E3 '11 Day Zero Thoughts

While E3 doesn’t begin until June 7, most of the press conferences were today. The stuff that was shown between the companies that presented today were good and had some genuinely exciting stuff to show. Now with that said, I was left with a feeling that there could have been more or even done better.  Keep in mind, there was a lot discussed during these conferences, but I’m only listing the things I was interested in and what I can remember. If you ask why I don’t have the Ubisoft press conference, that’s why.

To kick things off, Microsoft was first out of the gate this morning. The show started off with an in game demo of   Modern Warfare 3.  The mission was a group of soldiers infiltrating a submarine, acquiring the keys to launch missiles at a Russian war-boat. This mission reminded me of the cargo boat mission at the beginning of the first   Modern Warfare.  The sense of scale has been improved here, but that’s all it seems the game has. Hopefully there’s more to show and anticipate for this. Following that was a first look at the rebirth of   Tomb Raider.  The game seems to have a completely different vibe to it. There seems like a cross of a survival horror game with a mix of Uncharted. The demo left me impressed and want to see more of. There was also   Mass Effect 3, but I’ll touch on that later.  

 One impressive thing was the new dashboard that was demonstrated. This has been optimized for Kinect and voice commands, with a similarity to what was shown for Windows 8. To make this the ultimate entertainment device, YouTube and LiveTV is being added to this. How did it take this long for YouTube to get here? The LiveTV seems cool and also may get rid of using satellite or a box. I’m not sure how successful this will be, but I’m curious to see how this will turn out. Back to game demos with Gears of War 3 and lots of Lambent Locusts were all over the place. The mech suit, called the Silverback, was cool and a Lambent Sea Monster. There isn’t much to say about that except it’s more Gears. 

The highlight for me were Dance Central 2.  Since I love the first game, this was expected, but welcome. At least there’s going to be a proper campaign mode, import tunes from the first game and the DLC, along with a improved ‘Break it Down’ as well. This is easily my most anticipated game from this press conference. One surprise though was Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster.Now, I’m too old for this, but this seems like a fun game. This will be great for kids and parents to teach their children, but this may be something interesting to try out. Double Fine is behind this game, and anything they do is great fun. I’m looking forward to seeing this. There’s also Halo 4.

EA had probably the most exciting stuff there, despite it being very limited. The show opened up with Mass Effect 3.  This was basically a live demo of the game. It seems that the combat is smoother and bigger. At the Microsoft event, the game will have Kinect support by allowing players to speak the answers in the dialog wheel and giving squad commands. That was a cool touch to the game and adds a deeper level of immersion. The game now has a release date of March 6, 2012 (03.06.12) and a collector’s edition was announced as well.  

After that was live demo Need For Speed: The Run. Interesting fact about the game is that it uses Frostbite 2, the same engine for Battlefield 3. The game now allows players to leave the car and engage in on foot chases, but these sequences play out as quick time events and seem a little out of place. The two things I’m curious about is the handling of the cars and with the emphasis on story, how will that turn out? EA Black Box is trying to do something similar to Fight Night Champion with this game. If this turns out well, we could end up with another great Need For Speed game.  

 There was also a quick demonstration of the rebirth of   SSX.  They seem to take an extreme approach with this, probably like the older ones. There are three modes: race, trick, and escape (if I remember correctly). I’m not a fan of these types of games, but I’m interested.   SSX  will be out January 2012. Peter Moore took to the stage to talk about   FIFA 12  and   Madden 12.  I didn’t really pay much attention to this, but one thing that did stick out was, the goal for Madden 12  is to bring emotion to the game (if I’m right). Insomniac’s game was also revealed during the press conference.  

 This is a completely new IP called OverStrike  and the game looks like intense action taking a reference from   The A-Team  and   Smokin’ Aces. Unfortunately, there was no gameplay shown, but knowing Insomniac, this will be another hit for them. The show ended with live demo of   Battlefield 3  running on PC. That game is shaping up to be the FPS to get this holiday. The demo was a tank battle with the objective to take out a missle silo that’s preventing troops from moving in. This looked fantastic and was a true sight to behold. At the end of the demo, a release date was given of October 25. That’s two weeks before   Modern Warfare 3.  I wonder if   Battlefield 3  will take any of the thunder away? I hope so.

The day ended with Sony, which had a decent amount of stuff to discuss. The opener was Jack Tretton giving a public apology for the PSN outage and thanking everyone for their patience while they sorted that mess out. This is one of the reasons I like Jack, along with John Riccitiello. They respect the fans and are gamers themselves. Possibly the best guys in the industry. After that, the show kicked off with Naughty Dog coming on stage to demo off   Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception.  The demo was on a ship, possibly a cruise ship because there was a pool. Basically, this seems like a refined version of   Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, but I’m not complaining because that was an excellent. I did like his ability when he finishes guys with grenades, he pulls the pin and kicks them back, then they explode. I’ve noticed a trend, wherever Drake goes, shit happens. Can’t a guy catch a break? Next to   Battlefield 3  and   Dance Central 2, this is one of my most anticipated games this year.  

Following that was a demo for   Resistance 3.  By the looks of things, it seems a lot better and more balanced than   Resistance 2.  The last one had some difficulty imbalances, so I’m hoping that’s fixed for this one. We also got some info and a release date for the   Ico & Shadow of the Colossus  pack. Both games have been redone with HD graphics, supposedly run at 60 Frames Per Second, and have 3D support along with trophies. That will be out in September. Last year, Gabe Newell of Valve was at the press conference. This year, Ken Levine of Irrational Games was at the show. He was there to talk about   Bioshock Infinite. While there was no live demo, he did talk about the game and the team experimenting with Move and maybe a small possibility of that being added. Before he left, he showed that he had a  NGP and that they may be working on something for it.  

 Which was a segway to Kaz Hirai appearing on stage and talking about the NGP. There’s an official name for the device called,   Playstation Vita. ‘ Vita‘ is latin for the word ‘ Life.‘ There were some interesting demonstrations for the platform with   Uncharted, Ruin,and   Modnation Racers.  A unique thing is that there’s Cloud support, which means that the game works on both Vita an PS3. You save you game on one of the systems and play it on another platform. After that, Yoshinori Ono came on the stage and showed off   Street Fighter x Tekken  on the Vita. The game is running and will be available for the system. An exclusive character, Cole from Infamous 2, is added to the game and said the game will be available soon. Hirai also said the system will be available by the end of this year and in two versions: WiFi version for 249 and WiFi/3G version for 299. This is a good price for the device and isn’t as outrageous as some of us were expecting. I’m planning to pick this up.  

 
That pretty much sums up the day. Day Zero is over and now Day One is coming. Let us see what comes.