E3 Day 1 Highlights

EDIT: Ignore the large text please. I can't format worth crap with blogger :(

Caught some of the coverage of E3 by G4TechTV and thought I'd point out some of the highlights that stood out, from what I saw (doing this mainly from memory). Of course being a 360 owner, I'm a bit biased..

The Hits:
1) Left 4 Dead 2 Trailer: Looks very cool... I never really got into the first game, and I have a bit of regret from that. The big thing that looks new is that they've added what looks like assorted melee weapons. The trailer shows them using things like shovels, chainsaws, and frying pans. Could be cool! Oh and 4 new characters from the looks of it.

2) Shadow Complex: Although this is gonna be just a Live Arcade release, it still looks like it has some potential. After having a late night conversation with some friends about how awesome Super Metroid was back in the day, Joystiq's catch phrase to describe this game sounds quite promising: "Shadow Complex: Metroid meets Contra and HAS A BABY". The trailer isn't too great, but the demo they showed during the 360 press conference made the world look very big and very metroid-esque.

3) Crackdown 2: Surprisingly when the trailer started and I caught onto what title was coming up, I got excited. The original game was fun for what it was, and although gameplay tended to slow down near the end, I thought the game had a good sense of pacing and exploration. If they can really nail a decent melee system to this game, along with ways of beating bosses other than randomly shooting automatic rifles into the warehouse, it could stand a shot at being good. Anyway the graphics look much improved already in the trailer.

4) Assassin's Creed 2: I didn't think I'd be very excited about this, but Ubisoft has done a good job in varying the environment (since you're in Italy during Renaissance times, as opposed to Jerusalem). The graphics look top notch as usual, and the main character is definitely different, and somehow more badass in this version. Here's the trailer..

5) Star Wars: The Old Republic: I'll admit I didn't see this section and I wasn't very excited about the game, but I watched the trailer. And I think I just jizzed in my pants..


The Misses:

1) Tony Hawk Ride: It's a Tony Hawk game with a virtual skateboard.. Apparently this thing can sense everything from your weight shifts and when your hands are grabbing the board to when your one foot is off to speed up the skateboard. Too bad the franchise couldn't sense that the whole world was done with Tony Hawk games and Tony Hawk in general..

2) Halo ODST: So in typical Bungee fashion, the demo involved a dramatic storytelling of where and when the game takes place as the presenter played through the demo. The big changes looks like they gave you less shields, a crappier main character, and suppressed weapons. How is this a sequel? Anyway, he showed it off by talking about the return of the infamous overpowered scoped magnum from Halo 1. I'm sure all the multi-player fanboys will love that one... Still not impressed, and I think Halo is overrated personally.

3) Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2: I was surprised that I'm adding this title to the misses list, but there really wasn't anything showcased in E3 that generated a lot of excitement for me. I think the game suffers from a classic case of over exposure over a short span of time. Back at the beginning of the year, very little detail was given about the game and upcoming features. Now it's well-known that it's gonna include a new winter environment within the campaign, and at some point riot shields. One of the possible cool things they showed at the demo was the use of a snowmobile during campaign. Other than that, nothing groundbreaking. They did however announce the launch date (11-10-09)

4) Final Fantasy XIII: It's coming out for 360 for the first time ever. They did announce a kind of cool idea for a feature where during in-game fights, there's a new system of 4 time gauges. The more of those gauges you fill, the more powerful attacks you can do and chain together. Other than that, they tried to summon Odin early game and make it a grand spectacle, but it seemed pretty standard. The summon didn't even do an ultimate attack, it just mimicked the attacks that the main character did. Thought that was kinda lame.. Spring of 2010.

5) Facebook on Xbox Live: Lame idea. Why would I check it on my 360 when it takes longer to type in 5 words than for me to write an entire sentence on my PC? They had Felicia Day present it as well, to try and generate excitement (she's the star from the Guild and Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog). But no dice.

6) Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction: I don't really think anyone cares about this series anymore. Next!

7) Alan Wake: Didn't like the slow-pace of the demo. Seemed lame.

8) TMNT: Smash up: What kills me is that this game has all of the elements to be a great game: the company who made smash bro's is developing it, and it's freaking Ninja turtles! They announced this title as a 'shellebration' of the 25th anniversary of TMNT (which made me laugh, not because of the punch line, but because the French dude from Ubisoft delivered the line and no one understood it because they just thought he was saying celebration with his weird French accent. FTL). I was really pumped to see the trailer for this game after the description, but it looks TERRIBLE! The pace is way too slow for a Ninja Turtles game, and the graphics look extremely dated (at best). I'd have taken the Smash bros 64 graphics over these. Here's an example of what i'm talking about. It's coming out in Fall of this year, hopefully they can fine tune it by then.

9) Rockband: The Beatles: I guess this isn't fair seeing as how I'm not a big Beatles fan. But still I think at least for me, the Rockband era has hit it's pinnacle a long time ago. It just doesn't get me excited anymore whenver they announce a new musical band game.