Okay, this is my last E3 09 post. I decided to end this by listing my ten favorite games that appeared at E3 this year. This includes any game announced or mentioned during the press conferences or games that were said to be on display on the show floor.
These are the 10 games I'm most excited for and the list is in no real order.
1. Super Mario Galaxy 2
2. New Super Mario Bros Wii
3. Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
4. No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle
5. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
6. Metroid: Other M
7. Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time
8. God of War III
9. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
10. Crackdown 2
And that's most of what I want that I found out at E3 this year.
Showing posts with label 2009 Games. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2009 Games. Show all posts
Friday, June 5, 2009
E3 09: Overall Impressions
Well, E3 ended yesterday although I didn't really pay too much attention to it after the major press conferences ended on Tuesday. After thinking about it for a while I decided that E3 2009 was decent, but nothing mind blowing. Each of the 3 companies had their own strengths and weaknesses which I guess I should elaborate on.
Out of the big 3, I felt that Microsoft was the weakest of the bunch. They didn't have have much to present that wasn't already known or guessed at in some shape or form. More so than any company, Microsoft had the least amount of games to show that were ready for launch during 2008. About 90% of what they had were slated for a 2010 release or later. The games that are coming this year were multi-platform games...so yeah. The thing that pretty much everyone remembers from the conference was Project Natal and to me it doesn't look like it's worth getting extremely excited about. The voice interaction is pure awesome sauce, but the full body motion control aspect only seems to be a little better than the Playstation Eyetoy that was released several years ago and given that what the eyetoy brought to the gaming table wasn't much, I doubt that Natal's implementation in games will be too much to gush over.
Where Microsoft really shined was in the enhancements it was making to the 360's role as an entertainment center. The improvements it's making to the Netflix application is long overdue and should have been there from the start. The facebook addition is pretty cool even though i don't have a facebook (been thinking about it though). And what project natal is going to do the interface of the system is pretty sweet as well.
Nintendo had a lot to make up for after last year's embarrassing showing and they did step it up a little by showing that they had actual games coming out this year (although even if they had only one real game to show, it would be an improvement). The problem is, even more than Microsoft, Nintendo didn't have much to show that we didn't already know about in some way. We already knew that a 2nd New Super Mario Bros was coming, we just didn't know it was going to be mulitplayer and for the Wii. We already knew about another major 3d Mario game coming as well. Only Golden Sun Ds and Metorid: Other M were genuine unknown surprise announcements. Nintendo also spent too much time on junk they've shown before like The Wii Motion Plus and Wii Sports Resort.
Also since they've started the whole casual game trend, Nintendo doesn't really know how to do an interesting conference. Seriously, Nintendo's conference felt like a PTA meeting. Nintendo still needs to understand that the casual market their shooting for doesn't watch or care about E3. Nintendo's showings were better than Microsoft's largely because they had decent mix of games that are actually coming this year and games to look forward to in the future. The fact that there are 3 Mario games of actual substance on display (2 platformers and an RPG) is pretty damn impressive and the fact that 2 of them make heavy use of my favorite game character Yoshi is just amazing. Mario may be my favorite game franchise, but I really wish they would have focused a little more on some of their other franchises (The long-awaited Wii Zelda title was revealed to be in development during a roundtable and will released next year at the earliest). Overall Nintendo did pretty well, even though they clearly did the bare minimum to make up for their past failings....just don't get me started on that completely retarded Wii Vitality Sensor...
Sony has never really impressed me with their press conferences. Their E3 presentations aren't bad, their just not that memorable. As such I don't really have too much to comment on with Sony as I did with the other 2. This year was a tad better than their usual showings but not by much so it kinda sad that I feel that Sony had the best presence at E3 this year. Sony had a better balance of stats and games and they revealed the most new games coming out with many interesting features. I felt that Sony's conference had the best structure as well: focusing on the one console at a time as opposed to Nintendo who jumped back and forth between their 2 systems. Although Sony failed to convince me to buy a Psp, I was gald to see them make an admirable attempt to make it appear like a worthwhile handheld (I'm sure it is) and I'm sure that those who own one are thrilled to see some actual games released for the system. If I did get a Psp, I would definitely buy MGS: Peace Walker (In related news since the press conferences, it was announced that the 360 game MGS: Rising is indeed coming to the PS3)
After a few years, the PS3 has finally got a decent number of games and this year's showings have finally convinced me to pick up the system when I have the cash, although Sony's really gonna need to do a price drop first. God of War 3 may not be very different from it predecessors, but at least it's clear that the game is gonna be just as good as what's come before. Like I said in my Sony impressions posts, there was a distinct lack of Ratchet & Clank that really bugged me but I think in the end Sony may have made the right choice focusing on GOW instead since it is higher profile and R&C (much like GOW) hasn't really changed much over the years to really talk about. As for Sony's motion control, if Sony can release some decent software for it, I'm sure it could possibly outdue the Wii Remote...and as I said before at least this thing's implementation in games is more realistic than Project Natal.
So in summation, E3 2009 was okay. Microsoft was the worst to me as they only had about a handful interesting things and most of it won't be out for quite a while, but I won't deny that some of those games mentioned should be pretty good. Nintendo gave their their fans much more interesting stuff unlike last year and Sony just did their thing and came out one top.
Score below is as follows.
CONFERENCE PLACING:
1st: Sony
2nd: Nintendo
3rd: Microsoft
Out of the big 3, I felt that Microsoft was the weakest of the bunch. They didn't have have much to present that wasn't already known or guessed at in some shape or form. More so than any company, Microsoft had the least amount of games to show that were ready for launch during 2008. About 90% of what they had were slated for a 2010 release or later. The games that are coming this year were multi-platform games...so yeah. The thing that pretty much everyone remembers from the conference was Project Natal and to me it doesn't look like it's worth getting extremely excited about. The voice interaction is pure awesome sauce, but the full body motion control aspect only seems to be a little better than the Playstation Eyetoy that was released several years ago and given that what the eyetoy brought to the gaming table wasn't much, I doubt that Natal's implementation in games will be too much to gush over.
Where Microsoft really shined was in the enhancements it was making to the 360's role as an entertainment center. The improvements it's making to the Netflix application is long overdue and should have been there from the start. The facebook addition is pretty cool even though i don't have a facebook (been thinking about it though). And what project natal is going to do the interface of the system is pretty sweet as well.
Nintendo had a lot to make up for after last year's embarrassing showing and they did step it up a little by showing that they had actual games coming out this year (although even if they had only one real game to show, it would be an improvement). The problem is, even more than Microsoft, Nintendo didn't have much to show that we didn't already know about in some way. We already knew that a 2nd New Super Mario Bros was coming, we just didn't know it was going to be mulitplayer and for the Wii. We already knew about another major 3d Mario game coming as well. Only Golden Sun Ds and Metorid: Other M were genuine unknown surprise announcements. Nintendo also spent too much time on junk they've shown before like The Wii Motion Plus and Wii Sports Resort.
Also since they've started the whole casual game trend, Nintendo doesn't really know how to do an interesting conference. Seriously, Nintendo's conference felt like a PTA meeting. Nintendo still needs to understand that the casual market their shooting for doesn't watch or care about E3. Nintendo's showings were better than Microsoft's largely because they had decent mix of games that are actually coming this year and games to look forward to in the future. The fact that there are 3 Mario games of actual substance on display (2 platformers and an RPG) is pretty damn impressive and the fact that 2 of them make heavy use of my favorite game character Yoshi is just amazing. Mario may be my favorite game franchise, but I really wish they would have focused a little more on some of their other franchises (The long-awaited Wii Zelda title was revealed to be in development during a roundtable and will released next year at the earliest). Overall Nintendo did pretty well, even though they clearly did the bare minimum to make up for their past failings....just don't get me started on that completely retarded Wii Vitality Sensor...
Sony has never really impressed me with their press conferences. Their E3 presentations aren't bad, their just not that memorable. As such I don't really have too much to comment on with Sony as I did with the other 2. This year was a tad better than their usual showings but not by much so it kinda sad that I feel that Sony had the best presence at E3 this year. Sony had a better balance of stats and games and they revealed the most new games coming out with many interesting features. I felt that Sony's conference had the best structure as well: focusing on the one console at a time as opposed to Nintendo who jumped back and forth between their 2 systems. Although Sony failed to convince me to buy a Psp, I was gald to see them make an admirable attempt to make it appear like a worthwhile handheld (I'm sure it is) and I'm sure that those who own one are thrilled to see some actual games released for the system. If I did get a Psp, I would definitely buy MGS: Peace Walker (In related news since the press conferences, it was announced that the 360 game MGS: Rising is indeed coming to the PS3)
After a few years, the PS3 has finally got a decent number of games and this year's showings have finally convinced me to pick up the system when I have the cash, although Sony's really gonna need to do a price drop first. God of War 3 may not be very different from it predecessors, but at least it's clear that the game is gonna be just as good as what's come before. Like I said in my Sony impressions posts, there was a distinct lack of Ratchet & Clank that really bugged me but I think in the end Sony may have made the right choice focusing on GOW instead since it is higher profile and R&C (much like GOW) hasn't really changed much over the years to really talk about. As for Sony's motion control, if Sony can release some decent software for it, I'm sure it could possibly outdue the Wii Remote...and as I said before at least this thing's implementation in games is more realistic than Project Natal.
So in summation, E3 2009 was okay. Microsoft was the worst to me as they only had about a handful interesting things and most of it won't be out for quite a while, but I won't deny that some of those games mentioned should be pretty good. Nintendo gave their their fans much more interesting stuff unlike last year and Sony just did their thing and came out one top.
Score below is as follows.
CONFERENCE PLACING:
1st: Sony
2nd: Nintendo
3rd: Microsoft
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
E3 09: Sony Impressions
Okay last one. I've never liked that Sony and Nintendo's conferences are basically back to back. It really tires me out and causes me to be little impatient with Sony's announcements. Unlike Microsoft and Nintendo, I still do not own a PS3 or PSP and while this year's keynote didn't make me crave a PSP, I do still want the PS3...if only because they still have 3 franchises I love: Ratchet & Clank, God Of War, and Kingdom Hearts. Overall I thought Sony really failed to wow me with surprises and I felt that they spent a little too much time with each game demo. The conference was fairly long winded but I did get a few games to talk about.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves: Of course I've never played the first game and the only the I heard about it was that it was like a much better Tomb Raider game and you get to stare a hot guy's ass instead of hot girl. This follow up appeared to be fairly entertaining. If I had a PS3 I'd check it out.
PSP Go: They joking referred to this as the worst kept secret at E3 and they were right. The only time I really wanted a PSP was last year when they released the God of War bundle, but I held off on it when I remember that apart from GOW there were only one or two other games for the handheld that were really worth having. And that's still the same story now. The Psp Go is geared more towards media savvy consumers, and it looks slick and sexy, but unless they get some real high quality games for the system, then their wasting everyone's time. They showed off in a quick montage all the games coming to the system and the only ones I would want were the new Jak and Daxter and the game I'm about to spotlight next...
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker: The second "traditional" MGS game on the PSP. The first game, Portable Ops, is one of those 1 or 2 games worth having I mentioned. This game looks good and I was pleased that there was actual gameplay footage unlike yesterday's Metal Gear Rising "trailer" (a shot of clouds rolling by with an image of Radien is NOT a trailer). It's also worth noting that MGS Rising was not talked about during the keynote which to me confirms that that game will at least release on 360 first.
Agent: A new game from GTA makers Rockstar. Not much info was given apart from the constant stressing that this was a PS3 exclusive. I think it's safe to say that it will be a exclusive for like a year before the 360 and maybe Wii (it happened with Bully) version are revealed.
Final Fantasy 14 Online: I joined the stunned and confused audience with the sudden announcement that Square Enix was already working on FF 14 and it would be released next year. The reveal that it would be another online game like FF 11 helped this shocker make more sense. Considering FF 11 wasn't exactly a best selling winner, I have wonder if this game is aiming to be an improvement.
PS3 Motion Control...Thing...: Yeah...they didn't have a name for this thing. It looks like slightly better Wii Remote. To be honest the things they were doing with it on stage weren't that interesting, but I will say that this seems to be a tad more "useful" (for lack of a better word) for games than Microsoft's Project Natal.
Modnation Racers: It's like Little Big Planet for racing games. I really only care about Burnout and Mario Kart as far as racing games are concerned, but I might check this this one out.
The Last Guardian: Oh why, oh why, oh why haven't I played Ico and Shadow of the Colossus yet? They've been on my need to play list for a few years now. Maybe if I had played them I would have been a lot more excited for this game, which was created by the same guy who developed those 2 games. The trailer didn't reveal much on gameplay, but it looked really really pretty.
Grand Turismo 5: Given the infamous delay time on GT4, I think it would be amusing to see how long it takes for this game to actually release. I don't really care about Grand Turismo...too realistic for me. Looks nice though.
God Of War III: This is it , Sony's showstopper. To be honest I'm glad the game doesn't release til March of next year, gives me more time to get a job so I can afford a PS3. The short demo they played of the game's opening is very reminiscent of the opening of God Of War 2 only much, much prettier. And I think you can count on the full game pretty much not offering anything truly new over the game's predecessors...just an HD gore fest. But really that's not much of a bad thing since there really isn't anything about this series that needs changing. I'm making it my goal to have a PS3 by this game's launch.
And that was it. I pretty upset that the new Ratchet & Clank game "A Crack in Time" wasn't given any face time during the conference especially since unlike God of War, it actually comes out this year...but oh well.
These last 2 days have been pretty tiring as fair as game news was concerned and I'm actually pretty happy it's over. Overall E3 2009 gave some pretty solid games to look forward to...too bad about 75% of these games aren't out until next year!
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves: Of course I've never played the first game and the only the I heard about it was that it was like a much better Tomb Raider game and you get to stare a hot guy's ass instead of hot girl. This follow up appeared to be fairly entertaining. If I had a PS3 I'd check it out.
PSP Go: They joking referred to this as the worst kept secret at E3 and they were right. The only time I really wanted a PSP was last year when they released the God of War bundle, but I held off on it when I remember that apart from GOW there were only one or two other games for the handheld that were really worth having. And that's still the same story now. The Psp Go is geared more towards media savvy consumers, and it looks slick and sexy, but unless they get some real high quality games for the system, then their wasting everyone's time. They showed off in a quick montage all the games coming to the system and the only ones I would want were the new Jak and Daxter and the game I'm about to spotlight next...
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker: The second "traditional" MGS game on the PSP. The first game, Portable Ops, is one of those 1 or 2 games worth having I mentioned. This game looks good and I was pleased that there was actual gameplay footage unlike yesterday's Metal Gear Rising "trailer" (a shot of clouds rolling by with an image of Radien is NOT a trailer). It's also worth noting that MGS Rising was not talked about during the keynote which to me confirms that that game will at least release on 360 first.
Agent: A new game from GTA makers Rockstar. Not much info was given apart from the constant stressing that this was a PS3 exclusive. I think it's safe to say that it will be a exclusive for like a year before the 360 and maybe Wii (it happened with Bully) version are revealed.
Final Fantasy 14 Online: I joined the stunned and confused audience with the sudden announcement that Square Enix was already working on FF 14 and it would be released next year. The reveal that it would be another online game like FF 11 helped this shocker make more sense. Considering FF 11 wasn't exactly a best selling winner, I have wonder if this game is aiming to be an improvement.
PS3 Motion Control...Thing...: Yeah...they didn't have a name for this thing. It looks like slightly better Wii Remote. To be honest the things they were doing with it on stage weren't that interesting, but I will say that this seems to be a tad more "useful" (for lack of a better word) for games than Microsoft's Project Natal.
Modnation Racers: It's like Little Big Planet for racing games. I really only care about Burnout and Mario Kart as far as racing games are concerned, but I might check this this one out.
The Last Guardian: Oh why, oh why, oh why haven't I played Ico and Shadow of the Colossus yet? They've been on my need to play list for a few years now. Maybe if I had played them I would have been a lot more excited for this game, which was created by the same guy who developed those 2 games. The trailer didn't reveal much on gameplay, but it looked really really pretty.
Grand Turismo 5: Given the infamous delay time on GT4, I think it would be amusing to see how long it takes for this game to actually release. I don't really care about Grand Turismo...too realistic for me. Looks nice though.
God Of War III: This is it , Sony's showstopper. To be honest I'm glad the game doesn't release til March of next year, gives me more time to get a job so I can afford a PS3. The short demo they played of the game's opening is very reminiscent of the opening of God Of War 2 only much, much prettier. And I think you can count on the full game pretty much not offering anything truly new over the game's predecessors...just an HD gore fest. But really that's not much of a bad thing since there really isn't anything about this series that needs changing. I'm making it my goal to have a PS3 by this game's launch.
And that was it. I pretty upset that the new Ratchet & Clank game "A Crack in Time" wasn't given any face time during the conference especially since unlike God of War, it actually comes out this year...but oh well.
These last 2 days have been pretty tiring as fair as game news was concerned and I'm actually pretty happy it's over. Overall E3 2009 gave some pretty solid games to look forward to...too bad about 75% of these games aren't out until next year!
E3 09: Nintendo Impressions
Well...This was a pretty good improvement over last year. Sure Nintendo still had those dull, annoying as hell bragging speeches to bore us with. But Nintendo was a bit more on point to the business of telling us about the games they had coming. Nintendo had a tad more games than Microsoft that I was interested in, but I really wish they would have said a little more about some these games.
New Super Mario Bros Wii: This appears to the major triple A title for the holidays that was long rumored for past couple of months. Co-op Super Mario Bros is something that I feel was long overdue. I'm not super excited for it since this appears to be mostly the same as the Ds game and we've already seen that (plus New Super Mario Bros wasn't my favorite iteration of the series). Also why are the 3rd and 4th players both Toads? Why not Wario or Waluigi? Oh well, its Mario...I'm gonna buy it...and the co-op better be online.
Wii Sports Resorts: Really...they showed us all this game really had to offer last year, but at least it looks a bit more like full game now....Still not gonna buy it though.
Kingdom Hearts Ds: We've known about this game for a while and the press conference didn't tell us anything more than a release date (Sept. 29). I love the Kingdom Hearts series but Chain of Memories for the GBA kinda tainted my feelings for Handheld iterations of the series. But at this one isn't card based so I'll probably buy this when it releases in Sept.
Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story: Another Ds game that we've known about for quite some time as the game has been out in Japan since February. I love the Mario & Luigi rpg games but I don't really have anything to say about this game other than it's release date which was an unannounced date in the fall...why? All they really had to do with the game was localization and Nintendo doesn't really have anything for the summer...so why wait til the fall?
Golden Sun Ds: A nice surprise announcement. The Golden Sun games on the GBA were wonderful and it was a little confusing as to why the series was absent from the DS. Well it's here now and although we were not given a date, it looks nice.
Mario Vs Donkey Kong: Minis March Again: Wow
more Mario stuff...I didn't care for Mario vs Donkey Kong 2. It's lemmings-like gameplay was too much of a departure for me. The one thing was cool about that game was the custom level builder which Minis March Again basically is. It's a downloadable game for the DSI which I don't have and even if I did I probably wouldn't buy it.
The Legend Of Zelda: Spirit Tracks: They didn't say anything about this game other than "it's good" which wasn't enough for me. I didn't care too much for Phantom Hourglass, the last DS Zelda game, and this looks pretty similar, just with trains instead of a boat. I'm sure it will be good and it will sell well. I'll check it out...but most likely not at launch.
Super Mario Galaxy 2: Wow..just wow. It was pretty much confirmed beforehand that would be a new 3d Mario title on the Wii and here it is. I was hoping that it wouldn't be another Galaxy...but who cares, the first Mario Galaxy is in my opinion one of the best games of this console generation and this seems to just be an extension of that which is fine by me. It also appears to harder than the first one which would address my only real complain against the original. Oh...and Yoshi is the game...which makes things 10 times better. The game will release in 2010...hopefully in the summer.
Metroid Other M: A new Metroid game developed by Team Ninja of all people. It's a nice change of pace from the Prime series and it'll be nice to see this as a sort of what could have been if Metroid Prime had been taken in another direction. It won't come out till next year along with Galaxy 2 so at least there are 2 big games to look forward to next year..finally.
So all in all, Nintendo did pretty well. At least they have actual games coming out this year.
New Super Mario Bros Wii: This appears to the major triple A title for the holidays that was long rumored for past couple of months. Co-op Super Mario Bros is something that I feel was long overdue. I'm not super excited for it since this appears to be mostly the same as the Ds game and we've already seen that (plus New Super Mario Bros wasn't my favorite iteration of the series). Also why are the 3rd and 4th players both Toads? Why not Wario or Waluigi? Oh well, its Mario...I'm gonna buy it...and the co-op better be online.
Wii Sports Resorts: Really...they showed us all this game really had to offer last year, but at least it looks a bit more like full game now....Still not gonna buy it though.
Kingdom Hearts Ds: We've known about this game for a while and the press conference didn't tell us anything more than a release date (Sept. 29). I love the Kingdom Hearts series but Chain of Memories for the GBA kinda tainted my feelings for Handheld iterations of the series. But at this one isn't card based so I'll probably buy this when it releases in Sept.
Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story: Another Ds game that we've known about for quite some time as the game has been out in Japan since February. I love the Mario & Luigi rpg games but I don't really have anything to say about this game other than it's release date which was an unannounced date in the fall...why? All they really had to do with the game was localization and Nintendo doesn't really have anything for the summer...so why wait til the fall?
Golden Sun Ds: A nice surprise announcement. The Golden Sun games on the GBA were wonderful and it was a little confusing as to why the series was absent from the DS. Well it's here now and although we were not given a date, it looks nice.
Mario Vs Donkey Kong: Minis March Again: Wow
more Mario stuff...I didn't care for Mario vs Donkey Kong 2. It's lemmings-like gameplay was too much of a departure for me. The one thing was cool about that game was the custom level builder which Minis March Again basically is. It's a downloadable game for the DSI which I don't have and even if I did I probably wouldn't buy it.The Legend Of Zelda: Spirit Tracks: They didn't say anything about this game other than "it's good" which wasn't enough for me. I didn't care too much for Phantom Hourglass, the last DS Zelda game, and this looks pretty similar, just with trains instead of a boat. I'm sure it will be good and it will sell well. I'll check it out...but most likely not at launch.
Super Mario Galaxy 2: Wow..just wow. It was pretty much confirmed beforehand that would be a new 3d Mario title on the Wii and here it is. I was hoping that it wouldn't be another Galaxy...but who cares, the first Mario Galaxy is in my opinion one of the best games of this console generation and this seems to just be an extension of that which is fine by me. It also appears to harder than the first one which would address my only real complain against the original. Oh...and Yoshi is the game...which makes things 10 times better. The game will release in 2010...hopefully in the summer.
Metroid Other M: A new Metroid game developed by Team Ninja of all people. It's a nice change of pace from the Prime series and it'll be nice to see this as a sort of what could have been if Metroid Prime had been taken in another direction. It won't come out till next year along with Galaxy 2 so at least there are 2 big games to look forward to next year..finally.
So all in all, Nintendo did pretty well. At least they have actual games coming out this year.
Monday, June 1, 2009
E3 09: Mircosoft Impressions
Wow...is it that time of year already? E3 is upon us again and like last year I'm going to give you my impressions of the keynotes. Microsoft kicked things off like they always have these past few years. To me personally, I felt their showings of core games didn't appeal to me as much as last year, but I still enjoyed their offerings and can't wait for some of these games.
The Beatles Rock Band: Like last year, a long amount of time is spent talking about what is basically an expansion pack to game that's not worth spending too much time yapping about. I do like the Beatles and it was pretty awesome that Ringo and Peter were there in person to promote the game. Oh yeah and Yoko Ono was there.....
Modern Warfare 2: I don't like war games, but I've heard how Call of Duty 4 was different...although it didn't look different enough from what came before for me to give it shot. Although this follow-up game doesn't look much better either..it did manage to make me want to run out rent the 1st Modern Warfare...so I guess that's something.
Shadow Complex: An Xbox Live Arcade game coming from Epic Games. Cliff Bleszinski said that it would mix elements from titles such as Contra and Super Metroid which sounds good to me, And I'm not too sure but I think they said it was releasing over the summer, which sounds even better to me.
Crackdown 2: I love Crackdown! Everyone was bummed last year when it was stated that there wouldn't be a follow-up to awesome game Crackdown, but it looks like they changed their minds and to me, this was the biggest surprise announcement in the show. While the art style in the trailer was similar to first game, it also seemed a tad more realistic, which added to the shock that this was a Crackgame game. Sadly no release time frame was given.
Left 4 Dead 2: Too Soon... Not Another Zombie Game... Those were the only things going through my mind while this trailer was going.
Splinter Cell Conviction: The Splinter Cell series has fallen in recent years and it seems that Conviction is banking on bringing the series back to prominence. I haven't played the series since Chaos Theory on the Gamecube. The Graphics look amazing and the gameplay seems to be fast paced which would solve what I feel to be the sole problem with the series.
Halo ODST & Reach: I've always been thankful for what the Halo Series has done for first person shooters on home consoles...that doesn't I like the games. I feel the series has never deserved the amount of attention it gets and these games aren't changing my opinion of them. ODST is a prequel to Halo 3 and apart from it's admittedly interesting story telling approach, the game doesn't really seem to be an improvement on Halo 3. The games' developers, Bungie, also revealed that Halo: Reach was the secret game they had in development, dashing hopes that were working on a new IP.
Metal Gear Solid Rising: Rumors of MGS4 popping up on the 360 has been around since before E3 08. What no-one could have predicted was that a whole new Metal Gear would appear on the console. MGS Rising stars Radien instead of Solid Snake and may not be a system exclusive. This game does however open the doors for all of the previous games to be made available on the 360. Personally I think I'd stick with Sony for my Metal Gear...if I ever get a PS3.
Project Natal: This is Microsoft's big answer to the Nintendo Wii and it's pretty damn interesting. It's basically a motion and voice sensing peripheral that will allow you to simulate handling a steering wheel, navigate the 360 dashboard, control a kung-fu fighter, dress an on-screen avatar and so much more. Peter Molyneux's Milo project (which isn't a game, just something he's be using Project Natal to tinker with) was amazing, if not kinda creepy. I doubt I'd personally have much use for Project Natal but I'll admit that I'm excited to try this thing out.
Overall Microsoft gave a solid showing and a few legit surprises. This should be another great year for the 360.
The Beatles Rock Band: Like last year, a long amount of time is spent talking about what is basically an expansion pack to game that's not worth spending too much time yapping about. I do like the Beatles and it was pretty awesome that Ringo and Peter were there in person to promote the game. Oh yeah and Yoko Ono was there.....
Modern Warfare 2: I don't like war games, but I've heard how Call of Duty 4 was different...although it didn't look different enough from what came before for me to give it shot. Although this follow-up game doesn't look much better either..it did manage to make me want to run out rent the 1st Modern Warfare...so I guess that's something.
Shadow Complex: An Xbox Live Arcade game coming from Epic Games. Cliff Bleszinski said that it would mix elements from titles such as Contra and Super Metroid which sounds good to me, And I'm not too sure but I think they said it was releasing over the summer, which sounds even better to me.
Crackdown 2: I love Crackdown! Everyone was bummed last year when it was stated that there wouldn't be a follow-up to awesome game Crackdown, but it looks like they changed their minds and to me, this was the biggest surprise announcement in the show. While the art style in the trailer was similar to first game, it also seemed a tad more realistic, which added to the shock that this was a Crackgame game. Sadly no release time frame was given.
Left 4 Dead 2: Too Soon... Not Another Zombie Game... Those were the only things going through my mind while this trailer was going.
Splinter Cell Conviction: The Splinter Cell series has fallen in recent years and it seems that Conviction is banking on bringing the series back to prominence. I haven't played the series since Chaos Theory on the Gamecube. The Graphics look amazing and the gameplay seems to be fast paced which would solve what I feel to be the sole problem with the series.
Halo ODST & Reach: I've always been thankful for what the Halo Series has done for first person shooters on home consoles...that doesn't I like the games. I feel the series has never deserved the amount of attention it gets and these games aren't changing my opinion of them. ODST is a prequel to Halo 3 and apart from it's admittedly interesting story telling approach, the game doesn't really seem to be an improvement on Halo 3. The games' developers, Bungie, also revealed that Halo: Reach was the secret game they had in development, dashing hopes that were working on a new IP.
Metal Gear Solid Rising: Rumors of MGS4 popping up on the 360 has been around since before E3 08. What no-one could have predicted was that a whole new Metal Gear would appear on the console. MGS Rising stars Radien instead of Solid Snake and may not be a system exclusive. This game does however open the doors for all of the previous games to be made available on the 360. Personally I think I'd stick with Sony for my Metal Gear...if I ever get a PS3.
Project Natal: This is Microsoft's big answer to the Nintendo Wii and it's pretty damn interesting. It's basically a motion and voice sensing peripheral that will allow you to simulate handling a steering wheel, navigate the 360 dashboard, control a kung-fu fighter, dress an on-screen avatar and so much more. Peter Molyneux's Milo project (which isn't a game, just something he's be using Project Natal to tinker with) was amazing, if not kinda creepy. I doubt I'd personally have much use for Project Natal but I'll admit that I'm excited to try this thing out.
Overall Microsoft gave a solid showing and a few legit surprises. This should be another great year for the 360.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Sonic and the Black Knight (review)
Sonic and the Black Knight is the 2nd game in the pitifully named "Sonic Storybook Series" following from 2007's Sonic and the Secret Rings. I remember enjoying Secret Rings on my first playthrough, it was the first 3D Sonic title to focus solely on Sonic and his trademark speed. As time went on, the game's flaws became more apparent, but I still noted the game to be a step in the right direction. Sonic and the Black Knight decides that instead of simply improving on Secret Rings' flaws, it will give us a sword-swinging mechanic that proves to be fairly entertaining, while keeping some problems of the previous game.The sword play is manageable, despite being executed in a second rate manner. The swordplay is simplistic and there are not a lot of advanced swordplay techniques added in. You'll mostly be doing the exact same move over and over again to defeat the numerous enemies that lie in front of you, most notably the buzz saw move. Whichever way you swing the remote results in the exact same attack patterns with 2 results: you'll either send Sonic spinning forward killing everything(awesome) or you'll just pull him to a dead stop and get jumped by an enemy (Lame).
The missions you play through are short and unlike Secret Rings, seem to have some remote plot purpose. The thing that really bugs me is the ranking system. Like every other Sonic game since Adventure, Black Knight rates you on performance. The problem is that the game doesn't tell you what you need to do to get 5 star rating resulting in 2 to 3 star ratings even when you defeat every enemy and finish the stage in record time. The only exceptions to this are boss stages where 5 stars are rewarded for not taking damage. This mis-communication transfers over into other areas of the game: mostly the QTEs in the boss battles.
The game is split into 2 parts: Sonic vs the Black Knight and a follow-up part that I won't spoil here. The second half of the game is more interesting than the first and the game itself seems to think so as well since it feels like more a lot more work went into it. The overall game won't take more than 4 to 5 hours which is kind of a blessing because the premise, while fun, runs thin by the end.
The game presents itself well. The graphics are top Wii fare, the opening in particular is a thing of beauty. The animatic like cutscenes are a tad more lively than Secret Rings and are wonderful to watch. Sega also seems to finally understand how their characters should act. Sonic's style and quirks captured almost perfectly. It's wonderful seeing Sonic act this. His remarks and jokes are well done as there are some humorous arguments between Sonic and Caliburn, and the cast really shine throughout the dialogue.
I'm glad I rented Sonic and the Black Knight, the game is too short for a $50 dollar purchase. That said this game is much better than Sonic and Secret Rings. The controls are slightly improved and I enjoyed the small bits of fan service (like the use of Sonic Adventure 1 & 2 theme songs). Sonic games always seems to suffer from rushed developments and that hasn't changed here. If Sega had really put some extra effort into this game, it really could have been some special, but as it stands, Sonic and the Black Knight is just another average outing for the hedgehog.
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