Wishlist: Kinect Games

So we've seen the new things from E3, and there were three major pieces of hardware unveiled - Microsoft's Kinect, Nintendo's 3DS, and Sony's Playstation Move. I've been a huge fan since Natal was announced the year before, and Milo was really interesting to me, and seems like a friend that won't talk shit about you behind your back or create rumors to make you look bad to the rest of your friends. So I am obviously looking forward to Kinect the most. So here's a few ideas I've been coming up with that we may not have seen too much of that Kinect could make even more fun.


1. Katamari Damacy Kinect
Several people said they'd love to see this on the Wii, and I'm sure the idea will come up again with the Move. But to stand and actually curve your hands and make the rolling motions with Kinect could be a lot more fun. In turn, as you change your motions, which the camera would better distinguish than with the Wii Remote or Move controller, you could turn easily, or slam your hands forward to send a charge dash forward. Jumping could cause the Prince to either perform the 360 jump to face the other direction, or could even enable a jump feature. Kinect could change how the quirky series is done, and make it new again.

2. Real Time Strategy Games
RTS games do NOT work on consoles. And when it's tried, it either fails, or is changed so much that it can't even relate to a PC counterpart. Even if it works, or if it's even good, the genre on console is so despised that it's rarely given a chance. With Kinect, though, you could drag a single finger over an area to select multiple units, and use your entire hand to move the map. The mic could pick up your command of "Attack!", and then you could point at the opposing target or targets. Even if it's a long shot, it can't be any worse than how the genre looks now.

3. Microgames Collection
While "Microgames" would likely NOT be in a Microsoft title, the idea is still very neat. It could work like the Survival mode in WarioWare: Smooth Moves - several players take turns playing out mini-games that only last a few seconds. And it can't be made by some chump company! That's why all the other Mario Party and WarioWare style knock-off games fail and die off.

4. Music Games (Not Dance)
No, I do not wanna play Rock Band without the instruments, and no, I do not want another Wii Music. But Sony (and likely Nintendo) have this huge anti-Kinect thought process of "air gaming is stupid." Honestly, if I want to play a game like Donkey Konga and want my friends to play, I should've have to shell out $30 per person for the peripherals. Donkey Konga was an additional $90 if you wanted to play with three of your friends. Sure, some games' peripherals make it fun (and honestly, I still don't know how I feel about driving games without a wheel), but I don't wanna pay for a bunch of peripherals for a game that my friends may or may not like.

5. Naruto
Also a long shot, this could be fun. Likely a "rail shooter" due to what may be limited movement with the Kinect camera (unless a running motion would allow you to move in the direction you were looking), the possibilities for a Kinect Naruto title are there. You can wave one hand over the other to form Naruto's Rasengan attack, or lower your hand to perform Sasuke's or Kakashi's Chidori/Lightning Blade attack. Also, you could actually learn the different hand symbols the characters perform to do your jutsu attacks as well. If done right, it could be a very good title.

6. Dodgeball
While it could work a lot like Ricochet (the famous Kinect demo using your body to deflect balls at a wall), a Dodgeball game would be an amazing use of the technology. Being able to control where you throw by where you're looking, or move about with little motions in your home, you could take a team of four or eight, or hell, even twelve, and pit them against another team for some crazy online dodgeball romp that won't destroy anything in the house. And when you're eliminated, perhaps you can sit on the sideline to cheer your team on, or even throw the ball at the other team from the sidelines to help.


That's just a few ideas I've come up with. What do you guys think? Let us know in the comment field below!

E3 Press Conferences: Sony

Several days later, I've finally got the time to sit down and give my imperssions on the Sony press conference. I wouldn't wanna leave the Sony fans out in the cold, as I am incredibly surprised at how well the Sony conference went in most areas.

The conference started out with three large screens strobing through PS3, PS2, and PSP consoles and game footage. A montage was shown, but was interrupted by a clip of the infamous Kevin Butler holding a Move controller and saying "Come on, who wants to pretend their hand is a gun? What is this, third grade?" A nice stab at the competition to start off with.

Jack Tretton hits the stage, saying Kevin Butler would not be co-hosting though it would be a cool idea. He mentions how PS3 is hitting its momentum, how its sales are improving. The PS3 is the only console with something for every member of the family. He mentions several exclusives in God of War, Socom, LittleBigPlanet, Uncharted, and Heavy Rain.

Kazuo Hirai hits the stage and mentions Sony will be going into the 3D bit. The PS3 will be the only console to straight up persue 3D. Several titles are already available in 3D, and 20 more will be released by March 2011.

A Killzone 3 demo is displayed next. The graphics are pretty amazing, though very dark and dull on color. Several men in what look like jetpacks fly around, pretty much beating the shit out of the player, but he manages to kill off the enemies. I'm sure the player character can't die in the demo, as he just took A ROCKET TO THE FACE AND KEPT ON TRUCKIN'. Killzone 3 also looks to have jetpack fighting as well, which looks kinda interesting. The player rigs an explosive on the base before jumping to the last part of the demo, which looks like the player only controls a gatling gun while on a helicopter or airship, destroying the enemy base. Killzone 3 will be fully compatible with PS Move at launch.

Kazuo hits the stage again to further hype up Killzone 3 and 3D gaming. He announces that Motor Storm Apocalypse, the Sly Collection, and Gran Turismo 5 will all be in 3D as well. He further mentions Crysis 2, Mortal Kombat, Shaun White Skateboarding, Tron Evolution, Ghost Recon Future Soldier, and NBA 2K11 will also be in 3D. He ONCE AGAIN mentions that The Fight: Lights Out, Eyepet, tumble, and MLB The Show will all use 3D AND PS Move. He tells the audience to put their glasses on and watch another 3D movie.

A new trailer shows a bunch of sports and movies, and then shows several Playstation accessories, like games, consoles, controllers, and more. It then shows game footage of the Motor Storm game, Mortal Kombat, Eyepet, and The Fight, among others. The Fight looks absolutely horrible, honestly... MLB The Show footage, footage of tumble, which looks like Boom Blox meets Jenga. The Sly Collection looks REALLY slow, so I'm hoping it's slowed down for the 3D movie.

Jack hits the stage again, talks about the 15 anniversary of Playstation, and the 10th anniversary of Playstation 2, mentioning they are continuing to create more PS2 games. He talks about gamers upgrading to the PS3 for online, movie, games, music, and so on. He then moves on to the Playstation Move, introducing Peter Dille to the stage.

Peter mentions that PS Move will hit up the casual gamers as well as the core gamers. He plays a trailer showing developer commentary on what they think of the new controller. Kevin Butler comes out, once again knocking the 360 and Kinect by mentioning the revolutionary inclusion of what the future calls "buttons," knocking the Ricochet demo Microsoft showed off for so long. After the video ends, they further knock the lack of buttons on Kinect.

Christian Busic hits the stage to show off Sorcery, a new game that looks like a Harry Potter knock-off for the PS Move. The generic looking boy holds his wand in relation to the player with the 1:1 motion, which is really nice. Flicking causes you to shoot your wand. The strength you flick affects the trajectory. You can use different spells as well as combine them, with selections like frost, whirlwind, fire, and mending. You can create walls of fire, and then send your whirlwind through it to cause a fire storm. It's incredibly well done, and looks pretty amazing. Even though the idea seems borrowed from the boy at Hogwarts and the character design is fairly dull, this looks like a Move game worth playing.

Next, a demo for Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 is shown. I'm literally not thrilled by this, because not only do I not care for sports game, but even less so for Tiger Woods. All I can really say about it is that it looks... like... it works...? The controller works for it. It's golf.

Peter hits the stage again, talking about key franchises for the Playstation, before introducing Heroes on the Move. The title includes Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Daxter, and Sly Cooper and Bently as playable characters in a new adventure game. It's neat, but an original non-Smash fighter probably would've been cooler to me.

Coca-Cola is apparently going to be a big sponser for PS3, and will highlight Playstation Move, and there will be that whole contest deal that companies do from time to time. As Jack talks it up, the crowd goes wild as Kevin Butler walks out. He takes over the stage with mass delight. He rips on 360 debuting Kinect at Cirque du Solei, before going on about "what really matters - the games." He says gaming is about having a ridiculously huge big screen tv in a one room apartment - staying up to 1AM winning a trophy that isn't real, but is - and as girls know the way through a man's heart is through a melee attack. He hypes up the crowd for gaming and the Move, and how it will appeal to everyone. He rips on Nintendo's Miis' lack of arms and necks. As he monologues, epic music plays behind him. Even though he rips on the competition, he goes on to say that fanboy allegiance shouldn't matter as long as everyone enjoys gaming. While epic, it's an incredible contradiction to his, and all of Sony's, bashing of the other companies.

The Playstation Move will be available in Europe on September 15, North America on September 19, and Japan on October 21. For anyone with a PS3 and PS Eye, the controller is $49.99, and the Navigation controller (Wii Nunchuck) is $29.99. A Playstation Move Bundle, which includes the Playstation Eye, the Playstation Move controller (no Navigation controller), and Sports Champions (PS3's Wii Sports), will be available for $99.99. The same bundle with a PS3 included is $399.99. First party Move titles will be $39.99. Socom, Time Crisis, NBA SK11, Ruse, Killzone 3, Singstar + Dance, Echochrome II, and Eyepet will all use Move. Toy Story 3, Tiger Woods 11, Heavy Rain, and Resident Evil 5 will all have updates to use the Move. A trailer is then shown with Move titles being shown.

Jack's back to talk about the PSP's new advertising campaign. Some annoying little kid comes in and talks shit to Kevin Butler about how chumps in ties can't sell the PSP well enough. Marcus rants "Step your game up" at the end of the commercials, and in a second commercial talks to a guy playing the new Metal Gear too much. He holds the PSP close to the screen, and you can tell the gameplay footage is shoddily added on. I don't like this Marcus kid, and he will NEVER be Kevin Butler.

Jack talks about Invizimals using a new PSP camera, and then God of War: Ghost of Sparta, showing a trailer of the prequel. Kratos' reflection can be seen in a sea before him. He pulls his swords from behind his back, which catch on fire, and that's pretty much it. New titles are mentioned, like Tron Evolution, Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, Toy Story 3, Ace Combat Joint Assault, The 3rd birthday, UFC Unleashed 2010, and the two games mentioned earlier. 70 new titles will be coming to PSP by December, and yet another trailer shows off the lineup.

Getting back to the conference, the Playstation Network is highlighted next. The PSN now has 50 million registered accounts worldwide, and had an orignal series called The Tester. The Tester Season 2 will air this fall. Playstation Network now has content from every major movie and television studio. Playstation Home also had a replication of the PS3 booth for anyone stuck at home.

LittleBigPlanet is the next topic, which leads into ModNation Racers info, and finally more information on LittleBigPlanet 2. LBP2 now goes further, allowing NPC characters to be added, new tools like grappling hooks, new filmmaking options, and ADDITIONAL GENRES!! You no longer have to be forced with the Platforming genre, the ability to use puzzle games, racing games, combat games, RPGs, and more. A few demos are shown off, like a button matching game, a bumper car game, and an arena game with low gravity and rockets. Video footage is shown of several game styles created by game developers in only 24 hours. Pretty interesting stuff.

Jack's on stage once more, talking about the PSN again. He announces a subscription package known as Playstation Plus, giving gamers exclusive content for $49.99, although he had once again just burned "competitors" for charging for online features. He mentions a free three-month trial, and in its first month it will have Wipeout HD, a trial for Infamous, two PS Minis - Field Runners and Age of Zombies, and the PS1 game Rally Cross. The additional content ranges from avatars to DLC levels and map packs, but you only own them for the duration of your subscription. Sounds a bit lame compared to XBox Live including everything for its subscription, and being able to keep the content after the subscription runs out.

Playstation 3 exclusives are mentioned, though not by title. They'll be getting exclusives on multi-platform titles. John Schappert walks out to talk about the exclusives EA will provide, such as Medal of Honor, only to introduce Greg Goodrich. How many people need to talk about this stuff? Medal of Honor should be deep and authentic modern war style action. A trailer is shown of gameplay footage. It looks good, but seriously, with new war games being released monthly it seems, it's hard to tell many of them apart. An ATV level in Medal of Honor looks pretty awesome. It's slated for release on October 10, 2010. A multiplayer trailer is shown afterwards. Looks neat, but to me it's still all the same. The beta hits June 21.

John Schappert is on the floor again to mention Medal of Honor will include a remastered edition of Medal of Honor: Frontline for free, as an exclusive for PS3. Steve Papoutsis is introduced to talk about Deep Space 2. He plays a demo, showing off just how amazing the Dead Space sequel is. The game practically looks like a movie, and looks pretty damn scary. The player is thrown around like a rag doll as he shoots at the large alien monster attacking him. He's thrown outside his space ship, bouncing around before shooting a tank to kill the large alien, ending the demo with the title. Dead Space 2 will get the Wii's Dead Space Extraction with Move support as an in-pack exclusive for PS3.

John leaves the stage, and Jack hits the stage again, talking about a developer that's been making great franchises for over a decade. Before he can announce who it is, the lights die, and a familiar voice rings in. "Stand by," says the voice of GLaDOS, "for an important announcement from the Aperture Science Emergency Surprise System. Deploying surprise in 3, 2, 1..." Valve's Gabe Newell comes out and admits he's said some nasty things about the current generation of consoles, so he's lucky he's not getting punched in the face. He announces Portal 2 will be coming to PS3, and that Steam will be part of the experience - he also says the PS3 version will be the best version on any console. He then reveals the Portal 2 trailer.

Aperture Sceince and GLaDOS looks overgrown with plants, and it appears as though the labs are being rebuilt. The music is actually really cool. There's new, cool puzzles for the gamer to solve, now, and the trailer ends with the logo, as well as a message from GLaDOS. "I think we can put our differences behind us. For science. ...You monster." We'll be getting it next year.

Jack Tretton announces Final Fantasy XIV and it's trailer. The graphics look amazing, the music is wonderful, the combat and effects look killer. The character models are nicely rendered and beautiful on the eyes. What's nice is the Amano logo artwork. Nicely done, Square Enix.

Mafia II will be out on August 24th with exclusive day one content for PS3. Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood will have an exclusive pack of missions for the PS3, and its multiplayer beta will be exclusive to the Playstation Network later this year. The multiplayer trailer looks pretty interesting, as several different assassin's sneak around and kill each other. It looks as though there's literally little to no reason for them to be killing each other, but I'm sure it'll be fun. It'll be out November 16, 2010.

Goddammit, another Sony made trailer showing off more soon-to-come titles. Many games are being repeated - Medal of Honor, Dead Space, Killzone 3, The Fight (which STIILL looks like shit), Eyepet, LittleBigPlanet 2, Motor Storm Apocalypse, Mortal Kombat, Sorcery, Sly Collection... There's a few new ones here and there, but it's a LOT of the same...

A Gran Turismo 5 trailer is shown. So much movie time... At least this one looks pretty neat. The levels look life-like. Suddenly, NASCAR is shown...? GT5 will include NASCAR segments now. OH SHIT, A TOP GEAR LEVEL?! There's the Top Gear Test Track, and even The Stig makes an appearance! Pretty fucking awesome. The levels look so intense!! I've never liked the Gran Turismo titles, but this looks amazing. We'll get more November 2, 2010.

Jack comes out to talk very little as YET ANOTHER TRAILER IS SHOWN. You know, it's honestly not so bad to see so much game footage, but more demos or announcements wouldn't be so bad, either... Next up is Infamous 2. A man running on rooftops and sneaking around is shown while what looks like a politician declares war on the man. He appears to now have power over ice, which is pretty awesome. The battles appear to be epic, ranging from demons to helicopters.

"One last surprise" is shown, a video of two cabbies debating on good car combat games. As one throws his cigar away, two clown shoes approach the cigar and sets his own hair on fire. Sweet Tooth is not only back, but he's brought a shitload of clown croanies with him for a new Twisted Metal. AN ICE CREAM TRUCK DRIVES OUT ON THE STAGE WITH SWEET TOOTH IN IT TO INTRODUCE TWISTED METAL!! Twisted Metal will be out 2011, and online deathmatch mode is shown. Helicopters and aerial combat will be new. The explosives are pretty nice, and things look pretty badass for the new title. On top of that is a new game mode for objective based team play, called Nuke. The teams must abduct the leader of the other team (normally a main character while the teams play as the new cronie/henchmen characters), as well as destroy part of the large statues of the leaders hanging above the city with nukes. It looks like a total blast.

Jack comes back out with a closing word, ending the final press conference for the consoles. All three conferences were a total blast to watch, but let's get down to the pros and cons of the Sony conference:


Excitements:
-Kevin Butler's comedic speech
-Gabe Newell's surprise appearance and Portal 2
-Twisted Metal

Letdowns:
-Several contradictions (we don't charge for internet/TRY OUR SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE! Only play Sony, but all gamers are winners.)
-Spokespersons would only be on stage for a sentence or two before calling out ANOTHER spokesperson or playing a trailer
-Several trailers just repeated the same games or clips.


All in all, it seems E3 was a success this year. There were plenty of third party titles that excited, and each console conference had a strong showing - Microsoft shed new light on Kinect, Sony showed off Move and unveiled many exclusives, and for once Nintendo didn't brag about sales numbers or stupid waggle titles and focused on the hardcore gamer. It's been a crazy, ass backwards week in the gaming world, and arguments will rise and fall over who won E3 between XBox 360's Kinect, Sony's Move, and Nintendo's actually good titles. While we are all truly winners, from the Rock Band party goers to the puzzle-loving Portal fans, feel free to vote for your favorite to the left.

E3 Press Conferences: Nintendo

So I wasn't here yesterday to work on the articles, and missed the original airing of Nintendo's press conference (which I rarely miss each year). So I caught the end of the conference and looked up a lot of information, so the Nintendo conference won't be as in depth as the Microsoft one, but I will go over what I've researched.

The conference begins with ol' Reggie Fils-Aime coming out with his badass haircut, and hypes up all gaming, including the ideas from Sony and Microsoft, only to say their technology is only a tool. It's kind of odd, considering not only did they start this whole motion control technology craze, but also release ridiculous amounts of hardware (I'm looking at you, Wii Pulse). This year, oddly enough, Nintendo is focused on "the experience."

The first trailer shown is the new Zelda, flashing back to each major console game's Link, before revealing the new title and a bit of gameplay for Zelda: Skyward Sword. The graphics are nice, and Paul has said it looks like a mixture of Twilight Princess and Wind Waker. Next, Shigeru Miyamoto comes out and explains a little about the game, before turning the game over to Nintendo's translater and representative.

After he fails a bit, Miyamoto himself comes out (in a fairly magical manner and with a mass applause) and shows off a lot of Zelda. While Miyamoto has trouble at times (at one point blaming it on wireless interference), the game's 1:1 with Wii MotionPlus is impressive, as are some of the items and their usage. Bombs can be set, thrown, or bowled, and the whip looks pretty badass. I've been out of the Zelda scene for a while, but this game certainly looks good enough to pick up. They said it should be coming out in 2011.

Reggie comes back out and talks about universal appeal, and talks about how sports games can bring that out. He mentions NBA Jam, but sadly shows nothing of it. Reggie announces Mario is doing more sports, and a new trailer is shown, starting with Mario and friends playing volleyball. After a few scenes, it shows the crew playing ice and beach hockey. Next appears to be a game of dodgeball, which looks fun, before changing to basketball, looking very much like Mario Hoops. The title is revealed as Mario Sports Mix, and will be out next year.

Reggie begins talking sales, how great the Wii has sold, how the games have sold, all the records broken, etc. He talks about Wii Sports, Wii Fit, Mario Kart Wii, New Super Mario Bros Wii... He introduces a new "bridge" title involving Miis. New game is Wii Party, looking like Mario Party without the Mario. It looks silly; perhaps boring. Could possibly be the next Wii Music, new first party shovelware.

The Nintendo president introduces us to a new trailer for Just Dance 2. I know a lot of people hated the first game, but even if it was dumb I kinda enjoyed it - I know it's not graphically impressive; hell, I know it's not good. But something about making an ass of yourself in front of friends is always entertaining (or rather, watching your friends making asses of themselves), so with new Dance Crew battle modes and the ability for 8 players to dance in their tiny ass living rooms, I can't say I'm excited, but I'm not disappointed or surprised.

The new Golden Sun game is now subtitled Dark Dawn, and a trailer shows off the beautiful 3D graphics of the title. The battle scenes look wonderful. I haven't played much of Golden Sun, though I have wanted to, so I can't say if it's a remake of the original like it was hinted at last year. The game will be out this holiday.

As Reggie mentions another "golden" game, a trailer for a new Goldeneye game begins. Looking like a remake of the N64 classic, it's a pleasant surprise for this November, exclusive to Wii. Multiplayer is back (though looks limited to only 8 playable characters), there's new voice acted scenes, and the gameplay looks downright awesome. It'll be out this November - so let's hope it doesn't disappoint.

Next, Reggie talks about Mickey Mouse, instantly alerting the crowd to Epic Mickey. Warren Specter is introduced to the stage to show off the game. Gameplay elements is shown off, showing Mickey in a world called Wasteland that involves rejected movies, cartoons, and theme park locales and rides. The art style looks interesting in the cutscenes, but is shown as a 3D title outside of the cutscenes. Mickey appears to constantly be "dripping", but is armed with a paintbrush and paint and paint thinner. Mickey can erase items and repaint them to make them look better. He'll be able to tear out sections of rock and walls to find items, and you can even erase enemies to defeat them, or paint them to become friends and allies. There's a lot that can be done. The demo then jumps to a Steamboat Willie scene, which is also very exciting and entertaining. Expect to see a lot of characters that have been forgotten when the game comes out exclusively for Wii.

Reggie talks about keeping classic franchises fresh. Reggie hints at a new Kirby game, which is totally awesome. After 7 years, Kirby will be able to star in his own game. While Reggie makes some silly ass cloth and yarn annalogies, the trailer is revealed as the title comes up - Kirby Epic Yarn. ...Wait, seriously? This isn't a joke? Yarn? Gameplay shows a yarn outline of Kirby, using yarn to whip at enemies and throw them, or to manipulate the background (which is made up of other clothing related items, like zippers and buttons). Wait, seriously?! Kirby no longer eats things to steal powers?! According to the trailer, which shows NO instance of Kirby doing what Kirby's KNOWN for doing, he instead uses a yarn whip like a pre-school Simon Belmont, and changes into shit without the use of stealing powers LIKE KIRBY DOES IN EVERY OTHER VIDEO GAME EVER. He randomly turns into cars and parachutes now? Why the fuck is he a surfing penguin or a UFO?! A two player co-op mode for this abomination looks possible. I've argued about this game since I saw the trailer, and sure, I can forgive the cutesy yarn art style. Hell, I can even forgive the horrendously shitty music. But the fact that Kirby no longer does what he's known for doing is a fucking joke. Hell, how about we make Mario wheelchair bound, and he has this new power to smell his enemies to death?! Yeah, that's good! Shit, why don't we make a Zelda game, where Link is a merchant, and all you do is sell shit and not rescue Zelda or save Hyrule or anything? That's a pretty new and clever idea! Fuck it, why even keep Donkey Kong a gorilla anymore?! This trailer is, in and of itself, the worst thing I've seen about E3 so far. And yeah, I saw the Just Dance 2 trailer earlier.

Dragon Quest IX is mentioned for its sales numbers in Japan. It's a Nintendo DS exclusive with 120 mini-quests, 300 monsters, over 900 items to customize your characters, and unlimited randomly generated treasure maps, the game can seek out other players to add new stuff to your game. It seems like a lengthy game, and will be out on July 11. Other than this, nothing else is mentioned.

Metroid Other M, out August 31, shows off a new trailer. The game looks very impressive, and looks to have 2D levels, 3D levels, and first person segments. Cool morph ball sections are shown, a Mega Man X style wall jumping sequence is played out, several puzzles and fights look fun, and even some epic boss fights are seen. It's revealed it will be a more emotional game than previous Metroid titles.

Retro Studios, who has worked on Metroid in the past, reveals it's new work, a new Donkey Kong game. Surprisingly, this game doesn't look like a pile of shit! It appears as though the apes known for their shitty Nintendo titles is finally getting a legit adventure game as the original Donkey Kong Country theme is played. After showing off several really cool scenes and gameplay actions, the title is revealed to be Donkey Kong Country Returns, and will be out this holiday.

Satoru Iwata hits the stage to reveal some information on the 3DS. OH SHIT, A KID ICARUS GAME!! KID ICARUS UPRISING!! The game looks pretty amazing, looking like it could be a Gamecube or Wii title on a handheld. The trailer shows off Pit's ability to fly, his third person shooter bow controls, his close quarters dual knife fights, and as the trailer ends with the title, the eggplant wizard is shown, as does eggplant Pit. Kid Icarus Uprising will be a 3DS exclusive.

3DS will have a sleep mode that will still connect with other 3DS systems and WiFi networks. Nintendogs + cats is revealed to be a 3DS title. A list of companies to work on 3DS titles is shown, including EA, Harmonix, Atlus, Activision, Sega, Konami, Sega, Capcom, THQ, Namco Bandai, Ubisoft, Square Enix, and more. Iwata announces that Activision will have DJ Hero 3D, Level 5 will do Professor Layton, Square Enix will have Kingdom Hearts, THQ will have Saints Row, Capcom will have Resident Evil, Ubisoft will have Assassin's Creed, Konami will bring Metal Gear Solid... 3DS looks promising with software.

A trailer is shown with several developer's comments. Reggie returns to show off every game that's been shown, before talking about 3DS and showing off a trailer of Satoru Iwata walking out to play his 3DS. Mario jumps out and slaps a mustache on him before getting sucked up into the game. Shigeru Miyamoto comes out next, seeing a puppy pop out of the screen before also getting sucked up into the game. Arrows, Link's sword and shield, DK barrels, and an Arwing all jump out of the DS next, and Reggie walks out to the handheld, seeing coins and mushrooms pop out. He picks up the console, laughing at the two japanese guys running from Bowser, before Bowser jumps out and breathes fire on a screaming Reggie. Reggie returns to the stage in a burnt up jacket for giggles.

Reggie, being the man that he is, brings out a shitload of hot women with 3DS systems strapped to themselves for live demo testings in the theatre, and Wii consoles rise from the floors to allow testing of the new Zelda game as well. Reggie ends the conference here, but there's still plenty for the attendees to do. Nintendo, surprisingly, didn't show off a bunch of gimmicky new hardware like they normally do (and like Microsoft and Sony did this year... what the fuck?), and instead surprised in a way they should've been doing for years now - by revealing a load of kick ass games that we've been waiting for.


Excitements:
-Kid Icarus Uprising
-Donkey Kong Country Returns
-3DS title lineup
-The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Letdowns:
-Kirby Epic Yarn
-Some major franchises still missing new Wii titles (F-Zero, Star Fox)
-Nothing on Pikmin 3 or Wii Pulse (both teased about last year)
-Kirby Epic Yarn


Sony also did their press conference yesterday, which I did manage to catch. For those of you who didn't, I'll talk about it later tonight, and stay tuned, as the rest of the week we'll try to talk about some of our favorite games shown at E3!

E3 Press Conferences: Microsoft

Microsoft started out E3 with a trailer and demonstration on the next Call of Duty game, Call of Duty Black Ops. Modern Warfare 2 was fun online, but I was never really a big fan of the Call of Duty series. Black Ops looks beautiful, though, and looks to include battles off the ground this time, as the player hops into a helicopter and starts blowing shit up. The environments of the jungle level are bright and lively, showing war games don't necessarily have to be shades of grey or blue. The game will be released November 11th.

It's announced all Call of Duty material will be released from now until 2012 first on the Xbox 360 through an exclusive deal between Activision and Microsoft.

This year marks the 10-year anniversary of XBox, opening ways to transform the gaming genre. The biggest shooters are mentioned, Halo: Reach, Gears of War 3, and Call of Duty. Project Natal's official name is announced as Kinect.

Hideo Kojima is called out to the stage. Kojima mentions MGS Rising and promises footage before he passes the torch, so to speak, to his executive producer.

Metal Gear Solid Rising trailer begins, some heavily armored soldier is seen walking around a corridor before Raiden bursts onto the scene, slicing the humanoid in half. The logo is shown, followed by Raiden pretty much cutting up everything in his way, including people, pillars, vehicles, and even shows a man get sliced into several pieces while in the air. The trailer ends with Raiden slicing up a watermelon with precision. Looks very entertaining.

Afterwards, it's announced the remainder of games shown today will be XBox 360 exclusives. Cliff Bleszinski is called out onto the stage, and prepares to show off Gears of War 3 four-player co-op capabilities. Marcus spears a Locust with the bayonet at the end of his gun, and the action is pretty intense. It appears you can trade weapons to teammates now. A large tentacle looking beast comes out of the ground, causing a new enemy that the Locust start running to fight off only to be obliterated. New up close moves look possible, such as kicking enemies into one another, or planting a 'nade on a meat shield before throwing them into an enemy. A boss with several limbs or tentacles appears, and starts charging at the group at full speed. The demo ends as the boss lunges at the group in a cut scene. Cliffy B announces a new game mode, Beast, but says nothing about it before leaving.

Peter Molyneux comes out and begins with Fable III information, happening five years after Fable II. Fable III will ship October 26th. A trailer is shown, though the audio is a bit low. The trailer shows off that you're more than an adventurer this time, and more of a revolutionary. The game looks wonderful, and looks like the action is a little more intense and flashier than before.

It's announced that Microsoft has a new exclusive partner. A trailer shows a warrior looking like a Spartan or Roman covered in dirt and blood. Codename Kingdoms is the title revealed, but little else is really said or known.

Halo has sold 34 million copies and 2 billion hours have been played online, and Marcus Leto is introduced to show more on Halo: Reach. It's said it's the most ambitious game Bungie has worked on. The premiere for the campaign is shown, and several Spartans are shown getting dropped off on a battlefield about to begin. The Spartans seem a little more talkative than Master Chief, but even for a drab battlefield there's still plenty of color, both in weapon ammunition, the brightness of the sky, and several other parts of the environment. It appears there is a female Spartan in the group, which seems like the new thing to do (as both Gears and Halo have a female amongst the group of men). It appears the Covenant has invaded an ally base, and has killed nearly everyone off. The player ends up climbing a ladder and jumping into a spaceship, flying out into outer space for a battle above the atmosphere. The trailer ends to a round of applause.

Kinect is talked about once again (after bragging about Microsoft bringing gaming to many, and then adding music, movies, and social networking). Waving to the camera will cause it to recognize you and log you in instantly, and waving again brings up an easy Kinect menu. It's also revealed that speaking will cause you to select items, such as saying "Zune" or "Facebook." You can also pause by saying "XBox: Pause" and resume play by saying "XBox: Play." It's pretty incredible, and waving your hand works like the cursor on the Wii. I'm getting stoked ALL over again...

Kinect and XBox Live is announced to be available in every country the 360 is sold, and that XBox Live will connect to Windows 7. There will be a new option called "Video Kinect," which will allow you to video chat without use of a headset. You can chat with people on XBox, or Windows Messenger through this option. A demo of the video chat option is pretty interesting, but sounds VERY scripted. It's revealed that you can watch videos and movies WHILE video chatting. Kinect will follow you as you move automatically, which is pretty neat so camera adjustment is needed like it is with the Playstation Eye or the XBox Live Motion cameras. The video chat also uses voice command to close as well.

AN ESPN 360 FEATURE HAS BEEN ANNOUNCED! I'm not a big sports nut, but it looks like games can be streamed or viewed through ESPN 3. The trailer shows a SportsCenter clip revealing the ESPN feature will be exclusive to the 360. The two hosts of SportsCenter come out to introduce the feature, a community channel that includes several different sports with the ability to show live games. It also allows you to vote for who you want to win the sporting events. Voice commands will also work for voting, as well as request replays. There's also trivia games that will appear at the bottom of the screen during the game, and ESPN.com will update scores, and you can change sports leagues mid-game without going to a menu. ESPN will be no additional cost once on XBox Live.

Kudo Tsunoda, the creative director for Kinect, enters the stage and talks about just how easy it is to play without a controller or without memorizing button layouts for those that don't normally play games. Six Kinect launch games are announced, that will be played without a controller.

A little girl is brought on the stage to play with a tiger named Skittles. The tiger cub interacts with the girl's rubbing hands, and happily listens to the girl's words. He reacts and repeats the actions the girl does, like jumping and spinning. The girl hides when the tiger runs off to get a toy, and the tiger looks around trying to find the girl. While not a game I would own, it does look cute, and is revealed as Kinectimals.

The next game shown is Kinect Sports, and crowd interaction is shown to start off. Two players come out, their avatars on screen and follow the running and jumping motions during the hurdle race they play. Think Wii Sports, but better. A Kinect Sports trailer is shown with bowling, ping pong, boxing, olympic and track, volleyball, and more.

My stream died a moment, but as it returns, it shows an avatar style racing game called Kinect Joy Ride. Using an air steering wheel, you race in what looks like a kind of Mario Kart without weapons. It's cute, but racing games seem like the one game I would WANT to have a wheel or peripheral for...

The next game announced is Kinect Adventures, showing a guy on a train car moving his body around to connect tokens and avoid obstacles. As a second player joins in, the game instantly splits into split screen, and several camera moments appear that take pictures of you making an ass of yourself. A second mini game is shown, looking like a co-op event with two girls on a raft, having to work together to move the raft around. The pictures taken can be put on facebook "or anywhere else on the web."

Next is a trailer from Ubisoft on what looks like a "follow along" exercise game. Your Shape: Fitness Evolved is revealed as its title, and a demonstration is shown with an Ubisoft representative. Menus and features follow your body movements around, and the game can measure your height and physical dimensions. The demo shows a coach along with a silhouette of your person, and you follow along with your coach, with prompts in the upper right corner further explaining what to do. It looks as though the game will likely measure body mass more than weight like Nintendo's $100 scale, Wii Fit.

Harmonix and Mtv Games brings us Dance Central, a Kinect dance game that either looks to teach people dance moves, or makes people look like drunken assholes. It looks like Just Dance, only a million times better. The woman on stage dancing is obviously skilled, and shows a pretty neat demo of the game. The head of Harmonix, Alex , pretty much disses games that make you "dance on mats or pushing buttons" and says this is much more interactive and better. Downloadable content is promised, as is Lady Gaga, unfortunately. A mode called "Break it Down" reveals a teaching mode that helps people that suck at dancing get better. The game actually looks like it could be pretty enjoyable.

Kinect is revealed to be released on November 4th in North America this year. There will be 15 launch titles for the camera-console, and a trailer for a Star Wars game to be released next year is shown. It shows you, the jedi, use your lightsaber to reflect shots and use the force to move tanks. The trailer ends with a clash against Lord Vader himself. No release date is fully announced.

A racing game is shown next, Forza with Kinect, and movement of your head shows more of the interior of the car as well as the ability to look around corners. The game is controlled with your hands in the ten-and-two positions. A new trailer shows an interactive demo of being able to walk around your car to inspect specific parts of it. You can open the door, sit down, and close the door, with a realistic interior; in this case, a Ferrari is shown. The game will be out in 2011.

After a monologue about the past and the future and Kinect, the new 360 console is revealed. Sleeker, smaller, with a built in wireless adapter and a 250 GB hard drive, it's said the console will stay the same price as the current 120 GB hard drive unit at $299. It's then revealed that the console will be shipping TODAY AND WILL BE AVAILABLE LATER THIS WEEK!! Anyone who physically attended the event is already receiving their 360 consoles today, free of charge... Lucky bastards...

With that, the 360 conference is finished, and with all the information on Kinect, the footage of Halo, Gears, and MGS Rising, the addition of ESPN, and the new model 360 with the bombshell of its release date of today, it's going to seriously be hard for Sony and Nintendo to top Microsoft. Don't count them out yet, though - E3 has only begun.


Excitements:
-New 360 released today
-MGS Rising gameplay footage
-Slew of cool features with Natal

Letdowns:
-Some Natal games are already starting to look like shovelware or recycled Wii titles
-Nothing announced was particularly new - even the 360 design and new Kinect name were leaked last night
-Only four or so titles were shown that weren't Natal exclusive


Stay tuned, as Gaming Everything will give you more from the EA and Ubisoft media briefings today and will return with the Sony and Nintendo conferences tomorrow!

Wishlist: E3 2010

So, Katie, Paul, and myself have decided to create a list of separate wishlists concerning the upcoming E3. We know several games, such as Halo: Reach and Gears of War 3 will be on display, but we're gonna focus on games we're really stoked about seeing that we know will be there, games we want info on that we're sure we'll see there, and games we'd love to see even though we know it's likely impossible for it to be made, much less shown. So, let's get to it:


WHAT WE KNOW WILL BE THERE:


Natal

Yeah, Natal has its skeptics, people are already doubting it. Many people look back at how cool the Nintendo Wii first looked and realized what they got was a cursor-flickering mess of shovelware. But I'm stoked to see how this is going to work. I want to play with and talk to Milo, I want to duck around and fight my opponents without the push of a button. Allow me to play and enjoy games I normally wouldn't in this new format. I'm hoping Natal brings us more than just the hype it's already begun to generate.


The Next Mario Game

It seems like every year, Mario gets a new game or two. I'll actually be very surprised to see something other than Super Mario Galaxy 2 on display (especially since it's already released). So what's next for the Mario crew? A multi-character game like Super Mario Bros. 2? A new sports game, such as hockey, football, or a sequel to Mario Hoops? A remake of Super Mario RPG? The ideas may be crazy, but there's plenty Mario has yet to do that's possible.


Rock Band 3

I'm most excited about Rock Band 3, especially with the reveals of the last week. The addition of the keyboard, the new 102 button "pro" guitar, the updated graphics all around, the Pro mode to help people get used to playing an ACTUAL instrument, the triple cymbal kit, the dual bass compatibility right out the box, the backwards compatibility of Rock Band, Rock Band 2, Lego Rock Band, and Green Day Rock Band... The only thing I can wish for more at E3 is a bigger look at more options, and the full song list.


Marvel vs. Capcom 3

This past week revealed two additional characters to MvC3 - Deadpool and Dante from Devil May Cry. The trailer revealing them showed two less silhouettes of the original ten by the Marvel and Capcom logos. While it looks like we'll be getting Brawl-style character reveals, we can still uselessly wish to know more characters at E3.


WHAT WE THINK COULD BE THERE


A Nintendo Franchise Missing From Wii

There's plenty we're missing from Nintendo's back catalog. Star Fox, F-Zero, Yoshi... There's plenty of opportunities that we could hope to see. There's more opportunities for control schemes for games such as Star Fox and F-Zero, for example. I'd like to see this get put to good use.


Mortal Kombat

It was revealed that a new 2D Mortal Kombat is in the works, but so far all that's really been shown is the logo and a trailer. Perhaps we can see some characters revealed, a roster, some screens... We can only hope that if they show, we'll get more.


Portal 2

It's likely that Portal 2 will show up, but with the rumors of a Half-Life 2: Episode 3 on the horizon and that a reveal party for Portal 2 was canceled for a HL2E3 party, it's hard to say what Valve will show us at E3. I won't knock Half-Life or say it's not as good as Portal, but because I haven't played it, my interest still falls to Portal 2.


Pikmin 3

It's also likely Pikmin 3 will show up, due to the remake of the first game for the Wii as well as the rumors of the game being in development. However, it's been a well kept secret for sometime, and no word on its release means it could really go either way. It's really fairly up in the air, but let's hope Nintendo can prevent another year of Wii Fits and Wii Musics.


WHAT WE WANT TO SEE THAT WE KNOW WE WON'T


Kid Icarus

This one seems like it will never come out. Pit's been put on hold since the 8-bit generation until he jumped on the scene in Brawl, but the massive hints towards a Kid Icarus game seem to have been wasted as the company working on it has gone under. We literally know little about what the game could even be - would it be an adventure game? A first or third person shooter? Or would Nintendo ruin it by trying to make it a puzzle game (I'm looking at you, Pokemon Trozei)? I'll be surprised if we see this game come around this year, or any year...


Mother Trilogy

Even if the Mother trilogy comes out for the DS, will we ever see Mother 3 in English without needing a ROM and patch? We were supposed to get Mother 1 as Earthbound, and after all the work they put into it they scrapped the project. We got Mother 2 as Earthbound, but we don't even get to see it as DLC for the Wii. And Mother 3 has gotten the most requests for translation that Nintendo has gotten. What's the fucking hold up?


Nintendo NOT Bragging About Sales Numbers

Every year's conference, Nintendo brags about how many consoles they've sold, and how original they are, and how innovative they are, and how they lead the gaming industry. That's cool and all, but instead of doing all this and following it up with Wii Music or Carnival Games or whatever Nintendo brand shovelware you're going to throw at us, why not spend all that wasted time showing us new Zelda footage, new Metroid footage, new classic franchise releases, new original franchises or series... Please, Nintendo, spare us for ONE year.


New Chrono Series Entry

A series that Square dropped a long time ago, with the exception of re-releasing Chrono Trigger, I would like to see more in the time-travelling, alternate-dimension-spanning RPG series. The series is only recognized by long-time fanboys of the 16-bit era these days, and a new entrant to the series may help not only Square (or as I like to refer to them as, "That Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts company"), but help the series, its fans, and anyone that enjoys a good RPG.

Pros and Cons: Animazement 13, Part 3

Hey, PaulM aka Lungkisser here with some pros and cons from North Carolina's proest con, Animazement (AZ).

PROs:

That dealer room!

The dealer room at AZ was amazing. I'm not really much of a window shopper and I tend to browse pretty quickly but I still spent a few good solid hours in there over the course of the weekend. I found myself wishing that there was a store that was anything like a con's dealer's room.

Video games

For an anime convention, AZ had a surprisingly cool game room. It had a great mix of games, from some newer stuff like Super Street Fighter IV (SSFIV), Tekken 6, Rock Band 2, and BlazBlue, to older stuff like Melty Blood, Bomberman on the Sega Saturn, high score challenges on arcade games like Donkey Kong and Burger Time (free play, of course) and older fighters like Marvel vs. Capcom. While it would never be as big of a game room as I'd want, for an anime convention it was pretty great.

Artist Alley

I'm a much bigger fan of professional artwork than amateur artwork, but Artist Alley had enough impressive artists doing their thing that I gotta say, it was a pleasure just to walk around and see what they could do.

CONs:

Weeaboos

I'm a gamer before I'm an anime fan, and while I can be as weeaboo as the nastiest mouthbreather, gaming is my THING, so most of the time the anime-only weeaboos were more in the background or just a nuisance than anything.

Quality over Quantity

Make no mistake that I think the quality of the assortment of video games in the gaming room was great, but there were not enough stations! All those games pretty much only had one spot, and people were lining up to play SSFIV and Tekken while other stations had the same two people or nobody for the longest time. Next year I can understand only one table for the those games, but with SSFIV especially being only out for a month or two, you should have KNOWN people would want to play it! Bonus complaint: tournaments were held in the same room as other people casually playing. Bad idea!

Two small complaints

I bundled these two together 'cause they're kind of small, but one is that I was so sick of all the walking, especially the unnecessary walking you'd do to simply try to meet up with people and end up walking back the way you came anyway, rather than having them meet you. Second, the prices. $3.50 for a drink, $8 for some nachos. The only guy who could get away with overcharging was the hot dog guy, 'cause he was amazing. Try the kielbasa!

And that's all I got. While I didn't have the greatest weekend, the pros outweighed the cons, and so I'll probably be back next year!