E3 is finally here, and it is shaping up to be one of the best E3s in recent years. The PS3 and Wii will finally be playable, and each company will probably reveal most (if not all) of their secrets, as well as some next-gen versions of their major franchises. Not to be outdone, MS will certainly have some secrets of their own (HD DVD plans, new XBL features, etc.), not to mention a great lineup of games such as Shadowrun, Alone in the Dark 5, Bioshock, Gears of War, Too Human, Mass Effect, and more. They'll probably announce some other games like Forza 2, Fable 2, and maybe...just maybe...Halo 3. And that's just the next-gen stuff. We still have two great handhelds in the PSP and DS, which have both produced some great games during their short lifespans. And for current-gen consoles, we have Zelda: Twilight Princess, which could very well be "Game of the Show," despite being a GC title (or maybe more?). The PS2 will probably have its fair share of titles as well, like another SOCOM, God of War 2, and GT Online, as well maybe some Japanese-developed games scheduled to release later this year (FF XII, Yakuza, Okami, etc.). First off, if you missed it the 1st time around, I'd recommend reading the following thread: http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=112430 It contains a lot of new information from the last week or so, as well as game lists for several publishers. The show itself doesn't start until Wednesday, but Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, and a few other companies will be having press conferences on Monday and Tuesday. If you recall, these conferences were where Sony and Nintendo did most of their next-gen announcements last year about the PS3 and Wii (or Revolution as it was known back then). Expect something similar this year. Here are some times and dates (in Central time) for some of the press conferences: Gamespot has a countdown on their site as well: http://www.gamespot.com/e3/index.html (on right side) AFAIK, Gamespot will be providing live streams to the Sony and Nintendo conferences. I believe Gametrailers and a few other sites will be providing steams to the Nintendo conference as well. I forgot if any sites will be doing live streams for the MS conference; I thought I read that MS will stream it from their site, but I can't remember for sure. I do know that MS will be providing some services this week to XBL members, including free Gold membership for everyone this week IIRC. If nothing else, GS will be providing a stream of the MS conference 1 hour after it begins, and I'm sure there will be ways to download the conference later on (and the same can be said for the other conferences too BTW). I'm not sure if there will be any live streams of the Square-Enix and Konami conferences, although I'm hoping that any new info/media from the events will hit the web quickly after the conferences finish. Konami will show a new MGS4 trailer, and Square-Enix might have something to show for next-gen console(s). Well, that's about all I have for the moment. Time for me to get some sleep and prepare for the "megaton(s)" that will be unleashed during the week.
If Nintendo shafts us on the Wii info so they can waste their presentation on DS crap, I'm going to punch each employee in the throat.
Some updates: Activision's Next-gen lineups (includes PS3/Wii launch titles) A little bit of info on the 360 HD DVD add-on From what I understand, if you buy this, you better hope that the movies you get for it don't force down-conversion (via the ICT flag). New Interview about UT2K7 (PC, PS3) (new screens, looks awesome) Trailer for BF 2142 Impressions from Gamespot here: http://uk.gamespot.com/e3/e3story.html?event=e32006&sid=6149123&pid=932358 God of War II Impressions (new screens) Virtua Fighter 5 announce, exclusive to the PS3 (Spring 2007) For those that don't know, Sega has been showing off the arcade version of this game for a while, and, IMO, it already looks amazing on hardware that's inferior to the PS3/Xbox 360 (Pentium 4 3.0 GHz, 1GB slow RAM, Geforce 6800 IIRC). Here's one screen: Someone mentioned that if the VF5 announcement wasn't important enough to be made at the Sony press conference later today, then what exactly does Sony have planned to announce? (setting myself up for disappointment ). BTW, I lost the link, but I read somewhere that both Sony and Nintendo plan to have a number of playable titles at E3 (although maybe behind closed doors?). I think a Sony PR guy said that they'd have more than the 360 did last year (around a half-dozen or so), and it seems like Nintendo has like 10-15 titles that would be playable. This should be interesting, assuming I got the info correct.
Gamespot is providing updates on the SE conference going on right now: http://www.gamespot.com/e3/e3story.html?sid=6149412 I'll post some more minor updates later (some of which might come from this conference...Wii fans might enjoy the news ). Looks like FFXII will be out in October. edit: Some other places for updates: http://blog.wired.com/games/ http://everythingandnothing.org.uk/vg/ (contains some of info I was thinking about posting later)
Stolen from the Tinman thread... E3 06: Xbox Live Marketplace E3 demo schedule set Test Drive Unlimited going up today, Lost Planet online tomorrow, MotoGP 06 revving up on Thursday. By Tor Thorsen, GameSpot Posted May 8, 2006 11:37 am PT LOS ANGELES--Last week, Microsoft announced it was readying a wave of new content to go online during its E3-synchronized week of free Xbox Live. It promised a "flood" of new game demos and trailers, leading some very hopeful fans to think that maybe, just maybe, the week might see a trailer or demo of the next Halo game. While the trailer jury is still out, today Microsoft announced its demo schedule for the week. Today, Xbox 360 owners can download a sample level of Atari's Test Drive Unlimited, which will feature a racetrack on one of the Hawaiian Islands. Tomorrow, the much-anticipated demo for Capcom's futuristic actioner Lost Planet will hit the online gaming service. Its content was unclear, as Microsoft only offered a vague general description of the demo's wintry action. On Thursday, the demo for Moto GP 06 will go live. It was also unclear what that demo contained, as it bore the following description: "Experience extreme racing with stunning photorealistic graphics and a blisteringly fast game engine." Check back tomorrow afternoon for GameSpot's on-the-scene coverage of the Microsoft E3 2006 press conference. http://www.gamespot.com/e3/e3story.html?sid=6149372&pid=928101
Dragon Quest on Wii- launch game!! Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors. They just showed DQ Wii footage. Its called DRAGON QUEST SWORDS. Launch title. Plays like Kenshin DQ. Subtitled The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors. Two new Crystal Chronicles games for DS (Ring of Fates)- looks fantastic for a DS game, same style as on GC. And a Wii version- Final Fantasy CC Ring of Fates : four players on DS FFCC The Crystal Bearers for Wii. Ugh...it seems like the whole Internet has slowed down...and just for a SE press conference. These next few days are going to be fun.
More about FF XIII: Looks amazing. Female main character. Looked like prerendered video, except it was realtime. Dramatic actionpacked battles with crazy camerawork. Producer Yoshinori Kitase Director Motomu Toriyama oomp, I've heard some things about the controller, but mostly rumors. I'll get to that later, once the SE conference is over. edit: 2:02 Final announcement! For PS3! E3 is so damn exciting sometimes. What is it?! FINAL FANTASY XIII. FINAL FANTASY XIII. They pulled a serious bait-and-switch on us. Sword-and-gun-wielding heroine who looks like Yuna, flipping her way around a high-tech, futuristic world. No idea what it was until the end when that NAME popped up. Yoshinori Kitase directing! This is the guy behind all the best ones--VI, VIII, VIII, X. Be still my heart. 2:08 Sorry, I jumped the gun--Mr. Kitase was merely presenting. Motomu Toriyama will direct the game. And apparently FFXIII isn't the only game coming out of this universe--there's a, uh, mobile game too. Oh.
portable xbox360 coming? http://www.engadget.com/2006/05/08/author-claims-360-team-working-on-portable-xbox/
They'll probably put this online later I'm sure. More info from the event: Now it's Fabula Nova Crystallis--"the new tale of the crystal" in Latin. They're big on the Latin today. Whoa, wait, another new game? Another PS3 game?! Final Fantasy Versus XIII? They're emphasizing that in Latin, versus means "to change direction." This is a Tetsuya Nomura game, and he's taking the stage now. 2:17 Nomura is providing more details. The CG movie we just saw, featuring a spiky-haired character (natch) squaring off against machine gun-wielding soldiers, was created by the Advent Children team, but the game itself will be made by the Kingdom Hearts team, and will feature "extreme action elements." He says "bonding" will be the primary theme of the game.
