Gaming E3 2008

[Magus]

[COLOR="DarkSlateGray"]I almost forgot about it seeing how there's so much that's suppose to go down this month.

So E3 starts today. I haven't been keeping up with the gaming industry so I'm sort of in the dark about most of the games. (Heard about this and that, and know of a few.) There are a few of games I want to see more of though.

The new [b]Prince of Persia[/b] game has caught my interest. I didn't give the first three games much of a chance. (I never played Warrior Within) No doubt, the platforming was the best part to me, but I didn't care for the combat system. It felt like the timing was off and causing a slow response when a button was pressed. I don't know what the combat will be like in this new PoP game, but from the little snippet of a trailer I saw, it looked interesting.

[b]Street Fighter 4[/b] is another game I curious to know more about. (SF fan for life) I only know very little of this one. (close to nothing) I know it's not going to be on the Wii. And I've seen some of the characters.

Other games I'm curious about are: Infinite Discovery (mentioned last year), Final Fantasy XIII Versus, The Last Remnant, and Gears of War 2.

I stopped following the whole console race as well, but I am curious to know your thoughts about whose going to come out on top? (regretful question :p) I'm of the opinion that all 3 will please it's targeted audience.

Any expectations? What games are you hoping to see?[/COLOR]

[Sandy]

According to the list Square-Enix published, we won't be seeing Final Fantasy XIII or it's spin-offs at the convention this year. :/

So there are no games presented that would greatly interest me, unfortunately.

[Korey]

[quote name='Phenom'][COLOR="DarkSlateGray"]

[b]Street Fighter 4[/b] is another game I curious to know more about. (SF fan for life) I only know very little of this one. (close to nothing) I know it's not going to be on the Wii. And I've seen some of the characters.

Any expectations? What games are you hoping to see?[/COLOR][/QUOTE]

[FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"]I'm looking forward to seeing SFIV as well, but there will be playable cabinets for the US at this year's Evolution Fighting Game Championships. So Americans will get their hands on this title sooner than they would think. I've been following all the rumor mills for this game and I've seen all the confimed news via Capcom thanks to shoryuken.com . I'm kinda sketpical about this title being a Street Fighter fan, because the game is taking a whole bunch of new directions and I'm kinda worried that the old school SF fans would reject it because of how it looks compared to the older games in the series.

I'm looking forward to the new PoP game, because it looks to be a very rip snorting good time from the screen shots. Let's hope that Ubisoft shows off some gameplay at E3.

I'm also curious to see what Nintendo's gonna offer. You never know what's gonna happen with Nintendo, since they are usually VERY tight lipped about their upcoming projects. I would venture to say that they have some bombs they're ready to drop though.[/FONT]

[Magus]

[COLOR="DarkSlateGray"]So I just got done watching the Microsoft portion of whatever event that was supposed to be, and while most of it was decent, I can't say that I was really blown away, but I did like some of the things that were shown.

[b]Final Fantasy XIII[/b] for the Xbox 360. We knew that was going to happen, it was just a matter of time. I hated how Microsoft moved the camera further back so I could barely see a thing for it. I have a 42" flat screen and I would've loved to see how the trailer looked on the big screen.

Star Ocean: Last (Lost?) Hope will be on the 360. I'm not a fan of the Star Ocean series, but I thought I'd mention that. I don't know why I always thought Infinite [b]Undiscovery[/b] (messed up on the name earlier) and The Last Remnant (I think I misheard about the info on TLR) were going also going to be playable for the PS3. Turns out that Infinite Undiscovery will be only for the 360 and Mac/PC users will be able to play it as well.

Other things that was shown was just repeats of what we already saw before, and then the whole Microsoft Live/Arcade support. I'm not a supporter of the whole Microsoft Experience thing. (nor live or arcade.. I don't support anything involving online play)Don't get me wrong, if you're into that type of stuff then you might like it.

And then I think I mentioned this for last years E3. The single player type games (RPGs excluded) still seems like it's getting shafted aside for more multiplayer support. While I haven't played any games for the newer consoles, I've heard that majority of the single player campaign modes are fairly short while everything is geared towards multiplayer. (Halo 3 and MGS4)

A trailer of Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe was shown, and unfortunately, I don't like it. I thought that Midway would've taken a different approach with everything, but it just seems to be another Mortal Kombat without the fatalities. (They're fatalities are special moves... I think)

Rock Band 2 was mentioned... which I don't care to talk about. (I stay away from those types of games) Fall Out 3 and I think a few others.[/COLOR]

[Rachmaninoff]

[quote name='Phenom'][COLOR="DarkSlateGray"]Star Ocean: Last (Lost?) Hope will be on the 360. I'm not a fan of the Star Ocean series, but I thought I'd mention that.[/COLOR][/QUOTE]I've only played one of the Star Ocean games but if there's are other games as well that I'm interested in, it could be enough for me to finally pick up a 360. I really enjoyed Till the End of Time so hopefully this will be just as good.

My interest in Final Fantasy died with X and XII. I haven't really enjoyed a Final Fantasy game since IX. Too much in the way of pretty graphics and not enough character development or story for that matter.

[Treble]

Just got done watching the Microsoft show a few hours ago as well.

Final Fantasy XIII being confirmed for the 360 is very good news for all the gamers who don?t have a PS3 and are a fan of the Final Fantasy series. Personally, I was more excited to see that Resident Evil 5 will have an online co-op mode. Oh yeah!

For those who were stuck watching that zoomed out video of FFXIII, Gametrailers has a close-up trailer of it.
[URL]http://www.gametrailers.com/player/36222.html[/URL]

I too haven?t been following gaming news all that closely, so I don?t know what to expect from Sony and Nintendo. Hopefully things will be a bit more exciting than Microsoft?s show. It was good of course, but eh, I kind of expected more.

[Dagger]

Wow, now I really have no idea which console to get. Guess I'll end up waiting until the cycle is practically over, like I did last time. :p

~Dagger~

[Magus]

[quote name='Dagger']Wow, now I really have no idea which console to get. Guess I'll end up waiting until the cycle is practically over, like I did last time. :p

~Dagger~[/QUOTE]

[COLOR="DarkSlateGray"]Indeed, although I'm still not convinced to get a Wii.[/COLOR]

[Sandy]

[quote name='Treble']Final Fantasy XIII being confirmed for the 360 is very good news for all the gamers who don?t have a PS3 and are a fan of the Final Fantasy series. [/QUOTE]

I totally agree! I'm going to get Xbox 360 soon to play Soulcalibur IV and to catch up with already released JRPGs like Lost Odyssey and Eternal Sonata, but FF XIII would've been pretty much the only reason for me to get PS3 - which is still heavily overpriced for me, considering that there's pretty much no games that I'd like to play for it yet.

So I'm really grateful to be able to save that money. And finally seeing the FF XIII trailer was a treat as well! It really looks like the game will be true to it's series.

I'm happy that my first post in this thread proved to be incorrect! ;D

[Anakoni Stark]

[SIZE=1] been trying to watch the EA Conference over at g4tv.com as of 1AM [local time] but the site cuts the video short, [B][I] Right as Wright gets into Spore.[/B][/I]

I'm looking forward for that game, but I'm really excited about [B][I][U] Rock Band II[/B][/I][/U] but I'm kinda frustrated that I dont get to see any media coverage of the game, also irritated about not being able to see any footage for [B][I][U] Need For Speed: Undercover[/B][/I][/U] also due to the amount of lame that the video coverage G4 has given.

I'm waiting on the word of Jade Raymond's next project [B][I][U] I Am Alive[/B][/I][/U] and a couple more of ubi's titles, but what I really want is anything on [B][I][U] Assassin's Creed II[/B][/I][/U]

from what I saw at the microsoft conference, it seems to me that they dont have anything aside from [B][I][U] Gears Of War II[/B][/I][/U] that got me interested, just hope sony and nintendo have something to really look forward to.[/SIZE]

[Muad'Dib]

[COLOR="Navy"][FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"]As an Xbox/Microsoft fanatic, I had to physically restrain myself from spiraling into spats of fanboydom during the Microsoft presentation. The general opinion here seems to be that it was somewhat unsatisfying, but it personally got me very excited for everything coming up this year.

We've known about most of the titles they showed already, but I would say the new features and footage revealed for all of them was well worth it. I particularly enjoyed seeing an actual demonstration of Fallout 3, and I haven't even played the previous titles. And for those of you who watched G4's in-studio demonstration, [spoiler]I can't wait to start killing people with teddy bears.[/spoiler]

Despite myself, I'm terribly excited over Fable 2. It looks like it may be everything the first title wasn't. I think the whole orb co-op feature is a little odd, but could actually be really cool. The co-op itself promises to be incredibly fun.

I can't say much for the new Xbox Live format they've got planned. It's got some awesome features (party-system, Netflix, etc.) but I didn't really like the look of it. Oh well. Small price to pay.

Now a brief venture into my inner fanboy: OMG, flamethrowers in Gear 2?! F***ing aw3some.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[Treble]

Well, Nintendo?s press conference just ended. It was pretty disappointing. The only highlights for me were Animal Crossing: City Folk, and when Reggie called himself the ?Regginator?. Wii Sports: Resort didn?t look too bad, but it didn?t really excite me as much as I thought it would. Overall, weak show. :(

Here?s hoping that Sony?s conference would deliver.

[Desbreko]

[color=#4B0082]I managed to catch a live streaming video of Nintendo's press conference. Here's some highlights:

[b]Wii Speak[/b]
[i]Finally,[/i] they're releasing a microphone for the Wii. What's interesting, though, is that it sits up by the sensor bar and apparently picks up voices from the whole room. First, I'm wondering how well that's going to work, and second, is it going to take up another USB port? It should be pretty cool if it works well (and games actually use it) since it doesn't require a headset.

It sounded like it would be launching and included with Animal Crossing: City Folk.

[b]Animal Crossing: City Folk[/b]
They showed off the new AC for Wii, as expected. In addition to your village you can now visit the city, which has various shops like the hair stylist (who can let you use your Mii's face), Gracie's, an auction house where you can buy and sell items (from/to other people?), and a Happy Room Academy office where you can see other people's furniture setups, presumably streamed to you in the same way that you can get replays and stages in SSBB.

It uses the aforementioned Wii Speak mic for voice chat when visiting friends so no more annoying typing to communicate. And mail will be able to be sent to people's Wii bulletin boards or even e-mail addresses.

Other than that, it looked like classic Animal Crossing. So I really hope they've added more than the few bits they showed off today, since it wasn't really all that much. I enjoyed the first two games but I'm not sure a third would be worth it without more new features.

[b]Wii Sports Resort[/b]
This will use and come with the new MotionPlus accessory. The activities they showed were frisbee throwing, jet skiing, and sword dueling (with shinai, of course, not real swords). The movements did indeed look very accurate, especially with the sword movement. I doubt I'll buy the game itself (unless it's not much more than a MotionPlus by itself) but I can't wait to see this sort of 1:1 movement used in other games—I'm looking at you, Zelda.

[b]Snowboarding with the Balance Board[/b]
I didn't catch the title of this but it looked kind of cool. Maybe there will be some decent uses for the Balance Board other than Wii Fit after all.

[b]Wii Music[/b]
If Guitar Hero and Rock Band attract casual players, this must be aimed at the ultra-casual crowd. Everything was extremely simplistic with no feedback whatsoever about how well you play. The drums did look like they was done fairly well, though, using the Balance Board for the foot pedals and the remote and nunchuck at different points in space to hit the various drums and cymbals. They had a professional drummer there to show it off and he could play it pretty well.


Yeah, kind of disappointing. The MotionPlus accessory looks incredibly cool but Wii Sports Resort seemed to be the only game using it.[/color]

[Korey]

[FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"]I seriously thought that Nintendo would put out a stronger showing than it did. I was highly disappointed, since Nintendo normally puts out a very very strong performance with tons of new titles and a bunch of recognizable series. I'm guessing that wasn't the case this year, instead they are pushing the hardware and controllers they released. This is moving forward, but I think that if they would have plopped down a few more titles that came from newer series, they would have once again stolen the show.

I dunno about Microsoft getting the FFXIII stuff is necessarily a good thing. The 360 has tremendous power, no doubt. Although I think they could do much more extravagant and over-the-top stuff with the capabilities that Blu-Ray discs can hold. DVD's are still very good for gaming, but I think that Blu-Ray is definitely the wave of the future. I think Sony missed the boat on landing another awesome game series to Microsoft. This is of course, barring what Sony is gonna put out with their press conference.

Overall, I've been massively underwhelmed with this year's E3. I know I'm gonna get the hate mail soon from people going. "OMG R U KIDDING?!!!11! ROCK BAND 2 IS COMING OWT! STREET FIGHTER 4! ARE YOU HIGH?!"

And the answer is....no I'm not. There wasn't anything that wowed me this year with E3 yet. This is just a whole bunch of already landmark series getting pushed by their developers. I haven't seen anything terribly cool. The Wii Mic is interesting, and so is the new stuff for the Wii Mote, but I don't see anything that is 'knoxs ur soxks off kewl" [/FONT]

[Charles]

[quote name='Korey'][FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"]

I dunno about Microsoft getting the FFXIII stuff is necessarily a good thing.[/FONT][/QUOTE]

See, I do not understand that perception. I have watched the "meltdown" over the Internet and I just cannot fathom why people would find this news in the negative unless they are Sony shareholders or already own an Xbox 360 and purchased a PS3 just for Final Fantasy XIII.

Fans of Final Fantasy should be glad that more gamers have the opportunity to play the game. Judging by the quality of Devil May Cry and GTA IV on both systems, I highly doubt that FF XIII will have to be scaled back in any crippling way to work on both systems.

Now, if Square is really smart, they will somehow make a Wii version of the game.

[Muad'Dib]

[COLOR="Navy"][FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"]Sony presentation just ended, and man did it seem to drag on. Anyway, I'll start off with Nintendo too. I'll agree that as far as new games and big hits are concerned, Nintendo missed the mark big time. But I think this is just another sign that the company is changing its focus in a really (ironically) harcore way. Before seeing their presentation this year, I don't think I realized just how much they were starting to cater to 'casual' gamers (I don't think you can even call them gamers, really). The Wii is already supposed to attract people who don't normally play video games, but after seeing Wii music (a game that seems like it was designed for nine-year-olds) I have to say that it's starting to look more like a friends and family platform and even less like a good old Nintendo system meant for actual gamers. I feel like Nintendo is alienating most of their original fan base.

And with that, it looks like Sony didn't do a lot either. The man's voice just seemed to keep going and going and going... I would say we got less than half the amount of actual game footage we got with Microsoft. But some of it was pretty cool. The Little Big World segment was refreshingly original, and I can't wait to see what happens when that comes out, even if I never play it myself. More stuff on Resistance 2, which was also cool but nothing spectacular. No new features or anything. One thing I thought was really interesting was the announcement of MAG, a new online shooter that will apparently feature over 200 people per game. That's awesome. It's what FPS fan's wet dreams are made out of. But again, we didn't get to see much of it. Not even any real game footage.

I'm anxious to see what the rest of E3 is gonna look like.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[Desbreko]

[color=#4B0082]From Nintendo.com:[/color]

[quote]On Nov. 16, Animal Crossing®: City Folk lets players move into a fun community populated by quirky animals. Players can improve their community, chat with the locals or just spend the day fishing and collecting fossils. There is also the opportunity to catch a bus into the new urban city area. Though you’ll never see other players in the city, you can connect with them in new ways using WiiConnect24, such as bidding on your friends’ items at the auction house or visiting the Happy Room Academy headquarters to see the top-rated player house. Another new feature in Animal Crossing®: City Folk is the ability to visit friends’ towns and chat with one another using the new WiiSpeak microphone. The WiiSpeak microphone is sold separately at an MSRP of $29.99 and allows Internet voice chat among Wii Friends – not just from person to person but from room to room. [/quote][color=#4B0082]Yay for a release date. But, well, screw the mic—I'm not paying $30 extra just for voice chat, provided I buy ACCF at all.

Also, N-Sider has a full picture of the mic and it does use a USB port.[/color]

[Magus]

[COLOR="DarkSlateGray"]I missed Sony's press conference, but I did hear (read) that God of War 3 was announced. Seeing that I'm no fan of the greek-ish theme, that didn't do much for me. I also heard that Sony's conference wasn't any better than Nintendo's.

I suppose I shouldn't have ever watched the conference to begin with. I didn't start watching these conferences till last year only because I thought I was missing something that wasn't shown on the floor with X-play's crew. Watching the people talk on and on is boring. (Thought I'd see a bunch of demos)

No comment about Nintendo.

Apparently, my definition of a casual gamer is messed up. They were saying something about Nintendo was aiming at the casual gamers instead of the more hardcore gamers. (What?) The stuff I saw from Nintendo looked more geared towards family. And here I thought a casual gamer was into some of the high profiling games but not heavily into all of the big games. (Sorry if that don't make any sense) i.e. I like the Metal Gear Solid series, a Final Fantasy game, and a couple of fighting games, but I don't play GTA, Mario, Pokemon etc...[/COLOR]

[Korey]

[quote name='Charles']See, I do not understand that perception. I have watched the "meltdown" over the Internet and I just cannot fathom why people would find this news in the negative unless they are Sony shareholders or already own an Xbox 360 and purchased a PS3 just for Final Fantasy XIII.

Now, if Square is really smart, they will somehow make a Wii version of the game.[/QUOTE]

[FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"]See, the thing is when has Square [I]ever[/I] done a multiplatform release on any of its titles? I can't recall anything. I believe that if they had invested their resources solely in the PS3, they could have really hit the mark and put down a very impressive title because of the capabilities Blu-Ray discs offer. Not saying that people won't be happy with the 360 version or that it will be scaled back or anything, I just believe if they stuck with one platform, they could really reached a high level with this title. I guess time will tell the story for lucky number 13.

And as for the Wii......[/FONT]

[IMG]http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k221/HaruharaK/1155341618648.jpg[/IMG]

[PWNED]

[quote name='Korey'][FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"]

And as for the Wii......[/FONT]

[IMG]http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k221/HaruharaK/1155341618648.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE]


I don't think that it would actually be possible to make a version of FF XIII for the Wii. Hardware specs would probably be too much for them to do one.

[Sandy]

[quote name='Korey'][FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"]See, the thing is when has Square [I]ever[/I] done a multiplatform release on any of its titles? I can't recall anything.[/FONT][/QUOTE]

You're obviously forgetting Final Fantasy XI, which was released for PC, PS2 and Xbox 360. And if we go to ports and remakes, then you'll realize that the first two Final Fantasies along with Final Fantasy IV have been available for half a dozen of systems. Various other Final Fantasies have been released for two different systems as well, like VII and VIII for both PlayStation and PC.

As for other titles, the upcoming The Last Remnant will be available for both PS3 and Xbox 360. So this is hardly the first time, really. ;P

This lecture was brought to you by Sandy and the letter Zzzzz....

[Korey]

[quote name='Sandy']You're obviously forgetting Final Fantasy XI, which was released for PC, PS2 and Xbox 360. And if we go to ports and remakes, then you'll realize that the first two Final Fantasies along with Final Fantasy IV have been available for half a dozen of systems. Various other Final Fantasies have been released for two different systems as well, like VII and VIII for both PlayStation and PC.

As for other titles, the upcoming The Last Remnant will be available for both PS3 and Xbox 360. So this is hardly the first time, really. ;P

This lecture was brought to you by Sandy and the letter Zzzzz....[/QUOTE]

[FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"]Ah maybe I should have clarifyed. I meant simultaneously in one release day for all systems, which is what I'm assuming is gonna happen with FFXIII?

I know that many FF series games have been released for multiple systems. Give me [B][I]Some [/I][/B] credit [/FONT]

[Sandy]

[quote name='Korey'][FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"]Ah maybe I should have clarifyed. I meant simultaneously in one release day for all systems, which is what I'm assuming is gonna happen with FFXIII?[/FONT][/QUOTE]

Ah, [I]of course[/I] you meant that... *rolls eyes* But yes, the game will be available on both systems on the day of it's launch. And sorry for doubting you, I just thought you had forgotten. ;D

[Desbreko]

[quote name='Korey'][FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"]See, the thing is when has Square [I]ever[/I] done a multiplatform release on any of its titles? I can't recall anything. I believe that if they had invested their resources solely in the PS3, they could have really hit the mark and put down a very impressive title because of the capabilities Blu-Ray discs offer. Not saying that people won't be happy with the 360 version or that it will be scaled back or anything, I just believe if they stuck with one platform, they could really reached a high level with this title. I guess time will tell the story for lucky number 13.

And as for the Wii......[/FONT][/QUOTE][color=#4B0082]Is swapping discs really that bad? Because the only advantage Blu-ray has over DVD is capacity.

Also, I'd rather play a version of FFXIII on the Wii that isn't quite as pretty than have to shell out [strike]$599 US Dollars[/strike] $399 for a whole new system. It's highly unlikely that the actual gameplay would be affected by the lower system specs, they'd just have to lower some graphics settings.

Of course, it would be unlikely that I'd bother with FFXIII in the first place since I've yet to even play FFXII. But whatever.[/color]

[silpheedpilot]

[COLOR="SlateGray"][SIZE="1"]I'm looking more forward to Fallout 3, Far Cry 2, Dark Void, and Killzone 2.

Fallout 3 is looking like a damn worthy update of such an amazing franchise made nearly 10 years, no, more than 10 years ago. The battle system looks really nice with the ability to either play in complete first person shooter fashion or bringing up VATS (Vault Assisted Targeting System) to queue up three actions and you watch them unfold as the battle progresses. I simply can't wait for the story because the past two games, barring Tactics, had a really well thought out story line that kept you hooked.

Far Cry is by far one of my favorite first person shooters of all time, including Instincts on the Xbox and Xbox 360 so I'm gonna go ahead and say that I'm REALLY excited for this one that takes place in Africa rather than tropical islands. Granted, I want Jack Carver, the main hero of the previous games, to come back I'll settle for a new guy. As for the story I'm wondering if it'll have hideous experimental monsters and stuff like the previous games had.

As for Dark Void and Killzone 2 they both have a ways to go but Dark Void is looking really sweet with it's vertical scaling elements and use of a jetpack at all times and Killzone 2 is, well, Killzone 2. Sink or swim, Guerilla, though it's shaping up really nicely.[/SIZE][/COLOR]