E3 2010 - Opinions

 

So all the conferences are over with I think. At least all the major ones. Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony have stepped up to the bench and tried to tickle our fancies in order to win the quite prestigious title of “Biggest Balls In LA”. Who won this year? Well to be honest I think my hearts went back to Nintendo. A little bit. They’ve managed to present some new tech that didn’t instantly appeal to the casual market. “Here’s our new console guys” they said, “and this is for you Liam”. Metal Gear Solid 3D, Resident Evil 3D… to be perfectly honest I was impressed. Especially by the actual handheld. The 3-D is actually incredibly impressive. Still, early days and it was only a video. Anyway, I’m now gonna go in great detail about every major conference because I’m a nerd.

Microsoft

 

In general, the Microsoft conference was very poor. Kinect (Project natal) was focused upon far too much, with Microsoft pushing towards a casual market and completely alienating it’s hardcore fanbase in the process. We don’t care about Kinectimals or whatever the it’s called guys. Yea, it might be good for our kids or nephews or… oh wait they have Wii’s. Yea. They don’t care either. Really. Sorry.

The conference picked up a bit when the real games started coming through. Gears of War 3 Co-Op is looking good, as it the campaign of Halo Reach. Fable 3 is… Fable 3 (still) and the Xbox is getting COD exclusive DLC… still. So… nothing new really. Crytek’s new game looks promising of course, but apart from that the Xbox has a rather underwhelming line up of same old, same olds.

Of course, the Xbox slim was the highlight of the show. A new console which looks to me like an Alienware laptop had sex with Bill Gates… and produced something beautiful. It looks to be a top notch piece of kit. They’ve even sorted out the red ring. It’s only been five years guys. Will I be buying one? No, but as it’s the same price as the current models it certainly is tempting.

 

Nintendo

A new E3, a new DS. It’s became a bit of a tiresome tradition to be perfectly honest with you, but at least this year they did things a little differently. No casual shit heaps, just pure hardcore nuggets of wonderment (no one dare steal that. Ever). The lineup is… well it’s already got more potential for classics than the Wii currently has with four years under it’s tiny casual belt. Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid, Kid Icarus, Mario Kart, Animal Crossing, Starfox 64, Zelda 64… Remember when the DS was announced and all the hype surrounding hardcore games was at it’s peak? Well Nintendo are finally delivering. It’s probably not acceptable, but I’m going to forgive them. Purely for the graphics on the damn thing. Way to step up your game Nintendo! Seriously. Well done.

Other highlights included the announcement of Zelda: Skyward Sword (about time) and Epic Mickey (looking good). However, I can’t say 'I’m so sure about Goldeneye Wii. Seems a bit of a stupid idea if you ask me. A “reimaging” of a classic? Come on, surely Pierce Brosnon would have popped his head into a recording studio if you paid him a little bit more than you paid Mr. Craig? No? Fair enough.

Sony

OK so Sony started off poorly as well, to be perfectly honest. Move? Don’t care. Heroes on the Move? Oh come on Sony… you can do a little better than that can’t you? 3D, blah blah blah, yea we get it you make 3D Bravias. No we won’t buy them. Ah right here we go. Games.

Killzone 3 is looking smooth, Grand Turismo is looking gorgeous… is that it for exclusives? Oh Ok fair enough. Playstation Plus seems like a fair deal. For the same price as Xbox Live you get free games and other cool content? Automatic downloads of demos, themes, wallpapers… yea that’s pretty cool. Not for me but hey it’s there I suppose.

Now Sony’s third party aspects really impressed me today. First of all the amount of exclusives EA are offering is just… lovely. Yea, that’s a good word for it. Lovely. Dead Space 2 will come with Dead Space Extraction. For free. With move support. Sorted! Medal of Honour will come with a HD remake of Medal of Honour Frontline. Bargain! Sony have secured the Assassins Creed 2 multiplayer Beta. Bravo! However can you top that. Oh, Portal 2 is coming to Ps3 and will be their best version. Oh Gabe you cheeky, chubby bitch. I love you. Whatever they paid you I’ll give you double.

Still doesn’t change the fact you have barely any exclusives though Sony. Tut tut.

As I said, overall E3 was a bit disappointing. Still, it’s always nice to have some fresh news eh?

N64 Emulator

I decided to download an N64 emulator because there’s a load of N64 games that I’ve gotten around to getting hold of.

So I’ve downloaded Conkers Bad Fur Day, Legend of Zelda: Majoras Mask and…. Pokémon Snap. (It was a childhood favourite, lay off).

I need to download Paper Mario, Yoshi’s Story and…. I would say Starfox 64.

Anyone else got any suggestions of things I missed from the 64 era?

Nintendo: My Relationship

 

Ahh Nintendo. We used to have so much fun, back in the day. I was young, I was naive. I let myself fall in love too quickly…

See, I loved Nintendo, and Nintendo broke my heart. Back in the day (between 1995 to 2008) we used to have so much fun together! Oh how we laughed when we played Mario Kart, how we shivered when we played Eternal Darkness, how we wooped when we played Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, how we cried when we played The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, how we gasped when we played Metroid Prime and how we realised just how strong our love was when we played Luigi’s Mansion…

Then… then Nintendo changed. It presented me the Wii, this new invention that it was going to make me buy and at first it was excited and then… and then… I played it. Wii Sports, Wii Fit… where were the good old days? When we used to jump and laugh and kill Koopas? No Nintendo, when we used to kill Koopas without moving our hands around like a twat. Well I’ll tell you where they were, they were gone, hidden beneath an emulator that just made you feel dirty and wrong.

I left the Nintendo camp on the 30th August 2008 and you know what? I’ve never looked back. Not even once. Goodbye Nintendo. This is me, gaining closure.

... What The Hell?!?!

See that.... red.... THING to the left of the DSi? That's called a Nintendo DSi XL apparently. Not only that but it's effing out in Japan already. Another DS! Already out!

Goddamn!

My sister broke mine about two or three months ago when she went on holiday. The cheek of it was, she didn't take her DSi with her incase it broke. Well that was clever ¬.¬

Anyway, that's my rant for the day. Come back in twelve seconds time, when Nintendo announce the Nintendo DSi XL Slim.

E3 Is Upon Us

So E309 begins tomorrow and no doubt there will be a literal flood of quality games revealed and demoed as well as some shiny new tech for us all to get excited about. You know, same as every year.

However theres one E3 that I'll always have fond memories for. It was the year that Reggie held up that strange new handheld with two screens, and behind him was Super Mario 64 on a handheld. Honestly, my mind = blown.

Then the Nintendo Revolution was held in air and it was revealed that.... well not a lot really but there it was! And how would it be revolutionary? What did it do?? Hang on a virtual console? The new Legend of Zelda? 

It was all perfect. I'd never been more excited in my life. The fanboy within me wept with happiness at what it had just learnt... Classic times. Then of course both of the things came out and they were pretty shit, but oh well!

Bring on next week!

Father, Where Art Thou?

“Miyamoto has expressed his disappointment with the GameCube era, which he describes as a time when "Nintendo was going in the direction of doing the same things other companies did"

Don’t you just love Nintendo? I used to worship this guy as a God, as an inspiration, as one of the greatest minds in the gaming industry… and now look at this. I loved the Gamecube! It was one of the best consoles ever made! Just because Nintendo’s become the cool kid on the block it doesn't mean he can forget his roots, forget who his friends truly are…

 

;(

nRevolution

I’m a bit of a magazine nerd. I’ve been collecting them since I picked up a copy of CUBE in 2003 and since then, I’ve been addicted to the British Videogame Journalism industry, and would you believe it, It’s what I aspire to do when I’m older. Because you get to play games… Then write about them… Then get paid.

 

So anyway, I collected CUBE until the GameCube became obsolete (and it stopped being published) and moved onto ONM. Official Nintendo Magazine just so happened to be a fantastic magazine at launch. It was pretty, fun to read, and had some fantastic writers (Mainly a young man named Chandra, from CUBE fame). It was this magazine that forced me to join it’s forum, the first forum I ever joined. It was here I made some great friends, and eventually became hooked into the online forum world.

 

However one day, I came across another forum, and this one was called nRevolution. From here on in, it becomes something of a love story. I left ONM and had a filthy affair with nRev. It was here that I became a central part of the community, and actually made proper friends. I actually have emotional memories from that place. Sad? Perhaps, but I will always remember that place as not just a resource for Nintendo news, but also a fantastically funny, supportive and co-operative forum. Bravo.

Then, it all went to Shit, and I started nFort. At the time I thought it was because nRev had become a horrible place, and that I had become sick. But then, yesterday, I heard from a member of nFort that the last issue of the magazine was published in December. That was that. It was over.

 

So, Nintendo. I’m looking at you. It was never nRevolution’s fault that it slipped up from around issue 6. It was yours. You see me? You see all those dedicated members of that forum? You see those writers, who dedicated themselves to reporting to no doubt thousands of others? Well they’re what's called the hardcore market, and I don’t know whether you’ve realised this but you’ve forgotten about us. Yea, we were the ones who kept you afloat during the Gamecube years, and now look at you. Talk about pissing on the little man.

 

It’s only a matter of time, before a months worth of Wii reviews can be fitted onto a single A4 sheet of paper. I’m not saying there’s going to be a lack of games, it’s just that Wii games are becoming so shallow you could review them yourself just by looking at the cover art.