E3 2011: Reveals and Impressions

by Anthony Bonilla

E3's Logo

E3's Official Logo

Hey there readers, just a couple of days ago E3 ended. Now some of you may be asking yourselves a single question ‘What is E3?’ Now this could be answered with a long explanation or a short one, I’ll go for the short one. E3 is the biggest week in gaming; it is where all of the biggest names in gaming present their products for the press and the public to do. It is the week where everything gaming related is more important than everything else.

Now let’s go on a little history lesson for E3. E3 is a short term for Electronic Entertainment Expo. The first E3 ever held was in May 1995 (wow since before I was born!) The event ran from May 11 through May 13, 1995 in Los Angeles, California. Keynote speakers included Sega
of America, Inc. president and CEO Thomas Kalinske; Sony Electronic Publishing Company president Olaf Olafsson; and Nintendo chairman Howard Lincoln. The first show was one of the largest trade show launches in history, with over 1.2 million feet of show space and over 80,000 attendees, it was something revolutionary as this was the first time something like this was done.

It coincided with the start of a new generation of consoles, with the release of the Sega Saturn, and the announcements of upcoming releases of the PlayStation, Virtual Boy and Neo-Geo CD. Specifications for the Nintendo Ultra 64 (later the Nintendo 64) were released, but there was no hardware shown (much like this year with the Wii U). It was originally supposed to be an invitation only event, but later was decided not to be that way. Ever since then the convention has been held yearly surprising attendees each time with new and innovating experiences. The show is now a press only event so there is no way that a normal person could enter (here is to hoping that one day I can go).

Anyways, enough with the history lesson, this is getting kind of boring, let’s go to what we all want to hear from: this year’s conferences and reveals. The big developers (Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo) will be more detailed; the others will just be announcements.

Master Chief in Halo 4

First off as in the past years, Microsoft opened the press conference. Microsoft’s press conference started off pretty strong with what is one of the year’s most anticipated shooters: Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3. It showed off the theme of the game: World War 3. We saw how a city was destroyed after fighting with the Russians for a while (I have to ask, why is it always the Russians?) the buildings were crumbling and with giant holes. The demo started underwater, they played stealth and placed mines under a submarine they were chasing, finally, they blew their mines and the submarine went up. The forces that were accompanying you (you are Soap from Modern Warfare 1 and 2) help you take over the top of the submarine, you enter and kill dudes, run up, kill dudes in slow motion and then they blow up the submarine with the self destruct button. They got on some boats and got to a chopper, the demo ended. They followed up their presentation with Tom Raider. Yeah, I know another multi-console game… Anyways, the demo that they showed was pretty impressive, the gameplay, the graphics and the environments were awe inspiring. Mix it with cool mechanics (including her new survival instincts that highlight objects she may need to use) and sexy groans which she did all the way through the demo, and the game is a pure winner. Next up was EA. EA Sports announced that they were working on four video games to support Kinect, PGA, Madden, FIFA and one that they will announce later in the year. After that they presented Mass Effect 3, the features that they showed were the new melee attacks that Shepard will be able to use, the roll from roll to covers and multiple other things. Adding to that they presented the features that Kinect can do. Like commanding your squad to one point to another with your voice, something that you can do with your controller, then they showed that you could choose dialog with your words and also command them to use their abilities (which I think was pretty cool) without having to use the pop-up menu, giving more continuity to the battles. After that, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier a trailer and a showing of ‘Gun Smith’ that lets you customize your guns inside and out, you may do it with your voice and even randomize it saying ‘Randomize for long range’ and it will do it. You obviously use Kinect for that already and you can try it, but controls for aiming down your sight are horrible, you do it by raising your hand and keeping it up. The Ubisoft president announces that every other Tom Clancy game will use Kinect. UFC Streaming and files are presented; Bing for Kinect is next… intermission for bathroom breaks.

Gears of Wars 3 is next, a demo, they present the pretty impressive demo and they announce that the hoard mode will be back. We go back to Kinect and we see the trailer for ‘RYSE’ a gladiator videogame that looks pretty impressive… in the CGI trailer. Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. The original Halo with the campaign re-mastered. It is Halo Combined with classic multiplayer maps for Xbox Live. Co-op over Xbox Live. Due on Nov. 15, 2011. After that Forza 4 is announced, no information is given. Fable: Journey is announced, a full Kinect Fable title is announced where you can use a horse (with whipping the horse and all) to move through the world. It’s a first person game. After that Minecraft is announced for Kinect and X-Box 360, it’ll be a 360 console exclusive. Kinect Disney Land follows up (no sheet) where you run around the parks and enter mini games when you enter the rides. Star Wars Kinect is next, where you play as a Jedi, you don’t move though, this looked sloopy and un-impressive for what we’ve come to know as a Star Wars game (it was even worse than the Force Unleashed…) Sesame Street: Kinect Adventures and new ‘Kinect Fun Labs’ were announced. About at this time everyone was sleeping. Kinect Sports: Season Two, Dance Central 2 and Modern Warfare 3 DLC for 360 owners first. None of these was a surprise. A new ‘Trilogy’ was announced for 360, new Halo 4 was announced, and thus Halo 5 and 6 with it. It continued straight where it left off in the third. This wrapped up the Microsoft conference.

EA announced OverStrike a first person shooter with four people developed by Insomniac Games (Ratchet and Clank, Resistance, etc.) Kingdom of Almaur, a medieval RPG-style of game is presented. Sims Social for Facebook (Seriously… can’t figure out why though…) EA Sports will feature a connectivity between all games in a world network that will connect you with fans of your sports club, team and etc. Star Wars the Old Republic, Need for Speed: The Run, Battlefield 3 and Mass Effect 3 were presented.

In Ubisoft, Ghost Recon Online (a free PC Online Gaming), Track Mania 2, Tintin, FarCry 3, Just Dance 3, Raging Rabbits: Alive and Kicking! for Kinect and Brothers in Arms: Furious 4 were announced. Other than that they showed Rayman Origins, Assassins Creed 3: Revelations and Driver: San Francisco.

The PSVita

Sony were next. They started their conference like everyone expected: Jack Tretton (Sony Computer Entertainment’s President and CEO) coming out and apologizing for the PSN outage that happened earlier in April. He apologizes but also thanks the fans and the developers for staying with Sony during the outage (it’s free, why would I cry?) oh and also he said ‘Your welcome’ to journalist… I’m serious, ‘cause you know that they love controversy. They went immediately to a demo of Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception. It was showing how a drunk (nah he walks like if he was drunk all the time) Drake walked around the ship and got some stealth kills as he went down the ship… well more than some, about 10. And then he went on to the guns, the guns looked to operate about the same way as the other games, eventually he blows something on the ship and it blew a hole in it and water started entering, he got caught up in a couple of sides with the water, almost drowning in a lot of occasions, the game looks pretty impressive, but as my friend said to me (when we were texting during it) it’s what you have come to expect from an Uncharted game. After that, they start hitting it hard on the 3D, by showing a 3D trailer of Uncharted and going on to a Resistance 3 demo… on 3D. The demo shows a couple of features as intelligent Chimeras and stuff. The demo looks pretty good, but not much else. After that, they show off a package available since September 6, Sony will offer a $150 Resistance 3 Sharpshooter bundle, including the game, the gun, and a Move kit including navigation controller. The God of War remakes from PSP done for PS3 with full 3D support, also later Shadow of Colossus and the Ico collection will come, also with 3D support. Sony is making a 24 inch PlayStation-branded TV, with special two-player splitscreen technology which, with a pair of glasses, will allow two players to enjoy two player games on one screen (the first ever of its kind). The 3D monitor bundle will be available for $499 and include PlayStation 3D glasses, Resistance 3, and an HDMI cable, which is the best offer we’ve seen to date. A pair of extra glasses will be $69.99. Yeah, I know… killer… but if they give that to you cheap, they got to make it up somehow. NBA 2K11 is up next, Move demo, you point, push a button and pass it, only by pointing, really, something ‘revolutionary.’ But who is that coming out? It’s Kobe Bryant! He got swept by the Mavs (New NBA Champs 2011!) and came out here to play. He says it’s ‘So realistic, it’s frightening.’ It’s coming out October 4th.

A new move title from the creators of Sport Champions: Medieval Moves: Deadmund’s Quest is up next. First person when you are shooting arrows and third person when you use the sword. The demo looks eh… the game comes in fall. After that, it is trailer time, Infamous 2, Starhawk and a trailer for the new game… Sly Cooper 4: Thieves in Time. Next up Dust 514, as promised, Dust will connect to EVE (an online MMO PC Game). It will include Move support, a dedicated Home space, and even extending the game to NGP. The game gets a demo, it’ll be a Space-themed shooter with move support and all, and it’s set to release spring of 2012. A REALLY impressive gameplay only trailer from BioShock Infinite. It’s from the demo that was released earlier in the week. And it featured Elizabeth getting choked. Is it wrong that I find the chick hot?

"Elizabeth from BioShock Infinite"

Elizabeth from BioShock Infinite

 Then Ken Levine comes out, you know, the guy from BioShock… not like anyone knows what that game is right? He speaks about how he practically trash talked the Move and he said that he wasn’t going to do anything with peripherals like that, how he showed skepticism for motion peripherals, especially the Move. Then about two days later he got a call… from Sony… he was like ‘Oh damn…’ but he answered the call, expecting to be badmouthed but Sony instead sent him the Move for him to try, after playing with it, he liked it and totally included it on the game. So practically he was saying that at first, he thought it sucked, then he got it for free and was like ‘OMG we will totally use it on our gaem!’ Levine says, that they had an idea for a new game on the BioShock universe but that he had no idea where to do it… until now. He pulls out the NGP from his back pocket, so thus announcing a BioShock game for NGP (Vita… though I’m not calling it that.) Jack takes the stage again, and says that the Blu-ray of BioShock Infinite will include a free copy of the original BioShock. More free shit! You a-holes better not mention our outage again… A short trailer for the new Star Trek game, Jack takes the stage once again. Jack’s running down some of the PS3-exclusive features in EA’s latest games, including SSX (Mt. Fuji is exclusive), Need for Speed: The Run (exclusive cars), and Battlefield 3 (free copy of Battlefield 1943 on the disc). More free sheet! This definitely says sorry for us… right? Then Kaz Hirai takes the stage, he announces Playstation Suite a place that will be for Playstation certified Android devices, you’ll get Playstation hardware from that. Then he announced that the NGP is officially called the ‘Playstation Vita’ which means ‘Life’ in Latin (I’m not going to call it that when I get my hands on it.) They’ll be partnering with AT&T as a special agent for US (I’ll get on full details when I write an article for the Vita). Uncharted: Golden Abyss gets the stage, an impressive demo is shown, worthy of the Uncharted legacy, the features are shown using the front touchscreen, when climbing. It is not a port, a new game for the NGP exclusively. A new RPG is shown Ruin it is dungeon defending game, but if that’s not impressive, your save file gets on a cloud and you can continue it on your PS3! Mod Nation Racers for Vita comes next and they show how you can create the tracks using the touch panels in the front and the back screen, oh and it’s entirely new too. Then Wipeout 2048, promises cross platform gameplay from the PS3 to the Vita. LittleBigPlanet is also coming to the Vita, with importing costumes from PS3 and easier creation with touchscreens. Up next… Street Fighter X Tekken..? Okay… wait what? I’mma getting Steet Fighter X Tekken in another system?!?!?! A pretty impressive demo is shown and also Cole McGrath from Infamous is announced for SCE Systems. A highlight video reel of Vita games is shown. There’s Golden Abyss, Wipeout, Little Deviants, LittleBigPlanet, Sound Shapes, some cel-shaded title, Hustle Kings, ModNation Racers, Super StarDust, Ruin, Reality Fighter, HotShots Golf, a Dynasty Warriors title. The Vita will be available this holiday and the WiFi model will retail for $249, and the 3G/WiFi model will retail for $299. They officially threw the gauntlet to Nintendo, practically saying ‘This is what we are doing to take you down.’ And this officially ends the Sony Press Conference.

The Wii U controler and console

Nintendo is up next. Everyone is waiting on their big reveal. But they start with an orchestra and a video of Zelda’s 25th anniversary. Shigeru Miyamoto comes out and starts talking about how music is a great part of a Zelda game, they play parts of the game like getting items, solving puzzles and other stuff like that. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (GBA Title) is available on the eShop around the world already, and this week Ocarina of Time 3D will be available around the world. The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords, a four player adventure, coming to DSi in September as a free download. And Zelda, the Skyward Sword launches this holiday season. The orchestra that was there will be performing a series of 25th anniversary Zelda-themed concerts in “major regions” later this fall… so much Zelda… They talk a little about a new platform… but full details will come later… yup… A 3DS game reel is presented. Mario Kart and Star Fox, Kid Icarus, Luigi’s Mansion 2… no demo yet… Reggie Fils-Aime takes the stage, talks in his epic bs voice to talk about 3Ds and about how it revolutionizes everything around. The earlier titles mentioned are talked a bit about, the new Mario Kart comes out in the holiday season, Star Fox 3D comes out September, Kid Icarus is coming ‘later this year.’ And a new Mario is completely being developed for 3Ds, no ports, no release date announced yet. A new reel was shown of all the other 3DS titles. Ace Combat 3D, Tetris, Cave Story Resident Evil: Mercs and Revelations, Driver: Renegade, Pac-Man Dimensions, Tekken 3D, Snake Eater 3D. The eShop will have demos and 3D trailers ‘later in the year.’ Now off to the new console. It is called Wii U! No, I’m not joking, I’m totally serious. The controller is presented. It has a giant touchscreen confirmed (6.2 if I’m not mistaken). Four face buttons, two thumbsticks, four buttons on the top and a d-pad. A new reel is showing off the system now. Playing New Super Mario Bros, someone changes the TV channel and the game continues right on the touchscreen… cool… nah, scratch that, really cool. It is used as a drawing pad now to do some Zelda sketches, playing some Othello, a baseball game is shown, where the pitcher aims his shot using a back-mounted camera pointing at the screen. A ninja game with shuriken, a golf game where you put it on the floor and swing your club and the ball flies towards the screen, a game like a shooting one appears. Video chat is shown; the Controller can capture images and video, and then send them seamlessly to the screen, some kind of new Zelda title is shown, all of your inventory appears on the controller yeah, another Zelda game. It’s backwards compatible with all Wii games and peripherals. The controller has a rumble feature built in. Microphone, speakers, accelerometer and a camera also in the controller (I’m going to cover it all in a later article, like with the Vita.)

The images on the screen are created and transmitted by the Wii U console with no latency, it is NOT a portable piece of equipment, they insisted. The console is in HD, as expected. They announce the first game for it a new Smash Bros. for both Wii U and 3Ds too. Oh and all the ‘games’ presented before aren’t actually games. They present a CGI showing what their new console can do. New Super Mario Bros. Mii announced, Lego City Stories is announced. Oh and… Darksiders 2 aiming to come to the console at launch. Tekken Wii U , Batman Arkham City, AC: Revelations all coming to the new console. So is Ghost Recon Online. Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge, Metro: Last Light, Madden NFL and Battlefield 3 are announced with trailers for it… oh and they weren’t really running on Wii U, they were from other consoles. Nothing else is announced about the console, no date is on mind, nothing… and with those questions Nintendo wrapped it all up.

Okay, now to actual opinions. This wasn’t the best E3 I’ve seen BY FAR. What happened? Too much motion gaming was focused.

Microsoft blew it, why? Because they went too much with Kinect, they had what big thing to announce? Halo 4? That spilled out literally 10 minutes before the press conference started, we were expecting everything in that press conference. I give them a B- why? They were TOO Kinect heavy, Gears, Halo and Minecraft got them this grade with me. Kinect didn’t really make me go ‘WOW’.

A- for EA my jaw dropped with more than three titles, Mass Effect 3, Need for Speed: The Run, Star Wars The Old Republic and Battlefield 3. They’re presentation was awesome, no other word for it and they had a very fast presentation. The only thing that put me off was that they had a date for practically only three titles, and those are because they had them before.

C for Ubisoft. Why? Cause Caffeine man was a dumba**. He was stupid all the way through the presentation. No other thing to say on him other than… ‘Come over and play with my Wii’…? ‘Lets kinect’…? and a stupid move joke…? The hell… anyways, I thought they’re presentation was WAY too slow. Far Cry 3, Ghost Recon, Rayman and Assassins Creed were the only titles that really popped and even they were let downs. I was disappointed in this presentation… and from my personal opinion… eff you Caffeine man.

B for Sony. Now, see I’m not bias… 😀 Anyways… I don’t grade major companies as easily as Devs… anyways, it was a great presentation, only that they focused on three things: Move, NGP (I’m not calling it Vita) and… oh anyone forgot that they had 3D? Cause this presentation pushed it down our throats. Anyways, they really pushed the Move, a lot of impressive titles, main titles will have Move funtionality, which could be cool. The NGP price was something WOW… but it was announced about 10 minutes before than in the presentation. Overall Sony had a pretty good presentation, in my opinion better than Microsoft and Nintendo.

B- for Nintendo. Why? Because they didn’t show any actual software or demos. All they showed were videos of gameplay and CGI, it is hard with a
little screen but just put it over the guy’s arm. Plus the Wii U was horribly presented, the controller was the only thing presented, not the actual console, they didn’t even specify if it was an actual console or a controller. You know their presentation was really weak, the weakest that I’ve seen in years from Nintendo, they didn’t present anything and left too much questions around. It’s sad to see it, but Nintendo is declining from the giant that it once was.

Anyways, that wraps up this article, feel free to give your opinions and even discuss mine. E3 next year will be from June 5th to June 7th and until my next post, keep on gaming.