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I thought there might be enough interest here in E3 to warrant it's own thread.
The Microsoft press conference just ended, and I'm pretty excited.
The big announcement was that Final Fantasy XIII would be released simultaneously on the 360 and PS3, which is good news for me as I was somewhat interested in the game but not planning on getting a PS3 anytime soon.
I also liked the co-op aspects of Fable 2 and Resident Evil 5. I'll have to see how RE5's co-op compares to Valve's upcoming Left for Dead.
There was also some new Gears of War 2 action, including an announcement of a new co-op five player mode were the team fights waves of ever increasing enemies.
Fallout 3 looks awesome, I can't wait to try it out.
A new system update for the fall will completely reconfigure the dashboard and introduce many new social features such as media sharing, multi-chat, and Netflix(with media sharing). They also introduced some kind of new "avatar" system similar to the Wii's miis, I'm not terribly excited about that in all honesty though.
Also there's new information on guitar hero and rock band, including the full song list of rock band 2, and the announcement of guitar hero: Metallica.
Also, a link to G4, which is streaming live coverage of press conferences and demos:
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Fallout 3 looks really cool. I especially liked the portable nuclear bomb launcher. Fable 2 ia the other one I'm really looking forward too.
Posts: 4569 | Registered: Dec 2003
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Ooooho am I happy about FFXIII. Me and my roommate were so sad that we weren't even going to get to see it played, since we don't know anyone with a PS3. Now ... well, we'll see how long I'm able to hold out on getting a 360 myself.
Posts: 2827 | Registered: Jul 2005
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I forgot about Portal: Still Alive, being announced as an Xbox 360 arcade download, featuring new maps, challenges, and achievements.
The 360 will also soon be able to copy games to the hard drive allowing faster loading. I am wondering how the transition to "Avatars" will affect the current gamerpic system.
I can't wait for Bungie's countdown to end so we can see what they have to announce. Halo Wars is also very intriguing, I'd like to see how well it handles.
I loved the exclusive demo content I saw for Fallout 3, Teddy bear launcher FTW!
Less than 10 miles from me, and not a whole lot farther from the rest of the SoCal clump ('specially if they come here ).
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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The portal announcement was NOT an announcement of Portal 2. Portal: Still Alive is the same single player as Portal one, plus a new "challenge" mode. To call it a sequel would be incorrect.
Posts: 332 | Registered: Apr 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Lanfear: The portal announcement was NOT an announcement of Portal 2. Portal: Still Alive is the same single player as Portal one, plus a new "challenge" mode. To call it a sequel would be incorrect.
Really? I'm sorry if I mislead anyone then, I thought it was a sequel. Hopefully The PC version gets the new maps as DLC then.
At the EA conference I really got interested in SimAnimals, it seems to be a sim game were you control various animals in an environment, you are able to pick up individual animals and plants and effect them in various ways. I really enjoy Viva Pinata so I think I might like this. Which reminds me that I didn't mention Viva Pinata 2, this game looks interesting, but I was disappointed in one new "feature" that was announced; The ability to bring new creatures into the garden area via cards and the xbox live camera. It seems to gimmicky and just a way to get money.
I wasn't too terribly interested in Dead Space before, but after seeing footage of it, it seems more intriguing. It seems very Resident Evil 4ish, albeit with a sci-fi setting and in space. But the lack of any announced multi-player really hurts.
I was skeptical about mirror's edge, but now that I've seen more of it, I'm beginning to like it. it seems very much like portal, with the aperture science device replaced with acrobatics. I do think having the enemy (I think their organization is called DICE?) constantly chasing you seems a little heart-pounding.
Posts: 2489 | Registered: Jan 2002
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quote:Originally posted by rivka: You're at E3, right?
Less than 10 miles from me, and not a whole lot farther from the rest of the SoCal clump ('specially if they come here ).
Yeah, it was invitation only with I *think* only about 5000 invitations given. So the rest of us were forced to watch helplessly from the outside.
Posts: 2827 | Registered: Jul 2005
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The Dead Space prequel comics (free downloads on XBL) are actually really cool. I'm enjoying both the art and the story. I hadn't planned on getting the game, but it's giving me a BioShock vibe and I really dig that.
I really dislike the avatars, both aesthetically and as interface elements. A sorted list of names with current status beside each and a small identifying image (gamer pic) is vastly more efficient than a crowd of avatars whose names only appear when they aren't doing anything -- notice in the screenshots and videos that a user playing a game or viewing photos has the game or photo displayed above their avatar, replacing their name. Ugh, ugh, ugh.
As long as the sorted list comes up in the guide, though, I'll just use that and ignore the Community channel (yes, they're called "channels" now, just in case it wasn't already totally obvious that they're aping Nintendo) entirely.
Added: It really seems to me like they're fixing a part of the interface that isn't broken -- by which I mean they're breaking a part of the interface that doesn't need fixing. The part that needs fixing is display and sorting of large content lists (e.g. downloaded XBLA titles, the available Rock Band DLC list on the XBLM, etc.), not how you view which of your friends is online.
Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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I liked the announcement of Animal Crossing for the Wii, as well as the Wii speak (even if it does transmit an entire room), finally some progress on online participation. Hopefully I won't have to use my 360 while I play my Wii just so I can talk to my friends.
Wii music seemed interesting in the various instruments you could play, and the large number of players playing at once, But I still think I'm more interested in Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero: Metallica for the 360.
I didn't see any footage of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, So I can't make any judgements about it yet.
The new Wii Sports with the motion Plus seems very fun, especially the sword-fighting.
I was disappointed in no news on WiiWare titles, and no memory solution. I'd also like to see the Wii produced in some other colors.
Sony Conference:
Sony introduced a new movie download system that has several excellent features, first the ability too watch the product as it progressively downloads, which, if I understand correctly, Xbox Live does not offer in its download service (I have not used 360's movie/TV service). It also seems that you can download the product onto a PC from Sony's marketplace and further place it onto a PSP, I have no word on weather you can also transfer it to video MP3 players. I think Microsoft can take a page from this to improve their service.
The biggest game announcement that stuck out to me was MAG or Massive Action Game, an FPS from the producers of SOCOM that features 256 player simultaneous play. This definitely peaked my interest and I plan on looking further into this game.
Is there something I'm just not getting from Little Big Planet and Home? Most of the time they show those I just think "meh". I'm also sad that rather than reintegrate backwards compatibility they just increased the 40 GB model's hard drive to 80 GB.
Ubisoft:
The new Raving Rabbids looks awesome, I'm ashamed to say that I still haven't played either of the first two titles.
Tom Clancy's End War looks very interesting, I'll have to see if it ends up with a better interface than Lifeline.
I wish they showed something about Tom Clancy: Hawx.
I don't know what to think of IamAlive, as they didn't really expand much on it, but I usually like post-apocalyptic settings so I think I might enjoy it.
Edit to add: Looks like the Bungie team won't be making any appearance at E3, their publisher has put a stop to it, and they've replaced their countdown timer with the news.
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The best stuff I've seen is the Star Wars lineup for the Nintendo platforms. Force Unleashed using the Wii remote and the Nunchuck is without a doubt certified awesome, and now with the Clone Wars lightsaber game, I can FINALLY be assured that there will be a time in the near future when I can use my Wii remote as a lightsaber! The DS Clone Wars game looks pretty cool too, and I'm glad it uses ONLY the stylus a la Phantom Hourglass, so I can play it my way (left-handed). But what really turns me on about it is the co-op play.
Wii Music details are still kind of vague. It sounds cool that you can make your own music videos with all those various instruments, but I've been making music with Anvil Studio for over a year, and I'd like to know exactly to what extent a player can be creative. If there's a preset tune, but there's no guide to what button to press and when, it seems like Miyamoto playing the saxophone is just like a kid fiddling with a kazoo.
The sword fighting in Wii Sports Resort looks great. The MotionPlus add-on makes a big difference with its precision rotational measurement, and I suspect that it's SO good that it can even detect its position in respect to the TV and the player (why else would you have to point it at the screen before each game?).
I'm also very excited about Animal Crossing, even though I had never contemplated even approaching a game in that franchise before. The WiiSpeak is what does it, as well as the ability to visit a friend's town, with all those customizable options for your own town.
Posts: 1029 | Registered: Apr 2007
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OOooOoooOOOOoooOOo I want endwar now ( the only other rts i've played on a console was starcraft 64)
Posts: 1574 | Registered: May 2008
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XBox 360 will play movies while downloading, but you may have to wait several minutes for enough to buffer up to start watching. This is much worse with HD movies, of course. I don't see how this would be any better on a PS3 though. Bandwidth is bandwidth.
Posts: 3275 | Registered: May 2007
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I haven't been since E3 2003, and since they have changed the format it's as though no publishers or developers really care about E3 anymore. You can't get the same kind of word of mouth that you used to, and you can't get the same kind of exposure.
I think the ESA should bring it back as it was, or let it die, so that someone else can bring us a new trade show that's a herald to the old!
Posts: 121 | Registered: Mar 2005
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