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
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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.

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