Oh Shit, Its E3! (Day One)
Unique title, but E3 kinda caught me offguard this year. I don't actively search gaming sites because these days most games I'm really not that interested in, and gaming doesn't really work on quite the cycle something like comics or manga does. (CERTAINLY not how most manga works.) I want more Flash: Rebirth, I just have to wait thirty days. I want more Uncharted, I either better play it again or get ready to wait a year or two.
Anyway, fortunately I hadn't missed anything, and I have G4. Usually good for nothing more than getting a look at the stunningly beautiful Olivia Munn, one must always concede that they have almost invaluable coverage of the biggest video game and the biggest comic book conventions in America, E3 and the San Diego Comic-Con, so I was able to see the presentations for both Nintendo and Sony. (I probably could've catched Microsoft's too, but, who cares? I don't want a 360--its mostly FPS games anyway, and well, we've been over there.)
And here is the rest of it.
I gotta say, I was impressed by both companies' presentations. By no means are the days of FPS gone just yet, but finally some games that AREN'T FPSs are starting to pop their heads up in more substantial numbers, which always leaves me at least a LITTLE more interested.
In the interest of order, let's start with Nintendo. Holy crap! The company actually...LISTENED to the complaints people made after their show last year! The biggest post-Nintendo E3 presentation complaint boiled down to, "Hey, Nintendo? HARDCORE GAMERS DON'T WANT TO PLAY JUST ANIMAL PLANET." I thought this year would be a repeat, since in my eyes Nintendo has had a repeating cycle since the N64: Release all their first-party games at launch, clean up because those franchises are HUGE, then languish about for 4-6 years until they release their next system. Rinse, repeat. Despite the Wii selling what it did, I thought by Year 3 or Year 4, the casual fanbase would lose interest, and without any of those stellar first-party titles that Nintendo takes FOREVER to release to lure in hardcore gamers, people would forget about the system.
I'll say this now. I was wrong. Nintendo ponied up the awesome-ness this E3. They started off boring, talking about WiiSports or whatever, but then they introduced New Super Mario Bros. for the Wii. I confess--I'm not a HUGE Mario fan, but I do have fond memories of playing Super Mario All-Star on my SNES when I'd run out of PSX J-RPGs to go through, and they were all quite fun. I'd object to this if it were a simple remake, but from the video I saw, they had reworked all the graphics for the Wii, AND added a fun new feature: The ability to play "story" mode with up to 4 players simultaneously: Mario, Luigi, Green Toad and Yellow Toad. (Should've been Princess, but I refuse to nitpick.) The game just looked FUN to play, and above all else, that's what a game should be, right?
They followed this up with--Surprise, Bitch!--Super Mario Galaxy 2. The g/f *loved* the original game, and her enthusiasm was so infectious I actually watched this trailer with interest. I always loved Yoshi, so getting to play with him being my partner already has me intrigued. That plus the idea of hopping from mini-planet to mini-planet, and gameplay that looked positively addicting, and suddenly I want to play a franchise I haven't cared about since they screwed us Super Mario RPG fans with that pretender to the throne, Paper Mario.
But you know what? Fuck Mario. Fuck Mario, and his brother, and all the psychotropic drugs they use to fight the fifth ninja turtle. Because while those games looked fun, the REAL shocker from Nintendo was this. Team Ninja. Metroid. FUCK. YES. We're back to third person, the story appears to have a plot, and I suddenly want a Wii. Dammit Nintendo. You win. Continue to print money on schedule, guys.
They also talked a bit about the DS. The fact that the Mega Man Network games have a sequel series on it, plus the three Castlevania games have already ensured my getting buying a DS at some point, but then they also revealed the new Golden Sun game for the DS, which I confess looked positively stunning, even for a portable game (proof is in the link above). Plus Nintendo needs good RPGs; granted, it needs them far more on a console, but that's another story entirely.
All-in-all, four REALLY awesome looking titles make up a decent haul for Nintendo considering last year I was paying them absolutely no attention at all.
As far as Sony's presentation, well....
You gotta feel bad for Sony. They had to waste several minutes of their presentation rattling off facts to keep people from thinking 2008 wasn't as shitty a year for them as we thought--which, sad to say, it was. They never got that killer app they were looking for, and much of the steam they were looking for was straight JACKED when Square-Enix said, "Oh, hey? You know that new Final Fantasy game you've been looking for almost since launch? Yeah, we're taking that to your competitors too now!"
But once you got past all that, Sony had quite the kick-ass presentation too. I'll admit, I'm just a little disappointed in their new PSP Go! system. Assuming everyone has broadband internet (and especially, GOOD broadband) in order to download their games is just not a smart move in this country. And they should've gone for larger flash memory sizes than just 16GB, but I expect switching to flash memory will just allow them to do more of their multiple SKU craziness we saw on the PS3. Oh. While I'm at it, I should mention that my girlfriend called this as the future of consoles (this and the eventual switching over to memory sticks) and she was right. I disagreed, and thus I was wrong. That's a rarity, but hey it happens now and again.
Anyhow. Concerning games, I realize I'm pretty picky. They announced quite a couple potential "killer apps" for the PSP--a brand new Resident Evil game, and a legit Metal Gear Solid game designed by Hideo Kojima (!) called Peacewalker, but honestly I couldn't be less interested in either of them. Sorry.
I'd be excited about the fact that Final Fantasy VII is coming to the Playstation Network, but unless they tweaked the graphics or added some new materia or SOMETHING, I already have that game for my PSX, and I was never a big enough fan of it to want to own multiple copies. (Now if they release the Suikoden series, particularly 2 and 3, well THEN you'll have something!)
There's ALSO a new game coming out from one of my friend's favorite developers, Team ICO, entitled The Last Guardian. The last in the trilogy alongside ICO and Shadow of Colossus. Honestly the "Guardian" or whatever looked so Neverending Story I just kinda chuckled at it, but it WAS pretty.
The first real interesting thing I managed to see was the Final Fantasy XIII trailer. I don't know why I let Square keep burning me. The only FF game I've ever REALLY liked was Tactics, and I've played all of them except the first three. Still, XIII looked gorgeous, and Lightning actually looks like a protagonist I might like. One thing I'll say for Square: Screw all the naysayers, they go out of their way to design an entirely new world with a brand-new mythology, magic system, battle engines, new characters, and really, new EVERYTHING each time they make a new Final Fantasy game. They're sequels in a line but really they're all separate games each time, and for that they are to be commended.
And this universe looks particularly interesting--I actually get an almost Final Fantasy VII vibe from it, which even though I'm not a HUGE fan, its still probably my second favorite of the FFs thus far, so that's a good thing.
The REAL shocker came when they showed us this. What. The. Fuck. No bullshit, the whole place went quiet when the FFXIII trailer finished and Jack Tretton just says, "Oh, and we got a little something else from Square. Final Fantasy XIV."
...Wasn't quiet HERE though. My response was, and I quote: "Bullshit. BULL. SHIT. No fucking WAY!" Hate all you want, but FF XIV looks beautiful. Only downer is that it appears to be online. Hoping though that it'll have an offline component as well, to legitimately earn the number at the end.
Only REAL problem with it all? This now puts a time clock on FF XIII Versus. They are seriously risking everybody just saying, "Who gives a fuck? When are you releasing XV?" if they release XIII Versus TOO late after the release of XIII. Ideally, Versus needs to come out 6-10 months after XIII to keep the XIII excitement going.
Anyhow, they went back to discussing tech after this, which upon reflection now made me wonder if there are literally "spies" going back and forth between the companies like on The Jetsons. I mean, come on, how can they ALL announce new motion sensor tech in the same show?? WTF. Still, if I had to rate them, this one and Nintendo's Wii MotionPlus sort of tie. (I like this one better, but Wii MotionPlus is due out this year), while Project Natal is a distant second or third. I don't want the techonology to be "invisible", Spielberg, I want to actually HOLD something. Be it a model gun or a controller or whatever.
There was also some shit about a new Rockstar game and another God of War but, fuck all that.
Other things worth mentioning concerning Day One at E3:
- There's a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game! Honestly, I just never get tired of kicking butt with Leo and Raph. Kinda wish it weren't for the Wii, but why not? Metroid: Other M has already snagged me, so I want a Wii anyway. Plus, a story by one of the creators of the Turtles means the plot could actually be interesting too. Go figure.
- A look at Bayonetta. Fucking FINALLY. I've gleaned form the link that the game is absolutely insane. Which, you know, works for me fine because I was insane before hand. Still, the idea of fighting a two-headed dragon in a church, dodging attacks inside the church from one head while the OTHER head attacks from the outside...well shit. That's just impressive. Oh. Did I mention the church was in mid-air? Now all I hope is that, much like Devil May Cry, our new character gets an array of ridiculous weapons to bitch-smack the villains.
- Batman: Arkham Asylum is looking like it might be the first good Batman game aside from the Lego one. Which is depressing, because I don't really wanna play in Arkham. I want to play in Gotham! I want a game that's essentially GTA, only instead of beating up innocent people I get to beat up crooks. Maybe next time.
- Uncharted 2: Among Thieves was one of the last things they covered at Sony's Press Conference. Honestly Uncharted 1 was almost reason enough to get a PS3 on its own, and Uncharted 2 looks even more amazing. If my friend with the PS3 hadn't moved away I'd get over to his house and jack his PS3 to play the new beta, but alas, he's been gone for weeks now. Ah well. More of a reason to get my own PS3, one supposes. Still, I'm amazed its launching in November. The first game will only be about two years old when this hits. Usually gaming companies are much lazier following up big hits, but I can't say I'm not glad Naughty Dog knew the business.
Oh, and the WTF announcement so far? Click here.
Thanks to Destructoid for the web coverage...the only other site I know of that I'd feel comfortable checking is 1up, and their organization is pretty crappy. Still, I may give them a look anyway for a different perspective. If so, expect that in the next edition of TheLinkUp.
Anyway, fortunately I hadn't missed anything, and I have G4. Usually good for nothing more than getting a look at the stunningly beautiful Olivia Munn, one must always concede that they have almost invaluable coverage of the biggest video game and the biggest comic book conventions in America, E3 and the San Diego Comic-Con, so I was able to see the presentations for both Nintendo and Sony. (I probably could've catched Microsoft's too, but, who cares? I don't want a 360--its mostly FPS games anyway, and well, we've been over there.)
And here is the rest of it.
I gotta say, I was impressed by both companies' presentations. By no means are the days of FPS gone just yet, but finally some games that AREN'T FPSs are starting to pop their heads up in more substantial numbers, which always leaves me at least a LITTLE more interested.
In the interest of order, let's start with Nintendo. Holy crap! The company actually...LISTENED to the complaints people made after their show last year! The biggest post-Nintendo E3 presentation complaint boiled down to, "Hey, Nintendo? HARDCORE GAMERS DON'T WANT TO PLAY JUST ANIMAL PLANET." I thought this year would be a repeat, since in my eyes Nintendo has had a repeating cycle since the N64: Release all their first-party games at launch, clean up because those franchises are HUGE, then languish about for 4-6 years until they release their next system. Rinse, repeat. Despite the Wii selling what it did, I thought by Year 3 or Year 4, the casual fanbase would lose interest, and without any of those stellar first-party titles that Nintendo takes FOREVER to release to lure in hardcore gamers, people would forget about the system.
I'll say this now. I was wrong. Nintendo ponied up the awesome-ness this E3. They started off boring, talking about WiiSports or whatever, but then they introduced New Super Mario Bros. for the Wii. I confess--I'm not a HUGE Mario fan, but I do have fond memories of playing Super Mario All-Star on my SNES when I'd run out of PSX J-RPGs to go through, and they were all quite fun. I'd object to this if it were a simple remake, but from the video I saw, they had reworked all the graphics for the Wii, AND added a fun new feature: The ability to play "story" mode with up to 4 players simultaneously: Mario, Luigi, Green Toad and Yellow Toad. (Should've been Princess, but I refuse to nitpick.) The game just looked FUN to play, and above all else, that's what a game should be, right?
They followed this up with--Surprise, Bitch!--Super Mario Galaxy 2. The g/f *loved* the original game, and her enthusiasm was so infectious I actually watched this trailer with interest. I always loved Yoshi, so getting to play with him being my partner already has me intrigued. That plus the idea of hopping from mini-planet to mini-planet, and gameplay that looked positively addicting, and suddenly I want to play a franchise I haven't cared about since they screwed us Super Mario RPG fans with that pretender to the throne, Paper Mario.
But you know what? Fuck Mario. Fuck Mario, and his brother, and all the psychotropic drugs they use to fight the fifth ninja turtle. Because while those games looked fun, the REAL shocker from Nintendo was this. Team Ninja. Metroid. FUCK. YES. We're back to third person, the story appears to have a plot, and I suddenly want a Wii. Dammit Nintendo. You win. Continue to print money on schedule, guys.
They also talked a bit about the DS. The fact that the Mega Man Network games have a sequel series on it, plus the three Castlevania games have already ensured my getting buying a DS at some point, but then they also revealed the new Golden Sun game for the DS, which I confess looked positively stunning, even for a portable game (proof is in the link above). Plus Nintendo needs good RPGs; granted, it needs them far more on a console, but that's another story entirely.
All-in-all, four REALLY awesome looking titles make up a decent haul for Nintendo considering last year I was paying them absolutely no attention at all.
As far as Sony's presentation, well....
You gotta feel bad for Sony. They had to waste several minutes of their presentation rattling off facts to keep people from thinking 2008 wasn't as shitty a year for them as we thought--which, sad to say, it was. They never got that killer app they were looking for, and much of the steam they were looking for was straight JACKED when Square-Enix said, "Oh, hey? You know that new Final Fantasy game you've been looking for almost since launch? Yeah, we're taking that to your competitors too now!"
But once you got past all that, Sony had quite the kick-ass presentation too. I'll admit, I'm just a little disappointed in their new PSP Go! system. Assuming everyone has broadband internet (and especially, GOOD broadband) in order to download their games is just not a smart move in this country. And they should've gone for larger flash memory sizes than just 16GB, but I expect switching to flash memory will just allow them to do more of their multiple SKU craziness we saw on the PS3. Oh. While I'm at it, I should mention that my girlfriend called this as the future of consoles (this and the eventual switching over to memory sticks) and she was right. I disagreed, and thus I was wrong. That's a rarity, but hey it happens now and again.
Anyhow. Concerning games, I realize I'm pretty picky. They announced quite a couple potential "killer apps" for the PSP--a brand new Resident Evil game, and a legit Metal Gear Solid game designed by Hideo Kojima (!) called Peacewalker, but honestly I couldn't be less interested in either of them. Sorry.
I'd be excited about the fact that Final Fantasy VII is coming to the Playstation Network, but unless they tweaked the graphics or added some new materia or SOMETHING, I already have that game for my PSX, and I was never a big enough fan of it to want to own multiple copies. (Now if they release the Suikoden series, particularly 2 and 3, well THEN you'll have something!)
There's ALSO a new game coming out from one of my friend's favorite developers, Team ICO, entitled The Last Guardian. The last in the trilogy alongside ICO and Shadow of Colossus. Honestly the "Guardian" or whatever looked so Neverending Story I just kinda chuckled at it, but it WAS pretty.
The first real interesting thing I managed to see was the Final Fantasy XIII trailer. I don't know why I let Square keep burning me. The only FF game I've ever REALLY liked was Tactics, and I've played all of them except the first three. Still, XIII looked gorgeous, and Lightning actually looks like a protagonist I might like. One thing I'll say for Square: Screw all the naysayers, they go out of their way to design an entirely new world with a brand-new mythology, magic system, battle engines, new characters, and really, new EVERYTHING each time they make a new Final Fantasy game. They're sequels in a line but really they're all separate games each time, and for that they are to be commended.
And this universe looks particularly interesting--I actually get an almost Final Fantasy VII vibe from it, which even though I'm not a HUGE fan, its still probably my second favorite of the FFs thus far, so that's a good thing.
The REAL shocker came when they showed us this. What. The. Fuck. No bullshit, the whole place went quiet when the FFXIII trailer finished and Jack Tretton just says, "Oh, and we got a little something else from Square. Final Fantasy XIV."
...Wasn't quiet HERE though. My response was, and I quote: "Bullshit. BULL. SHIT. No fucking WAY!" Hate all you want, but FF XIV looks beautiful. Only downer is that it appears to be online. Hoping though that it'll have an offline component as well, to legitimately earn the number at the end.
Only REAL problem with it all? This now puts a time clock on FF XIII Versus. They are seriously risking everybody just saying, "Who gives a fuck? When are you releasing XV?" if they release XIII Versus TOO late after the release of XIII. Ideally, Versus needs to come out 6-10 months after XIII to keep the XIII excitement going.
Anyhow, they went back to discussing tech after this, which upon reflection now made me wonder if there are literally "spies" going back and forth between the companies like on The Jetsons. I mean, come on, how can they ALL announce new motion sensor tech in the same show?? WTF. Still, if I had to rate them, this one and Nintendo's Wii MotionPlus sort of tie. (I like this one better, but Wii MotionPlus is due out this year), while Project Natal is a distant second or third. I don't want the techonology to be "invisible", Spielberg, I want to actually HOLD something. Be it a model gun or a controller or whatever.
There was also some shit about a new Rockstar game and another God of War but, fuck all that.
Other things worth mentioning concerning Day One at E3:
- There's a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game! Honestly, I just never get tired of kicking butt with Leo and Raph. Kinda wish it weren't for the Wii, but why not? Metroid: Other M has already snagged me, so I want a Wii anyway. Plus, a story by one of the creators of the Turtles means the plot could actually be interesting too. Go figure.
- A look at Bayonetta. Fucking FINALLY. I've gleaned form the link that the game is absolutely insane. Which, you know, works for me fine because I was insane before hand. Still, the idea of fighting a two-headed dragon in a church, dodging attacks inside the church from one head while the OTHER head attacks from the outside...well shit. That's just impressive. Oh. Did I mention the church was in mid-air? Now all I hope is that, much like Devil May Cry, our new character gets an array of ridiculous weapons to bitch-smack the villains.
- Batman: Arkham Asylum is looking like it might be the first good Batman game aside from the Lego one. Which is depressing, because I don't really wanna play in Arkham. I want to play in Gotham! I want a game that's essentially GTA, only instead of beating up innocent people I get to beat up crooks. Maybe next time.
- Uncharted 2: Among Thieves was one of the last things they covered at Sony's Press Conference. Honestly Uncharted 1 was almost reason enough to get a PS3 on its own, and Uncharted 2 looks even more amazing. If my friend with the PS3 hadn't moved away I'd get over to his house and jack his PS3 to play the new beta, but alas, he's been gone for weeks now. Ah well. More of a reason to get my own PS3, one supposes. Still, I'm amazed its launching in November. The first game will only be about two years old when this hits. Usually gaming companies are much lazier following up big hits, but I can't say I'm not glad Naughty Dog knew the business.
Oh, and the WTF announcement so far? Click here.
Thanks to Destructoid for the web coverage...the only other site I know of that I'd feel comfortable checking is 1up, and their organization is pretty crappy. Still, I may give them a look anyway for a different perspective. If so, expect that in the next edition of TheLinkUp.
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