E3 2006: The Thread

[KingPK 0]

I know it's still a few days away, but I'm excited because, now that I have high speed 'net, I can watch all the videos and stuff from IGN's coverage. Personally, even though I won't get a PS3 anytime soon, I really want to see more on MGS4.

 

Here's the E3 trailer for SD vs. RAW 2007 for PS3. Looking good, but you know how notoriously misleading next-gen teasers can be.

[devo 0]

This is alllll Wii for me. The only non-Nintendo stuff I'm interested in going into this is Okami and Disgaea II.

[death_by_burrito 0]

Gears of MOTHERFUCKIN' War!

[Team Angle Pusher 0]

SD vs. RAW 2007 trailer was great. I hope they have Ken Kennedy and the Spirit Squad in the game. Spirit Squad would be really hard to pull off

[Prophet of Mike Zagurski 0]

The wrestlers look like they are claymation. They are extremely detailed but yet they don't look real.

[haws bah gawd 0]

I think I just creamed my pants over the SD vs R trailer. I hope the 360 and/or PS3 will be able to pump-out some graphics similar to those. You have Angle busting a monitor over Cenas head, getting a light tube broken over his own shoulder, then making the comeback with an Angle Slam through a ringside table and moonsaulting off a balconey. I'm sold.

[The Amazing Rando 0]

A few notes on the SD vs. Raw trailer...

 

 

- Angle looked like Shrek

- Cena's selling of the monitor shot was horrendous.

- Cena sold a german onto concrete like RVD sells his legs

- Cena went for a f'n gorilla press drop instead of the F-U, when both have a similiar setup

- Angle spider-man'd up to the balcony, as there seemed to be no way to get up there from where they were standing.

[Art Sandusky 0]

I just can't get into any wrestling games these days. I mean, that looked great and all, but meh.

[Aero 0]

Graphically, it looks pretty awesome, although the wrestlers definitely look too much like claymation. Angle's face isn't as good as it was the past few games. To nitpick even further, the Raw entrance isn't updated, and Angle has the same outfit as the last game... I want the black singlet and short black boots, damnit!

[BUTT 0]

I never use the actual wrestlers in wrestling games. Just CAWs.

[Ced 0]

I have to nitpick for the camera seeming to be implanted in Cole's head, judging by the Titantron, and the usage of fluorescent light tubes.

 

That said, nice video, but next-gen non-gameplay videos don't mean crap. They'll also have to show me that the SvR series can take the franchise 2 steps forward without taking 2 or even 3 steps back.

[Silence 0]

I have to nitpick for the camera seeming to be implanted in Cole's head, judging by the Titantron, and the usage of fluorescent light tubes.

 

That said, nice video, but next-gen non-gameplay videos don't mean crap. They'll also have to show me that the SvR series can take the franchise 2 steps forward without taking 2 or even 3 steps back.

 

Yeah, the poor tag match AI in SVR 2006 has me not doing as many tag matches as I did in previous Smackdown games.

[luke-o 0]

It will never be as good as royal rumble on the snes.

[KingPK 0]

I have to nitpick for the camera seeming to be implanted in Cole's head, judging by the Titantron, and the usage of fluorescent light tubes.

 

I think they just used that angle for effect, to put you in Cole's shoes for the trailer. I doubt it will be actually used in the final game.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

I would hope Nintendo announces a firm release date for Twilight Princess..

 

that and some more info about W!! is all I really care about.

[edotherocket 0]

Nintendo gave TIME the first look at its new controller--but before I pick it up, Miyamoto suggests that I remove my jacket. That turns out to be a good idea. The first game I try--Miyamoto walks me through it, which to a gamer is the rough equivalent of getting to trade bons mots with Jerry Seinfeld--is a Warioware title (Wario being Mario's shorter, fatter evil twin). It consists of dozens of manic five-second mini games in a row. They're geared to the Japanese gaming sensibility, which has a zany, cartoonish, game-show bent. In one hot minute, I use the controller to swat a fly, do squat-thrusts as a weight lifter, turn a key in a lock, catch a fish, drive a car, sauté some vegetables, balance a broom on my outstretched hand, color in a circle and fence with a foil. And yes, dance the hula. Since very few people outside Nintendo have seen the new hardware, the room is watching me closely.

 

It's a remarkable experience. Instead of passively playing the games, with the new controller you physically perform them. You act them out. It's almost like theater: the fourth wall between game and player dissolves. The sense of immersion--the illusion that you, personally, are projected into the game world--is powerful. And there's an instant party atmosphere in the room. One advantage of the new controller is that it not only is fun, it looks fun. When you play with an old-style controller, you look like a loser, a blank-eyed joystick fondler. But when you're jumping around and shaking your hulamaker, everybody's having a good time.

 

After Warioware, we play scenes from the upcoming Legend of Zelda title, Twilight Princess, a moody, dark (by Nintendo's Disneyesque standards) fantasy adventure. Now I'm Errol Flynn, sword fighting with the controller, then aiming a bow and arrow, then using it as a fishing rod, reeling in a stubborn virtual fish. The third game, and probably the most fun, is also the simplest: tennis. The controller becomes a racket, and I'm smacking forehands and stroking backhands. The sensors are fine enough that you can scoop under the ball to lob it, or slice it for spin. At the end, I don't so much put the controller down as have it pried from my hands.

 

John Schappert, a senior vice president at Electronic Arts, is overseeing a version of the venerable Madden football series for Nintendo's new hardware. He sees the controller from the auteur's perspective, as an opportunity but also a huge challenge. "Our engineers now have to decipher what the user is doing," he says. "'Is that a throw gesture? Is it a juke? A stiff arm?' Everyone knows how to make a throwing motion, but we all have our own unique way of throwing." But consider the upside: you're basically playing football in your living room. "To snap the ball, you 'snap' the remote back toward your body, which hikes the ball," Schappert says. "No buttons to press, just gesture a hiking motion, and the ball's in the hands of the QB. To pass the ball, you gesture a throwing motion. Hard, fast gestures result in bullet passes. Slower, less forceful, gestures result in loftier, slower lob passes. It truly plays like nothing you've ever experienced."

 

So, Zelda *will* have the Wii-controlled sword play and we've got a Warioware and tennis game on the way...

[devo 0]

I would be beyond happy if Zelda, Warioware, and the tennis title were available at launch in addition to the Smash Brothers game Nintendo promised.

[Exslade ZX 0]

on the Smackdown talk, IMO the better videos (yea they've been posted before)

 

http://media.ps3.ign.com/media/775/775530/vids_1.html

 

What looks to be actual gameplay. And it shows some things involving some of the comments in this thread, suchas the RAW tron being updated, and Angle having his black attire.

[NYU 0]

Smackdown looks exactly the same for the PS3 as it is for the PS2. Besides updated polygon models, they're exactly the same. I haven't seen one reanimated move yet. The collision is still faulty, the sounds are exactly the same. I don't get what they've done besides make the crowd look more realistic and add the whole balcony setup.

 

Right now, Wii is getting all my attention. Smackdown vs. Raw 2007 has done nothing to fix that.

[Guest Askewniverse]

Games based on movies or TV shows don't have a good track record, but I'm still interested in Reservoir Dogs and The Sopranos.

[AndrewTS 0]

This is alllll Wii for me. The only non-Nintendo stuff I'm interested in going into this is Okami and Disgaea II.

 

Same here but I'd add Assassin's Creed there, too.

[edotherocket 0]

Virtua Fighter 5: exclusive to PS3.

 

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3150470

 

Screenshots here:

 

http://www.1up.com/do/media?cId=3150467&mt=0

[Invictus 0]

Very unimpressive stuff for the PS3 at this point. Virtua fighter and Smackdown look better, but not so much that it makes much of a difference. I think some game "journalists" should put the screws to them for their pre-rendered hype videos not being even near close, but we'll see what E3 brings.

 

It's all about Wii this time around at E3, and it's going to take some very heavy lifting from Sony or Microsoft to upstage it, and frankly, I doubt they're up to the task.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

Microsoft will probably announce that they are working on a portable system although its at least 2 or 3 years down the road.

[Scroby 0]

For all those who own a 360 here is the schdule of demos that are going to be released this week, according to Gamespot.com

 

Gamespot article

 

 

Today: Test Drive unlimted demo can be downloaded. The demo is a racetrack in Hawaii

 

Tomorrow: The demo will be Capcom's Lost Planet

 

Thursday: The demo will be Moto Gp 06

[devo 0]

A Dragon Quest game is going to be a Wii launch title! Here's an excerpt from Gamespot's report on Square-Enix's press conference.

 

1:51 Here we go--Dragon Quest is coming to the Wii. Some dude is fighting a stone golem in a forest. Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors. Launch title for the Wii! No real footage of the game, but still, big news.

[edotherocket 0]

A 'proper' Metal Gear Solid game coming to PSP:

http://www.gamesarefun.com/news.php?newsid=6309

 

Sonic for Xbox 360:

[AndrewTS 0]

A Dragon Quest game is going to be a Wii launch title! Here's an excerpt from Gamespot's report on Square-Enix's press conference.

 

1:51 Here we go--Dragon Quest is coming to the Wii. Some dude is fighting a stone golem in a forest. Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors. Launch title for the Wii! No real footage of the game, but still, big news.

 

Dragon Quest with new gameplay? That's friggin' earth shattering.

 

I'm sure the dozen people who will be playing VF5 at home are ecstatic.

[haws bah gawd 0]

I just got finished watching the First Demonstration video for Smackdown vs Raw 2007. THQ is going to have to do some serious work on this game if they want my dollar this year. The character models are much improved over last year, but its not a really big factor in making me decide to buy this. The crowd fighting looks like it would get extremely old after a while. Why is it that on a next gen system, a wrestler still phases through the body of another when putting him through a table after jumping off of something? I also find it laughable that they still have the same running back grapple German Suplex animation for the 4th or 5th year in a row, and the strikes still look exactly the same. It seems like every year they keep the move animations the same and just add new ones without taking into account how silly some of the older animations now look. Afterall, do we really need 30-35 clotheslines, 20+ powerbombs and 20-25 different DDT's? I swear if the stiff-as-a-board falling animation or the slump to your knees and fall on your face animations are still in this game, I'll scream.

[AndrewTS 0]

Yukes has never, ever given a rat's damn about the clipping before, so that doesn't surprise me. I wouldn't flinch if the final game still had wrestlers' hair stabbing them through their necks, and so on.