E3 2012: Am I already too old for this?

Last week, the big game studios showed up for the 2012 Electronic Entertainment Expo, better simply known as E3, to give us a taste of what’s to come in the next few months to a year. I didn’t go, because I am not press or a developer. I can only write as someone whose relationship with these companies extends to me handing them money for their product. Spike TV and its associated web site Game Trailers were nice enough to broadcast all sorts of game demos as well as the major press conferences themselves.

I honestly wasn’t sure how I wanted to approach this piece. Even after the official first day of E3, I had talked about the conferences to death on Twitter and message boards. With the exception of Ubisoft, who showed some great-looking content, none of the conferences did anything that ‘surprised’ me or grabbed my attention. After Halo 4 footage that does its best Metroid: Prime impersonation, Microsoft began to sell the idea of the Xbox as an entertainment brand, beyond playing a game and paying for extra content. Watch television shows and movies on Netflix and Hulu Plus. Catch up on Game of Thrones and Veep on HBO Go (which requires paying for a cable subscription, HBO, and then an Xbox Live Gold membership). Their big moment came when they introduced Internet Explorer and their Smart Glass app, which serves as a sort of PDA for entertainment. Get cast biographies for the movie or show you’re watching. Turn your tablet (iPad) into an interactive map for an adventure game. While this may sound convenient or fun, the way it was demonstrated indicated that Smart Glass seeks to solve a problem that doesn’t exist. I’m not sure I need an interactive Westeros map while I’m already trying to remember names on Game of Thrones. I’m already using GameFAQs to get help with games, and also I’m not using my tablet with my entertainment as frequently as Microsoft wants me to.

The real stars of the show were South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone who took the stage to quickly talk about the upcoming South Park: The Stick of Truth, developed by Obsidian Entertainment, but delivered the conference’s only major highlight with this quote:

“How many times have you been watching an episode of South Park and thought, ‘I’d like to be able to watch this on my television, while hooked into my mobile device, which is controlled by my tablet device, which is hooked into my oven,’ all while sitting in the refrigerator?”

Somewhere in the conference was an Usher performance and a Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 demo where people shot things and were shot at. It was everything I was already expecting from Microsoft after their terrible conference last year and it delivered for all the wrong reasons.

Last year, Ubisoft delivered upon the world Mr. Caffeine, a manic gentleman who informed us of upcoming “Tom Ca-lancy” games and used Wayne’s World references to do it. Survivors of the conference refuse to talk about it to this day. This year, Aisha Tyler took the stage for Ubisoft, and I’m not sure if ever a huge upgrade took place than having her host, because she was great and very enthusiastic. Her only crime honestly was having to share the stage with a Tobuscus, a YouTube ‘personality’ who went by Toby where silly, scripted back and forth banter ensued, and then we saw games.

Ubisoft had probably the most solid line-up with Far Cry 3, whose demo was one of the strangest, drug-fueled demos I had ever seen. Rayman Legends, which is exclusive to Nintendo’s upcoming Wii U system, is looking like a solid follow-up to the fantastic Rayman Origins, which I talked about earlier this year. I’m hoping Rayman Legends will feature as great a soundtrack as its predecessor. Ubisoft also showed new footage of Assassin’s Creed III, which I have ordered from Amazon despite its October release date. Perhaps the biggest and most talked-about surprise is the new game coming titled Watch_Dogs. The demo showed a man walking around a huge virtual recreation of Chicago and proceeding to gather information about its residents with a device that allows hacking of mobile devices and also jamming communication signals and even manipulate traffic lights as he sees fit. The demo concluded with this man in a shoot-out with his antagonists, which honestly presents a slight concern over how much taking cover and shooting I will actually do in Watch_Dogs. Regardless of this, although I’ve never visited Chicago, the world was stunning and was also impressed by the number of NPCs walking around the town without a hint of frame rate dropping. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on it.

The evening of “Day Zero” closed out with Sony’s press conference which, aside from Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us, Quantic Dream’s Beyond: Two Souls, and footage of the Vita game Assassin’s Creed: Liberation, did very little to catch my interest. We got a demo for God of War: Ascension, the next title in the seven-year PlayStation series, where Kratos kills more things in the same way he has for the last seven years. I’m sure the fans have already eaten it up, especially when Kratos killed an elephant minotaur by cutting it in half. One thing I was looking forward to was Sony’s plans for the Vita. It’s almost common knowledge at this point that the PlayStation Vita isn’t off to a particularly strong start across the globe, with its predecessor the PlayStation Portable outselling it in Japan. I’ve seen more doom and gloom comments than positive ones despite the device being four months into its launch in the United States. Sony unveiled… a Call of Duty logo and an Assassin’s Creed spinoff game. In fairness, I do think the Assassin’s Creed title has plenty of potential to get major use of the device’s hardware, but E3 is the center stage to show people what you’re up to and what to look forward to and to get the folks excited for it (a point I will reiterate with Nintendo). Instead, we got Wonderbook. Wonderbook, from what I understand, is an augmented reality software that utilizes the PlayStation Eye Toy device where you have interactive experiences with storybooks. It might sound fun for the kids, but it didn’t look “explain this product for 15 to 20 minutes” fun. While I think SCEA President Jack Tretton did a decent job onstage and successfully got the crowd excited for God of War and The Last of Us. Quantic Dream showed footage of their newest game, Beyond: Two Souls, which stars actress Ellen Page. I’m not sure what kind of game it will be. Will it be another “interactive experience” (i.e. quick-timer event) game like 2010′s Heavy Rain?

A few nice details here and there about games, mostly lackluster, and then there’s Nintendo, which I will talk about tomorrow because there’s a lot to address.

E3 2011: 3DS update, Super Mario, Luigi’s Mansion 2!

Let’s get this out of the way.

OH MY GOD THERE WILL BE A SEQUEL TO LUIGI’S MANSION FOR THE NINTENDO 3DS AND I WILL TOTALLY BE THERE DAY ONE!

Sorry about that. It was amazing how divided the original Luigi’s Mansion, launched with the Nintendo Gamecube in 2001, is among people. I didn’t even play it until well into a year of the Gamecube’s US launch. It was a fun concept, if a little restrictive, but I’d have to dig out my copy.

I didn’t download it until yesterday morning, but on Monday evening, June 6, Nintendo released their 2.0.0 system update for their 3DS handheld, which now makes your 3DS a little more useful. It features the long-awaited Nintendo eShop, featuring the Virtual Console and a section called DSi Ware Favorites, featuring presumably some of the games originally on sale for the DSi, like Cave Story and Plants vs. Zombies, now available for the 3DS. In fact, DSi owners can now transfer most their purchases over to the 3DS. In the Virtual Console shop, Super Mario Land, Radar Mission, and Alleyway are available for purchase. As of yesterday evening, The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX, the Game Boy Color update of the original Game Boy title, is also available for download. I’m excited to play that since I have actually never gotten to play it. Strangely but not surprisingly, Nintendo has decided to sell separate 3DS cash cards to redeem, which is a separate currency from the Wii/DSi Points system, parallel to the Microsoft Points vs. PlayStation Network Wallet Funds.

Nintendo has offered a free bonus in its first of what I can assume a number of games in their “3D Classics” brand: Excitebike. The 1984 NES game is retouched to utilize the 3D screen, although with the adjustable slider it can still be played in 2D. There is not much to be said about the 3D in the game. It’s the same Excitebike I remember, and I’m still terrible at it. The highlight remains the ability to design courses and that catchy 8-bit theme. Downloading popular NES games to my 3DS is already a convenient notion, hopefully Nintendo puts the 3D to good use.

The system update adds a web browser to the 3DS Home screen, which works about as well as you would expect any mobile browser to. I believe entering URLs, along with the typical history saving and bookmarking, will save certain phrases to the 3DS’s dictionary to suppress the need to type out the same words every single time. One tap of the stylus, and it’s there.

At their E3 presentation, Nintendo informed the press they did not forget about the 3DS. The launch of the device has been less than stellar. It featured no true breakout titles (although the acclaimed port of Super Street Fighter IV and Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars are apparent exceptions) and this system update is available nearly three months after its launch in the United States. The more anticipated titles, such as The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, aren’t due until later in the year. Ocarina of Time is seeing a release next week. Even I had considered giving up my 3DS until seeing the trailers for Super Mario and Luigi’s Mansion 2. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater 3D is due towards the end of year, but is now rather overshadowed by its high-definition update for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, which will utilize the PSP and possibly PS Vita hardware with Konami’s own “transfarring” (that, I assure you, is no typo) system.

As others have argued, the Nintendo DS had a slow start. The games were eventually there, and the handheld crushed the competition. The competition is more fierce now, in the wake of mobile markets, smartphones, and the evolution of smartphone games.

E3 2011: Nintendo’s iPad, the Wii U.

Color me intrigued, Nintendo.

I have owned my Nintendo Wii for three years this month, and my library has never exceeded more than ten games. It would be a disservice to call the console a failure, because the sales numbers would point and laugh at the idea. Much of the system’s charm came directly from Nintendo themselves, with games like Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Donkey Kong Country Returns (my personal favorite), and the Metroid Prime trilogy offer some quality software for this console–except for the fact that this was the company’s attempt to please the “core” fan base while they showered those darned “casual” folks with mini-game compilations and time-wasters, some providing genuine fun, some amounting to nothing more than shovelware. Yesterday, as I watched Nintendo give their presentation at E3, I started to wonder whether I personally ever gave the Wii a chance at all. I’d been critical of their decisions, as have others: an internet service that is almost at an atrocious level compared to the likes of Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, delays for their own releases when their third-party support is weak and those third-party games that ARE critically well-received seeing no marketing, thus no sales, thus another criticism of the lack of third-party support. Combined with the fact that the Wii is incapable of high-definition past 480p, there is some justification to be critical of the Wii. Maybe I should have looked harder for the games, but these companies should have made more of an effort to show me, to wow me. I remain indifferent about the concept of motion-controlled gaming. It works when it works, and it doesn’t the rest of the time.

Nintendo heard the critics, for the most part, and unveiled their successor to the Wii: Wii U.

The Wii U Controller, resembling a tablet with a button and pad interface.

If you see the image above, this is not the console itself, but the controller, which Nintendo is far more keen to show us than the base on which it operates. It is, according to their web site, a pad with a 6.2-inch, 16:9 touch screen. It features the typical button face, two circle pads (like their 3DS handheld device as opposed to an analog stick), a camera, accelerometer and gyroscope, stylus, rumble, and a microphone. The first disappointing news already is that the touch screen is of the resistive variety, not capacitive, so it may not be as accurate using your fingers, but I imagine at least the stylus will suppress that. What was rather impressive is the ability for video chat on the controller, which I imagine will be just one of many features Nintendo will cook up for that camera. Oh, and the Wii U will still make use of the original Wii remote.

The Wii U will support HDMI output, along with S-video, component and composite. Nintendo will finally, finally deliver in HD.

Now here is where the real challenge lies for Nintendo. One of the major criticisms of the Wii was the lack of third-party support. Nintendo was rather ecstatic to show you the kinds of titles it has lined up, such as Ninja Gaiden (Tecmo), Batman: Arkham City (WB Games), Darksiders 2 (THQ), Assassin’s Creed (Ubisoft), and all things EA Sports. This could work for them. Could. Wii adopters were mostly classified as casual players, and now Nintendo has to sell these games, most if not all will appear on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, to them (which shouldn’t be too difficult) but especially convince the ‘core’ audience to play the Wii U version of the big-budget game. The issue here is that Nintendo has caught up in a race where the competition is ready to move forward. Sony’s PlayStation Vita will sync from handheld to the PS3 console just as the Wii U controller will do. In fact, the PlayStation Portable already does this with the PlayStation 3. Sony has mentioned that they are working however which way on the PlayStation 3 successor. Microsoft is keen on giving the Xbox 360 a few more years by adding more games for its Kinect motion-control device and whatever they are planning for the Xbox 360 successor.

I hope Nintendo is listening to the critics, no matter how asinine the argument, and I hope they have learned from the Wii. With this investment and the kind of technology you are delivering to curious consumers, there is no falling back on Mario or The Legend of Zelda for the numbers. They will have a number of things to consider, also. Ergonomic design of the controller, battery life, comfort, aesthetics (although it does look friendly). Your internet service needs to get people interested, finding a less cumbersome way of security that will give people peace-of-mind in the wake of the PlayStation Network but feel friendly, too. You need online stability as well. Above all, there is price. The price is always the moment you stand on thin ice. Too low depending on production and design costs, you sell at a loss and won’t see profits for at least two or three years, sell high, you drive away the customers and you have your “FIVE HUNDRED NINETY-NINE U.S. DOLLARS” moment you can’t live down for some time. There is absolute promise in this console, though. A Nintendo console offering HD visuals is good enough for now to attract the folks, but think ahead, especially in terms of 3DS cooperation.

Nintendo, what have U got?

No Thanks, Marcus: How Sony has kept me from owning a PSP.

Preseason football has started and I am watching the New York Giants embarrass themselves in front of the New York Jets in a game for new stadium inaugural bragging rights. Somewhere after a Jets touchdown, I see an ad for the Sony PlayStation Portable, where a goofy white man on a bicycle is bragging about playing a time-waster game on his smartphone that kind of resembles a certain Apple phone. Cue “Marcus Rivers,” Sony’s newest attempt at getting consumers and gadget aficionados to invest in a PSP. Marcus was introduced by Sony Computer Entertainment “vice-president” Kevin Butler at this year’s E3. Marcus sits in a school bus talking about the $10 downloadable titles you can play on the PSP that are much more vivid in design and more sophisticated in execution than something like Angry Birds or Paper Toss. Marcus then brags about the relatively low $10 price, which is an interesting direction to go in given the amount of iPhone games that are typically priced between $1 to $5. Nothing in that ad has managed to sell me on the PSP, and so I go a fifth year in a row without owning one.

Now, my expertise on advertising comes solely from watching a lot of AMC’s Mad Men, but that is a terrible ad. Perhaps I took the ad too personally, but that goofy guy on the bicycle is me. He is me and the consumer who still searches for a reason to spend money on a PSP, and in comes an obnoxious kid who talks down to the guy (and, indirectly, to me) for simply not knowing better and being an idiot for enjoying his little mobile phone game. A rude, obnoxious boy who just insults anyone who doesn’t own a PSP yet is not how you sell your gadget, Sony.
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Update! I recently did a review for Ubisoft’s Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game. It’s based on the graphic novels and loosely inspired by the film version directed by the awesome Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz). I highly recommend both the film and the game! You can read my review here:

http://www.newgamenetwork.com/article/301/scott-pilgrim-review/

E3 2010: Sony and Nintendo: ‘Hey! This isn’t Harry Potter…’

Time passes rather quickly. Already my writing an entry on E3 may already come off as ancient history, but while the event was taking place, two major events captured my attention: the madness of pre-ordering an iPhone 4, and the madness of the 2010 FIFA World Cup and the vuvuzelas that come with it.

I say this time, let’s cut to the chase so we can get back to our soccer/football/futbol, shall we?

Nintendo’s approach to appease its ‘hardcore’ fan base, the folks who enjoy jumping on Koopa Troopas and launching fireballs as the company’s mascot plumber Mario over a shooting gallery at a virtual carnival starring their Mii characters, used to offend me. Their only answer to this ‘problem’ was to just throw another Mario game at them, but folks ate them up. Games developed by third-party developers that aim to a less casual audience tend to flop and appear dead on arrival (Sega’s The Conduit and MadWorld, and EA’s Dead Space: Extraction are two examples). This year, Nintendo brought in the big guns, and while I won’t be playing some of their future titles right away, it brings me a sense of relief that they will be there. We have a new Legend of Zelda game, titled Skyward Sword, for the Wii. I have yet to play Twilight Princess, released in 2006, and during that period I had considered myself “retired” from the franchise. In 2007, I had attempted to play the Phantom Hourglass game on the DS, but gave up on it for a number of reasons. Skyward Sword boasts a visual mixture of Twilight Princess, and the love-it-or-hate-it Wind Waker (Gamecube, 2003). It has an extra flavor of an oil painting/illustrated storybook look that drew me in despite series creator Shigeru Miyamoto’s awkward demonstration of the game at the Nintendo presentation last week.

Nintendo spent a lot of the presentation discussing the capabilities of the Nintendo 3DS, and with games like a new Golden Sun (the first since The Lost Age, the second episode, released for the Game Boy Advance in 2003). I had to actually look up the title of the second Golden Sun game. I hadn’t played it since 2004. In addition to the first-party games (a potential new Star Fox and a Kid Icarus game after all these years), there is a lot of third-party support from the big names, including a Resident Evil game from Capcom, a Splinter Cell game from Ubisoft, and a Metal Gear Solid title from Konami. Color me sold.

I regret that I don’t have a whole lot to express about Sony’s time on the stage because, as I remember it, I was physically tired having been awake for a lot of the previous night. Sony discussed their premium service, of which I have no interest in. They managed to show up the Kinect with Move, their take on motion control, by showing a demonstration of a wizard-ing game called Harry Pott– I mean Sorcery. It can be generically described as “interesting,” and absolutely nothing to get excited over. I will stick with my Wii, that I have even decided to touch for the first time in over a year (thanks, Super Mario Galaxy 2!). One of the stronger highlights was the appearance by Gabe Newell, co-founder of Valve, and his promotion of the much anticipated Portal 2. That wasn’t the big deal. We all knew that. The extra added punch came in the announcement of Steamworks, which allows Mac and Windows users to play multiplayer games on the same servers with one another, and its compatibility on the PlayStation 3. That about topped off the sundae, chock full of Kevin Butler and his motivational “We’re gamers!” speech that provided some genuine humor, with the cherry on top that was the development of a Twisted Metal game, the first since Twisted Metal: Black (PlayStation 2, 2001).

That about does it for this year’s E3, among other things. I need to dock points here, though, or maybe throw a yellow flag on the field.

Microsoft — 5-yard penalty for that creepy Kinectimals segment.

Nintendo — 5-yard penalty for the awkward Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword demonstration. An addition 10-yard penalty for the GoldenEye remake and failure to understand why it was the monster that it was in 1997. They announce the 3DS and its lineup. The penalty is declined. First down.

Sony — 10-yard penalty for an uninteresting presentation. Kevin Butler speech and PS3 Steamworks. That penalty is declined. There is an additional 5-yard penalty for the inability to sell me on a PSP after five years, as well as the failure to sell Move.

Next time: I talk about the iPhone 4.

E3 2010: Microsoft, I prefer to play my games sitting down.

E3 was a week ago, and at this time, I would be getting ready to watch the Microsoft conference. I didn’t have an idea, then, as to what exactly was going to be the focus point of the presentation. It opens up with a demonstration of the next entry in the Call of Duty series: Black Ops. Maybe ten minutes into the presentation, I’m bored. With a strange anticipation, I purchased Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 at my local GameStop the Tuesday of its release, waiting about forty-five minutes in line to pick up my copy that I had pre-ordered earlier in the summer. I enjoyed the solo mode, despite an absolutely dreadful “plot,” but the real sale came from the cooperative mode, dubbed the Spec Ops mode. This time, I’m watching men in a jungle shoot other men, and then the characters hop into a helicopter and fly away as the area goes up in flames, or something. Please note that I am typing this from memory, as I have no desire to revisit some of these moments beyond this entry.

At some point, Microsoft decided to showcase games we were well aware were already being released: Halo: Reach (a potential purchase), Fable 3 ($20 purchase), Gears of War 3 (day one, absolutely). Following that, out comes Hideo Kojima, the creator of the Metal Gear universe. He demonstrates the Metal Gear Solid that’s coming to the Xbox 360 in the name of Metal Gear Solid: Rising. Apparently, we’re going to play as Raiden, and slash soldiers with a big sword. It seems to be a fun action game, but what sold me on it is the precision cutting mechanic they seem to be implementing into the game. The player will somehow determine the angle in which Raiden cuts, and where he cuts is how whatever he cuts will slice off. The ending of the trailer has a humorous and educational moment of Raiden slicing watermelon into certain pieces and shapes.

Then… Then came Kinect.

Formerly “Project Natal,” Kinect is Microsoft’s answer to the motion control “craze” that apparently we’re all so nuts about. They demonstrate an awkward video chat session, ESPN without any NFL content (due to regional business, understandably, save for perhaps Monday Night Football games), and a bunch of games where you river-raft, drive, exercise, that exist only so you can say you got something out of your Kinect. The idea of voice-command menus sounds nice, though. They did showcase a dancing game from Harmonix, Dance Central, that does look fun. Looking at the Wikipedia entry, it will feature the ever popular “Poker Face” as performed by Lady Gaga. SOLD!

A dull conference, not terrible, but underwhelming. Every attendant at the conference went home with Microsoft’s new Xbox 360 redesign, with a 250 GB hard disk drive, built-in wi-fi (Wireless N!), and is “Kinect Ready.” As nice as some of these features are, I am alone when I say that is one ugly redesign. Maybe it’s because I find my Resident Evil 5-edition red Xbox console to be so gorgeous.

New theme, new inspiration, and a preview.

If there is one thing that I hate as a writer, it’s to lose focus. I’m not talking about writer’s block. Writer’s block is a whole other entity. Writer’s block is the final boss in an RPG to conquer while losing focus is merely circling the same dungeon for thirty minutes, lost and frustrated.

I intend to finish my Red Dead Redemption soon. My organization may be off, but my prioritization is intact! If you actually do read this page, you’ll notice the drastic change in theme. I originally went with black not as some aesthetic “moody” choice, but because black tends to be easier on the eyes when it comes to staring at computer screens. Although might I recommend F.lux? Regardless, I like the simplicity of it, as I, well, enjoy simplicity. I imagine anyone noticing the green is bound to label me as an Xbox 360 fanboy. Bring it!

I do have a few topics I’d like to discuss soon:

• E3 2010
• The release of the iPhone 4 (partially gaming-related!)
• Alan Wake
• Super Mario Galaxy 2
• San Diego Comic Con 2010
• The cranky ol’ young adult in me that really needs to rant…

So as you can see, I am already all over the place. More relevant to my journal here is my consensus of this year’s Electronics Entertainment Expo, the great (Dead Space 2, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Kevin Butler), the good (Gears of War 3, Metroid: The Other M), the “meh” (Microsoft Kinect AND PlayStation Move, Call of Duty: Black Ops, PlayStation Plus), and the “WTF?” (the GoldenEye remake — seriously, my man-crush on Daniel Craig notwithstanding, WTF?).