Well, it's that time of year again. Instead of commenting on E3 all through the week, I thought I'd do a quick wrap up here, tell you all about the most interesting parts of the three main press conferences, and also some of the newly announced games, games that have been seen for the first time, and gameplay features that have made a debut. Let's get into it, shall we?
MICROSOFT CONFERENCE
Microsoft's press conference could be summed up in a few words. X-Box Live. Kinect. Not enough exclusives, but some surprises.
Big demos of Modern Warfare 3 and Tomb Raider started the conference. MW3 apparently features enough explosions to make Michael Bay wet himself. Sounds fun. The Tomb Raider demo, on the other hand, shows off Lara's new look, as well as the "Survival Instinct" feature to help solve puzzles (now known as "Survival Escapes"). All in all, the rebooted look of Lara Croft is interesting. It's different, but still familiar. I'm looking forward to both of these games quite alot.
Games like Mass Effect 3 and Ghost Recon: Future Soldier made an appearance, if only to make Microsoft's investment in Kinect seem like a good idea. Mass Effect features some fairly cool squad commands for battle, but aside from that, the voice control seems a bit silly. I don't know about you, but when if I was to speak Shepard's dialogue option, I wouldn't want him to paraphrase right after me. But that's exactly what it does.
Ghost Recon, on the other hand, uses vocal and motion controls to modify weaponry, among other things. While it is cool to say "Optimize for close combat" and have the game modify your weapon accordingly, it all seems kind of lazy. But still cool.
X-Box live seems to be increasing it's features, with Bing and Youtube apps coming sometime in the future. I have no idea what Bing is, but I'd assume it's a search engine. Being able to search for something via voice control is pretty cool. And let's face it, Youtube makes everything better.
After showing off Gears 3 and Forza 4, Microsoft goes back to selling thier motion control crap and I become uninterested. A Fable rail shooter, Star Wars Kinect, Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster and Dance Central 2 are among the motion games that are coming out. Oh goodie...
And with that, the Microsoft conference ended... Or did it?.. One last trailer, and holy crap, who saw that coming? Halo 4. Microsoft has officially announced Halo 4. And 5 and 6. Yep, new trilogy. Coz when the lead developers leave, it's not the time to let a franchise die /sarcasm.
SONY CONFERENCE
Amazingly enough, the Sony press conference started with the recognition of the elephant in the room. They flat out apologized for the Hacking incident, and by my count, this is the second or third time. Can't say they aren't human.
After announcing the addition of CinemaNow, a movie and TV streaming service, Naughty Dog reps came on stage and showed off Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception. Stunning visuals are a benchmark of the series, and it seems as though Naughty Dog are continuing the trend with Drakes Deception.
A Resistance 3 presentation follows that up and, as with the preceeding demo, looks stunning. Sony have two really amazing looking games in their camp. Both demos were shown in 3D. Yes, Sony are still peddling that to those of us who can afford it.
But, in addition to their usual 3D displays, Sony unveiled something really interesting. A display that allows two people to look at the same screen and see two different displays. Not splitscreen. Two seperate displays to two different people. It's LIKE splitscreen... but it isn't.
More announcements, God of War: Origins are coming to the PS3 (that is, the PSP games), as well as the ICO collection, available in September. On the subject of HD remakes, how cool is it that we finally get the Metal Gear Solid Collection and Zone of the Enders collection??
Also a blast from the past, a new Sly Cooper game!! Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time comes out next year. Damn, Sucker Punch has been busy, what with InFAMOUS 2 being so awesome (oops, I guess thats my review gone).
Ken Levine makes an appearance to show off some Bioshock Infinite and talks about it's PS Move capabilities. Oh yay.. He also hints at some Bioshock NGP action. Oh Ken, you tease.
Speaking of the NGP, it's no longer known as the NGP. Say hello to the Playstation Vita. The PSVita features front and rear touch pads, motion sensing technology, front and rear cameras, two sticks. There will be both WiFi and 3G/WiFi models with about $50 difference between them. Honestly? I think Sony has a credible contender to Nintendo's coveted hand held crown.
Lots of console ports to make thier way to the Vita, including Uncharted: Golden Abyss, LittleBigPlanet and Modnation Racers. Eyewitness reports say that the graphics are just as slick as the console visuals.
The Sony conference was really 3D and Vita centric, but good none the less.
NINTENDO CONFERENCE
Following an orchestral arrangment of pieces from Legend of Zelda it's announced that For the 25th Anniversary of the series, each current platform is getting a new version, starting with Link's Awakening for the Gameboy Virtual Console. Next week, the 3DS is getting Ocarina of Time in 3D, complete with better framerate and improved graphics. In September on the DSi, Nintendo is giving away the four-player cooperative game as a free download. Then, to top it off, at the end of this year, Wii owners finally get Skyward Sword. Finally.
Super Mario, Mario Kart, Star Fox, Kid Icarus and Luigi's Mansion 2 have been revealed for the 3DS, so that thing might finally get some good titles that aren't Street Fighter. There are some good 3rd party titles on the way too; Mario and Sonic at the Olympics, Ace Combat, two Resident Evils, Tetris, Cave Story, Driver Renegade, PacMan and Galaga, Tekken and Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater.
The biggest announcement of the Nintendo conference was no doubt the final reveal of "Project Cafe", which will henceforth be known as... "Wii U". Oh shit. Come on guys, just make a normal sounding console!!! The tech behind the console sounds good, as the Nintendo higher ups seem to think that it will finally catch up to Sony and Microsoft on the High Def graphics race. However, that is yet to be seen, as most of the footage of 3rd part games seen for the Wii U was actually from PS3 and 360 versions. Smooth move Nintendo. I don't feel like you're trying to lie to me at all. No sir.
The most interesting thing about the console, however, seems to be the controller. The new controller features a 6.2" touch screen along with the usual suspects - two analog sticks, a d-pad, and the regular buttons found on the current Wii controllers. It also includes a microphone, speakers, an accelerometer, a gyroscope and an inward facing camera, which also supports videochat. It's not, however, a portable system; the images on the screen are generated by the console itself.
But the strange thing here is, according to sony, the PSVita and the PS3 will be able to do something similar on a console more reliable with 3rd party support. Only time will tell how this pans out.
As per usual, Nintendo carts out the old familiar franchises. A new Smash Bros will feature on the new system (and the 3DS), but aside from that, nothing particularly special. But, once again, Nintendo leads the charge into the next Gen, even if it's only catching up to the competition in terms of graphics now. Good luck to them.
CONCLUSION
As a whole, this wasn't the most exciting E3 for the big three. In terms of new IP's there was very little. In terms of unnannounced game reveals, there weren't that many. But in terms of showing us all a lot of new content from games releasing this year, yes, it was pretty full on. Best announcments of the big 3 are the details of the PSVita, Wii U and the X-Box Live updates coming soon. Not to mention the awesome dual display TV setup. That's awesome.
As for my top 5 games of E3, you'll have to look me up on Tuesday. For today, it was just the Big 3. Hope you guys enjoyed hearing all the E3 news. On Tuesday, Ill be back with "Top 5 Games of E3". See you Next Time!
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