Ray and Jennifers Excellent E3 Adventure – Article — Part 3
Articles
Ray and Jennifer’s Excellent E3 Adventure
by Ray Ivey & Jennifer Miller
Next Generation Console Notes
JEN: So yeah, there was some huge news at E3 this year, why, with the little announcement that the big three are all developing new consoles. The only one I actually got to see in action was the Xbox 360. The PS3 was lifted high in all its George Foreman grill glory, but no playability on the convention floor. As for the Nintendo Revolution, again, we only saw the console itself, but no game previews, not even a controller. Come on guys!
Here’s what we do know, if you care about such things. If you are anti-console gaming, feel free to go out for a sandwich during this part of the report.
RAY: I’m sure many of the facts and figures that we’ve been hearing about the three new consoles – Sony’s PS3, Microsoft’s 360 and Nintendo’s Revolution – will change before we can actually get our retail mitts on the systems, but I wanted to share a bit of good news about all three consoles.
Microsoft’s 360 is slated to be backwards compatible with Xbox titles. This is a good thing. Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion currently seems to be the main reason to purchase it.
JEN: The Xbox 360 will be released first. It’s white, it stores MP3s, pictures, movies, and can even get you on the web. It has interchangeable faceplates so you can cough up additional money to make your Xbox truly your own. In the next revision it will make toast and recite Shakespeare.
And the games do look quite impressive, the afore-mentioned Oblivion being Ray and my particular favorite. And back from vaporware land is Kameo. It lives!
Here were my issues with the console. Do we really need a new Xbox? With the graphical capabilities of the original console, we have to be years away of really pushing that system to its limit. It’s typical Microsoft strategy. Release something that’s not really needed yet and convince the public they absolutely have to have it. They fooled enough people with Windows ME, why not with a new Xbox? And yes, we’ve heard that the new console will be backwards compatible with the older machine, but Microsoft was strange in their wording. They said “all the greatest hits” will be backward compatible. So does that mean in house games only like Halo 2? Will that mean my copy of MechAssault won’t run on my shiny new Xbox 360? Cough up the truth here, Microsoft! Give us something we can believe in!
RAY: Sony’s PS3 will be fully compatible back to PS1 titles! Yea! That’s really all I needed to know. I’m sure it will be beautiful, blah, blah, blah, and no one knows the price yet, blah blah blah and I’m sure I’ll eventually buy one so why sweat the details?
JEN: The PS3 sounds like an impressive system, but most of what I know about it you can see on G4. Judgment Day did a much better job of getting the dirt on this project than I ever could. It looks like a Foreman grill, will be 100% backwards compatible (cause those crazy guys at Sony are just so darn smart!) and has a controller that resembles a boomerang. Perhaps they need to license a Zelda for this console.
RAY: You mean, you weren’t a committed-enough journalist to stand in line for four hours to get an additional shallow peek at the PS3?
JEN: Neither were you.
RAY: We’re not talking about me. Let’s talk about Nintendo.
JEN: Speaking of Nintendo, one wonders if the introduction of the Revolution wasn’t just a ploy to get in on the next-gen action at E3. We saw a console only, no controller, and no games! Nintendo promised that you will be able to play ALL NINTENDO GAMES EVER MADE on this system, with the ability to play Cube games from their original discs and the classic titles by downloading them through the Revolution’s new online mode. Yes! Nintendo has finally gone on-line! But why should I have to pay for a download of Mega Man 2 when I already own the cartridge? Something just feels wrong here.
RAY: One point in that last paragraph deserves being said a second time: Nintendo’s Revolution will evidently have an online capability that will make it possible to download and play any Nintendo console game ever released. You read that right, sports fans. Considering all the legendary titles on the NES, SNES and N64, I think this feature will really help sell the new console. It sure will to me!
Other than GEIST, a game that seems to have the same idea that Shiny’s Messiah did a few years ago, but might actually get it right this time, and a GC installment of the much-beloved Fire Emblem series (due in October!!!) there wasn’t much love for the GameCube on the floor.
No, most of the Nintendo space was dedicated to the three GameBoy systems. Yep, three. There was the GameBoy SP, of course (with yet another Fire Emblem game!), the GameBoy DS, and the very silly new GameBoy Micro – the system for people who find the GameBoy just too big to lug around, and who find the GameBoy screen just too annoyingly huge.
There were TONS of DS games on display, but I only had eyes for one: Nintendogs.
JEN: For the sickeningly sweet factor, I award Nintendogs with the trophy. An updated version of the Tamagotchi idea, this game gives you the chore of picking a puppy and keeping up with his needs. This booth was flooded at the Nintendo DS area of the convention. We all thought this was because the games was so darn cute, which it is. I found out later it was because the booth babes were giving out free styluses for the DS with Mario on top. And if you successfully taught your puppy a trick, you received a free toy puppy. Oh, what we do for free stuff.
RAY: You get to raise, train, walk and pet painfully cute pooches! What else would you need to know? This is the game that will sell the DS. It’s going to be HUGE.
A Promising Hybrid: Indigo Prophecy
RAY: I was a big fan of 1999’s Omikron: The Nomad Soul. It was a flawed but very interesting hybrid that combined elements of adventure, fighting, role-playing, and action into a very entertaining whole.
Quantic Dream, the studio behind Omikron, has a new upcoming game called Indigo Prophecy (formerly Fahrenheit). This new game also looks like a very interesting hybrid.
The game is billed as a “paranormal thriller adventure game” in which you control four characters in a gritty, futuristic story of crime and mind control.
The fighting elements in the game are driven by a version of “Simon,” which makes them feel more puzzle-like and less twitchy. Another gameplay element is “mental health” which is a meter that can go up or down, depending on what’s happening to the character. Higher mental health will provide the player with more choices in gameplay.
The musical score is by Angelo Badalamenti, the quirky genius behind the cool “Twin Peaks” music.
The game will be released on PC, XBox and PS2, and it’s one of the most compelling titles we saw at E3.
