E3 2010 Day Two: Highlights and Lowpoints

Well, yesterday was a wash. It was pretty hard to find anything to be positive about yesterday. In fact, yesterday may have been the worst day for E3 ever. And there have been some pretty bad E3 days. Needless to say, I was not very optimistic about today. So was I right? Was today a complete blowout? Well, read on and find out!

Highlights:


It Was Actually About The Games

Unlike yesterday, this wasn't about Laser Tag, "Kinectimals" and technological innovations. This was about games. A good thing for the biggest gaming convention of the year. Kevin Butler said it well during his appearance during Sony's press conference. Gaming is having a massive TV in a tiny apartment. Staying up until 3 AM to get a trophy that isn't real... But is. And you know what? He was right. Kevin Butler's speech summed up everything important about gaming today.

Nintendo Shows It Still Loves Me
After a few years that were total duds, I had the lowest of low expectations for its conference today. Boy was I wrong. They not only premiered the new 3DS console, they showed off ACTUAL GAMES. Including...

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
CRAP YES. IT'S ABOUT FREAKING TIME.
I love Zelda. One of my favorite game series. The new art style that's a cross between the stylized Wind Waker, and the realistic Twilight Princess looks absolutely GORGEOUS. The game will use Wii Motion Plus to have the Wiimote act as a sword and the Nunchuck act as his shield. I'm positively psyched.

Kirby's Epic Yarn

A new Kirby game? That borrows from Paper Mario's paper style making all the characters appear as felt or other fabric? Yes please!

Donkey Kong Country Returns
I don't know much about DKC, but this is cool. I think.

Epic Mickey info!

I'm very excited for this game, which feels like a spiritual successor to Kingdom Hearts! Which is great!

3DS looks great!
The 3DS looks like it will be awesome! It's a glasses free 3D handheld system! With actual games! More details can be found here, and here.

Kevin Butler Is Amazing, Marcus Rivers Is Too

I love the Kevin Butler PS3 ads, and I'm sure I'll love the Marcus Rivers PSP ads. They'll be awesome.

inFamous 2

*Caution Strong Language*
ICE POWERS! AN UPRISING! A NEW VOICE ACTOR FOR COLE! A NEW CITY! A MONSTER! THIS LOOKS AMAZING!

Twisted Metal
*More Strong Language*
This looks awesome. Twisted Metal has been gone for a few years now, so the fact that it's making a return on PS3? Awesome news.

Surprise!

I like Portal. People know this. The sequel will be amazing.

Lowpoints:
No KH3?


I am saddened by the fact that there's no Kingdom Hearts 3 coming. There's a PSP title coming, and 3DS title coming and a freaking PHONE title coming, but no proper sequel. I am sad.

Other comments: I was very happy with E3 day two. It looks like it's still worthwhile to be a gamer!

E3 2010 Day One: Highlights and Lowpoints

E3 is, and has been since it started, the biggest gaming event of the year. Whether it be a new console, a new major name title, or a bold new project, E3 is THE PLACE to premiere it.

The first day of the convention is over. So what's my opinion on day one? ...Meh.

Hightlights:



Everything about Natal- I'm sorry, Kinect, that wasn't a game.
"Project Natal" was the big reveal done by Microsoft at last years E3. It once again took the spotlight, now named "Kinect", during the Microsoft Press Conference this morning. And you know what? It looks nice. The technology is really impressive. For those who don't know, it's a camera which tracks you in 3D space to track your movements and lets you interact with the console without any form of controller. And the features other than, y'know, actual games are really nice. You can watch movies on it and fast forward/rewind just by reaching out and grabbing the time bar on the screen. You log in simply by waving at the screen and Kinect will find your profile by looking at you, and then log you in. The video chat is also impressive, you can video chat without any sort of headset, with anyone else with a Kinect. Then you can move around and Kinect will track you, without you having to move the camera. You can even watch a movie with whoever you're video chatting with, and a third screen will pop up with the movie on it. I'm skeptical of how well that will work, it seems like it will have latency problems, but it's a good idea. ESPN will be free to watch for anyone with Xbox Live Gold, with over 3500 different events, or whatever. I couldn't care any less about sports. Overall as a media center it looks like it'll be incredible, and probably worth getting just for that aspect for some people.


New Xbox Model - Shipping TODAY

Microsoft shocked me personally today announcing a new redesign of the 360 that is NOW SHIPPING. That's big. You can get one next week. $299 will get you a 250 gig hard drive, built in wi-fi support, and supposedly, a whisper quiet system. Which is good. I may actually get an Xbox now. Maybe. Possibly. It could happen.


Hope


I NEED THIS NOW. NOOOOOWWWWW.



Rayman!

A Rayman 2-d sidescroller that has nothing to do with rabbits? Yay!

Lowpoints:
Kinect Games

A Mario Kart Ripoff? A Mario Party Ripoff? A Nintendogs Ripoff? 4 Wii Fit Ripoffs?

The lineup of Kinect games is one of the biggest "Screw you!"s Microsoft has ever done. It shows that Microsoft has realized they can make money by ripping off the Wii, and plan to do just that. The dance game by Harmonix looked pretty okay I suppose.

Laser Tag


THIS IS A VIDEO GAME CONVENTION. STOP SHOWING US THINGS THAT DO NOT COUNT AS VIDEO GAMES. USING XBOX TO TRACK SCORES DOES NOT MAKE IT A VIDEO GAME.


Michael Jackson: The Game
No, you didn't read that wrong. Someone is making a game based on the king of pop. It's everything I hate about rhythm games. It puts you in the shoes of Michael Jackson and has you sing and dance in concert. It'll work with the Kinect for Xbox and the Move for PS3. It will also be terrible. IT'S BEEN A YEAR PEOPLE, GET OVER IT, MJ IS DEAD.


Star Wars Kinect


Ugh. This could be so good, but looks so bad. This shows all the problems with Kinect, and motion controls in gaming. It never looks authentic. Something about the movements just look off. You CANNOT swordfight without having any feedback, and those beams look TERRIBLE. This game just looks so bad.

Kinectimals Demo

I saw that Microsoft. I saw you try to convince us Kinectimals isn't garbage using an adorable little girl, and an adorable little tiger and it's named Skittles and it fell and oh my gosh it's SOOOO CUTE- Sorry, I had prolonged exposure to ADORABLE there for a second.

The Lady Showing Off the Kinect Video Chat

i r da gud public speaker durpity durp


Why No Blu-Ray?
Since they're going through all the trouble to redesign the 360, why no blu-ray? It seems like a pretty big oversight to me. Even if you don't use it for games, just the ability to play blu-ray movies would be nice.

In Soviet Russia, Kinect Controls YOU!
Here's a video of the Star Wars game being "played". Impressive how the character moves before the player, isn't it? What's that? This is proof that this Kinect demo was fraudulent and it's not that responsive? Yes. Yes it is.

Final Comments:

What an underwhelming first day for E3. Here's hoping tomorrow will be better?