The biggest part of any E3 is the press conferences held by the console makers. This is where most of their future plans are announced, and usually make or break the retail year they will have. With that in mind, I decided to break down their press conferences by busting out the Double Edged Sword to rate each one based on what I found to be good (Sharp), bad (Rusted), or somewhere in between (Double Edged). Having more Sharps or Rusts doesn't necessarily mean a better overall view, and since most of these are based on early impressions, what I decide to list as Sharp could wind up being Rusted and vice versa. So with that in mind, here's how I break down the big three:
Microsoft
SHARP
Square-Enix sees opportunity and takes it.
Final Fantasy XIII What many are considering the biggest surprise of E3 this year, Microsoft's console will be getting the franchise that had remained exclusively at Sony for several years. While it's not exclusively for the Xbox 360 and the PS3 might be better due to it's technical power, this is still a huge loss to Sony and a big gain to Microsoft. Sqaure-Enix is making other RPG's for the console, but let's face it, FF13 is the one game anybody really cares about. The reason for having FF13 come to the Xbox 360 is because Square-Enix sees the popularity of the console from countries outside of Japan, so as long as Microsoft keeps it's steady lead, this might not be the only exclusive they steal from Sony.
Resident Evil 5 It feels like we've been waiting forever for this one, but hey, "forever" is how long it took Capcom to make Resident Evil 4, and that was one of the best rated games of the last generation. We got plenty of information for this game at E3. It looks a lot like Resident Evil 4 gameplay wise, and that's a good thing. The only difference I saw is that the items you come across are displayed in the lower left corner, so they may be doing away with the "Do you take the Ammo (15)?" kind of dialog boxes. The game will also co-op gameplay through XBL with newcomer "Sheva Olimar" (don't know how to spell her name) joining Chris. We also got a release date: Friday the 13th of March 2009. Overall it was great seeing this in action and can't wait to play it unless it somehow gets boycotted by black people.
Fallout 3 After a 1950's looking commercial about Voltec's Vault from escaping nuclear war, we skip to about 300 years later with a look at just how open the destroyed world is, and it is awesome. Aside from the massive world, you get to play the game in multiple ways. Yeah, these days you hear that a lot from people with open world games, but this one really does look like you can do things multiple ways. You can play it as your typical FPS game, or take advantage of the Voltec style of combat where you take your time targeting a part of an opponent's body, fire your weapon, and watch the mini-cutscene of the foe getting obliterated. This game looks awesome, but now I see people complaining about how it's too different from Fallout 2. Is there some kind of disease going on where gamers suddenly want everything to look like what it did several years ago? First Diablo, then Mega Man, and now Fallout. To think a few years ago we were bashing the Wii for being graphically inferior.
Portal: Still Alive Aside from being told that it's coming to XBLA with new levels and achievements, we really didn't get much about this game. But considering the extremely high popularity of Portal and Valve rarely getting things wrong, this will likely not be a letdown. Plus it was cool to hear it announced by GlaDOS.
Gears of War 2 We got a look at the co-op gameplay and the new feature of using enemies as meat shields. Towards the end they started fighting a huge boss in a building surrounded by fire, Marcus talked about having to ride it, and then it ended. They mentioned that the game would have a new mode called Horde where 5 players try to kill as many locusts before they die, but didn't actually show it. We got the release for November 7th worldwide. Honestly, I have no interest in FPS games, but if I did, I probably would think Gears of War 2 was the most interesting one coming out of E3 seeing how it was regarded as game of the year back in 2006.
RUSTED
Stick with Karaoke Revolution, or better yet, real karaoke.
Lips So part of Microsoft's plan to cater to casual audiences seem to be taking ideas from other people and not adding a whole lot. Let's start with Lips, which to me looks like a lame karaoke game. In fact, is it even a game at all? Most of the time we were forced to watch the chick sing and the trailer didn't show much either. They mentioned it's from the creator of Guitaroo Man and Elite Beat Agents, but that does little to make me really get into this game. If you want a good singing game, stick to Karaoke Revolution or Rock Band. I don't think this one will amount to much.
You're in the Movies Their second game meant for casual audiences, the only thing that came to my mind when I saw this was "Is this an EyeToy game?" Does anybody really play with that EyeToy anymore? That thing barely had good games, and now Microsoft seems to be copying the entire concept with their XBL Vision Camera. The mini-games they showed looked awful, and I was barely amused when they showed the actions in a completely unrelated B-movie that takes everything out of context. The people who were playing it were adults, but I have a feeling this would be more suitable for kids, and I'm pretty sure a majority of Xbox 360 owners are not kids.
South Park They didn't really mention anything about this one, but I don't have any hope for this one at all.
DOUBLE EDGED
"Where's my Halo?!" scream the hardcore fans.
Fable II The game is officially finished, so at least we know it isn't going to get delayed constantly. After showing a trailer where a kid gets pooped on by a bird (lol), they showed the new features for the game, the biggest being traveling to your friends worlds. Because each player will play the game differently, their world will change depending on what they do, so every world is different. Asking a friend to join your world is easy. You go up to a purple orb that represents their single player campaign, invite them to your world, and once they're in you can interact together kind of like Sims. Game looks good, but why do I list it as double edged? Well, remember how Fable was being touted as the greatest RPG ever in history and in the end it was nowhere close to that level? That's pretty much why I'm skeptical about Fable II. Could wind up being just more of the same or even worse.
Rare's Games I'm pretty skeptical about Rare's games. Four Words: Grabbed by the Ghoulies. At E3 we saw twoof their upcoming titles. The first being the new Banjo-Kazooie where most of the focus will be building ships, planes, and the like to go through the levels. The game looks nothing like the last two, so we really have nothing to go on for this one. Next was the new Viva Pinata game that introduces a camera/card system that lets you get new Pinatas. This is one of those games that they push for children but can be liked as adults, but they pushed it so hard for kids that it led to relatively low sales, and this one might suffer the same fate. So far these two don't look like they'll be failures like Grabbed by the Ghoulies, but we'll have to wait and actually see.
The New Dashboard I've honestly only used the Xbox 360 like three times, so I don't much about the dashboard. I must say that I think the new one looks a lot better and will probably be more easier to navigate. Taking a page from Nintendo's playbook, gamercards will now feature avatars, which are basically Miis only much more detailed. The biggest new feature about the new dashboard is the Live Party, where you can now do so much more with your friends over Xbox Live. Live Party includes sharing each other's photos, taking part of game shows like 1 vs 100 where you can real prizes (though they didn't mention what kind of prizes), and watching a movie together with the new NetFlix service. All of this seems nice, but the problem is that a lot of these are leaning towards the casual players. I'm not sure how many people use the Xbox 360's features more then play hardcore games like Halo. Plus there seems to be people complaining about the new look of the dashboard already. I don't know why they would, but I guess it's all about personal preferences. Overall, the new dashboard and all the Live Party stuff comes down to whether or not you enjoy those kind of features on Xbox 360.
Halo What? - Bungie was all set to announce something big, likely Halo related. Unfortunately, Microsoft nixed Bungie's announcement due to time constraints, and many people were pissed off that this was pushed in favor of the casual games and putting the spotlight on FF13. On the one hand, I can see why the hardcore fans are pissed. Halo is the franchise that's been carrying Microsoft's consoles, and they don't want to show the next game in the series in favor of games nobody really cares about? That seems like a dumb move, but on the other hand I can see why Microsoft would cut Halo. Honestly, what do you really need to know about the next Halo game? Odds are if you're already a fan you're going to buy it and it will make hundreds of millions of dollars. An E3 demonstration wouldn't probably add a whole lot to it and Microsoft needs to show that there's more to them then Halo. Okay, the casual games weren't that good to look at, but it wasn't like the hardcore fans got completely ignored. You definitely got a lot more games to look forward to then the hardcore Nintendo fans.
Overall: I'd say Microsoft's press conference was Sharp. They showed plenty of games for both audiences and had the big FF13 announcement. Even though they excluded the Bungie announcement involving Halo, I don't think it was really that big a deal. This is how press conferences should be done.
Nintendo
SHARP
You just know Activision's going to start copying them for Guitar Hero 5
Wii Music The popularity of the music genre just keeps getting higher and higher, so of course companies will jump on the bandwagon to earn some dough. Nintendo is the latest to do so, but instead of making some rhythm-based game, they decide to focus on just playing music. Over 50 different instruments can be played such as the piano, violin, guitar, those giant Japanese drums, and you can make your own music videos. With Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and Rock Revolution all looking too similar to each other, it's nice to see a change of pace in the music genre, even if it does makes you look like an ass. Wii Music focuses on why music games such as the ones I mentioned are fun in the first place. Nintendo claims you can take lessons from Wii Music, but I'm skeptical about that. This game looks fun and I will be looking forward to it.
Animal Crossing and WiiSpeak So the painfully addictive Animal Crossing is coming to the Wii, and this time we get to go out of our town and explore a city. The towns change based on the holiday and you can create a mask of your Mii to put on your AC character. The game will likely be a seller on it's own, but to top it off, Nintendo is including a peripheral called the WiiSpeak where you can talk to your friends online. Yay! We can finally hear the obnoxious, annoying, racist rants from fans around the world that them Xbox Live guys enjoy so much! This will probably be Nintendo's biggest (and only) title of the holiday season.
DS Ideas So the DS continue to sell out around the world with over 70 million units sold. So with such high numbers, the time is coming (or in some areas like Safeco Field, has already arrived) for the DS to extend beyond being just a gaming device. The PSP tried doing that already, but it did it too early and screwed up in some areas. Along with the talk about the DS branching out is the announcement of Cooking Navi coming to America. A lot of people likely ignored this portion of Nintendo's conference, but I was really intrigued by the possibilities that the DS can be capable of and can't wait to see what becomes of it.
RUSTED
P.S.: We making Pikmin.
GTA What? - Oh hey, did you know that the Nintendo DS is getting a Grand Theft Auto game? Too bad that the only information we have is that sentence I just typed. We're promised that the gameplay will remain the same, but words won't cut it. You have a major money making franchise heading to a major money making handheld and you only give it a passing mention? This is one of those games that should've gotten more attention to appease the hardcore fans. C'mon Nintendo, quit abandoning us!
Pikmin What? - Oh hey, did you know that the Wii is getting a Pikmin game? Too bad Nintendo decides to announce this AFTER the conference! I know they did this with Super Smash Bros Brawl, but Pikmin's popularity is nowhere close to Smash Bros, especially when they announced Solid Snake being in the game. This should've been shown at the conference instead of the super secret developers roundtable.
Iwata's pep talk It was inevitable that the big three would show off their numbers and brag about why they're so great. When Microsoft did it they at least made it lead to the New Dashboard announcement, Sony had some fun with it by creating a LittleBigPlanet level about it, but all Nintendo did was have Iwata come out and make it sound like he's giving a pep talk. Plus, should you really be bragging about how third party company games are selling over 400,000 units on the Wii? I don't know how it compares to other numbers, but that seems low. This felt like it went absolutely nowhere, and that is a very bad thing.
Felt very lacking/No BIG Announcementt Technically, all the talk about Nintendo showing Kid Icarus or some other big name title was just rumors, but they still could've showed us SOMETHING to make the hardcore fans care! A new Animal Crossing with WiiSpeak? That's it? Where Microsoft showed a balance for the casual and the hardcore, Nintendo leaned too much towards casual, and with the criticisms against the Wii for catering too much to casual gamers, Nintendo seems to make their problems worst. Not to mention that the people who've filled up their Wii and are desperate for some room are still not getting their prayers answered. A lot of portions from Nintendo's conference could be summed up in one word: Forgettable.
DOUBLE EDGED
Because if there's one thing the Wii is lacking, it's casual sports games.
Wii MotionPlus and Wii Sports Resort So before E3 began, Nintendo quickly threw out the announcement that were creating a new accessory to the Wii remote that would truly give it 1:1 precision, the Wii MotionPlus. So they really gave us something to look forward before the conference. Perhaps their big game announcement would somehow be tied in with this new accessory? Once we finally got to see it in action, what did they do? They demo it with Wii Sports Resort. Are you kidding me?! Of all the games you can possibly show with this new accessory, you pick the sequel to Wii freaking Sports. The sword fighting looked cool and all, but how about showing us a demo with a game we would really care about like, I don't know, STAR WARS! It was nice to see the new accessory, but they picked the wrong game to show it with.
Shaun White Snowboarding In what seemed like an attempt to make sure that Wii BalanceBoard you got for the game that makes fun of little girls wouldn't be collecting dust on the shelf, the first game they showed off at the conference was Shaun White Snowboarding. At first I was intrigued because I thought Nintendo has an exclusive snowboarding title, but then I found out it's coming to Xbox 360 and I stopped caring. I liked how the balance board is getting used for something else, but really, unless you liked the SSX games or those snowboarding arcade games, you probably won't care unless you're desperate to make use of that board.
Overall: Nintendo press conference was sadly Rusted. They barely focused on any games really worth mentioning. Too much of it felt like they were trying to cater to the casual audience and nothing really stuck out as a huge announcement. I assume Wii Music was supposed to be the big announcement since it was the last game shown, but it felt like nothing compared to hearing about FF13, and people are laughing at the performance they gave with the Mario melody.
Sony
SHARP
256 player deathmatch. Make it happen!
God of War III Well of course there's going to be a God of War III. But since all we got is a cinema trailer, we can't really say much about it. For all we know this could be a piece of crap that completely ruins the franchise and makes David Jaffe fade into obscurity. But since Jaffe has done three games and all of them were great, there's little chance that it winds up being a bad game after all.
Charts made fun Like I said, it's inevitable that the big three want to show off their numbers. The guys at Sony knew this and thought "What the hell, let's do something CREATIVE with it," and thus we get Sony's numbers and announcements of the latest line of Greatest Hits titles with a level made in LittleBigPlanet. So not only did they get through their boring numbers part, they did it by also showing off just how customizable LittleBigPlanet is shaping up to be. Very clever Sony.
Ratchet and Clank Future: Quest for Booty This game picks up where Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction left off, with you trying to find out what happened to Clank after he was taken away. Ratchet carries a new kind of wrench where he can pick up and manipulate all sort of objects. It looks like a full fledged game you would buy at retail, but guess what? This is only a downloadable title for the PSN at $14.99! The only difference with this one is that it's going to be much shorter then the typical Ratchet and Clank game, but at $15, you can't go wrong. More downloadable games should be like this.
DC Universe Online I honestly can't remember the last time I saw a DC related game that was really good. I mean for years the Marvel guys have appeared in many good games, but DC? Those guys just have the worst luck in video games. Luckily that all seems to be turning around with this MMORPG based on their universe, simply titled DC Universe Online. You won't actually get to play as your favorite DC hero or villain, but from the looks of the trailer you will be following them around a lot to learn their abilities and fight them yourself. Not only does it look stunning, but considering the cancellation of the Marvel MMO, this could be a golden opportunity for DC. That is if gamers don't pass this up to stick with City of Heroes.
M.A.G. - I love the title of this game already. Keeps things simple. So with another team based shooter entering the market, how does this one try to stand out? By boasting that it can contain 256 people online at the same time in the same match. That's got to be too good to be true, but if it is, holy crap, all that power that the PS3 is sporting is really going to be shown off. Players can develop their characters to their playing styles, and the better they get, the more likely it will be they'll be the ones who will lead the squads into online battles. Speaking of which, the only flaw I see right now is they split you into 8-man squads, which seems a bit small when you're going to have 256 people play at the same time. I hope it isn't just limited to squads, because I would LOVE to see a 256 every-man-for-himself deathmatch.
RUSTED
Wake me when they show the God of War III trailer.
Too much talk on hardware Sony seemed more interested in talking about how great their hardware is rather then the games that make then great. Sony, if you want me to believe that the PS3 has a bright future, show me the games to prove it. In the end I can remember more games Microsoft showed for the Xbox 360 then Sony did for the PS3. We didn't get highlights of any new games for the PSP or the PS2 either. What we got instead was a trailer with a bunch of titles mentioned, most of them being the exact same thing. You can do better then that Sony.
DOUBLE EDGED
What the...
Resistance 2 Like I said, I have no interest in FPS games, but I did, so far I see no reason to be interested in this when there's already a ton of great shooters already out and even more coming soon, especially the graphically hyped Killzone 2. Fighting a 300 foot tall boss looks awesome, but I'm not really excited over it.
PSN Games Ratchet and Clank showed just how awesome the games on PSN can be. So when we got a look at the other games, I thought "meh." The ones like looked okay were Crash Commando, Fat Princess, and Siren: Blood Curse. Ragdoll Kung Fu looks like it might wind up being a poor man's Smash Bros. The two that really have me scratching my head are Eden and Fl0wer. Eden barely looked like a game, but Fl0wer was even worse because it looked like a screen saver! Are you seriously telling me that Fl0wer is a game? This reminds me of how Sony kept showing footage of Afrika and people had no idea what that was supposed to be. In fact, I still have no idea what the hell Afrika is. So overall the PSN games shown is a mixed bag.
Gran Turismo TV What appears to be an added service for GT5 Prologue through, GT-TV basically contains a lot of programming from popular racing shows that revolve around Gran Turismo. Programs include racing events, going inside the GT studios, reviews of the latest cars out there, and sorts of other car related shows. Looks neat, but if you're not into the Gran Turismo series or racing in general, you will simply not give a damn.
Infamous - I was getting so bored with Sony's conference that I actually forgot about this title alltogether. So after re-watching the trailer, I think I know why I forgot about this title. Because it seemed uninteresting. So it's an action game where the main character has lightning shooting out of his arms and he can pick up objects to throw around? I'm pretty sure this game came out a few years ago when we called it Psy-Ops.
Overall: I think Sony's conference was Double Edged. It wasn't as bad as Nintendo's, but it wasn't as good as Microsoft's. They gave us a look at some games, but they seemed more interested in talking about their hardware rather then the software. Once again, nothing seemed to stick out as a big announcement unless you're really excited for the $399 80GB PS3.
So there's my take on E3.
