The conferences for Day One are finished. Some of the previews, as usual, were better than others. Here are our opinions on the different conferences.
Microsoft
Joe- The Microsoft Conference started off extremely well. They showed some Gameplay of the new Call of Duty which looks really good, very Call of Duty-ish which is a plus for some, negative for others. But judging from the trailer it looks like Treyarch will have no problem taking over the franchise.
Then they invited Kojima and the producer of Metal Gear: Rising out to show off their game, and HOLY SHIT this game looks cool. The game is way more graphic than I expected. You are chopping peoples bodies into about five pieces and then chopping those pieces into smaller fucking pieces.
So the conference is still going well and they invite our favorite douche bag Cliff Blizsenski out to show off Gears of War 3. He says that the game is going to support 4 player co-op and invites 3 more people to come out and play the campaign.... When I heard that I just about shit my pants. That is the most awesome thing I have ever heard and I can't wait for the BossVG team to play it together. It also helped that the game looked awesome. Showed a couple small changes like being able to trade guns with teammates, but no big changes to the gameplay. I'm ready to jump back into that world and fuck shit up.
After having my face melted off by Cliff Blezsenski they showed a trailer for Fable III the game looked pretty cool but it was short. The first two games were good so I don't see why this one wont.
They started to talk about Halo: Reach talking about how great the Halo franchise is and showed off gameplay from the single player campaign. It looks like a prettier Halo so I wasn't impressed, but I'm sure a ton of people creamed their pants. Good for them.
Alright and this is were the conference lost me. They go on to talk about the Kinect and how it will revolutionize consoles like Live did. And start talking about how the device works and how you will use it for viewing movies.
Basically you tell it what you want to do by saying "Xbox" and whatever you want it to do. For example "Xbox Zune" to get to the Zune page, or "Xbox suck my dick" if you want it to suck you off.
It should be noted that while they are showing off the Kinect the audience did not cheer once, nor did they laugh at any of the peoples' jokes.
They finally start talking about games for the Kinect. And while I hate the idea of these motion controllers I was looking forward to seeing how they would integrate the Kinect to games I like to play, which is anything besides a party game or a fitness game.
Well guess what they showed? A bunch of party games and a fitness game. Fuck my life. It had to be the most embarrassing 45 minutes of my life. They were talking about how fucking good this idea of no controllers was going to be and they back it up with bad kart racers and a stupid pet game. No talk of how they were going to integrate it with "good" games just them pretending to be excited about these shitty games were you just run in place and jump.
They announced a Star Wars game and it was so bad looking I threw up. All you can do is wave your arm around and dash forward.....
Only recently have I become very pro Microsoft. And to see them like this...it hurts. They finish the conference by saying that this year is going to be the biggest year for the 360. No its not Microsoft. You showed off like 3 cool games and wasted my time with the Kinect's party games. No fuckers, this is the year that your system crashes and burns.
Jervan- I went into this not excited at all. I had already heard about the Natal's official name- the Kinect. I must admit that I wanted to see what Microsoft was planning with their motion controller, seeing as we knew the least bit about it. Also, the camera-only route was an odd choice which, now that I've seen it, I doubt will pay off.
Call of Duty looked, as Joe put it "very Call of Duty-ish" and I'm confident that Treyarch will be able to take up the reins from Infinity Ward and keep the franchise successful.
Metal Gear Solid: Rising, as a Hideo Kojima game, was greeted with applause. Rightly so, I think, since the destructable environments and enemies make this game one to watch. The part where Raiden cuts the van in half was one of the highlights for me. It actually reminds me of Samurai Jack, and makes me want a good game based off of that series as well. Actually, now that I think of it, the opening part features Raiden cutting up an android or mecha of some sort, and oil sprays out. Not that Samurai Jack has a monopoly on cool katana vs. robot action, but this video is making me want to watch Samurai Jack again.
Gears of War 3, as expected, blew some minds. The 4 player co-op sounds awesome. I don't have much else to say about this game. It's going to kick ass.
Halo: Reach looks a lot like every other Halo game. I have no idea where all the hype is coming from on that piece of shit. For a little while, we were all excited about the beta. When we played that shit, we realized that its the same bullshit. If you like Halo, you'll love it. But if you don't, you won't have to worry about washing the taste of Bungie's collective semen out of your mouth every time a new Halo comes out.
On the Kinect- as I said, I wanted to see where they could go with the idea. I was disappointed to see that a lot of the applications of the Kinect are similar to those of the Eyetoy games I used to play with my PS2. It depresses me that all they can think of doing are fitness games and party games. I guess if they're copying off of the success of the Wii with motion controllers, they might as well go for the games as well. It makes sense, but I expected more out of Microsoft. Here's to hoping that Sony's Move will be better.
George- Microsoft Conference:
Nothing that really got me excited. You may have recalled the fact that I was willing to give Kinect a chance, just like I've given the Wii and soon the Move a chance. This has pretty much changed since I saw the conference. Microsoft is making the same mistake that Nintendo did with the Wii. They're not trying to integrate both audiences into the experience, instead focusing on the casuals.
The games that Joe talked positively about got me pretty pumped, except for COD: Black Ops (BO? Haha). I'm tired of generic FPS's that bring nothing new to the table, and don't contribute to the FPS genre. Skimmed a lot of this footage because a lot of the games looked like garbage (of course aside from Gears3, Fable3, and of course, Metal Gear Rising). Something kind of interesting was Codename: Kingdom. There was a live action trailer that showed what looked like 3 gladiators. No gameplay, but hopefully they take the concept somewhere interesting.
I'll talk more about Metal Gear Rising later. What Joe said holds true, and I can't wait to get my hands on it.
Kinect is going to be terrible. There is no real application to this other than video chatting and flailing your arms around uselessly. I have a Wii that already serves this purpose. The only cool application to the Kinect was in Forza 3. For those who don't know, Forza 3 happens to be the only racing sim that I have ever liked, mainly for the handling and the ease of getting into the game. Kinect gives you the ability to approach the car, pop the hood, sit in the car, etc. This is cool because it means I can deck out the Mustang I've always wanted, and dream that I actually have that Mustang.
I was expecting both a date and a pricing for Kinect, which I did not see. We got a date but not a price, which is a little retarded.
This didn't stop Gamestop from setting online pre-orders for $150, which is too much for even me to justify the purchase.
Microsoft's conference this year = epic FAIL.
EA
Joe- Going into the EA press conference I was extremely excited. We were going to get some TOR news and hopefully some Valve news. And out of the three I enjoyed this one the most.
It was cool to see a new Need for Speed, will I play it? Probably not. But I remember enjoying the older ones.
Even though I never played the first one Dead Space 2 looked awesome and disgusting. I say disgusting in the best way possible. After watching that trailer I felt like playing the first one and look forward to seeing more.
The next game they presented in my opinion showed up Microsoft's new footage of Call of Duty: Black Ops. They showed off the new Medal of Honor, but instead of showing us a single player trailer they dropped some monitors down and had 25 people play multiplayer. And the multiplayer looked WAY better than Call of Duty's. Call of Duty was fun don't get me wrong, but this is a much more realistic approach to the Modern Warfare setting, and you will not be seeing people infinite sprinting around a small ass map with duel shotguns. The only buzz kill was the fact that our stream kept switching away from the action and showing us their hands playing the game for some reason.
After this they teased us with an expansion to Bad Company 2 set in Vietnam. I wish I saw more but all of us got a half boner off it.
I fell asleep during the sports games part as well as the fitness shit but was awoken by Georgie B's crying about the Sims 3 trailer.
But its OK because next Cliffy B came back out with some friends and showed off more BulletStorm. They called the game a blood symphony where the player is the conductor and your weapons are your instruments. George said that this has been said before, but no one could argue the fact that this game looked BAD ASS. You see the player doing these awesome combo kills, my favorite being the one where he kicks a door in so so hard it flies off the hinges and across the room killing a guy in the process. And the trailer ended with one of the most awesome chase scenes EVER.
I wasn't sure if they could top that trailer, until I heard Star Wars music. One of the Bioware doctors came out to talk about The Old Republic and announced that players would have their own ships that would serve as their home base as they explored the galaxy. They then preceded to show off one of the most bad ass cinematics I have seen in a long fucking time. I am not even going to ruin it, just go fucking watch it.
And that was it, I would have been upset with the lack of Valve news if I had not just seen the Bulletstorm footage and that awesome cinematic. They were definitely the day's highlights for me.
Jervan- I didn't expect very much from EA at all, and as I'm writing this, I realize that there was nothing I was really looking forward to on Day One. Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised by some of the EA press conference.
The Need for Speed cinematic looked pretty cool, but the part where they got to actual gameplay was really something. The start of the level began with what seemed like a cinematic intro, but each car had the name of the player over it when they went into slo-mo by the camera. Then the game transitioned into a game mode where one player as a policeman tries to stop the other player as they speed away. It looked pretty fun, actually.
I remember watching Xenodyne play the first Dead Space, and it looks like the second one will deliver more of the same mindfucky xenomorph-slaying scarefest. The xenomorphs look a lot more frighting this time around, since they've grown in size and grotesque factor.
Medal of Honor stuff followed this. I hated how the stream I was watching kept showing the hands of the people playing. I don't care about how feminine your hands look, motherfuckers. From what I gathered from the huge ass multiplayer wall of screens, the game will be just like other Call of Duty-type games. I can't say I'm excited for it though. Why would I want to play an FPS on a console? Personally, it doesn't interest me.
The Bad Company 2 expansion in Vietnam looks sick as all hell. I'm glad that we'll get to play a Vietnam game. I really like the uniforms and weaponry from that time period, so I'm glad that we'll get to go there.
The Sims 3 AI stuff is really fascinating to me. I'm always interested in advances in technology and to see how the AI has been shaped in a game like the Sims is a treat. I loved the first Sims, but I kind of got burned out on it for a long time. Maybe I'll try out 3 now that we'll get to actually go to work.
Bulletstorm almost stole the show. I was hyped up for this game enough, but when I heard the pants-jizzing voice of Steven Blum, I knew I needed to play this game. Seriously, if I had his voice, I would never stop talking as long as I was conscious. The kills in this game are badass too. I just want to see more of it.
Finally, the game that did steal the spotlight (for me at least) was The Old Republic. The Star Wars music always amps me up, and this time it was no different. I hadn't even seen that much of the trailer and I was already salivating. What I absolutely loved was the hardcore fighting style of the Troopers. The part where the main Trooper punches the hell out of some Sith had me almost cheering. This game better be as cool as the trailer, or I'll go Anakin Skywalker on the BossVG crew. Not even the younglings will be spared.
George-
I was excited for EA's press conference. I was expecting some word out of Valve, seeing as they promised some sort of surprise. While I got a few pleasant surprises, I also got a few "eh" reactions to the games shown.
Not excited at all for the newest Need for Speed. I haven't played a Need for Speed game since the N64, and this one doesn't look like it's going to change my mind. I would have liked to see a Burnout instead, but there probably would have been just about as much hype out of me, except I'd be entertained by the destruction.
Dead Space two is where I finally got hooked in. After reading about a lot of Dead Space 2 footage, it inspired me to make room in my busy game schedule to finally finish my copy of Dead Space. The game had a creepy ending that left me wanting more. And the trailer only makes me want it more. Better graphics and what seems to be more frantic situations. Color me impressed!
Next they showcased MOH. While the game looks fun, this brings me back to my opinion about "Generic FPS." The companies know they will sell if they make it look like Call of Duty, people will buy, and thus they keep making these games. /yawn
Then they talked about the Gun Club. This is basically something that will allow you to get special bonuses for buying EA shooters, such as beta access for MOH starting this week. The only problem with this is that they ruined it with country music. Completely ruined the mood. I like the idea of a reward system, but I could really care less for this portion of it.
The Battlefield trailer looks pretty cool, even though Battlefield has already been to Vietnam, hopefully this outing will be even better. I can see myself playing this game for about as long as we played the original Battlefield: Bad Company 2.
Then we moved into the sports section. The commercials with the EA Sports guy (the guy that always announces things) was kinda funny, but beyond that no interest from me. We're *gasp* going to get a Madden 2011. Shocker. What was kinda cool was that with the MMA game they're saying that there's going to be live, narrated matches for certain online events. Nice touch, but I don't know if they're actually going to be moderated, or if there's going to be the same sound bytes playing fairly intelligently, like wrestling games have been doing for years.
Blah blah blah Fitness game, blah blah blah woman demonstrating with pants that gave her a toe a camel would be jealous of.
The reason why I was complaining during the Sims portion was that they came up on stage and started chatting about free will and the AI from Sims 3. Not really pertaining to the new expansions or anything. To me it felt more like something to talk about in an interview with a gaming magazine, or in an article talking about AI. Personally I find Artificial Intelligence to be a very interesting topic, but at the same time, this is a game show where we're looking for announcements on the next big title, not on a game that's already out.
But then they announced that Sims 3 would be coming to the home consoles. That then validated the 5 minute lecture I sat through on Artificial Intelligence.
Bulletstorm. Joe already talked about how awesome this looked. As for the description a "symphony of destruction" Yeah, I'm pretty sure there have been many other games that have been described in that way. But you know what? The game looks fucking sick. Remember earlier how I was hating on COD and Medal of Honor for not bringing innovation to the FPS Genre. This game blew innovation out of the water. It's over the top, the action is extremely fast paced, it's not just dozens of corridors with enemy soldiers coming at you, you're not just always ducking behind a box. You're up and in the fray, and that's the type of game I love.
As for Crysis 2, I actually am kind of looking forward to it, so that I can benchmark my computer. Also, the first game was actually pretty fun (although most people didn't play more than 5 minutes, which they used for the aforementioned benchmark). They used the console version, which looked much worse than the PC version will.
Ubisoft
Joe- So I almost did not watch Ubisoft's conference because I am not that interested in anything the company has to offer. But I did and I was pleasantly surprised with a couple of announcements they made.
Shaun White skateboarding does not look like complete balls and I am actually considering picking it up now. When they first started talking about it I was like, "they keep talking about innovation, but its just going to be like every other skateboard game." and I couldn't have been more wrong. The world starts off as a colorless and boring ass place, but as you do tricks around the world it fills with color and the world transforms. It really is this huge playground where you can do anything. If you are grinding you can make it go wherever you want, you can lower or raise ground, etc. It doesn't make sense, but who the fuck cares because it looks fun.
They also showed gameplay of the new Ghost Recon game. I have never ever even considered playing a Ghost Recon game. But this game looks tight. Straight up predator status fucking shit up being all invisible and what not.
But other then that, the Conference was fucking retarded, I saw some models play laser tag and some dancers dance to Michael Jackson music. It made me want to kill myself.
Jervan- I don't think any of us were psyched for Ubisoft's presentation, and we almost opted out of it. I am glad that we didn't skip it, since it held some interesting surprises.
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood looks like more of the same action that made the other two games so popular. Except now, you can assassinate with your friends. None of us at Boss VG have really been huge Assassin's Creed fans, but I'm sure those who are will enjoy the latest one.
The intro for the Shaun White skateboarding game seemed really lame to me. There was a point in the video where it looked like a guy was pounding a nail into the wall with a skateboard. I mean, what the hell? However, once Shaun White himself came out and began showing off the game, things got really interesting. Joe's already explained the premise, so I won't waste time on that. I will, however, waste time by saying that it definitely looks promising.
I'll take a breather here to mention that Joel McHale, star of Community and The Soup, was acting as host for this event. He ridiculed and mocked every single developer who showed something off at the conference and it was hilarious. I couldn't believe he was getting away with some of the stuff he was saying. He had an awesome suit too, it reminded me of the windbreaker jacket I used to wear in elementary school.
Another highlight of the show was Battle Tag. The idea is pretty cool: those nifty plastic laser tag guns and vests that everyone had in the nineties, but the game system keeps track of points. The way they showed off Battle Tag, was terrible. High energy music came on over the speakers and models wearing the vests and wielding the guns played a quick game in the audience. The nerds sitting in the audience seemed completely uninterested. Which is probably how everyone will be when the "game" comes out.
Innergy sounded really funny to me at one point when they said you could take it anywhere. Now you can look like an idiot outside instead of just in your own home! Who makes a video game based on breathing exercises, anyway?
I swore that Project DUST was a Black and White 2 sequel. It probably isn't, but I hope that we'll get one anyway.
The Rayman game that was announced was the high point of this show so far for me. It sounds dumb for me to say that, but let me explain. I spent so much time playing Rayman when I was a kid. You have no idea. This game appeals to me due to nostalgia, and the fact that its a return to the 2D platforming Rayman I used to know and love. I just hope my friend Spyro gets a similar return to his former glory, but probably not.
I'm still confused about the Michael Jackson dancers. I like Michael Jackson, but they literally announced nothing. They just danced. I have no idea whats going on anymore.
George/Xenodyne-
Everything I was going to ridicule pretty much has been ridiculed. I'm pretty excited for the new Rayman game, it's the first actual Rayman platformer in years. I have to confess that I haven't played a Rayman game before (I was too busy with many other games for the N64 and PS1), but this definitely looks like a title worth picking up. It's got a very quirky sense of humor we haven't seen in a while.
Not going to hate on Assassin's Creed. The next one looks pretty cool, even though I'm not a fan of the fact that it's going to be multiplayer. I haven't played any of them since the first (which was pretty fun, and I also like mysteries, so bonus!), but I'm told they're pretty good games.
All the aerobic and fitness shit they showed looked stupid. Especially the breathing thing and the laser tag. They started talking about innovation with the laser tag, which set of my WTF meter.
What I did find cool was the game they opened with. Child of Eden looks pretty cool, which is to be expected of a spiritual successor the the trance-rhythm game Rez from the PS2 / Dreamcast era.
The new Driver game looks cool. Hopefully we'll get some nice and responsive driving mechanics. Tired of being able to make turns in my car that I can't make in a videogame, due to the handling of all cars being so BAD.
As for the Michael Jackson show, I recieved word that Ubisoft is actually going to have a Michael Jackson game. Seriously? There are a TON of new IPS out there, and they choose a dead child molester to make a game about? None of this too soon bullshit, honestly it was sad, but his death does not mitigate the videos and the claims of many families (bad parenting imo, but that's neither here nor there).
Ubisoft scores a 4/10 on the cool meter. They had a few high points, but also a lot of weird shit.
Stay tuned for more E3 opinions and coverage.
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