The Coming Year In Gaming
This week the 2009 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) was held in Los Angeles.
The Electronic Entertainment Expo is where game publishers and developers get together and showcase their game line up for the coming year, as well as new technology.
The big three, Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft were coming in knowing they had to put on a good show and up the anti this year on the other guy. This was even more true for Microsoft and Sony. Since the Nintendo Wii's release Nintendo has been cornering the gaming market bringing in a lot of new gamers as well as opening the door to more casual game players. This has been a thorn in Microsoft and Sony's side with the Wii outselling both their consoles and continually picking up steam.
Monday's Highlights
Microsoft got the chance to keynote first on Monday kicking things off with the next Rock Band release, Rock Band: Beatles. As well as announcing that the 360 version of the game will get an exclusive song download.
To bolster support for the release they brought out the to remaining Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Star as well as Lennon and Harrisons wives, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison. They then brought out pro skateboarder Tony Hawk to showcase the new Tony Hawk: Ride game.
As the Hawkman entered the stage he showcased the new controls for his game. Tony Hawk: Ride comes with a new skateboard peripheral that you stand on and mimic the moves of a real skateboard. They moved on to showcase there summer/fall game lineup as well as games coming out early 2010.
One of the nice Xbox Live Arcade titles coming out this summer was a Metroidesque looking game called Shadow Complex. It is a 3D game but is controlled as a side scrolling 2D game.
Showdown & Show Stealers
Another big showing was Square Enix showing off the 360 running the once PS3 exclusive Final Fantasy XIII. They announced that the Role Playing Game (RPG, would be coming out early 2010. The big game shown was Halo 3: ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Trooper) which got a lot of cheers from the crowd.
But the show stealer was the announcement of Project Natal. It is a sensor bar with a microphone and camera built into it. It is able to do facial recognition and movements without the use of a controller. The jaw dropping part was when they showed the Natal in use by Lionhead Studios demo Milo. There’s actually a young boy who you can interact with, he will recognize your voice and detect emotion on your face and through your voice inflections.
Nintendo's Turn
The next day Nintendo kicked things off. While not as flashy as Microsoft's keynote they still did a lot better than E3 last year. They definitely heard the complaints the gamers made last year when Nintendo focused more on casual games over more hardcore games, by showcasing two new mario games, Mario Galaxy 2 and New Super Mario Bros. Wii. New Super Mario Bros. Wii allows four people to get together and play the game at the same time. Now they didn't mention whether it was going to be local multiplayer or online multiplayer, but either way this is looking to be a good inclusion in the Mario games family.
Mario galaxy 2 revealed that now you will be able to travel the galaxy with Yoshi at your side and a few minor tweaks on the controls for Yoshi's new moves. They also announced a new Metroid game, Metroid: Other M, which is going to be developed by Team Ninja, the development team behind the Ninja Gaiden series. The game looks incredible and it seems like Team Ninja took a different approach to the Metroid series by combining the previous iterations first person view and a third person perspective.
Nintendo then showcased its completed Wii Motion Plus which they actually revealed last year and is now finally coming out. IN retrospect to the previous days keynote by Microsoft and their Project Natal the Wii Motion Plus sort of fell flat.
Next Up... Sony
Shortly after Nintendo wrapped up Sony began their keynote and started off strong even though the PSP Go was leaked on the web 3 days before E3 began. They showcased the next Uncharted game, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. The game play video they showcased you could clearly see how much polish has gone into the second game as well as the new environments which looked stunning.
They then showed there new 256 player online war game MAG (Massive Action Game) which allows you to join up into different factions and work together to take control of different sections of the battle map. The potential with MAG is incredible and it is looking to be "The" first person shooter (FPS) on the Playstation. They also showcased a game falling under Sony's new mantra: Play, Create, Share.
ModNation Racer is a cart racing game which has real car physics but with Mario Kart's item pickups for attacks. The game allows you to create your character and load it to the internet so other players can download you created character for themselves but tweak it to fit there own style. This also goes for the car's you modify as well as the tracks. This game is going to do for art racing what Little Big Planet did for platforming games. Sony's big reveal though was their take on motion control.
While not outdoing Microsoft's Project Natal, they definitely showed Nintendo up by having a wand type controller that matches your motions move for move, with extreme accuracy. Finally Sony finished off there keynote with game play footage of God of War 3 for the PS3. As the game starts the crowd erupts with cheers as Kratos, the games lead character begins to run across the screen.
Looking Ahead
The big three definitely put on a good showing this year and I will get you more info on the games coming out this year as it becomes available, as well as games you should keep on your radar, and games perfect for the whole family.
