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Whee! Back now. That was one of the more ... placid E3's I've been to. So, big picture stuff first :
Third Person Action is the new FPS
Bloody TPA's everywhere. In swarms. Ranging from the pretty nice looking and fun to play (Dead Rising, Lost Planet) all the way through to the WTF happened (Too Human). \
Wii!
Wii is funky. Whether or not it was easy to control depends entirely on the game (Mario/Metroid = Amazing : Red Steel = crap) and the way they've implemented the controller. At the price (not yet announced, but most likely $200-250USD) seems like a no-brainer.
PS3
Wasn't impressed. By anything. The only games that looked kind of close enough to finished to make launch AND looked good were Revolution, Fall of Man (or whatever it's called) and Heavenly Sword. HS was basically just a God of War combat piece - apparently there's more to the game than that, though. Looked nice enough in HD - nice pastel colours made for an overall impression of difference. Didn't look noticably better than Viva Pinata, though.
Fall of Man looked like every console shooter you've ever seen dumped into a blender and pureed until it was grey. Absolutely nothing stood out. WWII environments. Grey aliens that looked like crap versions of Gears of War. Guns. No evidence of AI worth noting. Entirely blah. Visually okay, but really - if next gen means slightly more polys in my generic FPS then count me out.
The Quantic Dream (guys who did Farenheit / Indigo Prophecy) tech demo looked really neat. Like Facade with the potential of a game attached.
Contoller is a dual shock without rumble and with tilt sensors. That doesn't work nearly as well as you might hope in games like Warhawk - you have to press nine buttons and tilt multiple directions ... yeah. Apparently the developers only found out about the tilt sensor a couple weeks before the show, though, so it'll improve I'm sure.
Real triggers this time. Dev hardware felt a little flimsy - hopefully production controllers will have a bit more heft.
360
Lots and lots of mature looking 360 titles - the second gen is looking solid, if unexciting. Viva Pinata looked beautiful, if not my kinda thing. Prey looked like an actually interesting FPS. Many of the 3rd person shooters mentioned above. Some more interesting than others. Nothing amazingly standout.
DS Lite
So beatiful - what a stunning piece of hardware. People keep telling you the screens are really bright, but you don't get it until you see it. They're really bright. New Zelda makes me happy. New Mario! Gameplay!
PC
There's nothing under the sun that can convince me to play games on my PC these days. I work on one all day, I just don't want to play on one. Hellgate looked okay, but gameplay wise it felt about three years too late. I don't want to repeatedly click on enemies Diablo style anymore. Sorry.
Specific titles,
Bioshock
Visually outstanding. If it comes out on time (this year) it will be crap - most of the gameplay is only now starting to come online. Some members of SS2 team still around - many of the key ones. Plot for sure. If they finish it, of course.
Warhammer : Mark of Chaos
A little *too* like the tabletop for my liking. The new Dawn of War expansion looks sweet, though. Campaign map and the ability to upgrade your champion as you go. Very nice. It was made by all my old workmates, though, so I'm obliged to say that.
MGS4
Only a pre-rendered trailer. In an interview in the daily paper, Kojima very carefully said "We want everyone to know that this trailer is running 100% on PS3 hardware," - of course it is. It's a pre-rendered trailer, you fuck. The fact the PS3 can stream video off the DVD isn't exactly next-gen. Of course, the quote is intended to imply the trailer was RENDERED on PS3 hardware - given the way it looks compared to everything else at the show, that's clearly bollocks.
Dupre hardcore questions (Metal Slug resolution, Cardfighter Clash) - looked for developers on the floor to ask questions. Couldn't find. Hopefully IGN has real info for you (soz!)
Tabula Rasa Stand
No idea about the game. Heavy rock band and firetwirlers. Nothing can prepare you for the sheer amount of noise E3 generates.
Huxley
Looked ...okay. Not sure where the MMO element comes in - looked more like a 16 player deathmatch.
New Zelda
Plays pretty poorly on the Wii controller, actually. Plug a Gamecube controller in and play it properly seems to be the way to go, sadly. Mario Galaxy on the other hand - whoot!
What are developers like?
Being a developer rather than press, I don't get to meet most of the celebs. Especially the eastern ones. I do hang about with Clint Hocking a fair whack. He's a good bloke. Iwata had a chat with me at a restaraunt once. He's lovely, if very formal Japanese and surrounded by minders.
Swag
Sucked this year. Nothing worth getting - and very little even if you wanted inflatable plastic swords. |
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