No E3 thread yet? Well, might as well get it started...

So, any surprises for you guys?

For me, I'm stoked about Animal Crossing: City Folk for the Wii : D Finally a reason to dust off my Wii and move my arms again...

Animal Crossing: City Folk is the only game I saw that I'd be looking forward to D:

I was actually thinking of starting an E3 post, but you've saved me the trouble. I will however post a summary of what we got from the big three:

Microsoft
- Slicker, simpler new interface for the menus. Things stored in "channels".
- We'll be able to create little videogame versions of ourselves. MS calles them "avatars".
- New Netflix partnership. Rent your videos through XboxLive at no additional charge.
- Footage of Gears of War 2.
- Xbox Live game shows. Compete in live online game shows and possibly win actual prizes.
- Geometry Wars 2 is coming soon. So is a sequel to Galaga. (both on Live Arcade)
- A camera-centric game was shown that I can't remember the name of. It films you doing things and then puts you into little movies.
- Portal: Still Alive is a Live Arcade-exclusive Portal with some additional levels and features.
- Xbox360-exclusive content for GTA 4 is coming soon.
- Some multi-platform games were shown, like Rock Band 2 and Resident Evil 5.
- Final Fantasy 13 is coming the Xbox360 in non-Japan territories. It will launch at the same time as the PS3 version in North America. Porting to Xbox360 will happen when foreign localization begins (so after the Japanese PS3 version is done). FF13 Versus is still PS3-exclusive.


Nintendo
- Shaun White Snowboarding played on stage. It supports the balance board.
- Animal Crossing City Folk is coming to Wii. It seems pretty similar to previous AC games except with more live interaction with your online friends. Also you can talk to them with...
- Wii Speak microphone. It looks like Nintendo is finally comfortable with us talking to friends online.
- Raving Rabbids TV Party is coming. Also balance board compliant.
- New DS games: Guitar Hero On Tour Decades, Spore Creatures, Pokemon Rangers Shadows of Almia, and GTA China Town Wars.
- Call of Duty World at War is coming to Wii (as well as virtually every other platform). Includes Wiimote aiming features.
- DS is being used in Airports, Mariners games, and for cooking. We're getting Cooking Navi in North America.
- Wii Motion Plus is a new attachment that makes the Wiimote more accurate (or as accurate as you thought it was going to be at launch). It finally allows the Wiimote to know where it is in space. It will first be used in...
- Wii Sports Resort. A new Wii Sports at the beach with Jet Skiis, frisbees, and fencing.
- Wii Music is back. Play 50 different instruments and a virtual drumset. It's unclear what the challenge is in a game where you can't miss the notes.

Sony
(note: I missed this one because I went to lunch, so I gathered what I could from summaries}
- Resistance 2 was shown.
- Sony is releasing PS3 budget titles: Warhawk, Motorstorm, Resistance, Call of Duty 3, Fight Night, and Need for Speed Carbon are all $30.
- Home and Little Big Planet are still coming.
- Video Rentals through PSN.
- For the first time ever on a console, you can see the news and weather on a spinning globe.
- A DC Universe MMO was shown.
- Killzone2, Little Big Planet, and others we're familiar with were shown to let us know they're on the way.
- You'll be able to transfer movies straight from your PS3 to PSP via a USB cable.
- There a new Ratchet and Clank game for the PSN. It picks up after the recent PS3 game and is a shorter but cheaper game.
- In September, Sony will sell a new 80gb PS3 for $400. It is said to have the same functionality as the 40gb version but more hard drive space (so, it probably has 2 USB ports and no backward compatibility). I'd like to know if it'll come packaged with the Dualshock 3.
- God of War 3 was announced and shown.
- Massive Action Game, a project by the developer Zipper, looks like a FPS that allows for up to 256 players on one map. I also allows players to take command, give orders, and orchestrate battle tactics.

Please tell me they're gonna make a port of that Massive Action Game for PC.... I hate FPSes on console, but that sounds really nifty.

To sum of what I've seen of E3 so far...

I'd have to say that Microsoft made a decent showing, just giving as more of a look at the software ahead. It was a good mix and definitely had a few surprises. Microsoft also didn't seem to take as much time to brag as the other two did. The FF13 announcement was quite a surprise to me, even though I don't really care for the FF series anymore. I'll bet Sony's Howard Stringer spit out his coffee when he heard that.

Nintendo really disappointed me. It's not that they don't have good things going on, they just chose to only show the things my mom and grandparents would like. Reggie said the Mario and Zelda teams are "hard at work", but what does that mean? Are they making Mario and Zelda games? Nintendo could have reeled this one in for me if they would have at least announced one big game besides Animal Crossing. I'd be interested in Animal Crossing if it didn't look so similar to previous iterations (I could see plenty of familiar wallpapers and furniture just in the footage we were shown).
The new Wii Motion Plus thing looks pretty cool. I'm sure it won't cost much, and hopefully it can bring motion controls closer to what our expectations have been. However, this the most interesting part of their presentation was already spoiled yesterday morning.

Sony was a slightly disappointing, too. It's not that they didn't show big games and big news, but like Nintendo it was mostly stuff we knew about before. Also, the PS3 lineup seemed to lack the variety the PS2 was known for. They focused on the testosterone-soaked shooters more and didn't mention much in the way of RPGs (except I believe Valkyria Chroncles or something). Not a lot shown from Japan.
However, I do think I'll finally pick up my PS3 this fall when they have the 80gb version and Little Big Planet is out. THEN I'll have the burden of choosing between Xbox360 and PS3 for many of the games I get.

Alas, after watching it so far on TV, only two games got my interest.

Gears of war 2 looks somewhat promising. I probably'll wait 'til I can buy it used.

As said in my previous post, Animal Crossing: City Folk. I absolutly HAVE to get that.

Rock Band 2 is going to be awesome. So many good songs on it...

Nothing was announced that we didn't know or already knew.

The only real shocker was GTA on the DS, holy shit.

Hawk
The FF13 announcement was quite a surprise to me, even though I don't really care for the FF series anymore. I'll bet Sony's Howard Stringer spit out his coffee when he heard that.

The internet is going nuts already...



Lollies.

Terminal
Nothing was announced that we didn't know or already knew.

The only real shocker was GTA on the DS, holy shit.

Holy shit indeed. Must've missed that. I suppose it looks like a gameboy game?

All in all, I'd say this has been a pretty lackluster year for E3...

Wow, as bad as I thought the Nintendo press conference was, Capcom's was much, MUCH worse. As it began, I expected to hear about Mega Man 9, Street Fighter 4, Bionic Commando, or any number of games they're working on, not to mention whatever surprises they had in store.

They spent 40 minutes talking about how they're making a Lost Planet movie. And that was the entire thing! No games at all! The worst part is you think they're going to stop talking about the movie and get on with the games, but they never do. David Hayter was there because he's apparently writing the script. But I'm not one of the internet's many David Hayter worshippers so I just sat there wishing they would talk about games.

As a sort of kick in the balls, on the other side of the planet a Japanese magazine just revealed that Capcom's Dead Rising (my favorite Xbox360 game) is being brought to the Wii. This is HUGE news (they said it couldn't be done) and yet Capcom didn't feel like mentioning it. Suddenly the Nintendo press conference didn't seem so bad.

The one thing that enraged me, which I'm surprised to not see discussed, is when Satoru Iwata said something essentially along the lines of "The teams behind Mario and Zelda are working on something.... Moving on..."

WHAT IS IT?

THAT'S SORT OF WHAT MOST OF US CAME HERE TO SEE.

That's the equivalent of going into a shop to buy something, being told it's not in stock and to come back in a week or so when they might have some.

Bah.

Although, Animal Crossing, FF13 and GTADS all look promising. Haven't had chance to catch up on all the rest yet, but I'm hoping that the third parties have picked up the slack that I'm personally feeling Nintendo SHOULD be covering.

Especially after everything Reggie said about wanting to cater to both casuals and 'veteran gamers'.

Personally, I think it's a better business move to show what they're definitely going to be working on, instead of very early stage work on more popular franchises. Think of the backlash they had when they showed a tech demo of Ocarina-of-Time-styled Link and Ganon fighting, but went on to produce the cel-shaded Wind Waker. It's a risky move showing fans a product that could very well be wholly different when actually brought to the table, and I don't blame them for keeping that sort of thing under wraps.

Not that I think they had a good showing, however. While I think it's the smart move for them to not show stuff before it's ready, that doesn't necessarily mean it's good that nothing's ready. I guess Nintendo just isn't being given enough reason to make quality, classic-style games these days. It's things like the barely-a-game, not-even-really-exercise Wii Fit that are moving consoles. It's better business to cater to that market.

Either way, I'm glad that microphones and better motion detection are on the way, though I'm not sure I'm going to be willing to shell out $80 to upgrade all my controllers for future games (assuming, of course, that the device will cost $20, like the other expansions released so far).

Hey, Miyamoto just confirmed that they're making a new Pikmin. It was kind of a side-comment after Nintendo's developer roundtable. I guess Nintendo fans can take one more almost-core-gamer title away from this conference.

You know what I think about this whole deal? I think developers are well-aware that E3 is dying and they're starting to not take it seriously anymore. Nintendo, Capcom, and Ubisoft (from what I hear) gave awful, information-starved press conferences. Clearly all three of those companies have more going on under the hood, but they didn't bother bringing it up. Shoot, Capcom could have spent an hour showing us footage of the things we already knew they were working on. Nintendo didn't even mention the new Wario Land game or the mysterious new Captain Rainbow.

I'm sure we'll get better information out of these companies at other events like GDC, Leipzig, Tokyo Game Show, Space World, E for All, or even their own private events.

E3 really is dead.

Hawk
Nintendo, Capcom, and Ubisoft (from what I hear) gave awful, information-starved press conferences. Clearly all three of those companies have more going on under the hood, but they didn't bother bringing it up.

Konami's was also hilariously bad. They failed their own song at Rock Revolution (or whatever it's called).

I'll wait for Leipzig, maybe TGS.

E3 is over and it was pretty much awful. It's sad, considering what an exciting thing it was only a few years ago. We gamers will have to get our information elsewhere.

fern
Lollies.

Lollies indeed.


Assuming this isn't serious, it's still sad.