• 8Jun 09

  Sony Press Conference E3 '09

  ON TODAY'S AGENDA

  I take a look at Sony's E3 press conference, which tied with Microsoft's in my mind, and pretty much everybody else's (excluding moms, who are just super excited about sky diving).

  GAWD Sony had the best speaker by leaps and bounds, a sense of humor is so necessary for these things that I'm surprised they haven't started hiring comedians already. Luckily, Jack Tretton actually knows what a punch line is, and makes light of the ridiculous number of leaks that squirted out hours before E3.

  I know it happened in the middle, but I wanna talk about it now before I explode. OMG SONY MOTION CONTROLLER PWNS! Absolutely astounding, if you haven't seen it, you have to do so now. The prototype looks like part of a staff from LOTR but it doesn't matter b/c it is the most epic sauce on epic spaghetti thing ever. I don't know why they don't just release the thing now, I'd certainly buy a PS3 in a heartbeat, and it would make the Wii console itself ACTUALLY blush. The 1:1 ratio just blew me away, using it as a bow, a gun, racket, pencil, everything was completely impressive. If Sony times the release of that hardware properly in sync with the FFXIII release (b/c we all know that once SQUE releases a game for the new Sony system it is the driving force behind sales) they will see massive sales figures and might actually be able say what they've wanted to say for a few years - "I told ya so".

  God of War 3 excited everybody, I'm just not a big fan of empty violence games like GOW or Dead Rising, so I wasn't too thrilled really, even though it does look satisfyingly violent and graphically gorgeous. I did notice that the standard fast attack combo is almost the exact same, AGAIN so I really hope they fix that because the combos get repetitive enough in one game, no need to carry that monotony over into your shiny new baby.

  Final Fantasy 13 in english, which sounded very nice, and we got to see Odin for the first time. I'm trying to distance myself from press about the game because the more I care about a game, the less I want to read up on it, I do the same thing for Bioshock 2, so ya. Also Final Fantasy 14 was announced which was so shocking I had to rewind the video to make sure I heard properly. It's going to be an MMO, but will run alongside the very popular XI. Many of you might not know, but FFXI has lasted almost as long as WoW, and has certainly outlasted games like Age of Conan or Tabula Rasa, so SQUE knows how to do MMO's well, and I'm really looking forward to something that can tear me away from WoW forever.

  Uncharted 2 was shown and it looked absolutely gorgeous. I haven't (sadly) played the first, but I am painfully aware of how good it is and I plan to play it as soon as I subscribe to GameFly. MAG was shown which looked like a much more tactical multiplayer experience rather than your hectic L4D experiences. I can just see it now: entering the queue for a 256 player deathmatch, putting my controller down, going to the grocery store, coming back, and starting the match. I hope their matchmaking system is GODLY or this game will flop so very very hard. Racing games were announced which I never pay any attention to, even though I do recognize a racing game as a genre, as opposed to sports games which I do not. We also say MGS for the PSP which of course looks gorgeous and amazing and I will buy it.

  PSP GO was announced, but not at E3 cuz it got leaked, therefore not in this blog, SORRY GO.

  Assassin's Creed 2 looks absolutely insane with much more maneuverability and vareity of killing, rather than just sitting around with short sword waiting to counter, you can do much more, and there are TWO HIDDEN BLADES to kill two nub guards with, and it's very fancy. The aesthetic is still there with the soft colors, which I thoroughly loved in AC1. Should be a very exciting release.

  Finally there is The Last Guardian, being made by the same ppl as Shadow of the Colossus (one of my FAVES). The trailer shown was very emotional, on the same level as the "Where the Wild Things Are" trailer. The interaction with the boy and his beast looks very touching, and I'm usually not very mooshy gooshy, but that game just looks like it will leave a lasting impression on you, because the trailer itself did that on me already. I look forward to that game very much so.

  Even though Sony did a bad job at keeping it's Secrets this year, it still managed to keep several tricks up its sleeve, and they were very impressive indeed.

  • Posted Jun 8, 2009 1:00 am GMT
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• 8Jun 09

  Nintendo Press Conference E3 '09

  ON TODAY'S AGENDA

  We have a ton of E3 stuff that's just been unveiled last week, and I'm in the mood to chat about it, even though no one reads these things. I just gotta get the gaming news off my flat, bony, white chest, cuz I have no friends to talk about this with...you'll never leave me will you mr. blogtextbox?

  So first up is Nintendo's press conference, which was only semi awful this year.

  The most important announcement was obviously the Vitality Sensor. The fact of the matter is that this piece of hardware is going to be ground breaking as far as Wii games go. Imagine: a game finally comes out for the Wii that makes you feel like you're actually having an adrenaline rush, but you know it can't be true b/c you're playing the Wii, so how do you check to see if the game is actually exciting you? BOOM, vitality sensor. 3-2-1...yes I am indeed excited abou this game, as is evident by my rapid heartrate.

  But really, what was awesome? For me personally, the Golden Sun DS announcement was jaw dropping and unbelievably awesome. Golden Sun and GS: the Lost Age are two of my fave games of all time, and I can't wait to see what's next, even thought Camelot's not developing and the graphics have succumb to the DS' crappy polygonal standards.

  Then on the Mario front was Super Mario Galaxy 2 (notice that U R MR GAY is still prominent) and New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Both look like a ton of fun for the hardcore crowd and casual gamers, respectively. I loved NSMB for DS and this looks like a ton of fun too, plus there's fun spinny waggle action, so who wouldn't love that?

  There was also the Wii Motion Plus, but after seeing Sony and Microsoft's motion controll projects, I literally couldn't be any less excited about the new addition to my Wiimote. Nintendo is about to get embarrasingly behind in technology, and it won't be acceptabe by and gamers standards. BTW I'm a Nintendo fanboy and even I think this.

  Also there was a showing of the new Metroid game titled Metroid: Other M which is being developed by Team Ninja surprisingly. TN is of course known for the incredibly difficult Ninja Gaiden series, and it shows in the footage of Samus, with her leaping around and pwning mob face. In this adventure Samus looks FARRRR less static; with much more leaping and ninja like action, which is a breath of air I think all the Nintendo IP's deserve. It never dawned on me to think what another developer could do for a Nintendo franchise, but so far the outcome looks amazing.

  So ya, overall it was much more successful than last year, but they really need to up the excitement level and hire new speakers that are funny and cool (like meeeeeee) to deliver this news. I fell asleep twice watching and I drink Mt. Dew CONSTANTLY.

  Oh and Wii Resort crap, but it's no Secret that literally NOBODY who knows what E3 is and watched the conference cares about Resort at all. Nobody. Like Roxas nobody.

  • Posted Jun 8, 2009 12:18 am GMT
  • Category: Games
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• 6Apr 09

  Backwards Compatibility: Who's doing it right?

  ON TODAY'S AGENDA

  We have the issue of BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY.

  For those of you who don't know what that is, I suggest that after recess and snack time, you google it. Backwards compatibility means can PS2 play PSX games? Can the DS play SP games? That sort of thing.

  As the next gen consoles get made, the issue of backwards compatibility arrises again and again. The fact of the matter is that you're gonna be stuck between a rock and a bigger rock no matter what. Old games are good, and everybody loves going back and playing their old faves, but making new hardware that can still play those games is a nuisance to companies. So what should they do? Let's take a look at what each of the 3 giants have done with the issue, as each of them have done something unique.

  Sony has dealt with the issue of backwards compatibility by keeping the old gen console around. The PS2 (that's a TWO) is still selling incredibly well, for those of you who don't know, and developers are even still making new games for it. IMAGINE THAT! As far as the actual back-comp for the PS3, it's a big pile of crap. It actually depends on what era of the PS3's life you bought your's in. If you got it at the beginning, when the PS3 was a GRILLION dollars, then there is some sort of back-comp, but it's not very thorough at all, especially with the new releases. If you used the grey, mooshy stuff between your ears and waited for the PS3's price to drop before you got one, then there is NO back-comp. Now, though I think this is an interesting but wrong way to go about things, I DO believe it's the only thing keeping Sony out of bankruptcy. With new releases and price drops on the PS2, the sales are rocketing, and putting money in Sony's pocket where the PS3 is failing.

  Microsoft is all about DLC. They do things pretty well. They are constantly updating the software on the 360 with patches that allow it to read XBOX games. Even if you don't have LIVE (like ME maybe?) because you can't afford the whole setup, you can manually DL the patch off Microsoft's website onto a disc, and pop that disc into your console, and BOOM you can play Blinx whenever you want! Very convenient.

  Nintendo does things the best, I believe. The Wii plays all GC games right off the bat, and there's really not much else to say about that. What's more interesting is what they do with their handheld systems, which they put out like Starbucks puts out new flavors of coffee. But with the handhelds they have FORCED the world to get with the times. It's like they're making new systems, which slowly don't play older games, and we're all like "Nintendo, what about these old games?" and they're like "what old games?". The DS didn't play Gameboy games, the DSi won't play GBA games, and so forth. They're like a no-nonsense grandma who won't feed you crap about your stupid nativity play. It was a crappy play and she hated it. Likewise, Nintendo says get over your nostalgia and play our new toy!

  And that is the Secret to the success of back-comp.

  • Posted Apr 6, 2009 9:16 am GMT
  • Category: Games
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