E3 2010

[Soapy]

I forget where I saw it, but there was video of some Square Enix shooter that was playing outside the LA convention center.

 

[Havok83]

I hope we hear about the new Need for Speed game taht Criterion is developing

 

[Tron Bonne]

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/06/10/trine-2-revealed-as-part-of-atlus-e3-lineup/

Atlus today distributed a list of titles it will showcase at the (extremely impending) Electronic Entertainment Expo next week. One of the names mentioned on the decidedly vague list of games is Trine 2, the follow-up to Frozenbyte's 2009 PC and PSN action-platformer -- and to think some folks assumed Atlus was just going to announce an XBLA version of the original game. How silly!

Also included in the publisher's E3 lineup is another unannounced title: Rock of Ages, which is being developed by Zeno Clash creator Ace Team. Additionally, localized versions of Etrian Odyssey 3: The Drowned City and the PSP port of Knights in the Nightmare will be at the show.

 

[KALEL114]

I hope we hear about the new Need for Speed game taht Criterion is developing

I bet you a counting down clock it will.t:

http://www.criteriongames.com/

 

[Havok83]

I bet you a counting down clock it will.t:

http://www.criteriongames.com/

Oh wow, I didnt even know about that. I havent touched a NFS game in ages, but the fact that Criterion is making it, makes it a purchase for me. I love what they did with Burnout and I hope they can do the same for NFS

 

[KALEL114]

I am very excited to see what the do with the franchise. I got over NFS along time ago and I think they are the ones to bring me back to it.

 

[Tron Bonne]

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/06/10/massive-xbox-live-arcade-sale-during-e3-2010-week/

Big sale for E3 on XBLA

On sale starting Monday, June 14:

Shadow Complex -- 560 / $7 (Normally 1200, 53% off)
Trials HD -- 560 / $7 (Normally 1200, 53% off)
Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 -- 560 / $7 (Normally 1200, 53% off)
TMNT Turtles in Time HD -- 400 / $5 (Normally 800, 50% off)
'Splosion man -- 400 / $5 (Normally 800, 50% off)

On sale June 16-22:

A Kingdom for Keflings -- 400 / $5 (50% off)
Alien Hominid HD -- 400 / $5 (50% off)
Banjo Tooie -- 800 / $10 (33% off)
Bionic Commando Rearmed -- 400 / $5 (50% off)
Bomberman LIVE -- 400 / $5 (50% off)
Braid -- 800 / $10 (33% off)
Castle Crashers -- 800 / $10 (33% off)
Castlevania Symphony of the Night -- 400 / $5 (50% off)
Contra -- 240 / $3 (40%)
Crystal Defenders -- 400 / $5 (50% off)
Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 -- 400 / $5 ( 50% off)
Magic the Gathering -- 400 / $5 (50% off)
N+ -- 400 / $5 (50% off)
Panzer General -- 400 / $5 (50% off)
Portal -- 800 / $10 (33% off)
TMNT: 1989 Arcade -- 240 / $3 (40% off)
Uno Rush -- 400 / $5 (50% off)
Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment -- 800 / $10 (33% off)
Zombie Apocalypse -- 400 / $5 (50% off)

 

[Soapy]

Awesome. Looks like I'll be picking up Splosion Man and Geometry Wars 2.

 

[terry78]

IF you're watching Spike TV, they got the Gametrailers E3 show on. Trailers for Killzone 3 and Scott Pilgrim are supposed to be on.

Tomonobu Itagaki is doing a new game with THQ called Devil's Third. Ninjas with machine guns and swords.

 

[Soapy]

Pretty cool map of the show floor.

 

[Drz]

Gamespot seems to be the only site that claims Batman Arkham Asylum 2 will be on E3, but the map doesn't show anything about the upcoming WII Batman: Brave and Bold game. Makes me wonder if they mixed it up.

 

[Green Ghost]

Gamespot seems to be the only site that claims Batman Arkham Asylum 2 will be on E3, but the map doesn't show anything about the upcoming WII Batman: Brave and Bold game. Makes me wonder if they mixed it up.

Could be...

 

[Tron Bonne]

I'll pretty sure the map shouldn't be considered 100% accurate. Not all publishers give a full line-up and sometimes sites like that fill in blanks based on guesswork and such.

 

[Solidus]

I hope some cool stuff comes out of E3 this year.

A few weeks ago I found all my old swag for when I went to E3 in 2003. I'll never forget sitting for hours to see Half-Life 2 in the little booth/theater they had for it. But that was back when E3 was in May.

Now it seems its harder to get into E3 these days. All I did was make a small website for a school project that "reviewed" games. And got a pass for like 300 bucks. I heard now it's not as easy.

Ahhh memories.

But speaking of best E3 moments I think my favorite would have to be the MGS2 footage shown at E3 2000. I remember that made everyone's jaw hit the ground.

Hoping for some good announcements, even though it seems so many have already been made.

 

[Tron Bonne]

Yeah, there for a few years it was closed to anyone besides 'professional' press. I think they changed it back last year, but the standards for who can get in have changed and became stricter. Use to be, just about anyone could get in, and it use to be like the ultimate convention. They've really gutted it in a lot of ways over the years

 

[Solidus]

Yeah, there for a few years it was closed to anyone besides 'professional' press. I think they changed it back last year, but the standards for who can get in have changed and became stricter. Use to be, just about anyone could get in, and it use to be like the ultimate convention. They've really gutted it in a lot of ways over the years

Yea I was glad I went back when I did. Because it was a madhouse so much going on. They have seemed to gut it somewhat. But back then it was awesome. My head was spinning afterwards because it was just jam packed with people I had respected for years. Kojima, Carmack, Will Wright, Miyamoto , I remember I saw Greg Kassivin, Adam Sessler. And there was some celebs running around too when I went. I remember the American Idol judges were there but I did not care about that lol.

Good times.

EDIT: I also shook hands with Gabe Newell when I was in line for HL2 because to this day MGS and HL1 are some of my all time favs. And at the time I respected him so much. After HL2 and his other...ways of doing business I lost a lot of respect for him. But at the time I got to meet him.

 

[Soapy]

E3 Demo: Comic Jumper

From Twisted Pixel, the developer of 'Splosion Man, Comic Jumper is a side-scrolling action game with a really cool comic book motif.

 

[Why Are You Crouching Spock?]

After HL2 and his other...ways of doing business

Explain.

 

[Solidus]

Explain.

I was let down by HL2 and L4D and so forth. But especially HL2. It was a decent shooter, but to me it just lacked the environment and feel of the first one. I felt there were not as many amazing moments, and memorable moments as there were with the original.

The original had AI, and level design that I still believe have gone unsurpassed, just the whole feel of Black Mesa and Xen, were, and to this day still amazing to me. The pacing the length and just the situations were heart pounding and just changed the way I played FPS, and looked at them.

HL2 I did not care for many of the designs, a weak weak weak ending, (though Episode 2 started to feel like HL a tad more to me) I just did not care for the whole setup and design and where it went.

Did I hate HL2? No. it was still a well made game especially compared to many other FPS of today. Just not near the level of immersion and innovation the original had. Though Portal was amazing from Valve, other than that I have not been blown away with some of their choices, TF2 was fun, but I did not care for it is much as some, especially for how long I was waiting for that game.

 

[ProjectPat2280]

E3 Demo: Comic Jumper

From Twisted Pixel, the developer of 'Splosion Man, Comic Jumper is a side-scrolling action game with a really cool comic book motif.

That looks so damn cool.

 

[Why Are You Crouching Spock?]

I was let down by HL2 and L4D and so forth. But especially HL2. It was a decent shooter, but to me it just lacked the environment and feel of the first one. I felt there were not as many amazing moments, and memorable moments as there were with the original.

The original had AI, and level design that I still believe have gone unsurpassed, just the whole feel of Black Mesa and Xen, were, and to this day still amazing to me. The pacing the length and just the situations were heart pounding and just changed the way I played FPS, and looked at them.

HL2 I did not care for many of the designs, a weak weak weak ending, (though Episode 2 started to feel like HL a tad more to me) I just did not care for the whole setup and design and where it went.

Did I hate HL2? No. it was still a well made game especially compared to many other FPS of today. Just not near the level of immersion and innovation the original had. Though Portal was amazing from Valve, other than that I have not been blown away with some of their choices, TF2 was fun, but I did not care for it is much as some, especially for how long I was waiting for that game.

Yea I agree about the AI, it isn't until the Hunter was introduced in Episode 2 that it became remotely challenging. The other weak-point is probably the weapons, outside of the gravity gun they aren't as created as some of the weapons in the original game. Saying that though, that's probably not the point, Halflife 2 has far less emphasis on shooting than the original, it tends to play more like an action/adventure game akin to something similar to Tomb Raider than a visceral shooter. While it's pretty undestandible many other fans were annoyed it wasn't what they were expecting it to be, they could have quite easily have just copy pasted it with a barely indistinguishable sequels, like Call Of Duty' the Halo's, or other popular games from various other genre's. I think even though it's a sequel, it's probably best viewed as a barely connected entity, like The Next Generation and Deep Space 9.

I absolutely disagree though, I think valve has improved since the first Halflife game, not just at making games but as a company. While Halflife 2 isn't as groundbreaking as the original game, you could easily argue no other first person shooter to this day (we are talking about a 5 year old game remember) has implemented physics directly into the game-play as well as Halflife 2 has. Much of the Valves game design is refined or more creative than the original Halflife. i.e. at the end of Episode 2 you are basically frantically driving around, playing basketball, in a little mouse maze, against the clock with a defend/attack thing going on as well as actually shooting the sticky bombs afterwords.

If you remember the ending to the original Halflife game it has something vaguely similar going on, not the same but vaguely similar idea with the basketball, with the player being volleyball into the air with grenades, wouldn't you agree Episode 2 does it far better? Even though the AI is dumbed down, In the original halflife the player always player led AI as a disposable asset. In Halflife 2: Episode 1, the player actually relies on on the AI at one point in the game, using a flashlight as a laser sight to direct it were to shoot. The section is (again imo) designed well without being what could have been stupefyingly annoying. At that point in the game, regardless of being dumbed down is probably the more convincing the marine AI of the original game. It's fluently designed with lots of little touches such as the AI blocking it's face when the flashlight is point blank.

If you remember when we first seen Team Fortress 2, it looked like a typical, Ghost Recon/Counterstrike/Battlefield military type game. If they continued on from that state, worked it up and released it then, or now when it's popular, would the game really stand out as having it's own identity from the crowd? Counterstrike is still insanely popular, up there with Call of Duty, Bad Company 2 e.t.c... yet these games tend to look and play like other games, in a pool of games. One of the things that sets Team Fortress 2 out (and to a much lesser extent Left4dead 1) is an injection of personality. The game is very distinct, the characters emote better than most single player games (including Halflife 2) it's like a loony tunes cartoon come to life among many gritty, soon to be replaced, modern twitch shooters. Like Halflife 2, instead of copy pasting it's predecessor with incremental updates, it's a recognizable but completely different game which actually tends to tends to play more like an Co-OP RPG than a twitch shooter. You don't need to be good at shooting stuff to win or to contribute. It doesn't make the game easy either as those who are genuinely good at it, do get rewarded. Does Counterstrike, Call Of Duty or Bad Company 2 have this sense of accessibility, personality or game-play dynamics that relies on something more than the act of twitch alone? It's by far Valve best multiplayer game imo.

Take into account the stuff Valve has done outside of there developed games also, it's a rat race to milk the crap out of customers, with content being deliberately chopped for the sake of a few extra dollars. 5 maps with 3 for re-skinned ones costing something like, is it 15$?

Valve has constantly updated Team Fortress 2 with maps, features, updates since 2007. There is still updates on the way. The game itself hasn't just got misc content, that's evolved the way people play the game altogether, since it's release, the console versions are very different from the pc versions. Valve wanted to put it all on the consoles without charging a penny, but Microsoft wouldn't let them. Apparently, like Left4dead they are going to have to do some sort of deal with accumulated content as an expansion pack or something along those lines from what i read. Hell, even Counterstrike is getting continued free continued support update to the latest version of source with better lighting, full screen motion blur and with steamworks integrated with achievements, stats, better modding ability e.t.c....

[YT]o-l47P5PZCA[/YT]

Steams obviously something they have built up, starting from something very small to sitting with 25 million active accounts and 1 and half to million logs on at any single time. Steam basically is DRM as well as a distribution platform but unlike Ubisoft, EA, Activision e.t.c... instead of penalizing the legitimate customer, not the pirate, Valve rewards you with ease of use and free content. People are generally using steam, a DRM willingly. I'm pretty sure when Valve take a dump, gold comes out. About the only blemished I can think of from the top of my head is there obtuse sense of time which has basically became a mockery and Left4dead 2, which while did address the problem of content in Left4dead, probably should have been an expansion pack and generally, didn't have as good level design or decent characters, it did feel copy pasted unlike Halflife 2 and Team Fortress 2.

 

[Soapy]

Microsoft's Project Natal is now officially called "Xbox Kinect".

Also, possibly a new version of the Xbox:

 

[Tron Bonne]

Might be just the picture, but that actually looks bigger and bulkier than the original model. Maybe it won't sound like it's going explode when you play it, though

 

[terry78]

Wii Kinect?

 

[Soapy]

I think it looks to be about the same dimensions as the original 360 to me. Also, if that new design is legit then I think it proves once and for all that Microsoft has no ****ing idea what it's doing with regards to the casual audience they so desperately want. Everyone is currently into the clean and simple Apple/Nintendo aesthetic and that...thing is the polar opposite. It looks like a lame PC case mod.