just be putting out another $100 attachment for their systems that work spotty at best or have no support.
They should just focus on their own strengths instead of trying to rip off Nintendo.
Posted By: Jake G (Guest) on June 05, 2009 at 08:19 PM
I was just giving you some facts. I'm not trying to downplay anything. But, if you are guys have the blinders on, it isn't my fault. I just giving you some truth. You can take that anyway you want....
Posted By: David (Guest) on June 06, 2009 at 05:21 AM
FYI, I want you stop putting words into my mouth. Jesus! All of you seem to live in this imaginary world were being critical of something=hate. For the record, you need to stop listening to Rod....he's just an angry Microsoft troll. Either you are listening to him too much, or you are as delusional as him. Which one is it?
Posted By: David (Guest) on June 06, 2009 at 08:56 AM
lol, keep 'giving some truth' Dave. You're the only one that knows it, right?
Posted By: Rod Oracheski (Registered) on June 07, 2009 at 11:17 AM
That is your best response? That is it? 24 hours and that is the best you can do? *shakes head* You can laugh it up, court jester. Clearly, you cannot see anything that disagrees with your twisted view of reality.
Posted By: David (Guest) on June 07, 2009 at 05:39 PM
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