Gaming E3 2009

[Magus]

Well, it's here. (2 hours before Nintendo does there conference, I think.) Honestly, I'm not really all that excited this year. I guess it's because I haven't seen much of anything that has me going "ooh and ahh".

In terms of games, I'm not sure if this year will be all that great compared to last year. (or was it 2007 where all the goodie goodies were revealled?)

Last year Microsoft was said to have won the press conference showdown thingy or whatever. Honestly, none of the console press conferences do anything for me. Camera's, motion controllers, online means nothing to me.

I am curious to see what Hideo Kojima has this year. It's rumored that there is a new Metal Gear game and that it's Greyfox instead of Raiden... (O_O!!) Whether that's true or not, lies with Kojima.

I'm also hoping to see more info about Final Fantasy 13 Versus. I love me some hack n slashers, and hearing that the gameplay is similar to Kingdom Hearts has me hooked. This could possibly convince me to buy a PS3.

Yeah, anything you're hoping to see this year?

[Sangome]

[SIZE="1"]Anything about Half-Life 2: Episode 3 or Portal 2 will get me giddy.

I'm curious about Ace Attorney Investigations. There's an English trailer out, and apparently the game'll be at E3 after all [after it was said it wouldn't be], although there won't be a playable demo of that until ComicCon.

Atlus also has Trauma Team, the newest installment in the Trauma Center series, and the trailer is to be shown at E3. I'm rather excited for that as well.

And lastly, I'd love to hear SOMETHING about the new Tales games, but that's rather unlikely. lol[/SIZE]

[Vigilance]

I'm really interested in what Hideo Kojima has made because it has spark my interest in weither he made a new metal gear game or not is really up to him. I wonder what his game is gonna be about, so I can't wait until he announces it. I'm also interested in what the Square-Enix booth has to offer for their variety of games. Other than that, I'm also hoping to see Modern Warfare 2 come out soon because I can't wait to get my hands on this game when it releases already. Another game I'm excited for this year is Disgaea 2 for the PSP because I'm a huge Disgaea fan and is really hoping to play this game really soon.

[Magus]

First thing first. I wasn't nearly as bored with this as I was last year. Let me get all the negatives (for me) out of the way now.

Live, project natal, camera/eyetoy, motionless controller. All this stuff has never interested me one bit. I'm a boring person. I like my stuck nice and simplistic. (And I'm lazy XD)

With that said though, Peter Molyneux introduced some Milo game thingy, and with me not liking all that that I mentioned above, even I have to admit that this Milo thing is impressive. That is if it does what he says it does. I'm curious to see what all that can be done with that game.

Now onto the games.

First and foremost, [b]Metal Gear Solid: Rising[/b]! Metal Gear Solid: Rising for the 360!!! It was just a matter of time before it happened, but still I'm happy. While I still haven't played MGS4, I'm all for MGS:R since I have a 360 (YAY).

[b]Splinter Cell: Conviction[/b] has me sold as well. I've never been a fan of the games but the way this one is handled had me glued to my tv. The way Fisher is interrogating people looks awesome, and it almost looks Borune-like (favorite movies) and that's a double plus

[b]Modern Warfare 2[/b]. The only FPS's I really play are Halo, Goldeneye007, and Perfect Dark. And while I don't remember too much about the game, I just know ice climbing never looked better.

Of course FFXIII, but there was nothing new here.

[Meggido]

Out of what's been shown so far the only things that really have me interested are the information that a new [B]Front Mission[/B] game is in the works and rather than being strategy they've taken a different style to the series which should be interesting. [B]Modern warfare 2[/B] is the other one since I enjoyed the first modern warfare game.

I'm iffy about the new MGS because while I enjoy the series I hate Raiden as a character and the first news I saw said he was the main character.

I'm sure there will be KH 358/2 days and Birth by Sleep info but who knows at the moment. I'm already spoiling myself by getting a taste of 358/2's style since the *** release (can't wait for english release) but I really want to know more about Birth by Sleep.

[John]

Project Natal would be full of mundane, casual gimmick-games if it worked, but it won't, as evidenced by common sense and the spazzing avatar and Breakout chick from the presentation. Milo is smarterchild for the 360. Just like the Wii, Natal has massive potential that will go utterly untapped by developers. Label me a cynic, but just remember two years from now: I called it.

The games they showed were just games. Some of them looked pretty cool (like CliffyB's Metroidvania), some of them didn't (Forza).

[Gavin]

[CENTER][YOUTUBE="Star Wars: The Old Republic"]v-tSHORPjK4&fmt=18[/YOUTUBE][/CENTER]

[SIZE="1"]Do want!!![/SIZE]

[Sangome]

[SIZE="1"]...okay, Nintendo, I love you. I really, really do. You've been one of my best friends since I was a wee lass.

...But WHAT the CRAP is [U][URL="http://kotaku.com/5275856/the-wii-vitality-sensor-seemsnice"]THIS????[/URL][/U][/SIZE]

[Magus]

Heh, the only thing that I actually liked about Nintendo was the Metroid and Team Ninja collaboration.

I don't understand the whole Wii Motion thing at all. It just look like what the Wii controller was doing all along. Can someone explain the purpose of it?

Sony isn't doing any better IMO. I caught myself changing the channel twice, and almost falling asleep. Uncharted 2, so far is the only game that caught my interest. Metal Gear Solid: Peace (Something) looks interesting. And then the new footage of FFXIII looks nice. Other than that, this thing has been fairly boring so far.

Edit: Forgot about Halo: ODST. I also find that game interesting as well. (Forgot to mention that when I was talking about the Microsoft conference thing.)

[Meggido]

I must say that the new metroid looks very impressive. the change to what seems to be 3rd person action would be from the team ninja perspective following their success with ninja Gaiden but it'll be interesting how it alternates between that and 1st person shooter.

However the biggest announcement for me today on top of a new[B] Jak and Daxter[/B] game and a few other handheld announcements was the anouncement that we are finally going to get a new [B]Golden Sun[/B] game. Been waiting for this for ages as I'd say that Golden Sun 1 and 2 were arguably the greatest RPGs on the GBA.

What irritated me about the new stuff was that FFXIV will be another online game. I'll probably only get it if it's either no monthly fees or they introduce a game card system which the first didn't have (as far as I remember).

[James]

[quote name='Magus']I don't understand the whole Wii Motion thing at all. It just look like what the Wii controller was doing all along. Can someone explain the purpose of it?
[/QUOTE]

[font=franklin gothic medium]You will notice the difference when you have the chance to give it a try. :catgirl:

Basically, the Wii Remote contains an accelerometer that detects your movement and while it works reasonably well, it doesn't really come close to giving you full 1:1 movement. Some games really demonstrate this clearly, especially where there can be some lag or not enough sensitivity.

MotionPlus basically adds an additional sensor which allows the Wii Remote to track your movements far more accurately. A lot of MotionPlus games contain a basic calibration tool as well, so that each time you are doing a different motion, you get as close to 1:1 feedback as possible.

I mean if you look at something like WiiSports Tennis, the motion is fairly good, but it's not close to 1:1 really. Sometimes you'll swing when you don't want to, or you'll half-swing when you want to full-swing, etc. Often it just means that a swing is a swing and there's no degree of force detected.

MotionPlus is basically a lot more like playing a real game of tennis, because it can pick up all of the smaller motions and movements - including things like force and speed.

My thinking is that quite a few games just won't be possible without MotionPlus (including the new Zelda). So hopefully we'll see it supported heavily and hopefully quite a few games will come with it packed in.[/font]

[quote]Project Natal would be full of mundane, casual gimmick-games if it worked, but it won't, as evidenced by common sense and the spazzing avatar and Breakout chick from the presentation. Milo is smarterchild for the 360. Just like the Wii, Natal has massive potential that will go utterly untapped by developers. Label me a cynic, but just remember two years from now: I called it.[/quote]

[font=franklin gothic medium]Apparently Natal does work as demonstrated. The press experience has been fairly brief so far, but even games with very little modification have been able to take advantage of the tool.

Whether or not this translates into strong developer support (or even general popularity for the product) remains to be seen, but so far the actual performance seems to be well on track.

Nintendo has demonstrated that this type of approach to games isn't gimmicky, but I do think Microsoft has to be careful about confusing its audience with this product. At least with Wii, everything is more or less built around the Wii Remote - Xbox 360 is a different beast.

What I'd really like to see is a new Xbox 360 (entirely new case design, much smaller package, slot-loading drive) that comes with one 360 controller and a "Natal" unit. May not be realistic, but I'm guessing that MS would rather do something like this instead of launching an entirely new platform from scratch.[/font]

[Desbreko]

[color=#4B0082]I about crapped myself when I read "new Metroid" and "third person." Then I saw it was in 3D, which tempered my excitement, but I'm still stupidly excited to see more of it.

Still waiting for a new 2D Metroid on the DS or WiiWare though.[/color]

[Magus]

[quote name='James'][font=franklin gothic medium]You will notice the difference when you have the chance to give it a try. :catgirl:

Basically, the Wii Remote contains an accelerometer that detects your movement and while it works reasonably well, it doesn't really come close to giving you full 1:1 movement. Some games really demonstrate this clearly, especially where there can be some lag or not enough sensitivity.

MotionPlus basically adds an additional sensor which allows the Wii Remote to track your movements far more accurately. A lot of MotionPlus games contain a basic calibration tool as well, so that each time you are doing a different motion, you get as close to 1:1 feedback as possible.

I mean if you look at something like WiiSports Tennis, the motion is fairly good, but it's not close to 1:1 really. Sometimes you'll swing when you don't want to, or you'll half-swing when you want to full-swing, etc. Often it just means that a swing is a swing and there's no degree of force detected.

MotionPlus is basically a lot more like playing a real game of tennis, because it can pick up all of the smaller motions and movements - including things like force and speed.

My thinking is that quite a few games just won't be possible without MotionPlus (including the new Zelda). So hopefully we'll see it supported heavily and hopefully quite a few games will come with it packed in.[/font][/QUOTE]
We'll be getting a Wii one of these days, so who knows. :) So in other words, if I were to throw the controller, the game should detect this and have the person throw whatever object they're holding as well? Interesting.. :catgirl:

There was some talk about a new Zelda for the Wii, and it's centered around adult Link. (I still need to play Twilight Princess.... Maybe next time I get my hands on $30 I'll buy it for the Gamecube.)

God of War 3 looked interesting, but I'm not really all that stoked about the game because I've never cared about greek mythology. Graphically speaking, it looks amazing though.

Speaking of God of War, Kratos is in the new Soul Calibur game for the PSP. It also looks decent, but like the other Soul Caliburs, I'm not interested, nor would I shell out money to purchase a PSP for a Soul Calibur game.

Today should be a little more interesting since there's a lot more focus on the games I'm looking forward to. (And hopefully there will be no more of this Steve Wiebe guy and this Donkey Kong game. Do people really care about that?)

[James]

[font=franklin gothic medium]I still haven't read up on everything (will catch up with that this weekend), but there's a ton of stuff I'm interested in on all platforms.

I am mostly glad that the Nintendo conference was a whole lot better than last year. There's now a pretty decent stream of third party exclusives coming down the line (I'm dying to play the new Silent Hill on Wii - talk about impressive!)

And I'm really pleased to see New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Super Mario Galaxy 2.

Going back to MotionPlus for a moment as well, I would recommend looking at the E3 conference demo of WiiSports Resort. I guess it's really [i]the[/i] game to demonstrate that attachment.

I'm interested to see that Team Ninja is working on the new Metroid as well. Weird.[/font]

[The Spectacular Professor]

[FONT="Comic Sans MS"]I'm pretty much salivating over the latest [B]Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box[/B] screens. Other than that, there's some interesting looking stuff, but Layton is the thing that holds my attention most so far. [B]Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks[/B] is looking okay, but I want a new console Zelda before too long. The handhelds haven't quite stood up to the same standard since Minish Cap.

[B]Little Big Planet[/B] for PSP is also something I'm looking at, since I'm half-considering getting a PSP sometime this year.[/FONT]

[Kre]

I have to admit, after thinking [b]ODST[/b] was going to be crap, I'm going to change my mind. In all honesty, I didn't think Halo 3 was that great, or atleast the multiplayer, and I had a feeling ODST was going to be the same, however watching the little demo they showed got me pretty interested in it.

As Magus said, the new [b]Splinter Cell: Convictions[/b] actually looks pretty cool. Never been a big fan of the series and only played the first one like ten minutes and got kind of bored. :/. But yes, the previews looked somewhat of a Bourne-style (my favorite movies) which definitely a plus, like he said.

[b]Assassin's Creed 2[/b]... Aaah..Yes.. The one game I'm truly waiting for XD. I loved Assassin's Creed and this one looks super good. It looks like all the familiar stuff is there (judging by the gameplay video.) And they've added some new, cool, stuff. The graphics looks amazing and I thought the intro video was some commercial for some product using a masquerade as a little hook. The fight system seems totally revamped and looks twice as good. I couldn't care less about the flying machine, I'd rather run around the cities and see the environments xD.

[b]Final Fantasy XIII and Versus XIII[/b]. I didn't see any presentations on them, but I'm waiting for them also, and want to see some stuff on them, although I probably missed it. >.>

There are a few others like Modern Warefare 2, but I'm not gonna go into details because I'm not "eagerly" expecting it I guess?

[Treble]

Of all the games shown, I was probably most excited for what Nintendo had to show. The new four player Super Mario Brothers, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Mario & Luigi 3, and the new Metroid all looks amazing so far and I’m really looking forward to them. I also can’t wait to get my hands on Wii Sports Resort to try out the new Motion Plus.

Most of the other games that were shown at the other press conferences were kind of expected, but nevertheless I’m thrilled to see them too. Uncharted 2, in particular looks really good. It was pretty cool to see how interactive the environment was, everything in that game looks so real. God of War 3 was just as crazy. The sheer amount of brutality Kratos was unleashing in the trailer was insane. Alan Wake was interesting too with the whole emphasis on the flashlight and the weird but cool-looking spiritual creatures. Other highlights for me were FFXIII, Assassins Creed 2, and Shadow Complex.

Overall, I pretty much enjoyed all 3 press conferences this year.

[Korey]

[FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"]This year I was massively underwhelmed by the lack of real "progress" from last year's E3. I mean, you have some massive titles being dropped (Splinter Cell, Metal Gear and Metroid caught my eye) but gaming really hasn't done anything totally "roxorzurboxorz" from last year. If memory serves, the motion sensor plus for the Wii was announced last year's E3.

But, I was really underwhelmed because I've come to expect that big titles will be dropped at every E3. Has to be that way. Now when I look at the show, I look for what new [b]IDEAS[/b] they're coming out with. The Wii is an example of this. This really took gaming to a different level because of how original it was. Nintendo also confirmed it's status as a casual gaming mastermind and took that stance as a promoter of physical fitness. Microsoft and Sony released some things that were ok (HOME for the PSN was alright) but nothing that really CHANGED the industry. But it seems like the companies are sort of going in different directions with their game selection. Nintendo no doubt will appeal to casual gamers more than the hardcore audience. Sony and Microsoft cater more to the hardcore audience and seem to be pushing their online components just a tad more than the Wii is at this point (although the online capabilities of the Wii are really friggin sweet).

But the lack of any really fresh ideas at E3 didn't surprise me. Companies are pushing their current gen systems and software, but I'm the kind of person who likes to see progress from year to year in the areas of how games are played instead of "ooooh lookie, another sequel to a hit franchise". [/FONT]