E3

[politoe]

For the Portal freaks. Portal: Still Alive for XBLA this Fall.

http://gamerscoreblog.blip.tv/#1084297

[melancholy]

Sony's conference was about everything you all pretty much knew was coming. Resistance 2, Resistance for PSP, God of War 3, more Home footage to prove the game is still in development and not just an eternal beta...the LittleBigPlanet financial level was cool and makes me want that game even more now.

Movie downloading service sounded nice...until the pricetag of $6 HD movie rentals popped up. That pretty much killed it for me.

The announcement of the 80GB PS3 becoming the only SKU available for the same price as the 40GB was nice, but if I heard him right, he said it's just the 40GB system with a bigger hard drive, which probably means no backwards compatibility.

All in all, no real big surprises from Sony. Actually, the biggest surprise for me was the huge support for the PS2, dedicating about 1/4 of the conference towards it, along with some decent titles being release, including Yakuza 2. They said 130 more titles will be released this year for the PS2, which is amazing considering the age of the console.

[JuddWack]

NetFlix officially being supported on the 360 at no extra charge is pretty awesome.

[pixel]

And that's about it. I'm wondering what we did to Nintendo to deserve this

Their money machine hasn't broken yet. Wii Sports 2 alone could fund a small country.

[melancholy]

How are you talking about Sony without mentioning DC Universe or MAG?!?

DC Universe could be cool, but I'm not too interested in MMO's. And I really don't understand what's so special about MAG. Now, understand that I haven't played a FPS online since Quake 2, so I thought that games with the same premises as MAG already exist.

[Maturion]

Banjo Kazooie 3 was really nice looking.

[lackofsense]

MS's press conference so far.

GOW2: Looks awesome, has online co-op, out first week of November
Fable2: Looks awesome, has online co-op, out in October
RE5: Looks awesome, has online co-op, out TBA

I thought I heard that RE5 is coming out March 13th

[melancholy]

Banjo Kazooie 3 was really nice looking.

Indeed. Though I was definitely hesitant when they first announced the vehicular gameplay, I'm rather enjoying the newer gameplay footage they have been showing off. It could actually be really good.

[Nico0020]

Myself, I am really pissed off at the look of the new dashboard and avatars for 360. It looks like a combination of the iPhone and Wii. I really like the current dash, I dont see why they want to go change it so much to the "family" route.

Though features of the dash update do sound nice. Copy games to your HDD for faster loading and (finally) Eight person party chat.

[melancholy]

The new Xbox dash kinda makes me think of a "let's do it because we can" situation. They could have easily just modified the blades to fit their new 'family friendly' theme, but they instead revamped the entire console's software just because, well, they could.

Actually, Microsoft's whole press conference confused me this year. They started out alright, catering to hardcore gamers, but once they attempted to switch focus to the casual market, the whole thing fell apart. The avatars are flat out creepy looking, which seem like a cross between Sony's Home and Nintendo's Miis, creating this bizarre carnival freak version of yourself. The social aspect was disjointed, having friends across the network appear in your dashboard and being able to do tons of different things, it sounds cool but they presented it as a mess of organizing your friends in the same spot at the same time. And what was with that 'You're in the Movies' game? The entire thing looked to appeal to children under 10, yet was demoed by people in their 40's. Even the people on stage looked as if they thought the concept was stupid. Microsoft has the hardcore games down, but their social gaming is terrible.

[Stormwatch]

GTA coming to DS. Sounded great but it looks like this

DS? Surely you jest! This thing looks no better than Driv3r for the GBA.

[Calavera]

And what was with that 'You're in the Movies' game? The entire thing looked to appeal to children under 10, yet was demoed by people in their 40's. Even the people on stage looked as if they thought the concept was stupid. Microsoft has the hardcore games down, but their social gaming is terrible.

From what I saw of it, it reminds me of a Sega CD game.

[Jeeba Jabba]

I'm hearing a lot of online buzz that SE is making a new Final Fantasy Online with the FFXIII engine. They've not confirmed if it will be a direct sequel to FFXI, though.

[|darc|]

I'm hearing a lot of online buzz that SE is making a new Final Fantasy Online with the FFXIII engine. They've not confirmed if it will be a direct sequel to FFXI, though.

While on the subject of MMO sequels, Star Wars is supposed to be getting a new MMORPG under the KOTOR series.

[Eviltaco64X]

That GTA game looks like shit.
They could do so much better, and they know that.

[Jeeba Jabba]

I'm hearing a lot of online buzz that SE is making a new Final Fantasy Online with the FFXIII engine. They've not confirmed if it will be a direct sequel to FFXI, though.

While on the subject of MMO sequels, Star Wars is supposed to be getting a new MMORPG under the KOTOR series.

That would be so awesome.

[|darc|]

Here's the article about it:

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6194664.html

E3 2008: EA CEO confirms KOTOR MMO
John Riccitiello tells Conde Nast Portfolio that BioWare's mystery massively multiplayer project is a third installment in the Star Wars series.
By Tor Thorsen, GameSpot
Posted Jul 17, 2008 2:08 pm PT

Ever since it was announced in 2006, BioWare's massively multiplayer role-playing game has been shrouded in mystery. Though the Canadian developer opened a satellite studio in Austin, Texas, just to develop it, its cofounders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk maintained an iron wall of silence. However, Electronic Arts knew enough about the title to help convince the company to buy BioWare/Pandemic for $860 million last year.

Today, as E3 2008 wound down, the fog hanging around BioWare's MMORPG appears to have dissipated. Less than 72 hours after presiding over EA's own press event--where the project was nowhere to be found--CEO John Riccitiello almost casually revealed the MMORPG in question is a sequel of sorts to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

"We've got two of the most compelling MMOs in the industry in development," Riccitiello told Conde Nast Portfolio magazine. "The first title, based on the Warhammer property, will launch soon. And the one that people are dying for us to talk to them about in partnership with Lucas [Arts is] coming out of BioWare, which is, I think, quite possibly the most anticipated game, full stop, for the industry." When contacted by GameSpot, BioWare reps declined to comment further.

BioWare's first Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic game was released in 2003 for the original Xbox and PC, and was named the year's top RPG by GameSpot. An Obsidian Entertainment-developed sequel was released in 2004 and 2005 on the same two respective platforms. Both critically acclaimed games are set several thousand years before the events of the Star Wars films, and cast players as adventurers who eventually become powerful Jedi Knights.

Currently, the Knights of the Old Republic MMORPG is set for release sometime in 2009. Once it launches, it is unclear what will happen to LucasArts' current massively multiplayer title, the Sony Online Entertainment-developed Star Wars Galaxies.

[Christuserloeser]

GTA coming to DS. Sounded great but it looks like this

Erm, wasn't there actually some 2d GTA once ?


It's too late anyway: my eyes are bleeding.

[Eviltaco64X]

To think the same console that does this

Has a GTA game that looks like a 3D GBA game.

[Nico0020]

what game is that one?