Above the Sea and Fog But Still Perpetually Obscured.

Well, the last day of E3 has passed and as per usual, nothing spectacular is announced, although a few things have piqued my interest.

• Gray Matter. I actually have a post about this scheduled to be published in a day or so, so this E3 appearance is a little weird.  Basically, I’m thrilled that it will actually, finally, see the light of day. In PC and Xbox 360 versions anyway.
• El Shaddai. This looks rather interesting.  A small game with two gigantic names attached to it. Definitely something to look out for.

Well, that’s about it for this years E3.  The things I haven’t mentioned are most likely because they were announced prior to E3.

Some of my opinions have changed since day 1.  I’m now thinking that Kinect is actually going to be pretty damn excellent after seeing Kinectimals and Kinect Adventures in more detail.  EA Sports Active 2 helps sell the Kinect as well.  Child Of Eden almost sells the entire concept to me.

Crysis 2 actually looks amazing compared to the first one and I’m actually looking forward to getting. Not looking forward to seeing if my new graphics card fails on it though.

Bulletstorm no longer as amazingly fun. Not sure why, just seems to have lost some of its fun I guess.

Gears Of War 3. With Ice-T. Shall I get it? We’ll see. (SEE WHAT I DID THAR)

Need For Speed: Pursuit. Well, I change my mind about that. That looks so insanely fun.

I’m still sceptical about the 3DS with it’s 3D-ness but the ability to turn it off altogether is a brilliant idea.

One thing I really regret missing is the announcement of Relic’s new Warhammer 40K game, Space Marine. It looks phenomenal and I’ve been waiting for a decent Warhammer 40K FPS for a while now.

Favourite Xbox Title: Halo: Reach. Please make Halo good again!

Favourite Kinect Title: Child Of Eden. Trippier than Rez, possibly even more fun.

Favourite PC Title: Star Wars: The Old Republic. Star Wars + MMO + Bioware = Win..?

Favourite PS3 Title: Twisted Metal. Oh car combat, how I’ve missed you.

Favourite Wii Title: Zelda: The Skyward Sword. Impressionistic inspired, full motion Zelda. Cannot.wait.

Favourite DS/3DS Title: Star Fox 64. *insert joke about barrel rolls*

Favourite Gadget: Nintendo 3DS. Maybe it will prove that 3D can work. On a small format.

Favourite Trailer: Star Wars: The Old Republic. Epic trailer! Again posted below!

Best Announcement: Portal 2. Suprise Gabe!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my slightly short E3 updates. Bite-sized information never hurt anyone. Well, until it bites someone.

I’ll be back writing on Gamepron.com soon. That is after exams finish.  If you want to read any of my other E3 posts, they are handily linked below! HAZZAR!

E3 Day 1: Recap and Opinions

E3 Day 2: Recap and Opinions

E3 Day 3: Recap and Opinions

E3: Gadget Prices

Well, as with every E3, new gadgets are announced and along with them usually come hefty price tags.  So, I’m going to do a quick round up of these in $AU.

Xbox 360 S

Xbox 360 Slim Edition

Well, this price was announced shortly after the console was.  At $450, it’s a bit steep but those in the market for a new Xbox 360 (I have a late-06 model, bound to RROD at anytime) it seems sort of worthwhile. The best thing about the S though is it’s apparent “whisper quietness”, which would be a god-send!

Microsoft Kinect for Xbox 360.

Microsoft Kinect for Xbox 360

No official price yet but retailers have been throwing numbers around willy-nilly.  If this $198 is true, it may be seldom purchased.  But then again, it could be worth every damn cent.  I think heavy testing before purchasing is in order.

Sony Move Motion & Navigation Controllers

PlayStation Move Navigation Controller

PlayStation Move Motion Controller

These prices were officially announced but EBGames hasn’t seemed to realised that yet.  The Move Motion controller is a must at $68, but with todays announcement that you can use a Dualshock 3 controller instead of the Navigation controller may just be enough to save everyone $50.  Well, at least until hold the DS3 in one hand becomes uncomfortable.  There are accessories such as charging station and gun holder but they don’t have prices yet.  They are also entirely optional.

Nintendo 3DS

Nintendo 3DS.

My god are Nintendo being quiet about this.  The model’s that have been displayed have all been (apparently) prototypes and so, no solid information apart from screen size and buttons has been announced. But if EBGames is to be beleived, we all may be shelling out $350 for it, hopefully before 2012.

Well, that’s all the major gadgets displayed at E3!  Now for the total cost!
$1116 for everything. Well, better start saving even harder!

Not so much to go through today, but Konami had their press conference, so I’ll start there.

• Saw II.  Another Saw game. Not great.
• DefJam Rapstar. *yawn*
• Lucha Fury. HILARIOUS! But also really cheesy and doesn’t look that great.
• Ninety-Nine Nights II. Apparently it’s now harder than the first one, which was really hard already.
• OTomedius Excellent. Side scrolling shooter. Dull but colourful.
• Adrenaline Misfits. A boarding game for Kinect. Could be interesting…?
• Dance Masters. DDR creators game for connect. If it has a similar soundtrack to all the DDR games, then it could be awesome.
• Glee Karaoke Revolution. A Glee game already? Pass.
• Beyblade. HA. It still exists. Pass again.
• Sports Island Freedom.  Interesting. Need to see more from it. Might just be annoying.
• Lost In Shadow.  New Hudson platformer. Looks great. Pity its a Wii only.
• Silent Hill 8! Yay! More! Maybe I should actually play one of them first…Still, looks awesome.
• NeverDead. A brilliant idea. Probably going to be ultra-violent! Always a good thing!
• Castlevania. Harmony Of Despair and Lords Of Shadow.  Both look awesome. The latter features Patrick Stewart and Robert Carlyle

A few cool games, many not so great.  Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow looks awesome!

Other stuff that happened.

• New Dragon Age DLC. Cool, could always use more stuff!
• Swarm. Its looks hilarious. You know, in an actually hilarious way. Can’t wait to see more.

Not too much…

Nintendo

• Zelda: The Skywayd Sword. YAY! Proper Wii Zelda. Looks awesome as well.
• Mario Sports Mix. Mario Volleyball could be ok…otherwise maybe a miss.
• Wii Party. Mario Party but with Miis. Awesome. Always need an excuse to buy another Mario Party.
• Just Dance. *snores*
• Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. Awesome!
• Goldeneye 007. :O:O:O:O Original remade for this generation with Daniel Craig bond.  4 player split screen, classic modes. AWESOME!
• Epic Mickey. Dark action platformer. Involves Steamboat Mickey. Could be excellent, could be disastrous.
• Kirby’s Epic Yarn. Long time since a Kirby console game. It’s so painfully cute.
• Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies. Cool!
• Metroid: Other M. Kinda sick of Metroid games now…
• Donkey Kong Country Returns! Return of the hairy king! Same style as SNES DK games but in realtime 3D. Could be cool.
• 3DS. Need to use it in person otherwise, not that interested in another DS.
• Kid Icarus: Uprising. OA*SGDLIUGSDL(&ASDUGL: YAY!
• Nintendogs & Cats. Finally, Nintendo realise we want cats!
• Massive list of games for 3DS. Damn I might have to get one.

Nintendo killed with their conference. Zelda, Kid Icarus, Kirby and most of all Goldeneye. WIN!  The 3DS is gradually winning me over with its awesome titles!

Sony

• Move. Well, we already know about that. Looks good. Nice price too ($US49.99) but you have to get a PS3 eye as well.
• Tiger Woods golf game again. Seriously, enough of him now! And golf!
• Heroes On The Move. All the Playstation mascots, in one game. Could be fun…
• Time Crisis: Raging Storm. YAY! It’s been a while since Time Crisis. Always fun.  Looks awesome.
• Heaps of games with Move compatibility soon.
• PSP games. Won’t mention that. Don’t plan on getting a PSP.
• Parasite Eve: 3rd Birthday. Always gotta love Parasite Eve games!
• LittleBigPlanet2. Didn’t really care for the first one, so not interested in this one either.
• PSN Subscription stuff. $50 for a year with lots of stuff. Need more info first.
• Medal Of Honor. PS3 version comes with HD remaster of Medal Of Honor: Frontline. Awesome!
• PORTAL 2. YAY! ’nuff said.
• Mafia II and AC:B exclusive stuff for PS3. Always a bonus.
• Gran Turismo 5. Its been long enough. Looks awesome. Shall be released Nov 2. YAY!
• Infamous 2. Maybe not as boring as the first one.
• Twisted Metal. :O Look sfun and great, as usual. David Jaffe has spent the last few weeks saying this wasn’t happening. Smarmy bastard!

Sony kicked more arse this year. Portal 2, Parasite Eve, GT5 and new Twisted Metal. Awesome!

Another thing that was announced outside of press conferences was the new Warhammer 40K MMO: Dark Millenium being handled by Darksiders studio, Vigil Games. Looks pretty cool.

It’s that wonderful time of year again! Here are my quick opinions on day 1 of E3.  I’ve put in videos for my favourite titles from each company.  There will be another post tomorrow of course!

Microsoft

• Natal is Kinect. Kinect is Natal. Cool idea, looks like it works in practice, just the price tag will be the deciding factor.
• Call of Duty: Black Ops. *yawns* Garbage…
• Metal Gear Rising. Raiden goodness! Looks awesome.
• Fable III. Looks more enjoyable than Fable II.
• Halo: Reach. More sodding Halo. But space combat included this time!
• New ‘slim’ Xbox 360 at $AU450. Built in wifi-N, 250GB HDD.  Maybe when I get the spare cash I’ll get one. This 2006 model is bound to RROD sometime soon.
• Gears Of War 3. Wow, its Gears Of War again! *sarcasm* Although, new enemies and chicks with guns!
• The Kinect games collection. Has some good ideas. But mostly would need to be experienced to be deemed worthwhile.
• A lot of stuff people that don’t live in the USA will get. Still want Netflix….

Overall, the Microsoft stuff was predictable, except for the slim 360, but its nice to see that Kinect actually works.

EA

• Crysis 2. On PC, PS3 and Xbox360! In 3D! Looks more enjoyable than the first one. 3D is always an unwelcome addition now.
• More Need For Speed. Bit over it nowadays!
• Dead Space 2. :O But I really should finish the first one before this comes out.
• Medal Of Honor. Looks damn amazing. Damn damn amazing. Putting the CoD series to shame! 24 person multiplayer! Gazooonga! The EA Gun Club……Ummm.
• EA Sports stuff. It’s EA Sports, same as usual.
• Sims 3. On consoles now! Not much to say there.
• Bulletstorm. ‘Bout damn time. Looks amazing and just as fun as Painkiller. Feb 2011 release date? Bit too far away.
• Star Wars: The Old Republic. Holy.fucking.win! Everyone gets a starship amongst other awesome things. Trailer features chick Jedi kicking some serious Sith arse. WINWINWINWINWIN!

Yeah, that was good pretty awesome.  That TOR trailer is just amazing.

Ubisoft

• Child Of Eden. I love Rez and this looks awesome. Maybe a reason to get Kinect.
• Joel McHale! The only decent thing during the whole press conference.
• Assassins Creed: Brotherhood.  Direct sequel to Assassins Creed II. Looks pretty cool. Trailer is awesome!
• Shaun White somethingBoarding. Bleh.
• Physical laser tag. Yep, its a real laser tag gun and you play outside…or inside..or wherever. Could be fun…several years ago.
• Innergy. Strange and pointless.
• Kinect stuff. Fitness stuff. Sport stuff. Eh.
• Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. Looks pretty cool. Joel McHale made some hilarious comments during the demo.
• Driver. Yay, Driver is back and actually worth playing since the first one. This time, Tanner is in a coma the whole time….
• Rayman. Usual Ubisoft fluff.
• Maniaplanet. Trackmania and two other -mania’s rolled into one. Could be fun…
• Michael Jackson dancing game. Ewwwwww

Assassins Creed: Brotherhood, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier and Driver 5 look pretty awesome. Everything else, not so awesome.