GEEK REPORT: E308, DAY 4

Posted by chainsaw under E3, guest blogger

Guest blogger Glen returns for another dispatch from his couch on a massive videogame conference:

 Yesterday, E3 coverage on G4 ended on a high note with extensive coverage of some of the hottest new videogames coming fourth quarter 2008/early 2009.  

Here are my favorite picks:

1. Mirror’s Edge

Mirror’s Edge seems to borrow the concept from the King Kong videogame where gamers play entirely in a first person mode with no HUD.  Your character is able to effortlessly leap from building top to building top. Not a lot has been revealed about the story but the bright color schemes given to its environments definitely give the game a different look.

2. Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X and Tom Clancy’s End War

The Tom Clancy franchise departs from it’s typical squad based shooter fare and dives into a new direction with H.A.W.X., an air combat game and End War, a real time strategy game.  What’s interesting about End War is that the game is entirely voice command controllable.  I can’t even get my cell phone to recognize my voice.  I’ll believe this will work when I see it first hand.

3. Rise of the Argonaut

All I can say is it’s about time.  There’s been many knock off to the Jason and the Argonaut mythology but never one done with the stle and flair this game promises to deliver.  Player’s level increases are incurred by earning the favor of the Gods. One look at the epic battles in the game play footage and players will quickly realize that they will need to work pretty hard to do so.

4. Project Origin

This is a direct sequel to Monolith’s F.E.A.R.  The game promises to deliver more frenetic battles in Armageddon styled settings.

5. Spore

This is one of the most interesting looking games.  Spore allows players to oversee an entire universe.  You start out as a single celled organism fighting for dominance among the primordial ooze and earning enough DNA parts to unlock the Creature Creator.  This is where you can create your own species and its abilities.  You’ll evolve this species to the point of intelligence that it can begin space exploration.  Spore is from the creator of The Sims and looks to be going in a direction that no sim has gone before.

GEEK REPORT: E308, Day Three

Posted by chainsaw under E3, guest blogger

Glen’s back!

E3 Day 3 is here.  The power trio (Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo) failed to really deliver any seriously mind blowing news over the first few days.  Many believe that there are cards yet to be revealed at the upcoming Tokyo Game Show.  The remaining E3 days are all about the third party companies showcasing their latest software.

Despite being a crazed video game addict, fortunately, I still have somewhat of a life and had to leave my house and go to the city today.  Thank you to whoever created the DVR.  Here’s my 5 favorite picks that were featured on today’s G4 coverage of E3.

1. Far Cry 2

Far Cry 2 will feature an open world on an island that is controlled by two warring factions.  You will play one faction against the other as you seek to topple them both and destroy a nefarious arms dealer called the Jackal.  The game looks great with it’s intensely interactive environments.  Use a flame thrower to start a fire and the next thing you know, half the jungle is on fire.  Very cool!

2. Dead Space

Zombies in space.  This looks like a cross between Resident Evil and John Carpenter’s The Thing.  The creatures, called Necromorphs, are morphed, reanimated dead humans.  In order to permanently destroy them, you have to blow off all of their limbs.  By the looks of things, the game promises to deliver tons of gore.

3. Left 4 Dead

More zombies!  These aren’t your Romero Zombies.   No, these are your fast moving 28 Days Later zombies and there’s tons of them.  The action looks to be fast and furious.  The demo featured online multiplay with hordes of zombies coming from every direction.

4. Resident Evil 5

The grand daddy of all zombie video games.  Set in Africa, Resident Evil 5 features an on-screen partner at all times in single or multi-player co-op mode that follows along on your adventures.  Yes, for the first time in a Resident Evil game, two players can play at the same time!  The co-op plays looks to be very inventive.  The demo showed one player fighting their way through a zombie stampede while the other play picked them off from a distance with a sniper rifle.

5. Mortal Kombat Vs. DC

While you won’t catch Superman ripping off Sub Zero’s head or frying him with his heat vision, you will see the Mortal Kombat crew performing some of their classic moves.  DC wouldn’t allow their characters to kill any of their opponents but that didn’t stop the game designers from giving the superheroes some vicious moves.  There are plenty of new moves and game modes in this latest incarnation as well as up close and personal combat that is triggered with certain moves.  The DC characters looked dead-on accurate from the comic books and the Mortal Kombat favorites all featured some incredible new detail.

Well, that’s it for today.  One more day of E3 to go and then we’ll have a recap at the end of this week.

GEEK REPORT: E308, Day Two

Posted by chainsaw under E3, guest blogger

NOTE: Hollywood Chainsaw Blogger (a non-gamer) respectively turns over this post to indie filmmaker Glen Baisley, a total game geek who has been covering the E3 Media and Business Summit from . . . I dunno, his living room?

Take it away, Glen!

Yet another day goes by that I sat glued to the tube watching G4’s live coverage of E3.

Day 2 of E3 featured Nintendo and Sony’s press conferences.  Yesterday, Nintendo announced that a new add-on to the Wii remote called the Wii MotionPlus.  Today, Nintendo unveiled just what it is that this new gadget can do. Here’s a look at the top 5 coolest things that Nintendo had to offer at E3:

1. Wii Sports Resort and Wii MotionPlus

The highlight of the conference was no doubt the announcement of Wii Sports Resort which will come with the new Wii MotionPlus add-on, an attachment that plugs into the bottom the existing Wii remotes giving the control enhanced motion control.  Try playing a racing game on the Wii.  Forget about it.  The controls often over steer due to the lack of precision so it’s no wonder why one of the many games included in Wii Sports Resort that was showcased with the new controller add-on was a jet ski racing game.  Two additional games shown that are included in the pack were a Frisbee game where you play catch with a dog and a sword fighting game.  Wii Sports Resort looks to be as much fun as its predecessor.

2. Animal Crossing: City Folk for the Wii

To the surprise of many critics, this was the one of the big showcase titles that Nintendo launched their conference with.  While my 11-year-old kid enjoys the previous Animal Crossing DS game it’s not a title that will have die-hard gamers salivating.  It is, however, the springboard for yet another new peripheral - Wii Speak.  Wii Speak will be included with the game and is nothing more than a speaker phone.  Why Nintendo elected to not come out with a full webcam is baffling.  Perhaps the rationale was to target younger users and prevent the ability of them seeing something that they shouldn’t should an older gamer be online and make obscene gestures.  Regardless, the new gadget allows users to interact with each other while traversing the virtual animal world living simulated lives.  Now our younger gamers can find more reasons to never leave their houses and still have the ability to diss total strangers.

3. Wii Music

This was really cool.  Rather than following the footsteps of Guitar Hero and Rock Band, Wii Music is designed so that gamers do not have to read music, play an instrument or follow rhythm guides.  They can have fun creating music with over 50 instruments simply by moving their bodies and making gestures ala air guitar to play the instruments.  For those longing for a little more realism, the game does include a training session on how to play the drums.  The game was demonstrated with 4 players participating in an orchestra.

4. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

Nintendo promises that this all original exclusive will contain every bit of mayhem that gamers have come to know and love despite it being on the kid friendly system.

5. Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Uber Star Wars geeks will delight to being able to swing their Wii remotes like light sabers and go up against the big baddies of the forthcoming cartoon feature film that premieres in theaters on August 15th.

MEANWHILE .  . .

Sony was a bit of a let down.  In his keynote speech, the president of Sony said that their focus for 2008 was going to be on software and not hardware.  Here’s what they ahd to offer:

1. God of War 3

The highly anticipated sequel to the Playstation 2 game.  No game play footage was shown but this game will be hot.

2. Resistance 2

The game was showcased with a bad ass 300 foot tall monster ripping apart high rise buildings as the gamer scrambled to escape… upward!  The monster picked up the gamer and threw him across the screen and through several windows before he landed only to fire off a barrage of missiles back at the looming beast. Sony even unveiled a new game exclusive to the PSP.  Now you can play Resistance on the go! Where do I reserve my copies?!

3. Playstation Network’s Video Store

Sony is launching their new Video Store today on the Playstation Network.  Users can rent and buy standard and high definition television shows and movies.

4. Home

Home looks to take Microsoft’s Community Channel to the next level.  Gamers can create even more detailed avatars than what will be capable on the XBOX 360 this Fall.  In addittion, gamers create their own homes and can go to virtual social spots in a virtual world to meet and play with other gamers.  Home will even feature living game spaces that can mirror environments of such games like Resistance.

5. MAG

MAG stand for Massive Action Game and by what I’ve seen so far it looks like it stands to deliver on the title.  The game is an online first person shooter that allows 8 player squads and up to 256 players online at once in one huge world!

6. DC Universe Online

Okay, I said 5 things but this was just too cool to not include.  Gamers can now fight alongside or against all the famous heroes and super villains from the DC universe. The character animations and their powers looked intense and authentic. This game looks killer.

Well, that wraps it up for E3 day 2 coverage.  For the rest of the week, G4 will be covering any additional announcements that the game heavies have up their sleeves and I’ll be in front of my TV drooling over all the new goodies.  If I owned a house I would have to take out a mortgage for the wave of gamer goodness that’s on the horizon.