Olympics Gymnastics Controversy

There are a lot of heated opinions about this year’s Olympic Games in Beijing, China. I happen to know people who are “boycotting” the games and refuse to even watch because of politics. I am not one of those people. I don’t blame the politics going on in China on the Chinese athletes or people any more than I would accept blame for the outrageous actions of a President I did not vote for. And more importantly, the Olympics are not about politics, and politics have no place in them. So I’ve been watching and enjoying them, with the exception of one major problem.

There is a huge controversy surrounding the Chinese gymnasts. There are questions surrounding the ages of some of the girls on the team – the team that won the gold medals for the all around team competition for women this week. This article describes the problem in more detail:

http://www.nbcolympics.com/gymnastics/news/newsid=213588.html?_source=rss&cid

Bela Karolyi, world renowned gymnastics coach and commentator for NBC spoke of the Chinese womens’ team win by saying it’s too bad they are too young to be competing, making his opinion clear. And having watched ALL of the gymnastics coverage on my LCD HDTV I have my own opinion. There is NO WAY this girl is 16. And I would say the same about at least one other member of the team. NO WAY. She doesn’t look a day older than 12. Nice try, them trying to pass her off as 16, but I guess they forget in this day and age a lot of people have HDTVs. I even asked a 10 year old girl what she thinks. She said that girl looks like she could definitely be in her class at school. Who do they think they’re fooling?

I’m really disgusted about this, especially the fact that nothing is being done about it. The team ought to be disqualified and stripped of their medals. And this isn’t even the only gymnastics controversy – a lot of the men on the U.S. team were seriously underscored during their performances. There has been talk of favoritism by many commentators, as well, and having watched all of it I tend to agree.

A lot of people are cheering on China in these Olympics because they are the “host country” but I cannot condone this kind of cheating by giving such support. In my opinion, this is even worse than drug use by athletes, because it is state sanctioned.

The people who are boycotting the Olympics should be boycotting it for these reasons, not for political reasons. The Olympics were not founded as a political stage, and they have no place there. But cheating has no place there, either. I still won’t be boycotting the Olympics though – because during this controversy the American athletes need our support more than ever. They need to know the world is watching, and that we know who the real champions are.

I’m not just some crazed American who wants the U.S. to win all the medals. In fact, I also like to see “underdog” countries that don’t win many medals get to win. But the results should be FAIR, and cheaters should be disqualified, and the rightful champions receive the medals.

I have some thoughts about the Olympic Games based video games for next time.

E3 Wrap-Up: The Future of E3

I’ve seen a lot of editorials floating around about the format of E3, how it’s transformation since the open-to-the-public days has changed it, and the future of E3. Some people were even speculating E3 was dead. Of course, E3 has already been confirmed for 2009 so that is absolutely not the case. But I wanted to give my 2 cents about it. In particular, I want to respond to an editorial on IGN.com:

http://games.ign.com/articles/892/892415p1.html

First I want to address their contention that the “giddy excitement” was gone. I beg to differ. The “giddy excitement” is about the GAMES, and frankly the games are better than ever. I feel that this writer could not see the forest through the trees, and forgot “the true meaning of E3″ (kind of like the Peanuts gang forgot “the true meaning of Christmas” in the famous cartoon). It’s not about the signage, the booth babes, the crowds, or the chaos. It’s about the GAMES. And I, for one, was VERY excited about the games shown, and E3 week was, and still is, one of the highlights of my entire year as someone who loves games. I’m really looking forward to the games that were announced, and I’m even looking forward to what’s to come next year.

The editorial goes on to respond to people like myself who will remind them it’s all about the games. The editorial says that “approximately one tenth of the companies” were there compared to 2006. For one thing, “companies” doesn’t have to mean game software publishers let alone high profile software publishers that put out games we’re likely to see on the shelf in stores. However, there were some big game developers that were noticeably absent due to the expense, and I agree that’s a shame. But I do NOT think the answer is to cancel E3 and have publishers hold their own press conferences or forgo the announcements completely and just have all the clips and trailers sent to the media and leave it at that. I think the answer is that these other publishers rent a small convention room in a hotel or the like, off the E3 premises but nearby, and show their games at much lower cost to them than renting space at E3. Frankly, without doing them, their games are not going to get the attention they deserve. And if they were on someone’s radar, they probably would have been buried under the avalanche of amazing E3 titles. Ask any serious gamer (serious enough to have followed E3) what games they’re looking forward to this holiday, and I guarantee 98 out of 100 will rattle of a list of games that were all featured at E3.

I want to respond to IGN’s question “Who exactly is the show for, then?” The show is for the GAMERS. Not for the publishers, the media, or the other people this editor claims hated the show. It’s not for the few lucky who can afford to travel and attend. It’s for the GAMERS, all over the country, all over the world, watching the coverage on the internet or G4tv eagerly anticipating these exciting new games. And frankly, it’s BETTER for gamers at large when those who are showing us the games don’t have to fight a crowd of “general public” or booth babes to give us the demos. I’m glad the focus is on the games now, not the chaos. E3 is better than ever for the people that matter: the people who are going to be buying these games.

I just want to say one more thing in response to some of the articles I’ve seen saying the publishers should just hold their own press conferences on their own schedules and wherever they want. The sheer avalanche of amazing games is what makes E3 so compelling. It’s like Christmas… would it be the same if you got one small gift several times a year as getting a huge one, or lots of them, on the holiday? Wouldn’t be nearly as exciting, would it? (Forgive the religious reference I don’t mean to offend anyone but it’s the best example I could think of for comparison. I respect all religions).

I wouldn’t mind seeing E3 move to a smaller venue next time. And I’d love to see some of the publishers who can’t afford E3 space to hold their own press conference “off-campus” so to speak (during E3 week, not some other time!). But I do not think bringing the general public back is the way to go, and I definitely do not think cancelling it is the way to go. For a hardcore gamer like myself who eagerly anticipates E3 every year, that would be tragic.

One thing’s for sure: thank goodness E3 will be back next year!

Reel Deal Games Big Updates

Phantom Efx will be releasing their Reel Deal casino and slot games again this September, but this year with a major overhaul. The official titles have now been announced: Reel Deal Casino Millionaire’s Club, Reel Deal Slots Blackbeard’s Revenge, and Card Games 2009.

For those who may be unfamiliar with the series, the Reel Deal games play on the PC as a Massive Online Multiplayer casino, or can also be played in solo offline play. (It uses imaginary money, not real money). The casino games include a dizzying array of table games including the popular standbys like Poker, Black Jack, and Craps as well as harder to find table games like Sic Bo, Catch a Wave, and Faro. The casino game also includes slots, but many more slots can be found on the separate slot game. Some of the slots from these games have been adopted by real brick and mortar casinos they are so good, especially the bonus rounds that play out as fun mini-games. But my favorite feature has been the Sports Book, where I can bet on my favorite sports teams based on the actual games and actual results. Phantom Efx offers the premier casino games available, and offer more different games than anyone else. There is a subscription fee (currently $9.99 per month) for online play, but it includes a free new slot machine download every month (that retails separately for $5.99) that you can keep forever and play offline.

I’ve been playing and subscribing for over 3 years – more than 3 times longer than I’ve ever been willing to pay for a subscription before. I love casino gambling, and when I can’t go to Las Vegas this is the next best thing… and this year it’s getting even better. The fully 3-D environment will offer a lot more customization, and new games are being added. My favorite table game, Caribbean Stud, disappeared 2 years ago because of the fees that needed to be paid for the rights to it, but it’s back in the form of “Caribbean Stud Bonus”. I’m not exactly sure what that means but the words “Caribbean Stud” are music to my ears. Another feature in the new games will be more involvement from your “Casino Host”. There has been one in the past, but this year you’ll encounter your host more often, so you can really feel like the Whale you may or may not be able to afford to be in the real casinos.

This game is not for everyone. But if you enjoy playing poker with other people online and casino games, and don’t want to bet real money, then you should check this game out.  This game has done a good job of taking care of my casino fix time and time again in between trips to Vegas.

Here is a press release about the new games:

http://www.phantomefx.com/news/july2008/723081.php

And my editorial about the future of E3 is still coming – I just wanted to get the breaking news about the new Reel Deal games out before other sites.

Best and Worst of E3!

Now that, sadly, E3 is over I wanted to announce my “Best and Worst of E3″, and give my final impressions.

Final Impressions: I am completely overwhelmed with the games coming to us the rest of this year, and in a few cases, next year. It may actually take a few days to absorb this avalanche of content. I can’t contain my excitement with so many amazing titles coming out and I’ve already generated a list of the games I want to play, and it’s LONG. The game publishers and developers are spoiling gamers ROTTEN and it’s going to be an incredible fall and holiday season, probably the best yet!

Best and Worst:

Best Console Manufacturer and First Party Developer Conference:

Winner: Microsoft. With a conference where they have so many amazing games coming out they were really pressed for time trying to cover them all, the biggest “surprise” announcement – Final Fantasy XIII coming to the Xbox360, and huge changes for Live, Microsoft packed the biggest punch.

Runner Up: Sony. With Little Big Planet, Resistance 2, and Resistance Retribution coming, Sony console and handheld owners have some great material to look forward to. God of War for the PS3 was also a huge announcement.

Loser: Nintendo. An extremely annoying host showed us a slew of games targeted dead-on for casual and non-traditional gamers, completely alienating their hardcore base. One of the most interesting games coming out this year, Deadly Creatures, was not even featured at their press conference. Other than that, Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party was the only game at Nintendo’s press event that got me excited.

Best Publisher Conference:

Winner: Ubisoft. So many amazing-looking titles, for multiple consoles. The announcement of Jade Raymond’s new game “I Am Alive”. Incredible innovation, such as the voice commands on Tom Clancy’s EndWar. Not surprisingly, Ubisoft came through for gamers, especially hardcore gamers, again with the strongest all-around lineup in my opinion.

Runner Up: Electronic Arts. With possibly the most interesting game coming out this holiday: Mirror’s Edge, as well as a boatload of other interesting titles EA has a very strong lineup this year and their press conference was compelling from beginning to end.

Loser: Capcom. We know about Resident Evil 5 and Street Fighter but Capcom didn’t bother talking about them or ANY other game at their press conference. They devoted the entire thing to the announcement of a Lost Planet movie. No doubt exciting news, but after the first 10 minutes of talking about it not so much, especially when we want to hear more about the two aforementioned games as well as what else they’re working on.

Best Game: Nintendo console/handheld:

Winner: Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party. Each installment of this series has been the most hilarious fun I’ve ever had playing videogames, and this year’s edition looks like it will be no exception.

Runner Up: Deadly Creatures. Although not featured at Nintendo’s press event, this game looks completely different than anything I’ve ever played before, and that’s exciting. You play as a spider or scorpion exploring your world and fending for yourself against deadly creatures such as rattlesnakes and even humans.

Loser: Wii Music. I don’t want to play the Super Mario theme on a music based game where you just goof around not trying to play notes that remotely go along with the music, just “winging it” with not consequences because the game “fixes” what you do and turns it into real music. If you count classic videogame themes as real music.

Best Game: Xbox 360:

Winner: This might have some Gears of War junkies cringing, but I’ve got to go with Fallout 3. With over 100 hours of gameplay brought to us from the makers of Oblivion and lots of exclusive download content I am teeming with excitement.

Runner Up: Rock Band 2. A lot of improvements, the ability to play all your download content from Rock Band with Rock Band 2, and even the ability to play most of the tracks from the original disc with Rock Band 2 (without switching discs), plus no cover songs, 84 on discs songs and a bunch of free downloads at launch, and last but not least, 500 songs by the end of the year… My head is spinning just thinking about it.

Loser: You’re In the Movies. This game looked like it would probably be fun for kids, but way, way, WAY too goofy, silly, and ridiculous for everyone else.

Best game Sony console/handheld:

Winner: Little Big Planet. An innovative game where the player can unleash their creativity with a quirkily charming art style and share their creativity with friends.

Runner Up: Resistance 2. Amazing graphics and gameplay, 60 player skirmishes. Wow. Just wow.

Loser: All the PS2 games… We are still sitting through PS2 game presentations at E3 ‘08 WHY??????

I know some of you have your own favorites, feel free to reply with those. (I know some of you Gears heads want to respond!). I hope you enjoyed my E3 coverage. I do have one more post coming pertaining to E3 that is a response to an editorial on IGN that questions whether the E3 events should continue. I’ll have that next time. Also coming soon, my impressions on the Too Human demo on Xbox Live Marketplace.

E3 Electronic Arts Press Conference Impressions

EA reaffirmed their position as a powerful force in the industry during their presentation, which was busting at the seams with big titles, as well as the announcement that EA has a new partnership with id Software, the team that brought us Doom and Quake. Oddly, Rock Band 2, Madden ‘09, and Mercenaries 2 were not represented (of course, I’m no less interested in those titles because of it!). But let’s look at some of the games they DID cover.

Possibly the most innovative, unique, and exciting game I’ve seen represented at E3 is Mirror’s Edge, and it is the single most exciting game due out this holiday in my opinion. You play as a courier, a runner, who must deliver important messages in person to avoid the messages’ detection from the “big brother” government that is in place. The art and environments are breathtaking, with a bright, crisp, clean world where you move around on rooftops and inside buildings, using your “runner’s vision” that highlights possible ways to progress in a bright red, as if it was painted bright red in a realistic manner (not highlighted red in a fake looking away). The contrast is compelling to look at. You progress with a first person view using your speed and agility to get from place to place and try to avoid detection. If you are detected, you can use different martial arts moves to take down the enemy, or steal their gun and use it (and then toss it, so you can get back to the business of getting around most efficiently). I can’t stress enough just how beautiful the game looks, how different movement and gameplay looks from anything I’ve seen before, and how much I’m looking forward to this title. The game is due out in November for Xbox360 and PS3.

Just in time for Halloween, survival horror game Dead Space will be released. In it, you investigate a ship out in deep space where all inhabitants were infected and the place is swarming with gruesome and frightening enemies.  Some have unique abilities such as emitting a poisonous gas that will kill you if you don’t kill it first, and others who you need to eliminate limb by limb, because they will keep coming after you until every limb is severed. The game looks very intense, very M rated, and very creepy. For Xbox360 and PS3.

Will Wright came out to introduce Spore, a PC game that will also have scaled down versions available for the DS and iPhone/iPod Touch. He announced that a creature creator is available on EA’s website, a free demo version and a $9.99 full version, which people around the world have been using to form a humungous, user created database of creatures for the game. You can download it here:

http://www.spore.com/trial

Will announced that a National Geographic special will be coming out around the time of the games release highlighting the scientific and creative intersection that exists in the game, and the dvd for said show will also be available in the Gallactic Edition of the game. The response has been so great with the user created content that the database already exceeds the number of known creatures on earth, after 18 days availability of the download! This game seems like a must for PC owners who enjoy unleashing their creativity. Will showed off some really cool looking critters other users created, and it really whet my appetite to try my own. You get to “play God” in Spore, building a universe from the first critter to civilized existence. Spore is due out in September.

NBA Live ‘09 will have a very innovative feature this year called “dynamic dna”. Every time you play the game, it will be updated with live stats that will not only include any team changes but team dynamics (how a team is getting along and playing together) and individual player tendancies, based on what’s really going on in the NBA at that time. Due out this fall for multiple systems.

There was also a presentation about EA’s lineup of iPhone and iPod Touch games. iTunes now offers an applications download that will allow you to add games as well as other content to your iPhone or iPod Touch (it’s about time, Apple!). I’ll blog more about that later, but I just wanted to mention that EA is offering a few games currently including Scrabble and Suduku and is working on a Need For Speed game, Tiger Woods game, and more to be released soon. (FYI: Ubisoft’s Gameloft also has games available.)

Some of the other interesting games presented were Dragon Age Origins, an RPG from Bioware (who gave us Mass Effect) coming for PC and then later on for consoles, and Left 4 Dead, a zombie action game from Valve (who gave us The Orange Box).

I really wanted to see more of Rock Band 2, Madden ‘09, and Mercenaries 2, but I cannot say I was disappointed with what EA did have to show. EA is going to be a force to be reckoned with this holiday.

E3 Sony Press Conference Impressions

The part of Sony’s press conference that seemed to garner the most “gasps” out of the audience was when it was announced that a God of War game for the PS3 is in development. It was really just an announcement, so we will have to follow the story as it develops for more information.

Sony’s press conference didn’t have that “jam-packed” feeling that Microsoft’s did, as they spent a little bit more time on each of the games and didn’t present as many. They definitely had a few that looked great though, including Resistance 2 for PS3, Resistance Retribution for PSP, and Little Big Planet for PS3.

Little Big Planet was one of the most exciting games presented at E3. Offering the player the best opportunity to unleash their creativity that I’ve seen yet (including building their own unique levels from a very extensive collection of detailed objects) and a very unique art style, this game struck me as a must for all PS3 owners. You can play through the storyline the developers created, but making your own levels and sharing them with friends is where the game is really likely to shine. The game is due out in September.

It’s great to see Sony giving us games for the PSP that are completely different than the offerings on the DS and allowing us two completely different gameplay experiences. Personally, I’m partial to the PSP. Resistance Retribution will be another great example that will really push the graphics and gameplay capabilities of the PSP to give us an experience as realistic as possible for a handheld. A must for PSP owners who enjoy shooters, coming next Spring.

Resistance 2 for the PS3 was another highlight of E3, and with this game the fight will be taken to the United States this November. 60 player skirmishes will be available this time, and they’ve uped the ante on the graphics. Bosses will also be bigger and badder.

A blaring omission from the press conference was a release date for Home. Hopefully it’s still coming in 2008…?

E3 Impressions: Activision and Konami Press Events

Sorry for not posting these sooner. My Internet Service Provider was having technical difficulties yesterday and I couldn’t get online.

I’ll start with Konami, who will be giving us Silent Hill: Homecoming this fall for Xbox360 and PS3. I’ve been eagerly awaiting the next installment in this gloriously deranged and creepy series, and this edition looks like it could very well be even better than the others. The camera and controls are greatly improved, favorite enemies will be making return appearances, and new enemies look amazing. This will definitely be one game to look forward to this fall. Another reason I was interested in the Konami press event was that I wanted to hear more about Rock Revolution, a music-based game featuring a band experience that has gotten little coverage in the gaming press and has really stayed in the shadow of the Rock Band and Guitar Hero series’. So, I thought, surely Konami, the publisher responsible for the game, will shed a lot of light on it and tell us why we need to buy this music game in addition to or instead of the big boys. Well, they really dropped the ball on this one. To present the game, first they had an indie band perform a cover version of a Ramones song, on real instruments, not on the game controllers. (Relevance???) Then the song was repeated on the game’s drum kit and guitar (or are they even unique to the game? Guitar sure looked like a Guitar Hero III guitar to me). The drum kit was set on the stage back facing the audience and camera, so we really couldn’t see what they looked like. No one sang, and from what I’ve read in previews, singing is not a feature of the game (even though the same folks gave us Karaoke Revolution: American Idol???). No one spoke about the instrument controllers, or playlist of music. (Although, I read in a preview ALL of the songs are covers). They did announce that the game would be featured on Linkin Park’s concert tour. So as far as the Rock Revolution presentation goes: the bad news is Konami really had nothing good to say about the game or why we should buy it. The good news is, we won’t have to worry about where we’re going to get the money for it after we shell out for Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour, and we also won’t have to worry about storage for a 3rd drum kit.

The most enticing parts of the Activision event involved Call of Duty World at War and Guitar Hero World Tour. The next installment of the Call of Duty series looks great, will feature online or split screen co-op, and will feature the voice acting of Keifer Sutherland (woo-hoo!). Now we know what he’s been up to while 24 was on hiatus this year due to the writers’ strike. I’ll have to admit, what I did hear of him didn’t exactly sound like he stretched the limits of his acting ability, and it was admitedly a little ho-hum. But it was just a clip from the gameplay, and I think it’s still awesome that they’ve got him on the game. One more thing about Call of Duty World at War is that this time around the game will still take place during World War II, but it will be in the Pacific theater this time with different locations and enemies. I was concerned when I heard Treyarch was taking us back to World War II after InfinityWard gave us modern warfare, but it’s a relief to at least know we won’t be fighting the Nazis again in Europe again. That has been so overdone in games and it wouldn’t break my heart one bit if I never saw another game like it again. As for Guitar Hero World Tour, we already know quite a lot about the game, but I was no less excited hearing about it again. The music “studio” or creator looks complicated but also like it could be a lot of fun if you’re willing to put in the time to make sense of it, especially since you can create ANY genre of music with it. There are samples from all kinds of genres available on it. The drum kit looks fantastic, with 2 raised cymbals and more “bouncy” drum pads, and I can’t wait to get my hands on it. The guitar had some new features that looked like a little too much to me and overly complex, but maybe I’ll change my mind and find out it’s not as daunting as it looks when I try it out. No complete playlist has been announced, but they did announce that Metallica’s new album will be available for download, in it’s entirety, on the same day it releases is record stores. Also that there will be a pack of R.E.M. tracks available for download before the album even hits store shelves. This is exciting, and an indication that more of the music industry is recognizing the advantage of making their music, including their new music, available in games. Maybe it will lead to us seeing more great bands in the future who were previously nonexistent in music games. I also wanted to quickly note that a new James Bond game is coming out, Quantum of Solace, to coincide with the release of the movie this fall. It looked pretty good, and is at least worth looking for more press on in the future. I wouldn’t call it a “must play” at this point, maybe a “must watch”.

So to wrap things up both the Activision and Konami press conferences were mixed bags, each with some good and some bad. More good on the Activision front, although they definitely had a couple of real duds on there also, in particular the new Spider Man game that was painful to watch it looked so unpolished.

E3 Press Conference: Capcom Impressions

Before I get into impressions from the Capcom event I just want to make a couple of comments. I wanted to let everyone know that during E3 you may expect to find multiple posts each day on the blog, so don’t just read the top post and assume that’s it. There’s an avalanche of content pertaining to E3 to cover and one blog post per day just wouldn’t cut it. I also want to add that I’ve watched every single press conference in it’s entirety, except for Konami which hasn’t ocurred yet, and I plan on viewing that one in full tonight also. I owe you impressions for Sony, EA, Activision, and Konami and I promise to get to those this week. I’ll wrap up E3 coverage with general reaction and my “winners and losers” of E3.

But on to the Capcom impressions. The Capcom event lasted 32 minutes long, and the ENTIRE event consisted of an extremely long winded announcement about a Lost Planet Hollywood movie in development. Sure enough, this is interesting news. Although it’s not the first game I’d think of when considering what would make the best movie, it does have a lot of the elements that would make a good movie. Capcom says they had it in mind that they’d like to make a game that would make a good movie when they created Lost Planet, and they plan on projects in the future that would be embraced by Hollywood. I am definitely looking forward to the movie. They showed no clips or other footage of the movie or its production, only screenshots, video, and artwork from the game. I have to say that I was expecting a lot more from Capcom. I really feel they spent far too much time announcing the film, worthy news that it is. I wanted to hear more about Resident Evil 5, and maybe even some surprise games in development, but not one word was spoken about games. Am I missing something, or is E3 supposed to be about the GAMES? I have to say the Capcom presentation was the most boring and uninspiring I’ve seen yet. The information they spent 32 minutes conveying they could have conveyed in less than 10, and still had time to cover the information that everyone was starving for: games. Oh well… that’s 32 minutes of my life I’ll never get back!

E3 Press Conference: Ubisoft Impressions

Ubisoft really packed a punch at E3, which probably does not come as much of a shock. The biggest surprise from Ubi was the announcement of Jade Raymond’s (from Assassin’s Creed) current project, “I Am Alive”, due out in 2009. In this game you play as Adam, someone who survives a tragedy that wipes out everything (nuclear bomb?) and must continue to survive in this post-apocalyptic city. And although this isn’t a completely original situation for a game to take place in, it seems like a unique experience, as you’re playing a regular guy that the average gamer could probably relate to encountering enemies that are bullies instead of soldiers. I’m speculating based on a short trailer here, so we need to stay updated to find out what’s really going on, but the trailer was freakin’ incredible and I can’t wait to play. Jade Raymond’s involvement is a huge plus as Assassin’s Creed was one of my favorite games of all time.

Another highlight of the show was the presentation of Tom Clancy’s EndWar. In this groundbreaking game you will use your voice rather than buttons on a controller to command your troops. Imagine speaking into your headset to tell your choppers to “Take out those tanks!” instead of pushing buttons. This game is going to bring an unprescedented level of realism into the game and my excitement to play is off the hook! The game is due out this holiday for 360 and PS3.

Prince of Persia, also due out this holiday for 360 and PS3, looks like another must-have. The art design, with cell shaded characters and beautiful, artistic environments look fantastic, and the moves the Prince can pull off reminded me of all the fun I had with Altair’s agility on Assassin’s Creed and then some. Best of all, your character companion is there to help you. If you fall, she will save your life, so that instead of getting punished with a “You died. Continue” screen you can continue. No more re-doing areas because of a continue, something I’ve always found boring about games. They said that knowing you died is enough, the game doesn’t need to rub it in. Finally, it’s a massive open-ended world with many possible paths.

Far Cry 2 was also featured, and I have to say I’ve gone from On The Fence to Sold after the presentation. I didn’t like Far Cry Instincts: Predator but I think this game will be a completely different animal. The environments look spectacular, and it will be nice to play in Africa, an area we don’t get to experience very often in games. There’s also a really cool map feature where you can mark things like where a sniper is, where a health pack is, etc. on your map. You can “scope out” an area from a distance with your sniper rifle and get the full picture before you take action. Another great thing about this game is that it will be a completely open world to roam and explore rather than linear. Bonus! I believe it’s due out this fall for 360 and PS3.

Rayman Raving Rabbids is back with Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party for the Wii. This edition will use the balance board for some minigames. It looks as hilarious as ever. I’ve had tremendous, hilarious fun with both of the Raving Rabbids games released thus far and thanks to this brand I have a reason to dust off my Wii. These games are underrated, and if I played nothing else on my Wii this series would be worth owning it for. I’ve never laughed so hard playing a game before. The Raving Rabbids are in my opinion the single greatest video game character out there. The game is due out this fall.

Shaun White Snowboarding, due out this holiday for 360, PS3, and Wii completely turns the extreme sports genre on it’s head with a huge, open ended world online where you can play with your friends anywhere and anytime. You gain reputation by beating the AI or your friends. The environments are massive and include mountains in Europe, Japan, and the U.S. I can’t get enough of open world games… Ubisoft really “gets” what I want! If you get the Wii version you’ll be able to use the balance board, but I think I’ll go for the 360 version for superior graphics and more ease playing with friends online.

The middle of the press conference was devoted to what they called “tween girls games” like the Imagine games and Petz series for DS. Needless to say nothing appealed to me other than a possible Christmas gift for my daughter. Other than that, Ubisoft proved they are as big a powerhouse in the gaming industry as ever.

E3 Nintendo Presentation Impressions

As someone who’s had a Wii since launch I’ve been waiting a long time for Nintendo to seriously address their hardcore gaming base. But the games for that base have been very few and far between. Unfortunately, the E3 presentation offered no new glimmer of hope. Wii Sports Resort, coming out next Spring, looked moderately interesting, but mostly because of the new motion-sensor add-on that will come with the game and allow the user’s movements to be received more precisely by the game. And frankly the biggest reason I want this is because the sensor “loses” where I am so often now, a frusterating situation. There was ONE standout game in my opinion, just one game I really wanted to play, and that’s Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party. I have yet to be let down by a Rayman Raving Rabbid game, and this is a must-play for more gut-bustingly hilarious fun.

Nintendo took the opposite approach than Microsoft. Microsoft offered developers short time frames to introduce their games that left me starving for more. Nintendo spent 3 or 4 times as much time on each game covered. It was overkill, and downright boredom when it came to games I wasn’t interested in (which was most of them). Even worse than that, it left the viewer with the impression that they didn’t have very many interesting games coming out – a problem they’ve had since launch that they need to address. They also spent countless minutes showing charts and graphs and numbers: I felt like I was attending a board meeting. And then there were the repeated references to the casual audience, the number of female customers, and the number of units sold. As a female, the way they addressed the female gamers was insulting because we were grouped with the “casual” gamers. Frankly, being called a casual gamer is just about the worst insult I can imagine as someone who has been honing my skills and completely dedicated to gaming for the past 13 years.

The DS has had some great games for the hardcore gamer, but I didn’t see anything at all on the DS front that I’d want to play at this presentation. A GTA game was announced for DS, and it was hyped as “for the hardcore base!!!” but I think the majority of hardcore gamers will be satisfied playing this kind of huge, open ended game on a home console, and I doubt a lot of them, unless they are serious GTA fanboys, will want to play this DS game as well. The presentation of this “hardcore gamers!!!” game felt more like they were throwing us a bone, since everything else was for the casual gamer, with the exception of Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party which is one of the few titles that could really live up to the tough proposition of being for everyone.

One of the “highlights” of the show was Wii Music. You push buttons and wave your wii-mote and nunchuck around and the game generates simplistic music, like the Mario theme song, for it. I love my music game, but this is definitely not for me. I love these games because of the realistic feeling of the controllers and the real top rate music by popular artists. This game has neither.

Shaun White made an appearance introducing Shaun White’s Snowboarding. But although the Wii version makes use of the balance board, I’m going to go with the Xbox 360 version, because of the ease of online play with friends and superior graphics.

All in all, I’d call the Nintendo press event a failure, at least from the standpoint of this hardcore gamer. Nintendo further alienated us and reiterated their dedication to catering to the “non-gamer”.