The Tempest | E3 2008

After all the monumental glory that is E3, I (believe it or not) am in absolute awe. There was only one game that absolutely did not blow me out of the water.

Let's start with the press conferences.

I am not a Wii fanboy, I think they have a solid system and were definitely a leap ahead with their controller, but I didn't watch their press conference because it really didn't interest me.

Between the PS3 and Xbox 360, I have to say that PS3 had the better conference. They seemed to have keynote speakers that were more prepared and organized, and produced some good hype for their big budget hits for the next year. Xbox announced some new features for live that were just meh. Both conferences left me wanting, I started to think that maybe this year would kinda suck.

Then G4 moved on to the exclusive demos and interviews with game creators. There were of course the ones that have already had huge hype. Fallout 3, Mercenaries 2, Resistance 2, and so on. All of which look great and sound like immense fun. My eyes are glued to Infamous. Psi-ops on xbox introduced me to the use of lightning and telekinesis (sp?). which were immense fun. After I realized how cool that was in a game, I tried out a couple of star wars titles, all of which really left me wanting in the "mind powers" department. Half-Life 2 did an incredible job with the grav gun (the blue one at the end), but hell you only get to use it for less than about half an hour, so it was amazing but extremely short lived. But Infamous brings it back in full unadulterated glory. I really can't describe how awesome it looks so you have to go see the trailer or online demo or something.

I mentioned Mercenaries 2 also as one of the big budget titles, and it looks like it. The first one was a good solid game, but lacked overall visually, too dark and gritty. This time you're in the rich and vibrant Venezualan jungle, armed with over 30 different vehicles, including tanks, helicopters, APC's, boats, etc. And a very wide arsenal, including some kind of nuclear bomb, which is b-e-a-utiful.

The rest of the games exclusively covered all looked great except for two. Spore and Mortal Combat vs. DC comics

Spore didn't look great. It looked FUCKING AMAZING! Will Wright has definitely outdone himself. The only qualms I have about it are how the overall Spore community will interact seemlessly on an galactic scale. And the new Mortal combat game just made me sick to my stomach, I don't care too much for the series anymore, I kind of moved past that whole genre after 8th grade, but to combine those to worlds in one is to me just an excuse to make money hand over fist and ruins the whole damn thing. Especially having superheroes fight normal guys, because thats what for the most part mortal combat characters are, human beings, some demons, some mixed, not super in any way.

I'm going to go ahead and establish myself as "that guy".

I don't get what the big deal about spore is. Ok, so you design a creature.. and it grows. but after that it seems like it turns into a dumbed down RTS. I dunno. The payoff really seems to be in the ability to go to other "planets" and see other people's content. But that's not much of a payoff to me. Yeah, I know, you can make your own creature and it evolves and the algorithms behind spore are sexy as hell. I agree. I think that the kind of intelligence that will wright has could go to more.. engrossing games. SIM stuff is alright, but those games always seemed to have no.. purpose. OH LOOKY I MADE A CITY! Cool, now.. what do you do with it? OH I JUST PLAY IT UNTIL I AM BORED!

With no real plot, no real antagonist, and nothing that moves the game other than "what's that shiny thing?", I don't see it being all that enjoyable. I also don't see it as being replayable... if you can go to other planets and see other people's content, then where your desire to make a different creature? (whee? I mean.. oh look I made this one have 4 legs and that one have 2)

Point is, it'll probably be a good game and everyone will splooge on it (or just make walking penises). I just don't get why.

Other than that, I liked your post, Fife.

"Between the PS3 and Xbox 360, I have to say that PS3 had the better conference... Xbox announced some new features for live that were just meh."

You're crazy. I mean, Microsoft made the equivalent of pull out their dick and beating Sony senseless with it. As if the games and release dates weren't enough, getting Resident Evil 5 to present at their booth and un-exclusiving FFXIII should have been.

AND THEN THERE WAS THE NETFLIX ANNOUNCEMENT.

Holy. Cow.

Ok, so I'm the asshole then. Nolan, I liked both conferences, but Sony's was better. I don't give the equivalent of a roachs queef about FFXIII, never played any of them, never want to. And the whole Netflix thing, well I can see that as being a positive, but I'll quote Adam Sessler cause he said it better, "It's cool to have those features, but they are there just because there extra features that aren't that hard to do."

Fife, I'm going to have to disagree with you on this one as well.

Microsoft dominated the E3 conference, and pretty much the entire Internet agrees with me on that one, besides a few PS3 fanboys who would sell their souls to have their FFXIII exclusivity back.

The fact of the matter is, even if you don't really care about FFXIII, it represents one of (if not the) largest franchises on the Playstation, has been since the Playstation 1 came out. For Sony to lose that as an exclusive, and Microsoft to announce that it is coming out the SAME DAY on the 360, is huge beyond belief. Throw on to that fire Gears of War 2, the Resident Evil 5 bias, Netflix announcement (which is pretty big, especially to non-gamers), Fable 2, Xbox Live remodeling...I mean, the list goes on. What did we get from PS3? "LittleBigPlanet is still coming out...sometime...and we're delaying Playstation Home...again. Yeah."

I think it's pretty clear who won that "battle".

I also read today that it's rumored Microsoft is spending 12 billion dollars to encourage people to develop on the 360 over the PS3....or not develop at all. There are literally games out there planned for the PS3 that are getting scrapped because Microsoft has too much money. That's insane.

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