E3 2009 Summary

E3's finally back to its old roots, and it showed this week. This year has been great for us gamers and we got to see most of our most anticipated games, some big surprises that caught us off guard, the obvious games here and there, and the surprisingly good and impressive presentations the game companies showed off. 2009 is a great year for video games, and it's going to get even better.

 

Microsoft Press Conference
Kicking off E3 as always, Microsoft went with a bang this year. They showed off a lot of social networking stuff with Twitter and Avatars and all that stuff...which didn't really interest me. What got me hooked in the Microsoft Conference were the games they showed off. Of course, they showed a demo of Modern Warfare 2, and it looked awesome. The feel of the game is definitely the same as Modern Warfare 1, and they're keeping the intense, movie-$tyle experience of gameplay. Looking forward to playing multiplayer.

 

They also showed off a demo of Final Fantasy XIII with limited English voice acting. VA was pretty good, and seeing the summon Odin was a great sight to see. Glad that it's finally coming out and no more delays. Splinter Cell: Conviction really got me interested in the Splinter Cell series. I never really played the games, but seeing the stealth demo they showed off was amazing. It was like the movie Taken or experiencing the Jason Bourne movies. Outstanding display, and that's definitely a superb stealth game, I think. Forza 3 was also impressive. I gave up on racing games a long time ago, but seeing this might get me back. They also showed off some Alan Wake which was pretty good, and a surprise from Crackdown 2, Metal Gear Solid: Rising, and the fun-to-play Left 4 Dead 2. Chainsaws are in the game, so that should be really fun. Oh yeah, they showed off Halo: ODST and Halo Reach. Eh, I'll just buy the Halo novels or something.

 

Afterwards, they showed off Milo and Project Natal. I admit, the motion control Microsoft showed off was indeed impressive, but the way they presented it (with the whole family and everything) wasn't so great after all. And the whole Milo thing? Come on, do we really need a human Tamagotchi or something? No thanks.

 

Electronic Arts Conference
They showed some Madden '10, the whole online team building and stuff, which was pretty interesting. Though playing a Quick Play mode is enough football fun for me anyway. They had that charmed girls, which was...umm...yeah... Electronic Arts also showed off their own version of an MMA game. Pretty cool, pretty cool. They showed off APB as well, and looks great. Like the character customization thing. Looking forward to gameplay too. A trailer of Dante's Inferno was shown, and definitely looks epic. Then the biggest news, Mass Effect 2. I played a minimal taste of the first one, and it was good. If I would have a 360, this is one of the games that I would definitely get. Oh yeah, Shepard is alive and well. Dead Space Extraction is also one of the games I'm anticipating, and looks good so far.

 

Ubisoft Conference
Not much that Ubisoft shown that interested me. For the first part of the conference, James Cameron talked about his movie Avatar and making the video game as well. This guy talked about it for probably 30 minutes (lost track of time), and it really bored me. They showed off Red Steel 2, and of course, Assassin's Creed 2. That was basically it.

 

Nintendo Conference
I had such high hopes for Nintendo bouncing back from a disappointing presentation last year, and they didn't deliver this year. What they talked most about was the success of the Wii and the DS, and talking about "games for everyone." Seriously? That's all they showed? Pretty much. Most of it anyway. Then they announced Wii Fit Plus (ooh...), and a new "feature" on the Wii remote. I seriously didn't see the difference. The games that did interest me in this boring conference were the Golden Sun DS, Metroid: Other M, and the two new Mario games; Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Super Mario Bros. Wii. But that was all they presented. They didn't even show a new Zelda for the Wii until after the conference. Oh yeah, Kingdom Hearts 358/2=179 days, and Crystal Bearers. Gah...

 

Sony Conference
Last but not the least, Sony was impressive as well. They did have a slow start with talking about the PS2 (100 titles coming to this console apparently), and said that there will be 364 games coming out to the Playstation in general. What really annoyed me the most about this conference was the whole PSP/PSP Go thing. They talked about it alot, I mean a whole lot. New features on the PSP Go, with more space on the hard drive (16GB), and you can add more content to it. The device looks like a Sidekick to me. It doesn't support UMD anymore, and you can download the games from the PSN, and all that stuff.

 

After they frustrated us with that subject for about an hour, they showed off their best. They showed off Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, and looked impressive. I didn't play all of Uncharted 1, but it was a fun experience. Judging from what I saw from the stage demo, it was awesome. Sony also showed off a demo of Assassin's Creed 2, and there's definitely alot of more kinds of kills, missions, and actions that you can do compared to the first. I just hope they get rid of the repetitiveness from the first one. The double kill was awesome, looking forward to doing that a lot when this game comes out. And unlike Altair, Ezio's accent doesn't stand out from the Italians this time. Can't wait too see more AC2 in the future.

A trailer of Final Fantasy XIII was shown. Again, pretty good voice acting cast, and this game could be one of the best-looking games in 2010. Best RPG of 2010 perhaps? Watch out Mass Effect 2, you got some competition on the way. Gran Turismo for the PSP and Gran Turismo 5 was shown, and looks great. Oh yeah, Kojima still favors the Playstation. I'm not just saying it, it's kind of obvious. In the MS conference, he only showed a 30-second clip of showing Raiden's face and that's about it. Then Kojima-san showed off Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and showed off 7 minutes of the game. Yeah, he definitely favors the PS3 more than the 360. Then he announced Rising won't be exclusive to the 360 after all. Funny. And Final Fantasy XIV? Seriously? *sigh* No Versus XIII? No Agito? Kingdom Hearts 3? Weak!!!

 

Then Sony showed off its own motion control feature. Wasn't impressive from the start (you could tell the guy was nervous), but the way they presented it was amazing and funny. Basically, it can detect the PS Eye Toy, and motion controls were fast and accurate. Though it looks like they derived it from the Wii. It was only the prototype, and looks great. But I don't know...motion controls? I'd prefer a controller in my hand, thank you. Lastly, God of War III. Looks really brutal, bloody, and gory. But it's more of the same from the other God of War titles, though. But this game is one of the most anticipated games in my list.

 

So that was my E3 summary. EA was alright, Nintendo and Ubisoft were the biggest disappointments, and Microsoft and Sony really did impressive. Blew me away. Before, I couldn't decide who actually did better between them. I would have to go with...Sony. They had their lows, but the games they showed off were impressive, and the way the motion control thing was entertaining, more than Natal anyway. But Microsoft ain't too far off against Sony, so yeah.

 

What did you think about E3? What games did you like shown off the most? Who did you think won E3?