Games

I’m really having a hard time putting this information into words. There’s a lot here. I’m going to have to make specific articles for Zelda and 3DS later, so I’ll just go through each item as a list.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is cel-shaded, but in the style of Twilight Princess. Miyamoto demo’d the game live on stage (with some technical difficulties), but it looks like it’s integrated WiiMotion+ rather thoroughly. The Wiimote is your sword, then the nunchuck is your shield. It looks really nice, but I’m looking forward to hearing back about the demo’s on the show floor. Apparently, the sky is a key plot element (which reminds me of the sky people in Minish Cap). Also, it’s been delayed to 2011. And here's the trailer! And here's some gameplay!

Then there’s the 3DS, which looks rather amazing. They weren’t able to demo the technology on stage, so this is another thing where we’ll have to wait to hear some opinions. The top screen will be widescreen, with full 3D capabilities, while the bottom screen is still touch, but not 3D. There’s motion sensors and gyroscopes, and something called a “slide pad” that appears to be a flat analog stick. There’s two camera lenses on the back that allow you to take photos in 3D. You’ll be able to watch current movies made with 3D technology on the device, with Warner Bros, Disney, and Dreamworks as frontrunners in support of that. There’s a free service that connects the device to Nintendo’s servers while you’re not playing, regardless of the presence of a Wifi access point, and downloads new game content.

Kid Icarus: Uprising - after describing the 3DS’ various features, “Project Sora” was revealed to be a new Kid Icarus game. The trailer they showed had me convinced it was a Wii title - it just looked too pretty to be otherwise. Turns out, it’s for 3DS, and seems quite fun. I’ll post more on this later as well.

Read the full article for more!

The second press conference of E3 is now over, with Ubisoft’s on the way in just 40 minutes! EA’s conference showed us 11 games all over the demographic board. Starting with my favorites, here are highlights!

The last game shown, the one seemingly meant as a bonus round, was Bioware’s “The Old Republic,” their upcoming Star Wars MMO (currently expected Spring 2011). Their reveal for this game has been the turning point for my anticipation of this game. Before now, I’ve been expecting to pass on this game. But, the first thing they said on stage about this game was clearly directed at me - players will have their own space ships. The potential here excites me a great deal. Interplanetary travel, space combat, sharing ship space with friends - these are details I’ve always wanted to see in a decent MMO. If this turns out to be more than a glorified storage house, I will be very happy.

Dead Space 2 got a gameplay video and a release date, January 25, 2011. Apparently, this sequel takes place in a city, and looks as scary/disturbing as ever. The Dead Space team plans to show more at Sony’s conference tomorrow.

A whole bunch of first person shooters were shown: EA’s revival of the Medal of Honor series (going into multiplayer beta June 21), an expansion to Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (set in Vietnam), Crysis 2 (with some 3D support), and Bullet Storm, the new game from Epic. They also introduced a service called Gun Club, meant to add some online features to your FPS playing.

EA Sports showcased a lot as well, most notably EA Sports Active2, to be released on 360, PS3, and Wii, making use of all that new motion control.

Aside from those highlights, they mentioned that Sims 3 would be coming to consoles, and gave the former heads of Infinity Ward a shout out.

I’ll update this article soon with some links to trailers. Given that Old Republic news, it may be time to do a full article featuring the game as well - look for that in the future.

Well, the conference just ended, and I feel pretty good about owning a 360 right now. I’ll just jump right into the summary, starting with the cool stuff:

360 redesign is a bit smaller than the original 360, also shinier. It has a built-in wireless adapter and a 250 GB hard drive, and I’m assuming there’s no more red ring. Everyone in the audience received one of these today, for free, while the rest of the world can buy them for $299 later this week.

Metal Gear: Rising had a trailer, showing it to be a hack and slash brawler with bodies that cut exactly where you slash. It looks beautiful. There’s also a bullet-time mode where you can carefully choose the angle of your cut as you slice through a body, or, a watermelon.

Fable 3 has a release date and a trailer. It looks like Fable, which is a good thing. North America can expect it October 26, 2010.

Kinect is coming to North America on November 15, 2010, with 15 Kinect-specific games at launch, including an unmentioned Sonic Riders game. It looks rather amazing, and I think Microsoft realizes it’s not going to replace real, controller-based games. It does, however, do a lot of what the Wii does, except it tends to do it better. Kinect Sports looks generic and a little stupid, but I could see where it’s necessary for this type of game. Then there’s Kinect Adventures, which puts a very game-like package on top of a Wii Fit sort of game where you’re copying the movements you see on the screen. Kinectimals is basically Nintendogs, but a bit more interactive - sort of the next step in that concept. There’s also a kart racer.

See the full article for more!

Last night, Microsoft held a press event in anticipation of their conference today. There, they unveiled Natal's new form: Kinect, along with a handful of games. 1up has the new design ready for your perusal. We'll be seeing Kinect hit stores in November.

Before I get into the games, I'll also mention the leaked images of a redesigned 360. It's not quite a 360 slim, but it's different - probably meant to be sold alongside Kinect. Something like this can't possibly be just aesthetic - we're probably looking at a new feature set here. Bigger hard drive, onboard wifi, no more red ring device failures... Now that Microsoft has a new piece of hardware to sell, a redesigned SKU like this is the perfect opportunity to finally resolve those issues. Unfortunately, without the "slim" philosophy, this will likely cost around $400.

Kinect games!

We've got a Star Wars game with lightsabers. If I remember correctly from last year's promotional materials, it's possible to use real life objects as props for Kinect... if that's still the case, it would be neat (and dangerous) to use this game with a real sword/fake lightsaber.

There's another game called Kinectamals, seemingly trying to appeal to the Nintendogs/eyePet crowd. Then, Kinect Sports - which, apparently, is a sports game, with volleyball, hurdles, javelin, and soccer. MTV is releasing a dance game that's supposed to evaluate your rhythm. And, that's about all they've shown thusfar. The information on these games is currently scarce, so if there's anything more interesting to report soon, I'll let you know.

There's a handful of press conferences tomorrow, starting with Microsoft's at 10AM PST (1PM EST). Some places the stream is available:
Youtube
GameSpot
GameTrailers

Other conferences today are EA at 2PM PST and Ubisoft at 5PM PST. I'll be watching each, giving notes afterwards. Should be fun!

Nintendo's at 12 EST, then Sony at 3 EST.

The next generation of Pokémon games was announced recently, and since then we've gradually been seeing more new Pokémon designs. You can find a list of all those released thusfar here.

Personally, I'm a big fan of "Hihidaruma." What do you guys think of this new crop of creatures? They're certainly... new.

Okay, real quick post. Portal (That ever so awesome game) is currently available at the Steam store. Not big news you say? Slooooowpoke you say? YOU SAY WRONG! For the first time in ever Portal is up......for FREE!

http://store.steampowered.com/freeportal/ (Web-page is no longer up.)

If you have never had the chance to play this wonderful game, here's your chance. AND GUESS WHAT ELSE! It doesn't matter if you're using some sort of non-gaming operating system (Mac) because steam is now fully functional on Macs! Make sure you act soon, though. You've only got until May 24th to pick up your 100% FREE copy of Portal! Now, if Jonathan Coulton could lead us out in song, please.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxNmeMklFk8

Thank you very much sir. You keep doing what you do.

Update: If you didnt grab it you've missed your chance, sorry.

LOOK AT THE ONION.

The Japanese dialogue is mostly like "Oh, isn't that pretty, how cute," etc. Nothing groundbreaking. (The translation's here). BUT LOOK AT THE ONION.

It's the little details that really sell a package. Also note that this video is the first posted to FFXIV's new Youtube channel.

So I went to PAX East this past weekend. This was the convention's east coast debut, serving the Northeastern chunk of the gaming world. Across 3 floors of the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, PAX East sold out every available ticket, filling that place with gusto. And, it was a gamers' paradise, for all intents and purposes.

Panels were the stars of the show. Most addressed interesting topics and were run by industry professionals, making them much more attend-able than a lot of the bloat you tend to see at anime conventions. The lines were insane, however, with waits up to an hour with several volunteers managing the cut-off point for each. We were within the first half of the line for the Mega64 panel, having arrived just over an hour prior. I believe the line was cut off about 20 minutes before the scheduled start of the panel, and this was for a room that seated over 750 people.

So that was insane. Lines are much more bearable with good friends, however. Also, Pictochat and Pokéwalkers. That's right, Pokéwalkers. Those little devices were definitely the supporting actors of this crazy convention. It doesn't seem unreasonable to assume that over 25% of the attendees had one of these things (though I suppose it would have been more like 5-8%). Anywhere you went, you could wave that thing around, and a crowd of people would form around you, wanting to connect your dudes and get free items and watts. At a point, my friends and I were racing towards a panel (line), but stopped along the way to get in on one such crowd. I got a handful of net balls and a TM in the process.

Continue reading after the jump...

I'll start by dropping this link. There, you can find a gallery of images from the Japanese FFXIV site detailing the various "clans" each race in FFXIV will have. Each clan seems to have various associated bonuses and regional differences, suggesting clan choice could affect your starting location (or allow you to choose one, perhaps in some cases).

This bit of general news won't mean much until we're closer to playing the game, but it has reminded me of the reason I really loved playing FFXI. The art direction in that game brought the segmented world together, and it really felt like a journey to go from one end of it to another. A lack of travel options may have had something to do with that sense of scale, but the ability to appreciate the design of almost every single environment really helped form a connection to the game. Coming back from a long journey to arrive in West Ronfaure was like driving home from a long trip and reaching your home town. The sites are familiar, the ambience is welcoming and personal. These clan details define differences among characters down to the glassiness of their pupils. Such details are unheard of with any other type of MMORPG.

There was racial pride in FFXI, with each race allowing players to define themselves in the game space. Now that the races are more stratified, those personal associations will have yet another level with which to interact.

Of course, it remains to be seen if these things can be pulled off in a game that's actually fun to play.