Day one of E3; The highs & the lows

So the first & biggest day of E3 is over and done with, and in a way I could not be more relieved. Living in the UK meant that I was up until 3am watching everything, and had been watching it for 10 hours straight after a morning at work as well. I have never wanted to just curl up and die in bed more so than I do today. Anyway, yesterday had some highs for me, but also a lot of lows. Here’s a brief look at what I reckon to E3 so far;

The Highs

• Dance Central 2 is getting a campaign mode. I mentioned that I wanted something like this in my Dance Central review previously so I am quite excited to try this out.
• Need for Speed; The Run. I’m not a massive racing fan, but the NFS games have always intrigued me and this just looked stunning. I’m not sure about the QTE’s in the out of car sequences, but we shall see.
• The new SSX looks awesome amounts of fun. I haven’t played SSX since the N64, so this had better be good.
• Overstrike announced by EA. Looks like a fun to play TPS, capable of four player co op.
• Battlefield 3. this looks amazing even though I haven’t played any of the series before. Infinitely better than COD already in my books /controversy
• Raving Rabbids coming to the Kinect. I don’t like the Kinect, but I like Raving Rabbids. Instant win for me.
• Assassins Creed Revelations. A gameplay trailer was shown and it looks like an incredible ending to an incredible series. I just hope we get to find out what it’s really all about in Ezio’s final chapter.
• Cross platform functionality between the NGP/PS Vita & the PS3.
• YouTube partnered with XBL.
• New Tomb Raider. Live demo was shown & it looks incredible, although they may want to consider investing in a new voice actor for Lara.

The Lows

• Way too much emphasis on Kinect. Not everyone wants this peripheral, nor do they have the money to afford this peripheral.
• Fable with Kinect. This looks awful. Who the hell wants an on the rails RPG adventure game in 2011? I don’t care if it has motion control, it looks terrible.
• Just Dance 3 is going multi platform. This might be a good thing, but I’m unsure. Just Dance on the Wii has unresponsive controls and a tiny catalogue of tracks that come with the actual game. Will they learn from this mistake on the other consoles?
• Driver San Francisco. This wasn’t so much a low for me, as a bit of a confusing moment. Only because I remember playing a demo of this in London a year ago. I honestly thought this had been released already. Old news.
• Cross platform functionality between the NGP/PS Vita & the PS3.
• The Sims Social. I was initially excited about this last night, but I think I’ve changed my mind. It’s a little bit stalker-ish and looks like EA’s answer to Habbo Hotel.
• ME3 uses Kinect voice recognition. Some people were excited, I thought it was pointless. Don’t be so lazy and just use the controller.
• Kinect Disneyland Adventures. Enough said.
• Bing partnered with XBL.

So far there are few things that have wowed me without then delivering some form of disappointment. I am interested to see what Nintendo pull out of the hat today though as so far Microsoft have failed me miserably, and EA & Ubisoft are beating the top dogs.  I won’t be impressed with the Wii 2 if that is announced, nor do I care about more remakes for the 3DS.

The build up to E3

I shall be away again as of tomorrow, and then down in London on Saturday for the MCM Expo, so figured I had better actually make a quick update on my personal ponderings about E3.

Taking several days off work has become a bit of a habit for me as soon as E3 rolls around. No I’m not flying out to America to attend, as much as I wish I was, but instead I shall be sat at my computer, watching every last conference with intrigue & glee. I will even sit here with my notepad and pen, scribbling down notes furiously as I drool over the biggest news on games & hardware. It may sound sad, but gaming is my passion & I need to know what’s going on.

What will E3 hold for us this year though? It’s been a funny year for the gaming industry; Sony are grovelling & begging for our forgiveness due to this entire PSN debacle, Nintendo have won some and lost some with the 3DS, and well, Microsoft have likely just continued to grin with delight as Bill Gates bathes in money.

From Sony I believe it will be a 2 hour grovelling session complete with some thrown together ideas to appease the public. Microsoft may announce a new console, but I find that highly unlikely with the continuing roaring success of the Xbox 360 & the recent release of the Kinect. As for Nintendo, well, the rumour mill has been churning out pictures & news of a new console from them, but I can’t help but feel it could be overkill if they do announce the ‘Wii 2′.

There is a lot of uncertainty for me this year. Last year was hardware-centric from all three of the big boys in the industry, so it would be nice if this time they just took a step back & focused on what we use their hardware for; the games themselves.

Dead Space 2 Multiplayer Mode

Surprisingly to me Visceral have decided to give Dead Space 2 an online multiplayer mode. Check out the awesome trailer on the Official Website. The brand new multiplayer will pit 2 teams against one another. One team will contain 4 humans, and the other will contain 4 necromorphs giving players a chance to play as their favourite cuddly aliens. It is not yet clear exactly which necromorphs will be playable, or indeed who the human playable characters will be but there will be both a co operative mode and a competitive mode.

I’m not 100% sure about this. Dead Space is a survival horror and to me has always been about the atmosphere. I can honestly see 8 people running around trying to kill each other not being particularly terrifying. I could be proved wrong though. I am definitely interested to see what maps and game modes Visceral can come up with to separate it from the single player campaign. Roll on February 2011!

Information sourced from IGN.com.

This Month’s Hottest Releases

With the summer gaming drought in full swing, what on earth are we going to do as gamers to keep ourselves going? Sure, we could replay a couple of our beloved games, but there are only so many times we can do that without getting bored, surely. Luckily, there are four pretty nifty releases this month and you are bound to like the look of at least one of them. Hopefully this small selection will keep you busy until the holiday season when we will be seeing the much bigger releases.

Scott Pilgrim VS The World – 11/8/2010 (PSN) & 25/8/2010 (XBLA)

Scott Pilgrim is an upcoming beat ‘em up game for the XBLA & PSN which is to tie in with the release of the film under the same name. The game follows looks Scott Pilgrim, nerd and band member, as he tries to get the girl but unfortunately has to literally fight for her. It looks as though it’s going to have a real retro feel to it, just like a true Arcade Game of old. It would be really nice to get an old arcade pad to play with to really make the game feel unique.

Harvest Moon; Grand Bazaar – 17/8/2010

This one is for me. Oh Harvest Moon, you have never failed to disappoint me. I have missed many of your most recent outings but have a very keen eye on Grand Bazaar. The story is simple; you are given a farm to build up from the rundown state it has been left in and you must restore it back to perfection. Along the way you will have to start a family, and run your home along with the vast farm. The Harvest Moon series always provides a great Simulation experience, and if you have never played it, I implore you to at least try this one out.

Kane & Lynch 2; Dog Days – 20/8/2010

Kane & Lynch is one of the grittiest shooters I think I have ever seen. Having not played the first one I can’t really pass comment on it, but I have seen the demo for Dog Days and have to say I was impressed. This second outing for the gruesome twosome appears to kick start in China, and from the very beginning you are thrown into the action. Realistic movement and gunplay makes the game feel wonderful to play, and this is definitely one to look out for at the end of the month for those who like their shooters and are looking for a deep storyline.

Mafia II – 27/08/2010

If you like violence, showgirls and 40’s/50’s megastars then you will no doubt be keeping a keen eye on Mafia II. Set between 1945 and 1957, Mafia II takes place in the fictional city of Empire Bay with what looks to be more guns and more plot than its predecessor. Hopefully there will be a marked improvement in graphics and game play 6 years on from the original, with a few new mechanics thrown in for good measure. With DLC already mentioned, this should be a great gang style adventure.

Dead Space Movie?

Director D.J Caruso, famous for films Eagle Eye & Disturbia, has confirmed that he will be the director for the Dead Space game-to-film adaptation. Caruso says that the film will be a prequel to Dead Space 2 and will fill in the gaps between the two games.

There are little to no details on the film as of yet, but it is scheduled to be released some time in 2011. It would be nice if the film release coincided with the release of Dead Space 2, but this is far from likely.

Hopefully this will be better than the anime adaptation Dead Space Downfall since it is at least live action. Will it be as gory and pant wettingly terrifying as the games? Highly doubtful, but we shall see. Will Isaac be the silent hero he was in the original game, or will he be vocal as he has been made to be in Dead Space 2? Regardless, I call dibs on Gerard Butler playing the lead.