Yesterday Blizzard applied for a new trademark for the name "Cataclysm." The trademark would cover everything from online games to "paper-based products." Many have speculated that this indicates the name, or codename, of Blizzard's upcoming, uber secretive, next-gen MMO.
While Blizzard currently has a whole slew of unannounced titles coming in the future, I can't help but think that this is actually the name for Blizzard's next WoW expansion. Many people claim that the next expansion will be in the "maelstrom" region of Azeroth. For those of you who are not familiar with Azeroth, the Maelstrom is the big spinning thingy right in the center of the map.
The Maelstrom was refered to as the "Great Cataclysm" in the Warcraft books, and it just makes sense to me that this would be the direction Bliz would take for their next expansion. Blizzard previously stated that they want to produce a new WoW expansion every year. While I don't think we'll see a new expansion by the end of this year, I do think that we might recieve news on the next WoW expansion at this year's BlizzCon... but maybe that's just wishful thinking?
Let me know what you think in your comments.
]]>Let's go! SONY TIME!!!
10:59 AM: My dad on Facebook: "It's geek central at my house!" Yes, yes it is.
11:04: Sesslar and Kevin waxing poetic about Sony. Wee.
11:05: PS3 Game of E3 '09: Fat Princess. Calling it now.
11:08: We've been minutes away for about 10 minutes. Come now, let's go.
11:09: FINALLY! Let's go! Cool montage of games set to Queen. Awesome.
11:13: Jack Tretton always reminded me of the nervous kid in grade school who fainted every time he went to the blackboard. His heart racing 230 BPM only enhances that.
11:14: Was that 364 games? Wow, that's a lot.
11:15: So every year from now until eternity will be the Year of the Playstation. Great.
11:16: Corporate Wanking, Sony Style. That screen behind him is impressive. Heavy Rain! Forgot all about it!
11:17: Christos: "He's like a well-spoken fanboy." So freakin' true.
11:18: Corporate Wanking: International Edition. He's almost at a corporate climax.
11:19: No, we have bags under our eyes because you're boring, and we fell asleep. InFAMOUS is great though.
11:20: Naughty Dog reference can only mean one thing: Nathan Drake. Uncharted 2 time.
11:21: The graphics are unreal. This really is a pretty game. Of course the damn helicopter shows up when you're hanging for dear life. The action is intense right now. I'm really loving this.
11:24: GET TO THE CHOPPA!!!!!!!!!!!!
11:25: That was awesome. The building collasped. Didn't expect that. Good showing from Naughty Dog, Uncharted 2 looks amazing.
11:26: Live MAG gameplay! Sexy. Turning the Empire Theater into a Swedish techno hall every time someone else comes out. Not sexy.
11:28: That's a lot of live players. Every bullet and missile will be shot by a real player. Insane. The round is 56 minutes long. Yeesh.
11:29: This is very intriguing, a lot more so than anything else I've heard about it. A XP system as well, sweet.
11:31: I'm not a big shooter guy, but I want MAG now. Awesome.
11:32: PSP time! Bundles, bundles, bundles!!
11:34: Christos: "What about butch lesbians who don't want a pink psp?" Kaz Hirai takes the stage. RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDGE RACERRRRRRRRRRR!!!!
11:35: The PSP Go! I'm surprised at how small it is. A nice system indeed. Do want.
11:38: Sony Media Go now used for Playstation Store use. Interesting. SenseMe=iTunes Genius! Yay!
11:40: UMD AND digital download? Retailers, start shitting your pants. It begins.
11:41: $250? Christos says it best: "FAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLL."
11:43: Gran Turismo PSP huh? Weren't you working on GT5? Oh wait, Prologue came out, so you have 5 years before you have to actually worry about it. Yeesh.
11:45: *snnnnooooooooorrrrrrreeeeeeeee* Give me game footage! A trailer! Something!!
11:47: It took him four minutes to show me something!? Jeez man. Sit still, you damn PSP Go! I can't see the video!
11:50: Kojima-san bringing out MGS: Peace Walker! Set 10 years after MGS3, in the 1970s. Awesome.
11:52: Kojima's writing it. Thank God. It's completely canon though. How's that work? MGS4 was the end! Trailer time!
11:56: 4 Snakes, shared boxes, and a great trailer. Awesome stuff. The longest trailer of E3 belongs to the PSP. Awesome.
11:58: Resident Evil PSP! PSP montage time! Let's get more chips! LBP, Soul Calibur, Dissidia, Madden 10, NCAA 10, and more!
12:02 PM: I do love how the crowd is all about Hannah Montana. That's priceless.
12:03: Playstation Network time! Final Fantasy VII anyone? Nope, first some corporate wanking.
12:04: Final Fantasy VII on PSN TODAY! WOW!!!
12:06: Playstation Home Wanking. Home montage!
12:07: Chun-Li Home costume is awesome. As is the RE5 Kijuju location. Rapture in Home anyone?
12:09: Rapid fire PS3 trailer! Uncharted 2, inFAMOUS, Madden 10, Final Fantasy XIII, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Brutal Legend, White Knight Chronicles, Dirt 2, Ghostbusters, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, BUZZ, Saw, King of Fighters XII, Ice Age, Tekken 6, Tiger 10, Dark Void, G Force, Guitar Hero Van Halen, NCAA 10, Katamari, Singstar: QUEEN, DC Universe Online, Motorstorm 3, LBP, Saboteur, Bioshock 2, Ratchet: Crack in Time, Fight Night Round 4, God OfWar III, and a shit ton I missed. Whew.
12:14: Agent for PS3 sounds interesting, Assassin's Creed II gameplay!!
12:15: Awesome kill! Meet Ezio! It looks incredible. Ezio scares the hell out of me. da Vinci's Flying Machine That looks awesome.
12:18: I wonder if da Vinci is pissed that his flying machine got destroyed? DOUBLE KILL!
12:20: That was very impressive. ACII could be one of the best of the year. Great demo.
12:22: Final Fantasy XIII trailer! I really hope XIII is more like X than XII. Please please please...
12:25: SICK.
12:26: Final Fantasy XIV PS3 exclusive?! Get away! Dammit, it's an MMO. NEver mind *calms down again*.
12:28: Crap, he said "Motion Control." Project Natalie?!
12:29: Is that a magic wand? What the hell is that supposed to do? Look what the Wii has caused. Unbelievable.
12:31: That's a big sword. Compensating much? I will saw, this is pretty damn funny.
12:33: FPS motion control?! SICK. Lightsaber whip too! I could see myself having a lot of fun with this.
12:34: How angry is Microsoft right now? Their motion control device had a creepy kid, and Sony's is putting people in FPS games. Awesome.
12:36: Tank battle!! I'm really into this. This looks like a lot of fun! The swordfighting kicks ass too! Now ninja stars? A day after it's announced, Natal is being outclassed. Amazing.
12:39: That motion controller was awesome. Good play Sony, good play.
12:40: LBP is getting Disney costume like Jack Sparrow and Cinderella. AWESOME.
12:41: Mod Nation Racers. LBP in racer form? This could be good. Monkey Butler?! Sick.
12:44: This game is BEAUTIFUL. Completely customizable Mario Kart with better graphics, there's no other way to describe it.
12:47: The racing was cool, but the track studio just won it for me. This guy just built every village in France in about 3 minutes. Wow.
12:49: SHEEP!!!!
12:50: Mod Nation Racers might just be my favorite game of this entire press conference!
12:51: More Swedish techno, then Tretton comes out for The Last Guardian, aka Project TRICO. So far, it's the same trailer that leaked a week ago, which sucks. Damn Internets. DogRatBird saves the day again!
12:56: I stand corrected. Gran Turismo 5. With NASCAR and rally racing. Awesome.
12:58: Here comes God of War III. A live demo as well. That sounds fun.
1:00: Seamless start to the demo. Lots of enemies, blood, and gore. Getting from platform to platform by latching to and stabbing the hell out of flying creatues is awesome. GIANT TITAN in the background. Chaos ensues as the battle rages. KRATOS JUST DISEMBOWELED A CENTAUR!! And now to the Titan, but first a CHIMERA strikes! That Chimera death was BRUTAL!!! What a demo! Fantastic stuff!
1:07: Sony has wrapped it up. Great ending! Thanks for following the live blogs, and I'll see you all soon!!
]]>
Stay tuned...
UPDATE: 20 minutes away!
UPDATE: 10 minutes away! Pumped yet?!?
It is time! Here we go!!!!
8:58 AM: G4 is on, my soda is poured, and I am raring to go. This better be good.
8:59 AM: I officially no longer care about Wiebe Watch. Bring the pain.
9:00 AM: Do it! DO IT NOW!!
9:03 AM: Nintendo time!!Montage of various happy people playing various Nintendo games.
9:04 AM: Dear God, Cammie is starting it up. Not good.
9:05 AM: Cammie starts it off with what I like to call Corporate Wanking. NPD stats and sales figures. Wee.
9:06 AM: I will admit, my aunt bought a DSi and loves it. She has a point. "Create Surprise." I like that.
9:07 AM: Here coms the plucky plumber! What'd'ya got for me, eh?
9:08 AM: New Super Mario Bros. for the Wii. Hm..... I wanna play in the tree house!
9:09 AM: 4-player co-op Mario Bros?! Sign me up!!!
9:11 AM: Part of me feels that this idea came from the Mushroomy Kingdom stage from Brawl. Cool ranking system, and awesome hidden area visual. Very exciting stuff, and Nintendo just freakin' started. Wow.
9:13 AM: Text from my friend Ben: "Big shock, she can't play games for shit." Lol.
9:14 AM: Wii Fit Plus announcement, and it isn't last. Thank the freakin' Lord. Christos: "They're going to have to pull out some amazing software for this now to top Microsoft's Natal system. I See you Pikachu 2?"
9:16 AM: New streamlined Wii Fit experience. Plus, I can air-hump a perfect 10 if I want to. Sick.
9:17 AM: REGGGGIIIIEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!! Come on man, give me the good stuff!
9:19 AM: Wii Motion Plus pushing time! I personally think this could be awesome. The Red Steel 2 demo built my confidence on it. MotionPlus montage. Time for chips.
9:21 AM: Good Christos thought: "C'mon Nintendo. 'You had Milo yesterday... Meet Mario.'" Wii Sports Resort looks a lot better.
9:22 AM: I'd like to point out that we're almost a half-hour in and there's been no DSi news. Aw man.
9:23 AM: Wii Sports Resort demo time. Sky dive to Wuhu Island! That looks cool! Is that Mii pissing himself? When does the chute fail?
9:26 AM: Billy boy here isn't very accurate with his bow and arrow. Sounds like a personal problem.
9:27 AM: Reggie vs Bill in 3-point contest? Kobe and LeBron who? Reggie: "Normally, my game is the inside power game." Shaqtastic.
9:29 AM: Reggie is all about beating up on Bill. I wonder if he's this brutal to Cammie (He should be).
9:30 AM: And Reggie owns Bill. As expected. Tiger 10 will use Wii MotionPlus. Yay knowing things! I certainly hope the MotionPlus works they want to. Wait, no I don't. I slice more than a baker in golf man.
9:31 AM: Nintendo just endorsed cursing. That's hardcore.
9:32 AM: A bit of Corporate Wanking about third-parties, then RPG time. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. September 29 for KH. SICK!
9:35 AM: Bowser sucks. In a good way. Bowser's Inside Story? This is the most adult Nintendo conference ever. Looks awesome, might convince to finally play the Mario RPG games on the Advance and DS that I've been missing. GOLDEN SUN DS!! Excellent!
9:37 AM: The RPG line-up was solid. DSi line-up time! James Patterson is bringing Women's Murder Club to the DS. The first victim is telling you about it o_0.
9:40 AM: Christos: "What the f*** does Majhong have to do with solvering a murder case?! Oh no, he's dead. *plays Solitaire*" Cop: The Recruit from Ubisoft, an open-world mystery. We're knee deep in casual games, which means time for food.
9:43 AM: Christos: "Lol, diversity = pigeonholing women into Wii fit and Imagine titles. Right. Thanks Cammie, you just set feminism back about a hundred years. >.>"
9:44 AM: Sales figures = Corporate Wanking.
9:46 AM: Movie-making on the DSi. Mario vs Donkey Kong 3 allows players to create and submit levels. Special guest character: SackBoy. WarioWare: D.I.Y. allows for more user-created content. Christos: "DIY = do it yourself. THANKS CAMMIE, YOU'RE A STAR." He's rather cheeky today, isn't he?
9:49 AM: Auto-upload photos from the DSi to Facebook. Logical.
9:50 AM: Zelda: Spirit Tracks is playable on the show floor, but no video. Boo.
9:51 AM: I now hate any type of montage, unless it's a montage in a trailer. Jesus. My buddy Dan: "That was a lot of words to say 'Brain Age."
9:52 AM: Iwata takes the stages, bringing broken English and a sick haircut with him.
9:53 AM: Tell me that they brought Iwata out just for some Corporate Wanking. Damn it.
9:54 AM: Christos: "In Japan, we now have ten rape titles for the Wii and DS alone. The MotionPlus can only further our new direction in the games industry."
9:55 AM: G4's tab of Wiebe Watch actually made Iwata more interesting.
9:57 AM: Iwata's not wrapping things up, is he? I sure hope not.
9:58 AM: Wii Vitality Sensor? The hell is this? Weird, yet strangely appealing. Lie detector game? If so, Maury Povich: The Game is first out the door.
10:00 AM: Interesting, and now here's Cammie again. Don't disappoint me...
10:01 AM: Super Mario Galaxy 2!!!!!!!!!! That looks awesome!! Thank God!
10:04 AM: Reggie, stop teasing. Third-party time: The Conduit looks awesome. Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles looks like a much better take on the Umbrella Chronicies idea. Dead Space: Extraction is one of my most-anticipated games.
10:08 AM: What about Nintendo? METROID: OTHER M co-developed by TEAM NINJA?!!?!?!! GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE?!?!?!?
10:12 AM: The AIM conversation between Christos and myself now looks like this: "Efbrivbewivbreiveiv" "efbuervbiwecbihrvbie" "jerijbverhjveMETROID" "eifniwewiOTHER M."
10:13 AM: No Zelda, but Team Ninja Metroid? Super Mario Galaxy 2? Nintendo showed some firepower today, thank the Lord. Alright, break time. See you during Sony!
]]>The blog is no longer live, as the event is now finished. It was a great event full of animated speakers, and brilliant games.
For those not wanting to read everything, the following games were discussed and announced: Assassin's Creed 2, Raving Rabbids Go Home, Splinter Cell: Conviction, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash Up, No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, Petz Nursery, Style Lab, Shawn White Snowboarding: World Stage, Red Steel 2, Academy of Champions, Avatar, along with footballer Pele and film legend James Cameron.
6:55 PM:
It's over, and there's been no mention of Beyond Good and Evil 2. Next year. *sob* Next year.
6:50 PM:
Assassin's Creed 2! Finally! All that's left on my list is Beyond Good and Evil, but that's a long shot.
The original sold eight million units. Not too shabby, really.
November 17th is the release date for the sequel, and here comes the trailer!
1486: Venice, Italy, we are told.
Various dodgy dealings going on, carnivals, et, and a pair of local ladies of the night appearing regularly in all of these areas. Not sure why, yet, but I think they might just be a distraction for the guards...
In comes our assassin, quick as you like, and slits the throat of the fat man who wanted to dance.
He uses a variety of dodges and disarms to tak ecare of some guards, not before persuing the last one across the city using the series' trademark parkour ability.
The leader waits for the assassin, who appears in front of him. Guards are in wait, but our hero doesn't see them. However, he seems to know they're there.
Holy crap, he has a projectile weapon inside his glove! Fantastic. The man dies, trailer ends.
6:43 PM:
In comes the president of Ubisoft North America, Laurent Detoc, to speak about a franchise "celebrating its 25th anniversary," Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Hell yeah. He says they call it a "shellebration." No one laughs. Cretins. It was funny.
Moving on, he then talks about the game, and asks some friends of his who worked on the game to stand up in the audience and take a bow. Nice of him. Trailer time!
Looks like the recent film. Shredder's there, along with april dressed like a samurai. We're focusing on two turles only in the introductions. Odd. This better not be two-player again.
Loads of destruction, especially the environment, though that's to be expected, as it's called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash Up.
Another title is announced: No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle.
He speaks about yet another title, while congratulating Tetsuya Mistabushi on his work with another "stand up and take in some gamer love." Aww.
Here it comes. New post!
6:31 PM:
Joel introduces the guy behinds Rabbids Go Home: Adrian Fernandez Lacy. Plus three rabbids in shopping trolleys.
The Rabbids are going home, it seems. Well, they think their home is the Moon. Why? We don't know.
To get there, they're making a mountain of garbage stolen from humans. Adrian scares me a little. He keeps touching Joel and giggling, repeating the phrase "it's GENIUS!" over and over again.
The shopping trolley is, in fact, your tool for collecting things. Looking at you, Katamari, with your... ball.
The Rabbids just stole Obama's clothes. He'll love that. He even has a Wii in the Oval Office.
Hazmat-suited men getting ambushed by Rabbids as they steal things to make the mountain.
Just Adrian now, showing us a live demo, but first, Jaque, his Ubisoft buddy.
Adrian is insane, I've decided. He hears noises in the controller. Apparently, the video tells us someone's in the Wiimote. It's also part of the game. Is it a Rabbid? Guess.
It's quite impressing. Press a button near him and he runs over and looks at it. Adrian makes a joke about male self-enjoyment. The world cringes.
You can inflate bits of him, even his eyeballs. This is mental, but I want it so badly.
You can also make him wear a hat. Made out of a plate of jelly
Supermarket Sweep time. "Super Racket in the Market," which includes the Rabbid you just customised! Finally, a recurring protagonist! Wonderful.
Humans aren't too keen on you taking their stuff. Neither is Rayman I suppose but he's nowhere to be seen, sadly.
Verminators, the green hazmat-suited fellows are strong antagonists, but take a leaf out of Jade's book in Beyond Good and Evil and hit their gas tank, and they panic, running around in circles. Sorted.
They made skate parks. I'm watching someone trying to 1080 a shopping trolley. I love Ubisoft.
The Rabbids have taken over a plane on the runway, and stolen a jet engine, because he wants to strap it to the bottom of his trolley. Into the airport he goes, and in come the Verminators.
It's amusing watching the Rabbids fly around the airport just above the ground, and the humans get burnt. Odd he stated the airport was fictional. We guessed, dude.
Next game, apparently! Hi Joel!
6:17 PM:
Ubisoft VP of Marketing Tony Key comes onstage and Joel leaves.
He asks people to guess which title sold the most units. He states no one's seen it yet today. Everyone's wrong so far. This is quite amusing.
"The Best Kept Secret in Gaming" appears on screen.
Oh lord, the imagine games. Of course. The "tween brands," as Tony calls them.
Number two publisher on the DS, and delivered the #1 and #2 third-party brands for the last two years. Pretty impressive, go twelve year-olds!
Short video about Ubisoft's "tween games" built on the 3I's principle: integration, interconnectivity, and invention.
Petz Nursery comes up on screen, and shows transfers between this and other Petz titles.
Style Lab, a new brand that allows people to invent their own style by taking their own picture on the DSI and create their own hairstyles and makeup choices, and then make jewellry they can buy in real life. Nifty, to be honest.
Tony back on stage. Talking about Ubi's tween MMO that's prospected at 4.7 million unique users after a year. Jesus. Blizzard, take notes.
Anyone ever noticed tween titles are very feminine? I'd say we've got a lot of male tweens too, but the definition's kinda stuck now. Oh well.
He's asking the audience another question: "what's the fastest growing genre in the last 12 months?" Of course, it's fitness.
The tv people have just announced DJ Hero is coming up soon. Thanks, G4!
He's talking about Natal, and then introduces Felicia Williams, one of the key designers at their studio in Montreal.
She says the Natal will "completely revolutionise the way people think about fitness games." This much is true.
It also allows for a "unique diagnosis" of your body, and real-time feedback on your moves. I want one.
They don't seem keen on the Wiimote, but weights are okay. Add weights to the Wiimote? Naw, too complex. We'll stick with something simple: Natal. Wait a second! Hmmm.
Fitness games and tween titles. I'm beginning to wonder if they thought about who was going to E3. Even Joystiq agrees, it seems.
Fitness video. Lady excercising in various ways, using the camera, though the Natal camera they show is different to the one shown in the MS conference. Either a VisonCam replacement to showcase the concept, or a previous prototype.
A Wii game too, it seems, using a USB port. By, Felicia. Hey, Joel.
6:13 PM:
Ruse is now on screen, the RTS that allows you to zoom out to orbit, and into the pores on someone's face, without any loading. It's a big title, that's for sure, if the tech has been anything to go by the past few months.
Two men sit at a table, making moves on a holographic board. Lots of tanks taking on a lot of boats. All the boats land, open their doors, and mannakins fall out, confusing the opponent. In come planes and battleships, and down goes the enemy. Clever mother.
Up comes the title and the logo. Sweet.
"Is that not the coolest table you have ever seen?!" Cries Joel. I agree. I want one.
Next game though, it seems.
6:00 PM:
Joel talking again, and Alex Perizo and Max Beland are now on stage - the men behind Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction.
"In Conviction, you're going to feel like a powerful predator." Big words, let's see if the trailer matches them.
Or, we could watch the same trailer! You know, I was more excited when I mistook Sam Fisher for Max Payne. The hell is Max Payne, anyway?! Moving on.
Not much to say, see the MS live blog for more details on this one. Revenge, rebellion, it's all part and parcel of a classic "that's it, I'm breaking the rules, you took my daughter" 24 experience.
I like the continuity of the piano keys making a sound as his head gets shoved into them.
Another gameplay demo, but I'm curious if this will be the same thing.
"He's left the agency... free of any constraints," says Max. Very Hitman 2.
More details on Marked Execute - putting the player in a certain area and then swooping in to kill them by planning out the kill beforehand.
Gameplay starts.
It's the same level, but it'll be interesting to see if he goes a different way, or if this is just a movie. The cameraman isn'tmaking it too clear.
Aha, more details that are new. Interrogation gameplay allows him to extract information, while bursting in on some dude going to the loo. Odd bit of realistic consistency, that
The mirror contains the logo. I'd have mentioned that earlier, but meh, it's a little tacky.
It is indeed a live gameplay demo, so let's see if he goes a different way.
Aa, he is. Showing us a clearer view of the misson objective ghost-projected on the building in the distance.
He takes a new route to yank someone backwards off a bridge as he hangs, hidden, off the side.
He comes in with a hostage, a la GoWII, and Alex talks more about the sandbox environment, whilst going through the window and taking out two thugs.
The mission projection moves to different surfaces until you're ready to move on. This is smart: it eans you won't forget what you're doing or where you're going.
Some heavy gunplay here, and the Last Known Position system, showing a ghostly holographic representation of Sam Fisher in the last known position according to his enemies. Useful if you want to know where the opposite to their searching spots are.
EMP grenades, which take out the lights; works well for Sam Fisher's deadly variety of work.
Using the mirror to look under the doorway, he heads in with a shotgun, kicking arse and taking names. Duke Nukem, eat your heart out (if you ever become three-dimentionsal, anyway).
Fisher finds his daughter's killer, and the mission ends the same way as last time.
Lots of cheering, more so than in the MS conference, which is odd.
Released this fall, exclusively on the 360 and the PC. Sucks, Sony crew.
And off they go. Next game?
5:46 PM:
Trailer appears after some more jokes and introduction by Joel.
People trashing various bits of upholstery. If this is what happened to the protagonist of Mirror's Edge when moving house, it might make sense. But this isn't EA, so it doesn't.
Ooh, they made a snowboard ramp! Aha! It's a snowboarding title.
Shawn White Snowboarding: World Stage, apparently. I'm sceptical, mainly because SSX 4 wasn't announced today and I'm bitter.
Now he's talking about soccer. Either this is linked, or he has ADHD.
He's just brought Pele onstage, world-famous football (it's not called soccer, shut it) player.
He's here to announce the title Academy of Champions, but it doesn't seem to be loading, though we're treated to a static image of a cartoony Pele.
Joel is being asked if he speaks Spanish or Porteguese. Nope, but he speaks Swahili. What's going on?! Oh, a translator.
Pele seems to have improvised well, giving a talk on football and videogames. Possibly the most relaxed person in the room right now, considering the game isn't working.
"Football gave me everything," says Pele. I'd agree, looking at the nice clothes. Seriously though, he speaks passionately and at length, and so far we've had great speaker after great speaker tonight. This is what makes a keynote noteworthy: good speakers. Not trailers we've seen ten times this week already. Bioware, I'm looking at you.
Preview time, finally.
"Comic mischief," says the ERSB rating. Quick, look away kids! Not that they're not scarred already from EA and Microsoft's wonderfully predictable "subtle nudity."
Little fella looking around a football academy, with the photos framed on the walls moving as he looks at them, and our antagonist comes in the form of a laughing evil portrai who grabs the cup from the wall next to him.
Opposite tea are predictably gothy and evil looking.
The five-on-five matchup and mental game mechanics remind me a lot of SEGA Soccer Slam! A good thing, methinks.
Pele speaks more about his experience teaching children about playing football, hoping that children will "profit from this game," saying he engaged deeply with acting as a mentor in the title.
Seems he's off, so next game, perhaps?
5:34 PM:
Joel's back on stage, being very funny.
Red Steel 2 getting a very strong push.
"When I look down, I'm not reading from a teleprompter, it's just how I gather my thoughts." He really is a hoot, this bloke.
Trailer time.
Interesting, it's in a combination of GCI andlive-action.
A very cowboy-esque samurai is being controlled by a very suave looking man with a Wiimote. Note the Motion Plus attatchment on the end of the controller.
Lots of first-person samurai action.
Our dude won. No blood though, interestingly. But we do have a gun. Makes sense to me.
Joel brings on Jason Vandenburghe, the creative director of Red Steel 2, with his lead designer Roman NameI'mnotgoingtotryandspellonaliveblog.
Gameplay demo of the first level, set in the desert, as the protagonist, in true Western style, heads home to find things aren't as he left them. Dead and dying, presumably. Maybe with flames. Let's see.
Opening shot is of a motorbike with a rope attached to the back. Oh, we're on the end of the rope. Well, this sucks. I wonder how it'll pan out.
Narrowly missed a lorry, there, and we're heading down a subway. Everything looks very suburban or citylike, a lot of industry. Well, up until the cyclist crashes and we get to our feet.
Now we have full control of movement and camera. Our first objective is to re-arm ourselves. Well, considering we just found a sword, mission accomplished. A conveniently placed wooden training dummy shows us the chopping motions used with the MotionPlus. Very slick and impressive.
Hard slashes? More damage. Hard slashes? More broken TV screens!
Graphically very impressive, a lot of natural light which makes a nice change to neon-infested urban environments we've been inundated with this year.
Armoured opponent (called a "Jackal," my girlfriend reliably informs me) is de-armoured with some strong attacks.
New powers as you move further in, such as some slow mo shooting, and a glowing sword that sends you and the enemy up into the air for a juggle combo.
Big enemy. Really big. They call him the Heavy, but there's no minigun in his hands, just a huge hammer. Medic?
The protagonist-avatar seems quite agile, and the block mechanic seems reliable enough.
They're aiming for an average of 60fps. That's pretty high, but looking at it it's hard to doubt them.
The game comes bundled with the Wii MotionPlus, in the same way DK64 came with the Expansion Pak. Good lads.
Joel back on stage, bye guys.
5:20 PM:
James starts off by talking about taking the Avatar project to his coworkers twenty years ago. Phwoar. Apparently, they thought it'd ruin them as the tech wasn't around to support it. Now it is, conveniently.
Talking about advancements in facial mo-cap and performance-cap
Avatar takes place in the 20th century on Pandora, a small H-congrous rainforest moon orbiting Pandora, in the Alpha Centuri star system.
Primitive tribes called the "Navi" who are ten feet tall, blue skinned and long tailed, quite fierce and warrior-like but calm and harmonious with the environment when not provoked. Native Americans is the image this conjures, if not the Zulu tribes of Africa.
The "Avatar" body, a huge robot is linked to a coma-like pilot. In the protagonist's case, James Sully, a paralyzed marine who is sent to Pandora to be able to walk again thanks to the Avatar suit.
He then begins to wonder who's side he's on, as he finds himself drawn to the native blueskinned alien Navi, which doesn't please the humans.
He's going really into depth with the concept of Avatar, and I can't express how ridiculously awesome this all sounds.
Now discussing Ubisoft and his collaboration with them to produce the game of his film.
"The game should not be a slave to the movie, it should follow its own storyline, it should exist in parallel to the game world with its own characters and creatures..."Well, I'll be f*cking damned. He's answered the prayers of every movie-to-game consumer in the games industry. It's because T101 won't save him otherwise, I reckon. I wonder if that's who Yves is. Moving on.
It has a completely different storyline to the film, which is refreshing. It's almost like a dual experience in two industries. I'm excited. Please show a trailer.
If you want to experience a certain point in the game from a Navi perspective, you can. But you don't have to. This is inspiring.
He makes a good point: different storyline, no spoilers! Means apparently we're getting the game prior to the film. Fantastic.
He's closing up, urging people to visit their booth over the week. It's a spectroscopic game, so the screen will wrap around the player. Sounds amazing. Off he goes.
5:14 PM:
Yannis Mallat onstage now, talking about "putting things in motion."
Speaking about Ubisoft Digital Arts, their own development studio using a hybrid of Hollywood and videogame technology to bring together "two different talent universes."
Avatar mentioned again, James Cameron's latest Hollywood creation, and his intended collaboration with Ubisoft.
Mentioning various game engines, namely, the one used in Assassin's Creed, and the mo-cap processes that go into making Ubisoft's titles.
The image above was taken three days ago on the live set of Assassin's Creed 2, seems they're using a combination of Hollywood-level mo-cap and heavy-duty data input to give the best content possible. Finally, someone's doing it. Go them.
"For us, the true convergence is the one that happens in people's minds when they play our IPs." Big words.
Yves back onstage with Yannis, introducing James Cameron onstage. Seems everyone's pulling out the big-name celebs this year in force.
5:02 PM:
Opening: "someone's going to pay me to talk about video games! Yes!" Oh, lord.
Joel McHael (the speaker) talking about his son. Kinda cute, in an "omfg stfu and show gamez kk" way.
Funny FaCry 2 references to his son. This guy is pretty funny, I'll give him that.
Rom coms? Are you mad, man? At E3?
My god, please. First game?
Yves Gulliemot, CEO of Ubisoft, onstage now, and Joe's gone. Yves seems very keen on feedback. Probably the first developer in history (sorry Valve, but Left4Dead 2? Where the hell was Episode Three?! You lost the title).
Major emphasis on realtime worlds, here. Big planet in the background. Not of the LittleBig variety.
"This is what we call confluence," says Yves. I thought I'd stopped studying English. Then I watched E3.
Has announced "Uplay", an online system for creating "interactive and non-interactive content, to share online with friends."
Uplay, online gaming.
Uhelp, go figure.
Ushop, take a wild stab in the dark.
Uareobvious? No, I'm kidding. It's .
Mentioning the Avatar title a lot. Probably reminds people of the only game marketed through its gamerscore-giving ability (1000G for an easy combo level in five achievements).
Peter Jackson is making a return, it seems, as well as Speilberg and Kennedy alongside Paramount.
Talking about new interfaces - DS, Wii, iPhone.
Mentions Red Steel 2, as the original was the first game to make full use of the motion controls via the Wiimote.
"We are always jealous of what's happening in the movie industry," with their budgets, you should be, Yves.
First project time!
5:00 PM:
Off we go! Last one of the day!
Note: This is now over, you can see below the tons of words that would hint at said finish. It was a great conference, despite the rocky technical start.
For the lazy, we saw Mass Effect 2, Little Miss Petshop Online, Pajama Party, Fight Night Round 4, Saboteur, APB, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Crysis 2, Brutal Legend, Grand Slam Tennis, Madden NFL 10, EA Sports MMA, Dragon Age: Origins, Need for Speed: Shift, and Dante's Inferno, along with appearances from Pete Sampras, Tim Schafer (I know he's not a celebrity, but come on, he invented my damn avatar) and Alison Sweeney.
3:16 PM:
And it's over. More Mass Effect 2, please, interwebs. That was torturously repetitive.
3:08 PM:
A ton of Jedi and Sith have entered the stage area, along with two cloaked Jedi with mics on. You want to guess the franchise, or should I?
Oh look, Star Wars! Man, took me off guard.
Darrel from LucasArts, and Ray once again from Bioware. I'm thinking Star Wars: The Old Republic, and they just proved me right.
They're talking about the teamwork that went into creating the MMO. I bet all those extras onstage are geeks who begged to be a part of it. Know how I know? Because I want to be one of them.
Unique voices for every character?! Wow. That's ambitious. I'd call SideLines, folks, Fable 2's voice crew are going to need your business if they want to buy the moon.
Different gameplay experiences from class to class. This is logical enough.
Lots of emphasis on story, the "fourth pillar" of MMO titles. Finally.
Trailer time! First ever!
Lots of shiny Lucas visuals.
A cloaked and a Twi'Leksith pair walk into a big building and kill the guards in front og it, as a Boba-esque female bounty hunter sneaks in above using jetpacks, nixing the rest of the guard.
Uhoh, Jedis have all dropped in, but it's all for nothing as a huge troop transport just crashed threw the door, resting at the feet of a scary looking Sith. And about fifty more.
Colossal battle between Dark and Light forces, with a lot of slowdown action. This is entertainment at its finest.
Bounty hunter has a ton of abilities, not least: flamethrower hands!
The lead sith seems to be taking on various Jedi, but one in particular. Cue a long ligthsaber fight. Jedi loses, dies. Damn.
Tons of TIE fighters swooping in and razing the city to the ground as Big Sith Bloke toddles off towards the screen. Lots of John Williams soundtracking as always.
Bye, guys. Awesome.
3:04 PM:
Realtime Worlds is a new partner, as you know, of EA, and here's their presentation with Dave Jones.
He's talking about APB, their new MMO IP.
The graphics are pretty impressive. Apparently, it's up to 100 players to take over the city through criminality or use of the economy. The criminals, however, become enforcers.
Character creation of a female. She's a bit disturbingly undressed at first, but clothed soon enough. Remember the kids watching, folks.
Trailer time. Aha, it's the protagonist from all their job adverts in Edge, I wondered where he'd turn up.
Lots of car and gun action, which seems slick enough. Lots of dialogue too, which is interesting for an MMO title.
The cop cars are seriously hardcore. This isn't your average LAPD sting. These dudes have missile launchers. So do the crooks, though.
"The name, the fame, the hype... you've got everything you ever wanted. All that matters is making your mark." So states the game's narrator. Hell yes.
Seems that's it for APB, on we go!
3:02 PM:
Cheva's back - Crytek's CEO and president.
Topic of the day is Crysis 2 (we've covered this in our news section a little already).
It's on consoles, by the way, which is a blessing, I speak for many when I celebrate not having to spend seven grand just to play the damn thing.
Oh, he's gone! That was short. Hmm.
2:53 PM:
Host has returned, and is now talking about EA Partners, and how they've brought some amazing titles to consoles. Best example?
Brutal Legend. Cue Tim "Lord God of Narrative" Schafer.
I want his DoubleFine hoodie.
He's talking about the development experiences he's had, and how the cast of this game looked like the list of everyone he ever wanted to meet in the world.
He's a funny bloke, this Tim. "I said early on I wanted Rob Halford right there on a motorcycle. And I got it in the game."
He's talking about an antagonist who's the leader of an organisation/gang called the Hair Metal Militia.
Hey, it's Lemmy! He plays the KillMaster, a "mysterious mystic who lives in a mountaintop retreat, who plays the bass so well he can heal the sick and the wounded."
Lina Ford plays the Queen of Heavy Metal. Seems Tim had a childhood crush on her. May explain why she's not wearing very much.
"The first album I ever bought in my life was The Diary of a Madman," says Schafer. He's talking, of course, about Ozzy, who plays The Guardian of Metal.
Trailer sneek peek:
Lots of lava and lightning.
And very scary enemies.
Jack black makes his trailer appearance, playing his guitar and using an axe, along with a huge car to kill everything from demons to a huge spider.
Rob Halford looks grea, and so does Lemmy. Ford seems to own a huge tiger, and Ozzy seems lost as usual.
He is also able to surround himself with headbanging metalheads. Awesome.
Please tell me Jack Black is here. Please. With 2600 lines of dialogue, one more won't hurt.
Aha, video message from the man himself. "Brutal thoughts with Jack Black."
He complains about a lack of footage. But offers a real life demonstration using brain-wires and a controller. Oh god.
Karate chopping seems painful. As does the high kick.
"You have footage of the game? Why the freaking hell did I drill a freaking hole in my skull?" "I'm sorry, I thought you knew" "My phone is FINE, shoelaces!" Win.
Seems like that's the end of things there. On to Crytek.
2:48 PM:
Tom French, lead designer on Saboteur, takes us through the game's trailer. Y'know, the famously censored one. Weird that we've gone from Little Miss Petshop Online to a strip club.
Bar the unnecessary nudity, it's a brilliant trailer, along with a lovely cover of a song, the name of which escapes me but Muse made it very popular in the last decade.
Our protagonist has had a rooftop sniping chance spoiled by some guards, and climaxes the trailer by jumping off a rooftop.
Tom (his hair and beard are awesome) is taking us through the game.He's talking about the Will To Fight system, apparently returning colour to the black-and-white world of Paris as you fight the Nazi Regime. Sorta like Prince of Persia, when you think about it.
He's talking about the much-needed stealth skills in the game, as he sneaks up behind a Nazi officer, snaps his neck, and takes his uniform.
On go some explosives onto his target, and he legs it to a safe distance. Boom goes the explosive, and he's out of the out
fit, shooting and running as he jumps into a car and smashes his way out of the compound.
He's hiding in a... er... he's hiding in a brothel to lose the Nazis. I'm sure he was hiding. Much confused laughter from the audience.
Off goes Tom. Next game?
2:28 PM:
Hurrah, it's EA Sports' own Peter Moore, talking about the ton of yearly titles churned out by the super-developer. Fight Night Round 4 seems to be the first.
It looks good, the graphics are very impressive, and the moves smooth and responsive to control.
Mike Tyson being the boxer of choice for this demo, he talks about punching through the guards. Hmm. Where's Tyson's iconic facial tattoo? Realism? Maybe not. However, he is fighting Mohammed Ali.
The camea seems very responsive to what's going on, zooming in at appropriate moments.
Ooh, we're coming out into a menu! Replay! Very impressed, says I. The graphics and physics of this game really are impressive.
Bye Ryan and Jeff (FNR4 guys). Game launches June 25th. Apparently it's going to "re-energize and re-define the fighting category."
EA Sports MMA now, coming in 2010.
Apparently it's a "broad, mixed fighting experience," blending a ton of different fighting styles and fighters from everywhere in the world. Peter Moore is a funny guy. "Nice tattoo.... naw, the wife'd kill me."
Over 500 million games played on the EA servers. Wow. That's a lot more impressive than all the "look at us" statistics from the boys behind COD5: WaW.
New EA Sports interface: "Teambuilder" for NCAA Football 10. You can create your own team, complete with customised logos and uniforms, stadiums, and even secondary logos on the field. Seems like we'll be seeing a ton of original teams up on the servers soon.
Teambuilder is availible today, so make your team far before the game, which comes out this summer in "a month."
Another trailer: Madden NFL 10 online franchise system. Current stats seems like a good idea.
EA Sports Active is now being trailered, apparently gets people fit. We're shown a 30 day example of people losing weight through the Wii and the Wii's Balance Board.
Alison Sweeney now onstage, apparently a size 4, but I don't really see why that's relevant. Meh.
She's talking about EA Sports Active, and she's talking about apparently being pregnant and excercising.
They've sold over 600'000 units in the first two weeks. This is EA power for you: highest sales of any Wii title in history.
Aerobics, waterskiing... they've got it all, along with a new tropical look for the summer.
Off goes Alison, and in comes Grand Slam Tennis.
Y'know, with phrases like "globalization strategy," EA, you look even scarier.
Thomas Singleton is now onstage with Pete, and they're playing eachother at the game. It's amusing watching them talk smack to eachother.
Quite a cartoony look to the game, which is a nice change from the ultra-realism of Virtua Tennis.
There's someone behind you, Peter...
Oh look, it's Pete Sampras, the character Peter was actually using. "Lemme explain to you how to play tennis, Peter." Funny mother.
Thomas is getting seriously into his game. "This is easier [than Wimbledon]," says Sampras. Funny that, Pete.
Later Pete, later Thomas.
Oh, and goodbye Peter. Nice presentation. Onto other EA depts.
2:21 PM:
Dragon Age: Origins -Two top blokes (Ray and Greg) from Bioware onstage now, talking about saving the world by defeating an arch-demonic entity. Sounds good to me.
Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. Thanks Bioware!
Trailer's rolling, though this looks like the bunch of footage we had last month or the month before.
Yep, it's the Manson-music video for the game. I still love the fact they chose a song called This is the New Shit to promote their new IP. Genius.
Back to the hosts. He's talking about Mass Effect 2, and how it introduced us to a "tip of the sword character" who stopped the universe from getting knee deep in narrative-heavy evil doodoo.
Lag frustrates me, readers. It really does. He's talking about viewing the first full gameplay of the game. Here it comes.
It's our old friend Commander Shepherd, though this looks like the trailer that went out last week.
It is, in fact. They're not big fans of new trailers, a shame considering this is the game I most wanted to see more of.
Bit of a disappointment there, but they're probably saving it for the booth. Damnit.
2:16 PM:
Need for Speed: Shift now, thank the gods. Patrick Suderland (will name-check) talking about the title now. This is a little odd, as I've seen this entire presentation at the developer's studio in London and he wasn't even working there. Typical EA, I guess. Way to represent the little guy :(.
Various clips of the in-cockpit view, speed effects, and clips of the spin-out AI and other game mechanics. Nothing majorly new if you follow my blog. If you don't, this all looks shiny and wonderful, and makes FORZA Motorsport 2 look more than a little half-arsed.
He's asking everyone to come to the booth to check it out.
2:09 PM:
Kindly fellow at EA takes the stage and starts talking about the tiny cute things on screen, like super-deformed anime animals.
They're talking about Little Miss Petshop Online, an uber-cute pet sim for children that allows them to take their pets everywhere. This is weird. Girls are the only people to want cute pets? Bad, bad gender stereotyping, here. But, whaddya gonna do.
It's also online, bear in mind, so there'll be a ton of extra features for kids who's parents let them on the web.
Fair few minigames being shown here, along with a sandbox MMO mini city, messaging and a pet customisation system.
Another children's game for the Wii. This is getting a little ridiculous considering I'm a guy, and I play games like this on the Wii. I'm also twenty years old. What does that say about the demographics of this title? Too much.
That and it was called Pajama Party. Jesus.
2:05 PM:
After a bit of a jittery start, here we are. Long montage of EA characters, Army of Two, Spore, Mass Effect, etc. On goes the montage.
Dante's Inferno on screen, lots of slick, bloody action. Apparently, the protagonist seems to have upset someone called Beatrice. She seems more than your average literary scorned woman in terms of uholy anger.
You know, streaming to the UK is something you need to plan ahead for, G4/GameSpot. Jesus. Lag city.
2:00 PM:
And it begins!
12:53 AM:
With Microsoft's epic live blog out the way, it's an hour's rest and time for EA! What'll we see? Read on when it starts.
Half an hour to go now, as it's 1:33 PM. Soon, my 40th Day fans. Soon.
For all those missing the adventures of Guybrush Threepwood and friends, the Monkey Island franchise is being revived. LucasArts have just announced plans to not only graphically revamp the original title, complete with new voiceovers and new musical compositions, but an all new five-part Monkey Island title has also been announced, continuing on the latest trend of episodic gameplay.
No release dates for either as yet, but you can bet we'll keep you updated as and when we get more information.
[LucasArts / BigDownload]
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Trion World Network has just announced its first MMO fantasy-based IP, Heroes of Telara.
Based in a dark fantasy universe, four rival factions struggle for supremacy (similar to EVE's four and twice the amount of WoW, though whether it works remains to be seen), using might and magic to topple enemies and, hopefully, other players. Personally, I just want to play the guy above. How great does he look.
]]>Note: The live blog is now not so live, as the conference has finished. However, it's now fully formatted and subject to your viewing pleasure. Enjoy the blog.
If you're not into reading a wall of text, the "quick" recap is here. We saw Halo: ODST, FORZA Motorsport 2, COD4: MW2, Alan Wake, Left4Dead 2, The Natal motion control system, Rock Band: Beatles, Metal Gear Solid: Rising, Halo: Reach, Splinter Cell: Conviction, Crackdown 2, Joy Ride, FaceBook and Twitter apps, Tony Hawk, Ricochet, Tiger Woods PGA Tour, Shadow Complex, Yoko Ono, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Olivia Harrison, Steven Speilberg, Peter Molyneux... You get the idea. It was packed with new games, NXE features, and celebrities. Sony and Nintendo have a tough act to follow.
12:18 PM:
Sounds like Don's rounding up to the end of the conference. I don't think anyone saw Natal coming. Not to that impressive degree.
Thank you, Don, Microsoft, for making me feel dizzy with excitement.
And it's over. Thanks for reading, I'll be cleaning it up a little now.
12:11 PM:
On comes Peter "it's coming, I swear" Molyneux to talk more about Natal.
Controllers are inhibiting true control in games. True, Pete, true.
Claire, our demo participant is talking to a little boy on screen. She's talking to him about E3, and he's responding. She's now telling him off for not doing his work, and he now looks guilty, and he's apologising. I think my head's going to explode.
May I just mention the graphics?! Wow.
He's giving her some goggles, through the screen. I won't lie, I half-expected them to catch goggles coming out of the screen. She does "catch" them, though.
Some really impressive water effects, and with her goggles (shown on her now), she's swishing the water around and grabbing fish. Eat your heart out, Unreal Engine 3.
Peter's pretty chuffed. I bloody would be.
She drew something for him, and the camera scanned the paper, the boy now knowing what she drew from shape recognitive abilities. I want them to re-do the Minority Report title.
They're showing this to E3 attendees, though, only to a select few. I wish I was one. That said, it's sunny here in London and cloudy in LA, so I guess I kind of win.
11: 50 AM:
Don Matrick, senior VP of Microsoft is now on stage with Hideo Kojima.
MGS franchise is coming to the Xbox 360, and apparently the next title is coming right to the console.
Hideo: "but I didn't say anything about Solid Snake," grins Kojima. You cheeky fellow.
MGS: Rising, it seems, and it's focusing on Raiden.
Don Matrick looks like he wants to hug Kojima. Off goes everyone bar Don.
Don's talking about the Xbox franchise. Let's see what happens.
Motion control? "Of course we can," says Don. Here it comes, guys.
Sounds like he's advertising the Wii, to be honest.
The trailer is rolling, and we're told we don't need a controller. EyeToy, then?
A mic and a camera, seemingly, as he just challenged the bloke on screen to a fight, kicked him in the face and uppercutted, both on screen and in real life.
Driving games as well, and Dad gets up to fix the wheel as a pitman. Impressive.
A little fella's being a huge monster, smashing up a city, and it seems he's making the monster walk by stomping his feet. He opened his mouth, and the monster spat laz0rz.Wow.
Someone just scanned a skateboard, and put it in Skate. If that actually works, Microsoft just made the Wii look amateur.
Facial recognition?! What is this, the Xbox CIA?
Some girl just put a dress on herself, in real time, and saw what it looked like. Erm, this can't be real, not all of it. That's insane.
Voice recognition, makes for far easier gameshow titles.
Wife and hubby using their hands to select a film, Minorty Report style, says the girlfriend. Much chuckling ensues here.
Don's talking about something called "Natal," apparently the name of the hardware with which we'll achieve this mental amount of stuff. Compatible with every 360, old or new. This is impressive. Nintendo's Motion Plus! is beginning to look a little boring.
On comes Steven Speilberg. Wow. They really pulled out all the stops today.
Speilberg's talking about interactive entertainment and its accessibility.
"60 percent of households do not own a videogame console," says Steve, though he says consal, which may be some crazy old-man modded hardware. Who knows, with that salary. He could secretly own Nintendo for all we're aware.
He's discussing the idea of cinemascope and widescreen. "It's not about reinventing the wheel: it's about no wheel at all." Nice quote, Stevey. Off he goes.
On comes Kudo Tsunoda, the creator of Natal, and seemingly an Ali G impersonator by appearance.
His avatar is mimicing his movements. "Ever wonder what the bottom of an Avatar's shoe looked like? WHABAM! There it is!" See? Ali G.
He's browsing through the dashboard, and now a woman is demonstrating a game called Ricochet, essentially Breakout in real time. It's impressive, like dodgeball meets Breakout.
Good job, Abby, says Kudo. Good job, claps the crowd.
We're now looking at a painting title, and the demo allows you to literally throw paint at the screen. Well, not so much literally. That would be stupid.
Tons of painting and using voice recognition to choose colours.
He's making a stencil with a silhouette. Incoming! Bunny ears by the million!
This is odd. They're making an elephant, by bending over eachother. I hope Abby's recieving free therapy, that's a game developer's bum.
The silhouette really does look like an elephant, it's impressive, and now he's painting it.
11:41 AM:
Last.fm, Netflix and various other media tidbits that the crowd seem very happy about. The TV selection looks pretty good, and it's "cool stuff", so I can't deny its appeal, it seems.
More avatar-based movie experiences.
Sky coming to Xbox Live. We know this already, but it's still a great thing to happen.
For all you social nuts, FaceBook, too.
Felica Day, star of famous web-cartoon The Guild is now on stage. She's talking about season three, and the fact she's a gamer. Really?
She's showing us the FaceBook app for the Xbox. It seems to be synced with Xbox to the point where we're seeing dual FaceBook and Xbox friends lists, with their FB profile below their gamertag. Swish.
Photos are all available, though tags might be interesting, not shown though.
Status updates are also on the software, not to mention adding comments based on their current status.
She's now talking about posting screenshots from Xbox titles straight to FaceBook, starting with Tiger Woods PGA Tour, conveniently coming soon.
Twitter is also coming to Xbox Live, which makes sense as it seems to be trumping the social network crowd's rival popularities at the moment.
She's showing us how to share what we're playing or watching on our Xbox, and that's about it from her, it seems. Oh, and it's coming this Fall. Bye, lady.
11:33 AM:
Sam Lay on stage, introducing another game, oddly enough.
Alan Wake. Hah, I knew this was coming, and no one believed me. Though, I'm not surprised.
The trailer pans across some impressive countryside, and Alan tells us the story of searching for his wife.
A flashback sequence done in a TV-esque "previously on Alan Wake" style tells us when she went missing. I'm assuming how is the object of the protagonist.
Gameplay demo, and Alan's walking towards a building, and now running as "Rusty," presumably his friend, is screaming, and there's a lot of shooting. Apparently, he's got some of Alan's pages, so we need to go find him.
Telekenisis seems to now be the order of the day, and Alan starts ducking and dodging flying kitchen appliances.
He makes it past the angry dishwasher, and heads down some wooden stairs. Lag, lag lag, lag lag lag. G4, you're crap.
An enemy, and seemingly Alan's torch is doing a ton of damage to it. He shoots, and the evildoer bursts into flames, a la Alone in the Dark 5
Alan's being attacked while on a platform skidding down a wire. A red flare throws up some atmospheric lighting, and in goes Alan to fight some more enemies. This seems a lot more action-oriented than all the previous press on the game led everyone to believe.
More lag. It's a beautiful thing, really, but the gameplay demo has finished. I'll edit in a release date if there was one.
11: 25 AM:
It's HALO ODST time! With Joe Staten of Bungie! Yay! The opening cutscene of the demo is impressive.
We're heading towards what looks like a colossal Covenant ship warping, and as a result our drop pod is going a little off course.
"The Rookie," states the video, I'm assuming this is a chapter title.
Camera man finally shows us the video. "The Rookie", apparently, is indeed you, and you've been separated from your team.
The graphics are similar to that of Halo 3, but the lighting a lot more atmospheric.
Two new silenced weapons, and a low-light visor make for some stealthy kills, and it's nice to see a Brute take on an actual human and lose.
The Halo 1 pistol fans cheer, as the ODST pistol seems to be just as powerful.
Low light visor is now on, illuminating our way to a very big hole, and a cutscene. Our steely protagonist picks up some armour, and looks at a huge burning object in the distance.
"Great stories are told in original ways," says Joe. Too true. Flashbacks are a big part of the campaign, apparently, which suggests you won't just be playing one person, a la Halo 2.
Another cutscene. Many ODST troopers in one place this time, one of them with a Spartan laser, which turns out to be you.
We're arming some charges and pegging it across a bridge. We make it, and we're now climbing up to a watch tower. The UI, by the way, is yellow. A nice change from the blues and purple of Master Chief and the Arbiter.
ODST's "firefight" co-op mode will be on the show floor.
Sept 22nd release date.
Top secret project just announced. Halo: Reach, maybe?
The trailer shows us high in orbit, watching nukes detonate across what looks like a H-congruous world.
Yup, it's Halo: Reach. And it's out in Fall 2010.
Apparently, the beta for Reach's multiplayer comes with ODST. Sounds good. Bye Joe!
11:18 AM:
Racing games now, it seems. In October, we're getting FORZA Motorsport 3, he tells us, and cue trailer.
IT looks swish and very Hollywood, lots of primary colours and shining bonnets.
Dan Greenwalt is now on stage, representing TurnTen. "We love cars," he says. "I know, you arse," says I.
A very pretty car on stage, and he keeps pointing at it. It's a car.
Demo time though, and we pull away in the red shiny Audi that was sitting behind him on stage. An in-cockpit view is displayed, very similar to that of the upcoming Need for Speed: Shift.
He continues after the demo. The game "delivers the thrills [their] competition can't", states Dan. He's cocky, and it seems that FORZA have also got the "racing line" UI overlay on the track, which makes me wonder who's ripping off who - Slightly Mad Studios or TurnTen.
The creative team behind the game are now speaking in a video interview. Various people who like painting cars, and even Bucky Lasek the pro skater has turned up in the video to state his love for the title.
Video's over, but Dan isn't. He's talking about the community, and the ability to upload hi-def video, and the fact that those designers are going to be contributing.
We're now looking at the video editor that the average gamer can use, albeit used by someone on the development team.
Some very impressive tricks going on here, reminiscent of The Italian Job
The editor seems to be able to put together a very slick experience, and it'll be interesting to see what people come up with.
Slo-mo crash shot, and I'm surprised to see a modern car game that smashes the cars up to that degree, most racers don't. Impressive.
11:11 AM:
Sam Fisher looks very angry in this new Splinter Cell: Conviction. trailer. Seems he's rebelling against the system here, and looks very impressive while doing so, though this is all pre-rendered, which is a point of much moaning for the press, I'd like to think.
We're now being taken through the E3 demo of the game. The graphics are incredible, and the game's swinging third-person camera stays with the style of the genre, and flashbacks are appealing on the walls. It's all very violent and trippy.
Disembodied camera swings through the city, and up behind Sam as we begin the level. "Infiltrate the mansion" appears on the wall in the distance, rather impressively, an odd way of showing you your objective.
"Mark and execute" is the new move being shown now, allowing you to focus on someone in the next room, burst in, and kill them instantly and seemingly without fail. Icons above people's heads definitely seems to help with the aiming.
Up the pipe he does, and into the darkness, Sam-style. He's shooting out lights now, and you can see the AI of the antagonists at work: it's pretty damn impressive.
After taking out a room full of thugs, "Get Sarah's Killer" appears on the wall as you run past, updating the objective once again whilst furthering the narrative. More flashbacks on walls, very chilling.
Rage mode time. He's using a piece of broken glass to see around a doorway. It's impressive, and as he goes in and kills everyone in there the screen is saturated with a blood-red hue. He jumps out a window, slides around the side of the mansion, and jumps back in another one to find his target. Sadly, an explosion stops him executing his target, but he gets a tip, allowing himself to be arrested.
Fall '09 release date. And they're off.
11: 08 AM:
New trailer. Lots of gunplay, and Crackdown-style bounding around the city. Why? It's Crackdown 2.
Holy shit! Left4Dead 2 is coming November 17th this year! Trailer looked amazing, lots of melee and improv weapons.
11:06 AM:
An avatar racing game! Joy Ride is the title, ad it looks very slick and cartoony, including a lot of cars.
Free download, which is pretty impressive, but with purchasable content that can be shared with friends without them needing the content. Taking cues from Mario Kart methinks.
11:02 AM:
Now it's all the exclusive titles, the cocky bugger. Donald Mustard and Cliffy B have taken the stage to much heavy metal music for Epic.
It's an XBLA title from Chair Entertainment: Shadow Complex. Donald's mic is a little broken. Sucks.
Unreal Engine 3 is powering the XBLA titled, and I think he's noticed the problem.
Sidescrolling, and has elements of both stealth and using the environment to kill enemies.
A foam gun - something that can be used to make a staircase - is announced, and looks very fun to use.
Over 120 items to be found and a ten hour campaign, not to mention a huge Ghost in the Shell-esque robot boss at the end.
The boss glitched out, which was painful. Seems they're glitching out of the stage as well, but have announced some new GoWII DLC.
10:57 AM:
Toriyama and co. are onstage representing Square Enix. Here comes the FFXIII announcement. They're giving us a brief history lesson. Like all us fanboys don't know already.
The translator's pretty on the ball, which is something we can be thankful for.
They're now talking directly about the latest FF instalment. They're premiering a first look now.
Some lady and her afro-equipped male friend legging it down the side of a huge robot, weilding classic FF huge weaponry.
Battle time! He's explaining how everything works. He describes the characters as Lightning and Suds, and he's talking about the differences in the battle system from the more recent titles (XII especially).
More time gauges this time, thankfully, allowing for more complex tactics on the battlefield.
Special attack time! ODIN! He's a big mother. The graphics are amazing, and Odin's actually standing with your characters, as opposed to everyone disappearing.
Releasing in Spring 2010, they say, and they're off.
10:48 AM:
New trailer on screen. Heavy amounts of terrorism and lots of gunplay, and very impressive graphics. And it is: COD4: Modern Warfare 2.
Jason West and a fellow who's name we missed on stage to talk about the game. They're now going to demo it for us. Lovely people.
Snow level, very impressive graphics, seems we're scaling a mountain in the first person, which is surreal, if a little Mirror's Edge-esque.
Top of the climb, and holy crap, your team mate just jumped a crevasse, which you, predictably, didn't manage, and are now hanging off the ledge.
Lot of very impressive weather effects, really adds to the atmosphere. Come to think of it, I recognise the voice directing you around... I won't spoil it. Auspex scanner on the side of your gun, very James Bond/Alien.
Enemies incoming, apparently. We're moving towards what looks like a gate. "BOOM," says the gate, and in we go. The combat is a lot smoother, and the sprint function is, thankfully, still in game, though also a lot smoother.
And we're on the run again, sliding down a hill. The graphical improvements are unbelievable.
A snowmobile driving section is our next task, and my god, this looks like tons of fun.
And it's done. Sweet.
10:44 AM:
Tony Hawk now on stage, talking about the new skateboard controller. Accelerometers and weight sensors, not to mention the ability to "push off". Sounds pretty impressive.
The world-exclusive trailer is now showing. Lots of pro skaters talking about why they skate. I'd say "money", but they give far more artistic answers. And conviently G4 decides to cut out right there and then. Technology has really advanced...
Tony Hawk finishing off the presentation, and heads off stage.
10: 41: AM:
Next person on-stage, intro speech. Talking about the NXE, though he probably won't mention the lag. "It's all about showing, and not telling", he says. Sounds like a presentation full of videos, and "ten" new IPs, he says.
10:40 AM:
Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney now on stage. This is impressive. "The game is good, the graphics are very good..." Ringo sounds a little woozy. "Who ever thought we'd end up as androids" says Paul. What the feck? Off they go.
10:38 AM:
Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrisson on stage to promote the game. Dear god, why didn't she die instead of John? Terrible marksmanship.
10: 34 AM:
It's starting properly. Announcer's taking about the game, Abbey Road is going up in full. Charity donations too. Swish.
10:31 AM:
Beatles Rock Band at the moment. Nothing too interesting, but cool instruments.
10:25 AM:
Here we go!
2:52 AM:
Seven and a half hours to go. Thank the stars I'm British. Live blog is a go-go, and I'm preparing to write more news than I've ever done in my life, this week.
Rejoice, you muggles. Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4 has just been confirmed by developer Traveller's Tales as one of the various new Lego titles they're working on, and are expecting to release it to the wizard-loving public in 2010. The game eponymously focuses on Harry's first four years as a student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and presumably will contain the vast range of explorable areas and unlockable characters that have become trademarks of TT's Lego games. More as and when we have it.
]]>Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli spoke about the move from PC-only to multiplatform, saying it marked a "a major stepping stone" for the next game in the Crysis franchise. They seem very pleased to keep EA involved with the series, and EA declared they were most excited: "nothing speaks more to the success of the EA Partners program than when a studio the caliber of Crytek continues to work with us," said David DeMartini, Senior Vice President and General Manager of EA Partners.
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