Post-E3: Thoughts and Opinions

E3 is a big event for gamers. E3 is as important to gamers, as the FIFA World Cup is to Soccer fans. While I obviously didn't attend E3, though I would definitely love to in the future, I thought I'd do a write-up on this years E3 event from the perspective of a fan, an onlooker from home excitedly watching the live streams. I know it's not a review, but I wanted to voice my opinions and thoughts on how E3 went and how the future of video-gaming looks for a gamer like myself.

Microsoft's conference was first-up at E3. They formally announced the new name of Natal: Kinect. I wasn't sure what to think of that. For a start, I'm certain Kinect isn't even a real word. That being said, Kinect did initially impress me. The menu navigation is off-the-charts impressive, like something out of Minority Report. They had different people come up on stage, showing off what it can do. Navigating menus, controlling videos and music with your voice and hands looked really neat. I hate to be cynical but I can see some problems popping with voice commands, as anyone who has dealt with voice recognition software might expect.

Where Kinect lost me was when the family-friendly games popped up. I'm really not the type of guy to jump up and down like a loon in my living room, or dance with no game-mat in front of my television. I already have several dogs so I just can't see the need to look after a virtual animal, which you'd never be able to really interact with anyway. You can't feel the warmth, or fur, or true personality of a virtual animal, it just isn't the same as a real one. It's like the cold, cruel mockery of dating-sim games. On top of that, Kinect is meant to rack up to $200 or so NZD on release. For someone like me who'd only purchase it for the sake of having a cool menu gimmick -- until a Kinect game that interests me appears -- I'll have to pass.

Microsoft also revealed that they would be partnering up with ESPN and streaming sports games, with Kinect compatibility. Too bad I have no interest in sports, but I guess 360 does target the "frat-boy" sort of audience, so it makes sense. Somehow I have a feeling it won't even hit New Zealand shores either. In any case, more new features are fantastic to see, even if they don't interest me personally.

Along with Kinect, Microsoft revealed the 360 Slim. Strangely enough, it looks like what you'd get if you combined Alienware and a Wii. It's small, quiet and packs built in wi-fi and more USB ports along with a 250 GB HDD and a dedicated Kinect port. It took long enough to get built in wi-fi, but it's a bit of a middle finger to people like me who bought the over-priced wi-fi adapter awhile back. What really irks me about the Slim is the fact that it STILL has a disk tray. Disk trays, in my opinion, are old tech and will still cause your disks to suffer if the console falls over, moves or is turned horizontal from vertical and vice-versa. PS3s and Wiis still benefit from slot-loading. Either way, it's a fantastic price and it's definitely worth getting if you don't have a 360 yet. Let's just hope it doesn't suffer from RROD, though you'd expect by now for that problem to be long gone.



Of course, for those who weren't interested in motion control games, they typically had a few sequels revealed. I'm personally psyched for Gears of War 3, seeing as I've finished the first two and the 2nd game felt like it ended in the middle of the game. Gears of War 3 has four-player co-op (finally) and the ability to switch weapons with co-op partners, along with new, slightly more evil -- and explosive -- enemies. It looks good. Halo: Reach was shown off, but to be honest it looks like more of the same really. With jet-packs and space combat. Fable III was shown too, I didn't think too much of Fable II, though I didn't dislike it. Fable III has world domination which personally sounds like an awesome concept to me. What blew my mind was the game-play on-stage of Metal Gear Solid: Rising. It basically had Raiden dancing around slicing up humans and robots alike. It revolves around the concept of Zan-Datsu, which means to cut and take. You can go into slow-motion and precisely cut. you can dismember enemies in any way you want and even slice buildings apart with your high-frequency blade. In the video, Raiden slices a mech in half and removes its glowing spine before absorbing it for what I assume is health. Rising is set to take place between MGS2 and MGS4.

The Sony conference was probably the weakest of the "Big Three" though. Playstation Move is an odd case. Yeah, it looks really, really stupid. As though someone at Sony decided they'd rip off the black Wiimote set-up but strap a silly ball to the top to make it look different enough that they wouldn't be sued. Killzone 3 was revealed, and that it would be 3D compatible. I never actually got 'round to playing Killzone but I really enjoyed the first one on PS2 back in the day so the second and third games will go on my to-buy list eventually.

What bothers me, is the concept of 3D on a home video-game console. For a start, it requires special glasses (WHICH AREN'T CHEAP) and a 3D HD TV which isn't cheap either. The problem is that the technology is too premature, a lot of us are only just starting to get into the age of HD and a lot of us aren't willing to buy into 3D after just spending $3000 on home entertainment, especially when 3D gaming and films in your living room aren't common yet. Give it another five years or so and we might see it becoming mainstream but at the moment it seems like a fad that will pass. Second problem is that you need to wear glasses, as I mentioned are expensive, which is problematic when you already have glasses. I don't want to feel like a dork wearing two pairs of glasses just to play a game.

 

Sony unveiled a few other surprises too, Twisted Metal was announced, Infamous 2 looks… different -- I'm not liking his new, less angry style, and why does he have a weapon? -- though the first game was actually very fun and now he has ice powers too. Patapon 3 was shown which is down-right fantastic. The first two games are masterpieces of PSP gaming. Dead Space 2 is something I am eagerly awaiting, the first game is probably the best 3rd-person horror this generation in my books. As a delicious surprise, Dead Space 2 will be packed in with Dead Space Extraction, a once Wii-exclusive that was met with lots of praise yet poor sales. It will have full Move support, co-op and trophies. LittleBigPlanet 2 has got me really excited seeing as you can make racing games and more. It also has Move support. I can't wait for Portal 2 either which is -- surprisingly -- coming to PS3.

Sony's premium network was finally announced, being named Playstation Plus. It will come with a copy of WipEout HD, beta access and early demoes of games, free avatars, themes, PSN games and party chat which was a long time coming. It's meant to cost $50 USD a year, or $18 USD for three months, similar pricing to that of the 360. Sony was pretty vague on more details though, I'll probably subscribe just for party chat but I wish they'd explained more about the service.

Lastly, Kevin Butler made an appearance. I don't know what you guys think of him, but personally I think the man is hilarious! For all the business-side of E3, Kevin butler treated the stage like his own stand-up comedy show. He promoted the Playstation Move along with gaming in general. He was really witty and his appearance was really hilarious. "We can all box with game characters that have important features... like arms... and a neck." was one of my favourite quotes, as he bashed WiiSports. Sure, the Playstation Move is a rip-off of the Wiimote. But it does it well -- the Move is everything the Wii should have been.



Nintendo's conference was summed up by the fact that two of the announced titles had "epic" in their title. Yes, Nintendo's conference was epic and probably my favourite conference of this years E3 by far. The conference opened up with the new Zelda Wii game trailer, Zelda: Skyward Sword, which looks excellent, REQUIRES WiiMotion+ and will have a 2011 release. To be honest, while it does look good, I was a little… disappointed in it's execution. I was expecting something more original but it looks like they've just re-skinned Twilight Princess, with cell-shaded graphics reminding me a bit of Wind Waker. Not like that's a bad thing, but when Nintendo hints at "there will be no master sword this time around…" I didn't think they'd just give you a different sword. Booo. I guess the formula works though, don't fix what isn't broken and so on.



A new Kirby game was announced for Wii too, Kirby's Epic Yarn, which only took four years to be announced… It looks like a good platformer but the style is very unusual -- Rather than being the typical Kirby game, it's a weird style where everything is… knitted. You don't absorb enemies though, which was my favourite feature of Kirby. It looks original though.

Another big announcement was GoldenEye 007 as a remake for the Wii (and DS). Oddly enough, they've re-skinned Bond so that he bears Daniel Craig's face instead of Pierce Brosnan. It will also have online multiplayer and more features. Everyone who knows anything about the gaming industry knows that GoldenEye on N64 was a masterpiece.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn was given a gameplay trailer for DS too, which a lot of us have been waiting for since the 2nd one on GBA. It actually looks a bit like Phantom Hourglass or Spirit Tracks, which is to be expected seeing as the original two were completely 2D top-down on GBA. Needless to say, I'm definitely psyched for it.

Personally, what stole the entire show for me was the 3DS. We had already heard of the 3DS a little while before E3, but now we get to see it in action. The 3DS is actually a whole new platform and not a reiteration of previous DS handhelds, it's fully backwards compatible with DS games too. The interesting thing about it, is that it's 3D without having to wear silly (and expensive) glasses. The problem for viewers at home like me, is that we can't see the 3D over the internet so instead it's a case of "trust us, it looks cool!" The 3D isn't what grabs my attention about the 3DS though, it's the graphics and impressive line-up of 3rd-party games. The trailer revealed for the 3DS was Kid Icarus: Uprising, and it looks… amazing. Until the PSP2 comes out, 3DS will obviously have the best graphics for a gaming handheld. While not many specs were revealed, 3DS games will have a 2 GB max as opposed to the 1.8 GB max of PSP UMD. The best thing about 3DS? 3rd-party games. On the line-up were such games as DJ Hero, Saints Row, Resident Evil 5 and -- what got the crowd going insane -- Metal Gear Solid 3. On top of that, Ocarina of Time and Super Paper Mario are getting a handheld treatment. Excellent.



From the Konami conference, a new Silent Hill was revealed! As a Silent Hill fan (in case you didn't already gather by the title of my page) I was EXTREMELY excited by the revealed trailer of a new Silent Hill. I know, Silent Hill hasn't been the same since Team Silent disbanded and now without Akira Yamaoka, series composer, the series will never be the same. Despite my fanboy urge to tell Konami to stop it before the series is well and truly murdered, I actually loved the look of the new game. You play as a convict, the style is back to gory and nightmarish and it actually takes place in Silent Hill! The music didn't sound too bad either, check it out yourself.



So E3 was a pretty exciting show this year. Thanks for reading!

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CURRENTLY PLAYING AND REVIEWING: Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker! Expect to see it up sometime next week!

(note: Click YouTube videos to see the whole thing, seems to be cut off a bit in my blog :<)