E3

[SeanDMan]

Post Gamecube stuff. kthxbye

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Leisure Suit Larry's back?!?!?!? OOooh I'm buying an X-Box!

*has pleasing retro flashbacks*

[Guest homerjfry]

Sorry this is so late. I have had a couple long days in a row and i am tired, but here is the Gamecube games as per request. Also, no Halo or GTA playable demos at E3, unless you were a VIP member and invited by Microsoft or Rockstar.

GAMECUBE

Advanced Wars-Disappointing for some since they took the RTS aspect of the game, and replaced it as a realtime third-person/vehicle shooter. Still was a lot of fun and remincent of Jet Force Gemini for the N64. The graphics were a bit bland however. B

Killer 7-In the same vein as 13, the look of this game is stylish and incredible. Unfortunately all they had were videos of it and I must say it looked great.

Legend of Zelda: The Four Swords-See the GBA game, except this is playable on the Gamecube and offers connecivity with the GBA. Looks like a lot of fun, but I didn't play it.

Legend of Zelda-Remember 2 years ago when we saw those mouthwatering screens of Link kicking ass in great looking environments, but got the insanely good, but strange looking Wind Waker instead? This was the game those screens were from and the Vidoe looks incredible (no playable demo). I was in shock watching the video of this, that is how good it looks.

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes-I did a mini review of it earlier, but might as well put it here officially. The game just looks amazing. Running smoother and sharper than ever, the story is up in the air, but the gameplay is what you remember, but this time even better. The new beams are: Light beam, dark beam, power beam and one other one that skips my mind, and all play an integral part in the gameplay (as well as having limited ammo). The enemies look sweet and move realistically and have great AI. This was the game for me at E3. Not forgetting multiplayer running at 60fps easily with 4 players. A

Pikmin 2-Another video of this, it is back and better than ever I guess. I never really got into this game.

Resident Evil 4-Simply stunning are two words to describe this game. The graphics are the best yet, and the atmosphere and the animations are top notch. From the videos, the game seems to take an Eternal Darkness religious type atmosphere at some point. I suck at RE games, and got my ass kicked in the demo real quick, as the zombies are EVERYWHERE in this game. Solid fun all around and HIGHLY recommended for RE fans of course. A

Star Fox-Great looking and solid play mechanics. Slippy is back and gayer than ever, as everytime we heard his voice we laughed our asses off. Th game was a ton of fun, the multiplayer was great and the graphics were superb. Looking great right now. B+

Paper Mario 2-Do I need to say anything about this game? Great, funny and blast to play, as well as being very intuative. Paper Mario and Mario RPG make this game a ton of fun. B+

MULTI PLATFORM GAMES

Madden 2005-Gameplay remains the same, but the animation just becomes more fluid and beatiful with each game. This is the Madden to get (just like ever year). It is beautiful. A

Prince of Persia 2-Anyone who didn't play PoP needs to get out and rent it ASAP. Fantastic game, and 2 looks and feels just as good. A-

Spiderman 2-Looking great, but i didn't play it.

TMNT 2-Keeps its unique look, but I didn't play this either. Seems the crappy gameplay is still intact though.

Tom Clancy (all of them)-They just look better and better and run really smoothly and control very well. B+ (for all the games)

The Movies-Damn this game looks amazing. Run a studio, hire, fire, fund, got bankrupt, etc. The day in the life of Hollywood players. Looks infinately playable but the PC would probably be the one to buy since all the expansion packs that it will offer. It looked great on all the consoles though.

Viewtiful Joe 2- Same great gameplay, with a slight graphics tweak, but nothing noticable. The game is a ton of fun, and Joe got some new moves. Another of the games that many didn' t play but should. A-

Well that is all for the games, i have one final update where I will unveil the info on the DS and the PSP (yep played them both). If i had to choose a place that I had the most fun was Nintendo's section as they were simply incredible in amount of insanely fun games. They pulled out all the stops this year and had an amazing selection of games to come and with the $99 price tag, this is the system to get in 2004-2005. XBOX comes in second with a handful of fun games, and PS2 comes in last with some good games, but only one first party game that wowed me. Anyway, I didn't play a ton of games on friday as most of my time was spent in line. Anyway, after the laker game tonight, I will write about the DS and the PSP, so look for that.

Edited May 16, 2004 by homerjfry

[Guest homerjfry]

SONY PSP

To start things off, this thing is a multimedia powerhouse. It runs off a variation of mini disk technology, and supports both music (videos, MP3, hasn't been confirmed yet), movies and games. The respolution of the screen is absolutely great. It is up there with high def TV in the resolution and looks amazing. We saw both Spiderman, and the new FF7 movie running off of it, and even blown up onto a 14 inch screen, the graphics were flawless.

The sound is really great, especially if headphones are used, and fully engrosses what could be the smallest type of stereo surround sound ever (the sounds is just great).

I talked to a Sony guy there and he said that the battery life is about 10 hours for gameplay, 8 for music and 2/12 for movies, and it uses a rechargable battery (most likely a lithium ion) to power the machine no bigger than a cellphone. the screen is about 3 inches by 4 inches (give or take an inch) and it consists of a dpad, 4 face buttons, 2 shoulder, and the most innovative addition, an analogue stick that looks like a little speaker. The system itself is very comfortable in your hands and feels like a high tech gadget (which it is). It is smooth and shaped nice. Great design.

the power of the system is basically that of a PS1, as we saw demos of an RPG and Ape Escape, as well as a handful of others, that were unplayable, but looked pretty good none the less.

This is the multimedia devise of the future, and I am sure they will encorporate some type of MP3 technology since it has both a USB port, and an infrared devise that might be useful down the line for connectivity with the PS2.

I was wowed by this machine. It looks great, feels great, and sounds great. Only the price tag is a mystery as the Sony guys were very closelipped on that, which has me fearing a $300 price tag, which just might be worth it from the looks of the machine.

[Guest homerjfry]

NINTENDO DS

We were ushered in a line sinding its way through about 200 feet of E3, reaching a sign that read "1 hour wait from here" after being in line for 30 min already.

"This better be worth it," I said.

We reached the front of the line finally and was placed in a room with 5 rows facing a screen with mario on it interacting with two ugly twins that were doing a little pre scripted bit for us that ended up being pretty funny (since it was Mario impersenating famous characters). In about 5 minutes a curtain opens to reveal Charles Martinet, the voice of mario, Luigi, Wario, Baby Mario and Waluigi. he talked to us for a bit and showed us a video of the DS and then ushered us into the next room where we were able to play. He was a really cool guy and did the voices for whoever asked and shook hands with everyone. An all around class act.

The video showed the abilities of the DS. The two most interesting ended up being that the lower half of the screen is in fact a touch screen that can be written on, touched, dialed, etc. They gave us these really cool souviner pens that light up and allow you to write on the screen. These came in handy since many of the games required this including the new Warioware game which had us drawing symbols, slashing items, scratching cards, etc. It was really neat and HIGHLY intuative. i thought it would have worked clunky and crappy, but it was flawless. Another REALLY ingenious puzzle game was a pacman variation in which you drew pac man, and then drew bars on the side to keep him within the box eating the ghosts. It sounds confusing, but it is really damn fun.

The other great feature is the wireless adaptor. With this, you can flip open the DS, and find if there is anyone else who has a DS as well, since it will pick up the signal. It also renders adaptors that connect gameboys together, worthless, as well as the console adaptors that do the same thing.

Another cool feature is the backwards compatibility. The bottom slot allows for Gameboy advance games to be played, while the top allows for the new DS games, which makes the new DS' library into the hundreds already.

The graphics are not on par with the PSP, but this is not a multimedia machine. It was able to handle a multiplayer version of Mario 64 (but it looked like it didn't have the Z buffering on). This portable is for fun, for games, and for interaction. If Nintendo can keep the price tag anywhere from $99-$150 they will have a HUGE hit on their hands.

We left Nintendo's booth with a Pokemon teddy bear, that cool souviner pen, and a DS T-Shirt that has E3 2004 on the back, so i didn't have to buy one. So all in all, it was worth it.

AFTER-THOUGHTS

If Sony was smart, they would launch the PSP at a pretty low price and take the hit, allowing the PS2, and the PS3 to cover their asses, so they can put a dent in the God that is Gameboy. If Sony launches too high, they might be dead in the water from the beginning, since the we all know Ninendo has killed portable giants before with their savy marketing.

Nintendo if launching in that bracket I said will have a guranteed hit on their hands. This system is just too clever to fail (I hope). It doesn't look as nice as the PSP, but it is kid friendly and will finally allow for cray Pokemon battles between kids at school without having to get a stupid cable. The screen is sharp, and the design is simply with a sort of steel cover which is good for kids who will probably drop it a lot. The PSP looks like it will explode if you drop it. But both handhelds look like a purchase however.

The games at E3 were great, and the merch was cool too. i had a ton of fun and I can't wait for next year when the console wars begin again.

[LL!]

Did you by chance happen to see anything on a game entitled "God Of War"? If so, how'd it look to you because I read the small article on it on Gamepro and it looks very good.

[SeanDMan]

NINTENDO DS

The graphics are not on par with the PSP, but this is not a multimedia machine. It was able to handle a multiplayer version of Mario 64 (but it looked like it didn't have the Z buffering on). This portable is for fun, for games, and for interaction. If Nintendo can keep the price tag anywhere from $99-$150 they will have a HUGE hit on their hands.

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Awesome!

[Guest Future Shock]

Sean, you didn't know? Holy BAKAING CHAVE~!

[SeanDMan]

Sean, you didn't know?  Holy BAKAING CHAVE~!

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...

English, motherfucker, etc etc...

[Zaz]

Lord of the Rings: The Third Age-Only saw a video on this, but what a video! It showed a HUGE battle in what looked like real-time graphics. This game could be HUGE. No grade, wasn't playable.

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This is suppoed to be the LOTR RPG, right? If so, it's coming out on all consoles, and looks to be great. This is an interview about the game.

The Lord of the Rings juggernaut has been one of the few film franchises to make the transition to the gaming realm without too rough of a trip. The first two games released by Electronic Arts managed to re-create the satisfying experience of hacking orcs to death and saving Middle-earth from the evil of Sauron. Players who managed to make it to the end of last year's Return of the King were treated to a cryptic teaser for a game dubbed The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. EA ended speculation on what kind of game Trilogy would be today with the announcement of The Lord of the Rings, The Third Age, the game formerly known as The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. The game will send players on a quest that will span the events from all three films and let you interact with more than a few familiar faces. We had the opportunity to talk to Steve Gray, executive producer for The Lord of the Rings, The Third Age, to find out just what's going on with the promising game.

GameSpot: What is The Lord of the Rings, The Third Age?

Steve Gray: The Lord of the Rings, The Third Age is a new role-playing game for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox that brings the story of all three of the Lord of the Rings films to life. You play as a group of characters that you create. Those characters live in the world of the Middle-earth depicted in the films, interact with the characters of the films, and experience the events of the films. The Third Age is in development for all three consoles and is scheduled to ship this fall. We're also working on a Game Boy Advance version that will ship this fall.

GS: How long has the game been in development, and who has been working on it?

SG: We've been thinking about building an RPG for The Lord of the Rings since we started on The Two Towers. Serious development didn't start until we were into building The Return of the King last year--but this is a game we've wanted to make for a long time.

I've worked on the two currently released EA The Lord of the Rings games: The Two Towers and The Return of the King. I also directed one of Square's RPGs--Parasite Eve--and was involved with the Final Fantasy series. I've worked on a bunch of other products over many years, but those are probably the most relevant to what I'm doing now. The core of our team comes from the EA Redwood Shores--The Lord of the Rings team that created The Return of the King.

GS: How did the game come about?

SG: I've been thinking about building a Lord of the Rings RPG for at least 10 years--I just never had the chance to do it until now. With the completion of The Return of the King game and the fact that we had total access to everything in all three films to build a great RPG around--now seemed like the perfect time to get started!

GS: How did you decide on the gameplay mechanics?

SG: Once we started work on The Third Age and knew that it would be a role-playing game, we began brainstorming on the most interesting way to tell the story that we all know and love while giving players a major role in the events. It's a delicate balance. You are playing as player-created characters who need to find their way through Middle-earth and participate in the story in interesting and meaningful ways, building and experiencing a story wrapped around the thrilling events of the New Line Cinema films.

You travel on a sort of "S" curve that weaves in and out of the path of the Fellowship through the story of the trilogy. At times you'll be behind or "next to" them; at other times you'll be in the same time and place as members of the Fellowship.

While there is a clear beginning and end to The Lord of the Rings, The Third Age, there are many paths to choose between the two. The main focus of the game is the quest on the side of good, but you can also unlock evil encounters, and we think players will really enjoy playing on the side of Sauron in addition to playing as good guys. The environments are very open, and there are optional side quests that will give the player a lot of freedom to make their experience unique.

GS: Where did you look to for inspiration when deciding on the mechanics?

SG: We looked to both what we love--and don't love--in other RPG games that are out there, but our chief inspiration comes from the films and the fiction themselves. This game ends and begins with the spirit of Middle-earth that Tolkien created and Peter Jackson imbued the films with.

GS: What are the gameplay mechanics? Is it real time? Turn-based?

SG: The combat is turn-based, and if you have played Final Fantasy it will feel familiar to you. Obviously we have our own game mechanic, but we want fans of the genre to be able to quickly pick up and easily start playing the game. Riding a horse or a warg is definitely an important part of the adventure experience--especially in Rohan. During combat there are special play mechanics and skills associated with riding.

GS: What can you tell us about the game's story? What will it cover? How will the story be told?

SG: The Third Age covers locations and story points from all three movies of the trilogy. Some of the highlights in the story are Khazad Dum, Helm's Deep, Osgiliath, and Minas Tirith. Locations and story are very tightly linked because we know how the story progresses through the locations. We aren't going to change the story--why would we try and second-guess Tolkien!? However, we are going to show you more of the world that Peter Jackson envisioned. In-game cinematics will advance the story--we want to keep characters in the world of the game at all times. We are also going to use footage from the films in a new and different way. The seamless transitions in The Two Towers and The Return of the King are really cool, but we've moved past that idea in The Third Age.

GS: Does it tie in with the previous two games' saves at all?

SG: The Third Age is a completely new game, and we want players to start with a fresh experience.

GS: Will there be any online component to it (multiplayer or content download for PS2 HDD)?

SG: We are focusing on making the single-player experience as rich as possible, so there are no online plans at this time--but if this changes, we'll let you know!

GS: Will there be any unique content for the various platforms?

SG: The Third Age will look and play pretty much identically on all three consoles. There's also a Game Boy Advance version, which is totally different than the console games, obviously.

GS: How much involvement did New Line Cinema and Peter Jackson have with it?

SG: Our game revolves around the events--both major and minor--depicted in all three films. We are working closely with New Line Cinema to delve deeper into the events of the films; they're very involved. We all want The Third Age to feel as authentic as possible to the world of Tolkien that Peter Jackson brought to life.

GS: How much involvement did the movie cast have with it?

SG: We'll be using voice-over from the original films' cast as well as the wealth of other film assets we have access to through our partnership with New Line Cinema. We have yet to record this year's voice-over, but we are definitely writing lots of new dialogue for the actors. As well as our old favorites, we hope to include a few more characters that you haven't seen in our games yet.

GS: Thanks for your time.

Reading from that, it looks great

[Guest homerjfry]

Did you by chance happen to see anything on a game entitled "God Of War"? If so, how'd it look to you because I read the small article on it on Gamepro and it looks very good.

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Yeah i saw it, but didn't play it. It looked really cool and was insanely gory, but i couldn't really tell how the gameplay was. Looked solid though.

This is suppoed to be the LOTR RPG, right? If so, it's coming out on all consoles, and looks to be great. This is an interview about the game.

I was wrong, it was playable and looked rather interesting. It is about time someone made this game into an RPG.

On a side note: The DS felt good in my hands, but the PSP felt much more comfortable. The design of the DS is a bit clunkier, but still pretty cool. We still have half a year (at least) to find out about them so check out all the info and decide. I am really split down the middle here.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed the coverage as I had a blast writing, and experiencing it. Sorry i didn't cover the major games, as they weren't playable, but I hope I gave info on some that you all wanted to hear about.

Edited May 17, 2004 by homerjfry

[Docpepper]

Killzone is probably the most anticipated ps2 game for me and I'll defiently pick it up as soon as it is released