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E3 - First Day Shows Multitude Of New Games
Thanks to Eurogamer for its in-depth E3 coverage, as well as GameDaily's detailed write-ups and Ferrago's similarly wide-ranging coverage, as they add to previously-mentioned gaming websites covering the E3 Expo in Los Angeles. Highlights of the first day include hands-on impressions of Conker: Live and Reloaded for Xbox, a seriously in-depth Half-Life 2 interview, some first impressions of Myst IV, confirmation that Sega's signing of The Matrix Online was their 'big announcement', though Phantasy Star Universe was also announced, the list of songs for Donkey Konga, and a hands-on look at Final Fantasy XII. What other software are you most impressed by?
Heh, the entire Media at E3 is basically there to be mindless sycophants to whichever one of the big 3 they're currently listening to.
In fact, I think fanboy is a requirement to be sent to one of their media presentations, judging by the universal reaction to each. Even when they're disappointing they still try to highlight the positive(like Nintendo's performance last year).
I wasn't attacking Microsoft, I was attacking some of what I've read on forums about people touting two gun mojo, destructable environments/vehicles and online play as "new" things, when they aren't at all.
The key to the enjoyment of pop music is to replace any instance of "love" with "C.H.U.D."
I'm already seeing comments appear along the lines of "they set release dates at E3 and then never keep them". These comments are, of course, factually correct in most cases and lead me on to my main point.
The videogames industry is still behaving like it's stuck in the 80s. Release schedules for games are usually either wildly optimistic (and not met) or not even published at all, beyond "when it's done". With the amount of money involved in the games industry these days and the increasing involvement of big business, I just don't see how this amateurism can survive much longer.
In the movie industry, the pattern these days seems to be for the big "blockbuster" products to be delivered on-time. Whatever you think of the quality of these films (most of them suck), you don't hear of these films being hyped to death for a sudden release and then, at the last moment, delayed until the next year or "until it's ready". Investors and shareholders just won't stand for this kind of thing; they need to know when they can expect a return on their investment and they know that the public will get cheesed off pretty quickly by successive delays.
I remember reading an article in the mainstream press a couple of years ago, about the chain of disasters at Ion Storm that led, ultimately, to Daikatana; an underwhelming game with qite possibly the worst release publicity in history. I know this is an extreme case, but it does seem to point at much of what is wrong in the games industry; too many "hobbyists" involved, too little understanding of business realities and too little commitment to actually delivering a project on time and on budget.
It really is a shame that Valve is not more commited to Linux. As an avid Linux gamer, I find it disturbing that Valve can simply ignore the Linux market. I understand that we are a very small group, but as id and Epic have shown us, it really isn't that hard to write code that is fairly portable to begin with, then have a small team do the porting. I'm sure there are quite a few programmers out there that would do the work for peanuts, or even free.
Maybe by the time Halflife 3 hits the shelves, Linux will have become a viable gaming market and we'll see the games being released for our favorite platform, too.
I'm so glad we've been given a hands-on preview by someone who's actually played the game. I can't wait to play it.
While they don't mention it by name in the article, the battle system seems to work much like the one used in Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic. I'm not a fan of real-time RPG battles, but the KOTOR system allows you to pause it at any time and issue new orders (to be executed when the game resumes). It's a great system and really keeps the flow of the game at an even pace. If like me you jump out of your seat when most FF battles begin (screen melting/swirling/shattering accompanied by a loud noise), this is a welcome change!
As far as Phantasy Star Universe goes...please let it be a single player experience...please.
I have so many good memories of playing through the first three games, and I have zero interest in hooking up with some other couch-geeks to play an RPG. It's like Final Fantasy XI; the game looks good, but I want to play these things to take a break from reality and spend some time alone.
Ah well, as long as the single player RPGs are still being made I've got little to complain about.
If you could be anything you want, I'll bet you'd be disappointed.
When I read about what I was most impressed by is the lack of original titles.
I don't mean to turn this into a session of bashing E3, because I do think it's always fun and interesting to see what's being released--or at least, what people have on their minds.
However, my reaction to E3 this year has been notably different. It seems that many of the titles are things I've heard about for a couple of years now, or are sequels. Many of the rest of the titles seem unoriginal in the sense of essentially being remakes, in actuality if not in name. So far I'm not aware of any titles that represent radically new game ideas or interesting new games that I've not heard of before. Generally, this is what I've come to expect from E3, and haven't seen it so far.
There's still plenty of time and lots of games, though, so maybe more will surface as E3 continues. It takes awhile to filter through everything, and the most hyped games will invariably be sequels to well-known series from large publishers.
My feelings about E3 intersect with your comments in a couple of ways, though:
I think a better analogy to E3, rather than film, would be car shows. Some of the fun of E3, historically speaking, comes not from finding out when games are released, but to discover new games to salivate over and hope have some upcoming release date in the not-to-distant future. E3 is somewhat like a new car show in that there are invariably new games--like new car prototypes--that may never be released, or will be released in the distant future. The point is to get a peek at what developers are up to and thinking about, and will probably be coming in the future, not to find out what actual release dates are.
In this regard, I think the lack of original, new content at E3 shifts the focus from new content to things like release dates. Because we don't have the new interesting ideas and developers as has sometimes been the case in the past, we find ourselves being concerned with release dates and stuff. To the extent that we can't say "Ooh, look at that title--very interesting idea", we have to say something like "Ooh, look, it's Monster Slayer IX--when is it coming out?"
IMHO Final fantasy went downhill since FF7.
The characters are N-sync clones, perfectly beautiful and cliched, and the story is ever stranger than the previous one.
Remake FF5,6,7 with nowadays technology and you will win a customer here.
Personally I think the first halo was a very over rated game. Granted it has a great multiplayer expereince....but so what! There are *many* games that give you a good (even better!) multiplayer experience.
Since when do we have any right to pick on the way others dress? :)
Miyamoto is just a very excited man, and he is a little over the edge. I think it helps him crank out the amazing ideas that he does. I say as long as he keeps pumping out the great games, he could come on stage in a pink tutu, for all I care. Actually, scratch that...
Don't buy WoW Gold! Make it yourself!
Not completely wrong, but still wrong.
Miyamoto doesn't generally do over-the-top things like this. He's a product manager, not some Steve Ballmer-esque hype ape. ("Give it up for me"....?) You can safely bet that he was asked to appear in this manner to endorse the new Zelda.
Did you hear what he said during the part of the show in that picture? For the benefit of those who weren't there, a direct transcript:
Basically, Nintendo wants you to know that they are listening to their gamers. And so they put their front-man to work at telling them just that. And really, who better to tell us than Link's creator, and how better than to give him Link's sword and shield?
Mike hawk is a known troll, but I'm glad he posted this. To those of us who know who Miyamoto is, it's a cool picture. :)