KnackChap Posted July 16, 2008 Report Share Posted July 16, 2008 We Review the E3 Big Three MICROSOFT 7/10 Everyone agrees that the new Xbox Live dashboard is slick, smart and pleasing to the eye. That’s also the verdict on Don Mattrick, whose cheeky, boyish smile is something of a departure from the lupine grin of his predecessor. Mattrick made no mention of Moore and you get the sense of a new era, following the senior staff reshuffle at Xbox Towers. Mattrick’s team looks like the collective offspring of a departed big-personality parent; stretching their own personalities and finding they’ve more to offer than they thought. Good for them. Because this is Microsoft we’re talking about, you can pretty much guarantee a few duff dancing-uncle-at-wedding moments in any presentation. The video of young people at a party playing Lips rang false for me. It wasn’t the absence of booze and drugs so much as the presence of a Zune. Someone really ought to have picked up on that howler. There was also the potentially gruesome spectacle of Microsoft employees playing You're in the Movies on a faked up couch. In fact, they dodged any awkwardness by being convincingly awkward and funny in a natural way. It turned out to be a nice moment. Microsoft had plenty of talk about, albeit not as much about hardcore games of the future as you’d hope. Apart from Xbox Live and the Party thing, there was a bunch of movie content deals including NetFlix, now, bizarrely, doing the rounds of E3 as this year’s smartest deal. What makes Microsoft look strong is a line-up of hardcore games for the near-future that includes Gears of War 2, Fable 2, Resident Evil 5 and Fallout 3. They all impressed the hell out of me during their presentations, although Peter Molyneux might want to take some tips from a kindly sales rep about the difference between features and benefits, and, although Bethesda’s Todd Howard was an excellent host, I didn’t think the Fallout 3 demo showed off the game’s exploration and communication RPGness sufficiently; and the music was plain irritating Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KnackChap Posted July 16, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 16, 2008 NINTENDO 6/10 Nintendo pumped up the happy smiles to Mary Hart proportions. So cheesy was the presentation that it felt, at times, as if Donny Osmond might well bound onto the stage at any moment. This over-scripting and nervy humor approach, one felt, didn’t play half as well as the straight-talking we’ve seen in the past from Reggie Fils-Aime or, for that matter, the more informal approach that Cammie Dunaway handled so expertly earlier in the year, when presenting Wii Fit to the media. The games journo audience may seem like normal people but we’re really only a few steps further up the social ladder than the bedroom dwelling, black-T-shirt wearing, lip-curled snarlers from whence we came. Toothsome grins and suits creep us out. These events are all about showing off, so there’s always the danger of showing off just a bit too much. Sony in its heyday, like some outta-control, coke-fuelled party girl, never could resist going way over the top. But Nintendo is usually more discreet and so was careful not to appear too bombastic. Fils-Aime went out of his way to talk about the challenges the company faces, but this self-effacing style was only partially convincing. Reggie’s line on maintaining Wii’s success went along the lines of, ‘Look, it ain’t easy being this smart’. Even Satoru Iwata, not a man given to self-indulgent egotism, appeared to suggest that he’d dreamed up the industry’s paradigm shift five years ago, as embodied by Wii, while the rest of us mooned about in gluey ignorance. Of course, that’s exactly what happened. But we could have lived without being reminded of our second-class intellects. In substance, I thought this was only a fair-to-middling presentation. Wii Music lacks the immediate impact of previous Nintendo E3 stars and doesn’t feel AAA. There was nothing of note from its character franchises (Pokemon bores me rigid). Animal Crossing will, of course, be huge. But it looks exactly as you’d expect an Animal Crossing Wii game to look. The sequel to Wii Sports was spiced up by the Wii MotionPlus gizmo thingy and represents an actual, bona fide innovation. Even so, it seemed like the biggest cheer of the day went to Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, a DS third-party game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KnackChap Posted July 16, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 16, 2008 SONY 8/10 You can drop Jack Tretton anywhere. Jacobean Scotland, the Trenches of WW1, a suburban dinner party circa 1958. He’ll do fine. He’s not about to start sweating or shaking at the prospect of a stage presentation which (and let’s not forget this folks) would scare the crap out of you and me. He made us laugh and he carried an entire 1.5 hour presentation, right through those long bar-graph moments or PlayStation 2 presentations, when the mind begins to wander. I thought this presentation could have been condensed into a much shorter span, but even so, we did get a hell of a lot for our time-investment. There was the potentially tedious announcement of the PS3 download store. Obviously PSN interface is nothing special in and of itself but the PSP connectivity seems like an exclusive benefit. The new 80GB PS3 is also good news as is mini-games for PSN and Greatest Hits. Sony is all about legacy and, as usual, comparisons were made between previous generations and this generation. But we’re still a long, long way from being convinced that PS3 is just fine and will work out just like the other generations, and it may be time to lay this code to rest. Tretton, I think, reminded us that Sony knows how to deliver good content, and we saw some games that are genuinely innovative and exciting, lead by LittleBigPlanet, Resistance 2, DC Universe Online (okay, we’ll give it the benefit of the doubt, for now), God of War III and the astonishing MAG. You’ll note that Sony gets the highest score for E3 presentations, but Tretton, Fils-Aime and Mattrick are all hard-bitten pragmatists. They’ll put a lot of energy into pleasing the media once a year, and then they’ll be glad it’s over for another 12 months. E3 is just a part, and not really a very big part, of the job of shifting consoles and selling content. http://www.edge-online.com/features/we-rev...hree?page=0%2C0 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarketTantrik Posted July 16, 2008 Report Share Posted July 16, 2008 LOL. Very different opinions on which company won the battle of the E3 conferences. Joystiq is running a reader poll here http://www.joystiq.com/2008/07/15/joystiq-...est-e3-keynote/ Vote and then check out who's on top there Make up your own minds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KnackChap Posted July 16, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 16, 2008 Console wars heat up for 2008: Sony impresses, Microsoft surprises, Nintendo disappoints http://videogames.yahoo.com/events/e...-blogs/1227326 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarbonCore Posted July 16, 2008 Report Share Posted July 16, 2008 Yahoo E3 round up.. Sony impresses, Microsoft surprises, Nintendo disappoints In the two days leading up to the year's biggest video games trade show, E3, it's become something of a tradition that the competing console manufacturers face off in a series of lavish press conferences. Now that 2008's round of announcements, demonstrations, trailers, and posturing are over, which console came out on top? Despite rumors of price cuts, Microsoft opted to expand the hard drive of its mid-range offering instead of delivering any real savings to consumers. All the same, the 360's Dashboard interface is undergoing a serious overhaul this year, and looks to be coming out cleaner, with more downloadable games, and including custom avatars that are, not to mince words, a complete rip-off of Nintendo's Miis. ("Where else could you get an avatar creation system but on Xbox Live?" one developer commented. We have no idea.) On-demand movie and TV programming courtesy of Netflix will expand the 360's already bulging video abilities, and a new motion-sensing microphone controller will deliver new horrors to the terrifying world of karaoke games. Sony put together a similar performance, shuffling its PS3 package offerings to little real effect (although you might pick up a bargain as retailers clear stock of the older lines). It's also expanding its video offerings by offering online movie rentals from an impressive portfolio of studios -- and you can take them on the road on your PSP, too. Unlike Microsoft's offerings, which have a vague "fall" ETA, Sony's new online features should be available by the time you read this. That wasn't all, though. Sony's press conference rolled out a set of game trailers that had fans cheering: a new God of War game on PS3, a vast-looking massive action game named MAG, and a couple of promising superhero games: one massively-multiplayer title based on the DC superhero universe, and one futuristic, open-city game from the Sly Cooper studio. It's a great selection, and one that leaves Microsoft's roster of Gears of War 2 and Fable II looking a little tired. Mind you, that wasn't the end of the software story. Although the Sony execs weren't visibly injured, Microsoft's press conference delivered them a metaphorical punch to the gut: the absolutely huge Final Fantasy series is no longer a PlayStation exclusive. Final Fantasy XIII will be coming to the 360, and unless you count the oddball, massively-multiplayer XI (we don't) it's the first time any of the modern Final Fantasy games have gone cross-platform. If nothing else dropped jaws at the Microsoft do, this announcement sure did. In contrast, it was hard to dodge the grumbling on the way out of the Nintendo event. Where were the classic franchises we all know and love? Where, for that matter, was Mario? Nintendo fans had to make do with a new Animal Crossing title, and an oh-so-vague mention of a Grand Theft Auto game on the DS handheld. Accessories like the MotionPlus controller plug-in and the WiiSpeak microphone (pictured below) are all very well, but don't we have enough bits of plastic cluttering up our houses already? Which, naturally, is Nintendo's modus operandi since the release of the Wii. For every disgruntled Nintendo hardcore fan, there's a whole houseful of delighted non-gamers enthused at the thought of getting together to play music without needing a bunch of instruments or, you know, any skill. But can Nintendo really deliver a music game experience that's as compelling as Rock Band? Perhaps, perhaps not. Either way, this year's E3, so far, belongs to Sony -- and if you're still on the fence about which new system you're going to spring for, your decision just got a whole lot tougher. http://videogames.yahoo.com/events/e3-2008...8-blogs/1227326 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HundredProofSam Posted July 16, 2008 Report Share Posted July 16, 2008 For me Microsoft - 5/10 If it wasnt for the shock value of FF13 announcement, the only worthy announcement was the revamped dashboard. The rest was a mix of stuff we already knew and casual crap. For some one who doesnt like RPGs at all, Micorsoft's PC was RPG overkill - Fallout 3, Fable 2, Last Remnant, Star Ocean, FF13. The South Park and Portal XBLA game announcements were the highlights for me. Hate me and call me names, but the Gears 2 demo didn't impress me, however the trailer before it was mindblowing. No new non-RPG announcements was a major downer leaving Gears 2 as MS' only non-RPG exclusive for a long long time. Or am I missing something. Nintendo - 1/10 Horrible. Nothing good at all. Gave it 1 because watching Reggie nail the bitch in the sword fight did bring a smile to my face. Sony - 6/10 There weren't many surprises but there was variety. Some good PSP announcements - Resistence, LocoRoco 2, Patapon 2. God of War 3 was expected but nice to see all the same. Resistence 2, LittleBigPlanet and InFamous were all impressive. MAG trailer was good but probably wont end up anything like that, and its not my kind of game. SOme good PSN titles too - flOwer, Pixel Junk Eden, Ratchet n Clank. Biggest surprise, and one that not too many sites are picking up yet, is Sony doing away with backward compaibility for good. Its not a good surprise, but its definitely a big surprise since the 40GB is quite a new SKU. Are they planning BC via software or are they gonna start PS2 games in the PSN Store? Heavy Rain was needed. peace Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctrl_alt_del Posted July 16, 2008 Report Share Posted July 16, 2008 They ought to support software based backward compatibility. It is faring well with the Xbox 360 Originals catalog so it can do much better on the PS3 as well, what with the huge catalog of theirs. Throw in digital delivery with the existing upgradable HDD and we are looking at countless hours of gaming here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarketTantrik Posted July 16, 2008 Report Share Posted July 16, 2008 Poll added. Vote now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyofx Posted July 16, 2008 Report Share Posted July 16, 2008 I just voted Sony and tipped the scale. lol. That said, the production values were much better at the Sony event. Not too many hitches and definitely no padding in between. Plus I like it everytime they show Home. Much better than just an avatar that does nothing.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HundredProofSam Posted July 16, 2008 Report Share Posted July 16, 2008 ^^ there was one hitch....they rolled the DC Universe video while Jim Lee was still talking peace Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john117 Posted July 16, 2008 Report Share Posted July 16, 2008 meh .. neither of the conferences interest me where is bungie ffs .. damn those bustards they luv 2 play with our sanity .. wtf is that timer for ,,, why dint they turn up for E3 .. anyway my vote goes to microshaft for GeOW2&POP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThreeKingdomsEra Posted July 16, 2008 Report Share Posted July 16, 2008 No one really . I raised an eyebrow at the FFXIII = PS3 AND 360 announcement . But thats all , I would be lieing if I said i was looking forward to it anyway . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRMNTR Posted July 16, 2008 Report Share Posted July 16, 2008 My vote to Microsoft... Hands Down Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K'dash Posted July 16, 2008 Report Share Posted July 16, 2008 Both Sony n MS were ok...but it gets more tilted to MS for FFX13... am really pissed at Ninty... they had a bunch of mature/ hardcore games which they could have shown..assholes... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarbonCore Posted July 16, 2008 Report Share Posted July 16, 2008 GoW3 japanese version will be out (if they make one) before FF13 english version. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The JACKAL Posted July 16, 2008 Report Share Posted July 16, 2008 both sony and M$ were good. FALLOUT3 footage wasnt all that much impressive. Resistance2 was nice. My vote is for M$ as usual Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TouchyFever Posted July 16, 2008 Report Share Posted July 16, 2008 Voted for MS.. :lol: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarbonCore Posted July 16, 2008 Report Share Posted July 16, 2008 Well Japan always gets GoW games later before FF13 english version. Exactly my point Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The JACKAL Posted July 16, 2008 Report Share Posted July 16, 2008 Damn !! no one has voted for nintendo yet. Arent there any Wii or DS fans on GI??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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