E3 08 report

The E3 convention recently took place. The Electronic Entertainment Expo is the main event where all the major gaming companies announce new products for the upcoming year, and report on sales. Coverage can be found everywhere on the internet including ign.com, gamespot.com, and e3’s official site. This post will just feature some of the highlights. I’ll break it down by the large companies.

EA- EA discussed their new 09 sports franchises, and announced some major updates to NBA Live, where the 09 version should prove to be something to look forward to. They also announced Dead Space; a new sci-fi thriller for the Xbox and PS3 that explores a space ship being overtaken by this virus that mutates its owner and changes them into these extremely disgusting beings that seeks to spread the virus more. To kill them, you must shoot off every one of their limbs. The game will definitely keep you up in the middle of the night and will scare you beyond anything else EA has put together before. Warhammer Online will bring the popular strategy game to a mass multiplayer online experience. This game won Best MMO from IGN and looks very well developed. Spore was also discussed. The developers were overjoyed with the success of the creature creator released about a month previous. They were expecting about 100K creatures by the September launch, but the users surpassed that mark in 22 hours. Now, there are over 2.1 million “Sporians” one their website. Last major game news was Lord of the Rings Conquest, a game similar to the Star Wars Battlefront series, but with the Lord of the Rings theme and close combat units.
Briefly, EA discussed Call of Duty: World at War which will be released for all major platforms come this November.

Sony- I didn’t catch much of Sony’s news and games, so this section will be brief. Sony discussed how they were the only company to have three systems selling and being used at one time. I think it’s kind of neat how they turned the PS2 into a lower line model, rather than making it obsolete when the new version came out. They also announced that there would be 130 new PS2 titles this year. Games announced include Resistance 2, the follow up to the shooter in which the US was being overtaken by gigantic, mutant aliens. Also, Little Big Planet was announced, a platformer (think Mario for Play Station) where up to four players could play as “Sackboy”, an adorable character made from sack material. You could unlock outfits for him and dress him up for your adventures. The biggest buzz about this game was the UGC (user-generated content). Sony used this for announcing their statistics and it was amazing how interesting they became. People can’t wait to just design some insane things. Also note, this isn’t a basic level editor like in Brawl, this is extremely in depth, all found in Little Big World, exclusive PS3 release. The most popularly viewed PS3 game was Infamous, a game featuring the main character as a superhero with electric powers that can chose their own path, evil or good. They can use big electric shocks that way kill citizens, or be careful about just killing the enemy. The game's wide-open world made this IGN’s favorite PS3 announcement. A sequel to the popular PS3 racing game Motorstorm was announced as well as PS3 Home. A game in which the player would create an avatar and could explore a world built on the PS3 network. They could chat with other players, play games, or do a whole collection of things. Games like these open up pathways for even further socialization on gaming consoles.

Nintendo- Nintendo held a, for the most part, rather disappointing press conference. They started out with Shaun White snow boarding, an in depth snow board game taking advantage of the Wii Balance Board. Then, Animal Crossing: City Folk (the third in the series, the original on Gamecube, followed by Wild Word on DS) which would take advantage of the new Wii Speak accessory. Wii Speak follows the concept of the Xbox 360 headset, but modifies it slightly. Instead of each person using their own microphone, this device can sense voices from everyone in the living room and essentially connect not just people, but entire rooms. The accessory will be included in the new Animal Crossing game and be sold separately for $30. It is unknown whether users can have stand-alone talks, or have to be integrated into games. New third-party games include Viva Pinata for DS, a sequel to Guitar Hero: On Tour for DS, named “Decades”, a new Kirby game, Spore Creatures (a version of Spore for the DS focusing on the “creature” game), and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. Nintendo also discussed possible future expansion for the DS. At the Seattle Mariner’s stadium, DS owners can order food, check other live baseball games, and compete in stadium trivia contests. This type of technology was hoped to be expanded to airports, where people can check flight times and view maps of their destination airport to check the location of baggage claim or their next flight. Lastly for the DS, a cooking recipe database with international dishes and cooking tips will become available so the DS can take over your kitchen! Outside of Animal Crossing, two other huge Wii games were announced: the first, Wii Sports Resort, a game taking advantage of the new Wii Motion Plus accessory. This little jack that you plug into the bottom or your Wii remote adds 1:1 motion control to your gaming. This was demoed in three mini games including Jet skiing, dog disc throwing, and fencing (personally, the fencing looked the best with the 1:1 control). One of these would come with the game and others can be bought for a yet unknown price, but probably $30-$40 each. Lastly, Wii Music was finally given a release date, this holiday season. A game featuring conducting of an orchestra was demoed at the Nintendo’s press conference before the Wii’s launch a couple of E3’s ago, but wasn’t officially announced until now. Grab a Wiimote, and mimic over 50 instruments including sax, xylophone, cow bell, trumpet, and piano. Also, a drum mode featuring the balance board for the bass and high hat petal looked extremely cool. No Wii storage solution was brought to the table (with all the Virtual Console and Wii Ware games, people are running out of room with the Wii’s 256MB internal storage). Also, no core games were announced. Typical Nintendo, but still a disappointing press conference.

Microsoft- Although Microsoft’s press conference was the first of the “big three”, I saved their review for last because their conference and announcements were by far the best, and yes, this is coming from a Nintendo only gamer. For hard-core games, Microsoft had demos of the sequel to the gory Gears of War, Fallout 3, and Resident Evil 5. All of these looked stunning and promised quite a lot to the Xbox 360 crowd.
Microsoft also had Fable 2, and exclusive RPG for the system, which presented a very unique feature. During your questing, you will see small, translucent orbs that represent your Xbox Live friends. By simply going up to one, you can invite them into your game and you and your friend can go around in your world fighting, questing, and becoming the ultimate duo. Family games at the event involved a sequel to the 360 uno game, a new trivia game, and “You’re in the movies”. You’re in the Movies takes you and your friends doing silly things like acting like a clown attached to a bungee cord and putting them into a pre-made movie cinematic, in this case, running from a horrible monster. The game uses and comes packaged with a 360 webcam. Music games brought to the table were Rock Band 2 and Lips, a new karaoke game for the 360 with wireless, light up mics, and the ability to connect a Zune or iPod and sing to your own songs rather than a pre-selected set list. A huge announcement from Square Enix was that Final Fantasy 13 would be brought to the 360, another old PlayStation exclusive moving away for other systems. Lastly, the new Xbox 360 interface. This fall, 360 will download an update that will entirely redo the main menu and the way they interact with their friends. This new interaction is entirely based on the concept of the new 360 avatars. Similar to Nintendo’s Mii’s, these much more realistic self impressions also include the ability to change clothing, so you can be a business man, Goth girl, or any other fashion design you could want. The catalog will update with the seasons newest and hottest outfits. Also, the new party feature will let you and selected friends do a whole ton of things together, form playing games, to chatting, to watching a movie. Speaking of movies, Microsoft announced an exclusive partnership with Netflix that allows 360 owners to download and watch movies from Netflix all on the system. In a G4TV poll, over 60% voted Microsoft “won” E3, and with a collection of games for hard-core and family crowds and the new, extremely social interface, I couldn’t agree more.

PC- PC releases include a couple repeats from the above sections like Fallout 3. Portal 2 was announced, a follow-up to the simple, yet highly favored by editors everywhere, game. Also, Mirror’s edge, coming out for some consoles as well, is a new action game that takes you to your extreme edge.

This year's E3 convention was quite obviously all about the games. While most companies delivered, I still wish Nintendo had announced a new Zelda or discussed some hardcore game development.

Guitar Hero Aerosmith Review

Wow, another Guitar Hero, already?!?! The release of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith was quite hyped up for the simplicity of the game. This game acts as a fill-in between the games you actually care about, Legends of Rock and World Tour. Still, Guitar Hero Aerosmith does have quite a bit to offer.

Aerosmith features new venues, new characters (from the actual band, but there are others from the Guitar Hero franchise), new guitars, new outfits, etc; everything in the game that you don’t pay much attention to, except for the songs. Aerosmith features 31 songs over six venues and one boss battle song (Guitar Hero Aerosmith…. who could it be?). The inferring of the general population is that all of the songs are by Aerosmith; this however, is not true. In each venue, only three songs are by the rockers from Boston, while the other two are by bands that influenced them, bands they like, or bands that were influenced by them. That totals up to only 60% Aerosmith in the game.

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith uses the same Les Paul guitars found in Legends of Rock (although, if bought with the game, features an exclusive Aerosmith faceplate), but proves to have a noticeably clearer, crisper image than the third installment of the franchise, especially on the Wii version. Wi-fi will remain similar, but bonus songs bought on the PS3 or Xbox 360 version will not carry over. Also note, the game is easier that Legends of Rock, so is great for entrants to the Guitar Hero series. For those expert shredders, however, the game’s expert mode can be easily passed by moderate players without failing. For Aerosmith fans, this game is a treat because it really does take you through the highlights of their career and features exclusive interviews and behind the scenes features about the band.

The bottom line is, this game is worthwhile for three groups of people: one, those who love the band, two, those who love the game, and finally, those who are new to the game. Personally, I do not fit into one of the above categories, so I did not purchase the game, so I will not give this game a numbered rating.

Info ign.com and pics ign.com and Google image search

Guitar Hero On Tour review

This past weekend, I got my hands on a copy of Guitar Hero On Tour. Since I have previewed it before, I will only do a quick review of the game.


Guitar Hero On Tour is the first time that Activision has brought the incredibly popular rhythm game series to a portable system. Guitar Hero On Tour lives up to most of its promises. The pros include the graphics are, in my opinion, very advanced for a DS game. The game lives up to its promises. The guitar hero franchise and experience has officially been brought to a portable system. The pick stylus is neat and the guitar grip is, for the most part, a great peripheral.


The cons are numbered, unfortunately. One, the strumming does not always work, and isn’t always accurate. Two, the track list includes some odd tracks and some repeats from Guitar Hero 3. Personally, I thought these were some of the most annoying tracks, including La Grange and Helicopter. With only 25 tracks, I don’t think the game could afford many disappointments, and with the combination of poorly chosen tracks and repeats from the previous game, the track list wasn’t a full delivery. Three, the guitar grip is sometimes uncomfortable and does not work well with fast notes and I found hammer-ons extremely difficult in this game.


In the end, Guitar Hero On Tour delivers a similar Guitar Hero experience to that of the console versions, and although the track list is slightly disappointing and the hardware not perfect, the game’s high price could lead it to be a questionable buy for most people.

Rock Band Wii

As some of you may have known, Rock Band Wii was released last Sunday. There was a lot of questioning surrounding why this version was released so late, June, instead of November like the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions, or December with the PS2 version. Although that is not totally clear, it does not make a lot of sense. The instruments on the Wii version hardly differ from that of the previous games, except for the fact the drums are white and wireless. The fact remains, the Wii version is lacking quite a lot that the PS3 and Xbox 360 ones had to offer. There is no wi-fi and no weekly new downloads. Still, the developers have tried to solve this by selling a Track Package which includes 20 songs for $30 that can be sued with Rock Band. Still, the question remains of should Wii owners buy it, or wait for Guitar Hero World Tour?

The game play remains similar to the previous versions. The graphics match the PS2 version. Still, you probably won’t care when you have two people shredding away on guitar controllers, one person pounding away at a plastic drum set, and one person rockin away on the microphone (which is not wireless). Other faults from the Wii version include that the guitars from Guitar Hero 3 do not work with Rock Band Wii. That means you’re stuck with the Rock Band guitar of debatable quality. Other than that, the Wii version lives up to its previous success on the other consoles. Still, Guitar Hero World Tour offers all that Rock Band doesn’t, and more, so personally, I am going to make the decision to wait for World Tour.

Spore Creature Creator

In the “I want that game when it comes out” list, you can see I have the game Spore listed. Spore, from EA and Maxis is a game that has been delayed year after year. Finally, the much anticipated release is scheduled for September 7th in the states. The game’s basic idea is evolution of a creature based on your imagination. You take your creature through the cell, creature, tribe, civilization, and space stages through different goals. The huge thing about Spore the developers wanted to point out is the fact you can design everything in the game from the actual creature to buildings to plants to vehicles. The Spore Creature Creator is simply the Creature Creator available for download to get you started on building your creatures now versus the fall.

The creator is incredibly in depth and can basically build anything you can imagine. The creator gives you a clay blog and you have absolutely infinite possibilities. You can start with the spinal cord, bending it, stretching it, shrinking it, and making it larger in size. You can add arms, legs, hands, feet, mouths, and eyes, each in any quantity or style. Your creature’s diet is determined by the mouth, carnivore, herbivore, or omnivore. There are also many tweaks you can add to each feature. There are also accessories you can add to your creature.

The free trial download contains about ¼ of the parts found in the actual creature creator, which you can buy for $10. If you sign up for a Spore account, you can email photos of your creations to friends and also record videos that can be directly sent to Youtube.

The developers continue to prove that Spore is a game of creativity as well as a combination of RPG and RTS games. For more info about Spore visit spore.com. You can also download the trial of the creature creator at the same site.

Info from ign.com and spore.com. Images from spore.com.

iPhone 3G

Okay, a little delayed, but here is my preview and opinions on the new iPhone 3G. Also, you can check out my friend Kevin’s review, although he is quite anti-apple, at funknowledge.blogspot.com.

The new iPhone, although almost everyone knew it would have 3G and GPS, was still an extremely hyped keynote on Monday, June 9. Held at the WWDC (World Wide Developer’s Conference) the keynote obviously had a lot to do with development of apps. I’ll do a review of those and some of the new features for the new iPhone coming out on July 11th.

First and foremost, the new body of the iPhone. The casing is now a full plastic and comes in black on the back. The price has also been cut to $199 for the 8GB version and $299 for the 16GB, which also comes in a white casing. The iPhone 3G feels even better in your hand, according to Steve Jobs.

Next, new features. As plainly seen from the name, the new iPhone will feature 3G for wireless data downloads. Tests presented by Jobs at the keynote shows that 3G is over 3X as fast as the Edge network, and nearing Wi-fi speeds. New iPhone users will love faster web and email access with speeds like these. Also, iPhone 3G will include GPS integrated into the Google Maps application, making it an amazing navigation device. Also, the new App Store which will act similar to the iTunes Wi-fi music store and will sell the 3rd party apps for the iPhone, more on that later. Lastly, the iPhone 3G will include accessibility to a ton of more languages.

The main focus of the iPhone 3G seems to be to make it more accessible for the enterprise. Apple had a whole video prepared of many companies discussing how well the new software (iPhone 2.0) was so easily integrated into their network. The software has compatibility with Microsoft Exchange, which will let business not have to switch any other tech. Jobs also discussed in much detail about how business can keep certain apps within their own network.

Jobs also discussed the success of the developer’s SDK and went into deep discussion on the App Store. Developer’s name the price of their apps, and can even distribute them for free. Apple keeps 30% of the sales. The new iPhone 2.0 software can also be used on the iPod Touch and will be sold for $10.

Still, even a second generation device can’t achieve perfection, and neither does the iPhone. Here’s a small list of the problems as generated by C/Net. “Unfortunately, we hoped for an even larger bundle of features in this round. Apple still leaves multimedia messaging out of the mix along with voice dialing and video recording. We still don't understand why Apple can't include these basic features, many found in even the cheapest and simplest cell phones. We were also hoping for a landscape keyboard, the capability to cut and paste, Flash support for the Safari Web browser, expanded memory, and additional Bluetooth profiles. Apple, you left us hanging in a big way. It's also disappointing to hear that the dock is now sold separately for $49, but we suppose that helped cut the price. No, you don't need the dock, but it's nice to have. Even the power adapter and the SIM card removal tool that now come in the box won't make up for its loss.” ~Cnet’s Kent German.

So, the final question remains, should you buy it? If you do not yet have an iPhone, this seems like a perfect opportunity to gain a new device if you don’t mind the small lack of nit-picky features. If you have an iPhone, you will definetly by angered by the GINOURMOUS price cut, so if you want to take advantage of it go ahead, but keep in mind that if you’re not going to take a large advantage of the new hardware features, it might not be worth it, because you can still get the software update in early July.

Guitar Hero World Tour

Yes, that's right, Guitar Hero Aerosmith hasn't even arrived and here is Red Octane and Activision getting us pumped up for Guitar Hero World Tour!!!!!!!



Since not much is known about this game, this post will simply be a small preview of the game's new features. It will be launching for the Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, and Wii and, like Rock Band, have guitar, bass, drums, and a microphone. No actual gameplay videos have been released so no one knows if that will be similar to Rock Band as well.

The drum kit will slightly differ from Rock Band. Instead of the four drum pads, it will have three, but don't worry. The yellow and orange are two symbols elevated above the actual drum pads! The bass pedal stays where it is, so now the drum set is even more realistic than Rock Band. In total, six things to hit/crash/beat/stomp on and the pads even sense how hard you hit them. The harder you hit, the louder the note.

The guitar will also get a makeover, with a sweet new black face and what looks to be similar to the solo buttons on the Rock Band guitar. Not much has been release about the microphone. The game will also feature extensive online play including the ability to have four friends at your house, as one band, against another four people, online, in a battle of the bands mode.

There is an expected fall release with big expectations, so let it be that Guitar Hero World Tour be one to remember.

Info from Crave blog, from Cnet, and guitarhero.com. More info also at guitarhero.com including videos and images for your own eyes.

Nintendo Channel

Yes, that's right, the Nintendo Channel, one that has finally come out and has all the features you could ever want! (yeah right.) Although that may not be true, this channel offers some features that Wii owners have been waiting for quite some time now. If you don't have it yet, do a Wii system update and download it from the Shop Channel.

 

The Nintendo channel is a video-based collection of all Nintendo games created for the Wii, DS, Virtual console, and Wii ware. It's weekly updated video list includes anything from TV game ads, to informational videos, to exclusive interviews. You are greeted by a simple digest video that highlights some of the new and popular videos of the week's new selections. The "blue-circle" theme gives a very Wii-ish feel to that and the straight forward menus are clear and easy to navigate. 

The channel also includes a recommendation feature where people can search by categories such as solo or multiplayer, casual or hard-core, rating, system, and gender/age. The information these categories are based on comes from people who fill out a form in the review section. Any game in the Nintendo Channel data base that has been played for more than an hour on a Wii can be rated in the categories listed above. The system works pretty well, except for the fact that the Nintendo Channel database is somewhat limited. A game like Okami (review coming soon, LONG article, AMAZING game), a third-party game developed by Capcom is not included in the list. I find this disappointing because most people know somewhat of all the Nintendo games, but its the third-party ones that need to get more mention and publicity. 

Other sections include the ad section, where you can get ads for new games to your Wii message board. Yes, finally the Wii has joined today's newest technologies (email, IM, text messaging) in the fact that you can get spam! Another neat thing I noticed was the purchase feature. On a specific game's page (includes basic release date, ESRB rating, cover art, any videos about it, etc. info) there is a purchase link that launches the Wii Internet Channel to a site where you can actually buy the game from your Wii! 

Lastly, my favorite. Although you have to allow Nintendo to see what games you've been playing and for how long (basically, the "Today's Play Time" on your message board), you can get exclusive downloads of demos of recent DS games from your Wii, to your DS! This is similar to the DS Download Stations at any game retailer, but in the comfort and privacy of your own home. So far, the demos seem to be advertising the more casual games such as Brain Age and Nintendogs, so as to extend that category of gamer's knowledge of games they might like. 

The Nintendo Channel has a lot of promise for a weekly updated channel with info on all the latest and soon to be release games. In the future, I hope for demos of Wii games too, as well as an extended game list. 

Info from: me through experience

Pics from: Nintendo.com

Wiiware

Nintendo's new Wiiware serviced launched yesterday, May 12th with six new games for the wii. Wiiware is a service Nintendo launched to allow more third-party developers to create games for the Wii. It's accessed through the Wii shop channel as a download so they don't have to deal with the whole creating the game case and disc and all of that. The new six launch titles are: Square Enix's Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King, Frontier Development's LostWinds, XGen Studios' Defend your Castle, Nnooo's Pop, High Voltage Software's V.I.P. Casino: Blackjack, and Gameloft's TV Show King. Nintendo eventually plans to have over 100 Wiiware games, but this is it for now. My guess is they will have weekly releases like for the Virtual Console. Hopefully, we'll see some games we would've never suspected would make a console, and maybe we'll see some really memorable ones, only the future can tell.

Pics and Info from the crave blog at cnet.com

Pinball Hall of Fame: Willams Collection Review

Throughout the gaming world's attempt at pinball videogames, none have completely delivered, until now. Williams Pinball brings back 10 tables from the 70's, 80's, and 90's with a truly authentic pinball experience. 

Okay, let's start with the control scheme. You use the Wiimote and Nunchuck for this game. The right and left flippers are controlled with the B button and the Z button respectively. The plunger is operated via the control stick on the nunchuck. Those are really all you need to know, all the other buttons do minor actions (2 is camera scheme, shake the controller for a tilt, press control pad for a nudge). It works very well, and although the nunchuck might be unecessary (the Wiimote on its side may have worked, too) it still provides for fun gameply. 

Now that's said, I can get into detail on the tables. As previously stated, the game has 10 different tables from a variety of time, giving you everything from basic fields to mutliple flippers and ramps every which way. A complaint I have is that the new tables tend to outshine the old ones because they are so basic. While the last four or five are full of ramps and crazy multiple flippers, the old ones only tend to have bumpers and drop targets to hit. Still, the new ones are exciting and bring back those long lost memories of playing pinball with a bunch of friends.

To do's in the game include matching goals for each table which take a lot of talent. Multiplayer modes include freeplay and tournament mode where you get points for your score at the end of a table. The game also includes instructions which give you every detail on how to score points and includes the original flyers for the machines. It's really a fabulous collection of everything you would ever want to know about these selected pinball machines. I'd give the game a definite 8 because of some lack of graphic power and some outshining tables, but otherwise it makes a really solid pinball experience.