E3 2010: Yet Another Day!

So day two (or three if you’re counting the press conference days) of E3 came to a firm close and while press conferences are over, today gave the video game press a chance to catch up with everything on the show floor. I wish I could give an overall summary of everything from every booth but E3 is just such a large event it seems impossible to catch up on it all in one day so apologies in advance if this blog seems like a look at a strange mix of random games (I also realise this is a rather long post, feel free to skim-read).

All day long Bungie were showing the new firefight mode in Halo: Reach to people on the show floor and it’s sounding like they’re really putting something awesome out there. Firefight in Halo 3: ODST was enjoyable when you could get some friends together for it but the lack of matchmaking was a big complaint. With matchmaking possible on Reach’s firefight it seems destined to become a way bigger part of the game for the community and the customisation options for the mode sound excellent. They also showed off some new weapons and a new armour ability, and one weapon in particular caught my eye; the Target Locator gives players the power to rain down orbital strikes on their opponents and seems insanely cool. The armour class ‘Medic’ could also in some ways be a major change to the game, multiplayer experiences really become a whole different beast once you start adding support classes like that. I enjoyed the Halo: Reach multiplayer beta but what I’ve seen at E3 has really impressed me, it looks like they’re gearing up for an epic finish to the Halo franchise.

There’s been a big buzz over the 3DS since it hit the show floor on Tuesday and it sounds like a remarkable new gaming platform. The 3DS seems like something out of science fiction but the word is this thing really works without any issues, the only slight problem with the 3D seems to be when you are not looking directly at the console which may be a minor issue but with the way Nintendo have impressed so far I find it hard to fault them for that. Kirby’s Epic Yarn is also sounding like an easy-going but thoroughly charming experience and from what I’ve read they’re not just introducing a charming new visual style, they’re also going beyond the traditional gameplay of the previous Kirby games to try something a bit new. Donkey Kong Country Returns sounds like pretty much exactly what you’d expect from the title but that’s by no means a bad thing and it’s also been good to hear that all the new Motion Plus-based combat in Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword really works, I’m sure we’re in for yet another great Zelda experience with Miyamoto’s new work.

While legendary designer Peter Moylneux only spent a few brief moments on stage with Fable III at Microsoft’s press conference, on the show floor it sounds like they’re giving everyone a proper showing of the game. Demos reveal that even in the first half of the game the experience seems to be quite a bit more than just more of what we saw in Fable II and I couldn’t be happier.

EA have been showing off Medal of Honour in more detail and while it looks like a very good game it is perhaps less unique than I had at first hoped. Right from the beginning it was obvious that Medal of Honour was going to be a game very much like Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare but I thought we might see at least something that would set the game apart from the competition. So far I haven’t seen anything unique come from Medal of Honour, even if it does what it does rather well. A slightly less serious war game also made an appearance; Bodycount. Creator Stuart Black cites numerous influences and says that he is trying to do something bring across a less serious modern military story but it’s hard to see what really lies under the run-and-gun exterior of Bodycount with what has been shown. There may be a strong narrative and deeper mechanics lying under the hood of this game but sadly that’s not something that what was shown at E3 really conveyed.

I’d like to end on a high note with one game that really impressed me as much as if not more than Halo: Reach. The original Little Big Planet not only gave community users some fantastic tools to work with but the LBP community delivered with a mass of very highly creative levels and it looked like the user-generated content couldn’t get any better, but Little Big Planet 2 is doing amazing things. It was brilliant when they showed it at the Sony press conference and it looks brilliant now. Not only are players no longer limited to just creating platforming levels but the clever components of LBP 2 allow for even greater creativity overall. The logical systems players can set up in game seem like they have huge potential and to see that someone had created a 3D shooter game inside what is essentially a 2.5D platformer was phenomenal. Bravo to the people that worked on that game.

That does it for day two/three but there is just a single day left of E3 2010! I’m off to listen to today’s three hour Bombcast and I wish you all a happy final day of E3.

-Gamer_152