E3! I love being a gamer.

After watching the Nintendo and Sony E3 presentations today live on G4TV, I have to say I am completely overwhelmed, by one of them anyway ;).

Nintendo: Their conference was first. It started off quite boring I thought, and when EA came on and talked about their present and future garbage games that they’re pumping out on the Wii, I was ready to change the channel. Ninty obviously saved their big guns for the end. What they announced that I am excited for:

  • New Super Mario Bros. Wii – I loved the DS version, and this one is touting a multiplayer component of some sort. Hopefully (but doubtfully judging by the name) it will not be a direct port of the DS version.
  • Super Mario Galaxy 2 – The first one easily the best 3d platformer I’ve ever played. This definitely has me excited.
  • Metroid: Project M – Okay so this is one series I’ve never really played (embarrassed), but the news on this one is just too exciting. Nintendo is co-developing the game with Team Ninja, the guys behind the fantastic Ninja Gaiden franchise. The trailer is pretty cool, so here is the video:

Overall, their conference was pretty “meh”. The extreme enthusiasm of the on-stage presenters (mainly Cammie Dunaway, I very much dislike her) for the lack-luster material they were presenting for the first 95% of the show was frustrating.

Sony: Totally caught me off guard. This presentation was good, very good in my opinion. It did start off slow, but they played their cards right. Why I liked it:

PSP

  • The PSP Go was officially announced. Kaz Hirai humorously said it’s alternate name is “The Worst Kept Secret of E3“. Not many new details compared to my last post. It’s 50% smaller than original PSP. I must emphasize it’s not meant to be a PSP 2 nor replace the PSP-3000. In my last post about this, I was extremely upset with the PSP Go. After seeing it on video, I must change my opinion. This thing is very small and very slick. I want one.
  • Gran Turismo PSP – This is the game I’ve been wanting on my PSP since day one. It’s going to have 35 tracks, and get this OVER 800 cars!
  • Metal Gear Solid: Peacewalker – The trailer wasn’t very good, but it’s Metal Gear Solid. Looks like there is going to be multiple Snakes. YES.
  • Resident Evil Portable – PSP exclusive. 2010. No other details.
  • Assassins Creed: Bloodline – I don’t know any details besides that it will be out this fall, hopefully it doesn’t stink.

I am very surprised overall with the games coming to PSP. I thought the PSP was down for the count. I am very pleased with what Sony showed.

PS3

  • Rockstar North (creators of Grand Theft Auto Series) are making an exclusive PS3 title called Agent. That’s all Sony said in the conference, but what I can gather is that it’s an espionage game based in the 1970’s. I am hoping this game will be a AAA title like Rockstar always seems to put out.
  • Final Fanatasy 13 trailer was shown and it kicked ass, but here is the big news. Final Fantasy 14 is coming exclusively to the PS3. It will be an online game similar to FF11.
  • Another PS3 exclusive, The Last Guardian was shown. It’s from Team ICO (the creators ICO and Shadow of the Collosus). I have to be honest, I’ve never played any of their games. But is “I want to” good enough? Both ICO and SotC are regarded as masterpieces and this game looks absolutely beautiful.
  • Metal Gear Solid: Rising for the PS3 was announced. Looks like 360 and PC owners are getting it too! I just hope that doesnt mean they have to cripple the game somehow to accomadate all 3 platforms.
  • A trailer for Gran Turismo 5 was shown. For some reason it got me super excited. I want this game so bad.
  • A big surprise for me, a new game called Modnation Racers was announced exclusively for the PS3 and previewed. It’s a kart racer, but it has creation abilities similar to Little Big Planet. You should watch the video to do this game justice. It looks very polished already.
  • Several minutes of in-game footage of God of War 3 was shown. The video finished off with Kratos slamming a monsters horn through its eye. Saying it was epic is a definite understatement.
  • New singleplayer footage of Uncharted 2 was shown. This is my most anticipated game of 2009! A few hours after the conference I received an email from Sony, “oh.. boring..” I thought. I read the email; I was invited to the Uncharted 2 multiplayer beta! And it starts tomorrow!! I am so stoked for this I can’t describe it.
  • And saving the best for last (well Sony didn’t, I am), Sony unveiled  a new product for the PS3. Two engineers came out; you could tell they were not the normal overly enthusiastic presenter type. Somehow you could just tell whatever Sony was going to show, it was going to be amazing. Then an engineer brought out an oblong funny looking controller, and the video incrementally got more amazing. Here is the video:

Obviously Sony took some ideas from Nintendo, but this motion controller appears to be incredible. I love the fact that they were showing a working prototype in it’s early stages right on stage by none other than two engineers. Call me a fanboy, those tech demos look better than most Wii games I’ve played.

I must bring up Microsoft’s “Natal” which they unveiled yesterday. It’s very similar in concept to the PlayStation Eye Toy.  Maybe I’m biased, it looks too good to be true. WAY too good to be true. To be honest, it reminds me of what Sony used to do. Showcase a product that hasn’t even been made yet. This just looks far to advanced to be possible. If this works as good in real life as it does in this video, I will buy a 360, so chances are I won’t be buying a 360.

So far E3 has been a joy ride. I can’t wait to play these upcoming games, so so many games *drools*.

3 thoughts on “E3! I love being a gamer.”

  1. Microsofts Natal is far superior in technology when compared to a simple motion controller. Did you not see it has a two camera and microphone, does voice-recognition, you can even say “goodbye” when you dont want to talk to it anymore. Dont you understand what this means for hardcore gaming, like.. I can see myself in the future you know, hosting a party. Party guest 1: hey does anyone wanna play halo. Party guest 2: pshh hell naa we got natal, lets all jump up and down on skateboards in my livingroom and do kickflips. Party guest 3: ahh shyt yeah then we can dress eachother up with virtual clothes and see what tom would look like as a girl.

  2. Feel the same way about most of the things u listed in this post but not so sure about what u think about the “natal”.
    There were tech demos of actual live gameplay that showed that the natal actually works pretty well. Also they let some guys over at gizmodo try a go at it and even though they had their doubts they said that they were very impressed on how well the natal worked for them while playing multiple games…

  3. The Natal tech demos are actually what made me have my doubts. They seemed about as responsive and accurate as a standard PlayStation Eye game.

    When the guy in the big bright orange jacket (why was he wearing this I wonder…) was moving the onscreen mo-cap image, it was very jerky, and it sure as heck wasn’t accurate enough to do some intense gaming.

    When the girl was kicking those balls flying at her, I was even more unimpressed. Her kicks and body location became way out of sync after a couple seconds of looking like a complete idiot.

    We’ll see though. They still have time to make it work, I just don’t think the technology is available yet.

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