E3 2010!

[JKTrix]

Metal Gear Rising is an action game featuring Raiden. People have referred to it as 'Ninja Raiden', like 'Ninja Gaiden'. The main gameplay gimmick seems to be 'cut anything', and the way that's executed is really similar to how the Afro Samurai game did it. They showed it off by having Raiden cut people (naturally), but also the environment and vehicles and stuff. They ended the gameplay clip by showing Raiden very carefully slicing up a watermelon.

MS's conference was pretty strong, even if nothing really got me super excited. There were no 'shoulder taps' at the end from Japanese developers, but they did say that the new 360 is shipping to retail tomorrow. Bigger built-in drive (still removeable), built-in wi-fi, smaller, shiny. Same price.

They're also mailing the new 360 to everyone who was in the audience. It's like they hired Oprah for their PR.

[Depression Moon]

Yeah I wish I was there. MG Rising looked sweet. In the trailer it looked like he cut the pillars off a building to send it crashing down on enemies.
Man this Natal stuff makes it seem like we're living in the future now. I remember when I was small and when some child had said it would be cool if we didn't have to play with controllers. I said yeah that would happen if magic was real. Damn, now we got games that are hands free, voice activated, that scan scan your body for your height and other measurements. We also got real life metal gear robots and androids. Will we be getting flying cars next?

[Dreddz]

Somehow I get the feeling that conference wasn't aimed at me at all. Really wasn't worth watching after the first 20 minutes or so. What a joke.

Metal Gear Rising did look great though. Ill enjoy playing that on PS3.

[JKTrix]

I think you might be getting that feeling from the following conferences overall, aside from a few exceptions from whatever Sony is showing. On the whole these are aimed at a wider audience than the 'core gamers'--in fact I'm pretty sure Microsoft dude said that their conference was being broadcasted in Times Square. So that's an idea of their target audience.

Strange that they didn't say how much the Kinect is going to cost. Maybe they're waiting for Sony to better evaluate it.

[Dreddz]

Looking past the actual content the way it was all presented was terrible. Some of the acting seemed so forced. Truly cringe worthy at times. There is something really sterile and commercial about the way Microsoft presents itself. Seriously, why the hell is Don Mattrick still involved in these conferences. Its better not having someone you want to punch presenting this stuff.

EDIT - And that stunt they pulled at the end by handing out 360's to people at the conference pissed me off even more. It doesn't come across as generous, just manipulative.

[Vyk]

These conferences have never interested me much. Its just a 3 day long commercial. Sometimes there's a sprinkling of worthwhile content. But nothing worth sitting through any of it for when I'll find out about it after :]

Someone just randomly told me Microsoft announced new hardware. I thought they were trying to jump the gun on the next generation. Which would be a terrible idea. Nice to see they're merely pulling a Sony by redesigning their current console and price dropping the existing hardware

[JKTrix]

EA's conference actually did excite me. They opened up with a new Need for Speed Hot Pursuit, made by Criterion (Burnout guys). NFS3: Hot Pursuit was the last NFS game I really liked, and I really really like Burnout, so that game gets a strong 'WANT' from me. Dead Space 2 looked cool, I liked the first one but I can't handle creepy games. They actually cut the demo short on a cliffhanger, saying they would end it in Sony's conference tomorrow. Some of the stuff they talked about during the Sports section was a little over my head, but the Live Broadcast stuff seemed like a really cool feature for the community.

Bulletstorm was HOT, though personally all I needed to be sold on the game was the wisecracking Steve Blum (main character's voice actor). Finally, the trailer for the Star Wars MMO was cool, but all CG. Still no gameplay. They mentioned that every single player will get their own star ship, which is pretty neat.

Overall, a good show! Don't know if I'm gonna stay up for the Ubisoft conference.

Edit: forgot about Medal of Honour. Beta for PS360 and PC next week! It looked alright. They're working hard.

[NeoCracker]

All I really want is more info on Saints Row 3, though I don't know if we'll get any or not.

[Depression Moon]

I missed bits of it, but I was generally more bored with this one.

[Jings]

Only thing I'm interested in is the Old Republic. Which is a shame because I probably won't get to play it until like a year after it's released. I'd have preferred KOTOR 3 but this will do. I fondly remember my highschool days as they were also my Star Wars Galaxies days

[JKTrix]

Didn't you know? Old Republic is KotOR 3, 4, 5, 6........

This Ubisoft conference is *super awkward*. Way to set the low bar. Assassin's Creed Brotherhood looks interesting though, from a story perspective.

[Depression Moon]

What is ubisoft doing. Reusing the same stuff from the 360 show. Lame also what's with all the casual games. Hardcore gamers take the time out to watch this stuff. Last year when I had this on in my living room, my mom told me "What is this crap? Get that off my TV!"

[JKTrix]

Complaining about the abundance of casual games during E3 is *so* 2007.

Edit: I'll say it again: Way to set the low bar, Ubisoft. It will be difficult for anyone else to match the sheer awkwardness of that event. Best part for me was the beginning, especially 'Rez 2' (forgot the real name already). I also became a fan of Assassin's Creed after the fantastic 2nd game, so Brotherhood gives me more of Ezio.

[Bolivar]

Complaining about the abundance of casual games during E3 is *so* 2007.

No, I think we should continue to call people out on that. I thought EA was especially strong this year with Crysis 2, Dead Space and Medal of Honor footage that really kicked open the door for them. Ubisoft wasn't all that great but last year they disappointed as well, especially with James Cameron talking about things that made absolutely no sense. I was hoping for Far Cry 3 but DAMN I'm probably going to have to wait until edit: GDC 2011 [lol i originally said TGS]. Far Cry 2 was one of my utmost favorite games of this generation.

Microsoft really surprised me, there wasn't a bigger naysayer about NATAL than me, but after seeing their Kinect segment, I actually believe now that Motion Control gaming is here to stay, and that's not a bad thing at all. Kinect Adventure especially enticed me, and I didn't see it coming. This is a certain sub-category that Video games can now do, and while we don't have to play them all the time, I really have to applaud Microsoft for sticking with a difficult technology and actually pulling it off.

But like the rest of the Internet, I feel their show overall was very, very weak. It was tightly put together, overall a very good conference, but if I owned an XBox 360 I would be tremendously disappointed. The best games shown were Call of Duty: Black Ops and Metal Gear Solid: Rising which are coming out on other systems. Despite a brief teaser for a Crytek game, the only substantive exclusives they showed were Fable III, Gears of War 3, and Halo: Reach - the same 3 XBox titles we've been playing for years over and over again.

Halo and Fable still have piss poor graphics. Despite jungle environments and more tense boss battles, Gears of War is starting to look terribly outdated. With their press conference focusing on outdated sequels, multiplatform games, and Kinect, it was overall a terrible effort from Microsoft. The fact that they gave free redesigned consoles out to everyone there makes it look like the most blatant payola/bribery ever executed in the gaming industry. Like - "hey, we know none of you journalists are at all excited in pretty much anything we've shown, but when you go back to your laptops, just remember you're getting a free 360 Slim." edit: in the GameTrailers stream, as soon as the press conference ended, the camera immediately cut to three guys who gave a standing ovation - who were the only 3 people in the entire audience doing so, while no one else did. That, and especially all the multiplayer segments, were so terribly staged it wasn't even funny.



I really hope Sony and Nintendo don't disappoint. There's a ton of stuff from both of them I've been looking forward to, and with the bar set so low by Microsoft and Ubisoft (two softs) I'm sure it'll only make theirs look better.

[Vyk]

I'm not the only one clamoring for the next Saints Row? Rad. And I'd have to agree that I'd much prefer a KOTOR 3 over MMOTOR. They even have the mechanics set up to sound fun in single-player. Which I guess could be fun since I never make friends in MMOs so I could play it and enjoy myself. But that sort of defeats the purpose