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Tuesday, 02 June 2009

E3 2009: Surprises Abound at Nintendo's Press Conference

E3 continues today and so with it, the press conferences. Having kicked things off yesterday with a cavalcade of newly announced exclusives and innovative new motion control technology, Microsoft set the bar high for it's two competitors to meet. After a rather uneventful E3 '08 conference, with an all but bare lineup for it's hardcore audience, Nintendo had much to make up for. And this year, while the major focus continues to be games appealing to everyone, the big N was nice enough to throw some love to it's long-time fans as well.

Kicking things off, the event opened with the announcement of New Super Mario Bros. for the Wii. Very similar in style to the DS handheld title New Super Mario Bros., this iteration sees the inclusion of 4 player simultaneous play and will be available this holiday season. Next up, the sure to be mega hits with the casual crowd, Wii Fit Plus and Wii Sports Resort were announced for this fall and summer respectively. Reminding it's long-time fans that it hadn't forgotten them, Nintendo next revealed Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Metroid: Other M, a joint collaboration between Team Ninja (of Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive fame) and Nintendo. While no clear release dates were given for either game, it's likely these will ship mid-to-late next year. Nintendo went on to emphasize their third party lineup with footage shown of Red Steel 2, The Conduit, Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles, and Dead Space: Extraction, all with an expected holiday season release window.

Switching gears, Nintendo announced Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story for the Nintendo DS along as a slew of other games like Kingdom Hearts, Golden Sun DS, and Cop: The Recruit. While it was a promising lineup, the absence of Dragon Quest IX for the DS was a bit puzzling and one can only hope that the game finds it's way to western shores sometime in the future.

By continuing it's "games for everyone" approach as well as providing hardcore gamers with real games to look forward to, Nintendo's done a fine job of trying to appeal to both sides. And while it would be nice to have seen even more game support in the form of a new Zelda Wii game, the oft-rumored Kid Icarus reboot, or a new Pikmin, it was a definite step in the right direction. If anything, Nintendo will be remembered this year for their wealth of surprises. And who doesn't like surprises? So what games are you most looking forward to? Least forward to?Read more...

Monday, 01 June 2009

E3 2009: Microsoft impresses but fails to "wow"

E3 kicked off today as well as the lavish press conferences that come along with it. Microsoft opened today's events with a press conference filled with Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, Tony Hawk, Steven Spielberg, Hideo Kojima, an interactive boy named Milo, and oh yeah, some games too.

Highlights of the event include the announcement of Metal Gear Solid Rising, a spin-off starring everyone's favorite cybernetic ninja - Raiden. Also announced were Crackdown 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Forza 3, and Halo Reach. Games like Alan Wake, Halo: ODST, Final Fantasy XIII, Modern Warfare 2, and Tony Hawk Ride were also shown through brief snippets of gameplay. While it was an impressive lineup, Microsoft failed to truly set its' exclusives apart from its' competitors and truly "wow".

Microsoft had more in store though with the announcement of twitter and facebook support as well as the unveiling of Project Natal, essentially a sensor that tracks down 3D movement from the player and applies it in game. What does this mean? Well, no controller for one. Imagine steering a car in a driving game with no steering wheel but rather by mimicking the movements of turning a wheel with just your hands. Microsoft promises voice and body recognition as well as face recognition when you turn your Xbox on, whereupon the system will recognize you and automatically log you in. Despite sounding like something out of a Mission: Impossible episode, Natal's quite real with big time backing from director Steven Spielberg (and when is that guy ever wrong?) but it's yet to be seen how this interesting technology will be implemented into an actual game (or for that matter how well). If it's anything like the Wii, with all it's waggle goodness, it might turn off some gamers looking to relax after a long day of work or school and wish to take controller in hand (myself included).

Overall, it was a somewhat disappointing event this year for Microsoft. While plenty of games and do-dads were announced, it was a lack of a stronger exclusives lineup (that could only be described as "safe") and the proverbial lap dance tease that was Natal, that left this gamer wishing for a little more.
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