So, the E3 is well under way, and all the major players have had their press conferences. To summarise. Microsoft: Kinect. Really. Kinect. Please Kinect. We’ll do anything. For the love of god, Kinect. Sony: wait, what is this? What am I doing here? Oh, here’s a 24″ 3D TV for $500 and yet another PSP. Nintendo: we slapped every possible shiny object onto a tablet and made the Wii capable of rendering halfway decent graphics. Here’s another load of Mariozelda Kart, and a bunch of EA games that Xbox/PS3 players already own. Yes, this year’s E3 has been a massive letdown – save for a few exceptions. Update: Epic fail for Nintendo. The company has admitted that it has used footage from the Xbox 360 and PS3 to spice up the press reel for the Wii U.
I was afraid this year’s E3 was going to be a bit of a letdown. Now that everyone’s Wii is collecting dust in the closet and Sony and Microsoft jumped onto the me-too!-bandwagon of motion controls, it was inevitable that this year’s E3 would focus on those toys. Other than that – cows. Lots and lots of cows.
Cows? Yes, cows. You see, cows re-chew their food. They basically eat stuff, puke in their mouths, chew some more, and then swallow it again. This, together with their complicated digestive tract, makes it possible for cows to digest difficult types of food. Well, this E3, we got to see lots and lots of re-chewing going on. Basically 95% of all content we got to see, game-wise, were either sequels, sequels to sequels, prequels, prequels to prequels, or remakes.
Microsoft: KINECT DAMNIT.
Let’s start with Microsoft. As I said, the basic gist of their entire press conference was their motion controller camera Kinect thing, Kinectifying a whole load of games. As was to be expected, EA is all over this thing, and several of its yearly cash-in games (i.e., their sports games) will all be Kinectified. Forza Motorsport 4, a racing game of which there apparently have already been 3, will also be Kinectified. There’s also a new Kinect Tom Glancy game coming up, Ghost Recon (don’t let the lack of numbers fool you – this is technically Ghost Recon 9, if I’m counting right), and in fact, all future Tom Clancy games will be Kinectified.
So far, a big snore, since none of these games are even remotely interesting. They’re the CSI of gaming – it’s bad, but I can see how it can be mildly entertaining after a hard day of work where you just want to sit down, shut off your brain, grab a beer, and relax.
But then.
Fable IV: The Journey. A Kinect-only game that only shares the setting – Albion – with its somewhat entertaining predecessors. Instead of an action-RPG-heavy-on-the-action, it’s now a rail shooter controlled by Kinect gestures. Or something. But hey, I was already sick of the Fable franchise about ten minutes into Fable III, so I won’t really be missing anything here.
No, the big shocker for me was my beloved BioWare. My number one games studio, creator of my best game of this console generation (Dragon Age) and second best game of this generation (Mass Effect). Now that EA has firmly entrenched itself into BioWare, the faeces have hit the fan hard. Mass Effect 2 was already somewhat of a letdown, with its non-existent story (compared to the first one), and dumbed-down, sightly repetitive and incredibly simple combat.
The final drop for me, however, was Dragon Age II – a game I looked forward to more than anything, but it turned out to be a rush-job, with no story (except for the last 30 minutes in order to sell you DA III), billions of repetitive encounters with the same dudes in the same three locations, and several gameplay alterations that favoured button mashing over the careful, tactical, party-based, almost RTS-like approach of the first Dragon Age. On the other hand, Merrill. It was one heck of a boring game.
And now we have come full circle. Or at least, BioWare has. They announced that Mass Effect III, too, will be Kinectified. Instead of selecting your dialog options with the dialog wheel, you can now speak them out loud. Instead of a button to send your squad mates forward, you can now use voice control. Instead of carefully ordering your squad mates to use certain powers on specific enemies, you can now blindly let them use powers on whoever’s standing closest. Of course, you’ll still be able to use the old ways, but this Kinect nonsense is inevitably cutting into the development time and money of other aspects of the game – which, if ME2 and DA2 are any indication, probably means even less RPG elements, and even more Gears of War.
Speaking of Gears of War, there’s a part 3 coming out later this year, and it’s basically more of the same. Gears of War is clearly one of those CSI games I mentioned, but I have to admit even I found part two pretty functional, and quite enjoyable with a friend in co-op. Sure, there’s no depth or any form of sophistication, but it works, and this time around, I can finally be a girl Gear too. It won’t set the world on fire with innovation, but it’ll sell like hotcakes. And, it means I’ll finally have a shot again at getting my hands on a red controller.
And Minecraft is coming to the Xbox, with Kinect support. I have no idea how that’s going to work, but if you were to apply Kinect arm flails to Minecraft’s general control scheme, single boys will have been practicing for this a few times a week for years. Also, the original Halo will be re-released, and a new Halo trilogy will be started with Halo IV. Eh.
Sony: OKAY FINE, HERE’S YOUR DAMNED TOUCHSCREEN.
Sony, still reeling from getting hacked every other day, came to E3 with two pieces of new hardware. First is the new PS Vita. The PSP has sold 70 million units, which is pretty decent, but not even close to the DS. Feeling the pressure from casual mobile gaming on iOS and Android, Sony has now added a touchscreen to the PSP, another touchpad on the back, six-axis motion controls, and real thumbsticks. It’s got some impressive fire power under the hood – a quad-core processor and a quad-core GPU. With a relatively low price of $249 for the WiFi version, they’re on the offensive.
The other piece of hardware is a 24″ PlayStation-branded 3D television and goggles. This way, you can spend $500 to wear funny goggles and look at a glorified shoebox diorama but with a PlayStation logo!
Game-wise, it’s all about cows at Sony, too. For the Vita, there’s more Uncharted titles, Streetfighter vs. Tekken, Wipeout, Modnation Racers, and another LittleBigPlanet. Of course, there will be a Ridge Racer for the Vita too. There is some new IP here: Ruin, a hack-and-slash RPG which uses save games on the internet so you can play the game on both your Vita and PS3, and Dragon’s Crown, a side-scrolling platformer little is known about yet.
As for the PS3 – two old PSP God of War games will get the HD and 3D makeover, and be re-released on the PS3 later this year. Sony also mentioned the re-releases of the fantastic Shadow Of The Colossus and ICO, both in HD and 3D (but we already knew about those). The PS3 is getting an exclusive too: Dust 514. While this looks like Call of Duty: Space Warfare, it will sport a persistent, MMO-like world with territory control and a functional economy.
Nintendo: Last year’s games, coming to a Nintendo console in 2012
Nintendo is in somewhat of a hard place. The 3DS has seen disappointing sales, and the Wii, too, sees dropping sales. With barely any third party support, an underpowered console, and Apple breathing down their neck on the mobile side, they had to do something. And do something, they did – it’s just too bad that what they did sucks.
Nintendo announced a new console, the Wii U. It’s an HD version of the Wii, slightly fatter, but far more powerful, capable of putting out some decent graphics, bringing the console on par with the Xbox 360 and PS3. The big thing, however, is the Wii U’s controller: a tablet-like device with game controls on the side, and a camera built-in.
This new controller enables some cool tricks, that’s for sure. In multiplayer games, you can have individual players having different information on their screens, and different players can play different roles. They also showed other ways for the controller’s display and the TV to work together, such as swiping a shuriken from the controller onto the display. You can also continue to play games on the controller’s screen when the TV is turned off. Pretty neat.
Game-wise, Nintendo had the biggest herd of cows of the entire show floor. Several Zelda games (both remakes and ‘new’ ones, for 3DS, Wii, and Wii U), a new Mario Kart (3DS), Luigi’s Mansion 2 (3DS), two new Mario platformers (3DS and Wii U), a new Kid Icarus (Wii U), another Mario Party (Wii), and more of these remakes. Third party support for the Wii U basically amounts to Xbox 360 and PS3 games from last year which will be available on the Wii U once it launches next year. Nintendo had zero new IP. Nothing. What a disgrace.
And while they didn’t announce it, my extraordinary powers of clairvoyance tell me the Wii U will get a Metroid game or two as well. Don’t hold me to this though!
So, was there anything interesting at E3?
Yes, but none of these were actually announced at E3 itself. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim absolutely blew my mind visually, and the gameplay improvements look genuine too – but only time will tell. Saints Row 3 saw some CGI trailers, and, while not a focal point at E3 since it’ll be released June 14, Alice: Madness Returns is my number one must-buy this year. Pre-order is ready and waiting. Other interesting titles we got to see more of were Assassin’s Creed Revelations and BioShock: Infinite.
We also got some more footage from Dead Island, Deep Silver’s zombie apocalypse-themed role playing game which looks a lot like a cross between an Elder Scrolls game, Condemned, and Left 4 Dead. This game has me incredibly excited due to its massive co-op potential and focus on ‘realistic’ melee combat during a zombie apocalypse.
There was probably a lot more stuff going on, but none of it registered on my personal radar (feel free to use the comments). All in all, this was a massive cowfest, and clearly shows that the industry is pretty much dead in the water. Most of the even remotely innovative stuff is happening in the indie-scene, but those games tend to be short and/or badly broken (Magicka comes to mind).
Maybe next year.
“I have no idea how that’s going to work, but if you were to apply Kinect arm flails to Minecraft’s general control scheme, single boys will have been practicing for this a few times a week for years”
You don’t let lose these kind of quips often, but when you do, they have me laughing hard!
Edit: Spelling
Edited 2011-06-07 21:08 UTC
I think the dissing of the WiiU is kind of harsh. Sure, none of the games that have been announced thus far are anything to get overly excited about, but you have to admit that the hardware sure is different.
While Sony and MS are content to duke it out in a graphics war or just copy what Nintendo is doing, at least the big N is willing to take some risks. Unlike the Wii though, hopefully 3rd parties will figure out how to make good use of the new controller.
BTW: I hear they’re going to be selling a WiiU Smell-O-Vision accessory. It’s going to be called the PiiU
What risks? By throwing everything and the kitchen sink at a controller?
The Wii was innovative. This is just a pathetic attempt to shoehorn a touchscreen into the mix.
Yup, exactly. You can say the Wii was innovative, but when it came out, people said it was just two Gamecubes duct taped together with waggle controls thrown in. Hell, people are still saying that today, so … *shrug*
One thing I am quite sure of though is that if the WiiU sells, both Sony and Microsoft’s next consoles will have controllers with touch screens
Uhm…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehS-AfM4b8I
What would be innovative would be to have the controller actually be a DS-like device with a bigger screen and the main Wii-like device be the server. This would allow for a much wider style of game play. If the new Wii-pad has some actual muscle in it then there is, at least, the potential for some really awesome new gaming.
How is this just a “pathetic attempt” ? If it works anything like they have been demoing, its pretty damn well thought out and looks useful. I, personally, can’t wait to mess with it.
I see lots of random dissing with no real arguments to back it up. At least give it a chance. Jeez.
Having a second screen on your controller *does not work*. The Dreamcast tried it, the GameCube tried it with GBA tethering, and Nintendo are trying it again with WiiU. The problem is that it is too distracting to glance down at a second screen that has no tactile feedback. You can’t tell what you’re pressing on the screen without looking, which wrecks havoc with your focus on the combat on the TV.
It’s a bad idea forced through for the sake of being “current”.
Well, people said the Wii was a bad idea too, and it sold like 9 billion units
I dunno how it will turn out, but Nintendo has a habit of building products that print money, so we’ll see …
BTW: You’ll be able to play your games wireless on that screen, even when the TV is off, or watching something else.
Edited 2011-06-07 21:42 UTC
I’d argue that the DS has two screens, with a touchscreen on the controller side, and that it works pretty well with some games.
A difference though. It’s a pen-driven touchscreen. No pesky finger input. Don’t know how much it counts, but I certainly never dropped the stylus for long when playing DS games even though most of them have big enough controls for finger input.
Edited 2011-06-07 21:51 UTC
The DS works because the two screens are close enough to each other, and fixed. When you have a movable screen that is some distance from the other screen, you have a focus shift that is not as easy to constantly adjust to. This was the problem with Dreamcast and GBA adapter on GBC before.
So with Wii you hold your hand in front of you towards the screen. If you put a screen on top of the Wii controller and you’ve pretty much replicated what the DS is doing. I know I don’t play all my Wii games exactly like that because I don’t have to, but the potential was always there. I have a feeling my arm will be slightly more tired after playing WiiU.
Difference with the Dreamcast is the old monochrome LCD screen is also a memory card acting as standalone video-game portable, too had that hardware did not have chance to fully use potential on development side. Depends what kind of games but the second screen allows interesting strategy the second players cannot see and also give hint about hidden items or skills.
Edited 2011-06-08 18:22 UTC
So, because some implementations failed, they are all going to fail? I can totally see this being useful for things such as inventory management in RPGs or for puzzle work in adventure games. There are LOTS of uses for this in games that aren’t super fast paced.
I like how something comes out and people automatically claim it will be a failure because /they/ can’t see a use for it or it doesn’t suit their fancy.
I’ve nothing against short games myself, as I only play games by short bursts and “cover to cover”, so that can explain why I feel differently about this. But I think that either there has been an unusual lot of great indie titles in the past few years, or new distribution methods have significantly increased their visibility.
Oh, well, guess I’ll buy myself Duke Nukem Forever if I get bored and game-hungry again in the upcoming months. Just for the fun of it.
Edited 2011-06-07 21:36 UTC
Thom, I hate you for having reminded me with your title of one of the most creepy videos I’ve ever seen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FavUpD_IjVY
Edited 2011-06-07 21:41 UTC
I totally thought the same thing.
Creeeeepy.
Especially the spider cows.
Edited 2011-06-07 23:16 UTC
The Kinect is the perfect metaphor for Steve Ballmer and Microsoft. There is a whole bunch of flailing about with people hoping something good is going to happen … and rarely does.
And you blame Nintendo for throwing everything in but the kitchen sink. Have you seem Microsoft’s way of doing things since Ballmer took over for Gates? Tons of stuff thrown out there and most of it hasn’t stuck. And supposedly what has XBOX, for example, they had to spend billions and over the life time of the product they still aren’t in the black over all and aren’t close to it. Shall we talk about Zune and all their music software attempts?
I see a lot less flailing from Nintendo.
Well, as much as I dislike Kinect, it was one of the fastest-selling consumer electronics device of all time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinect#Reception_and_sales
I think kinect is actually a great device but definitevely not for gaming, kinect games are POS, but we’ve seen that there are a lot more possibilites for kinect on pc especially now that microsoft has released an official sdk
Sony, microsoft and nintendo conference were all a letdown indeed, sony could have done much better especially after the psn hack, but they have gone very quiet with the conference, no kevin butler, no last guardian, nothing really big, the psvita looks good especially at that price but portable console are not really my thing
The only amazing game that I’ve seen for now is battlefield 3, the e3 just started but I don’t think we’ll se much more this year
Mind you, fruit ninja looked like a nice kinect game
I didn’t say that Kinect isn’t selling. What I said is that it is like Steve Ballmer and Microsoft. A whole lot of flailing about.
MS had it’s share of failures under Gates as well, but they get over shadowed by the juggernauts they spawned in that time frame.
The big difference between then and now, is MS doesn’t have the patience to fight for anything. The expectations are for everything to sell a million units on launch, like Apple, but that’s not how MS works. MS has always been a grinder. It’s always the third generation of tech that really hits it’s stride from them.
The Xbox is a slick idea. It’s a gateway into homes, and as people use it for more and more services it becomes more and more indispensable. It’s pretty much Microsoft’s post-PC plan.
Let’s face it. Until virtual reality becomes a reality, there won’t be much to be get excited about. The Wii is cute, but nothing that was ever going to blow people away. The real genius was making a console people can actually afford.
ghost recon 1 and advanced warfighter 1 are some of the best games i’ve ever played.
snore? a pox on you sir!
They announced that Mass Effect III, too, will be Kinectified. Instead of selecting your dialog options with the dialog wheel, you can now speak them out loud. Instead of a button to send your squad mates forward, you can now use voice control.
FFFFFUUUUUUUU
I sure hope that works out better than the last time voice control was going to revolutionize gaming…
Are we both remembering swearing at Pikachu, here?
And you say that like it’s a bad thing…
à^2 _à^2
It’s at any rate not worse than another 5 billion Tom Clancy games…
No e3 has been a letdown, though bipolar fanboys do think so.
I thought E3 was always a let down, unless you enjoy looking at strippers.
My love of gaming died around the time the REAL E3 died. The high budget extravaganza was replaced with stale press releases and footage. People would dream and sell organs to go to the REAL E3.
The PS Vita sounds like a nice piece of hardware– quad core ARM, 960~A—544 display, built-in wifi, 3g, and gps… for $250. I don’t give a shit for games, but it’s far cheaper than most smart phones, and it has all the hardware there to do what they do.
I’d be curious to learn about internal storage, RAM, and USB (or other options for peripherals).
If someone manages to hack Linux or NetBSD onto one, I would be very happy to purchase one.
Debian + e17 would be sweet. One could use Skype or a SIP client for telephony and get rid of the mobile phone.
I see the quality of OSAlert’ gaming articles still shows a steady decline. Way to go.
It can only be as good as the products they are reviewing. Well, it can be good but if the product isn’t interesting, it that much harder to make the article interesting. OSAlert isn’t to blame for this.
I have a Wii and a 3DS (and PS3, although I barely use it) and I have to say that I’m not interested in the WiiU.
The screen-on-controller looks interesting for certain multiplayer games that involve making moves without other players knowing what you’re doing (strategy games and tactical sport games) but I mostly play single-player. I don’t see a good application for the screen-on-controller for me apart from being able to play games while the TV is in use.
I liked the Wii motion controls and it’s sad to see Nintendo moving away from them somewhat.
The comparative lack of horsepower of the WiiU (Xbox360 power, roughly) and no Bluray playback kills it all for me. I’ll just stick with my Wii and 3DS. Graphical power isn’t everything, but if it exceeded the PS3 for graphics then it would have thrown off Sony and Microsoft for a few years.
Sony didn’t promise anything that makes me want to keep my PS3. I’ll sell it once I’ve got a standalone Bluray player.
And Thom, there’s nothing wrong with releasing Mario Kart 12 and Legend Of Zelda 17. The Zelda games still innovate and give an immersive gaming experience. Mario Kart is still wet-your-pants fun. They sell like hot cakes and still do not disappoint critics or gamers.
It’s very easy to say “Come up with some new IP, Nintendo” but Nintendo DOES this and people are just not too interested because they’d rather play something with Seamus’ image on the box. I enjoyed Disaster: Day Of Crisis from start to finish and I think it would have made for an awesome Nintendo franchise, but it sold poorly compared to the bigger Nintendo names.
Releasing new games from an established franchise keeps money coming in for Nintendo AND it keeps the fans happy.
So what I gather from this article is a rant about how the big three are stuck in a quagmire of sequels and unexciting new hardware.
…but…suddenly in the last section…
Oh look at the exciting sequels.
(so you can edit the comment, but not the comment title…stupid mispelling)
Edited 2011-06-08 08:33 UTC
^ Pretty much my impression: ‘sequels suck… unless they’re for games I play’.
E3 is never that exciting, for the simple reason that the industry heavy weights never seems to have a clue what they’re doing and we’re drowning in gaming news the other 363 days a year, to the point where, by the time a game is released, you’ve already played it vicariously.
Only announcement that piqued my interest was Luigi’s Mansion. Man, that was a fun game. Still not enough to make me buy another Nintendo console, though.
I never said the sequel games can’t be fun. I just said that with the entire E3 being a sequel-fest, there was nothing truly new and interesting. Lamenting a lack of new IP does not mean all sequels automatically suck.
Is author even at E3 or just blogging about a bunch of youtube videos?
Walk around there is plenty of interesting stuff.
I’m going to make an assumption, which as we all know makes an ass of u and me, but I think it could just be that Thom prefers certain kinds of games. There are as many kinds of gamers as there are games, and E3 is really more of a show for people who like a variety of games instead of one or two genres.
I watched the Sony and Xbox presentations and I love my Xbox 360 at home, although I also own a PS/2 and I loved it back in the day.
I thought the Sony presentation was pretty good. Yes, the $500 small 3D tv is steep, but it also hits a mark for many younger gamers with limited space like students. It also works for people like me (and there are a lot of us) who recently bought a LCD or plasma tv and we’d like 3D, just not enough to replace the one in the living room.
The game demo’s for Sony were flat out impressive. Resistance looked amazing, Drake looked amazing. No two ways about it, and this is coming from a non sony fanboy.
Also, Sony apologized for their network screwups and gamers know that Sony faced a vary real threat of losing their credibility. Being credible is something many companies do a terrible job of so kudos to Sony.
I enjoyed the microsoft presentations. I own a Kinect, and I think its fantastic. It presents so many new ways to interact and this second generation of software (the hardware is the same) is significantly better.
The work in Ghost recon was really awesome, particularly the gunsmith and the fact you could actually play the game with the camera.
Cheers
Morglum
“Epic fail for Nintendo. The company has admitted that it has used footage from the Xbox 360 and PS3 to spice up the press reel for the Wii U.”
Hey that’s still much better than Sony with the PS3, where they admitted showing pre-rendered videos of games before the launch of the console..
The best of the Wii to me (despite the core Mario and Zelda franchises, which I also really like) is that it’s a blast to play with friends. The reason Wii sold so many units is because of the social nature of it, and in that sense Nintendo delivered.
They’ve been improving upon that since the N64, so I really hope this iteration will be even better, so if they can do the same with the Wii U and put the same quality of games, i’ll definitely get one..
Which is why i think most people bashing the Wii/Wii U don’t really get it, or don’t enjoy multiplayer games other than playing modern warfare over the internet..
All of that regurgitation and multiple stomachs allow it to extract the maximum energy out of grass. They turn disgusting grass into leather, meat and milk.
In effect, Apple is the greatest example of a good cow. They take in ideas that are pre-existing and regurgitate them internally over and over again until they end up with a tasty T-bone of goodness.
… tasty but grossly overprised T-bone. How is that goodness?
T bone is better than a flank steak (DOS 4.0). But yeah, you’re right a bit overpriced– perfect Steak for Apple. Or maybe Fillet Mignon? Depends on your meat preference and amount of dislike you have for apple.
I kinda like some Apple products (own iPhone) but their computers I cannot defend. Cheers Bill!
Funny, I kinda like their computers ( have a macbook), but their mobile offerings I can’t defend.
There’s no relationship between gameplay quality and length. Who cares if the game is short or long as long as it’s fun to play? I’d rather have a short game that leaves me wanting more (or that I want to play again) than a long one that I just want to fscking end (or bores me so bad that I cant bother finish it at all). Dead to Rights comes to mind as an example of a game that, while quite fun, really do wear out it’s welcome long before you finish it.
i am not so torn with them using footage of another system if the graphics are going to be comparable. i think their new controller is lame though. i was a proponent of the wiimote. interacting with the tv screen you have, in a more intuitive way. however not a fan of the tablety controller, how are you supposed to figure out which one to look at.. i think overall i hate the new controller. i also dislike kinekt. the only ones i like are wiimotes and the new sony move controllers.
E3 failed, because it should have been EPIC!
2 consoles where introduced!
Normally that would be Epic.
I think it failed, because the PS vita was already presented early 2011 and lots of info on Wii U leaked early on.
So the PS vita was not a surprise.
And the public had certain expectations about the Wii U and where not met.
Because the rumors where largely correct, but had little twist to them in the actual presentation. Like only 1 tablet controller per Wii U is supported!?