Okay, so it sounds like the add on for Nintendo's new motion controller is a gyroscope. By pulling together accelerometer, infra red, and gyroscope data, the Wiimote will give much better tracking data. How much better remains to be seen. And since the thing will be sold with Wii Sports Beach Games next spring, there's really nothing to care about yet. Microsoft or Sony could still eat Nintendo's lunch.
Sony put up their video on demand service. I know Xbox Live had some video on demand, but I honestly have no idea how the services currently stack up or will stack up after Microsoft's other partner deals go through.
For me to care about video on demand, there'd have to be something I want to watch. Battlestar Galactica is far too bleak to own. I have no tolerance for fiction that's stingy with details (Robert Jordan's corpse, I'm looking at you.), so Lost is out. And Heroes might be worth seeing. But I know they had two crappy episodes before the writers strike, and that's the last I heard. I guess I'm veering off topic, but the truth is, the biggest part of E3 is done.
With the press conferences over most of what I'm doing is reading impressions of game demos. There are a million trailers, too, but anything can look good in a trailer. I want gameplay footage or the written impressions of someone who spent time with the game. And even then, things change. The demo for Uncharted I played at PAX last year was awful, but reviewers (who also hated that demo) say the game was extensively reworked and turned out great.
Still, it's always scary to see stuff like this Resistance 2 demo. The events feel painfully contrived. The demo player anticipates an event that doesn't look like it could be survived by anyone who didn't have prior knowledge. There's a lot of boring jogging through uninteresting environments (that's probably supposed to be suspenseful), and the player gets hurled for absurd distance. There's no falling damage in the game ever, right? Because if there is, this sequence is so reality breaking as to be offensive. You are not Kojima! Do not pretend you are!
Considering Resistance 2 is the PS3's big shooter this fall, Insomniac will undoubtedly be earning its name, working all hours to get this game ready. Here's hoping.
Borderlands had a similar poor showing, at least as Shawn Elliot and Jeff Green described it on the GFW Radio podcast. Gearbox is apparently still trying to sell the fact that the game has a random gun generator. I would like to sing you the opening of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony (with a tip of the hat to Billy West and John DiMaggio).
NO-BO-DY CAAARES!
NO-BO-DY CAAARES!
Anyway, Giant Bomb just put up another podcast of E3 impressions. The sacrifices I make for you people. :P
Showing posts with label E3 2008. Show all posts
Showing posts with label E3 2008. Show all posts
16 July, 2008
14 July, 2008
E3 2008: Microsoft Press Conference
These are my impressions based on Chris Kohler's Live Blog of the event.
Convergence
It looks like Microsoft is making good progress in this area. NBC, Universal, and Netflix now all have deals to provide content. They made it sound like Netflix subscribers will be able to download anything they could download on the PC to their 360 instead. This must be why their clearancing 20GB units to replace them with 60GB ones. 20GB don't hold much movies.
Casual
Microsoft has copied Nintendo Miis. Apparently you can have them stand around, chat, and share photos. Since Nintendo is scared to death of child predators, Microsoft may be able to do a lot more with Miis than they were. They may actually show up in 3rd party games, for example.
They announce "Xbox Live Primetime", where people can play game shows for real prizes. There's also a Scene It (movie trivia) game.
There's an Eye Toy like app called "You're In The Movies" where you can use the Xbox Vision Cam to put you and your friends into ridiculous situations and make silly movies of it.
And Banjo-Kazooie cart building and Viva Piñata 2 round out the family friendly offerings.
There's also all the music games (Rock Band, Guitar Hero, and the new karaoke game Lips).
I must say, Microsoft certainly appears to be making a better effort in this space. I don't think this will help them catch up with Wii, but it may be enough to help them regain the lead over the PS3 in the US and maybe catch up somewhat in Europe.
Game News
Resident Evil 5 will have online co-op. That's pretty awesome.
Final Fantasy XIII will be simultaneously released on the 360. That's huge. Well, it would have been huge if Final Fantasy fans hadn't already bought PS3s in preparation. Still, losing exclusivity on Final Fantasy is a big enough deal to actually weaken the PlayStation brand. I wonder how much it cost them?
Price
Microsoft didn't talk about price, but as I alluded to earlier, they're clearancing 20GB units at $300. Once those are gone, it'll be $350 to get an Xbox worth owning again. (Of course, with the red ring problems of the older units, I personally don't consider the clearanced units worth owning either.) Since both MS and Sony are losing money on their games businesses, we may not see price drops for a while. And neither one is at the price point that allows for mass market adoption. This is gonna be a long console cycle.
Update 14 July 2008 16:44 PST
Giant Bomb mentions that you will now be able to install 360 games to the hard drive. You need the DVD in the drive to verify you still have the game, but after that the whine of the DVD drive should be gone, and load times will be far quicker. Does that also mean less pop-in for GTA IV? How many bugs can we expect from this? This'll be interesting.
Convergence
It looks like Microsoft is making good progress in this area. NBC, Universal, and Netflix now all have deals to provide content. They made it sound like Netflix subscribers will be able to download anything they could download on the PC to their 360 instead. This must be why their clearancing 20GB units to replace them with 60GB ones. 20GB don't hold much movies.
Casual
Microsoft has copied Nintendo Miis. Apparently you can have them stand around, chat, and share photos. Since Nintendo is scared to death of child predators, Microsoft may be able to do a lot more with Miis than they were. They may actually show up in 3rd party games, for example.
They announce "Xbox Live Primetime", where people can play game shows for real prizes. There's also a Scene It (movie trivia) game.
There's an Eye Toy like app called "You're In The Movies" where you can use the Xbox Vision Cam to put you and your friends into ridiculous situations and make silly movies of it.
And Banjo-Kazooie cart building and Viva Piñata 2 round out the family friendly offerings.
There's also all the music games (Rock Band, Guitar Hero, and the new karaoke game Lips).
I must say, Microsoft certainly appears to be making a better effort in this space. I don't think this will help them catch up with Wii, but it may be enough to help them regain the lead over the PS3 in the US and maybe catch up somewhat in Europe.
Game News
Resident Evil 5 will have online co-op. That's pretty awesome.
Final Fantasy XIII will be simultaneously released on the 360. That's huge. Well, it would have been huge if Final Fantasy fans hadn't already bought PS3s in preparation. Still, losing exclusivity on Final Fantasy is a big enough deal to actually weaken the PlayStation brand. I wonder how much it cost them?
Price
Microsoft didn't talk about price, but as I alluded to earlier, they're clearancing 20GB units at $300. Once those are gone, it'll be $350 to get an Xbox worth owning again. (Of course, with the red ring problems of the older units, I personally don't consider the clearanced units worth owning either.) Since both MS and Sony are losing money on their games businesses, we may not see price drops for a while. And neither one is at the price point that allows for mass market adoption. This is gonna be a long console cycle.
Update 14 July 2008 16:44 PST
Giant Bomb mentions that you will now be able to install 360 games to the hard drive. You need the DVD in the drive to verify you still have the game, but after that the whine of the DVD drive should be gone, and load times will be far quicker. Does that also mean less pop-in for GTA IV? How many bugs can we expect from this? This'll be interesting.
E3 2008: Microsoft Motion Controller Superiority Disconfirmed
Wow. Is my face red. Not only did Microsoft not announce any new motion controller, Nintendo did.
What the #%&*?
Seriously!
It tracks arm position? What does that even mean?
We won't find out until Nintendo's press conference tomorrow.
After last year's E3, when nothing I cared about happened, it's nice to see it as a venue for big announcements again.
What the #%&*?
Seriously!
It tracks arm position? What does that even mean?
We won't find out until Nintendo's press conference tomorrow.
After last year's E3, when nothing I cared about happened, it's nice to see it as a venue for big announcements again.
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