Of course, not having the time to do a lot of the stuff you want to do occurs to everyone at some point in their life and there are times when people have sacrificed doing something they love to make way for other “more important” things… well that’s all well and good for other people, but video games are very important to me and the only way I’m going to give it up is when I’m dead… and even then I’ll claw back from the grave and haunt someone who has video games so they can run away in fear and I can then usurp their vidya…

So the question is… would you give up video games if it really came down to it? And if so, what would be the event in your life that would persuade you to take such drastic action? On the other hand… if you would refuse to give up video games yet but still struggle with the lack of time and growing number of games to be played/bought, how would you manage it?

The thing that is sucking up my time at the moment is university work, and though I do get a break in the middle of the week from classes, I still have to read the text books and do uni related stuff at home which ends up tiring me out… bleah. I bought Sin and Punishment: Successor to the Skies not long ago but could only find about an hour to play it the other day… and let’s not even go into my neglect of Super Mario Galaxy 2 and a long list of 360 games I should’ve BOUGHT by now!

I hope things don’t get worse because I just won’t be able to handle that much time away from video games…

A lot of information about the Nintendo 3DS has been released over the past week including specs, pictures, hands-on impressions as well as a long list of games being developed for the system. There are a lot of people at E3 who absolutely love the 3DS and were amazed by its no-glasses 3D effect first-hand. People who weren’t lucky enough to attend E3 can only take their word for it… and that’s very unfortunate.

UPDATE: Eep, just a few minutes after publishing this entry I found out about this: Nintendo 3DS’s GPU: DMP’s PICA200.

When the Nintendo DS was released back in 2004 with its oddly shaped silver shell, it was quite the handheld revolution in many ways. With its touch screen display it opened up new gameplay opportunities not possible before and also allowed the streamlining of some existing gameplay. The built-in microphone and dual screens also opened up new ways of interacting and viewing games… a lot changed from old days of the Game Boy.

The DS has been out for six years and has sold approximately 130 million units worldwide. We all know what the DS is capable of but it’s still not clearly known what the 3DS is really capable of. There are many unknowns in regards to the system, but let’s take a look at what we know and the potentials of the technology in the device.

Note: The 3DS system that Nintendo showed during the E3 2010 event was a prototype, so there’s definitely going to be some changes made to the final version of the system.

3D gaming and cameras

Not having seen the 3D effects myself, it’s very hard to comment on them… however, from what I do know, the 3D effect doesn’t come easily and is the entire reason that the 3D slider located on the right of the screen exists. Reports from various sources say that there are moments when the 3D effect can be lost and you end up seeing a double image. Other sources say that you need to be looking straight at the screen without it being on any kind of angle AND have the 3DS at a certain distance for the 3D effect to be viewable. This will certainly make the system a little harder to play for some people, however you can turn the 3D effect down and even turn it off entirely using the 3D slider provided.

Another interesting tidbit concerns the resolution of the top screen. Official Nintendo specs say that the top screen resolution is 800×240 with 400px for each eye to create the 3D effect. The reason I mention this is because of a handful of games for the DS that have you holding the handheld device like a book. As I mentioned above, as soon as you turn the 3DS at any angle that isn’t straight on, the 3D effect is immediately lost. So, when you take those two factors into account, it’s not really helping the situation for developers who want to make games for the 3DS and have them laid out in that book format.

Moving on to the cameras; it’s nice to see the addition of dual cameras on the outside shell of the system. There have been many 3D camera devices popping up lately, most of which have been shown off during CES 2010 earlier this year. Nintendo has revealed to us that you will be able to take photo’s in 3D, but I’m also hoping that the 3DS will also allow people to take 3D video as well… that would be VERY nice if it were capable of doing so. Anyway, the specs on the Nintendo site say that the outer cameras can take pictures up to 640×480 which is nice. We have no way of knowing what the maximum resolution of the inner camera is at this point in time, however there were some tech demo’s using both the inner and outer cameras to demonstrate their various functions.

Dual screens

Satoru Iwata was quick to tell the audience at the Nintendo Press Conference that they had tried to enable touchscreen support for both screens. They apparently tried and failed at the attempt due to the negative impact it would have on the 3D effect enabled on the top screen. It would’ve been ideal to have both screens set up as both touchscreens and 3D enabled but there are obvious technological limitations that are yet to be overcome.

As I’ve stated in the 3D section of this entry, the top screen resolution is 800×240 with 400px for each eye to create its 3D effect. The actual viewable resolution is 400×240 for the top screen and a resolution of 320×240 for the bottom screen. In comparison, the resolution for both screens found on the DS are 256×192. The size of the top screen found on the prototype shown at E3 is 3.53″ with the bottom screen being 3.02″. In comparison, the bottom screen is actually smaller than the 3.12″ screens on the DS lite and 3.25″ of the DSi… in fact, it’s closer to the 3″ screens found on the original DS… which is strange considering the much higher resolution.

From the looks of things the vertical height of the bottom screen is the same size as the top screen, however I feel that the size of the bottom screen, in my eyes, is unacceptable considering what we’re used to with later versions of the DS. I’m hoping they change this in the final production model of the 3DS; I really don’t want to have to deal with any kind of downgrade when switching to the 3DS.

I personally feel that the bottom screen should be 400×240 just like the top screen and have the vertical height that is at least identical to the screens of the DSi… unfortunately, many developers have had the development kits for the 3DS for quite awhile and the bottom screen will keep its current resolution setting.

Controls and other features

The button layout for the 3DS is similar to the various versions of the DS with the obvious major difference being the D-Pad being moved to the secondary position and a new analog slider at a primary position. Many who have tried out the system itself have commented that the analog slider feels very nice to use with its concave design, large surface area and movement resistance. It’s been stated that the analog slider on the 3DS is far superior to the analog nub found on the PSP… which is a HUGE sigh of relief for everyone concerned. The D-Pad itself looks to be of the same design as the D-Pad found on the Wii Remote… hopefully it uses the exact same materials as well, I happen to like the way the Wii Remote D-Pad feels.

On the right there are the usual A, B, X, Y buttons as well as a power button which I assume functions with a delay timer so the player has to hold it down for a few seconds to turn the system on and off. This will make some people feel much safer in case of accidental button presses. The Start and Select buttons are now located underneath the touchscreen and appear to be touch sensitive buttons. In between the Star and Select buttons is a Home button which is an obvious influence from the Wii. I’m sure there are quite a lot of Wii elements added to the 3DS which we haven’t seen yet.

The front end of the system has a single 3.5mm headphone jack as well as power and charging indicator lights. On the DSi, players had the ability to turn the wireless for the system on and off using the options menu; on the 3DS the wireless switch is built into the hardware and is located on the right side of the system. On the left side there is a volume slider as well as an SD card slot similar to the one found on the DSi and DSi XL.

The backside of the system has the 3DS port which is also capable of taking in DS games, however I don’t know exactly how the port works to allow both… it may have to do with the notch found on 3DS game carts. Along with the game port is a slot to hold the stylus which is apparently going to be a telescoping stylus that is 4 inches when fully extended. However, one of the more interesting features of the 3DS seen so far which many people have mostly ignored is the addition of an IR port located next to the stylus port. From the looks of things, Nintendo liked the IR feature of Pok&ecute;mon Heart Gold & Soul Silver so much that they’ve got plans to use it in the future… or it could just be something that’s only featured on the prototype models.

And of course, the top section features stereo speakers as well as the 3D slider, inward facing camera and obviously the 3D screen… if you hadn’t noticed by now. Finally, the touchscreen itself, located on the bottom section, may not have any real changes made to it since the technology is the same, however judging from the higher resolution screen and smaller screen size than the DS lite, the sensitivity of the touchscreen may be higher to compensate for the change.

With all of that said, I should remind people that the design of the 3DS shown at E3 2010 was only a prototype and that the final version of the 3DS may have some changes which will effect the layout of the buttons and other features.

Motion controls

An interesting addition to the 3DS and one that wasn’t actively demonstrated at E3 are the motion controls. According to official specs, the 3DS has an accelerometer and gyroscope which gives it the same functionality as the Wii Remote with Wii MotionPlus.

The odd part is the effect the motion controls will have on 3D screen. As I’ve explained before, the folks who got to handle the 3DS in their own hands commented about how fragile the 3D effect could be at times. I find it odd that the 3DS would have motion controls with a device that loses its 3D effect whenever the system isn’t viewed straight on and at a certain distance.

Nintendo has stated that they’re aware of this issue so it’ll be interesting just what they’ll do about it with the final production model. However, if this issue isn’t dealt with it will mean that developers would have to work their way around it if they want to use both 3D and motion controls in their games at the same time.

System power

No official specifications have been released for the 3DS hardware, however there is obviously a substantial power increase from the DSi judging by the videos, screenshots and first-hand experiences from people who have played the system. Many speculate that the 3DS is on par with the PSP or is perhaps even more powerful than the system considering the fact that the 3DS has to display visuals on two screens as well as creating the 3D effect on the top screen. Other speculations suggest that the 3DS may be as powerful as the PlayStation 2, Dreamcast or possibly even as powerful as a GameCube or Wii.

From the looks of some of the screenshots released for the 3DS, it seems like this is quite a capable system that is ultimately limited by the small resolutions of its dual screens.

Above are two images showing screenshots of Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D “The Naked Sample” and compares them to screenshots of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater for the PlayStation 2 and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker for the PlayStation Portable. For this comparison I have preserved the resolution of each game to give a better idea of what you’re seeing… though, obviously the shots of the 3DS game won’t be exactly how it should be seen since it should have a 3D effect.

I’m not going to go into the intricate details when looking at these comparison shots since “The Naked Sample” isn’t a final game and was only shown as a tech demo for the 3DS… that and, as stated before, we can’t really see the 3D effect that the 3DS is design for. However, the screenshots I have posted up are so you can decide for yourself where the 3DS fits in all of this…

My personal belief is that the 3DS may turn out to be a mini GameCube… but I don’t have any proof to back up that statement; just my hopes…

Wireless connection and online

Nintendo did spend a few short moments at their press conference to talk about the new wireless features of the 3DS. Like the DSi, it will support IEEE 802.11 with WPA/WPA2 security settings. It’s obvious that it will support both B and G standards, of course there’s no way to know if it will support the new N wireless standard… would be nice, but there are doubts it’ll go that far.

The internet access is said to be a lot easier this time around with the 3DS having the ability to automatically connect to open wireless sources it detects without the need for configuring any settings. It’s also been stated that the 3DS can also access the internet as well as other 3DS systems to transfer game data even when the specific game isn’t in the system, all while in sleep mode. I’m thinking this could also mean that Nintendo could use this feature to spread firmware updates to 3DS systems not connected to the internet for whatever reason. If true, it would mean that anyone who has any “less than legal” devices or modifications for the 3DS will have to make sure to keep that wireless switch turned off permanently.

I’m hoping to see some interesting additions to the 3DS online system… but most of all, I’m hoping that Nintendo somehow does away with its crappy Friend Code system and moves towards a more Xbox Live type service… but free, of course.

Final thoughts

From what I hear, there wasn’t much in the way of playable games shown off during E3 2010. There was a port of Star Fox 64 as well as Nintendogs + cats and some nifty playable and non-playable tech demo’s. The different screenshots released during the expo showed off different types of visuals. Some were closer to the quality of the original DS while others looked like they were close to being roughly GameCube quality. Many have commented that the model for Pit from Kid Icarus: Uprising looks exactly the same as how he is seen in Super Smash Bros. Brawl… though we won’t know for sure how similar the two models are until we dump them both into an editing program and compare.

Having the 3D effect as well as the motion controls and analog slider is definitely going to open up many new gameplay possibilities… but for the most part we’re all going to have to play the waiting game to find out what developers really have. I’m sure there’s going to be an initial period where the games are only going to seem like small steps up from the DS, but I am hoping that at least a couple of them will show that the 3DS can do things the DS could never dream of.

There are still a lot of unknowns concerning the 3DS, but I’m sure we’ll end up finding out about most of them in the coming months… though the system won’t reveal all of its secrets until it’s finally released and all those tech-heads out there can take it apart to see exactly what’s inside.

While we do wait for the eventual release of the 3DS, Nintendo fans have a lot to play in the coming months on both DS and Wii… so it’s not like things are going to be dull.

As you can probably tell from the above image… Nintendo continues to laugh at the measure of their own success and their ability to print more and more money. It’s an unstoppable force unlike any we’ve ever seen and will one day consume the entire universe. Who will stop them? How can they be stopped? This is madness!

Of course, there were a lot of other great things being shown at E3 and this entry will go through everything that I have absorbed for the past few days…

In this entry I’m going to focus on the obligatory “Who won E3?” rankings out of the big three companies… so to tell us who won E3, let’s take a look at this next image which is OVER NINE THOUSAAAAANDD KB…

So why did Microsoft come third, Sony second and Nintendo the overall winner?…

Microsoft Press Conference

Microsoft came out in full swing with a pre-E3 event officially revealing Kinect (formerly “Project Natal”) with the help of Cirque du Soleil. The result was Microsoft giving everyone quite the acid trip that apparently a lot of press who attended did not want to be an active part of… Luckily, Microsoft didn’t have that level of ball tripping in their official E3 conference. They started out with a line up of traditional games including Call of Duty: Black Ops, Metal Gear Solid: Rising, Gears of War 3, Fable III, Kingdoms, and of course Halo Reach. The tone then changed and Microsoft opened the doors to a more casual focus with Kinect. They showed an impressive array of features and games for Kinect then finally revealed the new, slim version of the Xbox 360.

The first half of Microsoft’s showing was very standard, showing off very traditional based games that’s we’ve all known about for quite awhile. There wasn’t anything really surprising or wonderful about that part of the show, it was all just steady as she goes.

On the other hand, the latter half of the show had Microsoft delve into an area where its more “hardcore” fans don’t want them to go. Along with Sony, Microsoft is following Nintendo’s lead and reaching out to the expanded audience with Kinect. It is an admirable goal and I hope they find their own piece of the market to compete with Nintendo, however… I have no interest in any of the casual expanded audience games for Wii… and I don’t have any interest in any of the casual expanded audience games for Kinect or PlayStation Move for that matter… so as great as it is, Kinect isn’t showing me anything I’m particularly interested in.

For these reasons, Microsoft comes third in my books. They have a solid line-up of traditional games, but they’re all titles I have known about for quite some time. E3 is about showing off new games to look forward to that we haven’t heard about before. Microsoft didn’t do it for me… sorry.

Oh, and the most boring part of the show that I didn’t really care about is the whole deal with ESPN… great if you’re into that sort of thing, but I’m not.

You can watch the Microsoft Press Conference through GameTrailers.com:
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7

Now here’s a closer look at the key moments of their conference in the order they were shown…

Call of Duty: Black Ops

Black Ops was pretty much as you would expect, dark, gritty, brown and full of people from third world countries you can shoot down at your leisure. As always, the visuals look impressive and there was some nice attack chopper action at the latter half of the presentation. Microsoft also announced at the same time that they’ve made a deal that will have all future CoD games released on the Xbox 360 before any other platform.

Metal Gear Solid: Rising

While Rising was shown off during the Microsoft conference, I’m actually more interest in the possibilities of PlayStation Move support in the PS3 version of the game. In any case, Hideo Kojima and his trademark trendy glasses hit the stage and presented us with a trailer that showed some gameplay that involved a lot of slicing and dicing. Whatever Raiden could get his hands on was soon cut into small pieces… people, vehicles, buildings… watermelons.

The trailer focused purely on the action elements of the game which made it seem like a hack n’ slash of sorts but also demonstrated some precision cutting. The idea of Rising seems to be to allow players to perform the impressive moves the likes of which are seen in the cutscenes of MGS4. It’s not all action based though, it’s been suggested that the game will still feature stealth gameplay that will be quicker and more ninja-like than what we’re used to with Snake.

Rising is going to be the story that ties the events of MGS2 with MGS4. I’m sure we’ll discover at the beginning of the game how Raiden ended up with his artificial body as well helping to explain more of the mysteries and loose ends that still plague parts of the Metal Gear universe… at least concerning MGS2. I can’t wait to play it; you can never get too much Metal Gear!

Gears of War 3

To be honest, while it does look good, there really isn’t anything that’s new and fantastic about Gears of War 3… I don’t really know what else to say about it aside from, “oh look, they added some female main characters”… which isn’t really that big a deal. In any case, the series is strong and the fans are getting a good game. Oh right, and also four player co-op which is always good to have.

I still have to finish my copy of the first Gears of War and then start Gears of War 2… which means I’ll eventually get Gears of War 3, but the thing that really sucks is that I can never find anyone to play co-op with.

Fable III

Much like the previous games shown, Fable III is just what you would expect. Peter Molyneux hits the stage and shows off a trailer for the game which shows a different period that involves pirates, yay! Molyneux explained to the audience about some of the additions and changes to the game for its third instalment.

Again, like with Gears of War… I haven’t actually finished the previous games and I know it’s something I really need to do. I may eventually get Fable III, but it’s not a priority for me.

Kingdoms

Not much is known about Project Kingdoms aside from the fact that it’s a game made by Crytek and seems to be based around Gladiatorial combat. A short teaser trailer of the game was revealed during the show and I’m sure we’ll hear more about this soon in the near future.

Halo: Reach

Halo: Reach is Microsoft’s biggest game of the show and is truly a game for Halo fans since it’s based around a pivotal moment in the Halo universe history… if you’re not a big enough fan of Halo on the other hand, then Reach probably won’t make that big an impact for you. The gameplay for Reach looks pretty standard for a Halo game, though there are plenty of differences that have been shown off in the last few months.

The trailer shown during the Microsoft conference showed off more of Reach and ended with a climatic space battle that went down very well with the crowd. Halo fans are going to have one hell of a time when Reach is finally released.

I kind of wonder where they’ll go with Halo after they complete the development of Reach…

Kinect for Xbox 360

People who aren’t part of the regular traditional gaming crowd are abuzz with the news of video games without a controller. It’s an expanded audience dream come true and I honestly think it’s a much better option than Wii in this instance. I personally feel that Kinect has more to offer than just expanded audience games however. The combination of dual cameras, the heat sensitive sensor and the microphone can also be used to enhance certain traditional based games as well.

Perhaps, when developers begin to consider Kinect based enhancements for some traditional based games, I may end up buying Kinect… but at this stage it doesn’t seem very likely at all.

Microsoft began their Kinect presentation by showing the audience the different gesture and voice commands people can use with the Kinect enabled 360 dashboard (which reminded me strongly of the Wii Channels Menu) and some new features to go along with it… at this point Microsoft began to lose my attention…

ESPN on demand

Microsoft then moved onto further additions to the Xbox Live service for gold members… ESPN on-demand joins Xbox in ‘exclusive partnership,’ free for Gold members complete with a bunch of neat features, etc, etc. AWESOME… if I cared at all for it… but I don’t.

Kinect games

Luckily for Microsoft they finished their ESPN gibberish and went onto talking about the actual GAMES for Kinect. A little girl came on stage to demonstrate her love for a tiger cub named “Skittles” with made the audience go DAAAAAWWWWWW with a game called Kinectimals. Another game called Kinect Adventures showed off the ability to track body movements, however the game to really do that spectacularly was Kinect Dance Central. There were a whole array of Kinect specific games being shown off and they were all perfect for a family or a bunch of people who are really, REALLY drunk.

There were some traditional based games shown such as Forza, however the limits of the Kinect functionality became obvious when viewing the on-stage demonstration since you could only control the steering and didn’t really have any controls of the pedal or gears for that matter. The Star Wars game that was also shown featuring a Clone Wars scene also seemed restrictive this way… though the footage shown of that Star Wars game seemed to be concept more than anything else.

It’s easy to see that Kinect is going to be extremely popular for its target audience, however as I said before there’s nothing of interest in this line-up for me.

Xbox 360 Slim

“Sup dawg, I heard you like Xbox so I put an Xbox inside your Xbox”… and that’s how the new design of the Xbox 360 was revealed. I like the design, though it still looks like the design of a Dell PC tower to me… many people have commented that the 360 slim looks even more like a PC tower than ever before. As I’m sure everyone knows by now, the 360 slim has a 250GB HDD and built-in wireless 802.11n… and instead of a Red Ring of Death you’ll have a Red Dot of Death…

The audience were lucky enough to get a free 360 slim… the bastards. If I had the money to waste, I’d get a 360 slim, but I don’t… speaking of which, if I had the money to waste, I’d get a PS3 slim as well but there’s nothing I can really do about any of that.

Nice way to end the show though…

Sony Press Conference

Sony began their conference talking about 3D television, its relation to the PS3 and how it’s the wave of the future. To prove their point they showed off Killzone 3 and then announced a number of other games to feature 3D support coming soon to PlayStation 3.

From 3D they went on to focus on PlayStation Move and Sony’s plan for it debut, it’s pricing and the game to support the motion control system. Sony then showed off a never before seen Move game called Sorcery, then moved onto Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 and then Heroes on the Move.

Kevin Butler then took the stage and rambled on about some stuff… I know there are many fans of Kevin Butler but I’m not one of them. He talked too damn much and it was halting the showing of more games… but the talking didn’t stop, they just kept on going straight into the topic of promoting the PSP, yada, yada, yada…

After they had finally shown off some PSP games, they moved back to the PS3 and a selection of new games coming for the system including LittleBigPlanet 2. After talking a little bit about LBP2, the new premium only service called PlayStation Plus was revealed, its pricing and just what the service was about. After that the games finally rolled in again starting with Medal of Honor, then Dead Space 2 (one of my favourites), Portal 2, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, Final Fantasy XIV, Gran Turismo 5, inFamous 2, and finally ending the show with Twisted Metal.

The reason that Sony is in second place is because of the huge variety of games they showed off in their conference… but the biggest factor may have to do with PlayStation Move itself… I’ll explain more later on in the entry.

You can watch the Sony Press Conference through GameTrailers.com:
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8

Now here’s a closer look at the key moments of their conference in the order they were shown…

3D experience

Sony has been known to use the PlayStation as their platform for persuading people to invest in certain technologies. This E3 they’re committed to try to bring people into the 3D realm… of course that involves people owning a PS3 or another device capable of playing 3D movies, not to mention a 3D enabled TV which can become quite expensive… oh and that need to wear 3D glasses which is a novelty that people do enjoy once in awhile.

Sony seems to be invested pretty heavily in this, which is no surprise since it supports other parts of their business very well… to be honest I like the idea of 3D with games, but the steps I have to take to achieve this for the PS3 are a little too expensive to justify… that and I have a perfectly good LCD TV which has served me well for quite some time.

It’s actually a little funny watching all of the effort Sony put into their presentation to show off the 3D experience they want us all to have after watching the Nintendo conference which only ended about an hour before this one began…

Killzone 3

To prove the strength of the claims Sony has been making about 3D and its place in our future, a 3D enabled presentation of Killzone 3 began and the audience was asked to put on their 3D glasses. I really wish I was there to experience it for myself; I’m interested to see just how the 3D will look with games…

Even without being able to witness the 3D experience myself, the visuals for Killzone 3 still looked impressive as always. I think what really interests me isn’t the 3D itself, but the inclusion of PlayStation Move controls for the game… I’m interested to see how they turn out and if it is as good as I’m hoping it is I may end up getting the game. Oh, speaking of Move…

PlayStation Move

Sony is proudly proclaiming that this changes everything… actually it just gives PS3 owners the ability that Wii owners have been enjoying for quite a long time now… and I’m sure a lot of PlayStation fans are sick of the comparisons to Wii, but it is what it is (especially when you see stuff like this). However, thanks to its very close comparison to the Wii Remote, it also means that like Wii, Move is able to be used to control more traditional based games with great ease… it also helps when developers have been doing the whole trial and error testing on Wii for all of this time to perfect how motion controls should be working with these sorts of games.

Sure, Sony is releasing a lot of expanded audience type games just as Microsoft is about to with Kinect, however Move has the ability to be easily utilised in games such as Killzone 3, SOCOM 4 and…

Sorcery

Sorcery was very interesting… it was like a Harry Potter game the way it should be made and it really shows EA how things should be done. It was actually a little strange watching the demo of Sorcery being played on stage, especially when Nintendo had demonstrated Skyward Sword in their press conference which ended just an hour before Sony’s started. The comparison really did cement the fact that while these two technologies use very different methods to achieve the result… the result is strikingly similar.

I wonder how the resulting relationship between PS3 and Wii games will unfold now that Sony is about to release Move.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11

I’m not really much of a sports game fan, but this Tiger Woods game did demonstrate how well it works with PlayStation Move and it’s similarity to the control method found on Wii. I’m sure a lot of people will appreciate the HD visuals a lot more than the SD Tiger Woods counterpart.

Heroes on the Move

Ah, now this game is very interesting… well, in a way. I’m not a fan of any of the characters involved, however the concept is something gamers have wanted for a very long time… but for Mario and Sonic. It’s an interesting concept… I wonder if they’re able to combine these characters faithfully to how their fans remember them from previous games.

PlayStation Portable promotions

This is about the time Kevin Butler came on stage and started talking endlessly about stuff I didn’t really care about… worse still is that he start on this whole rant about gamer pride which I found really lame…

They went on to show off some of their new PSP promotional material to try and get more interest in the PSP. They were really preaching to the choir at this point and it didn’t seem like they were really doing anything of consequence to help expand their audience for the system. Despite this I do admit the PSP is doing very well and is enjoying some pretty good success. A few games were shown off but finally they went onto something a lot more interesting…

LittleBigPlanet 2

LittleBigPlanet 2 is on the way and it’s set to become an even more in-depth game making tool than the first game ever was. Sony showed off some of the new features present in LBP 2 on-stage at their conference… it reminded me that I have been horribly neglecting my copy of the first game… and I should really play more of it when I have the time.

PlayStation Plus

Sony finally revealed official details for their premium online service… to be honest I didn’t pay much attention during this part of the conference. However, from what I took in, it’s not really a service most people would be interested in unless they’re hardcore fans of the PlayStation 3.

Medal of Honor

Medal of Honor is making a move to try to step on Call of Duty’s toes in its new outing. The games do look very similar… brown, gritty and full of people in a third world country you can shoot down at your leisure… it’s going to be extremely popular with a lot of people. Oh, and here’s a trailer for the game released during E3.

Dead Space 2

This is one of my most anticipated games though I do realise that there are a lot of people who didn’t even bother to play the first game! I just can’t understand how people can purposefully not play games that must be played…

I can’t wait to play Dead Space 2 in the dead of night with my surround sound up just as I played the first game. I also can’t wait to see where the story takes us in the sequel to the first and how the events of Dead Space: Extraction tie into the first game.

Sony also announced during the show that the special edition versions of the game will include the PS3 version of Dead Space: Extraction… though I also hear that Extraction will be available to download from PSN as well. Extraction will obviously be using PlayStation Move… but it’s yet to be seen if Dead Space 2 will have Move functionality too… if it does then I may just have to buy Dead Space 2 for the PS3 instead of the 360… and this is one of the biggest reasons why Sony is in second place for me. They’re convincing me to possibly NOT buy my games for the 360.

Portal 2

I’m purposefully not going to say anything about Portal 2 except to say you should watch this trailer, you monster. What more needs to be said? It’s Portal.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood

Assassin’s Creed II had quite the ending and while Brotherhood is said to be an online multiplayer experience, the story of Ezio does continue in this instalment and I think it will become a bridge to the events of Assassin’s Creed III.

From what I’ve seen of various impressions of the single and multiplayer parts of the games, there seem to be mixed reviews and quite different opinions about what Ubisoft is trying to achieve… I know I’m going to end up getting this game either way since I’m interested in seeing what kind of additional story elements I can grab from this game…

Final Fantasy XIV Online

Square Enix never lets Final Fantasy rest for a single moment, of course it’s no wonder they don’t since it’s their very own money printing machine. If I had any interest in investing my time in playing MMO’s whatsoever, I would probably be very interested in Final Fantasy XIV Online… but if I were interested in MMO’s, I’d spend all that time on The Old Republic rather than FF XIV.

Gran Turismo 5

If I wasn’t so terrible at Gran Turismo and didn’t lack the interest in cars then it’s a game I would definitely get. When it comes to racing I’m more of an arcade/kart racer than anything else since I don’t take racers that seriously. That said, Gran Turismo 5 looks absolutely stunning and it’s been a long time coming… this game is going to absolutely explode in Europe…

inFamous 2

To be honest, I don’t really have that much to say about inFamous 2, I know it has quite a few fans but it’s never seemed like that huge a game to me. In any case, it’s another in a long list of exclusive titles for the PS3 and is doing a lot to add value to the system.

Twisted Metal

David Jaffe lied to all of us when he said there would be no Twisted Metal for PS3… but whatever. I know the series has been going for a long time now, but I only really played the first game on the original PlayStation thanks to my friends. It was a very fun multiplayer experience and the PS3 version of the game looks to be a lot of fun.

The only problem is that because it’s heavily based around the multiplayer experience I may not get it because I hardly know anyone who plays their PS3 online… which sucks because it really does look like a great game.

Nintendo Press Conference

Nintendo’s previous two years at E3 were dismal failures in the eyes of many, including mine. They focused on the expanded audience and seemed to have forsaken their core audience. Nintendo are very capable of having a kick ass E3 showing as they have demonstrated in years before… this year they have again gone back to that kick ass nature of theirs.

They opened up with a strong title, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, with a full demonstration by Shigeru Miyamoto himself. After the Skyward Sword presentation, Reggie entered the stage and showed off a set of what they called “bridge games” which included Mario Sports Mix, Wii Party and Just Dance 2… All of which I don’t really care about… at all. I will say though, that Just Dance 2 seemed kind of silly after watching Microsoft’s presentation featuring Kinect’s ability to detect full body motion for their own dancing game… Luckily they didn’t spend too much time on these titles and instead went on and talked about a line-up of games coming out for DS and Wii which we all really want.

They started their epic line-up by showing off Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, then jumped straight into GoldenEye 007, Epic Mickey, Kirby: Epic Yarn, Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies, Metroid: Other M and Donkey Kong Country Returns. Unlike the other conferences, a lot of what Nintendo was showing was new and exciting to me. Every single game shown off so far and coming up are games that I will definitely be buying. I cannot wait!

Of course, it didn’t end there… Satoru Iwata took to the stage and I immediately began to pay attention. I love his speeches, the way he talks in Engrish, his accent, his very nature. He’s the nice guy you give your attention to because you feel you’d be rude if you were to ignore him. So with all of that attention fixed on him, Iwata revealed to the world the Nintendo 3DS… even better, Nintendo revealed Kid Icarus: Uprising and a long list of first, second and third party titles being developed for the system.

Aside from the three titles I mentioned before, everything Nintendo showed off at their conference was something I ABSOLUTELY want. I got very excited at some of the games shown off during their show… of course, I do understand that if you’re not a fan of Nintendo’s games then most of what they showed during their conference won’t have any impact aside from 3DS… people would have to be mad not to be excited by it.

Well done Nintendo… well done. You are the king of E3 once again.

You can watch the Nintendo Press Conference through GameTrailers.com:
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7

One more thing before I go on, Nintendo has some exceptionally good stuff on their E3 2010 site; you should try and check it out before it’s taken down and the link is redirected to the regular Nintendo web site.

Now here’s a closer look at the key moments of their conference in the order they were shown…

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Shigeru Miyamoto came out on stage to demonstrate Skyward Sword himself, however the on-stage demonstration did come across a bit of a hurdle when the motion controls ended up failing during key moments of the demo. People who have watched the previous years of E3 will notice that trying to present Wii controls on stage has never worked out well for Nintendo.

Luckily, Nintendo allowed people to play Skyward Sword straight after the conference ended and a lot of impressions spilled out into the net telling everyone how great the controls really were. After watching a few video impressions myself, it seemed very clear that Nintendo had spent a lot of time with the control interface for Skyward Sword. Many video impressions clearly demonstrated the near 1:1 motions being registered without any lag.

The debut trailer for Skyward Sword was also revealed, showing off some nice features of the game which I will talk about in more detail below…

Controls

The controls for Skyward Sword seemed very concentrated and refined compared to past 3D Zelda games. Instead of setting specific items to a selection of buttons, all items are now set using the single B button on the Wii Remote. Hold B and then point on the screen to select an item. Then once an item is set you either use it by pressing a button (usually the A button) or by making a motion of some sort in context with the item. To put the item away you tap B. Extremely simple and it saves players from having to reach for the D-Pad like in the Wii version of Twilight Princess.

Another nice addition is that potions/bottles are easily accessible using the minus button. Tap to allow Link to drink a potion while on the run or hold the minus button to bring up a bottle select screen similar to the item select screen you bring up when you hold B. The plus button on the other hand performs a much more simple function by bringing up the map screen.

Sword swings are, as mentioned before, near 1:1 thanks to the requirement of Wii MotionPlus (which I’m sure will be bundled with every copy of Skyward Sword at launch). Also, just as in the Wii version of Twilight Princess, the Link featured in Skyward Sword is also right handed.

From watching video impressions, players discovered large mushrooms around the demo map area that they could practice on. With each slice that players made on the mushroom, it showed that the game did register many different angles of slicing fairly accurately. Some videos had players making exaggerated moves while other videos showed players performing small flicks. No matter which way the player chose to perform the motion control movements, the game responded well. Oh, and you can also make Link stab his sword forward if you make a stabbing motion with the Wii Remote… hooray.

I did notice in some videos that players did try to trick the game in various ways, mostly by trying to move the Wii Remote faster than the game could register. Extremely fast motions didn’t seem to register very well when the player was trying to execute them in a row, however I don’t really see that as a bad thing since it ends up preventing you from flail your arms around like an idiot in the first place. All you need are small movements and the game will follow them precisely. No need to get nuts… the same thing really applies for every motion controlled Wii game.

Link is able to perform a spin-attack by having the player flick the Wii Remote and Nunchuk in the same direction horizontally. In addition, he is able to perform a vertical version of his spin-attack if the player flicks the Wii Remote and Nunchuk vertically at the same time… very nice. Of course, there’s something even better than a spin attack… Skyward Sword allows to you perform sword beam attacks just like in the first Zelda game and all you have to do is point your sword… skyward to let it charge. Link is also able to perform evasive moves such as rolling, side jumps and a back flip by tapping the A button while moving the control stick in a relevant direction just as he has been able to do in previous games. Also, tapping the A button by itself while Link has his sword out will still let you perform a jump slash.

Oh, and to go with that sword action there is also the shield. Instead of tying the shield control to a button or tethered to the Z-lock like with the Wii version of Twilight Princess, it is now fully motion based. To ready the shield all you have to do is flick the Nunchuk. While the shield is up, the player is able to perform a shield bash by flicking the Nunchuk again just like you’re able to in Twilight Princess.

After some observation I discovered that Link automatically lowers the shield himself during appropriate moments, for example when he’s putting away his sword he will also put away his shield, and when Link requires his left hand he will also put away the shield. I have also noticed that during combat, if Link’s shield his hit hard enough it will fall back into a rest position which means the player has to flick the Nunchuk to ready it again. Indeed, from what I have seen so far of the combat for Skyward Sword, Nintendo is focusing a lot on more advanced combat tactics.

As with every other Zelda game, Link has a large arsenal of different weapons for every occasion. The demo of Skyward Sword at E3 featured the following… A slingshot, whip, bombs, bow and arrow and some kind of mechanical flying beetle. A close inspection of the item select screen also showed three question marks to suggest there may be at least three more items yet to be revealed.

Here’s a closer look at the items Link has…

• The slingshot seems to control very similarly to how you would control it in Twilight Princess. A round cursor appears on screen, the player uses the Wii Remote to aim at targets on the screen and press A to fire. It’s a very quick mid-range weapon when you can’t get close enough to use your sword.
• According to some sources, a member of the development team who was working on both Spirit Tracks and Skyward Sword is the one who added the whip to both games. Once the whip is equipped it’s pretty obvious how you use it since it just takes a flick of the Wii Remote. The whip can be used on enemies and can also be used to collect items at a distance.
• Bombs can be used in many different ways. Players can equip a bomb and then set it down on the spot, or they can throw it to a specific spot in the distance with the aid of an arc displayed on the screen. Alternately, players can now roll the bomb on the ground… I foresee a bowling mini-game in Skyward Sword!
• While the only factor that distinguished the bow and arrows from the slingshot in Twilight Princess was the bow’s superior range, Skyward Sword gives the bow a much different feel and combines what Nintendo has learned from Wii Sports Resort into the mix. The bow is basically Link’s sniper rifle, allowing him to accurately target very far away targets with great accuracy. When selected, players will go into a first person view and just like with the archery in Wii Sports Resort, will hold the Wiimote and Nunchuk as they would with a real life bow. Aiming is controlled by the Wii Remote and from the videos I’ve seen it doesn’t matter specifically how you hold the Wii Remote, it will just work. To ready an arrow for firing you motion the Nunchuk back and to fire the arrow you press C on the Nunchuk. Oh, and to go along with the sniper rifle comment before, you can press down on the D-Pad to zoom… Seems complicated when you explain it but people seemed to get the hang of it very quickly in video impressions of the game.
• Finally, the mechanical flying beetle functions in a similar manner to the Gale Boomerang and hawk does in Twilight Princess. The player is able to aim in whatever direction they want the beetle to fly and then tap A to launch it. While in the air the beetle is controllable by the player and they are able to fly around the area using A to speed up. I’ve observed that the beetle is able to grab items and transport bombs from bomb flowers and attack enemies or destroy far away objects with them. A very handy item…

The different items also add to the tactical nature of defeating enemies. Instead of using the shield bash to deflect deku nuts back at a Deku Scrub, I’ve noticed a video where a player uses his slingshot to stun them so Link could use his sword to finish them off. In another instance I saw another player throw a bomb at a Deku Baba and watch him eat it which ended up blowing it and other Deku Baba’s near him into a million pieces. I’ve also seen people use the Mechanical Beetle to fly into and kill far away enemies. Hell, I’ve even seen video of Link using his bow to stick an arrow through a health heart, possibly so it wouldn’t disappear and he could use it later if needed. All of these factors make me like this game more and more because it allows players to create their own way of playing through certain parts of the game with the tools on hand.

Actually, probably the most interesting feature that is included in the game and is something a lot of Zelda fans have really wanted for a long time is the ability to dash. In addition, it looks like the dash ability functions similarly to Assassin’s Creed and allows Link to climb ledges… though I don’t expect Link to start climbing tall buildings just as Altaïr or Ezio would… I’ve also noticed that whenever Link starts his dash, a green circle will appear that will begin to count down. Judging from this it seems that that circle represents the energy Link has that limits his dash to only short bursts. One more thing, I’ve noticed that when players flick the Nunchuk while Link is dashing he will roll on the ground, but when you flick the Nunchuk while he is not, he will immediately go into a defensive stance with his shield and sword at the ready… Nice.

Visuals

There are very mixed reactions to the cel-shaded visuals of Skyward Sword, Some people think it’s bland, others dismiss the visuals since they are in standard definition instead of their preferred choice of high definition. There are many who seem to react the same way they did to the cel-shaded visuals of The Wind Waker when it was revealed all those years ago… which is a very negative reaction. Of course, there are many other people who really like what they see.

I personally love what they’ve done with Skyward Sword and can see exactly why it looks the way it does. The overall design is very similar to that of Twilight Princess, however Nintendo has obviously taken a page from The Wind Waker’s cel-shaded art style. The combination of the two is a brilliant move in my opinion.

Think about it, the cel-shaded effect of The Wind Waker makes the game virtually timeless. On the other hand, the visual style of Twilight Princess, while being very dark and gritty compared to The Wind Waker tends to age quickly due to its textures, especially when the competition is in high definition. No “realistic” looking game fairs very well on Wii so the best titles are the ones that have some kind of art style to them that takes them away from that form of “realism.”

Shiggy has said that the overall art style for Skyward Sword was made to resemble French impressionists, however they have also stated that the graphics are still being worked on so the final game may change from what we’re seeing so far, though I think it’ll be more of a refinement than anything else. In fact, it’s been clearly stated that if this game had kept the same art style as Twilight Princess then it would have been released by now. I’m guessing that the majority of the game has been finished and that Nintendo are now in the middle of making final touches… of course, the game has a 2011 release date so we’ll all have to be patient.

Story and more information…

From what has been revealed so far, the story of Skyward Sword is set on an island called Skyloft that floats high in the sky in which Link is a native inhabitant. He has lived there for all of his life and knows nothing of the land below, however certain events take place and Link is forced down to the surface. What he discovers is a world filled with evil… I’m guessing that the land below is Hyrule and that it has already been taken over by Ganondorf or some other evil force.

The sword that Link has with him has been called the Skyward Sword by the development staff and they have specifically stated that it will actually BECOME the Master Sword during the events of the game. I think this may have to do with the fairy that resembled the Master Sword shown in the artwork during last years E3. Judging from all of this information, Skyward Sword may be a prequel to all other Zelda games if you subscribe to the Zelda timeline theories… indeed, this may be the story of how the Master Sword became the legendary blade of evil’s bane.

Many people also complained about the overbearing nature of the on-screen HUD that is displayed during the game. Thankfully, the HUD will be removable in the release version of the game. Eiji Aonuma has also confirmed that while this version of the game uses only the motion sensing properties of the Wii Remote and Nunchuk, the final build will also include the option for players to use the IR sensor bar and to fine-tune the control scheme they way they want.

I know that was a VERY long write-up just for one game… but it is one of the games I’m looking forward to the most. I just couldn’t resist.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn

It’s been a long time coming but Nintendo has finally stopped talking about the coming of a new Golden Sun and is actually revealing it for the first time!

Golden Sun is an unknown series to most people, however there is still a significant cult following. Fans have been waiting for word on the DS version of this game for a very long time… let’s hope whatever advancements are made for this game doesn’t disappoint its fans.

GoldenEye 007

To continue on with the “golden” them, Nintendo showed off the debut trailer for the remake of GoldenEye. Though, from what I’ve seen this game doesn’t seem to be a remake as much as it a re-imagining of the game/movie. As much as we want GoldenEye 007 to be remade faithfully, we all know that’s never going to happen, so I don’t mind the fact that this game isn’t going to be anywhere near what we remember the original to be.

There seem to be many changes being made including a very odd one. Instead of Pierce Brosnan, the James Bond in this remake is Daniel Craig… this is possibly due to licensing issues. The change also means that the tone of the game will be changed considerably to suit Craig’s performance of Bond. Shots from the trailer reflect this as many scenes are set in very grim looking weather conditions and there seems to be quite a few scene changes during key moments of levels.

I’m assuming that this game will also be running on the Call of Duty engine made for Wii since the gameplay seems similar to the World at War gameplay. The original GoldenEye only really allowed melee combat with a karate chop and a rifle butt, however in this new version there seems to be plenty of other methods to dispatch the enemy. I’m sure neck-breaking fans will enjoy themselves quite a lot…

It will be interesting to see how this game actually turns out and whether it will be anywhere near as good as anyone hopes it to be. I’m also interesting to see how the controls will work, if there’s support for the GameCube and/or Wii Classic Controller (Pro)… We’ll be finding out soon enough since the release date is apparently sooner than we expected.

Epic Mickey

Epic Mickey is a game we’ve known about for awhile now but haven’t really seen until now. Warren Spector took the stage to explain the motivations of the game and to show us exactly what kind of game this is. To get a sense of what Epic Mickey is about, a story trailer was released…

This title did start out its life as a multi-platform game, and there are some who have chosen to ignore Wii who feel this is unfair in some sense since it is actually looking quite good (how ironic). However, I can see why Wii has been chosen as Epic Mickey’s chosen platform as it does require a lot use of the paint and thinner gameplay mechanic which requires a lot of aiming on-screen. Such a gameplay mechanic without the use of Wii’s IR pointer would end up being very slow and cumbersome on other platforms… though with the coming release of PlayStation Move, perhaps Epic Mickey may end up crossing to another platform in the future.

One of the key ideas of this game is to put Mickey in a position to become a respected hero more than just a theme park amusement character. I hope Warren Spector and his team can achieve that since it is a very challenging and worthy goal to reach for. I look forward to playing this game very much and hope it turns out to be a game that everyone cannot miss.

Also, I just want to say that the Steamboat Willy level that was shown off during the conference was awesome… I was tripping balls while watching it, I swear… they really captured the essence and style of Mickey’s first outing in the game. Truly magnificent…

Kirby: Epic Yarn

First we had a couple of “golden” games and now here are a couple of “epic” games. Kirby hasn’t been seen in his own home console game since Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards on the Nintendo 64 so when Reggie introduced Kirby: Epic Yarn, it was a great pleasure to witness Kirby’s triumphant return in what has to be the most disturbingly cute game of this generation.

The puffball may not be as he was in previous games; he lacks the ability to suck up enemies and absorb their powers, however the textile based visuals present in Epic Yarn adds very nice gameplay elements to the mix that makes up for that. Plus, it’s just awesomely cute to see Kirby transform into a fish in fresh water, a dolphin in sea water, a big robot on treads… and apparently when you double tap in a direction to make Kirby run… he turns into a race car! Now if that isn’t awesome, then I don’t know what is.

I can’t wait to see what other gameplay mechanics they’ll have in store for this game, but I have noticed that it does include a co-op element, allowing at least a second player to join in the fun. There’s no word if the co-op extends all the way to four players, however… we’ll see in time, I guess.

Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies

This game has been out in Japan for a long time now and it’s still taking its time to reach other regions. It may be late, but it’s still a very big title that Nintendo is keen to promote. The tag feature has been extremely popular in the densely populated areas in Japan, however I do wonder how successful this feature will be in countries that don’t really work the way Japan does in terms of population density. Of course, the features that use tag mode aren’t really part of the core of the game, but they do add a lot to the experience.

Dragon Quest enjoys great popularity in Japan, but not quite as much outside of the country… I wonder how much more promotion the game will receive when it does come time for release. Oh, and here’s the debut trailer for those who are interested…

Metroid: Other M

Nintendo revealed Metroid: Other M during last years E3 press conference and it ended up being the only shining beacon of hope for the company at the time amongst a collection of expanded audience games. Since then there has been quite a lot of new information revealed about the game as well as some videos showing us how the gameplay works.

It’s hard to tell how this game will turn out and it is following in the shadow of a great set of games developed by Retro Studios. When Nintendo announced that they were going to launch a brand new Metroid game with Retro Studios, an American developer at the helm, people were sceptical as to whether the game would turn out any good. When Metroid Prime was finally released on the GameCube, it blew everyone away and showed that Retro understood very well a lot of the key aspects that make a Metroid game what it is.

It’s been a few years since then and Retro has enjoyed much success with three games completed over two systems as well as a fourth compilation game of the Metroid Prime Trilogy… the torch has now passed over to Team Ninja and it’s coming close to the release date of Metroid: Other M which hits stores in North America in late August. It’s a very troubling time in any games lifespan when it must step prove its worth in a new gameplay style…

Story and structure

Other M is set between the events of Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion and answers some questions that have been brought up by Metroid Fusion and Metroid Zero Mission. I also feel that Other M is going to lay down some more stories to be told in the next game of the Metroid series set AFTER Metroid Fusion. Whatever Other M has in store for us, I’m sure it will be interesting… and I really do hope the voice acting is up to scratch as well. A new trailer was shown during E3 though it didn’t really show us anything more than we’ve already seen in previous trailers released for the game.

I have to be honest about this; I am having my doubts about what I’m seeing with Other M. I do understand that the development team wants to humanise Samus by giving her a deeper story for this game compared to any seen in previous games, however I do feel that it is may very well effect the game structure a little too much for my liking. Metroid is best when it’s set in a non-linear format and players are able to get lost without the use of their map and navigation skills. Metroid is about exploring and finding your way around areas and finding new areas that are well hidden. It’s also about not having any kind of linear path and involves plenty of backtracking… a gameplay element I know a lot of spoilt gamers complain about these days.

I fear that the inclusion of this story element as well as the interaction with many characters during the game is going to force the game into a more linear structure than what I think should be allowed in a Metroid game. The fact that Samus’ power-up utilisation is controlled by Adam Malkovich seems like a strange turn of events, but I guess they couldn’t just have Samus lose her abilities all of a sudden like they have using various different methods in past games… it does feel a little too much like Metroid Fusion in that sense though… and that’s not a good thing.

Controls

The fear of linear progression is one thing that concerns me, but another aspect of Other M that I’m really afraid for are the controls. Metroid: Other M uses the Wii Remote on its side in the basic NES format. You use the D-Pad to move, 1 to shoot, 2 to jump and A to go in and out of morph ball mode. In addition, when you point the Wii Remote at the screen it will automatically transition into a first-person view reminiscent of Metroid Prime. From there you can scan specific key spots of an environment and is the only time you are able to fire your missiles. Looking around the environment using the first-person perspective can also lead Samus onto new paths. Lastly, Samus can perform dodge moves if you tap on a direction on the D-Pad at specific moments and also perform melee moves and finishers.

It’s all designed to be very simple, but at the same time it ends up being quite restrictive in the process. For example, the D-Pad seems like a strange control input to use in what is still a 3D environment. I saw many videos that showed Samus moving around quite rigidly. To make matters worth, players seemed to have trouble making Samus point and shoot in the direction that they wanted her too. Of course, because of the rigid nature of Samus’ movement and directional control, Team Ninja has included an auto aim feature. Despite the auto-aim feature, players still had to make sure they pointed in the correct direction for it to lock onto enemies. The precision that players enjoyed in past Metroid games is going to be a lot harder to achieve in Other M by the way things seem to operate in the game.

I also don’t like having the missiles delegated purely to the first-person viewpoint… but the solution to all of these problems is so very simple: simply attach the Nunchuk and allow players to use the usual Wii Remote + Nunchuk combination. With this control option, players will have a familiar anchor with Metroid Prime 3 Corruption.

On the Nunchuk you use the control stick to move fluidly through the 3D environment, the C button to go in and out of morph ball mode and hold the Z button to instantly go into first-person view. On the Wii Remote you press A to shoot, B to jump and down on the D-Pad to fire your missile… AT ANY TIME. Also, to solve the whole aiming issue, the player will have the ability to direct Samus’ fire where ever they point on the screen so they can directly target enemies themselves.

Of course, with the changed control schemes they would have to change the way the camera functions and sets the scene for each area… but it’s a hell of a lot better than what they have right now… at least I think so… and I don’t really understand their reasoning to have the controls the way they are now… aside from trying to use nothing but the Wii Remote by itself.

Final Thoughts

I know I’ve been all doom and gloom about Metroid in this entry, but I feel that all of what I said needs to be said. I hope Other M does turn out to be really good… and if it does turn out to be good… will it have what it takes to out Metroid the Metroid Prime Trilogy?…

Donkey Kong Country Returns

A short time before Nintendo’s conference we got word that Retro Studios may in fact be working on a Donkey Kong game… I was a little hesitant at hearing the news, but now that I’ve discovered that it’s a continuation of the Donkey Kong Country series, it seems alright now.

Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong are back and it looks like there’s some co-op elements thrown in, allowing a second player to join in on the fun. Some videos taken during E3 suggest that the co-op elements are similar to New Super Mario Bros. Wii in away. But the Donkey Kong Country series has never been very similar to any Super Mario games so it’s going to be interesting what other new additions Retro has for us.

On a slightly different note, I also wonder what Retro Studios has in the future after they finish the development of DKCR.

Nintendo 3DS

Finally, Nintendo spends the last part of their conference to reveal the Nintendo 3DS. We’ve all known about it for awhile now, but for the lucky people who got to experience it first hand, they truly got to see what an amazing machine it is. I wish I could have been one of those people… but there is someone in Twilight Lynk who has gone hands-on with the 3DS and that’s Jeff. I’m sure we’ll be hearing about his impressions on the forum pretty soon.

The video shown of the 3DS games so far suggest that it’s similar in power to the GameCube which makes it on par with the PSP in terms of hardware power. That said, it all depends on what kind of games are available for the 3DS to truly become successful. I’m interested to see how the system fairs as the successor to the Nintendo DS and how it’s embraced by different audiences.

I can tell from the reaction to it during E3 that a lot of more traditionalist gamers are happy with the power increase and like the idea of 3D gaming but I’m not quite as sure how the expanded audience will think of the system. How will Nintendo advertise the system to the masses when they have no way of showing off the 3D effects unless someone actually witnesses the system with their own eyes?

They’re also going to have to bring some very new things to the table to convince people of the expanded audience to invest their money into the new system… and it’ll have to be something that the DS can’t provide other than the 3D effect.

I’d like to go on and on about the 3DS, but I think I’ll actually save it for a completely separate entry considering that this entry has become pretty damn huge by this point.

Kid Icarus: Uprising

When Nintendo started playing the debut trailer at their E3 show, I got very, VERY excited. It’s been a long time coming and because it’s a 3DS game it’s become very obvious why they never revealed it at last years E3 like we were all hoping they would. Pit is back and he’s sorry he’s kept us waiting… unfortunately the one liners don’t stop there and appear to be quite common in the game… but I guess that’s the price we have to pay to get a new Kid Icarus game.

From the few short moments shown during E3, the game seems to have a Sin and Punishment vibe to it however I really want to see some traditional platforming in there as well akin to what we’re used to with the original.

Whatever happens, the game does look fun with some pretty cool fast paced action. It looks as if there’s be some pretty epic moments mixed along with some silly moments. I’ve only been able to witness the game in 2D but I’m sure it’s pretty damn impressive in 3D…

More 3DS games

Along with a new Kid Icarus, Nintendo showed off a long list of third party developers that are bring games out for the system. The list is quite long and quite impressive with games like Metal Gear Solid 3D: Snake Eater, Resident Evil Revelations, Assassin’s Creed: Lost Legacy and many, many more…

Not only that, Nintendo are throwing every franchise they have at the 3DS… Mario Kart, Paper Mario , Zelda, Kid Icarus, Star Fox, PilotWings and Nintendogs + cats just to name a few. I’m sure there are quite a lot more games in the pipeline, possibly even some that we’ve been waiting for quite awhile such as another Pikmin.

Not many playable games were present this year and unfortunately some of what was shown were actually ports of Nintendo 64 games, however the future is bright for the 3DS. Hopefully, over the next few moths we’ll get a better understanding of what we have to look forward to when the 3DS is finally released.

Round-up

So here’s an easier to digest version of what was just shown… bet you wish you had noticed this part of the entry before reading all of that, eh.

• 3rd: Microsoft
  Microsoft comes third because they showed off games that we’ve all known about for awhile. Unfortunately Kinect, while being a great new way to play games doesn’t really interest me.
• 2nd: Sony
  Sony comes second because while the games they showed off were mostly ones we’ve all known about, there were some surprises in Sorcery and Twisted Metal. Also, PlayStation Move has sparked my interest as well.
• 1st: Nintendo
  Nintendo wins the show because they had so many surprises in their showing. Not only did they have an array of games including Kirby, Donkey Kong and Kid Icarus, but they also had the strong showing of the 3DS and its impressive third party support.

So there we go…

I wasn’t kidding when I said “epicly long”… if you haven’t died of old age by the time you reach this paragraph then congratulations are in order. However, now that you’re here, why not take some time to post up your own comments about E3 2010.

I’m sure Jeff has some interesting things to say about his experience with E3 2010, since he was actually there in person.

It was quite awhile ago now, but when the first concept art for “Epic Mickey” was revealed, a lot of people got VERY excited. And how could they not? It wasn’t like anything you would associate with Mickey Mouse… at least not the Mickey we know these days. It was dark, foreboding and very well presented. There were those who believed this art style would go far… until they saw the screenshots which weren’t quite as amazing as the concept art…

Of course, we can’t really talk more about a game that hasn’t even come out yet, so onto the games that have already been released…

I’ve talked about immersion in gaming in the past, as well as cinematic video games and the changing looks of certain game characters. This entry will focus more around generally how awesome stuff looks in video games… yeah, I think that’s the best way to put it.

So, here are some of the games that I consider have a very interesting art style and general art direction…

Resident Evil 4

I’d like to start off with a game that, to me, is an enigma in art style… it’s not a game that tries to convey a sense of real world photo-realism. Rather, the kind of art style that drove Resident Evil 4 as well as previous games in the series is a sense of “movie realism”… That sense of “if it looks good on camera and makes the audience believe it’s real, then we’ve done our job”… which is a strange thing to say about a video game.

When it was originally released, Resident Evil 4 was an exceptionally good looking game with excellent environmental and creature designs. While I still find the designs to be pretty damn good nowadays too, the games visuals have obviously aged considerably… for most games this would be a problem… but somehow, with Resident Evil 4, it’s not a bad thing at all. You’re probably asking yourself “why?” right now. The reason is actually very simple…

It’s a game series that takes much of its style from old horror movies. Back when Resident Evil 4 was released, it was a breathtaking game that proved that the GameCube was a power-brick not to be underestimated. Today… thanks to its old horror movie art style, when I play Resident Evil 4, I feel like I’m watching an old horror movie you can only find on VHS… one of those movies that are cult classics but never see the light of day any more. In a strange way, I actually appreciate its roots much more today than I did when I played the game for the first time.

Okami, Valkyria Chronicles and The Wind Waker

In the past, the way to get anything to look cartoonish was to use low resolution, colourful 2D sprites. The move to 3D for mainstream gaming meant that it was harder for developers to recreate that style… until games like The Wind Waker and Okami were released and totally blew us all away.

Okami along with a lot of other games released later on in the PlayStation 2′s lifespan proved that the system could achieve brilliance when the developer knew just what kind of art direction to take with their games. Okami, for me, is the best example of this with its watercolour based animation and excellent rice paper finish… it’s a damn shame more people never played this game.

Valkyria Chronicles continued the tradition on the PlayStation 3, but has set the bar pretty high. Not only does it have wonderful watercolour and paper effects, but it also has some brilliant pencil sketch effects that totally blow my mind every time I see it in action. I feel that Valkyria Chronicles is hands down the best looking game on the PlayStation 3 due to its art style and general awesomeness…

On the Nintendo side of things, The Wind Waker, while shocking to most who saw it for the first time, gave us an extremely beautiful cel-shaded experience that I absolutely love to this day. I can’t see why Nintendo hasn’t re-released it for Wii under their New Play Control! series. There are even some great 1080p screenshots of the game floating around the net which look FUCK YEAH AWESOME!

These kinds of games that are heavily focused on art styles based on animation tend to age extremely well… I can see myself being wowed by these games in another 5-10 years despite what amazing things we may see in the future. In fact, I probably should’ve also mentioned how awesome Mirror’s Edge is as well along with these other games… but I’m sure you already know that for yourself… *looks around*

Dead Space

Creature designs in video games are probably one of the most important aspects of a lot of games. The main reason is because many of these games have you shooting at a lot of these creatures, so they better damn well be designed in such a way that leaves an impression.

The necromorphs from Dead Space sure did leave an impression… some of it had to do with the brilliant use of shadows and sound, but it also had to do with the disgusting nature of the creature designs themselves. Blades ripping through forearms and sticking out of palms, lower jaws missing, dead eyes… the yellowish rotten flesh and meat that seems to be rotting right off the bone… it’s so vivid you can almost smell it… which is something I don’t want to do.

When creature designs go right, gamers know it first hand because they’ll be asking themselves, “what the fuck was that?” and not “oh look, an alien”… I mean, it’s not enough to create a zombie/alien hybrid… you have to make the design make the player question what they’re actually looking at to begin with.

So to make a long story short, great art style helps developers make great looking games despite whatever hardware limitations they may come across. Certain art styles also let a game seem just as beautiful even years down the track… and in the short term, great art style and direction allows a video game to make a hell of an impression on the player.

Wow, I didn’t expect this entry to become as long as it has… I’m sure 99.99% of people who click onto this page will be like “tl;dr” and will skip straight down to the comments… anyway, that’s my last entry for the month, gonna take a bit of a break playing No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle… next blog entry will definitely be the one for our 2 year anniversary, yay!

Frank Klepacki may not be as well known to most as say, Koji Kondo or Harry Gregson-Williams, however fans of the Command & Conquer series should know him well. But to me, he is most remembered as the composer of one of my favourite DOS games from back in the day… Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty.

There were a few versions of Dune II including a version for Amiga and one for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, but the one I’m thinking of is the (proper) DOS version using Sound Blaster… the way it’s meant to be played and heard. For those of you who haven’t yet experienced what Dune II is about, here’s a YouTube video to illustrate just how awesome it is… you’ll find that the ambience and the epic scale of the game’s music is apparent right from the very start.

It is quite a foreboding soundtrack, even in the more calm moments of the game where you’re just starting off and are busily building up your base, exploring and harvesting spice. You’re doing what you have to do, but there’s always a sense that danger is near and that you’ll have to be on your toes. The soundtrack reflects just what a harsh environment you’re in on the planet Arrakis.

The danger level of the soundtrack intensifies during battles and skirmishes with the enemy factions, and of course in the event of a Sandworm attack. It all sounded excellent back in the early 90s when we were all playing Dune II, but I’ve discovered that it sounds even better today now that I have my PC audio hooked up to my sound system. It really brings out the bass and power of the soundtrack, especially during attacks.

Every time I hear this soundtrack, I want to go back and play through Dune II all over again… it’s just so epic! In fact, I think that’s exactly what I’ll do now.

Before that though, I’ve remembered one of my favourite video game soundtracks, now I’d like to hear about some of yours… I’m talking about really oldskool stuff here, nothing anywhere near recent, so basically nothing after the turn of the century.

Hotel Dusk: Room 215 is one of my favourite games on the Nintendo DS, it’s up there with the entire Ace Attorney series by Capcom which I also hold in extremely high respect. However, unlike Capcom, Cing is a developer with very few games under its belt. A PS2 game, a few Japan-only mobile phone games, a few DS games and a couple of Wii games. Quality over quantity is the way Cing operates, and their recent games on the DS and Wii were all very well made, quality games.

Of course, even if the games are brilliant, it’s not necessarily going to ensure that a developer will find success. As gamers, we all know very well how there are some games that seem to catch on and others that, while excellent, seem to be swept under the rug by most. I feel that this has happened to practically every game Cing has ever released, but at the same time it’s not surprising at all.

Despite Nintendo’s on and off support over the last few years, Cing hasn’t really seen much exposure for their games. The first game I ever played from them was Another Code: Two Memories (known as Trace Memory in North America). Cing was one of the first developers to release anything significant on the DS with Another Code. Its use of the touch screen, built-in microphone and even (and brilliantly) the clam shell design of the Nintendo DS itself were used in the various puzzles found in the game. It may have been a very short game, but Another Code left a great impression with me with the level of ingenuity Cing used to make the game. It’s very lucky for Cing that Nintendo promoted Another Code at E3, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have been aware of the game at all.

When Hotel Dusk was announced, I immediately paid attention to it because of Another Code. I knew that it was something I shouldn’t ignore and when it was finally released, I bought it on day 1 and played it all the way through in one go, forsaking all other games I may have been playing at the time. As I said before, I love Hotel Dusk… and I made it my mission to tell people all about the game. I told anyone I knew who owned a DS about Hotel Dusk and even convinced a couple of people to buy the game even though they had heard nothing of it before I came along.

Nintendo always made sure to mention Cing’s games at various conferences, most prominently at E3 when showing off upcoming DS and Wii games. Another Code: R – A Journey into Lost Memories was another title that Nintendo had shown off as one of the key titles being released on Wii. Despite this show of support, Another Code: R was only released in Japan and Europe, with no release in North America, Australia or any other region… luckily for me though, it seems that UK games are actually playable on Australian Wii, so I’ve actually bought myself a copy of the game off of eBay which should be arriving this week. On the other hand, anyone in North America who was hoping to get their hands on the game will be sorely disappointed. I wrote an entry about this a few months back… it was one of the games that just wasn’t given a chance.

The sequel to Hotel Dusk, Last Window: Midnight Promise was recently released in Japan back in January and, at this point, is still set for a localisation and release in North America… I really hope that goes through because I know what Cing is capable of and from what I’ve heard and seen of the game in its Japanese form, it’s said to be just as well made as the first.

Cing is a very small developer and relies heavily on other companies to do all the big advertising. Unfortunately you don’t get much of that with their games. Most people out there don’t even know what Another Code, Hotel Dusk and Little King’s Story are or why they’re so damn good… hell, I don’t even know why Little King’s Story is good, but from what I’ve been hearing from people who have actually bought and played the game, it’s meant to be a gem that people aren’t taking notice of… kinda reminds me of how a lot of people ended up ignoring Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure by Capcom… but then Capcom is a pretty big and powerful company that can afford to have a few of their games sell poorly. Cing on the other hand depends on every game sold.

Whatever caused their downfall, be it lack of advertising, lack of general interest, piracy or ninjas… I salute you Cing. I hope that somehow, you guys pull through this and are able to continue on making great games.

As many of you in the community already know, I recently bought myself a Sony Vaio P netbook… so, naturally, just like everyone else I installed all of the usual programs and set it up the way I like it and have my perty wallpaper and everything all there. Along with those other things, I came to a point where I eventually put ZSNES onto it. The main reason I did this, was so I could have a portable copy of Super Metroid.

But then I stopped for a moment and suddenly asked myself. I do own a copy of Super Metroid of Wii Virtual Console, but does that make it right for me to download a ROM version of it and put it on my Vaio P?

Personally, I like to buy everything and try to stay away from piracy as much as I can. After all, these games are made by some talented people and this industry, as flawed as it may be in certain areas, is an industry I want to support… but there can be some grey areas of morality we get into when it comes to the subject of piracy.

I DON’T own a copy of the original SNES version of Super Metroid, I DO own the Wii VC version, but am I in the wrong for having the ROM version in my possession and playing it on my Vaio P? I mean, it’s not like Nintendo has lost any money from me having the ROM on my PC… and funnily enough, this line of thinking can be used to actually justify piracy for a lot of people. If I call up some guy over at Nintendo and go “I own a copy of Super Metroid on Wii VC but I have a copy of the ROM on my PC, what do I do?!” he’ll just be like “Okay… I don’t care.” and hang up.

It’s a grey area, but for me, it’s okay to have this ROM copy of Super Metroid since I already have the Wii VC version… but then I ask myself… what about that ROM copy of Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Scrambled Valkyrie? I don’t own a physical SNES cart of that and it’s unavailable to download from Wii VC. In fact, it’s unavailable outside of Japan altogether, but thanks to the Internet, I was able to download it and experience its awesomeness.

Just because it’s not available in my country, does that mean I have free reign to just download it and play it without paying for it? It’s not like I can do much about it… My reasoning is that it’s a very old game that you can’t get anywhere any more, so having the ROM of it is no big deal. Of course, that takes me further down the rabbit hole in terms of justifying my actions.

I’m sure I could go even further if I followed the thought, so where would I stop? I stand firm on not pirating new games, and if there is a version of an older game that’s available on Wii VC, PlayStation Network or Xbox Live Arcade, I’d definitely go for those rather than pirating them. I’m fine with people modding their consoles as much as they want just as long as they don’t use it for the sake of piracy.

I guess it’s more of a case of personal morality than anything else… Anyway, you’ve heard my thoughts about this, so where does everyone else fall on this issue? Or is it really not that big a deal and I’m just over-thinking this? Let’s hear your thoughts.

Oh, and for those of you wondering where the whole “You wouldn’t download a car” thing came from… take a look.

That VERY annoying clip used to be at the very start of most DVDs sold down here in Australia. I was able to skip it on my DVD player back in the day, but there were some DVD players which wouldn’t let you so you either had to endure it or be smart enough to realise you could fast forward through it. Obviously it never says “You wouldn’t download a car” in the clip itself, that is just another one of the many Internet jokes out there for the lulz.

That clip in no longer added to newly released DVDs and they never appeared on BDs to begin with. Not sure what they have now but hopefully it’s not as annoying as that one.

So what exactly IS the Super Guide and why should you care or not care? In short, the Super Guide is a feature that when activated will play the game for you… and this kind of description is what has put a lot of people up in arms and have condemned the feature outright without them even looking into what it really is.

Put your rage and your conclusions aside and let’s continue on and see what this is really all about…

The Super Guide really isn’t just some magic button that let’s the game play itself. What it is is a tool to allow a game to be accessible to those who may not be the best at video games and may not be self proclaimed pro-gamers that we all seem to believe we are. New Super Mario Bros. Wii is not an easy game and although it’s not anywhere near the hardest game either, the idea of adding the Super Guide is to try to level the playing field so that people who aren’t experienced gamers won’t give up in frustration in later levels.

Let’s go through the features of the Super Guide:

• The Super Guide is not accessible right away during the game. The green Super Guide block only appears in a level if you have died 8 times in a row during the level and will disappear once you have completed that particular level.
• The feature only works in single player mode, the Super Guide block will not appear if you’re playing with two or more players.
• If you do choose to hit the green Super Guide block, you are told what the feature is about and are given an option to activate it or decline. Once activated, Luigi will take control of the game in place of Mario. With Luigi in control, at any time through the level, you can deactivate the feature and take back control of the game to finish the level yourself.
• Using the Super Guide feature will not automatically score you all of the Star Coins, it will not help you find all of the secrets or have you performing super cool moves or have Luigi run all the way to the finish. It’s a very slow, safe and boring pace and not something you’ll want to sit through time and time again.
• The game will record the fact that you’ve used the feature and will show people that fact on your save file. (Oh, the shame of it all!)
• This feature is completely optional and to add to that, you may NEVER even see that green Super Guide block appear at all. To have it appear you must first truly SUCK at the game and be desperate enough to use it.

Now that you’ve had a bit of an explanation, let’s see the Super Guide in action so you can see for yourself exactly what it’s all about.

I personally haven’t seen the feature at all through my play through of New Super Mario Bros. Wii. At the moment this entry is being written I’m currently up to 8-1 which is almost at the end of the game. The difficulty level may not be up there with Ninja Gaiden, but New Super Mario Bros. Wii does get challenging enough during certain levels that will frustrate some and ultimately have them put down the controller and move onto something that isn’t.

I almost feel as if Nintendo purposefully made the game harder because the Super Guide feature was added on. If that really is the case, then hell yes, I want this feature in more games because even though I’ll never use it and will never see the option appear to use it in the first place, it will give Nintendo an excuse to make the overall game more challenging.

…isn’t that what we all really want?

I’ll try to get through this without giving too much away in terms of spoilers for all those concerned… and there will be warning where I have given some it away…

Following paragraph contains some minor spoilers.

The scene in question where you, the player, take part in massacring innocent civilians in a terrorist act during the game was apparently leaked to the public not long ago. Before too long, the game and developer, Infinity Ward, was being accused of promoting terrorism. It has even made a few gamers question whether they really want to play through this themselves.

// End of spoilers… for now.

Obviously it’s going to make people feel uneasy (or worse) about taking part in such a horrifying act, even if it is just pixels on a screen and no one real is getting hurt. You aren’t meant to feel good about it no matter where you stand on the issue… and that really is the point of why that scene is in the game.

There are some more minor spoilers in the following paragraph.

I did feel like this was wrong and that I shouldn’t have been there, I did feel like shooting my “comrades” to stop them from continuing the massacre… as a person with common sense, I can easily separate video game fiction from real life. These weren’t real innocent people that were being shot down, but I did still feel something from the scene from the very first moment I played through it (which happens to be about 20 minutes ago from the time I’ve written this part of the entry).

// End of second set of spoilers.

What makes some movies great while others are mediocre? The answer is that the great movies tend to evoke an emotional response from the viewer to pull them into what is going on on-screen. Of course, not all of the emotions felt while watching certain movies will be positive emotions, and that really is the point.

Strong spoilers ahead!

You’re an undercover agent that has infiltrated a terrorist organisation and you happen to be taking part in a terrorist attack on an airport in Moscow. As the innocent people start dying around you as the other terrorists open fire, you are given a choice. You can do one of three things during the first part of the scene (from the way I see it)… You can start shooting along with them; you can aim high and fire, missing the civilians and shooting over their heads; or you can simply not fire a single shot at all.

I chose not to fire a single shot during the first part of the level and simply let the others take the lead. I was actually surprised by the fact that the other terrorists didn’t notice that I hadn’t fired a single shot at a civilian yet. I was half expecting the leader to turn around and say “What the hell are you doing? Shoot!” I felt that Infinity Ward missed out on a very good opportunity to really put some extra pressure on the player during that scene if they didn’t fire a shot.

After playing through it, I understood what Infinity Ward was trying to get from the scene. They want people to feel outraged and sick at what was going on. You had to take part in something so horrible but being an undercover agent with an objective that involves saving the lives of potentially millions of people, you had to grit your teeth and suffer through it. After the level ended I started to understand, in a small way, what it must feel like for undercover agents who may have to do some horrible things for their mission.

// End of spoilers.

When you start the game for the first time you’re informed that there\is some “offensive content” and are given a choice whether you want to view/play through it or not. The choice is there for you to make yourself. If you choose not to play through them then the game will skip over those parts and you won’t have to go anywhere near them at all.

I for one am not offended by the content of Modern Warfare 2. I think it’s great that Infinity Ward and Activision went ahead with this game with all of its content. It pushes the boundaries and it creates discussion and debate over certain issues. I don’t want to turn away from such things; I want to see and play it for myself and see what it’s all really about.

I enjoyed playing through that scene because it made me feel so bad. The game has been called “barbaric and awful”. The scene in question is exactly that… barbaric and awful… just like how real terrorism is barbaric and awful and just like how war and the slaughtering of people no matter who is doing the killing is barbaric and awful. Now if only some people could get more outraged when it occurs in real life rather than in a video game…

But anyway, that’s it for me… don’t forget to vote on the poll that was posted not long ago. I’ve had my take, now it’s time to hear what you have to say about it.

As the technology used for video games advances, developers gain the abilities to add cinematic elements to their games. There is no single method for this and each game, depending on the developers chosen style, go about this concept in many different ways.

And now onto the first and very obvious game on the list…

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Firstly, before I say anything about this game… Chloe = Australian Lara Croft in red? I know that you were all thinking it when you saw her.

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is a game that successfully spread its storytelling through cutscenes as well as in-game dialogue and masterful character interactions by some extremely talented actors. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves has all that, but oh man is it so much bigger, better, cooler and more thrilling than what the first game ever came close to. There are still moments when you’re put into a cutscene, but there are also a lot more moments where the story and character dialogue take place during playable events in the game. To add to that, 99.9% of all of the action, including huge explosions and thrilling fight scenes occur while the player is in control. All of this is bound together in what can be described as a perfect cinematic experience… so much so that Sony brags about it in their commercials for the game.

With the level of quality put into Uncharted 2, it makes me wonder how Naughty Dog will top themselves with the third game which we all know will come sooner or later. How can they improve on what already seems to be the best that anyone could possibly do for a series that has taken cinematic gaming to its peak? I look forward to seeing it with my own eyes years from now…

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

What the Uncharted series does during the game, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, as well as previous games in the MGS series, does during some pretty intense (and long) cutscenes. Even the die hard Metal Gear fans stopped for a moment to wonder “how long is this going to go on for?”… Of course, with MGS4 there really wasn’t any other way the story could be told… as convoluted as that story may have ended up being on some levels.

Some may criticise MGS4 for this, though when you think about it, at least they used the in-game engine to present those cinematic moments rather than the usual Full Motion Videos that were quite popular back in the day.

Back in previous generations when several consoles were starting to use CDs, there was a huge rise of FMVs showing up on practically every game that had the development budget to afford them. I remember a moment when my friend wanted to show off his new PlayStation to me back in the day. He booted up a game and showed me how awesome the FMV looked. He seemed to be really proud of how his system could do such a thing, but even back then when I was still a kid, I still knew that this was just a video playing. The funny thing is that once the game actually started it revealed less than thrilling visuals. Are FMV cutscenes a bad thing? If used well it can be a great cinematic story telling element and also show some great action that, in the past at least, couldn’t be achieved with the game engine itself. Final Fantasy VII comes to mind, though Final Fantasy VIII was the game that really pimped this feature out.

…and these other ones over here!

While some games let you watch a cutscenes in peace, others decide to throw button cues at you out of nowhere. The first time I encountered the infamous “quick time event” was in Resident Evil 4. All of a sudden an icon telling me to press the A button flashed on screen while I had my controller resting and then suddenly I was dead. It may have fooled me the first time but never again. Later on in the game I was pleased to experience the greatest interactive cutscene I had ever experienced with the knife fight between Leon and Krauser. What started out as an annoyance suddenly became awesome, and while some people will always hate QTE’s, when done right, they can make you feel like you’re a part of that cinematic moment…

Previous Resident Evil games should also be mentioned, though not for the cutscenes themselves, but rather for the in-game camera angles. Of course many gamers who used to play Alone in the Dark back in the day will recognise these forced perspective camera angles from the original Alone in the Dark on PC. These camera angles, which are used in quite a lot of different games nowadays to guide the player but also manages to add a cinematic flare to the games as well.

There’s also been a recent trend with some light gun shooter games for Wii that have their own cinematic elements. The entire game that is House of the Dead: Overkill is practically homage to every b-grade/low budget horror movie ever made. On the other hand, Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles and Dead Space Extraction, both of which are heavily stylised first person rail shooters that seem to be heavily inspired by the camera shaking style of The Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield.

One of the common threads that bind many cinematic games together is that they tend to be associated with more linear based games that have a single story path you must follow from start to finish. Anything that has particularly heavy story elements suffers from this effect, though in this current generation things have been changing. There is a PS3 exclusive called “Heavy Rain” that, if it can deliver on all of its promises, will lead players through a cinematic non-linear experience that have never been experience before.

I enjoy seeing these kinds of evolutions occur in video games. I’m also glad that developers are seeking out new styles of explore and not sticking with the overly used cutscenes that we’ve been used to for all these years. I’m also glad that we’ve moved on (mostly) from using FMVs and are starting to use the in-game engine for cutscenes more and more. I look forward to see what else developers come up with in the future.

I wonder how many times I’ve said “cinematic” in this entry… lol