E3's Best In Show..... Better Late Than Never

Yes I know I’m late. I’m still trying to take in all the information that I saw during the Nintendo Press Conference. To be fair, I shall have a quick recap:

• Legend of Zelda and the Skyward Sword will be released this holiday season with a special gold Wii remote (However, no gold Wii Nunchuk)
• New Nintendo 3DS games are on the horizon with Mario Kart, Star Fox, Mario 3DS, Kid Icarus, and Luigi Mansion scheduled for the holiday season.
• The new Wii has been announced as the Wii U (I still prefer Wii Wii). However, people were concerned whether this was a new system or a new controller. It was later clarified that the Wii U is a system.
• A major announcement for the Wii U is it’s support of Third-Party developers. For the first time, Nintendo with have Tekken on their home consoles. Also, Ninja Gaiden 3, Batman: Arkham City, and Smash Brothers have been anounced as well.

All in all I gave Nintendo a B+, It was a great press conference, however , this was a conference that should have been saved for E3 2012. 

And now that I got that out the way, I cannot help to give special recognition to the Game of Show of E3 2011..........  

      I was wrong to ever doubt that this game would win Best In Show. From start to finish, it was nothing short of a (pun intended) roller-coaster ride. At first, I admit I was a little leery about Irrational Games taking the franchise to a different setting as opposed to their underwater scenery in it’s previous two games. I did think about it, having played both games, one part that I did not like about the Bioshock series was the underwater portions of the game. It is unsure if the Big Daddy’s or Little/Big Sisters will make an appearance. It is certain that when this game is released in 2012, expect a lot of copies being sold.

EM&R's Newest Arch Nemisis...... Mortal Kombat's Krypt Demon

     I’m sure by now many of you have played the new Mortal Kombat that was released in mid-April. I am also sure that you have played a “King Of The Hill” match or two (I will save my gripes for that another time.). The thing is, I love Mortal Kombat. If this was an actual person this would be the person I would not tell my girlfriend about and sneak away in the middle of the night to hang out with. However, I have a VERY HUGE problem with a certain part of the game. Introducing this guy.......

     This particular bundle of sunshine is called the Krypt Demon. In order to explain to you who or what this is, let me first explain what MK’s Krypt feature is. The Krypt is the section of the game where you spend your newly acquired “Koins” that you received in such modes as story mode, challenge tower etc. and purchase extra content (costumes, extra fatalities, artwork). Now if you’re a person like me, you play through the story mode, and finish arcade mode with every character and unlock all the content in the Krypt in one fell swoop. Wrong. I say that because the Krypt Demon is added in the Krypt to prevent you from hanging out (if ever) inside the Krypt. This jerks’ method of ejecting you from the Krypt is simple. SCARE 8,000 SHADES OF HOLY HELL OUT OF YOU!! While you’re going around coffin to coffin (which the art designs are already creepy enough), the demon randomly pops up out of nowhere (a little trivia fact: it’s actually just a 2D drawing), and lets out a blood curdling scream and then disappears. This only lasts about one and a half to two seconds, but that’s more than enough time to know when you’re not wanted. Upon scouring the Krypt for the first time and experienced my first encounter, I immediately grabbed my chest, dialed 9 and 1 (the other one would soon follow if I really did have a heart attack), turn off my Xbox and went straight to Nick Jr. for some much needed visual palate cleansing. Now this is where I have my beef. As a gamer playing your game, you have a system of unlocking your content. I’ve put up with the story mode where I can’t skip through cutscenes (Do I really care about Kitana’s life story?). I’ve put up with the ridiculous Challenge Tower where not only I have to fight with no arms, I have to play upside down and have a flawless victory while avoiding ice blasts from the background. It is another thing to punish me even further with threats of heart attacks and wrecked nerves. Shame on you Ed Boon, shame.

Sony E3 Press Conference: No Butler, No Problem

    Well done Sony. Everything that should have been said, was carried out with class. At the beginning Sony representative, Jack Tretton, addressed the the problems Sony faced in April (biggest cyber attack in history and over 171 million dollars in damages). Tretton personally apologized and assured customers that the are working diligently to never let that happen again, very professional, very endearing. Now that Sony finished the sad stories, they pull out the big guns almost immediately. Uncharted 3 is displayed, and fans immediately burst with applause. With the gameplay (that wasn’t gameplay to me, it was almost a movie!) shown, it reminded me of the Tomb Raider trailer that was shown earlier in the Microsoft press conference, just more intense. Nothing new to report as far as features, only the report that Uncharted is visually stunning game and anyone that visits Subway during the month of October, will recieve early access to the games’ full multiplayer. Afterwards, Tretton addresses the Playstations’ use of 3D. While I will save my reasons why I do not like 3D in gaming, I will simply say that this was highly unessesary. There were a few issues I had with their 3D features such as a Sony 3D display where it shows one image but a completely different image to a second player with no split screen. This is just plain old witchcraft. Along with 3D gaming, Sony announced that Shadow of Colossus and ICO, two major titles for the Playstation 2, will be digitally remastered and made for 3D. In addition, both God of War games for the PSP will be remastered for the Playstation 3.  

    After a failed attempt to show that the Playstation Move is so much easier to control playing NBA 2K12 (Kobe Bryant knows this firsthand), Sony turns its attention to its console-only exclusives. This was the key performance for Sony, telling the consumer “Yes, we offer the same game as the competition, but we have content only available on our system while the competition will have nothing” So cold Sony, so cold.

    Bad news, no Playstation 4 was not announced (nor should it). Good news, the Playstation had announced their NGP (Next Generation Portable). I would assume that Sony wants to disavow any knowledge of the PSP Go, introducing the successor to the PSP , PSP VITA. This sexy piece of handheld machinery features 2 cameras, full touchscreen, rear track pad, and full six-axis controls. This is a very nice system. My main concern is what form the games are played on (disc-based or download), and if this is download based , how can Sony rectify the problems that contributed to the demise of the PSP Go. At a $249 retail price, the VITA is available in a wi-fi only model. For gamers that need an extra wireless boost like 3G, This model is exclusively through AT&T as a wi-fi and 3G model for $299.

    This was a great conference held by Sony. I understand why Mr. Kevin Butler was a no-show for the sake of professionalism. While I did find some points with the 3D and inFamous segments a bit unnecessary, it is the exclusive content that kept me intrigued (Side note: Street Fighter X Tekken has an exclusive character, Cole McGrath from the inFamous series for the PSP VITA version). Again, job well done Sony.

So, whats your take on the conference?

Sony Press Conference: A

The Microsoft Press Conference: E3 Round-Up

    

     Microsoft has finished their E3 press conference, and were my predictions correct? Yes and no. Yes, however, Microsoft focused on too much Kinect (roughly around 70%) of the conference. Good news is more third-party support from games like Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, Forza Motorsport 4, and Mass Effect 3. We saw some new gameplay footage from Gears of War 3 (a game I am very excited for), and I can honestly say, it was rather bland for me. No explanation of the story (replay of the original story trailer), just a display of a big baddie and a mech you could not use. Tomb Raider was shown and it suffered similar fate as Gears of War. We see Lara Croft tortured and fighting for her life to escape an collapsing cave. There was a lot of quick-time events which reminded me a lot of it's successor Uncharted. As far as the system goes, a new feature has been added to Xbox is Bing and YouTube. While this is a fantastic idea, it is about time Microsoft provided this service to its customers, not to mention the Wii and PS3 have fully functional web browsers while Xbox does not. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 did not disappoint the audience as Sledgehammer and newly-staffed Infinity Ward showed off 10 minutes of gameplay footage of what looks like Navy Seals fighting in what looks like a destroyed New York City. What took my breath away was the unveiling of HALO 4! The only problem I have with this trailer is I would love to see what 343 studios can do now that Bungie is longer doing the franchise. All in all I was quite please with the Microsoft conference. No announcement on the new Xbox and too much emphasis on the Kinect, but great display of upcoming titles. So what do you guys think? Also, Expect a Sony review later on today after the conference


Microsoft review: B