That was perhaps the most boring presentation I've ever seen out of an E3 event.

I remember Language Arts teachers I had in grade school repeatedly instructing us to "show rather than tell". Cameron's presentation was all tell, no show, completely boring.

Really? People are excited about a 2D Mario game? I clearly do not get it.

As bad as Cameron's presentation was, the French exec who followed up McHale's gig was even worse. I'm not sure they could have done any worse on the planning. Follow up the funny guy with the boring foreign guy. Good thinking.

Don't worry, you are not alone. Lots of people have bad taste in games.

Paper Mario on the Wii was a damn good game and it was mostly 2D.

Mario games suck ass.

Ya.. I went there.

I guess I'm not the target for console makers anymore, since I use my PS3 for stuff other than gaming 95% of the time... but I still enjoy the old school simple games more than the newer games. So a 2D Mario or Castlevania game would interest me more than probably anything else out there. It's why I play my DS so much. Though I sold my Wii, so I wouldn't play the 2D game I guess.

That's pretty much how I feel about Nintendo in general. Although I think I was within the age range for the NES craze, I never had one, and as a result I try to be an interested gamer but I get lost/confused by the hype/nostalgia everytime there is a new iteration of Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Wario, Yoshi, Punch-Out or whatever...but I certainly AM impressed by the solid following all of those games have. Let me know when the new 'Toejam and Earl' is out.

$249 on the PSP!Go. Why does this sound like E3 2005 all over again?

They even brought Kaz out to announce the price just like old times. I think their "599" conference was in 2006 though.

Gold

SI

I fully realize that I'm being lazy by asking others to do the work for me, but I have no clue what any of this stuff is as you guys bring it up...if you wouldn't mind posting a real quick synopsis of these things as you post them it would be greatly appreciated by this barely-follower. For example, the PSP go?

New PSP model that has no UMD drive. Which will allow Sony to reduce the PSP price......errrrr......scratch that.

New Metroid game was :dropjaw:

Yeah it's a lot smaller than previous PSPs, it has a sliding screen that covers the stick/pad/buttons when it's not being used for gaming. Games will be bought and downloaded through the PlayStation Network.

You're right. Got my years mixed up.

Yeah, seriously. This is what has me scratching my head. I realize that 16 gigs of internal memory isn't THAT cheap, but you basically just ditched the entirety of the moving parts, so what the heck?

There were some previously unannounced localizations this summary of what Nintendo showed on stage and had playable after the show.

• Endless Ocean 2
• Line Attack Heroes
• Span Smasher (all Wii)

• You, Me & the Cubes (WiiWare)

• Fossil Fighters
• Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box
• Glory of Heracles
• Picross 3D (all DS)

Can't wait to try 3D Picross.

That price will certainly help sales of the old model and the bundles. :D

Only relative to the Go. It's not going to cause an explosion of PSP sales in general.

I'll let you print full explanations of my PSP jokes going forward. ;)

Final Fantasy XIV announced. PS3 exclusive online game. I guess Square Enix's next MMO after FF XI?

Now Sony is bringing out the motion controller...

I want my ICO/Shadow of the Colossus followup game!

It's being made, I hope we see it during the presentation.

This kind of thing is one of the major reasons I bought a Wii. Helping to make it successful has made the other companies try new things to move gaming forward instead of the same old resolution/texture/framerate upgrades each generation. Microsoft's motion tech demo sucked, but Sony's is pretty cool.

Yeah, Sony's still has some buttons and can function like the IR part of the Wii it looks like.

Mod Nation Racers looks like a racing version of LBP. Could be cool.

Sony's stuff was pretty cool. The motion thing and I'm sure a lot of people will like the new Final Fantasy online.

Either Sony's hired 250 MBBF's to sit in their E3 crowd, or the crowd thought they were at an arsenio hall remake. Not feelin what they were trying to sell, but the plants ate it up.

seriously.. when you have folks hooting and hollering about Hannah Montana-Lilac PSP.. you know that they're getting paid off.

I was just following online updates, but I thought the Hannah Montana cheers were just sarcastic/funny reactions. Like as if they're revealing something like that at E3. I think it was engadget or gizmodo or something that was really impressed with the motion thing... and it seemed cool to me too. Kinda like a combo of what Microsoft and Nintendo are doing.

I feel like Sony has lost it at this point. I think they are playing 2nd fiddle to the others. With that said, they have several games coming out this year that I will definitely be buying but I don't feel they get the average consumer.

I just ordered Wii Fit, Mario Kart Wii and We Ski for $89 total. It went out of stock really quick and I don't know if it was a price mistake and the order will get canceled, but hopefully not.

I haven't bought a Wii game in a while, but I wanted to play Mario Kart and I wasn't going to purchase Wii Fit alone for $90 bucks, but all three I couldn't pass up.

There's a new Zelda game for Wii in development, from an IGN liveblog with Shigeru Miyamoto:

My wife just said (after reading that) if they make Zelda into an RPG she will be REALLY pissed.

Which games would those be?

I'm down with Ratchet: Crack in Time and Uncharted 2, but the only other Sony releases I see that look as if they're coming out this year are MAG and maybe Heavy Rain. Everything else they talked about today, they kept adding the '2010' tag onto.

Or are you referencing the PS3 in general, and not just Sony?


Pssst...MJ4H's wife: Zelda has *always* been an RPG. It just hasn't been a Square-style RPG.

Ummmm, might want to take that sarcasm detector in for servicing. Geez.

um, no.

(I had a feeling someone would try this, so I had these handy, and have from previous adventures in this area):

Game Design Novice: Zelda Is NOT An RPG
Game Design Novice: Zelda is NOT an RPG II
Game Design Novice: Zelda is NOT An RPG III

I know this makes sense since it's mid-generation, but I do feel like there were a lot of good games revealed or further elaborated upon. One of the better E3s for the big three presenters in a while.

SI

I gotta side with MJ4H. If Zelda isn't an adventure game, what is an "adventure" game.

SI

Not terribly excited about the PSP Go or the Assassin's Creed 2 demo. Both were meh. Outside of that, Sony put on a surprisingly impressive show. Especially considering it was put on by Sony. :D

-Two big franchise games (GT and MGS) have new iterations coming for the PSP.

-Not one, but two Final Fantasy games coming in 2010 with XIV being exclusive. Having that MMO as an exclusive is HUGE for the European and Asian markets.

-Rockstar bringing a PS3 exclusive called 'Agent'. No details, but having Rockstar games exclusively never hurt a console.

-God of War 3 demo was absolutely sick. Can't wait for that one to hit the shelves.

-ModNation Racers looked very nice. If they do the distribution of tracks online in a public forum, that game would be very popular.

-Really happy to see Sony stay with the more conventional motion controller, albeit a much more precise version than its Wii counterpart. It was definitely the better of the two new motion controllers presented at E3 (MS camera being the other one). Nice to have no wires between the two hands.

-Uncharted 2 looked like more of the same with graphical enhancements. That's certainly not a bad thing.

-MAG looked interesting, but it was tough to get much of a feeling for how everyone interacts in the battle. It'll be interesting to hear hands-on impressions of this one.

King's Quest
Police Quest
Space Quest
The Secret of Monkey Island
Day of the Tentacle
Beneath A Steel Sky

Agreed. All of the fan bases got exactly what they wanted with a few surprises here and there.

Well, uh...


Those would fit my idea of 'adventure game' much more than Zelda would. Add Sam and Max to the list, if you like.


Yeah, and I remember them talking about GT PSP years ago. What, 2004? Okay, yay, they're talking about it again. My policy moving forward with Polyphony Digital is talk to me when they've got something ready to ship. If they're ready to ship soon, then that belonged in the show. If it's just a 'hey, hey, lookitus!' reminder, then...meh.

Case in point: GT5. It's been in development for how many years, and now they're adding WRC and NASCAR to the mix? That thing is never coming out. :lol:


Wonder how long it'll stay an exclusive, though? FFXI didn't, and XIII broke its exclusivity before it ever got released. At least, in the US.

I'm also curious, if FF XIII has taken 3 or 4 years to get within nine months of release, how long have they been working on XIV that they're announcing it for 2010? Is this FF XIII Versus renamed? Did they scrap that project and use some of the same assets? Or is this going to be another game that takes four or five years to reach the market?


That one actually has me intrigued. Can't wait to hear more.


Agreed. Sigh, 2010.


Looks like LittleBIGPlanet for racing fans. Should be very cool.

Sigh, 2010. :(


Is it sad that the first few people that brought that up to me in AIM discussion used the words 'penis,' 'dildo' and 'dong' to describe it? Far as precision goes, it looks pretty close to me to the Wii remote with MotionPlus attached, but not needing the attachment to get that does put it ahead of the curve. I just wonder how much support it's going to get in this generation.

Nintendo's success with Wii peripherals runs significantly counter to conventional wisdom, which is: "If you provide more plastic crap for parents to buy, unless you have a strong library of excellent games which support it, they will not buy it."

Look at really any peripheral from the Atari era through, say, 3/4 of the PS2 lifecycle. Wasn't until Guitar Hero caught it big (and then later the Wii and its various gizmos) that we've seen anything run counter to the CW.


Maybe a bit more action. Looks good. Can't wait.


I'm curious how matchmaking is going to work for that. It can be excruciating trying to get a full game with other shooters with significantly fewer players. If they can pull it off, it could be damn cool.

Zelda is an action-adventure game (widely agreed), not adventure. I'm sure that's what SI meant.

Why isn't anyone drooling over Forza 3? It looks goddamned amazing.

Racing games have never been my cup of tea except for games like Motor City Online and Super Sprint.

PS3 in general would have been the better statement I guess. ALl the games you mentioned are ones I like the look of and then Uncharted 2. I think that Heavy Rain game looks very cool.

You just now decided to wait on getting excited for GT releases when they've actually released? :)

I've hated the NASCAR console releases up until now and I'm VERY excited that we're going to get a good sim version of that sport.


Time frame to release is pretty short here (just over a year). Given how important this release would be for the other two regions, I'm sure Sony is ready to even buck up if needed to keep this exclusive.


I'm almost positive that we saw a leak concerning hiring for a Square MMO two years ago. There's been rumors of a dual development team for some time. But I'm sure that the engine is similar, so they're able to cross-develop in that regard.


I'll assume that Sony doesn't have any clue how to plan things at this point, so we'll discuss the 2010 releases under that assumption. IF the PS3 does get the anticipated $100 price cut in the fall, there's no real incentive to push many of the big titles into the holiday season. The console will sell on price alone. Spring 2010 appears to have several very good titles on the way, which could lengthen the sales spurt on the heels of the price drop. Yeah, it's Sony we're talking about here, but having those titles in the Spring probably is better than having them in the holiday season where their impact would be minimal.


Software is obviously key. Sony has shown a willingness to bundle things like the BT headsets with a game. They can do something similar with the motion controllers, but they need to make sure that it's an excellent game that shows off the capabilities well, much like Wii Sports did.


I love playing Warhawk because I can always get a full 32 player game very quickly, even to this day. I agree with everything you say here. I'm skeptical of how it will work.

I didn't even mention The Last Guardian and Heavy Rain, both which look like games that are right up my alley and really push the specs of the machine.

There's a "Wii" joke here, but I just can't find the right words.

SI

I'm still waiting to see if the end of that 'wand' vibrates. If so, my wife may have a new-found interest in 'gaming' and 'motion control'.

While the concept has my wife really geeked.



Considering that I loved the last four 2d Super Mario, and got very little out of the last couple which were 3d, count me as very excited for a 2d game.

I'm the same as you. 3D Games like Mario 64, Mario Galaxy, etc. do nothing for me, but I played the New Super Mario Bros game on the DS quite a bit.

I know that Mario Sunshine got a lukewarm reception, and Galaxy was largely considered the best game on any platform in 2007. But to me they were the same - took two or three tries to get the character to go where I wanted, turn off in frustration, repeat several times, allow case to collect dust.

Per my kids... the game freaking awesome daddy-o!

Interesting comments from Kojima today. Evidently he is mainly involved with the development and design of the MGS:Peace Maker title on the PSP. The MGS: Rising title for the PS3 and 360 is being directed and designed by someone else.

IGN: Kojima Focused on PSP Metal Gear

Square insisted today that XIV isn't an exclusive. It will be coming to PC and they're considering the 360.


Square Enix 'considering' FFXIV Online for Xbox 360 - News GameSpot E3 2009

On phone they said it wasn't a mistake, but guess they retracted that as most orders got canceled due to "system error during processing". LOL, just admit you screwed up and never intended to have this deal.

Interesting. Wondering if the agreement will be similar to the FFXIII agreement where they get exclusive in Asia. It's obviously much more important in that region given the MMO infatuation over there.

Sony had some interesting comments regarding people who own UMD versions of games. They're working on plans to allow owners to transfer or download games they already own onto the PSP Go. That would be a nice nod to existing owners. May create a mini-run on the used market as well to get games for cheap that then would be transfered to the PSP Go.

Kotaku - Sony Is Working on a UMD Solution for PSP Go - E3

Here's some great game/console deals for the Canadian folks who have a Best Buy near their home. Ignore the name of the blog, as the advertisement also has Wii and 360 deals along with handheld deals........

PS3Blog.net » Blog Archive » PS3 Related Sales Coming Soon to Best Buy

Pretty awesome if true... Guitar Hero: WT and Infamous are tempting.

New development in the motion control system for the 360 (Project Nadal) that may require some changes. Currently, the camera is using near infrared. Only one problem, near infrared cameras have a hard time registering the movement of people with dark skin. N'Gai Croal reportedly was unable to use the full functionality of the device, while his lighter-skinned cohorts had no issues.........

Natal struggles to see Black people? - NeoGAF

I always new the 360 was racist.

I've never seen a whiter console.

One of my best friends is (has a) dark (Xbox).

Nicely done.

I just got home with the Tiger Woods 10/Wii Motion Plus bundle and played my first round. Chipping and putting is much better than in the old Tiger games for Wii, it's easier to hit an 80% shot or a 60% shot when needed on approaches. After selecting the precision controls for putting there are no meters or anything to mess with, just point the club down and putt like you would a 5/10/20/50 footer in regular golf. And you can push or pull putts now.

Another nice thing is that the extra two inches or so added on by the motion plus makes the Wiimote a lot easier to grip a golf club.

Good stuff so far.

I picked the game up today as well. I was only able to play 10 rounds, but it was enough for me to know that this game will get a lot of hours played.

Yes, I'm stealing this from the aforementioned thread (since a lot of ppl here probably won't follow it that far) because I think it's a near perfect reaction

Have heard some very good feedback on TW10 on the Wii. Grand Slam Tennis........not so much. Sounds like the controls don't translate nearly as well. Lots of swings go unregistered. Given how well the controller works on TW10, the motion control issues on Grand Slam Tennis must be software-related.

Picked up TW10 for the wii today.. it's been a long time since I purchased a wii game. Can't wait to try this baby over the weekend!!!

Near perfect indeed. Very funny.

While not totally 2009, I wonder what folks think of Far Cry 2...I've never done one of these open world games but that one seems interesting to me. I'm also tempted to do one of the GTA but worry I'll go to hell.

The term "open world" game is a bit broad, but the kind of game that genre describes is not really what the Far Cry games are.

Far Cry 2 is a really nice looking game and a blast for a while, but I didn't last long with it. The main turnoff for me is my absolute hatred of respawning, and there's tons of this in here. I felt like I was constantly fighting the same battle over and over.

It's definitely the least 'open' of the open-world style of games. It's a shooter with extremely large levels.

Today I took advantage of the Buy 2 Get 1 Free deal for PS3 games at Target and picked up Tiger Woods 10, Red Faction: Guerilla, and another copy of UFC Undisputed to give to a friend so we can play online.

Have we not talked about Red Faction yet? I've only played about an hour or so but it's a complete blast. It's basically an open-world physics toy almost. It has a very in depth physics engines and almost completely destructible terrain/buildings. Lots of bombs also. It's like a more refined version of Mercenaries. I imagine I'll be putting a lot of time into it. Highly recommend it.

Haven't started up TW10 yet.

Just picked up Infamous and it's a blast.

BTW Prototype, a game I saw heavily hyped by gamers apparently is not very good. Not many reviews and the ones out there don't make it sound very appealing.

Disappointing. I was looking forward to it from the little I have seen. I will probably rent it to give it.

The one review I recall seeing gave it like a 7.3 or something. IGN said its graphics are very unimpressive, giving it a 5.5. Obviously that doesn't mean everything, and a 7.3 is still okay, but I had high expectations so it's disappointing to me.

That Prototype game looks to be the most apalling game ever.

The success of Infamous didn't help that game a lick. It's a much better game than Prototype, plus Prototype gets the copy cat label only because it's released at roughly the same time.

Yeah, the negative feedback I heard on Prototype pushed me towards picking up Red Faction instead today and I'm very glad I did now after several hours. I think Red Faction is a much better game than Infamous which was fun but overall a letdown imo. Sounds like Prototype is in the same ballpark.

Between Saint's Row and Red Faction, I'm really impressed with Volition. (Not to mention Freespace obviously, but doubt there's many people left from that) They really get the FUN aspect of these open world games.

Red Faction is bringing back some of the joy I got from the early GTA games that has been removed. That is setting up areas before a mission. I can set up blockades with tanks placed around. I can setup explosives on certain key structures to explode when they come through. There's just a whole lot of freedom that isn't available in games like Infamous or I'm assuming Prototype. Had some good ambush missions where I got to specifically see the route and pick the ambush spot I thought looked bust. Great stuff.

Highly recommend it. If you liked Mercenaries or to a lesser extent Saint's Row I think you'll love this. Feels a lot like Tribes 2 also for a little nostalgia.

Huh, that sucks. My buddy that rented/beat Infamous at the same time that I bought/beat it so far is enjoying Prototype a lot more, I read through a review and am pretty skeptical though, I'll have to find out what he says after a little more play.

I will say though the further removed I get from having beaten Infamous the more disappointed I am with it. Definitely wish I had rented instead of purchased it.

Looks like some more info on the upcoming PS3 price cut. This article cites an analyst as saying that the price cut will come just before the Madden 10 release in August.

PS3 Price Cut in August Timed with Madden Launch? - IndustryGamers

Ping Euro PS3 owners........

Anyone tried out the free music video service released overnight? Just curious how well it works.

PS3Blog.net » Blog Archive » PS3 VidZone Launches Today in Europe

Man, Gamespot is getting worse and worse about reviewing stuff in any sort of timely fashion. If you're not an A or A+ title, there's only a 50% chance you're reviewed by the end of your release week.

SI

Could not agree more Calis.. rather disappointing too as I really liked the first one.

So today I was bored and downloaded a ton of video game trailers. Maybe I'm just a sucker for a trailer, but it looks like a lot of potentially great games are on the horizon.

Assassin's Creed 2 - Wasn't a huge fan of 1 but did find it different. They put so much detail into the environments that it's worth seeing it for that alone. This one appears to take place in Venice in the late 1400's and the trailer is really catchy.

BioShock 2 - If it's anything close to what BioShock was, I'll love it. Seems they are picking up 8 years from the previous one and you are a Big Daddy.

Alan Wake - Doesn't come out till 2010 but the trailer was interesting. I'm getting sick of the same ole first person shooters and this one seems to be a little different.

COD: Modern Warfare 2 - Loved the first and can't imagine the 2nd would disappoint.

Battlefield 1943 - Basically the old Battlefield upgraded with the Frostbite engine. At something like $15 and downloadable, not sure how any Battlefield fans could pass it up.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 - The first is one of my favorite games and one I still play online.

Ghostbusters - Will probably suck but I'm a sucker for the movie and can't pass up the game.

Castlevania - Trailer looked amazing and they seem to have a nice budget to hire some big name voice actors (Patrick Stewart is one). Says 2010 unfortunately.

Prototype - Waiting to finish Infamous first but that looks fun.

Probably missing a few but it's just a lot of good games coming out in the coming year. Seems game makers have really figured out how to program and get the most out of these systems.

Amusing video from Sony promoting the new Killzone 2 map pack released yesterday......

http://www.viddler.com/explore/sceablog/videos/412/0

FYI for 360 and PS3 owners. 50 foot HDMI cable on sale for $20 if you need one......

http://www.slickdeals.net/permadeal/...-1-3b-Cable-20

I see no way in which that promotes a new map pack, but it is pretty cool. If that really is to promote a new map pack though, they probably should have focused on something from the map pack and not the solo play story line.

I forget, can you female female HDMI's to make a longer one?

It's related to one of the new maps. One of them has a nuclear theme. If a nuclear bomb blast goes off, you have 2-3 seconds to get under cover on this map. Anyone who doesn't get under cover gets burnt to a crisp........and then respawns of course.

Anyone else think this is going a bit too far? I'm not sure we need a golf simulator on the Wii. I think that the TW series strikes a decent balance of swing gameplay while not making it too realistic to the point of frustration. If I want true golf, I'll head to the links.

IGN: My Personal Trainer with IMG Academies and David Leadbetter Preview

Seems like the natural evolution of the technology to me.

For anyone looking to get Ghostbusters on the PC, you can get in now on Amazon for 29.99 plus 2.00 off for the pre-order. If you have the Amazon super saver thingy that gives you free shipping, then that makes a real cheap price of 27.99 delivered on release day. I put my order in.

Just bought last night. Played a round at like 3am...shot a +14 with my created guy (that probably took me an hour to do itself). I'm going to have mucho fun with this on days I can't actually head to the country club!

Edit: Because I'm a moron.

My wife and I have broken the shrink wrap on a couple of multiplayer games I've had sitting around on the Wii: Boom Blox and Mario Kart. Quite enjoying both- tho we'll see after a few more days. Boom Blox is fun and "feels" a lot like Super Monkey Ball to me but with motion controls. I am no good at the jenga-style puzzles. We just played the co-op Mario Kart last night and went through the 4 cups that are unlocked. I think I'll go back to playing with my Wavebird but my wife really likes the steering wheel.

SI

For those of us who unfortunately live where there is snow cover 6 months a year, yet is still populated by golf fanatics, this is a cheap way to get some training/practice in the long cold winter.

The Wii has done very well with "non-game" type software - the Wii Fit/workout stuff. It would not stun me to see this sell better than TW 2010 - to golfers, not gamers. Especially if it is motion plus enabled.

To even pass off as legit, it has to incorporate this right?

The game will use Motion Plus and the Balance Board from Wii Fit.

TW 10 for the wii is one really fun and addicting golf game, bravo!