This Is The Post About E3

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 at 10:21 am in General Gaming · Comments

E3; a notable event on any gamer’s calender. Last night saw me tune into the much anticipated Microsoft conference, eagerly awaiting for light to be shed on whatever assumptions I had conjured up in my head. Some of what was mentioned really excited me, and other things will pass by me with relative disinterest. So, here’s a roundup of my personal view on the Microsoft leg of the Electronic Entertainment Expo - the good, the bad, and the “meh”.

The Good

Alan Wake. It exists *jaw drops*. For a while there it was a little touch and go. Y’know, is this still in development? Has it been canned? Little information had been released for a game that was initially revealed 3 years ago, but actual gameplay footage was demonstrated, and, well, that just proves it exists… and it’s a-comin’. I’ve said many times before that I feel the 360 has a distinct lack of survival horror games. Even the recent addition to the Resident Evil franchise had less scares than a Darling Buds of May episode. Alan Wake can’t come quick enough (but that quick enough is actually 2010).

Left 4 Dead 2. Left 4 Dead has really taken Xbox Live by storm, and so I’m not surprised a sequel is in the pipe~~bomb~~line. I’ve had some of my best gaming nights playing a campaign on Expert with 3 other friends, and yes, I find it ridiculously scary. I swear, when the wind picks up at the Marina where I live, and it roars through the many berthed yacht’s masts, it sounds like the friggin’ witch from Left 4 Dead. I dare not walk my dog alone on a windy night. Anyway, it’s a shame Playstation gamers will still be missing out on this fantastic game. It’s worth picking up a 360 for.

Metal Gear Solid: Rising. Okay, so I’ve never played a MGS game. Shall I get my coat? But it’s about time I had an introduction to what is typically touted as revolutionising the stealth genre. And just like survival horror, I feel we don’t have many options for stealth on the 360. Hopefully Rising will successfully welcome in newbies, like myself, to the franchise. And hopefully there are no 90 minute cut scenes.

The Secret of Monkey Island. Yes! Just yes.

The Bad

Social networking. Okay, so maybe not so much ‘bad’ as you can take it or leave it, but I don’t understand the inclusion of Facebook and Twitter to Xbox 360. Perhaps I’m in the minority in regards to how I use my Xbox? But 99% of the time I boot it up, it’s to play my video games. The other 1% is made up of downloading the occasional movie or trailer from Video Marketplace. I guess you can say I haven’t really bought into the whole ‘consoles as all round entertainment systems’. So, Facebook and Twitter - both sites I frequent on a daily basis - will continue to be accessed solely from my iMac and MacBook.

Motion sensing shite. This has been a worry of mine since the Wii exploded (not literally), the PlayStation 3 jumped on the bandwagon, and rumours began filtering out about Microsoft’s motion sensing controller. So now Microsoft is wanting to “make you the controller”. I’m going to keep this brief before I end up tearing my hair out, but the 360 controller - or any console for that matter - has never been a ‘barrier’ to me, and I do rather enjoy slouching back on my sofa after a hard days work, both hands idly occupied by my control pad. I don’t want to be the controller. I don’t want to throw my body about the room. I’m really quite happy to exert no energy into playing video games at all. Not because I’m lazy, but just because that’s what I’m happy doing. So yeah, I probably won’t be buying into this motion sensing stuff, but I understand a lot of people will.

The Meh

Guitar Hero 5/The Beatles Rock Band. Both Guitar Hero and Rock Band are fantastic games, but I’m a little bored of the rhythm action genre. Same old, same old. The Beatles, however, are my most listened to artist (according to Last.fm), but I’m strangely not excited about their collaboration with Rock Band.

Halo Reach. I’m not a Halo fan, so news of another Halo game doesn’t excite me at all. Bet I’m in the minority for that, though, eh?

I’m really intrigued to hear what other’s highlights and, er, lowlights were. Especially in regards to Facebook/Twitter, and the motion sensing camera. I will say that I had grown a little complacent about the Xbox 360’s future, simply because there wasn’t much on the horizon that excited me. But with the Left 4 Dead sequel, both Alan Wake and Final Fantasy XIII being given a rough release date, and finally getting to try out the Metal Gears Solid franchise, I’m all excited again!

Tags: E3

5 Responses to “This Is The Post About E3”

vrikis

# June 2nd, 2009 at 10:31 am

I actually totally agree with your post. There’s some other good stuff I’m looking forward to seeing; Splinter Cell, Dirt2 both looked awesome. I think the whole social networking thing would be good /if/ it can be nicely incorporated i.e. tweet out when you get certain achievements, finish a game, join a server etc (it HAS to be customizable as to what though, i’d hate to have only an on/off option where it tweets everything you do or nothing). Same for facebook connect, I’d think it’d only be nice if you can straight from PC facebook see who’s playing what so it saves you going onto xbox.com (a site which I hate with a passion)

I really want to see Tony Hawk Ride live in action. I actually highly doubt myself buying it but I’m quite interested what they’ve done to compete with Skate…

e3 kicks of properly today though, so we’ll be seeing lots more nice things!

dave

# June 2nd, 2009 at 10:42 am

Good post Ashley, I’ve now got a huge list of games that I want to play, Splinter Cell looks brilliant and what about Crackdown 2? That was a surprise.

Obviously Modern Warfare 2 is going to brilliant and I have to say I’m really looking forward to the beatles game (I don’t think Mrs M will be too pleased once I start singing though!)

I’m not fussed about the social integration either though I am intrigued by the camera stuff, we’ll have to wait and see…

David

# June 2nd, 2009 at 2:19 pm

I thought they had an amazing conference that really set the bar for the rest of E3. Would you really consider the social networking and camera “bad”. I love the fact that they are giving people options to do want you want with your console. If all you do is play games, well they have games. IF you wanna listen to music and watch movies and social network, they have that. And they are right about the controller being the barrier. Of course it’s not a barrier to you and I because we are used to video games but have you ever tried to give your grandfather a controller? It’s a disaster, lol! I’ll never complain about getting a new service for my 360. If I don’t like it, I just won’t use it.

Rockers Delight

# June 2nd, 2009 at 2:27 pm

Vrikis, I’m looking forward to Splinter Cell too, but I’m going to wait ’till I’ve seen a bit more of it before I decided whether it’s a must have. Especially as it looks like they’re taking it in a new direction. Is it losing the stealthy element?

Dave, Crackdown was heaps of fun, and I expect the same from the sequel. Like Modern Warfare 2 I’m looking forward to it, but I saw it coming, so that’s why I’m not overly excited.

David, “Okay, so maybe not so much ‘bad’ as you can take it or leave it” that’s a quote from my post regarding the social networking, btw. And you’re right about the controller being a barrier for others. I don’t know how I could forget about the time I handed my ex the controller to play Gears of War, and he was actually unable to make Marcus move

Jandy

# June 2nd, 2009 at 6:09 pm

With the E3 announcements yesterday, I suddenly find myself being more interested in the Xbox-as-central-media-platform than in the game announcements. Alan Wake does look pretty amazing, and whoa, Monkey Island? Really? I didn’t hear about that. That’s sweet. And I am excited about Rock Band: Beatles, I have to admit. But so many of the others are sequels to sequels and I’m starting to get bored of those. Plus I find myself with much less time and patience for hardcore gaming these days.

I’m both skeptical and intrigued by Project Natal. A lot of times, I’m with you, I’d rather kick back and use my controller from the comfort of the couch, but I can see other times (read: drunken party times) when motion control could be cool. Hopefully they’ll keep it an option, so you can continue to use a standard controller in motion-controller-enabled games.

Facebook/Twitter, eh. I wouldn’t use it as a my main client, but sharing screenshots and stuff from games would be cool. I am looking forward to Last.fm and improved Netflix - and didn’t they announce they were working on bringing Netflix Instant Watch support outside the US? That’s cool. Microsoft clearly wants the Xbox to become the hub of our entertainment world, but so far it’s doing a decent job of it, and I’m watching with interest.

Rockers Delight