112 replies to this topic

[DiGi Valentine]

Ok. So E3 is starting this week. Lord only knows what to expect this time around. Last year we had ....well....nothing really. It was quite a major let down other than Square Enix announcing the release of FF13 on Xbox360 thus breaking the exclusivity of the title. LOL.

As far as 'ground breaking news' went, that was about it.

Is anybody expecting anything major? Anything you think might appear this year?


Also, does anybody also know where would be a good place to watch live-coverage of the event at all?
Last year, iLLViLLAiN linked us to some guy called monkeyman though i don't know how to get back to his channel

--edit--
Wait. I found the link to MonkeyMans channel ...but i don't know if he'll be covering G4's stuff again like last year.
Anyways, here's the link to his page, just in case he does cover E3 --> monkeyman

If monkeyman doesn't cover E3 do any of you know who might?

--edit+--
E3 coverage ....i think. >.>
Another person who might be covering E3. ...maybe >.>

[Zero-Shift]

I'm having touble getting into E3 this year. Probably because of the enormous amout of early trailers and leaked footage. It seems everybody is so afraid of their material being drowned out by the competition they're trying to get a head start. It's eerily similar to the Oklahoma Land Run, only people jumping the gun aren't getting shot.

I'm a bit sick of E3. It's just a shell of what it used to be. Back in it's heyday, E3 was the gamer's holiday and spectacle incarnate. Companies placed huge booths with themes and activities. Nintendo had animatronics for the Twilight Princess booth for f***'s sake! Developers and publishers would make big announcements in a frantic attempt to 1-up one another with sh!t coming out of left field and at least several other players. It was exciting and fresh and the energy was tangible.

Ever since the restructuring, E3 has become pathetic. Press conferences have been a bore with lots of statistics and nothing very exciting announced and the floor is filled with titles we've all known about for several months with nary a surprise title to be seen. No Snake in Brawl, no new Halo, nothing out of nowhere to get you excited. The expo feels like it's become nothing more than a very "play it safe event with no risks and the sole purpose of making stockholders feel safe. If it's any consolation though, I don't see how this year could possibly be any worse than last year. E3 2008 was an embarrassment of monolithic scale.

I'm probably just going to end up watching trailers of games I'm curious about and that's it. As far as I'm concerned when it comes to game events, Leipzig and the Tokyo Game Show are where the real action takes place now.

As for coverage, there is always Gametrailers, Gamespot, and IGN. At least they're the first to come to mind.

[TRiPPY]

I hope that guy with the drums comes back, that was epic lollllage.

[Saifer Dracondrali]

If I can recall correctly... the last E3 looked more like an abandoned school building than what it did in it's glory days... I remember looking at images and frequently checking to see if I was looking at the correct topic...
This year I think I'll just find a site that lists the games that were covered or hinted at and wiki what I find...
Persona 5, baby!

[Lenneth]

All I'm hoping for is that Nintendo will announce a new Zelda(Spirit Tracks doesn't count, since it is just a weird adventure game/train simulator with Zelda characters thrown in for better sales), but the chances for that are near 0. They'll probably just announce another Wii "Whatever" game, maybe Wii Cut Ourselves or something this time, and otherwise will keep their mouths shut, besides for the usual confirmation that they work on new titles. Other than that... Well many major games just recently had a release, like Resident Evil, Sonic, Silent Hill, and many more, so there aren't many surprises to be expected.

[DiGi Valentine]

OMG!! O_O

I just watched the Microsoft conference. It started off a little slow....but they stole the show and E3 ain't even started yet.

If you guys ain't watched it i highly suggest you do somehow. Towards the end of their show they break down an amazing game barrier, it's UNBELIEVABLE. I feel we're one step closer to the holodeck, lol XD

Man. That was fantastic. I really feel Microsoft done a great job this year. If they're able to deliver everything they've said then we're walking right into the next generation of gaming.

[Lenneth]

Wow this Project Natal sounds awesome o.o If they release that, Wii will be history xD

[andersam]

The only thing we have in our household are nintendo systums, so It's kinda irrelevent for me to watch the other confrences. I hope Nintendo does better at there confrence, but Odds are Miamotos gonna come out swinging the motion plus like its a friggin' lightsaber.

There'd BETTER be an announcement for the north american release of Professor Layton 2 or I'm gonna kick something.

[TRiPPY]

I've not been so excited for a leap in gaming interactivity since Shenmue. Milo blew me away.

[DiGi Valentine]

Wow this Project Natal sounds awesome o.o If they release that, Wii will be history xD

It's the future. If this really takes off this could be the future of gaming.

Imagine playing an RPG where the characters recognize you and talk to you as if you were really right there, living the adventure yourself.

lol, imagine a NiGHTS game with this engine. You're a visitor/dreamer who gets to walk around crazy dream worlds and dualize with NiGHTS.

I really want this to grow and become a successful feature in the future of gaming. It could be soooo epic.

[TRiPPY]

just HOLY sh!t ppl

[Lenneth]

A NiGHTS game featuring that concept would be ultimate love >___< I'd so die to fly through a Splash Garden like dreamscape with something like that. Or imagine fighting the nightmarens with that XD You could argue with them while fighting. Just imagine, being able to talk to Jackle and Puffy, weeeeeeeee~

[TRiPPY]

But realise how much this will open up in AI in the future. Personal tutors, coaching, secretaries, answering machines, home entertainment, *lol* adult industry, ITS JUST LIKE CHOBITS XD...

aaarhgfjhgrfh im so excited!

[Lenneth]

Awww, I sure wouldn't mind a handsome male persocom...*cough* On a more related note, I could imagine Natal serving as a personal tutor as quite handy, it would probably be more fun to learn with an AI teacher than one of those weird ones from "Schülerhilfe". There's just so many possibilites what you could make out of it, even interactive movies and things like that.

[Kentilan]

Well, that was really impressive. That Milo was so realistic it was almost scary.

[Dex la Cabra]

gone are the days of video games being video games. welcome to the days of intelligent virtual reality (haha, i can't say that seriously!)

[Dreamer#96]

I'm watching the Microsoft conference I recorded during the day, seems good so far, I can't wait for nintendo's and sony's, that shall be intresting.

[DiGi Valentine]

Lol, some of the response for Milo on Project Natal are so narrow minded.
Going through Kotaku, some people are saying that they can't understand why people would find it interesting playing a game where you interact with a virtual boy.... if only they could see just how much they're missing the point. It's not the fact that you're just talking to an A.I child, it's the fact that gaming is evolving.
Of course having a game where you just talk to a child is going to be boring but that's not why people are excited. The reason Milo got such a huge response was because this is literaly a giant step towards the evolution of gaming.

Anyways, EA's conference was nothing fantastic. A bunch of "games for girls, teehee" and stuff.
Though APB was shown looking nice. I'm looking forward to that.

Waiting on UbiSofts conference next.

[Noctourne Wonderland]

The only thing we have in our household are nintendo systums, so It's kinda irrelevent for me to watch the other confrences. I hope Nintendo does better at there confrence, but Odds are Miamotos gonna come out swinging the motion plus like its a friggin' lightsaber.

There'd BETTER be an announcement for the north american release of Professor Layton 2 or I'm gonna kick something.

I don't get the excitement over the motion plus. Isn't that what the Wii was meant to do in the first place?

[TRiPPY]

yeaaaah why couldn they just make the wiimote decent in the firstplace.
oh yeah.

money cash in.

[andersam]

well that WAS nintendo wanted to do, but the Wii mote isen't as responsive as they wanted it to be so they had this idea that they should make a device to make it better (sarcastic gasp) the ironic thing is that apparently the devolpment began almost immedialty after the Wii was released
heres how it works, apparently:

Technology
The device incorporates a dual-axis "tuning fork" angular rate sensor, which can determine rotational motion. The information captured by the angular rate sensor can then be used to distinguish true linear motion from the accelerometer readings. This allows for the capture of more complex movements than possible with the Wii Remote alone.

(wikipedia FTW) to make tech-mumbo short, "it makes da Wiiz better!!1!"

[Noctourne Wonderland]

well that WAS nintendo wanted to do, but the Wii mote isen't as responsive as they wanted it to be so they had this idea that they should make a device to make it better (sarcastic gasp) the ironic thing is that apparently the devolpment began almost immedialty after the Wii was released
heres how it works, apparently:


(wikipedia FTW) to make tech-mumbo short, "it makes da Wiiz better!!1!"

Thank you, but that wikipedia "description" actually made less sense than what you said. (sarcasm time, darlings) It was developed after the Wii was released?! GASP! Why ever would Ninty do such a thing?!

In the words of the lovely TRiPPY-

oh yeah.

money cash in.

What they need is a better sensor. Every time a sit down, or one of my shorter friends plays Wii, the cursor never appears. Grrrrrr....

[Rachell]

WAITING FOR A NiGHTS 3 RELEASE! *slapped* ok that's not gonna happen I know

I just hope that this year E3's will be way better than the one last year, I can sense they're gonna announce some good games...I hope

aw man, technology, someday will be see ourselves not just playing a videogame, but actually LIVING it...ah the possibilities~

[andersam]

*Is embaressed*
sorry.... T_T

*edit* what I meant was that nintendo should have maybe waited a bit more before they released the systum if they were just gooing too....aw never mind.

[Nemoide]

Natal just makes me hope for a new Seaman game.

If only Seaman 2 got a US release! It's genius I tells ya!

[Saifer Dracondrali]

I'm interested in the Milo thing... but I'm abit skeptical as to why he started raising his hand just before she says "there you go" at 4:20 in that link...

I'll believe it when I see it...

[Zero-Shift]

I missed the press conference, but saw the Natal video. I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought of Seaman. The concept isn't new by a long shot. This kind of combination of audible and visual interaction on the other hand is. The possible ramifications are mind blowing...but then I remember who's in charge.

Whenever I think of Peter Molyneux it's almost immediate followed by me thinking of that old saying "Man's reach exceeds his grasp". I admire Peter for his ambition and desire to advance the video game medium, but dammit to hell if he hasn't underwhelmed me and fallen short on promises more consistently than any single developer I can recall.

Natal will probably be a very intriguing application, but I'm willing to hazard a guess and say it won't be quite as utterly engrossing as Peter claims and will fall short of expectations as usual. I can honestly say I hope I'm wrong though.

[DiGi Valentine]

Sure, maybe it is a hyped thing and maybe when people do go to try out Milo at E3 today he won't be as responsive as he was first shown to be in that video. But think about it like this - they created Milo in a few months. Imagine what games companies could do if they learn from Milo, went away for about 2 years and created something even more complex, something a bit more responsive. As i said before, Milo will probably be the stepping stone for greater things in the future. If other games companies all become interested in this then development for it will shoot through the roof and thus starting a new generation in computer gaming on a grand scale.

The PS2 eye-toy tried to bring us into our games but failed due to too many problems. If in the possabilty that Microsoft has learnt what ruined the eye-toy and has developed their own gadget that recognizes our voice and movement then that means they became interested and want to further this idea. And now, people seeing Milo will be amazed at first, perhaps notice a few problems later but then will be inspired to go away and develop this type of gaming on a greater and more understood scale.
It's all going to be part of the learning process.

I think one day we'll all look back on Milo and think how primitive he was when comparing to the games of the future, just like a next gen console comes out and we all praise it for it's amazing graphics and then 5 years later another console comes out and breaks the graphical barrier once again.

OTHER THAN THAT
The UbiSoft conference SUCKED ASSSSSSSS!!! XD

It was just talking. And talking. And literaly where as Microsoft had shown something after every 3 to 4 minutes of speech, UbiSoft went on to speak about an Avatar the Air Bender movie for a whole 20 minutes ....and showed nothing at the end of it.
The chat-room i was watching E3 in became hilarious as everyone was typing random shut-the f*** up stuff and eventually the channel hoster began playing Rick Astley very loudly over the top of Cameron's 30 minute speech. I was laughing so much i cried XD

Flippin' UbiSoft. I wonder, if at the end of the last two E3 shows, when everybody said they "hate it when people just talk on a stage and don't show anything" that if UbiSoft actually got the memo at all? Or maybe they did but thought "bah, what do they know about shows? We'll just put this English sod on the stage and have him talk for 20 minutes. The audience will feel radiated with excitement!"

Anyways, onwards.
Today is Nintendo. They better shape up after last years bullshits. With any luck Reggie will stay off the flippin' stage and keep his bar charts in the u-bend of his toilet because nobody cares that the Wii is selling to everybodies mother. I wanna see how Nintendo can top Microsofts show yesterday because, for me personaly, Microsoft brought some of that excitement back to E3 that i so dearly missed. (never thought i'd hear myself say that but there you go).

[Zero-Shift]

What ruined the Eye Toy was unimpressive games. I just want to play Devil's advocate and say one more thing about Milo. Just keep in mind it's all about where developers take the app and a good idea in theory may not work in practice. Three years ago people saw the saw the Wii's controller and thought how this would revolutionize the gaming experience. What's the consensus today?

Okay, I'll admit it. I don't want to sound like a troll, but I'm not especially taken by Milo. It's very cool, yes, and it very well may be the cornerstone for technological interaction in the future (Persocoms are a great example), but modern technology could possibly hope to accomplish what Peter is proposing and I feel it just seems seems so horribly limited in a gaming environment since the entire thing seems to hinge on personal interaction with virtual individuals.

The Natal system would be impractical for many genres and utterly impossible for others. For example let's take my favorite game genre, fighters. How the hell is something like natal going to work with fighters? And nobody say I can be there fighting the guy myself because why the hell would I want to play myself? What about all those exciting and exotic designs with elaborate attacks? What about action titles or platformers? How are we supposed to emulate the abilities of characters like Dante or Ryu Hayabusa? Simulators like Ace Combat and Forza already have peripherals that do a fine job of emulating the experience. I'm really abreviating here, but I think I get my point across. Really the only genres I can think of where this sounds practical is in Adventure titles like Grim Fandango or Phoenix Wright and RPGs since they have heavy emphasis on character interaction and the action is very stop and go. Other than that though...

Okay, enough from me about Natal.

As far as I'm concerned, if Nintendo doesn't reveal and exclusive title that doesn't have to word Wii in the title, they fail by default regardless of whatever else they say. Seriously though. Nintendo had a pretty unimpressive year insofar as content. If they go back to the whole "We have uber market penetration and are richer than f***" bent, I'd say that's a pretty good indicator that Nintendo genuinely doesn't give a crap anymore...at least for now.

[DiGi Valentine]

The eye-toy had unimpressive games because it was a crap device and therefore not a lot of people wanted to put time into making games for it. Half the time the eye-toy wouldn't respond to peoples actions unless the conditions were 90% satisfactory and that put developers off from making things for it.

I can see where you're coming from though, Zero. You have some valid points, for example - fighting games and games that require players to do backflips and stuff. The Natal system would probably be very limiting for those kinds of games ...for now. I DO believe there will be a way to play those types of games using the Natal system sometime in the future providing people spend time developing for it.
As far as the Wii goes, during the 90's i couldn't have imagined there ever would have been a console where the controller would mimic actions and input them into games. 10 years later and they made that leap and it worked...to some extent. There have been a few games that worked the WiiMote to it's full potential, though a huge majority of games do suffer from under-par controls...like NiGHTS for example :/

The Wii promised a new way to play games...and that's exactly what they did. It was a new way to play games. Did it revolutionize the gaming world? It certainly did by resulting in the fact that they've conquered the bloody market. Will this method of gaming be the future? Probably not because it's too restrictive for what the future holds as far as Natal can potentially go.

I say although it may not impress you right now, give it time to develop. It could become something great. And if not, things will revert back to controllers and nothing is lost at all since we've mastered controllers for the last two decades.

For all those interested, Nintendo's conference shall be shown through this persons channel later on today, providing he keeps it running --> linky link

[Dex la Cabra]

another video showing off project NATAL http://www.youtube.c...feature=related

[Lenneth]

Sorry for my language, but since when is Nintendo SO f*cking pathetic?! Now they announced New Super Mario Bros. Port for Wii, with a new multiplayer mode, and Wii Fit Plus. Oh god be merciful and kill me-.-

edit: Wii Vitality Sensor... Okaaay...*backs up* Uhm, maybe Mr. Satoru Iwata should go visit a real doctor instead. XD
edit2: Oh myyyy a new Metroid, it looks awesome!

[DiGi Valentine]

Nintendo are following the money being made from casual gamers, their conference covered so much stuff for casuals. They announed a bunch of new Mario games (oh, surprise?) but the rest was just stats, figures and the usual sh!t from Reggie and Cammie.

The only plot twist from Nintendo was Team Ninja doing a Metroid game. That was unexpected. Other than that, Nintendo kinda failed again this year.
Wii Fit Plus. Wii Vitality Sensor. A bunch of games for girls. ugh, nothing to smile about really.

I honestly feel Microsoft have won the show this year. The only thing i can think of that Sony could do to pull the show back in their favor is announce something ground breaking that would shake computer gaming news...like a FF7 remake or something along that line. But i don't see that happening.

Nope, Nintendo didn't do much for me this year again. Oh well.

Sony's on in 45 minutes. Prepare for browns and greys.

--edit--
After really thinking about it, Wii Vitality Sensor? ......a Vitality Sensor???? WTF, seriously? What the hell are they doing?
People were crying for a new Zelda on the Wii and they announce Wii Vitality Sensor.

[venomnights15]

Sorry for my language, but since when is Nintendo SO f*cking pathetic?! Now they announced New Super Mario Bros. Port for Wii, with a new multiplayer mode, and Wii Fit Plus. Oh god be merciful and kill me-.-

edit: Wii Vitality Sensor... Okaaay...*backs up* Uhm, maybe Mr. Satoru Iwata should go visit a real doctor instead. XD
edit2: Oh myyyy a new Metroid, it looks awesome!

Oh yess that mertoid the other m is going to be good take whats good about metroid and and combine with the coolness of ninja gaiden

[venomnights15]

UPDATE on mertoid the other M


Teaser Trailer

[viperxmns]

The whole Natal project is interesting, but I agree with what Zero said above.

Some might say this is totally Microsoft trying to steal the Wii's 'casual' thunder.

[Zero-Shift]

Okay Nintendo, I'll give you that a new Metroid sounds pretty neat and having Team Ninja make it was an interesting move, just tell me this. What are you guys putting out this holiday again? Any Star Fox? Kirby? F-Zero? Donkey Kong? No to all of the above eh? f*** you!

It's bullshit like this that turns my bitterness towards Nintendo into outright rage.

[Lenneth]

Okay Nintendo, I'll give you that a new Metroid sounds pretty neat and having Team Ninja make it was an interesting move, just tell me this. What are you guys putting out this holiday again? Any Star Fox? Kirby? F-Zero? Donkey Kong? No to all of the above eh? f*** you!

It's bullshit like this that turns my bitterness towards Nintendo into outright rage.

*hugs Zero* Don't worry, according to a release chart, at least a Kirby Wii-game will be released over in Japan sometime this year, so it will just be a matter of time for it to come to NA and EU.

[Noctourne Wonderland]

*hugs Zero* Don't worry, according to a release chart, at least a Kirby Wii-game will be released over in Japan sometime this year, so it will just be a matter of time for it to come to NA and EU.

Thank goodness. I'm sick of Mario Sports and Wii-Whatever games.

[DiGi Valentine]

Sony have ripped off Nintendo with their own WiiMote and now all the Sony Fanboys are telling Natal to go f*** itself. I don't understand this logic. Natal and the Sony remote are two different things entirely. If anything, Sony should be telling Nintendo to go f*** itself with their WiiMote, not Microsoft.

Well, anyways. Sony's conference was nothing amazing. I still think Microsoft done a good job this year. Nintendo i can honestly say were the worst, sadly. I really wanted to come away from watching their conference feeling like they got 'it' again, you know?