I feel really good and really lousy at the same time. Going home on day 3 of E3, as I leave the showfloor I’m energized and feel ecstatic about all the good work I was able to do and the great contacts I made. Truth be told I could have handled 3 more days of it. However, I am so beaten around from the experience of working on the fly and quickly shifting gears from one game to the next. After this convention, you feel brain dead. It’s a few days when gaming becomes more than a fond pastime or a fun way to unwind, and starts to handle like a responsibility and an obligation.
Ok, wah wah wah Mike, what’d you see? Good question:
Mortal Kombat
Ok, time to eat crow. I still want to see the movie pitch picked up eventually, but for now, I can’t complain if we get Mortal Kombat Armageddon as a 2D fighter with ACTUAL fatalities. First off, this game is pure fan service served up straight. The levels are recreated from previous games and the characters are fully rendered and looking gorgeous. Each character is given a unique animation and move set…… which only means anything to you if you remember the SNES days.
Alright, enough beating around the bush, FATALITIES ARE BACK!!! Unique fatalities specific to each and every character, most of what we saw indicated that they have multiple fatalities. This is also an M rated game, back to basics, this will be gory and we will see every second of it. It’s like the team had a field day imagining the sickest, most sadistic finishers they could. It feels so good to remember the quaint charm that these were. These were brutally violent in a significant tongue-n- cheek way. No greater morality lesson, no “War Is Hell” or “Revenge is bittersweet and hollow” motif.
Beyond that, there aren’t too many more details to be seen from the game just yet. The game actually shows place holders for 26 characters plus 1 hidden character and 1 slot open for DLC. Characters play can play in standard one on one matches or in a new two on two mode which resembles Marvel Vs Capcom 1 to a degree. Blood is on full display and characters are subject to persistent wound displays. A bruise suffered in the match will be around till the next fight begins. Also, a “Special” guage will fill up as characters take damage, which can be used periodically to make special attacks stronger, or all at once to initiate an X-Ray attack which shows off specific bones breaking in the course of their combo.
Halo Reach
The last Bungie-made Halo… GET YOUR PREORDERS IN NOW! NOW! Come back and read this after you’ve preordered. Bungie has pulled out every stop to make this the perfect chapter they can end the era on. New weapons, improved combat, FIGHTS IN OUTER SPACE!!! The game is set before the events of the first Halo on the last human safe-haven, the planet of Reach. The game is meant to set up the conflict between the United Nations Space Command and the Covenant forces.
Halo Reach puts players into the metallic boots of Noble-6, the newest member of an elite squad of Spartans known as Noble Team. The single player campaign showed the Spartan team liberating a base that is under attack by Covenant forces. Noble-6 weilds new weapons like the UNSC Grenade Launcher and the Covenant Rocket Launcher to rip a group of grunts to shreds. In addition, the demo also showed off the new assassination moves, where a player sneaks up behind an enemy and executes him quickly. Hard to describe, the camera zooms out to a 3rd person perspective and shows the Spartan stabbing him in the head or breaking his neck.
Needless to say, the fight is on and in full force, and will keep us would be warriors glued for hours. Finally, the campaign demo ends on a dog-fight in Outer Space. Noble Team launches into orbit and protects the UNSC space station, Anchor 9 from an incoming attack. I haven’t been this excited about Space Combat since Star Fox 64. Lock-on missiles, barrel rolls, fending off countless waves of enemy ships in an open combat arena, you can just sense that this is a secret wish fulfillment that Bungie has had for a while.
Multiplayer. Halo Reach will be the opus of Bungie’s achievements in the field of online multiplayer mayhem. First and foremost, Firefight is back with online-matchmaking and a full set of new skulls to fully customize the online arenas. One mode Bungie mentioned was called “Armageddon,” in which players fought against only high-powered Grunts that can only be killed by headshots. Skull sets (which if you haven’t figured out by now are synonymous with special settings) can be manipulated, saved, and then shared online with friends over Xbox Live.
PS3 3D
I did see some PS3 titles working in 3D, and to it’s credit the game itself actually works and actually looks pretty good. The problem with 3D is the television itself. This integration into PS3 feels like we’re waiting for glasses-free-3D, when TV’s will work without any glasses. The problem with this new feature is that 3D glasses make it a painful and potentially harmful experience that is inconvenient for large groups of people. I saw Motorstorm in 3D and it looked pretty cool to see the game in that kind of dimension. After about two minutes of watching it, my eyes actually started to hurt and I had to look away. In fairness, I was pretty close to the screen, but how far away is safe anyway with something that makes my eyes hurt. While we’re at it, how long can we do this as well? I beat Resident Evil 5 in a day, practically non-stop. If the next Resident Evil (or something like that) is released soon on 3D, and I go on a binge like last time, what damage could I possibly be doing to my eyes?
In addition, taking off the glasses turned the screen into a blurry mess. How many glasses are you, as the TV owner, prepared to keep on hand here?Plus, 3D TVs don’t come with 3D glasses, those are sold separately for $150 for ONE pair of glasses. For a family of four that’s a $600 investment. God forbid you have friends that like games or movies. This is a luxury item, the video game equivalent of a Rolex or an Aston Martin. Unless Sony plans on sending me a new TV and pair of glasses to review it, you will not hear me reviewing anything in 3D anytime soon (wink wink Sony if you’re reading).
I personally despise 3D but hopefully what Sony is doing is paving the way for a time when 3D TVs do not require glasses. However, how long can we be expected to wait for this? A year from now? Two years till they get the bugs out? How much will that even cost? Is this the next step, or the rich gamer’s perk?
PS Move
Now that I’ve ripped a new hole in Sony, let me say very loud and clear: PLAYSTATION MOVE WORKS! PS Move is fun, it’s accurate, and God Dammit it does what it is supposed to do. The camera is tracking the ball on top of the controller through the camera rather than via any signal the wand itself is sending out. That means that I’m never playing in fear of pointing the device outside the receiver’s strike zone. We’ve all played a Wii game where we aimed too low till the point where the device bugged out on us and we had to readjust, usually in the middle of something action-packed.
Here is my quintessential PS Move experience: I played Socom 4 with the move controllers. Socom is a 3rd person action shooter. Lot of stuff happening on screen, wait around too long and your teammates will be picking your brains out of the gutter. I took cover at a barricade and picked off a couple enemies on the other side. In front of the barricade is a jeep, and in front of that is an enemy soldier who’s taken cover, waiting for me to step out and smear my brains onto the pavement. I can see him because I can see his legs from under the jeep. Using the Move controls I was able to side step out and shoot his leg, and then his head when he fell to the floor. In full 1 to 1 movement, and on an HD shooter I was able to put one bullet in his Archilles Tendon and the other in his skull.
The question is whether something like my story will convince the Hardcore player to pick up this control-scheme. Killzone 3 will work with Move as well. Will a person fanatically dedicated to these kinds of games see any benefit in forgoing the traditional controller for the motion ones? Will he find a benefit or incentive for playing with the Move controller? Sony has at least put up the intent that they can work this in with their triple A titles, and beyond family-friendly games like Little Big Planet 2. Sony wants to send the message that the hardcore can find some benefit in this, but how accepting to change are these players in the first place?
Now for the pricing. The pricing is six shades of convoluted. It’s $50 for the controller with the ball. It’s $30 for the controller with the analog stick and D-pad on it. There is a $100 bundle that includes the camera you need, the ball-controller, and the sports games. Finally, the last bundle is packaged with a new PS3 for $400. What actually amuses me more is the press reaction to the PS Move controller. The talk all around is that it’s too expensive. Folks, for the equivalent item made by Nintendo for their system it is damn near neck and neck, no more than a $10 difference (except the price of the system itself). PS Move controller is $50. A new Wii Remote at Gamestop is $40. The PS Move analog stick is $30, a new Nunchuk attachment at the same store is $20. Now, PS3 owners need the Playstation Eye which is sold new at $40, the equivalent comes packaged in the Wii. BUT, for 1 to 1 movement, you need a Wii Motion Plus, so that is another $25 you are paying on top of every controller. Now, I will admit, when I see a game like The Fight, that actually needs two PS Move controllers (the ball ones) just to play single player, that can start to look excessive. But beyond that, what are we realistically looking at, the controls work and the games are not being dumbed down. From where I call it, we’re just not looking forward to plunking down for more hardware, but Sony has priced this perfectly in step with the other motion devices.
Dead Space
Making its sophomore return, Dead Space returns in all of its dark splendor and horrifying glory. The complaint I’ve been hearing recently is that Dead Space 2 looks exactly like Dead Space 1. While I can see the concern in that, the idea of Dead Space getting a sequel makes more sense than say a self-contained existential romp like Bioshock. Furthermore, I must also remind you that Dead Space 1 is awesome, and that naysayers will be acquainted with the back of my ring hand. I kid because I’m a bit of an ass. Dead Space 1 however had a unique twist on survival horror genre and is really one of the rare survival horror games that is not completely intent on aping George A Romero’s vision of the undead. Keep it alive for the spectacle if nothing else.
The game now takes place on a new Space-station called “The Sprawl,” the next local to be gripped by mental illness and the ravenous scourge of the Necromorphs. Once again, you will be playing as Isaac Clarke, and once again, you will be unlearning the head shot. Tactical dismemberment is still the name of the game and players will be ripping through a new breed of the mutated undead. Details to the plot are still murky at this point, but one of the most important new locations is inside the Unitarian Church. If you picked up some of the comics, motion comics, or even the animated DVD you will recognize this as the center for the creepy cult that is obsessed with a foreign object they call the marker and set up the catastrophic outbreak on the USG Ishimura.
The reason I wanted to touch on this game was that it saved one of my E3 predictions. Thanks to a new strengthened relationship between Sony and EA, the PS3 will be getting a special edition version of the game that will be packaged with a PS Move copy of Dead Space Extraction. Did I not call it? At least one former Wii game will be available for Move, and coincidentally it is the Rail Shooter. This was probably so easy to retro fit and will be a guaranteed to see a return for the investment. Everyone else, wake up and take a clue.
3DS
It… works? It does what it’s supposed to? IT WORKS!!! I’m amazed. I give two craps about 3D like I mentioned earlier, but I saw a 3D gameboy I didn’t need glasses for. Nintendo, kudos, you impressed me. Now first off, Nintendo is able to do this because the screen is small enough to generally work for its function. Prototypes of TV’s that do not require glasses generally don’t work well because the bigger they get the harder it becomes to focus in on the “Sweet Spot.” Also, 3DS comes with a 3D slider that lets you scale the amount of 3D you want to see on screen. You can make it a regular 2D screen if it becomes too much, or make it full 3D to impress your parents. The processing power on this exceeds the DSI. This thing looks on par if not better than a PSP.
Amazing as it was…… there just wasn’t much to play on it on the showroom floor. Tech demos,and stuff that looked nice, but few actual games. First off, they are bringing Pilotwings back! Yeah, looking back on it, that was kind of a horrible game, but it’s been far too long hasn’t it? In fairness it was flight simulator on training wheels, and that did kick a little ass when we were 8, and kind of fits well with Nintendo’s family friendly mantra. Thought that was cool, check this out: STARFOX 64 ON 3DS!!!! Yeah, kicks a little ass, don’t it? One of the greatest games of all time is now on portable. Nintendo has a bad habit of making me helplessly nostalgic. I guess that’s the effect of being in my living room since I was 4 years old.
Oh, and before I go, Kid Icarus is finally returning in a 3D flight action game exclusively to 3DS. WOW! I said I wouldn’t hold my breath, but yeah, nice twist you gave me Nintendo. I’m impressed.
Brink
The Par Kour shooter is now playable. Ladies and Gentlemen, please I implore you, go out and take a look at this title right now. This will be the “Borderlands” success of……… crap, it’s been pushed back, AGAIN! It comes out 2011, go preorder it. Bethesda has busted their ass to make a rock solid lineup this E3. Last year limped by with Rogue Warrior, which looked horrible, WET, which was horrible. The only thing that looked good was a Press-only Brink demonstration, and now Brink is playable, and doing everything we want it to. You pick up arms and side with a faction, either the Security forces that are keeping order after the Arc has descended into hell, or the Resistance who are razing hell searching for the truth.
Realistically, Brink has the opportunity to be a breakout success. Splash Damage are no rookies to this field and have been responsible for some of the most competitive and intricate online grudge matches on the PC. Bringing their talents to the home consoles will give us the rich and feverous detail we’ve come to expect from the PC crowd, mixed with smooth and intuitive play we love about the consoles. Believe me when I say that this game allows you to customize just about anything. Guns, your characters’ appearance, your characters’ clothes, the muscle build of your characters, your characters’ perks, if you don’t like them as they are, tweak it around until it works for you.
The layout of the game is combat centered around objective-based combat. Single player, Co-op, online multiplayer, they are all the same game, and the same experience points all flood into one profile. Single Player people, you’ll learn to get better and play with other people. Multiplayer people, now you guys get to see a story that the rest of us are so entrenched in. Load Screens are cloaked by a cinematic that will actually incorporate player’s customized characters into the movie, both the player’s and online teammates. The player is always engaged into the story in whatever mode he plays in. Matches are objective-based, and players have the option to choose different load-outs and classes mid-game. In game the player’s new best friend is called the SMART button, an acronym for Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain. No longer will a jump be missed because of a slight timing miscalculation, and say goodbye to your grab button. With SMART all a player needs to do is hold the button down and look in the direction he wants to go. As long as the intended move is clear and possible, the smart button will handle the gaps, freeing you up to carry out the fight on multiple tears. Also, everything you do in the game will reflect upon your experience counter. As little as just hitting the enemy will earn you some experience. Newcomers to first person shooters will not find themselves outmatched for you will be climbing the ranking ladder in no time.
Twisted Metal
Here’s a good one I didn’t expect. I know you’re shocked: “Metal Mike Mullenix likes Twisted Metal, get out of here.” This was really the only true surprise of the show considering that Twisted Metal has not existed for a decade… properly, with exceptions, portables don’t count. It took me a while to get David Jaffe, but I find him to be a rare breed in gaming. He’s 2 parts dark comedy, 1 part genuine outrage and cynicism, and probably the first successful Metal Game Maker to emerge from the era of polygons. Look at God Of War, a genuine slugfest and bloodbath from start to finish, but what drives the game is not blood but rage. Kratos’ brutality and genuine rage are what make us gasp in awe at the reprehensible acts Kratos unleashes. However, upon closer inspection, it’s the humanity of Kratos, and his constant battle to strip that away that makes the character so compelling.
Shifting gears (car joke), Twisted Metal was a landmark series on the original Playstation. It had some sequels, some good, some were garbage, and ultimately wound up on Twisted Metal Black, which I consider to be the opus of the series. Twisted Metal should have been one of those series I should have smelled a reboot from. In the true era of online gaming, this franchise has been sorely missed. Brothers and sisters, rejoice, the Demolition Derby Cage Match has returned. The reboot and online play has opened the doors for a new world of possibilities. Players can play head to head in full team-deathmatch modes riding under the flag of a driver’s gang. It has been reported that there will be 4 gangs based on previous drivers, for the demo-version we saw an 8 on 8 battle between the Clowns (Sweet Tooth) and the Dolls (Dollface). Players can choose between 16 different vehicles, including trucks, motorcycles, and new to the franchise, helicopters. Each one is equipped with unique special moves and a wide array of devastating attacks that will leave playing fields smoldering rubble. Oh, yeah, that’s right, destructible playgrounds are back, and if can drive holes into most every wall in the game. Coming back to a point I made earlier, I opted to drive around in a motorcycle, to which the special attack is flinging chainsaws at other players. The fun part: if you lean back on the analog stick and pop a wheelie, your character will drag the chainsaw against the ground and let it catch on fire. Now when you throw it your attack will do even more damage. Take my word as dogma, if this does not attest to the creative mind behind David Jaffe, or the interesting blood-feuled titles he creates, I don’t know what does. Mr Jaffe, welcome home, we’ve been waiting.
Star Wars: Old Republic
Before I break this down, an invite. I am going to get this. I will be primarily playing as a Sith. Send me a message and join me when this comes out. Let the hate flow through you. Embrace the power of the Dark Side. All would-be Jedi’s out there, a warning, I WILL FORCE CHOKE THE SHIT OUT OF YOU PADAWANS…… that actually sounds meaner than I could have even planned…… eh, what the hell do I care, I’m a Sith! FORCE CHOKE!!
Once upon a time MMO RPG’s were about Elves and Hobbits only… ok, I’m struggling to think of too many that aren’t, or any of those that are any good. It seems that all of the MMO’s scheduled to roll out this coming year are rolling the dice with something different and new. Granted there has been a Star Wars MMO in the past, and various complaints about the updates to it that radically changed the gameplay, but Old Republic seems to be a logical refresh button to that. Next-gen graphics, new combat, and most importantly a new point of entry. We’ve spent the better half of the decade perfecting the MMO to the point where they are more accessible than ever, and strikingly different from the old guard. Whereas 5 years ago I would rather have rusty railroad spikes bored into my flesh than play Everquest, now I am actually eagerly awaiting my chance to rise through the ranks of the Imperial Army. FORCE CHOKE!! New themes and ideas have kept the realm of the MMO fresh and exciting. The ability to live out a communal fantasy to be a member of the Republic or Empire has been a wish list forever. The Old Republic has a lot of perks going for it, not the least of which is the fact that everybody has their own private space-ship. Sure it really only serves as a base of operations, but that’s not the point. The point is I want to be enveloped in the sights and sounds of Star Wars iconography. Rest assured, when this comes out, I will be organizing clans and raids.
PS: FORCE CHOKE!! That never gets old.
Kevin Butler
Everyone needs a mascot. Nintendo has Mario. Microsoft has Master Chief. Capcom has Mega Man. Sony, your guy wears a tie. It’s been nearly a year since this job-switching, rumor dispelling VP of Sony’s advertisement debuted on TV and became sensation with the blogging community. It’s an odd formula of charismatic, self-assurance, and a hint of confident bravado that makes this commercial icon a memorable hero to the Playstation fanboy. Up to the week of the convention I think we were all thinking how cool it would be if Butler co-hosted the press conference. If Ubisoft has no problem letting Joel McHale do theirs, why not let Kevin Butler take the reigns? Well, Sony, you at least gave us gamers ten minutes we won’t forget any time soon. After unveiling some new titles of PS Move, Kevin Butler takes the stage to put Move in perspective for the hardcore crowd. It was possibly the funniest five minutes any press conference has ever seen, EVER! According to him, Gaming means owning an absurdly large TV in a 1 room apartment. According to him, Gaming is when you are up at 3am trying to win a trophy that isn’t actually real…… but is real. I cried at this point because I found both of those are applicable.
Alright loyal readers, that is enough for one sitting, and the most I’ve talked on the subject since Thursday night. Stay tuned for part 2, there will be a part 2 soon enough, in the meantime get pumped, get ready, an exciting year ahead of us has just begun.
Tags: E3
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