Project Lore At E3 2009
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iTZKooPA on Wednesday, June 3, 2009 - 10 Comments Tags: E3, activision, activision blizzard, all points bulletin, crimecraft, dj hero, e3 2009, e3 2009 coverage, e3 announcements, final fantasy, mario, microsoft, nintendo, resident evil, sin and punishment 2, sony, zelda
iTZKooPA on Wednesday, June 3, 2009 - 10 Comments Tags: E3, activision, activision blizzard, all points bulletin, crimecraft, dj hero, e3 2009, e3 2009 coverage, e3 announcements, final fantasy, mario, microsoft, nintendo, resident evil, sin and punishment 2, sony, zelda 
Activision's DJ Hero Demo With DJ ShadowThanks to the wild success of BlizzCon our favorite MMO developer has little cause to attend E3 these days. Who could blame them? They have thousands, upon thousands of people attempting to get tickets to the company's gathering in August. With a guaranteed captive audience, why bother paying the ECA for a booth? There are also numerous other benefits, including setting the rules, relatively unlimited physical space, and, this is the big one, complete and total coverage from the video game journalists and mainstream press of Blizzard's material. Blizzard isn't here in Los Angeles, but we can't simply ignore the return of the biggest video game convention in the world. So here I am and here. We. Go.
I'll be realistic, although I am covering the show as a freelance writer for a site, there's simply no way I can compete with the budgets behind the likes of 1UP.com. Just go there for your day-to-day, press-to-press, announcement-to-announcement coverage. Instead of trying to speedbag alongside million dollar budgets, I'll play to my strengths by dissecting upcoming titles and analyzing incoming information.
Rundown of my favorite announcements:
- Nintendo announces Super Mario Galaxy 2, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, New Wii Zelda, Metroid: Other M and Golden Sun DS. To be honest, SMG2's announcement scares me more than excites me. I am a huge fan of the original title, the diverse gravity gameplay is stunning, but feel that a direct sequel could be diluted fun, the likes of Mario Sunshine to Mario 64. Sure Miyamoto and friends can do a lot more with gravity, but will it feel fresh like most of the other Mario platformers ? New Super Mario Bros. for the DS was a stunning return to the series' original 8-bit gameplay. With added drop-in co-op for four players and Mario vs. Donkey Kong-style puzzle solving, how could an oldschooler like myself not be excited? Metroid and Zelda announcements are all well and good, but the Golden Sun DS announcement, that will bring the best RPG series I've played in a decade to a trilogy, had me covering my notepad in exclamation points.
Microsoft's Project Natal Hardware
Microsoft's Project Natal and the extension of Xbox Live to a games on demand service. As it stands now, Project Natal is the biggest announcement of the show. I don't play the whole "who won E3" game, but its too innovative to ignore. Let's just hope it plays as good as the presentation makes it sound (remember how awesome the Wii Remote sounded so many E3's ago?). Full digital distribution coming the Xbox 360 eh? Well that will certainly piss off the retail chains. Left 4 Dead 2 seems kinda quick.- Sony stuck alongside Microsoft in following Nintendo's example with a motion controller. In addition to that we have the PSP Go! and a little diddy called Final Fantasy XIV. The motion controller didn't come off as, well, trumped up as Microsoft's. What I mean is that Sony's promises seem more realistic than Microsoft's, but again we should take the wait-and-see approach on both technologies. PSP Go! is an entire platform that will piss off the retail chain since all of its content will be digital (no UMD drive). As a collector of video games this decision upsets me, so I doubt I, or any retail chains who won't see substantial income from selling it, will be supporting the first sliding handheld. Square-Enix returning to the MMORPG genre with FFXIV was a bit of a shock to me. The company promises a multi-lingual worldwide release across the "exclusive" PS3, and, oh yea, that PC thing. I wonder if they will stick to the hardcore guns ofFFXI , or casual it up in an attempt to suck away WoW players. DC Universe Online, a title we've discussed before, still seems interesting even though it remains in pre-alpha. The same state it was in at the New York Comic Con.
- Activision, the other Blizzard meat, did impress the hell out of me with DJ Hero. The whole rhythm genre felt incredibly stale to me after Rock Band, but the scratching game blew me away with a multiplayer mode that would blend songs together (vocals for one overlayed on the music for the other) for a very interesting, and club-tastic, mash-up. Still, I think the general gameplay will get stale quickly, but that doesn't mean it won't sell like Wiis.
Muramasa: The Demon BladeHands-on:
- Muramasa: The Demon Blade plays like a revamped, stylized Double Dragon. Too bad it doesn't have co-op.
- Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, also known as Marvel vs. Capcom 3 with old school anime characters, looks beautiful and plays awesome on the Hori's Wii arcade stick.
- Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles rehashes Resident Evil 2 in an on-rails shooter title for the Wii. The gameplay seems very slow for a shooter, with a good amount of downtime, I literally put the gun down, that is meant to build old school Resident Evil suspense. I enjoyed Umbrella Chronicles, but Darkside didn't impress.
- Sin and Punishment 2 brings back Space Harrier gameplay and is developed by no less than the excellent Treasure.
That was all I got to cover on Day 1 of E3 2009, which just so happens to be my first E3. There are numerous other MMORPGs on the show floor (A.P.B.,CrimeCraft ) that I will try to get my hands on. Especially after hearing about some awesome mechanics in All Points Bulletin from the guys at TheGameReviews.com (another place I digitally pen for).
What's excited you the most?
*Note* I did not get to the EA, Sega or THQ booths.
Reader Comments (10)
I remember being quite entertained by Golden Sun when it came out as the first (or one of) for the then-new GameBoy Advanced. I was also pleased with the story's direct continuation into a second game, rather than just cramming everything into one. I've been waiting ever since 2003 for there to be a third one in the series, but kept getting yo-yo'ed along as there were hoaxes, pseudo-announcements, and whatnot.
Now that there's a firm announcement from Nintendo, I am quite excited to see how it'll work out. :D
GOLDEN SUN BABY!!!!
Fail E3 is fail, imo.
Very disappointed from what I've heard this year.
Left4Dead2 looks fun though.
Final Fantasy XIV might be the only thing to pull me off of the WoW bandwagon. Just kidding! Just kidding!
But I did play FFXI before I started playing Warcraft, and despite absolutely loving the world and some of the mechanics, I never could get myself back into it.
Still, a fresh, new start is exactly what the MMO series needs and FFXIV seems to deliver just that. Square-Enix's conference today confirmed that it is a completely different world although the races will look very similar to their old counterparts, and that they've learned a lot about the genre (including allowing people the ability to solo).
The producers maintained that although they are aiming to pull in more casuals a la WoW this time, that they really want to implement some unique new systems to keep the gameplay distinct.
As a retail employee for a major retail chain (I won't NameDrop, but you get the idea) I wouldn't be concerned about this PSPGo! or Microsoft's Direct Download of full games. Downloading takes time based on the connection strength of your local internet when you go to load and the most common gamer still attends brick-and-mortar stores for their gaming needs. It would be odd for the developers to cast aside a financial ally. I suppose time will tell and while NetFlix sure did bite into Blockbuster's base, the retail chain adapted to encompass the internet market, and there's still people who'd rather go into a store to get their movies (or in our case, games)
@ amidaman GOLDEN SUN IS WIN!!!!
Gives me a reason to get a ds ^_^ and also cant wait for that and I dont care about who won E3 thing because it doesnt matter on my opinion.
But overall it was a slight improvement from the last E3.
OMFREAKINGG finally!! A new Golden Sun game!!!!
Edit: Lots of squees and thanks being sent up while surrounded by light and the sound of heavenly choirs was here.
I refuse to buy a DSi purely because you can't play Golden Sun 1&2 on it (well that and the GBA advance wars games ^^). Those games are so full of win I defy anyone to play for more than 5 minutes not to be instantly captivated.
FFXIV I might check out as I love the FF franchise, but I never got to play FFXI. That and I haven't owned a Playstation since my PS2 went to the great media room in the sky 5 years ago so all the other titles since FFX have passed me by as well. Plus it'll be intresting to get into a new mmo before it's been fully established. Might distract me from WoW for a month or so methinks.
"but the Golden Sun DS announcement, that will bring the best RPG series I’ve played in a decade to a trilogy, had me covering my notepad in exclamation points"
OMG I'm still obsessed with Golden Sun, BEST RPG EVER INVENTED. Hand. Freaking. Down. I can't wait. /hold breathe
Unless I misunderstood you, you can play gba games on a DS.
The DSi does not have a GBA port, so it cannot play GBA games. Therefore you can't play the original Golden Suns on it. That is why Dyra is saying the DSi won't be purchased by him/her.
The previous two DSs, DS Lite and the original, CAN play GBA games.