Friday, June 10, 2011

In case you missed E3.

Wow, where to begin. I've been busy the past 2 weeks, so I haven't had time to put any new blogs up. My awesome girlfriend and I decided to get a place together. Between packing, moving, and unpacking again, I am just getting back to where I can put some attention into this. I'm just happy that whole moving thing is over with.



Well if you haven't noticed, the past few days there has been an information overload in gaming news. E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, is an annual trade show for the computer and video games industry. It gives companies the chance to showcase the newest upcoming games and hardware.

Over the past few years its turned out to be a competition between companies as they go one by one, and battle, collectively, for who has the best press conference, best booth, the hottest booth babe, best games, and swag to give away.

This years E3 has been the best one yet, hands down. Tons of kick ass stuff was showcased that made gamers mouth's drop, and drool.



Microsoft announced a slew of new Kinect compatible games. A few big names being Mass Effect 3, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, Fable: The Journey, Disney Adventures, Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster, Star Wars, and Sims all using the Kinect to interact in game.

They are also bringing a lot of new new features to the Xbox 360 Dashboard as well. The console is said to be getting Kinect voice support for music, games, movies, TV shows and sports. YouTube and Bing are finally making their way into the available apps in the dash soon as well.



Now, they just didn't show up with all junk. They did show off a few gems. Modern Warfare 3, Tomb Raider with a young Lara Croft in an "open world", Minecraft is coming exclusively to the Xbox with Kinect support, Gears of War 3, Kinect Star Wars with voice commaned, and of course an all new Halo Trilogy, labeled Halo 4, with 5 and 6 following.



Hopefully this new Halo Series can bring me back to the game that made me fall in love with multiplayer FPS. As the series went on the less and less interest I got with it. Hopefully they revamp the multiplayer, and get rid of the stupid ass power-ups they introduced. Fuck you and your Armor Lock.

Microsoft had the worst showing of everyone. The actors they used to showcase the games out right sucked. It made the whole Kinect thing seem too gimickey. I know its not the right conditions to play the game, but when its so obvious that everything is acted out, it makes you think the product doesn't work. Thats the main reason I'm not a fan of it.



Konami put out they were going to do a Silent Hill HD Collection along with a new Silent Hill, Metal Gear Solid 2/3/Peace Walker Remakes, and Zone of the Enders HD. Blah.


Ubisoft didn't disappoint though. Having been around 25 years now, they know what they are doing. Rayman: Origins, Driver: San Francisco, Brother in Arms: Furious 4, a new Trackmania, Ghost Recon: Future Soilder

I'm a fan of the Far Cry series, so the news that Far Cry 3 was on its way was a pleasant surprise. If you haven't seen the trailer, you need to watch it. It was really well done. I just hope they put a great game together. Far Cry was really good. Far Cry 2 was less of a story game, and the open world, mission scheme got too repetitive. Let hope the throw a mix of Far Cry 1 & 2 together and give us a good game.


Along with Far Cry 3, Assassins Creed: Revelations put out probably the best trailers I have ever seen for a game. Absolutely breath taking. AC: Revelations is going to be a must buy.


EA had an awesome show of games. Mass Effect 3 was back, with a live demo and game play trailer. The Sims always has something new. Need for Speed: The Run was showcased. Its going to have a Autolog system that lets you compare stats with friends. Its also based on the Frostbite 2 engine that Dice is using in Battlefield 3 that looks amazing. More on that later.

Madden 12 was there. A new SSX reboot. FIFA 12 was shown off. They had a commercial featuring Drake and Lil Wayne that won over a lot of people. I've been a fan of FIFA for a while. The FIFA team did such a good job with the animations of the characters, that Dice was interested in using it in them in the Frostbite 2 engine.



Sony was a big contender this year. They had a strong showing of games, and new hardware. With the production of the PSP over with, it was no surprise that they revealed their new hand held. The PS Vita. A serious contender to the Nintendo 3DS. The $250 model is wifi only, and for $300 you can walk away with the 3G version and play online on the go. It has a 4 core ARM A9 CPU, 5" OLED Multi touch screen, Rear capacitive multi touch pad, Front and Rear cameras, built-in speakers and microphone, six-axis motion sensing (three-axis gyro, three-axis accelerometer), Three-axis compass, GPS, Dual analog sticks, and  plethora of buttons.

I haven't been a fan of hand held much. I had a few, and usually found myself on my console more than anything. This thing seriously has me changing my mind. The graphics are somewhere between PS2 and PS3. The games look really good. There is going to be lots of games day 1. Modnation Racers will get all the tracks from PS3 on release day. Street Fighter vs. Tekken featuring Cole from Infamous will be available.

It has lots of features. I'm sure the modders will make it even better. If they can get homebrew running on it, this will make its way onto my Christmas or Birthday list. Wink Wink, Hint Hint.



Sony also showed off some sick games. Uncharted 3, God of War Collection in 3D, Infamous 2, Resistance 3 bundle with move for $150, Starhawk, Sly 4, Dust 514, Bioshock Infinite will get Bioshock 1 for free on PS3, Battlefield 3 comes with Battlefield 1943 on PS3, Need for Speed: The Run comes with 7 addition cars, SSX Mount Fuji exclusive level only on PS3, and a Star Trek co-op prequel game, along with a new Star Trek phaser move peripheral to name a few.

Sony had a good showing despite all the bad news they have had recently.


Nintendo, in my opinion, had the best showing of all the other companies there. I'm totally on board with their new console. The Wii U is finally worthy enough to sit next to my Xbox 360 and PS3. I didn't get a Wii, because it was a little too kiddish for my style. This new console has it all though. Great graphics. The controller is an awesome ideal. I'm glad that they are finally trying to take a stab at the hardcore gamer market. They already make games they everyone loves, but the Wii was lacking the power visually that it needed to compete with the same niche market that the PS3 and Xbox do.



1080p, 1080i, 720p, 720i, 480p, 480i compatible. It has a IBM Power-based mulit-core CPU, internal flash memory, along with the option to use SD memory card, or USB hard disk. It supports all the old controllers. 4 USB 2.0 ports, and the new console is backward compatible with Wii games and Wii accessories. No Blu-Ray, but that isn't a deal breaker. Did I mention that the Zelda game comes with each system? Wayne and Garth would say, " Schwwwing." to that.


This console has the balls to get things done. You can tell by the name of some of the games they plan on releasing. EA said they were going to develop with the Wii U in mind so expect their sports games with that. Some big name games also to be released like Battlefield, Arkham City, Assasssins Creed, Ghost Recon Online, DiRT, Aliens: Colonial Marines, Metro Last Night, Tekken, Ninja Gaiden 3: Razors Edge, Driver, and Rhythm Heaven.

Nintendo also had a healthy stable of games in its arsenal. Mario Kart 3D, Luigi's Mansion 2 for 3DS, Starfox 64 3D, Super Mario 3D, Kid Icarus: Uprising, Resident Evil: Revelations, Snake Eater 3D, Tekken 3D, and Mario + Sonic at the Olympic games lead the way. And not to mention Super Smash brothers for Wii U that will interact with the 3DS.

All in all, it was an spectacular showing of games and hardware the past couple days. I'm happy with what was shown, and feel like gaming is heading in the right direction. I didn't get to touch on a lot of things, but I wanted to be able to save some stuff for other posts. So if you don't see something here expect a write up in the next few days.

What did you think of E3? What was your favorite thing? Anything your not excited about?

45 comments:

  1. Thank you for this, I missed the show and needed something like this.

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  2. Totally getting PSVita this year!

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  3. This was such a great roundup. Really well done. You have a flair for journalism I think.

    Anyway, I'm most excited that Nintendo is getting ready to make the step into High Definition.

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  4. Great post for anyone that missed E3. Followed. :D

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  5. Great write up - I'm amped for the VITA!

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  6. Wow, great summery of the show. Good read. Followed.

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  7. I'm mostly looking forward to Skyrim. Also interested in MW3.

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  8. I watched most of Gametrailer's coverage, it was really fun. It's the first time I've ever even kept up with E3 and I quite enjoyed it. I can't wait for Skyrim, Sly 4 and Skyward Sword.

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  9. Very long, but informing post. Thank you sir.

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  10. Despite the criticisms I am look forward to the Wii U. That Zelda game looks AMAZING. It just makes me wonder what they're going to do with Mario next.

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  11. I just wanted to know more about The Last Guardian. I hope they'll show it off at TGS later this year.

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  12. Can't wait for the PSP2, looks awesome! One thing I think is being overhyped is MW3 though. Same engine, similar gameplay etc., I think BF3 would probably be the better game out of the two. Thats just my 2cents anyways!

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  13. More Assassin's Creed!
    ...

    Though I really need to go in a convention like this...

    Followed!

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  14. A silent hill remake? I'm so excited now

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  15. Awesome post, very interested in technology.
    Followed, brother.

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  16. wow, Well e3 i liked the most of the things that came out :)

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  17. Getting excited for assassins creed!

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  18. Definitely most excited for Battlefield 3, Skyrim and Assasins Creed.

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  19. Also, Minecraft with Kinect? How on earth...?
    You'd get a tennis elbow in minutes?

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  20. A great report on E3 - and I completely agree (have been following the whole show on Destructoid) the Wii U wasn't as magical as Nintendo said it was going to be, but it was a hell of a lot better then I thought it was going to be.

    Am I going to swap in my Wii for one? Definitely.

    Microsoft's showing was just sad, though.

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  21. Finally, someone else who actually likes the WiiU.

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  22. Excited about the new Tomb Raider game and the Vita, with nintendo i'll wait to see some real capabilities to get really excited

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  23. It was pretty awesome, i've spent the weekend rewatching trailers. I still think that OverStrike(and far cry 3) have the most potential.

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  24. I thought overall it was pretty weak. No real big surprises other than Halo 4. Everything else has been known and talked about since January. Really the thing that got me most amped was the Gears 3 production, and that comes out in 3 months, so its not like i didn't already know or have it preordered before hand.

    I miss when E3 was the big time place for revealing things. Now there's so many game shows that they spread it out. Hell some companys just have their own now, like Blizzcon.

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  25. E3 wasn't that great this year in my opinion. Looking forward to Skyrim and ME3, but Nintendo definitely won E3.

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  26. My big games are still Batman: Arkham City and Bioshock Infinite.

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  27. E3 is awesome can't wait for MW3

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  28. I saw some of E3, but thanks for filling me in. I'm super ultra exited for Battle Field 3. That looks so dope!

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  29. E3 Was a blast!
    Can't wait for some BF3 and FC3

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  30. Windows 8 and Xbox going to be great together!

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  31. This post have all E3, awesome. Excelent for who didnt watch. :]

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  32. I've actually disappointed with E3 this year. Everything is either a remake or YET ANOTHER FF game.

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  33. Waha!!! Wish I was there :p
    And congrats to you and your girlfriend :)

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  34. Assasin's creed's trailer was epic

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  35. I have played all the other assassins creed games but Revelations trailer really looks promising.

    Also I must admit that I've always been negative towards the Wii U: "It's just gonna be a gimmick". But after seeing the gameplay video and reading some of the games that is gonna be released, it really catched my interest!

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  36. a lot of amazing stuff on the way but im still waiting for Diablo 3 XD

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  37. I dunno, I watched parts of it online and imo it was pretty boring, I am looking to several games though, only for Xbox, Luigi's Mansion 2 looks terrible.

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