Topic: E3 2008 Thread

[PyroMenace]

Well I'll guess Ill start a thread out of this. Im already downloading lots of videos at the moment from Gamespot since I think I still have my complete membership there and theres lot of trailers on XBox Live Im getting now too.

Microsoft Press Conference

I'm just gonna post up what Giantbomb has put up which is a summary list of all the features for the next console update.

- Play from hard drive. Copy your games from the game disc and play directly from the hard drive. Not only will the drive not spin, but load times are quicker, as well. Of course, you will still need the disc in the tray to prove you own the game.

- Access Xbox LIVE Marketplace on the Web. Browse and purchase Marketplace content whenever you want from Xbox.com and it downloads automatically to your console. Purchase that new map, television episode, the latest Xbox LIVE Arcade game or set up a movie to watch when you get home from work.

- Dashboard built into the new Xbox Guide. For everyone who loves the blades interface, it’s not going away; they are now built directly in to the new Xbox guide. Every feature and option is available right from the guide. You can even access your full games library at all times. No matter where you are (in dash or in game), immediately call up your games played list and directly launch a game.

- LIVE Party system. Create a party of up to eight friends, and stay with them from one game to another, or watch a Netflix movie together, or share a slideshow of your personal photos. It works with all Xbox 360 titles, not just upcoming games. LIVE Party allows up to eight people to chat in the dashboard, so you can meet up before playing.

- Xbox LIVE Primetime. This whole new category of games is going to give you more reasons to get online with your friends. Games will support everything you’d expect, like Achievements and leader boards, but many of these games will include real prizes. You can invite your friends, and even set a reminder for an upcoming show. Each game is broadcast simultaneously, so everyone is answering the same questions. Many events will have a live host, calling the shots as they happen.

- Avatars. Your online identity started as a Gamertag - it then grew into a personalized Gamercard. Now, it has evolved even further into avatars. You can express your style, check out new outfits and share this with the community. Avatars will also be integrated into Xbox LIVE Arcade games, LIVE Party, as well as retail games.

- New display support. Because you asked for it, we are adding 16X10 over VGA or HDMI, and support for 1440×900 or 1680×1050.

- The avatar mimics the Miis from what Nintendo has started, Sony is even doing something similar now.
- The other big announcement was that FFXIII is coming to the 360, no longer Sony exclusive.


Things that look awesome:

Fallout 3 stage demo - My god, I love what they are doing with the combat, and the world just looks amazing.

Dawn of War II intro movie - If your curious check it out, I havent watched it yet but its the next thing Im wanting to see, downloading now.

There's also a huge ass Gears of War 2 vid that Im getting right now too, Im grabbing the HD version of it to stream through my 360. Anyway, right now just check out the Fallout 3 stage demo. Its pimp.

[scottws]

E3 is still around?  I thought they nixed it a few years back and the Penny Arcade one was the big one now.

[Quemaqua]

They didn't nix it, they just made it a smaller event strictly for press.

[PyroMenace]

There was also a number of companies that chose not to participate.

[ren]

The new 360 Dashboard looks stupid. I hope an option to keep using the old one is there.

[sirean_syan]

That DoW movie just brought to life so many things I've been waiting to see... awesome.

[Xessive]

I'm really excited about DoW2! That vid just tested my anxiety levels.

FO3 looks alright but I think they still need to work on some of the animations. Either way, I don't think the video does it justice. Using VATS looks like fun too!

[MysterD]

Damn, that FO3 vid was awesome.

[Quemaqua]

It's Bethesda.  The animation is guaranteed to be the worst part of the game, aside from the bugs.

That DoW2 video just blew my mind.  I was hoping for gameplay video, but fuck, that one-upped the first game's intro by a ton.  That was awesome.

[sirean_syan]

You know, I always though Fallout essentially took place in the present and that the war happened somewhere around the 50's. Did they ever actually say when the original games took place? In any case, it seems interesting. Something about it strikes me as off from the feel of the original, but I cant' quite place it. Mostly likely that's just the result of someone else doing the work.

There's also some decent Mirror's Edge footage floating around now. I'm still not sure about it working, but it's good to see more of how the game will actually play. I'm also hoping god-mode is on and that the police can shoot better than that.

[PyroMenace]

Nintendo Press Conference

- Animal Crossing for the Wii called City Folk. If your curious if its going to have multiplayer similar to an MMO, your wrong. I think its mulitplayer will be something more like the DS game. But like you would expect, its a more featured version of Animal Crossing.

- Wii Music, seems sort of interesting. Using the Wiimote and nun-chuck to mimic various instruments to play music. Not just guitar and drums, but violin, saxophone, and even piano?

- GTA on the DS. Didnt see that coming, theres no screens that I know of, but its centered around a china gang triad themed story. Im curious if the gameplay will be old school GTA because I dont see the DS recreating a fully 3D rendered world very well. 

- Probably the remaining stuff I read didn't sound as interesting. There was a balance board snowboarding game which could be cool. Another guitar hero DS game which I could care less for. And there was another edition of Wii Sports to come out in the spring.

Other than that, Nintendo didnt show really anything but games. No new peripherals or console updates, not even a new Zelda which some speculated could appear.

Sony Press Conference

Im just highlight stuff from 1up here:

- PlayStation 3 is getting double the storage space with an 80GB unit for $399, the previous price for the 40GB model.

- Sony outlined its talked-about video download service, which goes live tonight and will grant access to a wide variety of TV shows and movies. One pleasant surprise is that content downloaded from the PlayStation Store on your PC or PS3 can also be transferred to your PlayStation Portable for on-the-go viewing.

- LittleBigPlanet was confirmed for October of this year.

- Big games and some interesting ones showed up: God of War 3, Resistance 2, MAG (Massive Action Game)

[PyroMenace]

Heres an awesome demonstration of the new PoP game. Yea Im sold.

[Xessive]

The new PoP is looking great! I can hardly wait!

[Quemaqua]

Yeah, okay, I'm sold too.  That looks awesome.

Also, thanks for posting all this stuff Pyro.  You're totally keeping me informed this year.  I haven't been following anything at all on my own!

[idolminds]

Shit, E3 already? And my pc is down...FUCK! I need to go to the library and watch the vids.

[gpw11]

I believe Nintendo did actually announce a new peripheral; an attachment to the wii controller that gives it more precise movement sensing capabilities.  I believe the press release nintendo put out claimed 1:1 movement reactions, but I don't think that's entirely possible with what they're talking about since the thing most likely still won't know where it is in 3d space without some form of triangulation (right? or am I just making this up?).  Either way, I have no idea what it really could provide since the controller basically does what it does well, but the software is limited.

I mean, the things people originally imagined (Jedi light saber battles, sword fights) isn't going to work anyways without an entire room being a peripheral and some sort of dead space resistance mechanism that I don't think would even be physically possible (if your opponent blocks, you have to stop or all your motions are out of sync).

Still, it could be interesting...and I'm also sold on PoP.

[sirean_syan]

And the award for best trailer at the show goes to...

[PyroMenace]

I believe Nintendo did actually announce a new peripheral; an attachment to the wii controller that gives it more precise movement sensing capabilities.  I believe the press release nintendo put out claimed 1:1 movement reactions, but I don't think that's entirely possible with what they're talking about since the thing most likely still won't know where it is in 3d space without some form of triangulation (right? or am I just making this up?).  Either way, I have no idea what it really could provide since the controller basically does what it does well, but the software is limited.

I mean, the things people originally imagined (Jedi light saber battles, sword fights) isn't going to work anyways without an entire room being a peripheral and some sort of dead space resistance mechanism that I don't think would even be physically possible (if your opponent blocks, you have to stop or all your motions are out of sync).

Still, it could be interesting...and I'm also sold on PoP.

Oh yea I forgot about that. Yea it apparently makes the Wiimote more precise in movements, something that should have been in there when the Wii was released. Here it is, its called the WiiMotion Plus.

Also I recommending checking out Dead Space. A sci-fi FPS survival horror game, very creepy.

[gpw11]

I don't know, a lot of people say that (about how it should have been there from the start), but it's not like the wii remote isn't functional.  It does everything they said it did, but people had some grand delusions about what a simple thing like that would be capable of. It's not really flawed by design at all, it's limited by execution.  There's only so much you can do with it, and people had some idea that it was some kind of magical virtual reality remote.

[PyroMenace]

XBox Live now has the Microsoft Press Conference stage demos of all the games they previewed: Fallout 3, Fable 2, Gears of War 2, and Resident Evil 5. All in HD and direct feed footage, pretty awesome stuff, especially the Gears 2 one.

[Quemaqua]

And the award for best trailer at the show goes to...

Haha, that took some balls.  That was beautiful.  I laughed almost the whole time.

[Cobra951]

- Play from hard drive. Copy your games from the game disc and play directly from the hard drive. Not only will the drive not spin, but load times are quicker, as well. Of course, you will still need the disc in the tray to prove you own the game.

Shit, that's awesome, except on my tiny 13-GB drive (20 GB is a lie), I'll have to flush out a bunch of stuff to make this possible.  Now they're making a 60-GB drive standard, but that doesn't help me a hell of a lot.

Once they update any online stuff, you have no choice but to accept it.  If you reject it, you get forcibly logged off.  So no, there won't be a choice about the new dashboard.

[Quemaqua]

I don't know what the new one looks like, but I'm one of the few people who don't like the current one.  In fact, I fucking hate and loathe it.  I don't know why I hate it so much, I just do.  Every time I have to use my 360 for something that isn't just playing a game I just get annoyed.

Still, I don't know why they'd change it.  Almost everyone seems to like it.

[JacksRag(e)]

Apparently, Dead Rising is being ported to the Wii.

[gpw11]

Wii.....and PC?

[Ghandi]

I'm going to be mad if they don't port it to PS3 as well. It can't be nearly as hard to port it to the PS3 as it is the Wii.

[Quemaqua]

That's an interesting thought.  PS3 architecture is pretty different, so I wouldn't call it easy, but I've no idea how much easier or harder it'd be for the Wii.  I know virtually nothing about the Wii's general construction other than it's sort of Gamecube-like.

[PyroMenace]

I don't know what the new one looks like, but I'm one of the few people who don't like the current one.  In fact, I fucking hate and loathe it.  I don't know why I hate it so much, I just do.  Every time I have to use my 360 for something that isn't just playing a game I just get annoyed.

Still, I don't know why they'd change it.  Almost everyone seems to like it.

Well the dashboard blade interface is pretty useless if you dont have Live since theres alot of it is downloadable content.

[gpw11]

That's an interesting thought.  PS3 architecture is pretty different, so I wouldn't call it easy, but I've no idea how much easier or harder it'd be for the Wii.  I know virtually nothing about the Wii's general construction other than it's sort of Gamecube-like.

Well, it's an MT framework game like Devil May Cry 4, Lost Planet, and RE4, so hypothetically it should be very easy to port between the PC, 360, and PS3 since that's what the design philosophy of the engine was from the start. I don't imagine the Wii would be all that difficult if the engine was designed to be that flexible, but I've never heard it mentioned in conjunction with the MT Framework. 

I say chances are that it's getting a Wii release over a PS3 one because of reverse demographics - on the PS3 it's just another game that could be lost in the bigger, badder, crowd, but on the Wii it'll be one of the very few sure fire single player games released this year (and one of the like three not made by Nintendo).  People will eat it up.

[MysterD]

John Riccitello (The CEO of EA) doesn't like the new E3.
Neither does UbiSoft USA Division's very own Laurent Detoc.

[Quemaqua]

John Riccitello can go impale himself on a penis.

[MysterD]

And the award for best trailer at the show goes to...

Haha, that took some balls.  That was beautiful.  I laughed almost the whole time.

So when are these trilogy of Duke Nukem games gonna all be out by?
2050? 

[sirean_syan]

I think that one went over your head there.

[MysterD]

I think that one went over your head there.

No, it didn't.
These games don't exist.
Just like (a finished) DNF.

[JacksRag(e)]

No, it didn't.
These games don't exist.
Just like (a finished) DNF.

The games apparenty do exist.  They're planned for 2009, due for the DS and PSP.

[Quemaqua]

I think that one went over your head there.

Exactly.

[MysterD]

IGN's E3 2008 Awards
GameSpy's E3 2008 Awards

[MysterD]

Yahtzee rips E3 trailers and the amount of games with sequels there -- Fallout 3, Gears of War 2, FF13, Prince of Persia (Cel-Shaded), Res Evil 5

[MysterD]

Looks like Id Software was also NOT happy w/ the way E3 was handled this year, either