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…?