I'm going to start this one off by saying that I don't hate, nor love Nintendo. I don't hate/love any of the console makers. Sure I own a PS3 and play the majority of my games on it, but Sony has screwed up just as many times as the other companies. The only big company I take a disliking to is Microsoft because I think they have shady business practices. That's neither here nor there though right now.
I'm not really shocked that people may have this perception that I hate Nintendo right now. I'm pretty down on the OoT re-release because I think it's pretty sad that the only interesting game on the 3DS (aside from SSFIV perhaps) that's worth playing is a game that came out over ten years ago. Slight gameplay changes and "updated" graphics aside, the game is nothing but a glorified collection on a handheld. Don't get me wrong, I understand the significance of OoT and I know it's fantastic game. I simply think the 3DS version is overhyped and overrated. Mind you I would be saying this about any collection/re-release, not just the OoT one.
I also thought their Wii-U unveiling was underwhelming and confusing (and according to Iwata, I'm not the only one). That said, I do not hate the company in any way. They've never cheated me out of my money, advertised falsely (to my knowledge) or anything like that. I knew what I was getting into with the Wii and I don't regret my purchase. I knew I was only going to buy about ten games for the system and I was okay with that. They were ten games I wanted and ten games I enjoyed thoroughly.
In fact, I'm a huge fan of certain aspects of Nintendo. For example, I'm a massive Pokemon fan. I've loved the series ever since I was a kid and if I owned a DS I'd be playing the crap out of Black/White. I'm also a big Super Smash Bros fan. I've spent countless hours playing that game with my friends. I've held tournaments, faced rivals, and so on. The game has been a part of my gaming history since its original release on the N64.
Lately I've also been having a slight change of heart about the Wii-U. I took a second look at the sizzle reel that Nintendo played during their conference. Now while I'll never buy Arkham City for the system, the rest of the games look like they could actually be launch games for the system. Should they carry with them some fantastic use of the controller, I could see myself buying the system and some of those games for that system. Hearing Valve say that they're interested in the system really helped as well. They're one of my favorite developers and I know they would use the controller to its fullest potential.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
An Experiment in Reviewing: Portal 2
I'll be honest, I have no idea if this is going to make any sense. I just thought I would give it a try. Let me know what you think!
Portal 2, if the title didn’t tell you, is the sequel to the groundbreaking and highly regarded puzzle game, Portal. Portal was originally released as a part of the Orange Box and has since become a hit across in the industry for its wonderful sense of humor and gameplay mechanics. When Valve announced Portal 2 many wondered if Valve would be able to recreate the magic that made Portal so special.
Portal 2’s gameplay is very much the same as its predecessor. You still use two portals to traverse the game. The difference lies in how you get there. Portal 2 introduces a myriad of new “gameplay mechanics” in forms of light bridges, paint gels, lasers, and jump pads. All of which are fine and dandy, adding a great amount of originality to what I feared may have been a one trick pony.
The bread and butter of Portal 2 though is the story. While Portal had a decent story, it was short and not expanded upon much. Portal 2 gives you everything you could have wanted and more. The game immediately begins with wonderful humor in form of Wheatley, the resident personality sphere voiced by Stephen Merchant. His character is without a doubt one of the funniest in gaming I’ve ever come across.
Add to that the hilarity of J. K. Simmons as Cave Johnson, the founder of Aperture Science and the continued fun of Ellen McLain as GLaDOS and you’ve got yourself a start studded cast that shines from beginning to end. Even the ending, which you can see from a mile away, is fantastic.
When you play Portal 2, you’ll feel like a genius and an idiot within minutes of each other. One puzzle may seem incredibly easy while the other will have you frustrated for hours. The answer is always right in front you though, and you’ll yell at yourself when you realize how obvious the solution was.
The big difference between Portal 2 and other games is how it makes you feel. Sure, other games can draw emotion from you, but it’s rarely a lasting experience. Consider Uncharted 2 for instance, one of my favorite games. By the end of the game I’d felt accomplished and may or may not have had some relief by finally beating the final boss. When it was over though, it was over. I moved on.
Portal 2 was different. It was a game that had made me feel something special. The story it tells makes you feel beyond what normal games have strived for. You will laugh; you will feel sorrow, amazement, and wonder. The end is the culmination of all those feelings. As you rise, you’re serenaded by a batch of crazy turrets, and somehow that encompasses all you’ve done throughout the game. It makes you feel both happy and sad at the same time. Joy for our accomplishments, and sadness that it’s over.
Portal 2 is a game that will make you feel something. It isn’t particularly hard to play, but its fun and is something special. It’s worth experiencing.
And that’s all we want, right?
Portal 2, if the title didn’t tell you, is the sequel to the groundbreaking and highly regarded puzzle game, Portal. Portal was originally released as a part of the Orange Box and has since become a hit across in the industry for its wonderful sense of humor and gameplay mechanics. When Valve announced Portal 2 many wondered if Valve would be able to recreate the magic that made Portal so special.
Portal 2’s gameplay is very much the same as its predecessor. You still use two portals to traverse the game. The difference lies in how you get there. Portal 2 introduces a myriad of new “gameplay mechanics” in forms of light bridges, paint gels, lasers, and jump pads. All of which are fine and dandy, adding a great amount of originality to what I feared may have been a one trick pony.
The bread and butter of Portal 2 though is the story. While Portal had a decent story, it was short and not expanded upon much. Portal 2 gives you everything you could have wanted and more. The game immediately begins with wonderful humor in form of Wheatley, the resident personality sphere voiced by Stephen Merchant. His character is without a doubt one of the funniest in gaming I’ve ever come across.
Add to that the hilarity of J. K. Simmons as Cave Johnson, the founder of Aperture Science and the continued fun of Ellen McLain as GLaDOS and you’ve got yourself a start studded cast that shines from beginning to end. Even the ending, which you can see from a mile away, is fantastic.
When you play Portal 2, you’ll feel like a genius and an idiot within minutes of each other. One puzzle may seem incredibly easy while the other will have you frustrated for hours. The answer is always right in front you though, and you’ll yell at yourself when you realize how obvious the solution was.
The big difference between Portal 2 and other games is how it makes you feel. Sure, other games can draw emotion from you, but it’s rarely a lasting experience. Consider Uncharted 2 for instance, one of my favorite games. By the end of the game I’d felt accomplished and may or may not have had some relief by finally beating the final boss. When it was over though, it was over. I moved on.
Portal 2 was different. It was a game that had made me feel something special. The story it tells makes you feel beyond what normal games have strived for. You will laugh; you will feel sorrow, amazement, and wonder. The end is the culmination of all those feelings. As you rise, you’re serenaded by a batch of crazy turrets, and somehow that encompasses all you’ve done throughout the game. It makes you feel both happy and sad at the same time. Joy for our accomplishments, and sadness that it’s over.
Portal 2 is a game that will make you feel something. It isn’t particularly hard to play, but its fun and is something special. It’s worth experiencing.
And that’s all we want, right?
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
The Case for Nintendo Buying Ubisoft
The Wednesday of E3 there was a Nintendo developer roundtable, in fact it was the second the company had held during E3. The first was about the Wii, and 3DS. The second roundtable focused on "third parties". In reality it only focused on one third party company: Ubisoft. Now originally I groaned at this, thinking it was going to be about more Raving Rabbids and so on kind of titles (and it was, don't get me wrong). But when the roundtable began, Iwata took the stage and said "I bet you're all wondering why I'm here right now, introducing Ubisoft." and I went nuts. I thought - for a moment - that Nintendo was going to announce that they had bought Ubisoft and that all their titles would be exclusive to Nintendo systems only.
Could you imagine what a coup that would be for Nintendo? Sure, most Nintendo based Ubisoft titles are awful, quick cash ins. But with this new system's hardware and capabilities, Nintendo would be able to support the hardcore games such as Assassin's Creed, Splinter Cell, Prince of Persia, etc etc. Yes, the games will probably be coming to the Wii U anyway, but as third party games. Imagine if they came to the Wii U as first-party games. Suddenly the amount of games that Nintendo has to its system alone skyrockets.
Not only that, Nintendo would finally have a way to draw people in beyond their own staple franchises. This is assuming of course that Nintendo has something resembling an online service, but for argument's sake we'll say the Wii U does. Of course if they owned Ubisoft, maybe they would do the online thing. Either way, such a move would certainly change the landscape of the industry.
Now whether such a move is possible, I have no idea. Ubisoft is publicly traded and all that, so I'm not entirely sure how that would work out. Plus since neither company is American, certain trade laws don't apply. Again, I know nothing of international trade laws and stuff. But we can all dream can't we?
What are your thoughts on this? Do you think Nintendo needs to take a step like this? Or are they perfectly fine how they are?
Could you imagine what a coup that would be for Nintendo? Sure, most Nintendo based Ubisoft titles are awful, quick cash ins. But with this new system's hardware and capabilities, Nintendo would be able to support the hardcore games such as Assassin's Creed, Splinter Cell, Prince of Persia, etc etc. Yes, the games will probably be coming to the Wii U anyway, but as third party games. Imagine if they came to the Wii U as first-party games. Suddenly the amount of games that Nintendo has to its system alone skyrockets.
Not only that, Nintendo would finally have a way to draw people in beyond their own staple franchises. This is assuming of course that Nintendo has something resembling an online service, but for argument's sake we'll say the Wii U does. Of course if they owned Ubisoft, maybe they would do the online thing. Either way, such a move would certainly change the landscape of the industry.
Now whether such a move is possible, I have no idea. Ubisoft is publicly traded and all that, so I'm not entirely sure how that would work out. Plus since neither company is American, certain trade laws don't apply. Again, I know nothing of international trade laws and stuff. But we can all dream can't we?
What are your thoughts on this? Do you think Nintendo needs to take a step like this? Or are they perfectly fine how they are?
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
My Thoughts on Nintendo's E3 Press Conference
Alright so let's begin with the last of E3's press conferences. Nintendo began with a really cool Zelda trailer that was accompanied by a live orchestra. Even though I'm not a huge Zelda fan, I rather enjoyed the montage. The Miyamoto came out and spoke about Zelda's 25th anniversary. Instead of doing a game release like they did with Mario, they chose to do something special on the systems.
Link's Awakening will be made available on the 3DS store. On the DSi, Four Swords Adventure will be released for free. Ocarina of Time is in a few weeks, then of course there's Skyward Sword which they say will be coming to Wii (perhaps a smart move now) this holiday season. There will also be orchestral concerts around the US, Europe, and Japan highlighting all of Zelda's great music. Along with this they announced two soundtracks for the game.
That was about the end of the cool stuff in the press conference. Iwata came out and teased everyone about Cafe and then left. Reggie came out and talked a lot about 3DS. They showed off a lot of games we already knew about such as Mario Kart and Kid Icarus. There were a few new titles though. Mario 3D looks really cool and the announcement was Luigi's Mansion 2 was rather nice. Aside from that there wasn't much else to say about the 3DS. There was some boring announcement about a 3D Pokedex that no one wants and so on.
The big reveal of Cafe had everyone pretty hyped up. The problem then came when Reggie revealed the name to be "Wii U". You could practically hear the groans across the internet. Nintendo proceeded to spend a lot of time on the controller and how it can be used while someone else watches the TV and so on. It looked kind of cool, but we were all wondering where the actual console was, along with its games. Turns out they didn't want to show either. We got a really quick look at Zelda running on it (though it looked a lot like Twilight Princess) and a new Super Mario Bros. game.
In the end it turned out everyone had very little to show. They confirmed a new Smash Bros game, but they had no trailer which makes the announcement useless. We know there's going to be a Smash Bros game on the Wii U because there's been one on every Nintendo system since the N64. The only reason they should come out and say something without a trailer is if they planned on skipping a generation or something.
EA came out and made some vague comments about Nintendo's online system, and then left. Um... okay. They then played a sizzle reel comprised of third party games. This was both good and bad. The good was Darksiders 2 being a launch title, Colonial Marines getting shown, and the announcement of Ninja Gaiden 3. The bad was all of the other third party games that aren't new. Games like Arkham City that are getting ported to the Wii U will be six months old by the time they come out for Nintendo. What's the point then?
Overall their presentation was confusing. Maybe a live demo would have helped cleared things up, but the purpose of the controller seemed gimmicky yet again. Where is the whole "recapturing the hardcore" thing? Yeah, the got a few third party titles on their system, but most of them we've heard of already and are already coming to other systems that have a set install base. Where's the online system everyone wants? The list goes on and on. For a company who promised to cater to the hardcore audience with the new system, they failed pretty hard.
While I enjoy the idea of new hardware, I expected more of the reveal to tell me why I should own the system. All this did was tell me it existed, which I already knew from all the leaks. I'm currently more excited for the PS Vita.
Overall Grade: C - Zelda was awesome, no lies there. The 3DS section was pointlessly small and the Wii U reveal was extremely underwhelming. It was nothing compared to last year's conference. Maybe next year, Nintendo.
Link's Awakening will be made available on the 3DS store. On the DSi, Four Swords Adventure will be released for free. Ocarina of Time is in a few weeks, then of course there's Skyward Sword which they say will be coming to Wii (perhaps a smart move now) this holiday season. There will also be orchestral concerts around the US, Europe, and Japan highlighting all of Zelda's great music. Along with this they announced two soundtracks for the game.
That was about the end of the cool stuff in the press conference. Iwata came out and teased everyone about Cafe and then left. Reggie came out and talked a lot about 3DS. They showed off a lot of games we already knew about such as Mario Kart and Kid Icarus. There were a few new titles though. Mario 3D looks really cool and the announcement was Luigi's Mansion 2 was rather nice. Aside from that there wasn't much else to say about the 3DS. There was some boring announcement about a 3D Pokedex that no one wants and so on.
The big reveal of Cafe had everyone pretty hyped up. The problem then came when Reggie revealed the name to be "Wii U". You could practically hear the groans across the internet. Nintendo proceeded to spend a lot of time on the controller and how it can be used while someone else watches the TV and so on. It looked kind of cool, but we were all wondering where the actual console was, along with its games. Turns out they didn't want to show either. We got a really quick look at Zelda running on it (though it looked a lot like Twilight Princess) and a new Super Mario Bros. game.
In the end it turned out everyone had very little to show. They confirmed a new Smash Bros game, but they had no trailer which makes the announcement useless. We know there's going to be a Smash Bros game on the Wii U because there's been one on every Nintendo system since the N64. The only reason they should come out and say something without a trailer is if they planned on skipping a generation or something.
EA came out and made some vague comments about Nintendo's online system, and then left. Um... okay. They then played a sizzle reel comprised of third party games. This was both good and bad. The good was Darksiders 2 being a launch title, Colonial Marines getting shown, and the announcement of Ninja Gaiden 3. The bad was all of the other third party games that aren't new. Games like Arkham City that are getting ported to the Wii U will be six months old by the time they come out for Nintendo. What's the point then?
Overall their presentation was confusing. Maybe a live demo would have helped cleared things up, but the purpose of the controller seemed gimmicky yet again. Where is the whole "recapturing the hardcore" thing? Yeah, the got a few third party titles on their system, but most of them we've heard of already and are already coming to other systems that have a set install base. Where's the online system everyone wants? The list goes on and on. For a company who promised to cater to the hardcore audience with the new system, they failed pretty hard.
While I enjoy the idea of new hardware, I expected more of the reveal to tell me why I should own the system. All this did was tell me it existed, which I already knew from all the leaks. I'm currently more excited for the PS Vita.
Overall Grade: C - Zelda was awesome, no lies there. The 3DS section was pointlessly small and the Wii U reveal was extremely underwhelming. It was nothing compared to last year's conference. Maybe next year, Nintendo.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Thoughts on Microsoft's and Sony's E3 Conferences
So day one of E3 is over everybody! How about those press conferences eh....? Yeah, I know. Well, at least there were some silver linings. Let's dive in and see what we've got. Also, if you weren't with us for the AIM chat, you need to join us tomorrow for Nintendo's E3 conference. It's a blast.
Microsoft:
Microsoft started off well enough. They had Modern Warfare 3 which was to be expected. It wasn't anything exciting to me personally. A lot of people on the chat were really excited about it.
The game after that was Tomb Raider. I was actually looking forward to what the game was going to look like in action. The trailer was really cool, but in game is always how people should judge a game. Overall I rather enjoyed it. The game looks gritty and bloody and resembles Uncharted in a good way. I'm definitely going to be keeping an eye on this game.
After that things sort of devolved into a mess of nothingness. It's all a bit of a blur, but I'll relay the highlights. They had Gears 3, which again isn't all that exciting to me. They announced a ton of Kinect games that no one cares about (especially Star Wars) and had some awful demos to go along with them. Also with Kinect they had a demo of Mass Effect 3 which included "voice support" which basically allowed you to read about the line choice for Shepard. It looked highly embarrassing and even more so, useless.
Fable Journeys and Ryse both became jokes to the chat as the excitement for both quickly became horror as they were revealed to be on rails games. It's a sad thing because the whole Codename Kingdoms thing from Crytek looked really interested. Alas, Kinect has taken over them.
Along with games that mattered to people, Forza 4 was present. Ghost Recon had a weird presentation involving Kinect (sensing a pattern yet?). Minecraft will be launching on Xbox in fall with Kinect support. That would be huge news if it were already immensely popular on PC. They also had the Halo 1 HD Remake that everyone knew was coming. This was the big one for me, and I'm really annoyed it's not on PC, but hey that's Microsoft these days.
There was a lot of Kinect and Xbox Live stuff that I don't remember. Something involving Bing and finger tracking? Either way the entire chat was bored out of their mind.
And lastly, they had Halo 4. Cool? 343 is developing it, not Bungie so it will be interesting to see what they do. Again not too excited, but I get why other people might be.
Grade: C - Overall I only got excited about one game over the entire conference. That being said, I understand the significance of some of these announcements. The Halo stuff is a big deal and that's great. Unfortunately those were the only two announcements and a lot of time was spent on Kinect and Xbox Live Entertainment (like TV and movies). Fluff essentially that hardcore gamers couldn't really care about.
Sony:
Jack Trenton came out on stage at the beginning of the conference. We all knew what was coming in the beginning of the conference, but the question was how they would go about it. Trenton quickly addressed the PSN outage with a sincere apology and quickly moved into the best part of the conference.
Uncharted 3 was the first game they brought out. The co-presidents of Naughty Dog gave a really good demo set in a sinking ship. The best part came from the trailer afterwords though. Both Elena and Chloe are back and the action looks even better. The graphics look amazing. This is easily one of my most anticipated games of the year and one of my favorites from E3.
From there they moved on to Resistance 3. To be honest the demo was really short and kind of boring. There's a good chance that I'm going to ignore this game in order to make way for bigger and better games. Sony then continued to talk about 3D and all that jazz. They announced a cool bundle including a 24" 3D HDTV, an HDMI cable, 3D glasses, and Resistance 3 for $450. Surprisingly cheap all things considered, but uninterested to pretty much everyone.
They touched inFamous again, which was a bad choice. The game comes out tomorrow, so focus on stuff that comes out later in the year or even further into the future. On the plus side, Sly Cooper 4 was announced. I'm still playing through the Sly Collection, and I'm enjoying those games a lot so I'm excited for the newest game.
Things took a weird turn from there on. The section on the third parties was nice, aside from the PS Move focused areas. Those were embarrassing as per usual (especially the 2K Sports demo). The one highlight thought was Ken Levine and Bioshock Infinite. Thankfully they spared us a Move demo, but the new trailer for Infinite has me just as excited for Uncharted 3.
Dust 514 was shown at the conference as well. For those who don't know, Dust 514 is a PS3 exclusive shooter that's directly connected to the MMO EVE Online. People on EVE Online can hire the PS3 players as their personal armies to attack planets and the like. The Dust soldiers then fight those battles using support from the EVE Online players in space. It's a very interesting concept that I'll be watching closely to see how it works out.
The last 45 minutes to an hour of the show focused on the NGP or really the PS Vita. Is it a name worse then Wii? I'm not sure, but if not it's definitely got second place. The price is surprising considering Sony's craziness involving pricing tech. The wi-fi model is $250 and the 3G model is $300. Solid pricing in my opinion. The games unfortunately were really boring. With the exception of Uncharted, Street Fighter vs. Tekken, and the reveal of a Bioshock game on the NGP, the last hour was a real bore and hard to get through. I understand why Sony had to do it, but that didn't mean I had to enjoy it.
There was also a lack of Kevin Butler. This was sad, but understandable. You only want to use him every once in awhile. There were a few nice jokes during the conference. Jack even went as far to poke at Kaz about his Ridge Racer line. These were nice touches that capped off an otherwise boring back half of the conference.
Overall Grade: B - While Sony made many of the same mistakes Microsoft did - too much motion focus, terrible demos - I believe they pulled ahead with great games such as Uncharted 3, Bioshock Infinite, and Dust 514. While the name "Vita" leaves a bad taste in everyone's mouth there are games worth paying attention to. Uncharted, SFxT, and Bioshock are a promising start to what will hopefully be a successful handheld.
========
Tomorrow is Nintendo's conference! I can't wait! I really hope they don't screw this up!
Alright, you're free to hate on my for what I said about Microsoft and refer to me as a Sony fanboy for being more interested in Uncharted 3 and Bioshock than Halo and Halo.
Enjoy the rest of the show!
Microsoft:
Microsoft started off well enough. They had Modern Warfare 3 which was to be expected. It wasn't anything exciting to me personally. A lot of people on the chat were really excited about it.
The game after that was Tomb Raider. I was actually looking forward to what the game was going to look like in action. The trailer was really cool, but in game is always how people should judge a game. Overall I rather enjoyed it. The game looks gritty and bloody and resembles Uncharted in a good way. I'm definitely going to be keeping an eye on this game.
After that things sort of devolved into a mess of nothingness. It's all a bit of a blur, but I'll relay the highlights. They had Gears 3, which again isn't all that exciting to me. They announced a ton of Kinect games that no one cares about (especially Star Wars) and had some awful demos to go along with them. Also with Kinect they had a demo of Mass Effect 3 which included "voice support" which basically allowed you to read about the line choice for Shepard. It looked highly embarrassing and even more so, useless.
Fable Journeys and Ryse both became jokes to the chat as the excitement for both quickly became horror as they were revealed to be on rails games. It's a sad thing because the whole Codename Kingdoms thing from Crytek looked really interested. Alas, Kinect has taken over them.
Along with games that mattered to people, Forza 4 was present. Ghost Recon had a weird presentation involving Kinect (sensing a pattern yet?). Minecraft will be launching on Xbox in fall with Kinect support. That would be huge news if it were already immensely popular on PC. They also had the Halo 1 HD Remake that everyone knew was coming. This was the big one for me, and I'm really annoyed it's not on PC, but hey that's Microsoft these days.
There was a lot of Kinect and Xbox Live stuff that I don't remember. Something involving Bing and finger tracking? Either way the entire chat was bored out of their mind.
And lastly, they had Halo 4. Cool? 343 is developing it, not Bungie so it will be interesting to see what they do. Again not too excited, but I get why other people might be.
Grade: C - Overall I only got excited about one game over the entire conference. That being said, I understand the significance of some of these announcements. The Halo stuff is a big deal and that's great. Unfortunately those were the only two announcements and a lot of time was spent on Kinect and Xbox Live Entertainment (like TV and movies). Fluff essentially that hardcore gamers couldn't really care about.
Sony:
Jack Trenton came out on stage at the beginning of the conference. We all knew what was coming in the beginning of the conference, but the question was how they would go about it. Trenton quickly addressed the PSN outage with a sincere apology and quickly moved into the best part of the conference.
Uncharted 3 was the first game they brought out. The co-presidents of Naughty Dog gave a really good demo set in a sinking ship. The best part came from the trailer afterwords though. Both Elena and Chloe are back and the action looks even better. The graphics look amazing. This is easily one of my most anticipated games of the year and one of my favorites from E3.
From there they moved on to Resistance 3. To be honest the demo was really short and kind of boring. There's a good chance that I'm going to ignore this game in order to make way for bigger and better games. Sony then continued to talk about 3D and all that jazz. They announced a cool bundle including a 24" 3D HDTV, an HDMI cable, 3D glasses, and Resistance 3 for $450. Surprisingly cheap all things considered, but uninterested to pretty much everyone.
They touched inFamous again, which was a bad choice. The game comes out tomorrow, so focus on stuff that comes out later in the year or even further into the future. On the plus side, Sly Cooper 4 was announced. I'm still playing through the Sly Collection, and I'm enjoying those games a lot so I'm excited for the newest game.
Things took a weird turn from there on. The section on the third parties was nice, aside from the PS Move focused areas. Those were embarrassing as per usual (especially the 2K Sports demo). The one highlight thought was Ken Levine and Bioshock Infinite. Thankfully they spared us a Move demo, but the new trailer for Infinite has me just as excited for Uncharted 3.
Dust 514 was shown at the conference as well. For those who don't know, Dust 514 is a PS3 exclusive shooter that's directly connected to the MMO EVE Online. People on EVE Online can hire the PS3 players as their personal armies to attack planets and the like. The Dust soldiers then fight those battles using support from the EVE Online players in space. It's a very interesting concept that I'll be watching closely to see how it works out.
The last 45 minutes to an hour of the show focused on the NGP or really the PS Vita. Is it a name worse then Wii? I'm not sure, but if not it's definitely got second place. The price is surprising considering Sony's craziness involving pricing tech. The wi-fi model is $250 and the 3G model is $300. Solid pricing in my opinion. The games unfortunately were really boring. With the exception of Uncharted, Street Fighter vs. Tekken, and the reveal of a Bioshock game on the NGP, the last hour was a real bore and hard to get through. I understand why Sony had to do it, but that didn't mean I had to enjoy it.
There was also a lack of Kevin Butler. This was sad, but understandable. You only want to use him every once in awhile. There were a few nice jokes during the conference. Jack even went as far to poke at Kaz about his Ridge Racer line. These were nice touches that capped off an otherwise boring back half of the conference.
Overall Grade: B - While Sony made many of the same mistakes Microsoft did - too much motion focus, terrible demos - I believe they pulled ahead with great games such as Uncharted 3, Bioshock Infinite, and Dust 514. While the name "Vita" leaves a bad taste in everyone's mouth there are games worth paying attention to. Uncharted, SFxT, and Bioshock are a promising start to what will hopefully be a successful handheld.
========
Tomorrow is Nintendo's conference! I can't wait! I really hope they don't screw this up!
Alright, you're free to hate on my for what I said about Microsoft and refer to me as a Sony fanboy for being more interested in Uncharted 3 and Bioshock than Halo and Halo.
Enjoy the rest of the show!
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Thoughts on Konami's E3 Press Conference
After last year's disaster of a conference, Konami's idea to pretape the entire thing and just have it play everywhere on the internet seemed like a really good idea. I'm a sucker for E3 press conferences, they're by far my favorite part of E3, and aside from a few oddly overdubbed instances, the conference was actually rather fun to watch.
Admittedly, I wasn't too interested in what they had to say in the beginning. Things like PES and MGS 3DS (as much as I love MGS 3) bored me a bit. On the other hand, Neverdead actually peaked my interest. Their trailer had some really cool cutscenes in it and the action seems fun.
The rest of the show was a blast. I'm a huge Silent Hill fan so I was very happy to see both the announcement of the collection and the NGP game. The collection includes both Silent Hill 2 and 3 and will upscale them for HD, include trophies and all the nice toppings. The strange thing is the lack of Silent Hill 4 on the collection. I honestly have no idea why they would decide to keep it off. I wonder if there was a weird rights issue or something like that. Overall though I'm not too upset about it as SH 4 isn't too high on my list of favorites.
The other great bit of SH they had at the show was a new trailer on Silent Hill: Downpour. SH:D looks like such a step up from Homecoming and I couldn't be happier. The new trailer was really cool, as it showed off some new characters and locations. I'm really digging the look of the game and can't wait to pick it up at the end of the year.
After that was an entire half hour of Kojima content. I was rather surprised they gave him so much time, but considering how much he had to talk about I can understand it. First on the list was some brief talk about MGS: Rising. Kojima confirmed it was still releasing on 2012 so there was no point in speculating otherwise.
He also revealed that Konami will not only be releasing an MGS collection including MGS 2, 3, and Peace Walker, but he revealed a Zone of Enders collection as well! As per "collection standards" there will be upscaling, trophies, etc. I'm very excited for these, mostly because I've never played ZOE and I had a terrible addiction to Peace Walker on the PSP and I plan on relapsing come November when these collections are going to be released.
Lastly, Kojima talked about something called "Transfarring". According to him this is his new "lifestyle approach" towards gaming. In short it's basically the realization of being able to transfer your save between your PS3 and PSP/NGP. It sounds very cool and for someone like me who owns a PSP this will be very helpful for school or vacations. The first bunch of games to include this "Transfarring" technology will be the MGS Collection and the ZOE Collection. One can only hope that once it becomes proven tech that other developers will start utilizing it.
So there's my recap and thoughts on the Konami conference. Please feel free to share your thoughts on what they announced as well! I love a good dicussion.
PS. They also teased a new Contra... ?
===================================================================
Contact Info:
Steam: Superman1138
Twitter: Peter_Freeman
AIM: bigbossextreme
PSN ID: Rising_007
StarCraft 2 ID: Rising.145
Admittedly, I wasn't too interested in what they had to say in the beginning. Things like PES and MGS 3DS (as much as I love MGS 3) bored me a bit. On the other hand, Neverdead actually peaked my interest. Their trailer had some really cool cutscenes in it and the action seems fun.
The rest of the show was a blast. I'm a huge Silent Hill fan so I was very happy to see both the announcement of the collection and the NGP game. The collection includes both Silent Hill 2 and 3 and will upscale them for HD, include trophies and all the nice toppings. The strange thing is the lack of Silent Hill 4 on the collection. I honestly have no idea why they would decide to keep it off. I wonder if there was a weird rights issue or something like that. Overall though I'm not too upset about it as SH 4 isn't too high on my list of favorites.
The other great bit of SH they had at the show was a new trailer on Silent Hill: Downpour. SH:D looks like such a step up from Homecoming and I couldn't be happier. The new trailer was really cool, as it showed off some new characters and locations. I'm really digging the look of the game and can't wait to pick it up at the end of the year.
After that was an entire half hour of Kojima content. I was rather surprised they gave him so much time, but considering how much he had to talk about I can understand it. First on the list was some brief talk about MGS: Rising. Kojima confirmed it was still releasing on 2012 so there was no point in speculating otherwise.
He also revealed that Konami will not only be releasing an MGS collection including MGS 2, 3, and Peace Walker, but he revealed a Zone of Enders collection as well! As per "collection standards" there will be upscaling, trophies, etc. I'm very excited for these, mostly because I've never played ZOE and I had a terrible addiction to Peace Walker on the PSP and I plan on relapsing come November when these collections are going to be released.
Lastly, Kojima talked about something called "Transfarring". According to him this is his new "lifestyle approach" towards gaming. In short it's basically the realization of being able to transfer your save between your PS3 and PSP/NGP. It sounds very cool and for someone like me who owns a PSP this will be very helpful for school or vacations. The first bunch of games to include this "Transfarring" technology will be the MGS Collection and the ZOE Collection. One can only hope that once it becomes proven tech that other developers will start utilizing it.
So there's my recap and thoughts on the Konami conference. Please feel free to share your thoughts on what they announced as well! I love a good dicussion.
PS. They also teased a new Contra... ?
===================================================================
Contact Info:
Steam: Superman1138
Twitter: Peter_Freeman
AIM: bigbossextreme
PSN ID: Rising_007
StarCraft 2 ID: Rising.145
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Review #3: "Thor"
Thor, directed by Kenneth Branagh is the fourth movie in Marvel Comics' "Avenger Initiative" where by each of the movies (Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, and Captain America) are set in the same world. They share characters, locations, and will soon share screen time in 2012 when The Avengers comes out in theaters. What we have to tide us over right now, is Thor.
Thor is about the titular Asgardian God of Thunder and his trials on both earth and Asgard. Son of Odin and brother of Loki, Thor is about to become king of Asgard when the movie begins. The Frost Giants attack and begin the downward spiral of chaos that has repercussions on both earth and Asgard. For his foolish attempt to investigate what happened with the Frost Giants, Thor is cast out of Asgard without his powers or hammer. He lands on earth and is rescued by scientist Jane Foster. From there the movie goes between both earth and Asgard, leading to a satisfying conclusion and leaving me plenty excited for the Avengers movie.
The acting in the film is - for the most part - well done. Chris Hemsworth, who seemed like an oddball choice at first - was the perfect person to cast as Thor. He easily portrays the overconfidence of Thor in the beginning and makes his transition throughout the film seem believable. The same goes for the other important Asgardians of the film. Anthony Hopkins is superb as Odin, making Odin seem powerful and important, even in his old age. Tom Hiddleston is charismatic and slimy as ever playing Loki, the inevitable villain of the story.
The supporting characters serve their purposes well. Idris Elba brings a definite presence to the Gatekeeper, Heimdall. The Warriors Three (played by Ray Stevens, Tadanobu Asano, and Josh Dallas) are just fine in each of their respective, albeit small roles. The same can also be said for Jaimie Alexander as Sif. Natalie Portman and her fellow earthlings (Stellan Skarsgård as Eric and Kat Dennings as Darcy) do a fine job. Though the romance between Portman and Hemsworth seems rushed occasionally.
The plot itself is a rather black and white tale about family, jealousy, and betrayal. This is unsurprising as Director Kenneth Branagh is a large Shakespearean actor, writer, and director. This bleeds into Thor quite heavily, but it never hinders the film. In fact it helps give it something to relate to, making the idea of other worldly beings not so cheesy or preposterous. The tale follows all the notes you would expect it to, there are no crazy twists here. Though this hinders the film a little, it's never boring to watch, but it never quite lives up to its potential and simply remains "average" throughout most of the movie.
The thing I was most afraid of about Thor was the pacing. Would they spend too much time on earth? How would Asgard be figured in? Thankfully these were things I shouldn't have worried about. The pacing of the film is spot on from the action filled beginning to a slightly slower middle, and building back up to an exciting ending.
The film itself is quite beautiful. The effects on Asgard especially are wonderful to watch. The rainbow bridge is nothing silly at all, instead a shimmering glass bridge reflecting all sorts of color. The various technologies of Asgard are simply fun to look at and watch. The same goes for the action scenes. They're enjoyable to watch, especially the battle that takes place in the beginning of the film. The problem though it has though is the same as the story. They never goes as far as they can, only remaining "average". The climatic fight at the end is especially disappointing - despite being filled with wonderful special effects.
Of course any film apart of the Avengers Initiative wouldn't be complete without a few Marvel universe references. For those familiar with the Thor comic books, there are a few nicely placed nods there. For those looking for clues to characters outside of Thor there is plenty to be had. There is at least one mention of both Iron Man and the Hulk and Jeremy Renner makes his appearance as Hawkeye.
The most important thing Thor does above of everything else, is get me excited for The Avengers movie. Unlike both Iron Man films and the Hulk movie, Thor was the one where I finally realized that I am excited to see all of these characters on screen together. I can't exactly say what did it for me, but by the end of the movie, I could not wait for the final piece of the puzzle, Captain America and finally get the Avengers movie.
Overall Thor is better than most no doubt expected. The acting is solid and the story is well done, even if it is a bit basic. The action is fun, just not as fun as it could be. But by the end of the film you will easily be able to accept the fact that Asgardians can exist in conjunction with Iron Man and the Hulk. Even if you're not a fan of the Thor comics and know little to nothing about the character, I would recommend seeing this movie, especially if you were a fan of the other Marvel movies.
P.S. If you didn't know already, stay after the credits. There's a nice little scene there.
Thor is about the titular Asgardian God of Thunder and his trials on both earth and Asgard. Son of Odin and brother of Loki, Thor is about to become king of Asgard when the movie begins. The Frost Giants attack and begin the downward spiral of chaos that has repercussions on both earth and Asgard. For his foolish attempt to investigate what happened with the Frost Giants, Thor is cast out of Asgard without his powers or hammer. He lands on earth and is rescued by scientist Jane Foster. From there the movie goes between both earth and Asgard, leading to a satisfying conclusion and leaving me plenty excited for the Avengers movie.
The acting in the film is - for the most part - well done. Chris Hemsworth, who seemed like an oddball choice at first - was the perfect person to cast as Thor. He easily portrays the overconfidence of Thor in the beginning and makes his transition throughout the film seem believable. The same goes for the other important Asgardians of the film. Anthony Hopkins is superb as Odin, making Odin seem powerful and important, even in his old age. Tom Hiddleston is charismatic and slimy as ever playing Loki, the inevitable villain of the story.
The supporting characters serve their purposes well. Idris Elba brings a definite presence to the Gatekeeper, Heimdall. The Warriors Three (played by Ray Stevens, Tadanobu Asano, and Josh Dallas) are just fine in each of their respective, albeit small roles. The same can also be said for Jaimie Alexander as Sif. Natalie Portman and her fellow earthlings (Stellan Skarsgård as Eric and Kat Dennings as Darcy) do a fine job. Though the romance between Portman and Hemsworth seems rushed occasionally.
The plot itself is a rather black and white tale about family, jealousy, and betrayal. This is unsurprising as Director Kenneth Branagh is a large Shakespearean actor, writer, and director. This bleeds into Thor quite heavily, but it never hinders the film. In fact it helps give it something to relate to, making the idea of other worldly beings not so cheesy or preposterous. The tale follows all the notes you would expect it to, there are no crazy twists here. Though this hinders the film a little, it's never boring to watch, but it never quite lives up to its potential and simply remains "average" throughout most of the movie.
The thing I was most afraid of about Thor was the pacing. Would they spend too much time on earth? How would Asgard be figured in? Thankfully these were things I shouldn't have worried about. The pacing of the film is spot on from the action filled beginning to a slightly slower middle, and building back up to an exciting ending.
The film itself is quite beautiful. The effects on Asgard especially are wonderful to watch. The rainbow bridge is nothing silly at all, instead a shimmering glass bridge reflecting all sorts of color. The various technologies of Asgard are simply fun to look at and watch. The same goes for the action scenes. They're enjoyable to watch, especially the battle that takes place in the beginning of the film. The problem though it has though is the same as the story. They never goes as far as they can, only remaining "average". The climatic fight at the end is especially disappointing - despite being filled with wonderful special effects.
Of course any film apart of the Avengers Initiative wouldn't be complete without a few Marvel universe references. For those familiar with the Thor comic books, there are a few nicely placed nods there. For those looking for clues to characters outside of Thor there is plenty to be had. There is at least one mention of both Iron Man and the Hulk and Jeremy Renner makes his appearance as Hawkeye.
The most important thing Thor does above of everything else, is get me excited for The Avengers movie. Unlike both Iron Man films and the Hulk movie, Thor was the one where I finally realized that I am excited to see all of these characters on screen together. I can't exactly say what did it for me, but by the end of the movie, I could not wait for the final piece of the puzzle, Captain America and finally get the Avengers movie.
Overall Thor is better than most no doubt expected. The acting is solid and the story is well done, even if it is a bit basic. The action is fun, just not as fun as it could be. But by the end of the film you will easily be able to accept the fact that Asgardians can exist in conjunction with Iron Man and the Hulk. Even if you're not a fan of the Thor comics and know little to nothing about the character, I would recommend seeing this movie, especially if you were a fan of the other Marvel movies.
P.S. If you didn't know already, stay after the credits. There's a nice little scene there.
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