The Press Conferences

Microsoft's Conference

Microsoft started this years E3 with a bang. showing a whole roster of new games that all look like they will be fantastic. I honestly don’t think they showed one bad thing which made a lot of people very happy.

They started of by showing Tony Hawk Ride. A new skateboarding game with a nice new skateboard controller. It looks great but I honestly don’t know how they can make the skateboard peripheral cheap enough to make it sell well.

The Skateboard Controller

C0D 6 or Modern Warfare 2 (depending on what you want to call it) followed it up with an on stage playtest. It looks… like CoD 4 to be brutally honest. Which to be fair isn’t a bad thing but doesn’t excite me as much as a brand new game would. The level they showed off was on in the mountains where you followed Captain McTavish (The character you played in CoD4). It turned into a stealth level which seemed a lot like the Pripyat missions in CoD4 but it had a few cool moments such as the snowmobile chase but no long range sniping mission.

Final Fantasy XIII was next up. It uses a turn based system which is pretty similar to FF X where you can attack more by using certain attacks but you have to wait longer to use more powerful ones. They showed off a summon which did some crazy stuff and killed the monster. I’m sure how but I’m sure it will make sense if I play the game.

Epic games then showed shadow complex, a psuedo 3d side scrolling. They said they had taken inspiration from castlevania and metroid (the 2d ones) and it shows. I mean it really shows. Its incredibly similar to castlevania, the Map the way enemies act. The fact that doors aren’t at regular intervals like metroids are. Even the way he got a wall jump ability which allowed him to access an area at the top of a tall thin room. Its colour scheme is also very remeniscent of castlevania.

Joyride was next up. A cartoony cart racer that uses avatars. Its also going to be free to all xbox live gold members in the winter. It looks fun and its free so you’ve got to love it.

Then trailers for: Crackdown 2, meh. Left 4 Dead 2: Whaaa?? and Splinter Cell Conviction: cool. This was followed by a playtest of splintercell while most people got over the shock of seeing 30 seconds of L4D2.

Forza 3 came up and it really looks nice. A real contender against Gran Turismo. Custom paint jobs for your cars which you can design and hundreds of different cars to choose from. It looks like its a cut above most other serious racing games.

Halo 3 ODST. Only one thing to say about this. The Halo 1 zooming pistol is coming back so. This was followed however by teaser for Halo Reach. I don’t really follow the Halo plot but even I understand the significance of the last couple of sentences of that trailer: “We have Spartans on the Ground. We’re not going anywhere” So Halo Reach is going to be the next full halo game? I reckon it will be.

Alan Wake was shown and I have to say it looks really interesting from both a plot and gameplay standpoint. Its made by th people who made Max Payne so it should be good.

Last.Fm, Sky TV, Facebook and Twitter. All coming to Xbox live. They’re also redoing the video store with frull 1080p videos which you can watch with your friend through Xbox live.

Hideo Kojima then comes on stage. Metal Gear Solid Rising for 360. A real shock to me. I always assumed that metal gear would always be a sony exclusive. But then again I thought the same about Final Fantasy last year.

An then Project Natal… When the 360 motion controller rumor first came up everyone thought it would be very similar to the wii-mote however no one expected this kind of announcement until the next generation of games consoles. For those who don’t know a while a go this was shown at a tech event. It was a camera that could do some of the things that Project Natal could do. Everyone just assumed that this would be used in the next Nintendo console. Project Natal is the Z camera plus voice recognition. This new camera system will be compatible with all 360‘s and if it really works it will change the way you can interact with your TV.

The only downside is that I can’t see it being used for games such as FPS’s or any game that requires the player to move any distance or hold and object. Even if the camera does pick up your hand it won’t be able to accurately show how you’re holding …say… a tennis racket for example. It was shown in a painting application however which was really well done and seemed to pick up the players really well.

On that revolutionary note the press conference ended. It has to be one of the best press conferences I’ve ever seen. With some great new announcements and project Natal. I don’t know how well it will work in peoples cluttered living rooms but it could really change the face of home consoles forever.

Nintendo’s Conference

Normally a conference like this would’ve been well met but this year I honestly think Nintendo’s conference was the worst. New Super Mario Bros. Wii started off the conference. It will be an newer version of the DS hit but on the Wii and with 4 player competative co-op. This sounds cool but how many people are truly looking forward to multiplayer in a 2D mario game? They had 4 players playing together for points but does that really make people want to play? I don’t know. I’ll almost certainly buy it but I was expecting a bit more from Nintendo than effectively adding multiplayer to an existing game.

Then there was the Wii sports resort. Another game that is cool and interesting but this year I was expecting much more from Nintendo using the Wii Motion Plus. EA has more games using it than Nintendo even though they announced it last year. The actual wii sports resort game is looking good with more sports than wii sports and a retooled version of golf with wii motion plus. This’ll be the tesing point for wii motion plus, if it doesn’t sell with the backing of wii sports then its not going to sell ever. A demo was played on stage and Reggie fils-aime came up to play as the second player. It also started with the most awkward trash talking I’ve ever as the guy demoing it came up against Reggie.

Wii fit plus was announced with more training options so you can actually have a training program rather than just making one up. Its also going to have more balance games and excerises.

Another major point that was made was the DS & DSi showing many different games including a new mario vs. donkey kong which has a level editor. This had to be the least interesting section of conference so I’m just gonna skip on over to next bit.

Iwata (The president and CEO of Nintendo for those who don’t know him) took to the stage. He talked for a while about different groups of people and how he wanted to try and get more people into gaming he then wanted to show us something new and in development. ‘This’ everyone thought “is what we’ve been waiting for. A big new announcement”.

The big Announcement

The Wii Vitality Sensor. When I first heard Iwata say that I thought i had mis-heard him. I was sure that it was going to be a camera of some sort. Unfortunately I had heard him correctly and he went on to show us a pulse rate monitor. Now you’ve got to hand it Nintendo they never just follow the crowd but really? A heart rate monitor? To be honest I don’t really mind. I think it could be useful for a game like Wii fit but it would be much better as a heart rate monitor around your chest than actually being attached to the wii-mote. I mean it would just get in the way. This is a future project though so I’m confident it will evolve and I hold enough confidence in Iwata to know that if he thinks this will do well than it will do.

Iwata left the stage and Reggie came on to talk about 3rd party games on the Wii. The Conduit was a big game to prove that it wasn’t just Nintendo making great games for the wii. Finally however we got the trailer everyone had been waiting for: Super Mario Galaxy 2. The trailer looks verymuch like the original but now Yoshi is going to join in the fun. It looks good and it is penciled to come in 2010.

Last but no least was the biggest surprise of the conference and the one that had the biggest reaction from gamers everywhere. Everyone thought Pikmin 3 would be shown but no. A new metroid game from Nintendo and Team Ninja, the guys who made Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive. Metroid: Other M as it is known looks from the trailer to have more 3rd person action it it and also more story with new (and old) characters who will actually play a major role. After this the conference ended.

So, my thoughts on Nintendo’s conference? Good, if not great. Pikmin 3 and a new Zelda weren’t mentionred but they did announce a sweet new metroid game to make up for that. in the end I think nintedno know what they’re doing and don’t need to cater to big shows like E3. When they’re ready to show a game, they’ll show it E3 or no E3 whereas other companies run themselves crazy getting ready for a massive show like this.

Sony's Conference

Honestly, I was worried that Sony’s press conference wouldbe completely outclassed by Microsoft’s this year. To my surprise though they weren’t and put on a real show even if they didn’t have quite as much new stuff as Microsoft did.

It started with numbers. I didn’t care much about them but they were probably nessessary while Sony is taking 3rd place after Nintendo and Microsoft.

Uncharted 2 was first up with a demo. Everyone knew it was coming so it wasn’t a big surprise but it does look good. The demo included lots of big setpieces as a helicopter gunship chased Nathan through a city destroying several buildings along the way.

MAG was then shown. The 256 player online fps from the makers of Socom. It had a live 256 player game demo live on stage and the game looks very generic but it seems to be doign everything right and if they truly pull off 256 players then it could become a classic for the PS3.

The PSP was next up and it was shown how it applealed to a wide audience with a lilac Hannah Montana edition of the PSP 3000. Interestingly it got one of the biggest applauds from an audience made up of hardcore games journalists.

Then came the PSP Go or “The worst kept secret of E3” as sony’s representitive, Kaz Harai, joked. He followed it up by introducing the Media Go store which will allow for easy data transfer between the PSP and a PC. The video service will also come to PSP as well. Future PSP games will also have to be sold digitally as well as at retail so you can still play all the new games on PSP Go.

Gran Turismo for PSP was shown. There will be lots of cars which you can share with freinds so you don’t have to find them all. It will come out with the launch of the PSP Go.

Hideo Kojima also came up for his second press conference to show Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker for PSP. It won’t be spin-off or side story says Kojima but it will be the msiing link in the metal gear solid story. Its coming 2010.

A quick teaser for the badly named Resident Evil Portable followed by another trailer of various PSP games.

Playstation Network is also getting 50 classic original Playstation games starting with Final Fantasy VII which is on the store as I type.

Playstation Home will also have more and more content from 3rd parties for it. Then a trailer was played to show how far Home has come since its launch.

Finally the big PS3 stuff came on. Rockstar are making a PS3 exclusive called “Agent”. It will be a 1970‘s espionage game and its rockstar so it will definately be big.

Ubisoft came up with a playtest for Assassins Creed 2. Set in Venice it will feature new combat moves, around 30 weapons (with 8 more if you connect the PSP version to the PS3 somehow) and you will use gadgets that are designed by Da Vinci himself such as a pair of wings you can use to fly. At the end he dives into water so we can also assume it isn’t instant death in this game.

A trailer for Final Fantasy XIII. Another game that is in both Sony’s and Microsoft’s conferences. Then however comes the news that in 2010 not only will Final Fantasy XIII come out but Final Fantasy XIV Online will also come out exclusively for PS3. A World of Warcraft slayer? Almost certainly not but will be good for console gamers who are looking for an MMO.

Then the playstation motion controller. It has motion sensors inside and buttons but also has a glowing sphere on the end which the playstation camera tracks. It is still in the design stage but they showed a tech demo which showed true 1 to 1 tracking. It can also be used for movement in a first person game but I fail to see how as you can only get so close towards a TV before having to stop. The camera can also super-impose an object onto a picture of you holding the controller so it looks as if you are holding the in game object. A cool little feature but I fail to see how useful it actually is. There was also no analogue stick so I can’t see how true movement can be implement like the Wii-motes nunchuck can.

Then on to a new game which takes inspiration from Little Big Planet . ModNation Racers. A cart racer that will rely on user generated tracks, cars and racers. They created a track on screen and I have to say that it looks really easy to do. You make the track layout by driving a car around an empty space and the track is created behind it. You can then go through and add senery, items and track features. They made a cool looking track in 5 minutes so imagine what you could do spending even longer on it.

A teaser for “The Last Guardian” the next game from Team ICO, the makers of Ico and Shadow of the collosus. Two games that I have sadly never played. No real details were announced but it shares the same style as its predesesors and if they were anything to go by will be a cult classic.

Gran Turismo 5. A game thats been so long coming I honestly don’t care anymore.

Finally God of War 3 a demo with tons of brutal fighting with many different mythical creatures. If you liked the first two this third should be even better. If you didn’t like them. Well I doubt theres anything here for you.

And that was the end of that. Another great press conference and lots of cool new surprises. If only they had manageed to keep the PSP Go a secret then it could have been even better.

Final thoughts

Of the things we didn’t see that I thought hoped we would was a new Zelda even if it was just a small teaser. Pikmin 3 that I thought we’d see as it hasn’t got a development cycle as long as Mario or Zelda. Microsoft again completely ignored the PC and games for windows live. There wasn’t a single mention of it in there but that would have been a lto to ask as Microsoft have taken away almost every one of their developers such as ensemple studios who made great games for the PC.

All in all though, I have to honestly say that microsoft probably took this year with a finominal press conference which delivered some great new surprises such as project Natal which I honestly think is the best inovation in games since online play. Nintendo had a good press conference which should appeal to everyone including the hardcore gamer this time. The new metroid was a surprise no one saw coming. Sony kept their end up with great new announcements and there own motion controller. Next year of course should be even better as by then all the new hardware devices should be almost ready to put into production so we’ll see new games for them and maybe even more new hardware.

In what must be the quickest succession of titles for valve ever Left 4 Dead 2 has been announced for November this year. For a bit of reference valve announced the 3 half-life episodes would be finished by winter 2007.  Its now looking like the last one is going to be well over 2 years late.

But back to L4D2 as I’m going to refer to it. Its was shown in Microsoft’s press conference earlier today and to begin with I thought it was Dead Rising 2 as it was set during the day and had a slightly more colourful art style.  Its set in and around New Orleans and will feature 4 new characters. It will have 5 campaigns that this time will actually be linked together in a vague story.

Major changes will include new special zombies that will prevent the same tactics that were used in the original being used again. And new weaponry including melee weapons that will kill special zombies in 1. I’m assuming that doesn’t include the tank (if the tank does return). The AI Director 2.0 will also be used. Not only will it change where zombies and items are but it can now even affect the map around you so it can dynamically change and so you can never learn the layout of the map perfectly.

It will also include survival and more verses maps right off the bat so no waiting for DLC though I’m guessing they’re going to support it especially as Doug lombardi, VP of Marketing at valve has said “Left 4 Dead 2 is a larger game and will be supported with even more consumer and retail advertising programs than the original.” And if valve can afford to keep updating Team fortress 2 then I’m sure they are going to keep this going.

The main thing I wonder about is how on earth Valve has managed to get this out so quickly as valve never rush games out the door and never rush out a sequel like this. Then again I think to valve this sequel had to  happen as they wanted to add too much to l4d that couldn’t be done with DLC. I’m looking forward to it I’m still waiting for another game in the half life series. Or another portal game. Or even just a brand new idea to receive source engine treatment.

Microsoft's Conference

So I’m now watching the conference live via gamespot and its started with the Beatles Rock Band.

They’re going to show us 10 new games yay!

Tony Hawk Ride! with the new contoller. It looks pretty sweet. A bit more to it than the wii fit board but I’m guessing thats gonna cost a lot. Nice trailer with lots of famous skaters. That thing looks like its gonna be hard to play with.

Ah the COD 6 Modern Warfare 2 Trailer. Does this count as one of the 10 new games?  They’re playtesting it on stage. A winter level in the mountains somewhere. Soldiers with english accents. SAS maybe? Using a gun with a motion sensor attached to it. Stealthily moving through a camp in the middle of a blizzard. Reminds me of the Pripyat mision in COD4. “Things do not go exactly as planned…”  Big  gunfight and now a snowmobile chase. Playtest finishes. 2 map packs will be made for it. Guess which platform they’re coming to first?

Final fantasy guys on stage. First look at final fantasy XIII running on 360. Looks pretty and its back to turn based battles however some attacks take longer to charge than others. They are using a summon now. It works with the character to defeat the evil robot whale thing. Damn should’ve remembered what it was called.

Guys from epic games coming up. They’re announcing a XBLA game. Sound Problems. Can’t hear the name of the game. Its a 3d side scrolling shooter. Looks a lot like a catslevania game. Shadow Complex thats what is called.

Joy ride now anothherXBLA game. Its a cartoony acrade racer with the same style as the avatars. Its going to be free! And its coming in the winter

Dark Stage. Another tr ailer Crack down 2. Another Trailer Something to do with zombies dead rising 2 maybe NO Left 4 dead 2??? Coming November 17 apparently.  Sounds a bit less serious than the first. A new Ubisoft trailer. Splinter Cell Conviction.

Now some ubisoft guys take the stage. Its a play test. Sam Fisher isn’t playing nice. Violently integorogating someone. Each environment is built like a sandbox. Sounds a bit like hitman but with samfisher and less dressing up. Oh he’s blowing through the door now. More to be shown throughout E3.

More 360 marketing. Forza motor sports 3. “The definitive racing game of this generation” He says. They’re showing off an audi. I hope they’re getting paid for that  blatant advertising. Its going to be the biggest racing game this generation. What about Gran Turismo 5? WEll thats a way off so I guess they’re right. Oh you can customise your cars paint scheme. I’m getting excited about this game and I don’t like realistic racing games.

Halo 3 ODST. I wondered when they would get to this. They’re dropping in. Oh things don’t go smoothly. They never do. Playtest. Zooming Pistol! Just like halo 1. The game will be from the postion of multiple shock troops. The poitn of view changes to a different time with a different trooper.

Thats not all. A new halo game. Halo Reach. comign fall 2010. Only a teaser trailer but there are spartans.

Alan Wake now. A super natural horror game. Dark powers are throwing objects at Alan. They seem to be hurt by light. He’s lighting flares now. The flares seem to trigger a bullet time affect. This is made by remedy the makers of max payne so what can you expect.

Talking about Xbox live. Music is now coming to xbox live with Last.fm It will be available to gold members for free. Netfilx now.

Sky TV on 360 in UK and Ireland. Thats me! I need to get a 360 soon.

They’re relaunching their video library with full 1080p and streaming of videos. They’re also making it available to 18 countries.

You’re also going to be able to watch videos in realtime with your friends. I.E. a football match, you can cheer with your mates.

Facebook is also coming to 360. So is twitter. No webbrowser but who cares? Theres everything you need.

Not done yet. Sounds like there’s something big coming up. Vice President of xbox is up. Hideo Kojima is up. Metla Gear Solid for 360. Sony is so screwed now its untrue. Seriously unless they announce something bigger than jesus tomorrow I don’t see them pulling away from this. Metal Gear Rising its called. Its going to be with raiden as everyone expected. No MGS4 but oh well.

Motion Controller. controller is a barrier. Isn’t this what nintendo said a few years back??  Wait they’re going to take away the controller completely. this is what we thought the wii 2 would be. Full motion body capture. and voice capture. I’ll stick with the controller for now nut seriously this pretty amazing. If it works. Its called Project Natal. It will work with every 360 and they won’t have to work on a new console. At this rate 360 will last forever.

Steven Spielberg is up. He obviously likes this. He thinks that technology is too inaccsessable. Great quote “Its not about re-inventing the wheel. Its about having no wheel at all.”

Speilberg is gone. Here comes the project natal leader. Here’s some early prototypes. The xbox logs the guy in jsut using facial recognition. Avatar mimiks the player. Can navigate the menu with hand movements. Playing a 3d breakout game called ricochet. Its not just using waggle commands. Oooo.. cheap shot at nintendo there.

Paint Party.  3d painting game. vioce commands to select colour. throuwing paint at a canvas now brushing on paint. He’s making a stencil base don his body shape. Using his assistant they’ve made an elephant shape. This will definately replace photoshop.

End of prject natal. Development kits are just shipping out. or maybe not. Peter Molenyeux. Man he comes up with some crazy stuff so this should be good. Controller is a barrier yada yada yada heard it before. He ‘s showing some stuff they’ve been experimenting with. Milo a interactive character who responds with you. Its a fully interactive world. Its Immersive.

Well thats about it. Ending speech.  Thank you everyone. That has been my haphazrd commentary on microsofts press conference.

I think this is a step in the right direction for Sony but again I still think that the company has a problem with resting on its laurels when ever they achieve success. Remember the Walkman? Sony used to rule the portable music business until the Mp3 player came along. Then they just sat back and let Apple take over completely. Even now the walkman brand is coming back but we all know that the new walkmans will never be a real competitor to the Ipod.

It was the same with the PS3. Once the PS2 became successful Sony just stopped developing it allowing Microsoft to work at improving their systems until the playstation was made virtually obsolete by the new 360. Sony finally got their act together and released the PS3 though that was late to the party and by that time the 360 was already way ahead in almost every aspect.

The PSP Go will pose more of a threat to Nintendo now but it still seems to be holding on to the past. I mean no touchscreen? Sony still seems to be oblivious to the fact that the iPhone is affecting the handheld games market in a big way and I worry that if they don’t do something major soon then Apple could make the PSP Go obsolete at any moment.

Ever since steam implemented achievements with the Orange Box people have been asking for a gamerscore equivalent where they can earn points for their steam profile just like on the 360 or the trophy system for the PS3. While I don’t have a problem with the concept of achievements I do with how they are implemented.

PlayStation’s trophy system I think is by far the worst (which shouldn’t be the case as they had a chance to learn from the 360) as they have somehow tried to lump all the trophies into 3 groups : bronze, silver and gold plus the platinum for gaining all the other trophies. This means that there could be two different trophies that, while still the same level, are very different in the difficulty of actually getting them. Finally this system then adds together into a trophy level which other people can view. The problem with this is again two people could easily have the same level despite having different trophies.

Everyone knows the 360′s achievement system so I won’t explain it. It is still a good system but still has the problem that every game has to use 1000 points (give or take a few for DLC) so some games can have very easy achievements while some are punishingly hard.

I thought maybea system based on a percentage of  many people had earned the achievements would be a good way to score achievements on their difficulty. Well now last year someone with superior programming skills and an actual mathematical formula has made one for the steam achievement system. Yeah its not the greatest thing ever but for an unofficial one-man thing its pretty cool. Definitely for anyone who wants to know where they stack up compared to other players. I’m 44,359th at the moment. If your in place 44,358 watch out I’m gonna overtake you soon!