Electronic Entertainment Expo 2009 (Part 2) Nintendo Review

 

Opening

While Microsoft didn’t get off to the best start with their show opening with The Beetles: Rockband, Nintendo didn’t get off to the a good start either. It was a very slow start by bringing out Cammie Dunaway the Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Nintendo. She’s quite the stiff and doesn’t smile at all, but she is Nintendo’s best speaker.

Super Mario Bros: Wii

Cammie made a swift exit but very soon returned to announce this game for the Wii. It’s already been done on the DS, but I think enough has changed to warrant a purchase for the Wii. With the 4 player Co-Op it looks pretty awesome bringing back just an old style Mario game. It reminds me a lot of playing back on the Nintendo Entertainment System back in the day.

Wii Fit Plus

I don’t know why they felt that it was necessary to announce this at E3. It looks the exact same as the original with the exception of a few new minigames. This really isn’t my type of game but I guess if a few people want it then this wasn’t a complete waste of time.

Wii Motion Plus

Cammie disappeared and the Regenator came out. He began to talk about the Wii Motion Plus. It seems to track motion better and looks pretty cool. This was following up on last years announcement which was their big one last year. They showed a “trailer” for it was pretty pointless and it seemed like they were just wasting time.

Wii Sports Resort

This seemed to be when Nintendo released they were lulling to sleep there entire audience and decided to put on a show. This game actually looked very fun. They started out by just showing game play which looked really good. With the Wii Motion Plus controller they were able to shoot a target like an archer very easily. Then Bill and Reggie started playing basketball, which I think could possibly take off with an EA spin off of their sports games.

Final Fantasy: The Crystal Bearers

It kept busy and they showed a trailer and that was about it. They talked about it for a while which wasn’t all that exciting but a lot of people liked it. I’ve never really liked the Crystal Chronicle series, but I do know a lot of you guys were looking for it.

Kingdom of Hearts: 358/2 Days

This is a huge one for Nintendo. Square Enix has never really put out a bad Kingdom of Hearts. They announced that this game was coming to the DS and I think this is going to be a big title for it. Also during this part of the conference and started just talking about games for the DS and this half was much better than the previous.

Mario + Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story

Apparently Mario is also the biggest franchise for the DS according to Reggie. In this game, they take the title seriously and they really do put you Inside Bowser. You get shrunken down and he sucks you up and it looks like a fun RPG.

Golden Sun DS

Out in 2010, the sequel to the last Golden  Sun game, which as an FYI, was my favorite game on the GBA. I spent hours staring at that little screen playing it. Its been a long time since the last game and the last two games were massive hits and I’m really looking forward to this game. This is the game that will actually make me buy the Nintendo DS. After this title it really began to slow down again. Oh well…

Women’s Murder Club

Yeah… I really don’t feel a need to talk about this announcement because the trailer looked boring and I’m not a big fan of video game mysteries. I guess it has an interesting art style.

C.O.P: The Recruit

This looks quite promising for a title for the DS. Game play is equal to drive around and start shooting everything up. It looks like an alternative to GTA for Nintendo. I doubt it will be as good, but we’ll just have to see because Nintendo seems very excited about it. After this title announcement, Nintendo had a huge embarrassment.

Style Savvy

If your not pumped for this games release then your not a fan of games… Biggest joke of E3 ever, this isn’t even worth talking about because everyone on stage at Nintendo took this seriously. I know EA had their little pet shop but this just takes the cake. It was just embarrassing for Nintendo.

Flip Note Studio

This looks like an interesting pretty cool idea for a new game. It lets you make your own stop motion animations. It looks pretty cool, but I highly doubt everyone's will look like the one they were showing off. Well see how this goes when it comes out and hopefully they will have a way to share your own animations with other peoples over the Wi-Fi or something.

Mario Vs. Donkey Kong

Another franchise is coming back to the DS. There are what seem to be a few new maps around this time but not a lot looked to be changed. Not a lot of people were impressed with the first one, but hopefully on this title they do a lot better and it becomes a big success because I think it will have to be for it to come back around after this next one. Once again Nintendo will have us waiting to see if this title will be a big hit or not.

WarioWare DIY

Nintendo really seems focused on user created content this year don’t they? With WarioWare, you can create your own minigame. This actually does look really cool. I doubt once again you’ll be able to make the minigame look like theirs but I still think its going to be very fun. Hopefully once again there will be a way to share your mini game.

Mario Galaxy 2

After Nintendo proclaimed their greatness. After their low point of the century, they picked it back up. Cammie came back out and this was a good choice for Nintendo. This looks like a very fun game. This looks very similar to the first game. They showed a lot of Mario riding on Yoshi’s back. So yeah, looks to be just like a new Mario game and this obviously shows that Nintendo hasn’t abandoned Mario.

Resident Evil: Darkside Chonicles

Reggie came back on stage and it was a good change. It shows the characters in a different light, Leone and Clair for example. It looks to be in a 3rd person view. This looks interesting, but the next title stole the cake for for the entire conference.

Metroid: The Other M

A big shocker at E3, Nintendo teamed up with Team Ninja to bring out the newest Metroid game. Obviously the prime series is over so they’ve had to go in a new direction. It’s going to be in 3rd person and obviously still a shooter. Looks like an interesting way to take the series. This really ended the Nintendo conference on a high.

Recap

Nintendo didn’t have a bad conference, but it wasn’t that great either. I will say they’ve made big improvements from last year but the Wii vitality disappointed me and the President of Nintendo just talking and talking and talking really made Nintendo take a hit. They made up for it with a lot of new title releases. Look for Nintendo to do better next year though as I hardly feel as if they’ve capped on what they can do for an E3 conference. I give them a B- for their for performance this year.

Until next time, Mgrigs’ signing out. 

 

Electronic Entertainment Expo 2009 (Part 1) Microsoft Xbox 360 Review

 

The largest video game event of the year has had another landmark successful year. This year they did not allow the general public to attend the Expo, but the amount of press coverage has nearly doubled. Personally, I have enjoyed hearing about all the up and coming games, systems, and sometimes even software that deals with gaming. This year Microsoft blew me away with their press conference.

The Beetles: Rockband

They started off with showing off the stars that they brought along to E3 and to help announce The Beetles: Rockband, Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Star. I think Microsoft’s statement was that Rockband was a major part of the Xbox360 and that even though Rockband isn’t exclusive to the 360, they will have content for the game that will be exclusive to the Xbox360. With this side release of Rockband, they added a new feature which allows you to include not one, but three different singers. Also with the release they will be letting out the instruments to play on which are replicas of the original instruments played by the Beetles, whether it’s Sir Paul McCartney’s trademark HÖFNER Bass, or Ringo Star’s drums with the classic black Oyster Pearl finish and Ludwig-Branded Beatles kick drum head. With the release date set for October 9th, 2009, keep an eye out for it because it’s just around the corner.

Tony Hawk’s Ride

During this part of the Press Conference, Tony Hawk himself came out to describe the game he has been helping to develop himself. Unlike the last time he put out a skateboard game, this time he brought a different type of controller. Like Guitar Hero and Rockband, he brought with him a full size skateboard controller, the only difference is that it has no wheels. This game will be fully controller through this controller which looks very promising. One of the keynotes from Hawk was the fact that the sensor is has will be able to pick up things like you going in to grab the board, or when you kick up the front or back end. The release date is set for Q4 of 2009, so expect something near Christmas.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 2

Finally, a developer put on what everyone was waiting to see. Activision came onstage and said a few words, “Guys, we don’t have a lot of time, so were going to play and you guys are going to watch.” From the gameplay, it looked as though the game was still being run off the same engine. A few differences to the User Interface such as the radar actually being attached to your gun, although I don’t know if that will be there in Multiplayer. Also, you got to see the new dynamics they put in such as the ice climbing and being able to use a snowmobile (They demoed a snowy level in the campaign.) Activision did say that they will be releasing this game on November 10th of this current year and check here around that time because this is a game I will be reviewing.

Final Fantasy XIII

Square Enix came onto the stage and showed everyone what they wanted. Final Fantasy XIII working on the Xbox360. Another exclusive title that has been lost by Sony looked very impressive on the 360. Now the game is very similar to the version currently on the PS3, but they definitely made some changes to the game from things they didn’t like from the PS3 version. The game looks very impressive and the game is on the same engine as the PS3 so the graphics are very good. From the game play they showed, the city is very dark so this is a more modern Final Fantasy. The release date is unfortunately not confirmed, but speculation has it coming out in Q2 of 2010, so quite a bit away in terms of games to be released. Expect it to drop right before E3 2010.

Shadow Complex

It wouldn’t be a Microsoft E3 conference if Epic Games didn’t show up, and they did again revealing their Xbox Live Arcade title Shadow Complex. This side scrolling game is going to be run off of the Unreal 3 Engine. That means its the same engine that Gears of War and the current Unreal series is running off of. For a side scrolling game, the graphics are very good and especially for an Xbox Live Arcade game. Their were tons of dynamic things to the game such as shooting down power conduits to electrocute enemies as well as climbing up walls using a special gun. The game just looks really fun and interesting to play. This game will release in the U.S. on September 30th this year and looks to be very promising.

Joy Ride

A freebie coming to the Xbox Live Arcade is Joy Ride set to set to release during Q4 of this year. This is a racing game that includes your avatar. The game itself is definitely an Arcade looking game, but if it’s free there’s no reason not to pick it up. They only showed one track but I’m sure there’s more to it than that as well as you being able to pick from multiple cars and customize it in a few different ways. Like I said its free so there really isn’t anything wrong with it, although I felt that it was weird that Microsoft would use valuable time of their conference on this game.

Crackdown 2

After the Original game was a sleeper hit, this looks to be following suit. I know that a lot of people wanted to see more of this series after the first game, including me because I loved the first game. As to my knowledge, this was the first release of anything to do with Crackdown 2 but it was a great addition to the conference and the cinematic looked great. Not to much is known about the game yet other than its a continuation of the original Crackdown were your the judge, jury, and executioner in a full city environment. It isn’t going to be produced by Real Time Worlds but instead Ruffian Games will be doing the trick. Will have to wait and see how this turns out, but I hope they can pick up were Real Time Worlds left off and continue in the right direction.

Left 4 Dead 2

After Valve surprised everyone by making a hit for the Xbox360(it was no surprise that it was a hit for the PC) they’re coming back for another round. More fending off Zombies and trying to get away from massive hordes of them. The cinematic shown was very action packed and also quite comical and I think this game is going to try and capitalize off of the success of the first one. During November on the 17th this year is when this game will drop into stores and hit the shelves. This should be another fun addition to the Series. If they were able to make a zombie game that separated itself from other games, I don’t think they’re going to have problems making a sequel to the first one. This looks promising and when it hits the shelves come back here and look for an in depth game review of it.

Splinter Cell: Conviction

An Xbox360 exclusive, from the video they showed, the game seemed a little more action packed this time around; but, they did keep some of the sneaky parts around with things like sliding mirrors under doors to find out were the bad guys are and being able to kick doors in and immediately know were they are. It kept with the idea of you losing health very quickly which I was very excited to see that because I didn’t want to see Splinter Cell go into a more Run and Gun direction. Look for it this Christmas as it is supposed to hit shelves this December. Once again check back here for a review of the game as this is one of the bigger releases coming around this time.

Forza Motorsport 3

Wow, either someone at Microsoft Game Studios or Turn 10 entertainment really knows how to put together a video. This was a very good show they put on for this game, and it really appeals to me as racing games have been my favorite Genre of games. Some of the new features are mind boggling as because they have never been done before. In Forza Motorsport 2, they pushed the envelope with the physics engine, but in FM3, they’ve brought it to a whole new level. The game looks amazing and they have just done what looks to be an excellent job. Turn 10 and Microsoft were able to talk a lot about this game and give some great details. There will be over 400 vehicles from 50 different manufacturers, an In-Car view that Microsoft pioneered with Project Gotham Racing 3, a whole slew of new tracks that are real and fictional, and a mess of upgrades to the physics engine. As for it being a simulation, they took damage to a whole new level, cars are now able to roll if pushed to hard in a corner. Also, they’ve reworked the tire system to incorporate tires that have a high wall to roll over on itself making the car unstable. This is being released this October on the 22nd and I’ll be one of the first in line for this game. This will be a game I will be reviewing so check back often around that time as a whole slew of games are releasing around that time.

Halo 3: ODST

Halo fans rest assured that this was a Halo packed conference with not one, but two announcements about Halo. Multiple things were said about ODST at this conference as well as with interviews after the Microsoft conference. First, they’ve added a sort of night vision enemy finder visor that you can turn on as well as putting in a new Sub-Machine gun and a new pistol that is very reminiscent of the pistol from Halo: Combat Evolved. It retained the 2x scope and accuracy but this time around it’s silenced, so with the night vision and silenced weapons, it’s safe to say this is a more stealthy game. In turn, because your no long playing as a Spartan, you have no energy shields and your just set with a certain amount of health. The health packs in ODST are very similar to the health packs in Halo: Combat Evolved. With this release that are putting in a new multiplayer game style called Fire Fight. Basically, you and 3 other teammates linked over systems whether it be Xbox Live or system link fight off waves of Covenant until you kill the last wave with bosses. This game is confirmed for a September 30th, 2009 launch and looks very good, this will be another game that I will review and will have a pleasure doing it.

Halo: Reach

All we know about this game is that its called Halo: Reach, its a prequel to Halo: Combat Evolved, and that it “Falls” 2010. This game will probably be a Q4 release and due to the “Falls” is going to be based off the book Fall of Reach. I could spend all day speculating, but I’m just glad Microsoft left us with something to keep looking for in a rumor mill.

Alan Wake

This looks to be very interesting. For those who haven’t heard already due to the leaks of rumors from E3, this is a psychological thriller that is supposed to take place like a TV series. It bases a lot of the game around ambience, lighting, and the atmosphere of the game itself. For instance in the game to shoot, you have to shine light on the target before your character will allow you to fire. Very interesting game structure that I haven’t seen in my time of gameplay.

360 Dashboard Upgrades

For everyone connected socially with the internet, you’ll be happy to know the FaceBook is coming to the Xbox360 dashboard, and oh yeah, Twitter as well. Pretty exciting news for all of us Hardcore gamers out there… With these upgrades, the U.K. is going to be able to watch TV through the Sky network out there. Not 100% on how that’s going to work but I’m sure they will release more information.

Metal Gear Solid: Rising

After Metal Gear Solid 4 was an exclusive title to PlayStation 3, Hideo Kojima came onstage during the conference and announced(in very bad English) that Metal Gear Solid: Rising was coming to the 360 and Raiden was making a return. Too bad that no gameplay was shown and that the cinematic only showed some lightning and the main character, although every other MGS game has been a hit so expect this one to be the same. Also look for some riots to form because of this. Sony fans are extremely upset from what I can tell by the comments they are leaving all over YouTube. Nevertheless this is going to broaden MGS and I think this is the right step for Konami.

“Project Natal”

Had this not been accidently leaked before E3 2009, I think this would have been the biggest surprise of this conference. Nevertheless, the trailer for it was really good. The trailer shows it as a full body motion sensor camera that controls games with no controller but by watching your movements. They had Steven Spielberg come out on stage which I found extremely random but whatever. I think he hit it head on when he said that Microsoft was not inventing the wheel with this project, but rather throwing it away. If it works, this is going to redefine the way people play games and widen gameplay to a whole new customer. I’m excited to see how this works out because in the Tech Demo’s it seemed very advanced and very good.

Recap

Overall, Microsoft had the best conference this year in my opinion. They really showed us what was up and coming for the rest of this year and it got me very excited for it. On a grade scale Microsoft deserves an A in all categories because it just blew me away. They did a very good job of grabbing former exclusive titles and bringing them to the 360 as well as keeping games exclusive to the 360. I wish them the best this year and look forward to seeing them again in L.A. next year.

Until next time, Mgrigs is signing off.

Game Review – Age of Empires III

One of the greatest Real Time Strategy (RTS) makers, Ensemble, has done it twice in a row now. With the release of multiple expansions to this game, Age of Empires 3 has done a magnificent job of adding on to the series and going beyond those of other RTS games. Don’t get me wrong, I love Elves, Orcs, and Space Marines, but there is just something about the idea of playing through real history that just makes this game scream to make me play it. Now in the original Age of Empires (AoE) had you conquer Rome, and AoE 2 you have “1000 years to lead your people through the Middle Ages,” but now its time to come to the New World and battle each other country for control of the America’s in the newest sequel to the Age of Empires series.

This game is amazingly fun as the two previous games and of course Age of Mythology. Now the question is why should I buy this game if I have Age of Empires 2. After playing this game since its release, I believe that there are multiple reasons to buy and play this game if your a fan of the series.

• First, there are a ton of new units to combat with since the advent the gun and cannon in this time period as well as the Industrial period taking place during this time.
• Second, the game seems to be slightly faster paced in the fact that you can create groups of units instead of one multiple times over again.
• Also, the ability to have your home country send you supplies is so much fun.
  • A new addition to AoE 3 is that as you level up your home city you are able to “customize” it, but also build a “deck” of cards that you can use in game to gain an advantage over your opponent.
• Plus, there is a a slight advance in the aesthetics and graphics, such as high resolutions for those of us who use widescreen monitors to test and play games. Also the use of anti-aliasing is sort of nice if your looking to just stair at the game instead of playing it.
• Additionally, the new maps that inherently were released as to supplement the new setting of the game itself.
• Finally, the addition of a Trade Route in every map that delivers free supplies of your choosing, whether it be food, coin, wood, or even experience.

One of the thing that I think separates this game from the Warcraft series is that every time you play a skirmish in multiplayer or single player, the map is always different even if you choose the same map every game. The terrain is the same, and the idea of the map is the same, but it randomizes it so that a player cannot just master the map and know exactly were to go every game. For example, in one of my favorite maps, “The Caribbean,” there are two islands that have the separate teams on them and another smaller Island with the trade route. Now this is the main idea of the map, but each different time you play it, it randomizes the location of the islands and were the forests and silver mines are. This is probably the best feature in AoE 3 is that it can randomize itself to make the game interesting every time you play it.

Now despite the differences it has against other RTS games, it still keeps true to its nature and has multiple different strategies to play from. In my opinion, the Rush-Boom is the most effective at this time. Especially on the maps that have massive amounts of water separating the two separate teams. For this to work the best, it requires that you play as the British due to their manor homes producing settlers as well as your town center. In this strategy, you quickly advance through the ages and build a dock as soon as possible and begin to purchase Galleons. As you begin to create them, move them to the other island and begin to make your army. Raid the enemies town and boom, you win the game. Online, I’m able to use this strategy to 1v2 and sometimes 1v3 people depending on how skillful the opponents are. As for the classic turtle, in this game it’s broken to be honest. With the limit on outposts (towers) the turtle fails to defeat armies that are sent after you, and trying to wall off enough resources to last the game is just two slow especially against the British Rush-Boom. As for the straight boom, it is effective on large maps with multiple teammates to protect you. 

The Home city is a fun little addition to the game giving it a sort of RPG feel. The more you play the game, you gain experience in the game, hence the RPG feel. With this experience you level up and gain customizations to your city as well as points to buy cards for your deck. Upgrades to your city have no effect on the game play itself, but it is fun you get all the additions to the city. Currently, my highest city is with the British and its at level 33. Here’s a picture for those wondering.

The last addition that made a huge difference to the game was the deck of cards you could bring to a game. Whether it was upgrades to your buildings, changes to the ship cap limit, or free units being shipped to your Home City, they provided advantages for you to choose from. The ability to level up and buy new and different cards made this very interesting, and having only 20 cards in a deck also makes it difficult to decide which cards are going to be the best to take into the map your playing on. The deck also helps with the strategy your trying to play. With the British Rush-Boom I described earlier, it helps to have the Admiralty card and the 2 Monitor cards in the deck to have a bigger fleet and to have more monitors than you should. Should the original rush fail, having a larger fleet to control them building a dock to stop you is a plus and its also extremely easy to control your opponent when your stomping on them with 5 monitors using the long range cannon ability to crush their inland buildings.

If you don’t like RTS games, this game is obviously isn’t for you, but if you play Warcraft 3, StarCraft, Company of Heroes, or any other RTS games, you should give this game a try. Luckily for you, Ensemble will let you download a demo of the game to give it a try before you decide whether or not to buy it. Here's the Link.

Link to Demo for Age of Empires III provided by Ensemble.

Until next time, Mgrigs is signing out.