B3yond the E3 Report 07.18.08

Posted by Mark Salmela on 07.18.2008

It’s a very special E3 edition of B3yond the Report. 411’s Mark Salmela takes an in-depth look at all of the PS3 related E3 titles. Come find out about games like God of War 3, inFamous, Massive Action Game, Resistance 2, Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty, Elefunk, DC Universe, Resident Evil 5, WarHawk, WipeOut HD, Killzone 2, Little Big Planet, and more!




Welcome everyone to B3yond the Report! I know, I know, it's not Tuesday. You haven't gone crazy; yours truly has typed up a very special edition of B3yond the Report for everyone. If you haven't figured out why I'm doing a special report, then click the big red X button in the top right of your browser right now, because I don't want you here. We're almost finished with the annual E3 conference *which from what I'm hearing may be the final one*, and I'm ready to give my in-depth look at this year's E3. For those who haven't kept up with my report, you can find my thoughts on Microsoft's E3 press conference here and my thoughts on Sony's E3 press conference here. I'd talk about Nintendo's press conference, but there's nothing to talk about. New peripherals and Animal Crossing, it's cool but I wanted more *a lot more*. Any who, let's get to the news, as I've got a few things to talk about for E3. So sit back, relax, and enjoy this very special edition of B3yond the Report!



Bigger than God of War 3, it's B3yond the News of the Week~!

Sony's E3 press conference details new games!



Well, I've already posted my thoughts on Sony's E3 press conference, but I'd like to re-highlight a few things.

First off, pretty much everyone is speculating that the 80 GB Core pack will only have 2 USB slots, no memory stick reader, and will not be PS2 backwards compatible. There are 3rd party PS3 peripherals that act as a USB expander and memory stick reader, so that's not a big deal, but the loss of PS2 backwards compatibility would be a huge loss if confirmed true *which I bet it will*. I have no idea how long the MGS4 PS3 bundle will be out, but if you want PS2 backwards compatibility I recommend getting a PS3 now since pretty much no one knows what the core 80GB pack will have *although rumors speculate it will include a DualShock 3 controller*.



I was very disappointed that Sony pretty much showed next to nothing on big games like Motorstorm: Pacific Rift and Killzone 2, but thankfully the developers of these titles have been good at promoting their own games on the show floor. I will include new trailers of both titles below, and Motorstorm: Pacific Rift looks amazing. I can't wait for that title this fall.

A lot of people have been down on the announcement of MAG. Sure, there was no actual gameplay footage shown, and the game probably won't be out until Christmas 2009, but you guys need to have some faith. Zipper Interactive is a very good developer and they probably wouldn't have made the game if they didn't know how to make it work. Developers have come a long way towards reducing lag in multiplayer games, and I'm sure Zipper knows what they're doing. And for the people who say teams of 128 can't work? Why not? I just played WarHawk this afternoon, and despite almost everyone on my team *15 players* not having mics, we worked just fine as a team and got the job done, and it was a lot of fun. Why not give MAG a chance? And by the way, MAG will have dedicated servers, which will help a lot in reducing lag.



I have no idea where Tekken 6 was. I assume Team Ico's next game is being held off until the Tokyo Game Show in October, but I'm disappointed in the lack of both Afrika and Tekken 6. I had thought both titles would be there.

Finally, the games that really stole the show at Sony's conference were the PSN games. Pixel Junk Eden looks incredible, Flower looks to be a perfect relaxation game, and Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty is exactly the type of game Sony promised the PSN would be used for, PS3 disc-quality games only shorter. Not to mention the new games like Fat Princess, Crash Commando, Pain Amusement Park, Siren: Blood Curse, and Ragdoll Kung-Fu which all looked promising, and the PSN looks to be getting a lot of quality titles this year. Hell, when looking at those PSN games and the XBLA titles like the new Galaga. Geometry Wars 2, and Portal Still Alive, I'm almost looking forward more to downloadable titles than I am disc-based titles this year. Either way, we're in for a good second half of 2008. I'm just disappointed Sony didn't have the "blockbuster" E3 they could have. God of War 3 and inFamous were great, but neither game is coming this year.




Awesome.

Credit: Sony's E3 press conference


Final Fantasy 13 goes multiplatform



The biggest announcement at E3 this year definitely had to have been the announcement that Final Fantasy 13 is coming to the 360. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Sony fucked up here. This came completely out of left field, and up until the announcement I was under the information that Sony had FF13 locked up to an exclusive contract like MGS4. Well I will admit I was wrong, and FF13 is coming to the 360.

Final Fantasy 13 is still an exclusive for the PS3 in Japan, which is huge since this will prevent a boost in sales in Japan for the 360 where it is practically dead. The PS3 may have lost some sales in America due to this announcement, but in Japan they'll still continue to dominate. Also, the Japanese version of FF13 will come out about 6 months before the American and European versions *my guess is June 2009 for Japan, December 2009 everywhere else*. The game will launch simultaneously in North America and Europe on the 360 and PS3. Also, as far as I know, Final Fantasy Versus 13 is still a PS3 exclusive. I can't put 100% confirmation on that one, but it's looking pretty locked up as a PS3 exclusive.

Personally I've never been one to deny my dislike for RPG's. I was a little interested in Final Fantasy 13, but now that I know it isn't a PS3 exclusive I will probably pass on both versions of the game. I don't want to be a fanboy and claim Square will butcher it by porting it to the 360, but it's lost a lot of its luster in my opinion. I've always been a big fan of Versus 13 ever since I saw the original trailer, and I will probably still pick that title up *it looks too awesome to resist*. I still however recognize this as a huge loss for the PS3. I'm a big fan of keeping titles exclusive *I feel that developers perform much better when focusing on one console and exclusive titles are better than multiplatform* and this was a loss in my opinion. Good news to some, bad news to me.

Credit: E3


WarHawk update 1.4 goes live!



In some non-E3 related news, a new WarHawk patch has gone live. WarHawk version 1.4 is now live, and while it doesn't support Trophies quite yet *gotta wait for version 1.5 for those*, it does have a lot of cool updates.

The big features of version 1.4 are the two new game modes. First off is Hero, where one person from each team will be chosen as the Hero and that person will deal double damage and have 500% health *though it might only be 300%, I'm not sure*. Points are collected as follows: A Hero killing someone is one point, where killing the Hero gets you two points, and killing normal people gets you nothing. So basically the Hero has quite the stacked stats, but since the entire other team will be gunning for him it's quite a blast to play as both the Hero and the normal guys attacking the Hero. Hero has definitely become one of my favorite modes in WarHawk.

The other new mode is collection. Each map will have a select number of spawn points for objects called "cores", and each team will have to rush to these cores and bring cores back to their home base for points. It's basically capture the flag with 4 different flags on each map, and the flags are all neutral. Collection is another solid edition to WarHawk. Add in stability improvements, a quick join button on the main menu, and the future implementation of Trophies and I'm glad to see that the WarHawk community is still alive and well and is as much of a blast to play as it was since its launch almost one year ago *August 2007*.

Credit: Incognito


PlayStation Store update for the week of July 18



Well hot off the presses, it's the PlayStation Store update. The PSN has actually been updating every night this week with brand new E3 content, and I'm quite happy with how Sony handled E3 on the PS3. Sure, there were no exclusive demos like on the 360 *Too Human*, but the PSN has a ton of E3 trailers up for download, including Sony's entire E3 press conference. While there's not trailer for MAG, pretty much every other major PS3 title has a new trailer up for download on the PSN, so feel free to check those out.

As for games, the PSN saw Elefunk and the original Rayman go up for download this week. Elefunk will cost users a cool $5 while Rayman is $6. I haven't gotten to play much of Elefunk yet but so far it's a pretty cool game where you build bridges to help your elephant cross the level. You'll have to be pretty good at construction if you don't want the bridge to break.

Finally, the new PS3 video store went up for download. To access it you still click the PlayStation Store icon off the XMB, but now near the top above all of the game sections there are two new buttons: game and video. You start out at the game store, and a simple click on the video button will bring you to the new video store. There are surprisingly a lot of videos to download *both in SD and HD* and while I probably will never use the service at least Sony can finally say it's there. So feel free to go browse the PSN movie store for all sorts of TV shows and movies. Good update Sony, good update *I didn't check whether or not new Rock Band stuff went up, and I don't care if it did either*.

Credit: Sony



B3yond the Tabloids!

Sony won big this month in terms of sales, selling over 405,000 PS3's in June in the US alone, which is insane. The PS3 outsold the 360 in June by 85%, another huge number. Obviously this is due to MGS4, which sold 775,000 copies in the US making it the best selling game in June. Congrats Sony, you had a terrific month in terms of sales. Hopefully they can sustain some of that momentum as we go into the second half of 2008.

Polyphony Digital announced at E3 that it is indeed still working on a PSP version of Gran Turismo, and that they plan on having it released right after Gran Turismo 5, which Polyphony now says might slip to a 2010 release date. So if you've been on the fence about getting GT5 Prologue, you better get it now, because GT5 probably won't be released until 2010. Polyphony also plans to support Prologue with various updates throughout the year including GT TV which was detailed at Sony's press conference.

BioShock is coming to the PS3 this October, and will have exclusive new features and support Trophies. While 2K hasn't announced what those features are, at least there's now some sort of reason to hold off for the PS3 version instead of the 360 version if you haven't purchased BioShock yet.

While Naughty Dog kept quiet at this year's E3 this did announce that they will be adding Trophy support to Uncharted: Drake's Fortune this August. Uncharted is one of the best PS3 games out there and I will gladly replay it to get some cool Trophies.

Sony's about to launch their greatest hits line-up *finally*, and will include the following games which will all sell for $29.99: Resistance, WarHawk, Motorstorm, Call of Duty 3, Need for Speed Carbon, Assassin's Creed, Fight Night Round 3, Rainbow Six Vegas, Oblivion, and Ninja Gaiden Sigma. Impressive list, but I'm surprised Heavenly Sword wasn't included.

Eternal Sonata will be coming out for the PS3 and will launch this fall. The PS3 version will include a bunch of exclusive features including new playable characters and new quests.

While the release date for Little Big Planet has been shifting back and forth for weeks now, Trenton finally locked down a release date at E3. Little Big Planet will be hitting the PS3 exclusively this October. I can't wait and hope the Little Big Planet Beta is going well.

Just a quick update on Home: apparently the public areas in Home will all be region locked. Therefore, each of the 3 territories will have their own version of Home and the only way to interact with people cross-territories will be to send them a private invite into Home. Personally I don't care, but some people might be upset.

Soul Calibur 4 has officially gone gold and will be released on both the Xbox 360 and PS3 on July 29th. PS3 users will have Darth Vader as an exclusive while 360 owners get Yoda. PS3 wins that one easy.

WipeOut HD has run into some big technical issues, and has been delayed for a couple months. All the devs are currently saying is that it is a big problem, but a fixable one and the game will be released before 2008 is finished. Thankfully they're taking the time to fix the game, as I'd rather the game get delayed than be released with a huge bug.



B3yond the Cinema!



Here's the new Motorstorm: Pacific Rift trailer, which looks incredible. Really, this is now one of my most anticipated PS3 games of 2008. 4 player split-screen will be awesome.



Here's the Killzone 2 trailer. 32 players online? Yes please.



Here's the debut teaser of God of War 3. It looks awesome, too bad there was no gameplay footage.



Here's some gameplay footage of RE5. Sure the guy playing sucks, but the chainsaw dude is cool. Not for the faint at heart btw.



Here's the debut trailer for DC Universe. It looks awesome. It's coming to the PS3 and PC, probably in 2009.



Here's the inFamous trailer for E3. Looking good guys!



Finally, here's the MAG trailer which ended Sony's E3 press conference. Should be awesome, Zipper knows how to make good games *although sadly this means no SOCOM besides SOCOM Confrontation*.



The One Man Water Cooler~!



Sorry, no One Man Water Cooler this week. I've been covering E3 and I have nothing special to say. If you want to read this Tuesday's piece as to why we need a major convention like E3, you can check that out here.



B3yond the Mail!



To DrCLos (Guest): Well, I was going to write a rebuttal detailing PS3 games to be excited for this year, but hell, if Sony is going to half-ass it, so am I. Little Big Planet will still be awesome though…

To dman (Guest) : Yeah Lips sounds great in theory doesn't it? Too bad you can't actually just load up an mp3 and have lyrics appear for it. If you understood how music was made you'd know the best they could do is rip out the left and right sound mixes and hope the vocals are in the center track *which typically when that's done it leaves a terrible echo effect*. If this is done you wouldn't have lyrics on screen just the bars where you should say something into the mic which would completely ruin the game *and who says those bars would be accurate*. If you're not following what I'm saying just understand Lips isn't going to work.

To Drew Robbins (Guest) : Yeah I am very excited for inFamous for the simple fact that it's being developed by Sucker Punch as well. They're one of those developers who simply knows how to make good games. Kind of like Zipper and Team Ico.

To 360 Snake (Guest): The reason why I don't care about the Microsoft/Netflix deal is because I don't buy a video game console for movies, I buy it for games. I don't care about the video store section on the PSN, and I don't care about Netflix on XBLA. Downloading videos will be the future, but that future is still a generation away.

To John (Guest): Have I ever enjoyed an anime based video game? To my knowledge no, but I won't lie, I haven't played more than a handful. Feel free to list some suggestions for me to try out. The point of my anti-anime statements was just based off the latest DBZ and Naruto games which I think both suck.


As I said before I always read what you guys send me and I appreciate the comments, even if they're sometimes filled with hate. If you wanted a response to your comment and I didn't respond I apologize.



The 411mania Empire~!



The Full Circle by Joe Roche. Joe pulls a tick out of my book by writing a special column detailing the Microsoft press conference. Sadly, unlike me, he's too afraid to have it go up at the same time as his regular column. Joe didn't want to compete with B3yond the Report, so like a typical Xcoward he put up his column Monday afternoon instead of Monday night like me.
Nintendophiles by Theo Fraser. Nintendo sucked at E3 this year.
The PC Centric Extravaganza by Chris Evans. Hey, I'm finally not a week late in pimping his column…
The Negative Edge by Tommy Coloma. Oh wait, just like I thought Tommy didn't put up a column. Hahahaha I win!
Eh, Derek will probably have something up tonight. I'm not gonna wait around to pimp it…



B3yond the Wallpaper!

Well I have a special treat for everyone, as I am here to present to you the official B3yond the Report wallpaper. I recently tricked all of my fellow 411games comrades into giving me a little description of themselves, and it has led to the next strike in my war against the other news writers. A huge thanks to B3yond the Super fan Eric for the submission, and without further adieu, here's the official B3yond the Report wallpaper.

Download the official B3yond the Wallpaper here. It's available in many awesome resolutions. Here's a downsized version of the wallpaper.



B3yond the Report for life!



Signing Off!



Well thanks for readying everyone, I hope you guys enjoyed E3. Now since I've been so busy yet managed to turn out 3 different columns in 3 days, I'm going to be taking a little bit of a break. Yes, yours truly will be gone all next week. I guess technically I won't be going anywhere *I may even be in an E3 fact or fiction still* but there will be no B3yond the Report by Mark Salmela next week. Instead, Mike Minotti, former writer of the old SIXAXIS Report, takes back the helm for a special "one time only" deal and will be the Sony news writer next week. It's been about one year exactly since his last Sony news article *SIXAXIS Report*, and I can't wait to see what he brings to the table. Actually, this will be only the second time in a full year now that someone other than myself will write a Sony article for 411*Dan Owen wrote an edition of the SIXAXIS Report back in January*, so look forward to Mike Minotti next Tuesday. Any who, I'm off, and I'll be back on July 28, so cya in… well… a while…