E3 2009 - Day 3 Pictures
June 4th, 2009 / No Comments » / by admin
All the pics from Day 3 of E3. Click on the “read more” link below for the pictures.
Back to the Future?
June 3rd, 2009 / No Comments » / by Nitin Mathew
Having been to the older editions of E3, I was surprised by the sense of sobriety at E3 2009. The videogame industry’s flagship trade event has matured and seems to have taken on a more statesman like attitude.
The first day of the exhibition officially kicked off at 12pm. Our team headed to the traditional first stop at South Hall. EA, as usual, had the biggest screen on their floor and this year the booth had the feel of a large auditorium. Look out for MEGAMERS’ coverage of EA titles, especially Brutal Legend. I’m not just saying that because I am a huge fan of Tim Shafer.
SEGA was next where we got chance to check out Alpha Protocol, which is looking sweeter than the last time I saw it. Coming from the guys who made Elder Scrolls, I am seriously looking forward to this modern day action RPG. Aliens vs Predator, had one of the largest crowds with the SEGA crew showing demos of playing the Predator. Bayonetta, from Platinum Games in Japan, is looking luscious. The most common comment you hear from people when they see this title is “it’s like Devil May Cry”. I think thats a positive thing and kind of gives an idea of the imspiration that the studio draws upon.
I had to break away from the group to go do one of those “top-secret” industry meetings looking at some really cool future technology, which when launched, is going to make a lot of hardcore gamers happy. Enough said!
We regrouped with MEGAMERS’ own Mike Priest and Charged magazine’s James Francis at the SouthPeak Games stand. SouthPeak has been keeping, what could possibly be one of the industry’s biggest surprises, Section 8 relatively under wraps. It is now on the SouthPeak stand and seems like a lot of fun to play. Instead of the traditional spawn points in a multiplayer shooter, you randomly “burn in” in mid-air and free fall to the ground.
Our final stop for day 1, was also the first of our 5 scheduled visits to the Activision Blizzard booth. The booth consisted mainly of some HUGE high definition screens playing trailers of Modern Warfare 2, Guitar Hero 5, DJ Hero, Band Hero, Tony Hawk RIDE, BLUR, etc. I got a chance to meet Todd Hollenshead backstage at Activision. WOO HOO!!! I was there to get a sneak peak at Modern Warfare 2 and have a chat with the producer. MW2 looks absolutely gorgeous and i am sure that every person in that room was dumb struck by the demo.
Due to the size of Activision’s line up, we have to go back 4 more times to take everything in. Tony Hawk RIDE, with its new board peripheral looks quite cool. BLUR looks quite exciting and I caught quite a few people drawing comparisons to Project Gotham Racing.
Day 2 is going to be hectic and I hope I will have the time and energy to post this evening. Might even put up some photos.
Stay tuned!
E3 2009 - Day 2 Pictures
June 3rd, 2009 / No Comments » / by admin
All the pics from Day 2 of E3. Click on the “read more” link below for the pictures.
E3 2009 DAY TWO: Playstation Conference Impressions
June 3rd, 2009 / No Comments » / by Mike Priest
The final of the big press conferences, Sony’s display of their upcoming titles across all their platforms was somewhat of a welcome sensory overload. There were several big announcements but none more so than the official unveiling (as we know that information had previously leaked online) of the newest addition to their portable gaming line in the PSP Go! A lot of the rumors were confirmed - no more UMD, built-in wifi, bluetooth, online store etc. however the rumors of a touch screen were unfounded. but at least it’ll keep people’s grubby fingerprints from getting all over it.
Sony also demoed their response to Microsoft and Nintendo’s big push into total video game immersion ™ by showing off their advances in motion control tech. their wand-like peripheral which admittedly looks a bit daft with its glowing bobble head was surprisingly responsive and in conjunction with the eye-toy allow for a full range of movement. they showed it being used to wield various objects around the screen as well as in combat, both melee and range. it’s still early days with this one but promising nonetheless.
Games-wise they covered a whole lot of ground: Uncharted 2, MAG, Gran Turismo PSP, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, Final Fantasy XII, Final Fantasy XIV, Modnation Racers, The Last Guardian, Gran Turismo 5, God of War 3.
As for standouts it has to be said that Uncharted 2 stole the show as far as the best looking game. Yesterday we were raving about Splinter Cell Conviction, well Nathan Drake and his everyman charm has put our love for Sam Fisher’s latest joint to the test. we’re considering it the best action movie never made. There were definitely a few surprises from out of left field including Hideo Kojima coming on stage to unveil the latest MGS game for the PSP which he promised is not a spin-off but a direct sequel to the previous games. Even Rockstar (of GTA fame) got a nod with a PS3 exclusive title called Agent about a 70s spy - sadly there was nothing more than a logo for this one but we eagerly await more deets. The moment that got the biggest reaction out of those gathered came directly after a gorgeous looking, and lengthy Final Fantasy XIII video - the announcement of none other than Final Fantasy XIV, coming out in 2010. yes, we were shocked too. looks like this one’s going to be online as well.
Sony showed strong and definitely kept up with the other big 2 - especially in terms of what seems to be the hot button topic of the moment, motion control. With their massive lineup of games and the upcoming PSP Go! their well poised to carve a large chunk of 2009 all to themselves.
E3 2009 Day One: Brutal Legend Jack Black Trailer
June 2nd, 2009 / No Comments » / by Mike Priest
Brutal Legend - EA Press Conference E3 2009 from Mike Priest on Vimeo.
E3 2009 Day One: Modern Warfare 2 Gameplay Snippet
June 2nd, 2009 / No Comments » / by Mike Priest
Mordern Warefare 2 from Mike Priest on Vimeo.
E3 2009 DAY ONE: Ubisoft Conference Impressions
June 2nd, 2009 / No Comments » / by Mike Priest
Day one of E3’s press conferences was rounded up in style by Ubisoft at the LA Theatre again in downtown Los Angeles (you don’t know how thankful we are that everything was in walking distance!). Things kicked off with a trailer-ific bang as a showreel blasted us through Ubisoft’s line up for the coming year and then comedian Joel McHale took the stage as master of ceremonies for the event and actually wasn’t terrible. President/CEO Yves Guillemot then took us through a whirlwind tour of the previously aforementioned titles with a parade of developers and special guests, here they are, in very particular order: Red Steel 2, Academy of Champions, Splinter Cell Conviction, RUSE, Imagine, Your Shape, Rabbids Go Home, TMNT: Smash Up, No More Heroes 2, Assassin’s Creed 2.
Seeing as how we’ve already gushed over Splinter Cell Conviction in a previous post, we won’t go into it again, suffice to say that it looks FREAKING AMAZING (definitely our game of the show so far). Red Steel 2 definitely looked better than we expected it too and the bundled Wii Motion Plus certainly will have you waving about madly. In fact Red Steel’s manic swinging workout along with Ubisoft’s new fitness game, Your Shape, it looks like they have plans to breed a brand new generation of beefcake gamers. James Cameron made a special guest appearance to talk about the Avatar game and in the process appear to go into explaining the plot for the film - without any kind of spoiler warning! Nothing of the game was shown but he did confirm it would be in 3D(!) which we’ll reserve judgement on until we’ve seen it in action, but hey, that could really mix things up. A large portion of the conference was spent talking about how easy it is to milk money out of “tweens”, this made us yawn. a lot.
All in all a good showing, with a few surprises along the way in the form of Red Steel not looking like suck and RUSE piquing our interest with its Microsoft Surface inspired trailer. oh and SPLINTER CELL CONVICTION, nuff said.
you know the drill by now, hit us up with your comments and answers to the most important questions of the event - does James Cameron love the sound of his own voice? should use of the word “tweens” be punishable by death? does Pele secretly aspire to become the next Dumbledore? we need your answers!
E3 2009 DAY ONE: EA Conference Impressions
June 2nd, 2009 / No Comments » / by Mike Priest
Next on the agenda was the EA conference held at the Orpheum theatre. We arrived a tad late to this one as we had to make a pit-stop to pick up our badges for E3 proper tomorrow, so we didn’t get a chance to see the Sims 3 (we assume this is the case because there was no mention of it throughout the rest of the conference). We did however, get treated to a whole plethora of other titles by the quintessential video game public speaker Peter Moore himself: Need 4 Speed Shift, Dragon Age Origins, Mass Effect 2, EA Sports, Fight Night Round 4, Saboteur, Brutal Legend, APB, Star Wars: The Old Republic. With some fairly big announcements too: EA Sports Active expansion, EA publishing APB, EA Sports MMA & Crysis 2 coming to 360, PS3 and PC.
Obviously the stand outs from the list above are Bioware with their freakish ability to demo 3 titles that all look phenomenal - and parade onto the stage dressed as some pretty badass looking Jedi to boot. Tim Schafer as always managed to charm the trousers off the audience as he showed off Brutal Legend and we have to say, every time we see this game we get more and more excited for its release. And there is no denying that the EA Sports line up is mighty strong this year and with the announcement of EA Sports MMA, they’re looking to take UFC head on in what will undoubtedly be a vicious grudgematch. also, guys, Crysis 2 and APB? seriously, when did EA get so awesome? They showed off a widely diverse line up that although we had seen before recently at another press event, they still had enough bombs to drop that we came away hungry to play 99% of what was on display.
So hit the comments with your, well comments. the questions are burning - will Star Wars The Old Republic live up to the hype? Will Crysis 2 melt consoles? What are the chances of Saboteur seeing release in the Middle East?
