B3yond the Report 06.16.09

Posted by Mark Salmela on 06.16.2009

This week 411’s Mark Salmela discusses his trip to E3. Was Mark able to survive the wrath of E3 as well as the wrath of staying with his fellow 411 writers? You’ll have to read to find out. Also, news on Metal Gear Solid: Rising, Mirror’s Edge 2, Battlefield 3, Bomberman Ultra, Gunstar Heroes, Final Fantasy Tactics, Motorstorm: Pacific Rift expansions, and more when you go B3yond the Report.






Welcome to another edition of B3yond the Report. I am your host Mark Salmela and for once I'm actually rushing to make deadline. Due to the one year anniversary of Metal Gear Solid 4 I've started replaying it from start to finish and yes, the game still kicks ass. One year later and there isn't anything quite a good on the market.

With that said I've got news to discuss. Well I'll try, as there isn't a whole lot of news to discuss. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.



No longer feeling the E3 hangover, it's B3yond the News of the Week~!

Kojima Productions developing new engine for Metal Gear Solid: Rising



There wasn't a whole lot in terms of noteworthy news pieces this week, but one thing that did catch my eye was the announcement that Metal Gear Solid: Rising will run on a brand new engine. Another thing that caught my eye was the announcement that this new game will be "graphically superior to MGS4". Now it's easy to take that quote and spin it as "the new Metal Gear which will be on 360 will look better than MGS4, therefore MGS4 could work on 360" and I'm still not so sure on that. Will future games look better than MGS4? Of course, but will they have as much context and accomplish what MGS4 did? Now by no means do I want to sound like a fanboy. I'll be more than happy to see a new MGS look better than MGS4, as it'd be ludicrous to not want a better looking game, no matter what console it's on. I'm just saying that Rising may look graphically superior but it may sacrifice other aspects to fit on a DVD. Then again Rising could ship on multiple DVDs and this whole paragraph will be a waste. Don't you just love how much speculation floats around the Metal Gear franchise?


Final Fantasy Tactics rated for PSN



Damn, it must be a slow news week when I'm talking about Final Fantasy. But the ESRB has recently rated and approved Final Fantasy Tactics for download on the PSN. FF Tactics recently came out in Japan so it's no surprise to see the impending release in the US. Now I may not be a fan of Final Fantasy but I am totally in favor of putting up PS1 classics for download. After nearly a year of nothing on the PSN I am more than pleased to see all of these new titles. Resident Evil, Final Fantasy 7, and now Metal Gear Solid this Thursday, this is great news. Speaking of which Final Fantasy 7 has been cleaning up in terms of sales according to The Examiner, so it's nice to see Sony and Square Enix make some free money. Maybe more companies will wise up and release their PS1 classics online. I can't stress enough how easy it is and how it's basically free money. Capcom is also readying Street Fighter Alpha 3 for release on the PSN, which is one of my favorite fighters. So much love to Sony for once, they actually got something right.


Mirror's Edge sequel confirmed as well as Battlefield 3



Hoping to avoid the mass rush of news that is E3, EA has confirmed that Dice is working on Battlefield 3 as well as devoting a small section of people to work on a sequel to Mirror's Edge. Mirror's Edge was a decent game which came out last winter, but too many things held it down. The combat wasn't the greatest and the shooting was terrible. I'm also not too keen on the bland color choices. Now by no means do I want another basic brown and grey palate used in common first person shooters but I like more than one color in my levels. Making an entire level white or making an entire level green just doesn't gel with me. With that said I'm glad a sequel is being made but I'm not sure Dice will be able to make the proper adjustments that are holding back Mirror's Edge in my opinion. I have a bad feeling the shooting elements and terrible combat will return with minimal changes.

Battlefield 3 was also confirmed by EA, and I can't be more disinterested. So we have Battlefield Heroes coming, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 coming, Battlefield 1943 coming, and now Battlefield 3? What the fuck?! What was Battlefield 2142? What are all of these other random Battlefield games? And while we're at it what's with all these Need for Speed games? Shift, Nitro, Online, and now another one by Criterion? What happened to Criterion working on Burnout games? What happened to the rumors that they were working on Road Rash or maybe another Black? I don't want another racer by Criterion unless it's Road Rash dammit. Man EA must be really pissed about Dead Space and Mirror's Edge selling poorly, because boy are they relying heavily on their established properties. 4 Battlefield games and 4 Need for Speed games? Holy crap.


Less shooting more jumping off buildings!


Yay pictures of cars from mediocre games!


Jack Trenton's angry about online leaks



Jack Trenton was in the news this week all upset about the leaks that have been going on. Here's what Jack had to say:

"This is an industry that has trouble focusing on today. We want to constantly talk about tomorrow.… You have to prepare for people to know things in advance. The frustrating thing is they only know a part of the story and that opens up a lot of conjecture and misinformation that ultimately waters down the reality when you roll it out."

Listen Jack, I know you're pissed about the PSP GO! Leaks and the PS3 Slim leaks, but that's just the way the ball bounces. I mean it clearly has to be something they're doing internally, because Microsoft kept everyone's mouth shut and didn't leak anything about their E3 presentation. I know Nintendo doesn't tell anyone anything because they don't have to but Microsoft was able to keep everyone in the dark so why can't you?


PlayStation Store update for the week of June 11



This past week was yet another solid PlayStation Store update. I've been really pleased with Sony recently about the PlayStation Store which is quite the turn-around from the old days. This week saw the release of Gunstar Heroes from the Sega Genesis, and my god is that an absolute must buy. $5 will get you one of my favorite 16-bit games of all time. Gunstar Heroes kicks total ass and still rocks today.

Besides the incredible Gunstar Heroes this week also saw the release of Bomberman Ultra on the PSN. It's basically the exact same as the XBLA version, just with all of the DLC included for free. I think there are a few minor upgrades just like the PSN version of Worms had over the XBLA version, but it's not really noticeable. Bomberman Ultra is another great pick-up for $10. The online mode is pretty cool too.

Finally there is also the release of Medal of Honor: Underground from the PS1 and Heavy Weapon from Popcap games. Heavy Weapon is a port of the XBLA version to the PSN and it's not too bad of a game. It's just unfortunate that it came out on a packed week. Medal of Honor: Underground is the sequel on the PS1 to the original and it's pretty good. I'd recommend trying the original first and if you like that than this sequel is a measly $6. There was also an expansion pack to The Last Guy as well as the Ico/Shadow of the Colossus pack to Little Big Planet but without any extra levels I'm not bothering with any more DLC for Little Big Planet. I have enough costumes, thanks.



B3yond the Cinema!



Here's a look at the new Motorstorm: Pacific Rift expansions. They looks pretty awesome so far.

Video Games | Sega Vintage Collection 2 | Gunstar Heroes Gameplay

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Gunstar Heroes kicks ass, but whoever's playing it in this video sucks.

Video Games | Wolfenstein | Exclusive Assassin Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Nazi Ninjas are sweet. Here's hoping the new Wolfenstein doesn't suck.



The One Man Water Cooler~!



Well this week I'd like to get personal and discuss my trip to E3. E3 was an absolute blast and I recommend anyone who has the opportunity to go to take advantage of it. This was my first time going to E3 and I was blown away by how much crap there was and how much stuff there was to do. For those unaware the Los Angeles Convention Center is huge and each hall is about the size of a football field.

I attended this year's E3 on behalf of 411mania of course. I was there with Mr. John De Large, Jacob Lopez, Tommy Coloma, Sean Garmer, Jeffery Harris, and the boss Ramon Aranda. The crew was an absolute blast to hang with, except for Jacob because he sleep humps. Nah I'm just kidding, but I did keep my distance from him when it came time to sleep. John and I were definitely the most "street" out of the group.


John's the one on the right.


There's 411 Game's editor Ramon getting denied a copy of Red Faction Guerilla for review.


Let me say that In-N-Out burger is insane. How the hell does that place actually stay in business? The secret menu is awesome, but how do old people know to order their fries "animal style" and things like that? I had a hard time believing my fellow 411 brethren, but after eating at In-N-Out I am a believer, as well as jealous that Minnesota doesn't have one. Screw White Castle, In-N-Out is where it's at!

One of the early highlights of the trip was finding one of the most ghetto arcades in existence. Now Minnesota doesn't have much in terms of arcades, so I was willing to go to any arcade, but damn was this place ghetto. I wonder how many people have died in that place. I mean seriously there were Xbox 360's disguised as arcade machines playing Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe. The screens even looked like shit most of the time, like less than SD quality. It did have Virtual Cop 3, but son of a bitch the thing didn't work. The guns weren't calibrated at all and no matter where you pointed the gun it just went wherever it wanted. Damn you Sega! You win this round.

For all the horror stories about previous E3's where you had to wait in long lines let me say that this year wasn't too bad. Sure a few games like God of War commanded a two hour wait to play but that's because the demo was about a half hour long, oh and it's God of War 3. I never really had to wait more than about 5 minutes to play any game, and overall the experience was quite nice. Well it was nice up until the last couple of hours when all the female PR reps hit their periods and became bitches. It was a nice stunt for every company not named Sony to have their booths run entirely by women, but damn some of them became bitches on the last day. And most of them didn't know jack shit about the company other than what their stat sheets told them. I had to tell some of them about their own game they were demoing to me.

The worst game I played at E3 was hands-down Zephyr: Rise of the Elements on the PS3. That game was so shitty even the developer was getting embarrassed. Now I couldn't get through the tutorial due to the shittyness of the game, but I can tell you through my 7 minutes of playtime that Zephyr: Rise of the Elements broke the barrier on what I call a shitty game. I hope for the sake of the developers that the demo was way before pre-alpha. I asked Tommy Coloma if he wanted to play the game and he just sort of laughed at me, and I don't blame him.

The best game I played at E3 was either New Super Mario Bros Wii or Uncharted 2. I can't really decide. Now I know everyone's losing their shit about Scribblenauts but I didn't get as much hands-on time with it as I wanted. But New Super Mario Bros Wii was absolutely awesome. I'm a total sucker for platformers and a 4 player co-op Mario is exactly what that franchise needed. I don't think I have to explain but Uncharted 2 is also an incredible game. I got to sit down with Evan Wells, the co-president of Naughty Dog to play Uncharted 2 and it was incredible. Evan Wells was the guy on stage during Sony's press conference who demo'd Uncharted 2 and he was a cool dude. The game definitely kicked ass.

Speaking of which one thing I want to point out is how much girls suck at games. Yes I know I'm going to get called a sexist pig but I was touring the Sony booth V.I.P. style with the Gamer Girls or whatever group of girls is sponsored by Gamespot and holy shit did they suck. They got killed immediately in Heavy Rain, they got demolished in God of War 3, and they looked absolutely clueless in Uncharted 2. Now by no means do I seriously think all girls suck at video games but these 3 girls who are paid by Gamespot to go around and play games for a living absolutely sucked. I couldn't find a picture of them to show you but they were absolutely terrible.

All in all E3 was a great time and I recommend it to anyone. While I don't think I'll go next year due to the expenses involved with flying out to L.A. I might go again down the line. Maybe in like 2 or 3 years when new consoles are being shown off, who knows. I think first I'm going to go to Mardi Gras and Las Vegas.



The 411 Games crew. Man did we have a good time at E3 this year. From left to right: Ramon Aranda, Mark Salmela, Jacob Lopez *crazy hair and all*, Tommy Coloma *creeping in the background as usual*, Sean Garmer *getting a little close to Jacob*, and finally John De Large. Not pictured: Jeffery Harris, because he was too busy masturbating to Tatsunoko vs Capcom.



The 411mania Empire~!



The Full Circle by Joe Roche.
Nintendophiles by Theo Fraser.
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly by Armando Rodríguez.
411 Games Top 5 by Todd Vote.
411 Fact or Fiction Games by Ramon Aranda.
Four Player Co-Op by John De Large.



Signing Off!



Well that's all for today. That's right today because I'll be back tomorrow with a special feature. Be sure to check back on 411mania.com/games on Wednesday for my special feature The Top Ten PlayStation 3 Titles. It'll be a great read and I put a lot of thought into it.

Before we go I want to check in with Shaq. Shaq, how you feeling about Kobe's first championship without you?



You'd think I'd be pissed, but I'm cool with it. After all, I'm most likely gonna be playing with Lebron James next year. Just thinking about it just makes me wanna…



So Shaqy are you guaranteeing an NBA championship if you go to the Cavaliers?

You're damn right I am. I'm absolutely positive about it. We will win. Period. P-U-R-E-U-D. Period.

You heard it here first.

With that said I'm going to be taking next week off. I'm feeling a little burnt out from all the writing I've been doing recently, so I won't be around much after tomorrow's special feature on the top ten PlayStation 3 titles. Drew Robbins will be making his twentieth return to the games section to cover for me next week. I can be reached at either the comments section below or by email at [e-mail]. Feel free to add me on the PSN, my ID is Fester. Cya tomorrow!