http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/blogArt.cfm?artid=18903 
E3 Â’09 wasnÂ’t all about Nintendo, of course. There were a few times I snuck away from the Nintendo booth to try PS3 games, and we all read about the Microsoft and Sony press conferences. Meetings were attended and booths were visited. For a PS3 owner like me, E3 Â’09 was just as much about the big black box as the little white one. The show floor had tons of awesome games like Brutal Legend and Batman: Arkham Asylum. Microsoft and Steven Spielberg debuted Project Natal, Kratos gutted a centaur, and the PSP Go failed to impress me in any meaningful way. Read on, dear readers, and hear of my roguish exploits beyond the cavernous walls of the Nintendo booth!
The first game I was drawn to was Batman: Arkham Asylum. Though excited about the concept of the game, I had always been wary, given the Dark Knight’s questionable video game history. Actually playing the game, however, made all those fears melt away. Rocksteady has crafted an elegant, beautiful game that puts you right in the boots of Batman and never lets up. Appropriately, Batman himself is voiced by Kevin Conroy, the Joker by Mark Hamill, and Harley Quinn by Arleen Sorkin. The demo showed off Batman’s considerable combat prowess. Surrounded by a gang of thugs, the player need only press Square in conjunction with a direction from the left stick to take down the competition. Batman’s attacks are fluid and contextual—he punched the guy in front of him but elbowed the rear attacker, then kicked the man coming from the side. The other big feature of the game is “Detective Vision,” which shows you all the bad guys in a room, whether they’re packing heat or not, and all the objects you can interact with. Using this special visor, you can basically plan out your entire attack so that Batman remains unseen. I especially liked how your actions provoke fear in the remaining enemies. Stringing up one thug prompted his buddy to run screaming from the room, for example. The game looks beautiful, and Arkham itself is atmospheric. It was one of my favorite games on the show floor. Comes out in October, so mark your calendars!
I tried out the final entry in the Ratchet & Clank Future series, A Crack in Time. Just like in Quest for Booty, Ratchet is without Clank (in the demo, anyway), which kind of sucked. All the usual series staples are here, though: massive weapons (including a gopher-thing that emits devastating sound waves), modified jet boots, Gold Bolts, and bizarre gadgets. It looks a bit more open-ended than previous games in the series, though the level design is still based around a particular set of goals. Hilariously, the demo included a Gold Bolt that you obviously needed the Swingshot for, but the Swingshot was not in my inventory. Combat is pretty standard, involving lots of strafing and shooting. The graphics have received a notable upgrade, looking a bit cell-shaded at times with more ambient vegetation. IÂ’m excited about the game, but the demo didnÂ’t blow me away. Right now it seems like a standard R&C game. Not necessarily a bad thing, of course, but I expected something a little more epic. Maybe it was just a bad demo.
Tony Hawk: The Ride was interesting. The board peripheral really does feel like a skateboard in that it’s not flat on the ground—the bottom of the board is curved, so you’re constantly engaging your core to stay balanced (it’s a better balance board than the Wii Balance Board). I only tried the street skating, and it felt a little wonky. The game had a hard time differentiating between an ollie and a manual, and kickflips were difficult to pull off. I watched Neal try the half-pipe, and he had to physically reach down and cover the IR sensors to initiate certain tricks. I suppose that’s just like real life (grab the board), but it also seems like the board will take some getting used to. That’s fine, but I just hope the board is robust enough to hold up to a full fledged game. The whole package (game + board) will retail for $120, which is pretty high. While we were only able to demo the Xbox 360 version, we were told that the Wii version would perform similarly. It really is the generation of peripherals.
One of my favorite games of the show had to be Brutal Legend, Tim SchaferÂ’s latest brilliant creation. It stars Jack Black as roadie Eddie Riggs, a heavy metal roadie who is transported to a true world of rock. Everything in the game, from the characters to the music to the entire world is inspired by rock and metal. For a guy like me who drools over creative art design, Brutal Legend was by far the best-looking game at the show. The gameplay is no slouch either. During the surprisingly lengthy demo, I chopped my enemies apart with a giant axe, then zapped them with electricity and fire from my electric axe. I drove an awesome car called The Deuce, wrote on the back of a carriage built from bones, and fought a huge lamprey-like boss. The game promises to have a huge cast of quirky characters and quests, and I was absolutely blown away by the demo. ItÂ’s like Tim Schafer and Double Fine turned Brutal Legend up to 11. Like Arkham Asylum, Eddie Riggs starts a-rockinÂ’ in October, assuming ActivisionÂ’s stupid lawsuit doesnÂ’t screw that up.
I was happily surprised to get some hands-on time with the PSP Go, but was disappointed in both its construction and performance. For those who donÂ’t know, the PSP Go is a little like an iPhone, but with a slider screen that reveals buttons underneath. They system is only about as wide as the PSP-3000Â’s screen, as the PSP GoÂ’s screen is actually smaller than the PSP-3000. It is noticeably smaller, and not in a good way. The buttons, too, seem smaller. The buttons are shallow and have a click to them, just like the DSi, which I liked. However, they are so close together as to be irritating. The analog nub (yes, thereÂ’s still an analog nub) is right next to the ABXY buttons, separated only by the itty-bitty Start/Select keys. I felt like I was going to drop the damn thing, and the smaller screen reduced visibility of the game. Aside from those problems, the PSP Go has a few more hills to climb: although it features 16 gigs of onboard flash memory (and is compatible with 32-gig micro memory sticks), it does not support UMDÂ’s, so gamers will either have to pony up cash to download games theyÂ’ve already purchased (from the PSN) or keep their old PSP around for UMD-based games. Sony is supposedly working on a fix for this problem, but knowing them, it will cost extra. But the biggest roadblock to the PSP GoÂ’s success is undoubtedly its ridiculously high price tag: $250 for a tiny little handheld that lacks the functionality of your current PSP. No thanks.
I was able to briefly play LittleBigPlanet on the PSP, though. The game itself was very fun. Graphically and gameplay-wise, itÂ’s identical to its PS3 counterpart. New worlds are obviously a part of the picture, as I was exploring Australia. The Popit is perfectly functional, and physics are the same, and the kooky art design is intact as well. Media Molecule is planning on including a robust level editor in the PSP version and will allow players to share their creations through a community service that is sadly (but perhaps necessarily) separate from the console version. As a big fan of the PS3 game, IÂ’m very excited to continue my Sackboy journey on the PSP (but not on the PSP Go).
The only other PSP game I played was Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny. The demo was very limited, only offering single battles with a limited roster of characters. IÂ’m not sure what the final game is going to be like, but the demo was very technically impressive. ItÂ’s like Project Soul ported Soul Calibur 4 to the PSP. From a graphical standpoint, this is without a doubt the best-looking PSP game out there. It is said that the game will feature most of the gameplay modes of SC4, including character creation (wow!) and the roster will have at least 30 characters, including newcomer Dampierre and Kratos (yes, that Kratos). It comes out in September, and IÂ’ll be keeping an eye on it.
I was able to briefly play Afrika before the booth attendant started irritating me (just let me do it, goddamnit!). ItÂ’s a Pokemon Snap sort of game with real-world cameras and African animals. Players get assignments, then drive out to a site and take pictures of animals doing things. Points and money are awarded for good pictures, and you use the money you earn to buy better equipment. The game looks absolutely stunning, and the animals have very interesting and accurate behaviors. Let me tell you right now that hippos really are the most dangerous animals in Africa! Camera control is intuitive, but figuring out all the different kinds of cameras, lenses, and equipment will be a game unto itself. Happily, because the game uses real cameras and equipment, youÂ’ll learn a lot.
AssassinÂ’s Creed 2 was not playable, but looks incredible. I was extremely disappointed that Ubisoft didnÂ’t bring Jade out this year. We all know Beyond Good & Evil 2 is in the works, and there was a BG&E poster up at the Ubisoft booth, but no mention was made of my favorite gaming heroine or her piggish uncle. Konami announced three Metal Gear titles: Metal Gear Solid Arcade, Metal Gear Rising (PS3/360), and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (PSP), a sequel to Portable Ops. The most exciting announcement at KonamiÂ’s press conference is that Hideo Kojima is involved in a new Castlevania reboot which looks a little like God of War meets Van Helsing. IÂ’m not sure how I feel about it, but IÂ’m glad the series is going in a different direction after a decade of Metroidvania games. None of those games were on the show floor, unfortunately.
I watched people play Bayonetta, a bizarre new game from Sega that looks a lot like Devil May Cry with a female protagonist. ItÂ’s very pretty, but thereÂ’s a LOT happening onscreen all the time, and I (personally) would have a hard time remembering all the button combinations for different attacks. I already have a tough time remembering all the combo possibilities in God of War, and thatÂ’s childÂ’s play compared to Devil May Cry. Bayonetta certainly looks fun and beautiful, and people who like DMC will probably like it, too. I also watched people playing God of War 3, which looks to play exactly like the first two games but with much prettier graphics. I was interested to see that the reflex save killings have been tweaked: instead of choosing between watching the gruesome death and watching for button prompts, God of War 3 lets you do both: the action is centered on the screen while the button prompts come up on their corresponding side of the screen, so Triangle appears along the top, Square on the left, etc. This means you can watch the animation and see the prompts in your peripheral vision, which seems both easier and more reflexive. The only part of the demo that looked a little hit-or-miss was a Star Fox 64-esque flying sequence where you had to dodge oncoming blockades and falling rocks. Looks great, though.
That’s really all I had time for between Nintendo-centric games and writing. There were some notable absences on the floor, though, that puzzled me. For one, I was hoping to see at least an announcement for Dead Space 2, though I imagine that would have taken attention away from Extraction. Still, I think EA is really milking the “prequel” angle for all it’s worth (Extraction, Downfall, and the comic book), and you’d think the story would have to continue forward at some point. I was super-disappointed that Modern Warfare 2 was not on the show floor, despite its release being five short months away. Oh sure, a gameplay trailer was shown (it looks so beautiful), but I would’ve liked to have played the game. Activision in general had a disappointing booth. Their two most anticipated games (Modern Warfare 2 and DJ Hero) were not playable. The PS3 Slim has been getting a lot of press through the rumor mill, but it wasn’t even mentioned at E3. Similarly, Sony announced essentially a Wii Remote, but failed to show it off (sort of like Microsoft and Project Natal). Don’t ask me why, but I was sort of hoping for further DLC for RE5, like new maps for Versus mode, new weapons, or strict bans on players who jump into Slayers matches and proceed to kill the other players. Microsoft had Halo: ODST on the show floor, but they only showed a teaser trailer for Halo: Reach. Aside from those two games, Microsoft really needs to get on the franchise bandwagon. Nintendo has familiar faces up the wazoo, and Sony is quickly accruing a stable of characters, but Microsoft has Master Chief and…what else?
All I know is that between Nintendo and Sony products, IÂ’m gonna spend most of this holiday season and early next year broke.
Topic: Beyond the Nintendo Booth (Read 5202 times)
