Adam Creighton, Computer and Video Gaming

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Adam Creighton, Computer and Video Gaming (Subscribe)

Monday, July 14, 2008

E3 2008: Day 1

I'm tired, but it's been a big day on the announcement front.

You can catch my live tweeting of the Microsoft press conference.

Biggest announcement was Final Fantasy XIII coming to Xbox 360. Other cool stuff includes a NetFlix announcement (download videos via Xbox Marketplace, for the cost of the NetFlix account), Xbox Dashboard redesign this fall (sexy 3D-ish), sequel Portal Still Alive is a 2008 exclusive to the 360, content deals with NBC / Universal, and titles Fallout 3, Fable II, RE:5, and Gears 2 all look fantastic.

Electronic Arts robbed the Activision cradle (?), snagging id Software and Rage, and introduced Nucleus, a system/service that will connect a bunch of their games (29 by end of 2009), and Rupture, an API that "allows anyone to bring data in and out of the Rupture website. The API has two major components, the Rupture Client API and the Rupture API."

Sony's and Nintendo's and pressers are on Tuesday.

Labels: announcements, E3 2008, Microsoft, Xbox 360

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SOURCES: Gamespot.com, joystiq.com, kotaku.com, Xbox.com, IGN, GameInformer, Official XBox Magazine, CNN, gamesindustry.biz, and others.

E3 Preview(ish)

E3 starts Monday, with the console pressers on Monday and Tuesday.

I'm excited to see what shakes out, but there are a number of titles and rumors that have me pumped.

On the titles front, I'm going to miss something I dig, but Borderlands (Gearbox Software) just looks fun; I'm hoping Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization continues the great stuff from Civilization: Revolution; Capcom's got me jonesing for Resident Evil 5 and Dark Void, Flock has me intrigued, and I'm hoping "New games from Capcom Interactive" include Dead Rising 2; from D3 Publisher, I think Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers looks to be the video game version of wonderfully trashy camp; Dead Space looks be a brown trousers equivent to 28 Days Later; Mirror’s Edge may improve on the Breakdown formula for "first-person thing"; Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning may be the MMO that gets me on board with the genre (and it's Gamebryo-powered); I'm hoping The Lord of the Rings: Conquest successfully merges the Tolkien IP with the Star Wars Battlefront gameplay; Left 4 Dead could be the shot in the rotting arm the zombie genre needs (like it needs anything); Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe may be a great expression of the component IPs; and SquEnix's The Last Remnant and Infinite Undiscovery look like uber-epic super-production value offerings.

As far as console rumors, I'm hoping they all do something actually phenomenal with media intersection. Brass tacks, Microsoft owns the show with Xbox Live, Sony should have exploded a long time ago (since it has the media and video content six ways to Sunday), and Nintendo could get so much more addressable market if they would get into that space (by way of focused online).

For Sony, it's probably a bit stupid of me that the most exciting thing for me would be a Twisted Metal follow up, (a la Black). Oh, and Quantic Dream's Heavy Rain looks closest to bridging the uncanny valley -- and tugging the heart strings to boot. On the hardware front, I wonder if Sony will drop the price of the PS2; seems like a win/lose, because it'll bring revenue, but feels like it'll cannibalize PS3 adoption (unless there's an equivalent PS3 drop, which I don't expect).

For Microsoft, I wonder if there'll be any motion controller announcement, to add to the news of the price drop for the Pro SKU. I'm a Halo be-otch, so Halo Wars, Peter Jackson's project, or whatever the #### Bungie is working on would be keen. Aside from that, I'd really love "Live Anywhere" to materialize (or even "Live Somewhere") -- like some big E3 presser announcement, simultaneous dashboard download and Windows Mobile update. That'd be sweet.

Nintendo? They say they haven't abandoned the "core gamer", so I hope that means some unexpected announcements from them. A Nintendo DS more akin to the Wii, or integrated with the Wii, or something, with content that matches the stereotypical gaming demographic. Franchise wise, I'm thinking Donkey Kong. What about the Wii? I'd love for Nintendo to do something disruptive -- a "Wii 1.25", or something -- with basics like DVD, a focused network initiative, etc.

So that's my quick-and-dirty preview -- more in a few hours.

Labels: E3 2008, Microsoft, Nintendo, PlayStation3, Sony, Wii, Xbox 360

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SOURCES: Gamespot.com, joystiq.com, kotaku.com, Xbox.com, IGN, GameInformer, Official XBox Magazine, CNN, gamesindustry.biz, and others.

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

E3 links

In preparation for next week, I brought back the "E3" link on the top left side of my page, and added a few of the big dogs that come to mind -- including their scheduled press conferences.

On the console front, only Microsoft seems to have their E3 site up and discoverable, so if you know where Sony's and Nintendo's are, let me know.

Links:

Press conferences:

Monday (7/14) 10:30 a.m. PDT: Microsoft
Tuesday (7/15) 09:00 a.m. PDT: Nintendo
Tuesday (7/15) 11:30 a.m. PDT: Sony

Labels: announcements, E3 2008

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SOURCES: Gamespot.com, joystiq.com, kotaku.com, Xbox.com, IGN, GameInformer, Official XBox Magazine, CNN, gamesindustry.biz, and others.