This review is nearly impossible to do. Heavy Rain is a kind of murder mystery, so giving away any details could ruin the plot. On top of that, the style of gameplay is familiar, yet completely unique, and even people with a better vernacular than I have trouble describing what it's like. But...I shall try.
Heavy Rain is set in the near future, where a serial killer known as the Origami Killer has been on the loose for years, killing young boys by drowning them in rainwater, covering their faces with mud, and leaving an origami figure in their hand and an orchid on their chest. You play as 4 separate characters: Ethan (a father), Madison (a journalist), Scott Shelby (a private investigator), and Norman Jayden (an FBI agent). Each has their own motivations and stories, and each is involved in the hunt for the Origami Killer in their own way. Past that, there isn't much I can say, you just have to experience their stories for yourself, especially because of how the game plays.
When Heavy Rain first came out, it was mostly noticed for its unique style of gameplay, but also the fact that if one of your characters dies, the game is designed to continue going. Think of it like a choose your own adventure novel that doesn't stop even if you reach a page that kills you. The game plays much like a movie, with each scene presenting you with varying choices and consequences that effect how the rest of the game plays out.
How you play through these choices is the most familiar and yet completely unfamiliar aspect of Heavy Rain. If you've ever played God of War or similar titles, you're often asked to complete what's known as a quick-time event (QTE). A QTE is essentially where you are asked to press a series of buttons in the correct order in order to accomplish some task (like bringing down a cyclops). At first glance, all Heavy Rain is is a series of QTEs. You are asked to do various things like the traditional press buttons at the right time in the right order, but also sometimes hold down buttons at the same time or shake the controller in a certain way or move the right analog stick in the direction indicated. So essentially it is just complicated QTEs....but at the same time it's so much more. For example, to get someone off the floor, you hold R1 to get their arm around you, hold L1 to grab their legs, and then tap X repeatedly, straining your legs to pick them up. Each button press, each flick of the analog stick, each shake of the controller just feels right. It feels appropriate to the movement your character is performing. The timing of it mimics your character's state of mind perfectly. It's all so tied to everything that happens that it never feels like a QTE. It just feels natural.
It also allows you to feel more invested in what happens than in any other game I have ever played. Not only does it invest you mechanics-wise however, it also invests you emotionally. The story is like an Oscar winning drama. This unfortunately means that some parts are quite predictable in that it follows a somewhat Hollywood formula, but with all the different choices available you never quite know what's going to happen. The true miracle is that it manages to keep you completely emotionally locked in with four distinct characters, each with their own personalities, for the entire game.
It's not without faults, however. There are some odd glitches here and there, some of the voice acting (especially the childrens') is rather terrible, and moving your character around can feel so clunky that it takes you right out of the experience. Also, the story has its gaps along with some transitions that feel like they didn't fully flesh out the path you actually took. It seemed as though they just didn't get to realize every possibility and so had to condense things late in development. If these guys teamed up with Bioware, who make the incredibly detailed branching storylines in games like Mass Effect and Dragon Age, they could take on the world. One just gets the sense that with a couple more months in development all of these problems would've been fixed, but as it is there's just enough problems to keep it from being the best game ever made. But overall it's easily one of the best games I've ever played, and is by far the most emotionally investing. I don't know if they're even considering a Heavy Rain 2, or something in the same style at least, but I sure hope they do, cause with a few tweaks the developers could easily make not just one of the most original titles of all time, but one of the greatest as well.
Heavy Rain gets a 10/10.
Monday, June 28, 2010
E3 2010 summary
For all those who don't want the in depth summaries of each and every conference, here's a brief summary of the important highlights from each one.
Microsoft
-Gears of War 3 will be the standout in Microsoft's lineup. If you have an Xbox 360, get it.
-Halo: Reach looks like any other Halo game, just spiffed up. But if you liked all the other ones, you're bound to love this one.
-Kinect showed off some very cool and thought-provoking features like voice recognition, the ability to use your Xbox like the computer from Star Trek, and high fidelity to tracking your entire skeleton.
-Kinect also showed off a lot of disappointments, like every single launch title copying the Wii, and how some features (like the camera following you if you move during video chat) were very highly choreographed, which left their authenticity in question. We'll just have to wait until November 4th to see.
-New sleek, black, 250gb, built in Wi-Fi, quieter Xbox model revealed. It's basically a PS3 without blu-ray. Nothing is said about rectifying the red ring of death.
EA
-Dead Space 2 is going to be fucking awesome.
-They call Medal of Honor the most authentic modern war experience out there. I laugh at that as every time someone shoots a gun they get points that flash up on screen and then allow them to call down a tomahawk missile. Looks exactly like Call of Duty Modern Warfare.
-Crysis 2 looks very pretty, but also seems like any other shooter in gameplay style.
-Bulletstorm looks like mayhem incarnate, with graphics that have Crysis 2 nearly beat. Can't wait to have tons of fun with this one.
-The Star Wars MMO Old Republic is one of the most highly anticipated games out there. No gameplay, but a trailer with such emotion and graphical detail behind it makes you wish Bioware had been behind the helm for the prequels instead of Lucas.
Ubisoft
-Child of Eden is this generation's Rez. Do not play on hallucinogens or you may exit this dimension.
-Joel McHale is funny in his element. He is not in his element.
-The demo for Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood puts aside all doubts that only a year in development would hurt the game. It looks nothing short of amazing.
-Shaun White Skateboarding at least brings something new to the genre with being able to transform the environment, but the skating mechanics look like any other Tony Hawk game.
-Portable laser tag. Nuff said.
-Biofeedback in a game. Helps reduce stress.
-Your Shape: Fitness Evolved makes the best use of Kinect so far by tracking every movement 1:1 and giving exact feedback on how to improve your workout.
-Ghost Recon: Future Soldier looks to combine stealth, firefights, and strategy into a very fun experience, especially for co-op.
-Driver: San Francisco brings back 70s car chases with the added ability to shift between cars so that if you crash, you can get right back into the game. Especially interesting? That feature will be in multiplayer too.
-A new set of tools for developers allows them to craft some amazing looking games with much less effort. The new Rayman, for example, looked more put together than many games out there yet was only worked on by 5 people.
-Maniaplanet is a new platform for developers to create their own racers, shooters, and RPGs. Looks to be more realistic/diverse than Little Big Planet 2 since it's not all based off Sackboy. However, no gameplay was shown and the betas aren't coming out until much later this year.
Nintendo
-New Zelda. Demo had some big troubles because of interference but it still looks fun.
-New Mario Sports game, with Mario doing the sports he hasn't done yet, proving that Nintendo will whore their main character out to any length to make money.
-Nintendo sells a ridiculous amount of consoles and games. Most gamers, myself included, look down on the Wii, but that doesn't stop it from making a shitload more money than both Xbox and PS3.
-New Golden Sun for DS.
-New GoldenEye for Wii, bringing back the game that basically started the multiplayer genre.
-Epic Mickey looks to be the most original game coming out this year. As Mickey you use paint and paint thinner to either help restore the land of forgotten Disney characters known as the Wasteland, or erase obstacles and even characters in your way and make things easier for yourself. This is from the guy who made Deus Ex, so expect the choices you make to have serious consequences throughout the game.
-New Kirby, but everything is made of yarn. Manages to keep the core Kirby mechanics and gameplay intact while still providing an entirely new and interesting experience.
-Dragonquest 9 for DS was a hit in Japan, and will no doubt be a hit here when it's released in July.
-Metroid: Other M combines the third person of the Prime series with classic sidescrolling to provide what looks to be an interesting new title in the series.
-New Donkey Kong Country Returns for those of us who loved the original. A complete surprise.
-The highlight of E3, the Nintendo 3DS. This one I cannot summarize, just read it.
-New Kid Icarus built solely for 3DS. Other games include Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy, Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid, and some N64 ports like Ocarina of Time and Starfox.
-Nintendo fucks over Sony by giving each member of the audience an opportunity to be up close to the 3DS and the models tied to them, as well as letting them try out Zelda so they see the wonky controls in the demo were an accident and not reality.
Sony
-Too many trailers, not enough content.
-Killzone 3 looks very pretty and probably even prettier in 3D.
-If you pay the thousands of dollars for a 3D TV and glasses, there will be hardcore games for you, but nothing that great.
-If you get 3D and Move...there is nothing but a baseball game to console you. The rest is crap.
-The PS2 is still going strong, meaning they're still supporting it and won't try to bring back compatibility anytime soon. Fuck them.
-They make fun of Kinect while ignoring the Wii. Big mistake.
-Sorcery will be the only interesting Move launch title. Tiger Woods golf will also be interesting but only for those who actually play golf.
-Kevin Butler is awesome, and should've been the main presenter. Would've made the conference much more bearable.
-The Move is going to hit your wallet so hard you wallet won't exist anymore. At least, if you want more than one controller, and to play with someone else. To get the Eye, two controllers, and two sub controllers will cost you more than Kinect, and more than it would to just buy a new Wii. And for $40 more you could have a Wii with two wiimotes and two nunchucks. Considering the amazing things Nintendo is releasing compared to the absolutely lackluster Move games, it's a smarter investment to just get a Wii. And that's saying something from me.
-No new PSP. Just a marketing campaign. Fuck you Sony.
-Little Big Planet 2 is what the first game should've been, and looks to add a whole new level of creativity that the world will no doubt make great use of.
-The paid PSN service, Playstation Plus, will only be worth it if you want to continue paying $50 a year. If you stop, I can only assume from what he said that all the content you got through it will go bye bye.
-Medal of Honor will come packaged with Medal of Honor: Frontlines, and Dead Space 2 will come packaged with the Wii port Dead Space: Extraction for Move, both only for Ps3.
-The biggest surprise of E3: Portal 2 will be on the PS3, and it will come with Steamworks, making the PS3 version of Portal 2, as Gabe Newell stated, the best version on any console.
-Mafia 2 and Assassin's Creed Brotherhood will both have loads of content only available on PS3.
-Gran Turismo 5 looks veeery pretty.
-Infamous 2 has changed the look and voice of the main character, but it doesn't matter with the new cattle prod melee weapon and promise to manipulate ice as well as electricity.
-They make Twisted Metal sound like the best thing to ever come out. It isn't. Still looks fun, but it's nothing game changing.
And that's all folks! Hope you enjoyed my in depth look at E3. Now I'll be returning to my regular reviews.
Microsoft
-Gears of War 3 will be the standout in Microsoft's lineup. If you have an Xbox 360, get it.
-Halo: Reach looks like any other Halo game, just spiffed up. But if you liked all the other ones, you're bound to love this one.
-Kinect showed off some very cool and thought-provoking features like voice recognition, the ability to use your Xbox like the computer from Star Trek, and high fidelity to tracking your entire skeleton.
-Kinect also showed off a lot of disappointments, like every single launch title copying the Wii, and how some features (like the camera following you if you move during video chat) were very highly choreographed, which left their authenticity in question. We'll just have to wait until November 4th to see.
-New sleek, black, 250gb, built in Wi-Fi, quieter Xbox model revealed. It's basically a PS3 without blu-ray. Nothing is said about rectifying the red ring of death.
EA
-Dead Space 2 is going to be fucking awesome.
-They call Medal of Honor the most authentic modern war experience out there. I laugh at that as every time someone shoots a gun they get points that flash up on screen and then allow them to call down a tomahawk missile. Looks exactly like Call of Duty Modern Warfare.
-Crysis 2 looks very pretty, but also seems like any other shooter in gameplay style.
-Bulletstorm looks like mayhem incarnate, with graphics that have Crysis 2 nearly beat. Can't wait to have tons of fun with this one.
-The Star Wars MMO Old Republic is one of the most highly anticipated games out there. No gameplay, but a trailer with such emotion and graphical detail behind it makes you wish Bioware had been behind the helm for the prequels instead of Lucas.
Ubisoft
-Child of Eden is this generation's Rez. Do not play on hallucinogens or you may exit this dimension.
-Joel McHale is funny in his element. He is not in his element.
-The demo for Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood puts aside all doubts that only a year in development would hurt the game. It looks nothing short of amazing.
-Shaun White Skateboarding at least brings something new to the genre with being able to transform the environment, but the skating mechanics look like any other Tony Hawk game.
-Portable laser tag. Nuff said.
-Biofeedback in a game. Helps reduce stress.
-Your Shape: Fitness Evolved makes the best use of Kinect so far by tracking every movement 1:1 and giving exact feedback on how to improve your workout.
-Ghost Recon: Future Soldier looks to combine stealth, firefights, and strategy into a very fun experience, especially for co-op.
-Driver: San Francisco brings back 70s car chases with the added ability to shift between cars so that if you crash, you can get right back into the game. Especially interesting? That feature will be in multiplayer too.
-A new set of tools for developers allows them to craft some amazing looking games with much less effort. The new Rayman, for example, looked more put together than many games out there yet was only worked on by 5 people.
-Maniaplanet is a new platform for developers to create their own racers, shooters, and RPGs. Looks to be more realistic/diverse than Little Big Planet 2 since it's not all based off Sackboy. However, no gameplay was shown and the betas aren't coming out until much later this year.
Nintendo
-New Zelda. Demo had some big troubles because of interference but it still looks fun.
-New Mario Sports game, with Mario doing the sports he hasn't done yet, proving that Nintendo will whore their main character out to any length to make money.
-Nintendo sells a ridiculous amount of consoles and games. Most gamers, myself included, look down on the Wii, but that doesn't stop it from making a shitload more money than both Xbox and PS3.
-New Golden Sun for DS.
-New GoldenEye for Wii, bringing back the game that basically started the multiplayer genre.
-Epic Mickey looks to be the most original game coming out this year. As Mickey you use paint and paint thinner to either help restore the land of forgotten Disney characters known as the Wasteland, or erase obstacles and even characters in your way and make things easier for yourself. This is from the guy who made Deus Ex, so expect the choices you make to have serious consequences throughout the game.
-New Kirby, but everything is made of yarn. Manages to keep the core Kirby mechanics and gameplay intact while still providing an entirely new and interesting experience.
-Dragonquest 9 for DS was a hit in Japan, and will no doubt be a hit here when it's released in July.
-Metroid: Other M combines the third person of the Prime series with classic sidescrolling to provide what looks to be an interesting new title in the series.
-New Donkey Kong Country Returns for those of us who loved the original. A complete surprise.
-The highlight of E3, the Nintendo 3DS. This one I cannot summarize, just read it.
-New Kid Icarus built solely for 3DS. Other games include Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy, Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid, and some N64 ports like Ocarina of Time and Starfox.
-Nintendo fucks over Sony by giving each member of the audience an opportunity to be up close to the 3DS and the models tied to them, as well as letting them try out Zelda so they see the wonky controls in the demo were an accident and not reality.
Sony
-Too many trailers, not enough content.
-Killzone 3 looks very pretty and probably even prettier in 3D.
-If you pay the thousands of dollars for a 3D TV and glasses, there will be hardcore games for you, but nothing that great.
-If you get 3D and Move...there is nothing but a baseball game to console you. The rest is crap.
-The PS2 is still going strong, meaning they're still supporting it and won't try to bring back compatibility anytime soon. Fuck them.
-They make fun of Kinect while ignoring the Wii. Big mistake.
-Sorcery will be the only interesting Move launch title. Tiger Woods golf will also be interesting but only for those who actually play golf.
-Kevin Butler is awesome, and should've been the main presenter. Would've made the conference much more bearable.
-The Move is going to hit your wallet so hard you wallet won't exist anymore. At least, if you want more than one controller, and to play with someone else. To get the Eye, two controllers, and two sub controllers will cost you more than Kinect, and more than it would to just buy a new Wii. And for $40 more you could have a Wii with two wiimotes and two nunchucks. Considering the amazing things Nintendo is releasing compared to the absolutely lackluster Move games, it's a smarter investment to just get a Wii. And that's saying something from me.
-No new PSP. Just a marketing campaign. Fuck you Sony.
-Little Big Planet 2 is what the first game should've been, and looks to add a whole new level of creativity that the world will no doubt make great use of.
-The paid PSN service, Playstation Plus, will only be worth it if you want to continue paying $50 a year. If you stop, I can only assume from what he said that all the content you got through it will go bye bye.
-Medal of Honor will come packaged with Medal of Honor: Frontlines, and Dead Space 2 will come packaged with the Wii port Dead Space: Extraction for Move, both only for Ps3.
-The biggest surprise of E3: Portal 2 will be on the PS3, and it will come with Steamworks, making the PS3 version of Portal 2, as Gabe Newell stated, the best version on any console.
-Mafia 2 and Assassin's Creed Brotherhood will both have loads of content only available on PS3.
-Gran Turismo 5 looks veeery pretty.
-Infamous 2 has changed the look and voice of the main character, but it doesn't matter with the new cattle prod melee weapon and promise to manipulate ice as well as electricity.
-They make Twisted Metal sound like the best thing to ever come out. It isn't. Still looks fun, but it's nothing game changing.
And that's all folks! Hope you enjoyed my in depth look at E3. Now I'll be returning to my regular reviews.
Friday, June 25, 2010
E3 2010: Sony
The last of the big 3, and the last conference I'll be covering, Sony had a lot to contend with. While most titles showcased for Kinect were crap, there were a couple that showed the possibilities of what you can do when your game reads your entire body. Throw in a couple really great games like Gears of War 3 and you get a solid, though looking a little weak, contender in Microsoft. Then Nintendo threw the gauntlet. It was like the really popular kid at school got on stage, put on an amazing show, and then as it was passing you before you took your turn bumped into you and made fun of your glasses. And then made you walk out to realize that several people had already left because they wanted to hang out with the popular one instead of listening to you. So a little deflated and humiliated before it even began, Sony stepped onto the stage.
I have been in love with my PS3 for quite a while now, enjoying every spectacular moment of HD gaming, browsing through PSN for new titles and demos, and just recently streaming downloaded movies and TV shows to it from my computer. I even have fun visiting Home from time to time. So even with the beating they had already taken, I was looking forward to what Sony would show off as its latest and greatest.
Unfortunately I'm still waiting.
For me, Sony's showcase was nothing less than a complete borefest. It really should've been called "Sony presents our latest commercials...and a couple demos, most of which you've already seen". Once again for E3 Sony just tooted their own horn about how great they were while providing very little evidence about why, especially in light of having gone after Microsoft and Nintendo's big showcases. It was like they were just saying "What black eye? Everyone likes me!"
Of course, one of the biggest things they emphasized was 3D. And why not? After all, they're the ones who are making the TVs and glasses that will set you back somewhere between 4-5 thousand dollars if you want more than one pair of glasses. So they gave everyone in the audience a pair of glasses, and brought out a demo for Killzone 3. Of course, not being there, it was impossible to tell exactly how good it looked as everything was tuned for stereoscopic 3D and as such looked slightly off. That being said, it still looked easily like the most graphically intense game to come out yet. Also...jetpack. Awesome. Can't wait to play it. It will also be fully 3D and Move compatible by launch next February.
More titles in 3D: Motorstorm Apocalypse, the Sly Collection, Gran Turismo 5, Crysis 2, Mortal Kombat, Shaun White Skateboarding, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, Tron: Evolution, and NBA 2K11. Basically, if you're going to shell out the thousands of dollars for 3D, you're going to have some hardcore games to go with it, which is nice.
Move+3D compatible games: The Fight, Eyepet, Tumble, and MLB The Show. They didn't mention that Killzone 3 will also feature this, which I can understand because they already shouted about it so much that they might start to seem desperate if that's all they had to offer. They say the "experience is unlike anything you've ever seen before," and it's the "closest thing you'll ever experience to being in the game itself. " It's just too bad that I have literally no desire to be in a Fight Night ripoff, with a scary monkey creature, or in a Jenga looking game. The Show is the only one I can see being a really fun experience in 3D with the Move. The others...let's just say I was getting very dubious about the Move before they even started talking about it.
Then they throw in a little blurb about how the Playstation 2 just reached it's 10th year. Now, Sony has a big hard-on for talking about the 10 year life cycle of their consoles. So one might think upon reaching end of said cycle they might want to retire it, or try to add some PS2 functionality back into the PS3 now that they're finally making some money off it. Nope. Turns out the PS2 was the second most played console last year, and they're just going to keep selling it and expanding into Latin America. Boooooo.
Ah, the Move. Sony's HD Wii. For a while they just talk about how great it is, and then it becomes readily apparent...they forgot who their real opponent was. They start talking about how it has buttons, which give you more control over a game. Or how it's so much more of a realistic experience when you actually have something in your hands. In short, they went after Kinect, but in the process they ignored the Wii. And, unfortunately for them, it's really hard to try and pit the Move and Kinect against each other, because they're each offering completely different experiences. They kept talking about how the Move is great for the hardcore gamer, but it's pretty damn obvious Kinect isn't even trying to go after the hardcore gamer. Yes, buttons give more precise control, but being able to read the movement of your entire body gives a level of functionality that Move will never be able to provide on its own. So while getting smacked down by Nintendo, they choose instead to pick on Microsoft who isn't even really competing in the same category (except casual games like Kinectimals vs. Eyepet).
That being said, they reveal that with the size of a blu-ray disc, they can include both the non-Move and Move versions of a game on the same disc, allowing developers to more freely experiment with the technology without reducing its buyer pool.
So then they bring out their first interesting Move game: Sorcery. Think Harry Potter with spells that can be combined. You flick the move to cast a bolt, you spin it around to make a tornado, you tip it back to your mouth to drink a potion. It showed off some really cool things, and the fidelity to his movements was perfectly 1:1. That being said, it was still a fairly generic looking fantasy game.
Tiger Woods golf. Yawn. The 1:1 movement supposedly means you can work on your actual golf swing, which is interesting. Still, nothing that hasn't been seen before. They also call it a "key franchise" for the PS3. This is one of those astounding things I can't understand about gamers. Every year, a company will crank out the exact same sports game you saw last year, but with one or two new features. They've been releasing Tiger Woods every year since 1999, and since then they've made a combined $500 million. And if it's been doing so well with such mediocre changes, the big change to Move will no doubt land it quite a bit of money as well.
Next up is a trailer for the upcoming Heroes on the Move, which brings together all of Sony's most famous platformers into one title: Sly Cooper and Bentley, Jak and Daxter, and Ratchet and Clank. Supposedly designed for the Move from the ground up, nothing more was said about it, and the gameplay looked exactly like the platformers they came from with no innovation.
They made a deal with Coke...to feature the Move on Coke products.........and then, Mr. Kevin Butler shows up right in the nick of time to give the conference a much needed injection of energy. If you don't know him, he's the guy on the Playstation commercials. If you haven't seen them, look them up, because they're often quite funny. Anyways, he comes out to much fanfare and delivers a hilarious speech about gamers that just needs to be seen and enjoyed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGZbJlpsohc
Then they bring out how much Move is going to hit your wallet. They only revealed 2 bundles, neither of which included a main controller with a sub, but they did announce that an individual Move main controller will be $49.99 and the sub controller $29.99. The bundles will be a PS Eye+controller+Sports Champions for $99.99, or a PS3 with the latter at $399.99. It was quite entertaining watching the conference because they announced the $50 price point for a controller first, and the people cheered. Then, you could tell everyone had forgotten there was a second controller, because with the $30 price point, people fell silent, and laughed. After that, you could tell people weren't happy. Why? Because if you wanted just two players with two controllers each and you didn't have the Eye already, this is going to run you $210. Meaning it will easily cost more than the Kinect in the long run if you want to play with other people, and you could just as easily get a brand new Wii for that much (and for $250 you could have 2 sets of controllers).
To try to soften the blow they then bring up a list of launch games for the Move: Socom 4, Time Crisis (yes that old arcade shooter is back), NBA 2K11, Ruse (nothing mentioned about this anywhere), Killzone 3, Singstar+Dance, Echochrome 2, and Eyepet. These will be along with current titles that will get an update to be Move compatible: Toy Story 3, Tiger Woods, Heavy Rain, and Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition. Also, a trailer recapping everything again and adding some more titles you care nothing about.
Anything in there strike your fancy? Cause it certainly doesn't mine. Easily the only one there I would even slightly be interested in is Heavy Rain, and I'm perfectly content with just the button presses as they are now. So with a ridiculous price point and lackluster lineup of games, I'm just going to have to pass it up when it comes out in September.
So that was a disappointment. But it couldn't get any worse...right?
Enter the PSP. With Nintendo presenting their masterpiece, the 3DS, it seemed like the only way Sony had any chance was to at least announce a new PSP, with the long awaited second analog stick. It wouldn't even matter if it had 3D since they're obviously already going to be behind on that, but even a little something, a graphics boost, greater connectivity to other PSPs, anything would've been welcome. Instead....we get their new marketing campaign with a loud mouthed black kid named Marcus Rivers. Do I even need to go on?
Meanwhile they keep declaring the PSP the best handheld for "true" gamers and such like that which certainly used to be somewhat true with franchises like Metal Gear Solid really shining with the superior graphics of the PSP...but is completely undercut by the 3DS. They at least make a quick show of a trailer for a new God of War game, as well as announcing titles like Tron, Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep, Toy Story 3, Ace Combat, The 3rd Birthday (some kind of weird horror game?), a UFC game, and Invisimals which uses the camera to provide some kind of augmented reality game. Several more were shown in another trailer along with some actual gameplay for the latter titles: Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker, Modnation Racers, Gravity Crash, a Dragonball Z fighter, Tennis, Madden 11, Patapon 3, Fat Princess, Tetris, Eyepet portable, Piyotama (a puzzle game like Tetris), Shin Megami Tensei Persona 3, Ys The Oath in Felghana, and Valkyria Chronicles 2.
It's certainly an impressive list of games, many of which easily have PS2 quality graphics, but there's nothing there to make anyone who doesn't own a PSP, like myself, get one.
Naturally, talking about linking the PSP to the PS3 they start talking about PSN, which is unsurprisingly the most connected network of the consoles (considering it's free). They also bring up the sometimes fun Home, to which they added a virtual simulation of their E3 booth, so that anyone who couldn't make it to the conference could see what it was like. They talked about all the cool stuff you could see and free items you could get, so naturally I took a look. Turns out it was exactly like this conference. A lot of self-hype, but in the end all you got was trailers.
Then a bit of a surprise, a demo! I never got Little Big Planet, because while I enjoy platformers, playing through levels or building my own just never looked that fun. Well, Little Big Planet 2 is rectifying that by adding the ability to make just about any game you please, including things like racers, RPGs, and even RTSs. Considering the amazing amount of things I never realized people were doing with the first game (like building a working calculator out of nothing but gears), I can't wait to get my hands on this game. Especially interesting was the trailer showcasing what some people had come up with in just 24 hours. They looked like full fledged games on their own.
So then...back to PSN. They unveil their new paid service, Playstation Plus, which will knock you back $50 a year and grab you exclusive demos, betas, select free PSN games, discounts in the PS Store, and various other bonuses. HOWEVER, the interesting point came when he said "You will own all of this content for the duration of your subscription." He didn't go into detail, but I can only assume that if you eventually decide you don't want to keep paying $50 a year, sorry, but all that other content you bought/received will no longer be yours. Whoopee.
Then they bring out EA for things specifically related to Sony not covered in their solo conference. First up, Medal of Honor. Already spoke a little about this game, how it was laughable they kept talking about authenticity, respect for soldiers, and it being the most realistic modern war shooter yet...while in multiplayer you keep getting points for firing your gun and can spend them to bring a tomahawk missile down on someone. Well, here they unveiled a new character you get to play as! Hooray! Right? Nope. Sorry. They show another fucking trailer showing badges of these different units, and then about 5 seconds of obviously cinematic (not gameplay) footage for each one. The new "character" hops on like a 4 wheel dirtbike kind of thing and gets, wait for it....10 seconds of actual gameplay footage plus the 5 seconds of cinematic. Also, ANOTHER FUCKING TRAILER for a multiplayer map based on an area in Afghanistan but which frankly looks like any other multiplayer map from Modern Warfare. The limited edition will contain a remastered HD copy of Medal of Honor: Frontlines, which is a nice little bonus.
Then, finally, they bring out something I care about with Dead Space 2. They immediately bring out the demo and start from where they left off at the EA conference, with Isaac coming face to face with a gigantic boss. In something that disturbs me, they bring back the same mechanic where Isaac is grabbed by something and has to shoot its weak point until the limb falls off, which happened all of 2 or 3 times when a gigantic arm shoots out of the wall in the first Dead Space, but has now already occurred twice in the demo. Here's really hoping they don't overuse it. Basically you end up escaping, only to meet the ship once again which once again blows open a window and depressurizes the area, only to have the monster fly past you...and take you with it into open space where you have to shoot exploding canisters at it. Epic. Unfortunately it only lasted all of about 2 minutes. However, the limited edition, only for PS3, packs in the Wii port Dead Space: Extraction for Move.
And then...hoo boy. And then, they bring out the greatest surprise of the entire conference. He starts talking about being excited to work with another well known developer who is known for making great games, blah blah blah all stuff we've heard...and then the lights go dark...and none other than GlaDos' voice comes over the speakers saying "Standby for an important announcement from the Aperture Science Emergency Surprise System. Deploying surprise in 3...2...1..." and then none other than Gabe Newell, head of Valve, comes on stage. Gabe Newell has been rather outspoken in his hate of the PS3. It was a miracle that the Orange Box was released on it, and it has since received none of the major updates. So for him to walk out already was a surprise in itself. So he comes out and starts talking about how he's grateful to Sony for not smacking him around, and how he's nervous because he was introduced to Kevin Butler as the VP of sharpening things, and it's all very funny. Then he says something amazing. First, Portal 2 will be on the PS3. Second, it will include Steam and Steamcloud software, meaning automatic updates, patches, and free DLC from Valve. So with that, he goes on to claim that the PS3 version of Portal 2 will be the best version on any console. ROCK. ON. And then, the first reveal of Portal 2 gameplay. It's only a trailer, but I don't even care because it looks amazingly pretty and really really really fun.
New teaser trailer for Final Fantasy XIV. Reveals absolutely nothing new, including literally 0 seconds of gameplay. Booo.
Mafia 2 is going to have loads of extras only for PS3. Nobody cares.
Assassin's Creed Brotherhood will have several missions exclusive to PS3, and the multiplayer beta will only be available on PSN. Sweet. They also show off another fucking trailer for the multiplayer, which shows no gameplay but looks awesome.
Then ANOTHER fucking trailer showcasing their big titles they didn't have time to show but still want to include. Despite saying that, they still included games they did actually show like Killzone 3 and Medal of Honor. Here are the ones that they didn't talk about: Metal Gear Rising, DC Universe online, True Crime, Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Pixeljunk Shooter 2, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, and Dead Nation. There were also small flashes of Lego Harry Potter and Spiderman: Shattered Dimensions.
Gameplay footage of Gran Turismo 5. I'm not a racing games fan, but I can still appreciate just how damn pretty that game looks. It's quite incredible. And they finally announce that it's coming this November.
Then a trailer for Infamous 2, featuring the new look of our protagonist...and it's completely different. Different look, different voice, I honestly don't understand why they didn't just make him a new character. That being said, the gameplay looks spectacular, with the addition of a new cattle prod-like melee weapon to make fights all the more interesting. Not only that, but they teased that you'll be able to control ice this time around as well. Fun fun.
With very little pretext they then literally rolled out the next title. After a short little film, the easily recognizable ice cream truck of Sweet Tooth rolls out on stage with an actor inside dressed like Sweet Tooth and wielding a giant sword. For those who don't know, Twisted Metal was a very fun arcade style vehicular battle game featuring the clown Sweet Tooth. As they say, Twisted Metal is the longest running franchise for the Playstation. Now, I understand that some people love Twisted Metal, I enjoyed it myself way back in the day, but when the next installment of a 15 year old franchise that won't be released for another year or so is your featured end-of-showcase...you might want to take a good hard look at what you're putting out. Personally, I would've ended on Gabe Newell coming out and saying "Yeah...sorry about all that Sony bashing stuff. As apology we're going to make the PS3 version of Portal 2 the best on any console." That was by far the biggest news of the Sony conference if not of E3, and they treated Twisted Metal like it was WAY more important than anything anyone had put out.
Sorry, Sony. It's not.
They show off some gameplay modes and vehicular mayhem, and it's obvious the game is still in the early stages of development, and it certainly does look fun, but it's nothing game changing. It's the same old Twisted Metal we've always known, but with more destruction. That will be enough to satisfy many, but in a conference low on original ideas or announcements, it just wasn't a good place to end.
Overall, Sony's conference was one long, boring disappointment with a couple standouts, but nothing to make anyone who owns or is looking to own a PS3 (or Move) excited about. Best of luck Sony, you're going to need it.
I have been in love with my PS3 for quite a while now, enjoying every spectacular moment of HD gaming, browsing through PSN for new titles and demos, and just recently streaming downloaded movies and TV shows to it from my computer. I even have fun visiting Home from time to time. So even with the beating they had already taken, I was looking forward to what Sony would show off as its latest and greatest.
Unfortunately I'm still waiting.
For me, Sony's showcase was nothing less than a complete borefest. It really should've been called "Sony presents our latest commercials...and a couple demos, most of which you've already seen". Once again for E3 Sony just tooted their own horn about how great they were while providing very little evidence about why, especially in light of having gone after Microsoft and Nintendo's big showcases. It was like they were just saying "What black eye? Everyone likes me!"
Of course, one of the biggest things they emphasized was 3D. And why not? After all, they're the ones who are making the TVs and glasses that will set you back somewhere between 4-5 thousand dollars if you want more than one pair of glasses. So they gave everyone in the audience a pair of glasses, and brought out a demo for Killzone 3. Of course, not being there, it was impossible to tell exactly how good it looked as everything was tuned for stereoscopic 3D and as such looked slightly off. That being said, it still looked easily like the most graphically intense game to come out yet. Also...jetpack. Awesome. Can't wait to play it. It will also be fully 3D and Move compatible by launch next February.
More titles in 3D: Motorstorm Apocalypse, the Sly Collection, Gran Turismo 5, Crysis 2, Mortal Kombat, Shaun White Skateboarding, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, Tron: Evolution, and NBA 2K11. Basically, if you're going to shell out the thousands of dollars for 3D, you're going to have some hardcore games to go with it, which is nice.
Move+3D compatible games: The Fight, Eyepet, Tumble, and MLB The Show. They didn't mention that Killzone 3 will also feature this, which I can understand because they already shouted about it so much that they might start to seem desperate if that's all they had to offer. They say the "experience is unlike anything you've ever seen before," and it's the "closest thing you'll ever experience to being in the game itself. " It's just too bad that I have literally no desire to be in a Fight Night ripoff, with a scary monkey creature, or in a Jenga looking game. The Show is the only one I can see being a really fun experience in 3D with the Move. The others...let's just say I was getting very dubious about the Move before they even started talking about it.
Then they throw in a little blurb about how the Playstation 2 just reached it's 10th year. Now, Sony has a big hard-on for talking about the 10 year life cycle of their consoles. So one might think upon reaching end of said cycle they might want to retire it, or try to add some PS2 functionality back into the PS3 now that they're finally making some money off it. Nope. Turns out the PS2 was the second most played console last year, and they're just going to keep selling it and expanding into Latin America. Boooooo.
Ah, the Move. Sony's HD Wii. For a while they just talk about how great it is, and then it becomes readily apparent...they forgot who their real opponent was. They start talking about how it has buttons, which give you more control over a game. Or how it's so much more of a realistic experience when you actually have something in your hands. In short, they went after Kinect, but in the process they ignored the Wii. And, unfortunately for them, it's really hard to try and pit the Move and Kinect against each other, because they're each offering completely different experiences. They kept talking about how the Move is great for the hardcore gamer, but it's pretty damn obvious Kinect isn't even trying to go after the hardcore gamer. Yes, buttons give more precise control, but being able to read the movement of your entire body gives a level of functionality that Move will never be able to provide on its own. So while getting smacked down by Nintendo, they choose instead to pick on Microsoft who isn't even really competing in the same category (except casual games like Kinectimals vs. Eyepet).
That being said, they reveal that with the size of a blu-ray disc, they can include both the non-Move and Move versions of a game on the same disc, allowing developers to more freely experiment with the technology without reducing its buyer pool.
So then they bring out their first interesting Move game: Sorcery. Think Harry Potter with spells that can be combined. You flick the move to cast a bolt, you spin it around to make a tornado, you tip it back to your mouth to drink a potion. It showed off some really cool things, and the fidelity to his movements was perfectly 1:1. That being said, it was still a fairly generic looking fantasy game.
Tiger Woods golf. Yawn. The 1:1 movement supposedly means you can work on your actual golf swing, which is interesting. Still, nothing that hasn't been seen before. They also call it a "key franchise" for the PS3. This is one of those astounding things I can't understand about gamers. Every year, a company will crank out the exact same sports game you saw last year, but with one or two new features. They've been releasing Tiger Woods every year since 1999, and since then they've made a combined $500 million. And if it's been doing so well with such mediocre changes, the big change to Move will no doubt land it quite a bit of money as well.
Next up is a trailer for the upcoming Heroes on the Move, which brings together all of Sony's most famous platformers into one title: Sly Cooper and Bentley, Jak and Daxter, and Ratchet and Clank. Supposedly designed for the Move from the ground up, nothing more was said about it, and the gameplay looked exactly like the platformers they came from with no innovation.
They made a deal with Coke...to feature the Move on Coke products.........and then, Mr. Kevin Butler shows up right in the nick of time to give the conference a much needed injection of energy. If you don't know him, he's the guy on the Playstation commercials. If you haven't seen them, look them up, because they're often quite funny. Anyways, he comes out to much fanfare and delivers a hilarious speech about gamers that just needs to be seen and enjoyed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGZbJlpsohc
Then they bring out how much Move is going to hit your wallet. They only revealed 2 bundles, neither of which included a main controller with a sub, but they did announce that an individual Move main controller will be $49.99 and the sub controller $29.99. The bundles will be a PS Eye+controller+Sports Champions for $99.99, or a PS3 with the latter at $399.99. It was quite entertaining watching the conference because they announced the $50 price point for a controller first, and the people cheered. Then, you could tell everyone had forgotten there was a second controller, because with the $30 price point, people fell silent, and laughed. After that, you could tell people weren't happy. Why? Because if you wanted just two players with two controllers each and you didn't have the Eye already, this is going to run you $210. Meaning it will easily cost more than the Kinect in the long run if you want to play with other people, and you could just as easily get a brand new Wii for that much (and for $250 you could have 2 sets of controllers).
To try to soften the blow they then bring up a list of launch games for the Move: Socom 4, Time Crisis (yes that old arcade shooter is back), NBA 2K11, Ruse (nothing mentioned about this anywhere), Killzone 3, Singstar+Dance, Echochrome 2, and Eyepet. These will be along with current titles that will get an update to be Move compatible: Toy Story 3, Tiger Woods, Heavy Rain, and Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition. Also, a trailer recapping everything again and adding some more titles you care nothing about.
Anything in there strike your fancy? Cause it certainly doesn't mine. Easily the only one there I would even slightly be interested in is Heavy Rain, and I'm perfectly content with just the button presses as they are now. So with a ridiculous price point and lackluster lineup of games, I'm just going to have to pass it up when it comes out in September.
So that was a disappointment. But it couldn't get any worse...right?
Enter the PSP. With Nintendo presenting their masterpiece, the 3DS, it seemed like the only way Sony had any chance was to at least announce a new PSP, with the long awaited second analog stick. It wouldn't even matter if it had 3D since they're obviously already going to be behind on that, but even a little something, a graphics boost, greater connectivity to other PSPs, anything would've been welcome. Instead....we get their new marketing campaign with a loud mouthed black kid named Marcus Rivers. Do I even need to go on?
Meanwhile they keep declaring the PSP the best handheld for "true" gamers and such like that which certainly used to be somewhat true with franchises like Metal Gear Solid really shining with the superior graphics of the PSP...but is completely undercut by the 3DS. They at least make a quick show of a trailer for a new God of War game, as well as announcing titles like Tron, Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep, Toy Story 3, Ace Combat, The 3rd Birthday (some kind of weird horror game?), a UFC game, and Invisimals which uses the camera to provide some kind of augmented reality game. Several more were shown in another trailer along with some actual gameplay for the latter titles: Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker, Modnation Racers, Gravity Crash, a Dragonball Z fighter, Tennis, Madden 11, Patapon 3, Fat Princess, Tetris, Eyepet portable, Piyotama (a puzzle game like Tetris), Shin Megami Tensei Persona 3, Ys The Oath in Felghana, and Valkyria Chronicles 2.
It's certainly an impressive list of games, many of which easily have PS2 quality graphics, but there's nothing there to make anyone who doesn't own a PSP, like myself, get one.
Naturally, talking about linking the PSP to the PS3 they start talking about PSN, which is unsurprisingly the most connected network of the consoles (considering it's free). They also bring up the sometimes fun Home, to which they added a virtual simulation of their E3 booth, so that anyone who couldn't make it to the conference could see what it was like. They talked about all the cool stuff you could see and free items you could get, so naturally I took a look. Turns out it was exactly like this conference. A lot of self-hype, but in the end all you got was trailers.
Then a bit of a surprise, a demo! I never got Little Big Planet, because while I enjoy platformers, playing through levels or building my own just never looked that fun. Well, Little Big Planet 2 is rectifying that by adding the ability to make just about any game you please, including things like racers, RPGs, and even RTSs. Considering the amazing amount of things I never realized people were doing with the first game (like building a working calculator out of nothing but gears), I can't wait to get my hands on this game. Especially interesting was the trailer showcasing what some people had come up with in just 24 hours. They looked like full fledged games on their own.
So then...back to PSN. They unveil their new paid service, Playstation Plus, which will knock you back $50 a year and grab you exclusive demos, betas, select free PSN games, discounts in the PS Store, and various other bonuses. HOWEVER, the interesting point came when he said "You will own all of this content for the duration of your subscription." He didn't go into detail, but I can only assume that if you eventually decide you don't want to keep paying $50 a year, sorry, but all that other content you bought/received will no longer be yours. Whoopee.
Then they bring out EA for things specifically related to Sony not covered in their solo conference. First up, Medal of Honor. Already spoke a little about this game, how it was laughable they kept talking about authenticity, respect for soldiers, and it being the most realistic modern war shooter yet...while in multiplayer you keep getting points for firing your gun and can spend them to bring a tomahawk missile down on someone. Well, here they unveiled a new character you get to play as! Hooray! Right? Nope. Sorry. They show another fucking trailer showing badges of these different units, and then about 5 seconds of obviously cinematic (not gameplay) footage for each one. The new "character" hops on like a 4 wheel dirtbike kind of thing and gets, wait for it....10 seconds of actual gameplay footage plus the 5 seconds of cinematic. Also, ANOTHER FUCKING TRAILER for a multiplayer map based on an area in Afghanistan but which frankly looks like any other multiplayer map from Modern Warfare. The limited edition will contain a remastered HD copy of Medal of Honor: Frontlines, which is a nice little bonus.
Then, finally, they bring out something I care about with Dead Space 2. They immediately bring out the demo and start from where they left off at the EA conference, with Isaac coming face to face with a gigantic boss. In something that disturbs me, they bring back the same mechanic where Isaac is grabbed by something and has to shoot its weak point until the limb falls off, which happened all of 2 or 3 times when a gigantic arm shoots out of the wall in the first Dead Space, but has now already occurred twice in the demo. Here's really hoping they don't overuse it. Basically you end up escaping, only to meet the ship once again which once again blows open a window and depressurizes the area, only to have the monster fly past you...and take you with it into open space where you have to shoot exploding canisters at it. Epic. Unfortunately it only lasted all of about 2 minutes. However, the limited edition, only for PS3, packs in the Wii port Dead Space: Extraction for Move.
And then...hoo boy. And then, they bring out the greatest surprise of the entire conference. He starts talking about being excited to work with another well known developer who is known for making great games, blah blah blah all stuff we've heard...and then the lights go dark...and none other than GlaDos' voice comes over the speakers saying "Standby for an important announcement from the Aperture Science Emergency Surprise System. Deploying surprise in 3...2...1..." and then none other than Gabe Newell, head of Valve, comes on stage. Gabe Newell has been rather outspoken in his hate of the PS3. It was a miracle that the Orange Box was released on it, and it has since received none of the major updates. So for him to walk out already was a surprise in itself. So he comes out and starts talking about how he's grateful to Sony for not smacking him around, and how he's nervous because he was introduced to Kevin Butler as the VP of sharpening things, and it's all very funny. Then he says something amazing. First, Portal 2 will be on the PS3. Second, it will include Steam and Steamcloud software, meaning automatic updates, patches, and free DLC from Valve. So with that, he goes on to claim that the PS3 version of Portal 2 will be the best version on any console. ROCK. ON. And then, the first reveal of Portal 2 gameplay. It's only a trailer, but I don't even care because it looks amazingly pretty and really really really fun.
New teaser trailer for Final Fantasy XIV. Reveals absolutely nothing new, including literally 0 seconds of gameplay. Booo.
Mafia 2 is going to have loads of extras only for PS3. Nobody cares.
Assassin's Creed Brotherhood will have several missions exclusive to PS3, and the multiplayer beta will only be available on PSN. Sweet. They also show off another fucking trailer for the multiplayer, which shows no gameplay but looks awesome.
Then ANOTHER fucking trailer showcasing their big titles they didn't have time to show but still want to include. Despite saying that, they still included games they did actually show like Killzone 3 and Medal of Honor. Here are the ones that they didn't talk about: Metal Gear Rising, DC Universe online, True Crime, Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Pixeljunk Shooter 2, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, and Dead Nation. There were also small flashes of Lego Harry Potter and Spiderman: Shattered Dimensions.
Gameplay footage of Gran Turismo 5. I'm not a racing games fan, but I can still appreciate just how damn pretty that game looks. It's quite incredible. And they finally announce that it's coming this November.
Then a trailer for Infamous 2, featuring the new look of our protagonist...and it's completely different. Different look, different voice, I honestly don't understand why they didn't just make him a new character. That being said, the gameplay looks spectacular, with the addition of a new cattle prod-like melee weapon to make fights all the more interesting. Not only that, but they teased that you'll be able to control ice this time around as well. Fun fun.
With very little pretext they then literally rolled out the next title. After a short little film, the easily recognizable ice cream truck of Sweet Tooth rolls out on stage with an actor inside dressed like Sweet Tooth and wielding a giant sword. For those who don't know, Twisted Metal was a very fun arcade style vehicular battle game featuring the clown Sweet Tooth. As they say, Twisted Metal is the longest running franchise for the Playstation. Now, I understand that some people love Twisted Metal, I enjoyed it myself way back in the day, but when the next installment of a 15 year old franchise that won't be released for another year or so is your featured end-of-showcase...you might want to take a good hard look at what you're putting out. Personally, I would've ended on Gabe Newell coming out and saying "Yeah...sorry about all that Sony bashing stuff. As apology we're going to make the PS3 version of Portal 2 the best on any console." That was by far the biggest news of the Sony conference if not of E3, and they treated Twisted Metal like it was WAY more important than anything anyone had put out.
Sorry, Sony. It's not.
They show off some gameplay modes and vehicular mayhem, and it's obvious the game is still in the early stages of development, and it certainly does look fun, but it's nothing game changing. It's the same old Twisted Metal we've always known, but with more destruction. That will be enough to satisfy many, but in a conference low on original ideas or announcements, it just wasn't a good place to end.
Overall, Sony's conference was one long, boring disappointment with a couple standouts, but nothing to make anyone who owns or is looking to own a PS3 (or Move) excited about. Best of luck Sony, you're going to need it.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Sunday, June 20, 2010
E3 2010: Ubisoft
Ubisoft started out all the way back in 1986, as a small French game developer producing mostly unknown titles. Today, they have managed to become one of the top independent developers out there, with such big name franchises from back in the day like Rayman and Myst, as well as more current blockbuster titles like Farcry, the Tom Clancy games (Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon), and Assassin's Creed.
And yet, they chose to start their show with a very impressive arcade shooter using Kinect that combined visuals and music unknown since Rez. They just send the guy out on stage, and with his back turned to us and wearing white gloves he leads us through a demo of this very trippy game. It ends, reveals itself as Child of Eden, and the creator of Rez and Lumines playing it. Looks like the perfect game to play on an acid trip. Or ecstasy.
Then we get to our host for the show, none other than Joel McHale from Community and The Soup. Apparently he hosted last year as well, so he should at least bring some added fun to the show, right? While McHale does have many great quips throughout the show, he unfortunately looked woefully unprepared for most of it, stumbling his way through the teleprompter and looking more awkward than anything. Like a fan of gaming who knew nothing about the behind the scenes of gaming being thrust on stage and told to be funny. Oh well.
They quickly recover from his awkward intro with an awesome looking trailer for Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, followed by an even more awesome demo. One would think that in the year that has passed since AC2, they could'nt have done much with development. The demo quickly proves that thought completely wrong. While the graphics still look a little shaky, all of a sudden Ezio is dodging cannonballs, riding horseback through the crumbling street, shooting cannons back at his attackers, and stabbing, shooting, and throwing axes at enemies in what looks like a much needed improvement to combat. In short, it looks nothing less than amazing.
Now, I've never understood the appeal of skateboarding games, but anyone who does and enjoy them a lot will probably enjoy Shaun White Skateboarding, which looks like it's bringing something new to the genre with transforming environments and the ability to change the direction of rails you're on. It at least is trying to be different, which I applaud, but otherwise it looks like any other last generation Tony Hawk game.
Then poor Joel McHale gets completely surprised, confused and gets even more awkward when a bunch of people start playing laser tag in the audience. And that's the game. Portable laser tag. Basically you run it on a PC or console, which will then keep track of hits. You can also scan in ammo packs to the gun as well as checkpoints, and you can set up targets to fire at. Looks like a lot of fun, but of course, it's laser tag, so how could it not be?
Ubisoft's focus on getting gamers up off the couch and feeling more healthy becomes apparent as they bring out the video game equivalent of something known as biofeedback. This is a system where a sensor tracks something like blood pressure or breathing, and then gives you something to focus on to try and optimize it. If you've seen the Star Wars force trainer, it's the same concept. But this one focuses solely on reducing stress. It's also highly portable, allowing you to plug it into any computer and, as the designer said, "level up" anywhere anytime.
More sports titles for Kinect. These ones at least don't look like blatant Wii ripoffs. They also look like they have no value whatsoever.
Then comes the rather incredible Your Shape: Fitness Evolved. They showed this off during the Microsoft conference, and didn't really show anything new, but even so the tech they're showing off looks to make full use of Kinect. At all times you see a kind of infrared version of the girl demoing it that looks to follow her movement almost 1:1. At first she was doing simple exercises with a trainer, and if she wasn't doing them right, it would give her immediate feedback by, for example, showing her a line on her body where she should be lifting her knees to. She also did some kickboxing by punching blocks that appeared in spaces next to her, and did some zen yoga where Kinect tracked her skeleton to make sure she was doing it right. I'm not that into fitness, but I still see the very high appeal of this. Be sure that when this comes out, all those WiiFit owners will be kicking themselves.
Raving Rabbids in Time. Nuff said.
Almost every gaming pro coming into E3 was raving about Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. This was my first look at it, and I can see why. Skillfully combining stealth, firefights, squad-based planning, and futuristic tech, Ghost Recon looks to be a wonderful experience for anyone who is a fan of the series or of tactical shooters in general.
Next up is Driver: San Francisco, which returns to the roots of the series, namely 70s style car chases. Yet it also introduces quite a change to the system known as "Shift" in which you can literally shift between cars because the main character is in a coma....screw the reason. The point is it's a cool twist and adds a whole new element to racing, especially since it will be available in multiplayer, and can encompass the entire city when upgraded, which looks HUGE.
Finally the CEO of Ubisoft shows up and reveals some very interesting titles. It all starts off with a trailer for Project Dust, which looks to be a beautifully artistic title, possibly some kind of RTS. Keep an eye on this one. Unfortunately our dear French CEO's accent is quite thick and his english quite poor, so it's hard to tell exactly what he's showing off, but from what I could gather it appears to be a set of tools for developers to release new content quite easily online. The firs title to be created from it? A new Rayman, which looks SPECTACULAR. The really spectacular thing about it, however, was that only 5 people worked on it. It looked more polished and put together than many games that have had thousands of people and thousands upon thousands of dollars thrown at them.
To further support developers, he declared a new platform from maniaplanet, which I had never heard of but which apparently has the largest PC racing community in the world, which will allow anyone to build their own FPS, racer, or RPG using simple tools. Essentially, it looks to be a less Sackboy influenced Little Big Planet 2 for the PC. While no actual content was shown, I certainly like the idea, so we'll just have to wait and see where it goes.
And for the big finale....a Michael Jackson dancing game, showcased only by a bunch of dancers performing to "Beat It". Take from that what you will.
Overall Ubisoft's conference was kind of a mixed bag, with the awkward comedy stylings of Joel McHale, some odd games, and some awesome games. One thing's for sure though: there's quite a bit of creativity coming from Ubisoft, and I have no doubt that if there's anyone who can figure out how to best use Kinect, it'll be them.
Then comes the rather incredible Your Shape: Fitness Evolved. They showed this off during the Microsoft conference, and didn't really show anything new, but even so the tech they're showing off looks to make full use of Kinect. At all times you see a kind of infrared version of the girl demoing it that looks to follow her movement almost 1:1. At first she was doing simple exercises with a trainer, and if she wasn't doing them right, it would give her immediate feedback by, for example, showing her a line on her body where she should be lifting her knees to. She also did some kickboxing by punching blocks that appeared in spaces next to her, and did some zen yoga where Kinect tracked her skeleton to make sure she was doing it right. I'm not that into fitness, but I still see the very high appeal of this. Be sure that when this comes out, all those WiiFit owners will be kicking themselves.
Raving Rabbids in Time. Nuff said.
Almost every gaming pro coming into E3 was raving about Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. This was my first look at it, and I can see why. Skillfully combining stealth, firefights, squad-based planning, and futuristic tech, Ghost Recon looks to be a wonderful experience for anyone who is a fan of the series or of tactical shooters in general.
Next up is Driver: San Francisco, which returns to the roots of the series, namely 70s style car chases. Yet it also introduces quite a change to the system known as "Shift" in which you can literally shift between cars because the main character is in a coma....screw the reason. The point is it's a cool twist and adds a whole new element to racing, especially since it will be available in multiplayer, and can encompass the entire city when upgraded, which looks HUGE.
Finally the CEO of Ubisoft shows up and reveals some very interesting titles. It all starts off with a trailer for Project Dust, which looks to be a beautifully artistic title, possibly some kind of RTS. Keep an eye on this one. Unfortunately our dear French CEO's accent is quite thick and his english quite poor, so it's hard to tell exactly what he's showing off, but from what I could gather it appears to be a set of tools for developers to release new content quite easily online. The firs title to be created from it? A new Rayman, which looks SPECTACULAR. The really spectacular thing about it, however, was that only 5 people worked on it. It looked more polished and put together than many games that have had thousands of people and thousands upon thousands of dollars thrown at them.
To further support developers, he declared a new platform from maniaplanet, which I had never heard of but which apparently has the largest PC racing community in the world, which will allow anyone to build their own FPS, racer, or RPG using simple tools. Essentially, it looks to be a less Sackboy influenced Little Big Planet 2 for the PC. While no actual content was shown, I certainly like the idea, so we'll just have to wait and see where it goes.
And for the big finale....a Michael Jackson dancing game, showcased only by a bunch of dancers performing to "Beat It". Take from that what you will.
Overall Ubisoft's conference was kind of a mixed bag, with the awkward comedy stylings of Joel McHale, some odd games, and some awesome games. One thing's for sure though: there's quite a bit of creativity coming from Ubisoft, and I have no doubt that if there's anyone who can figure out how to best use Kinect, it'll be them.
Friday, June 18, 2010
E3 2010: EA
EA has long been derided as the giant behemoth of the industry, choking out all competition and consuming smaller more independent gaming developers for breakfast. To override this, EA has started a program known as EA Partners, in which various studios can come to EA and have EA do all the marketing while they get to keep their own ideas and licensing intact. It's produced some great titles so far, along with EA themselves stepping up their game.
So to start the conference they brought out a demo of the new Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. While the gameplay was wholly unimpressive, pitting one player as a cop crashing into the other player as a racer until they wrecked, basically. Despite that, the graphics were PRETTY. I won't be getting it, but I will be getting...
DEAD SPACE 2. OH GOD. The first game I reviewed on this blog was Dead Space, which I gave a well deserved 10/10. I've been keeping up with the hype for the sequel, and was a bit nervous about some of it, but all of that was put to rest when they brought out the demo. Isaac has been relocated to the giant space city known as The Sprawl, which boasts wide open areas instead of the cramped hallways we're used to. Some might think that would take away from the tension. To those people, the developers throw a giant friggin Tripod who keeps trying to stab you to death with it's tongue. Defeat that? A HORDE OF DEMON BABIES TRYING TO CLAW YOUR FACE OFF. Throw in a couple classic necromorphs who are then decimated by the new javelin gun that pins them to the wall, stomping on some corpses, a BEAUTIFUL view of the Sprawl, and a kickass sequence of a ship blowing open the glass window, decompressing the area, forcing you to rip open a panel and drop down a hole, only to come face to face with a GIANT MASS OF DEATH...and there's no game I'm more excited for.
Now, I've never played any of the Medal of Honor titles, so I didn't really care when they first announced they were going to show it. I was intrigued, however, when they brought out 24 players to do a live demo on stage. Then...I just laughed. And kept laughing. They kept talking about this game as the "most authentic" war experience and that they wanted to stay true to the soldiers and what they're currently facing in Afghanistan. Fine by me. So the demo starts, and they show that almost everything you do allows you to rack up points, which flash on the screen when you get them. These points allow you to, say, drop a Tomahawk missile on someone. It was one of the most unauthentic things I've ever seen. It looked like a typical hyped up war video game. It looked like Call of Duty. I honestly saw no difference.
After that, a bunch of titles that really didn't look that entertaining for me: a new MMA franchise, EA Sports Active 2, and Madden 11.
While all of these were quite uninteresting presentations, it could've been just to lower our defenses for the incredible looking Crysis 2. The demo was hard hitting and quite graphically impressive, though interestingly enough it looked quite tame in comparison to...
Bulletstorm. For those who haven't heard about this game, get educated. Cliff, from Gears of War, was also involved in this completely over the top action shooter where you get points for killing enemies in more and more ridiculously creative and destructive ways, each of which has an amusing name. Not only are you provided with appropriately devastating weapons but the environment itself provides some excellent opportunities with man-eating plants and the like. On top of all this, the graphics easily stood up to Crysis 2. I hadn't heard much about Bulletstorm before this, but I'll be sure to keep an eye on it now as it approaches launch.
Finally, they ended with a very pretty trailer for the new Star Wars MMO, The Old Republic. While no gameplay was shown, the trailer itself was enough to get people riled up and excited. Thankfully, more gameplay was shown later on G4 with a hands on demo, and it looks to live up to the hype.
So overall, EA has some really cool games coming out and they did a great job of showcasing them. Now we just have to wait until next year to get our hands on most of them.
While all of these were quite uninteresting presentations, it could've been just to lower our defenses for the incredible looking Crysis 2. The demo was hard hitting and quite graphically impressive, though interestingly enough it looked quite tame in comparison to...
Bulletstorm. For those who haven't heard about this game, get educated. Cliff, from Gears of War, was also involved in this completely over the top action shooter where you get points for killing enemies in more and more ridiculously creative and destructive ways, each of which has an amusing name. Not only are you provided with appropriately devastating weapons but the environment itself provides some excellent opportunities with man-eating plants and the like. On top of all this, the graphics easily stood up to Crysis 2. I hadn't heard much about Bulletstorm before this, but I'll be sure to keep an eye on it now as it approaches launch.
Finally, they ended with a very pretty trailer for the new Star Wars MMO, The Old Republic. While no gameplay was shown, the trailer itself was enough to get people riled up and excited. Thankfully, more gameplay was shown later on G4 with a hands on demo, and it looks to live up to the hype.
So overall, EA has some really cool games coming out and they did a great job of showcasing them. Now we just have to wait until next year to get our hands on most of them.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
E3 2010: Microsoft
I have been watching WAY too much E3 coverage lately, so I wanted to get my own thoughts down on each conference before I completely forget everything due to information overload. As E3 progresses, I shall continue to update. But starting from the beginning we have...
Microsoft
Technically, I should be an Xbox fanboy. I'm a college age white male who likes shooters and action-packed games. By all accounts I should own an Xbox 360. But I don't, mostly because of the sticking point of their faulty systems. I don't want to have to recycle a console at least once every year because it wasn't built right. So, no Xbox...yet.
Microsoft started off the show with Call of Duty: Black Ops. I've only ever played the first Modern Warfare, which I loved, and as such I can't really say what looks improved from previous outings. However, first impression is that the graphics look great, raining fire from above in an attack helicopter while screaming villagers run away from you looks appropriately intense, and otherwise it looks like any other Call of Duty title.
Next up, Kojima's first Metal Gear game for Xbox, Metal Gear Rising, in which you literally take up the sword of Raiden and cut...shit...up. If you ever wanted Kill Bill the video game, here it is. Only a trailer was shown, but boy what a trailer. You hack and slash your way through enemies, literally severing each one in half with each swipe. You can also enter a kind of bullet time mode in which you can line up your slices to dissect individual parts of enemies. It looks ridiculous, but also ridiculously fun.
Then they brought out Cliff and showed off the 4 person co-op of Gears of War 3. I played the first one, wasn't too impressed, but still had fun with it. This demo left my jaw firmly on the floor. The action was very intense, with all sorts of new enemies popping up, some who would morph into alien versions of tentacle rape if you left them alone for too long. It all ended with them having to run back to their base while the giant laser in the sky came down around them trying to hit a giant baddie who bullets bounced off of. They made it inside, it hit...and did nothing. So already the gameplay looks top-notch, but on top of that the visuals were stunning. This was easily one the highlight of the conference.
Trailer for Fable 3. Nothing new, looks kinda blah to me.
Then they step out and reveal a partnership with Crytek, makers of Crysis, for "Codename: Kingdoms" which has a very vague live action trailer. Just have to wait and see on this one.
Rounding out the big exclusive names, they showed off gameplay footage of Halo: Reach, which is said to be the very last Halo game. Yeah right. I remember when they said that about Halo 3. 3 games later and I doubt their cash cow is going to stop anytime soon. In any case, the graphics look better, but honestly I wasn't impressed. I played Halo 3, and it looks like the same exact game just a little prettier. Oh, and there's space combat. No doubt true Halo fans will rush out and make this the highest selling game ever though, despite any flaws.
Then they rolled out a looot of stuff about Kinect, formely known as Project Natal.
Some highlights:
-Sign in is as easy as waving at your Xbox
-Voice recognition realizes the Star Trek fantasy of saying "Computer...do this" but this time it's things like "Xbox...Netflix" to automatically sign in to Netflix or "Xbox...replay" to replay the last roughly 30 seconds
-Easy video chat with anyone on Xbox Live AND Windows Messenger
-Third party support for Kinect, especially the fitness game from Ubisoft, looks great (including a lightsaber game that looks based off the Clone Wars animated series) and most could only be achieved on Kinect
-ESPN thousands of live games from every sport except...no mention of NFL
Some disappointments
-Wii Sports...I mean...Kinect Sports
-Mario Kart...I mean...Joyride
-every other launch game from Microsoft copying something from Wii
-really bad acting and EXTREMELY obvious pre-choreographed showcases, leaving doubts as to the true authenticity of some of what they were showing
To wrap up, Kinect looks to be a really cool way of interacting with media, though third parties seem to have a much better grasp of that then Microsoft themselves. The ability to use voice commands looks like the feature to beat for me, along with its ability to sense your entire body, opening up possibilities for learning body-intensive things like fitness routines, martial arts, and even how to dance (all of which were showcased). But with such crappy launch titles that so blatantly rip off the Wii (especially when you're playing with avatars that are basically Miis) I would recommend delaying purchase on this until they spice it up with some good offerings.
Then to top off the show they unveiled the PS3. Technically it's their revamped Xbox 360 but...come on. It's got a black, sleek design. It's finally got built in Wi-Fi. The hard drive is 250gb. It's a lot quieter. Only thing is, it doesn't have blu-ray. Also, no mention of their overheating problems, which, if you're trying to convert people to buy your new peripheral along with a newly designed system needs to be addressed. Personally...I'll wait.
Overall, a good conference with lots of interesting things to show, but nothing too exciting either. Kinect still has a long way to go before it's going to be worth buying (for an as yet undisclosed price though most people are putting it at $150).
Mirror's Edge
Welcome to Parkour 101. In this class you may expect to learn about ridiculous jumps, adrenaline inducing speed, advanced melee combat, and death. Lots and lots about death.
Mirror's Edge takes the simple premise of sticking you in the shoes of a parkour runner in a near future cityscape and amps it up to make you feel like a true badass. You play as Faith, one of an elite group of agents known as "Runners" who roam the city's rooftops relaying data and important packets to clients while escaping the eyes of the authoritarian police. One day, Faith gets a message over the coms that her sister, a policewoman ironically, is in some big trouble. After a daring run along the rooftops to find her, you discover her sitting by the body of a revolutionary mayoral candidate, claiming she didn't do it and was set up. Seconds later and cops (aka "Blues") are swarming the place trying to hunt you down while your sister stays behind to distract them. After that, it's a chase to discover the true killer and their purpose before your sister ends up dead too.
Honestly, it's a weak plot. They set it up, throw in some "twists" that really either don't make much sense or are so obvious you wonder why it's a twist, and end with a very odd set up for a sequel. Thankfully, the plot takes enough of a back seat to the main game that you won't care about its apparent lack of depth.
Where Mirror's Edge absolutely excels is in its speed. When things are flowing, and you're stringing together wall jumps, slides, climbing, and soaring through the air to catch a ladder, the adrenaline gets pumping and there's quite literally nothing like it that I've ever played. It's when it slows down that things start to get less interesting, or rather, a bit more messy. For some ungodly reason the developers of this game decided that as a freerunner with little more than some sweat pants and a tank top on it was a good idea to pit you against legions of police and SWAT teams that are increasingly harder to kill with better and better weapons for knocking you back to a checkpoint. Not only that, but they decided that as this weakling runner your best way to defeat them isn't to find the best route around them, instead it's to plow through them with melee attacks, disarming them, and using their own weapons against them. AND when you pick up a weapon, you actually become more encumbered and lose agility and speed. I would be absolutely fine with this game if it actually took its core runner mechanics seriously and gave me the option of blurring past opponents, but instead every couple levels I was literally forced to kill every single enemy before I could advance. This becomes especially difficult (read: impossible on NORMAL) if you try to go for the "don't shoot anyone" trophy, especially since your melee moves are sometimes hard to connect, and if you want to disarm later enemies it's necessary to use your bullet-time view to slow things down enough to press your "disarm" button at the right time, which, sadly enough, can only be recharged through running.
So let's say you end up in a common situation in Mirror's Edge, where you're faced with roughly 6 enemies to deal with. You expend your runner's vision to disarm and disable the first baddie, and empty that gun to take down two more guys. If you've survived up to this point (which can be very hard to do) the only option you're left with now is to either grab a dropped gun and try to take down the rest, or survive the onslaught of bullet fire and melee someone to death while avoiding getting knocked back, which usually does enough damage and takes enough time to recover from that if it happens, you're dead. For me, it's one thing if I die 20 times trying to find the best route through the rooftops or stringing together the right moves to make a difficult jump, it's quite another if I die 20 times going through the exact same fight over and over again because one enemy pushed me while another shot at me. It's stupid, it's out of place, and it takes away from...
The complete majesty of the running. When starting out you're given a helpful tool known as "runner vision", which paints useful points as red among the starkly white landscape. These essentially help you get a feel for where it's safe to jump off from or where you can climb to get to that very high roof. As such, it makes things speedy, exhilarating, and free-flowing, allowing you to almost effortlessly traverse the city scape (though not without a fair share of falling to your death, accompanied by a sickening "splat"). These beginning sections are where the game really shines, when you don't lose momentum. It allows you to see just how great this game could've been (and how great the sequel, learning from these mistakes, could be). However, as you progress, the runner vision is more and more gradually taken away until you're left with things only showing red when you're literally on top of them, or not showing at all. While this forces you to take everything you've seen and learned and apply it, which I certainly appreciate, it also takes away the smoothness of the game until basically you're just running on trial and error to see how best to handle a level. This is especially problematic concerning that there are a couple ways to approach each section, and checkpoints will often set you somewhere completely different from where you had gone before you died.
This is all, of course, not to mention the amazing visuals. The art and color styles are very cool to travel through, though the cinematics weirdly enough look much worse than the actual game with their clunky, oddly proportioned characters. It was a relief to see the final little cutscene as an in-game moment, since it looked like what the rest of the cutscenes should have been.
So to recap: visuals good, combat bad, running good, but awesome when it's easy. It's well worth your time if you own a PS3 and find it in a bargain bin, but more for the glimpse of what the sequel will hopefully be like than for the single player campaign. There are also time trials, which boil down Mirror's Edge to its running component, that I haven't tried yet, but which I'm sure are much more fun than getting mowed down by assault rifles repeatedly.
Mirror's Edge gets a 7/10.
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