As you saw is the previous post (it’s MGS, so it gets a separate post. OK?) the conference was really great. Here are my impressions.
The conference had a bad start, I don’t care about The Beatles really. So, these were 15 minutes wasted from my life… Then came Tony Hawk, another waste… I am sure that other people like these things, I just don’t like them.
I wasn’t able to watch the Modern Warfare 2 gameplay that came next as my streaming video on IGN was interrupted and by the time I switched to Gamespot, it was over. I have been trying to see it again, but I failed. IGN is not working and the footage is so far not on any other site. So, I can’t comment. UPDATE: Here it is!
Cliffy B is called to the stage, I thought “Oh, here goes Gears of War 3” but no, he is announcing a Live Arcade game, fine by me. If only the game was that good (it wasn’t) and it was buggy! Near the end of the demo, the player was floating on the air where the destroyed boss have been. This is really embarrassing!
What’s this? Zombies? I thought I was watching a trailer for the upcoming Dead Rising 2. The sound effects were just wrong, they were from Left 4 Dead. I thought that this was cheap from Capcom. But wait a second, it’s Left 4 Dead 2!!! For a November 17th release. I have a mixed reaction here. This is definitely a must buy. And I think I will be buying it, when it’s released. But this got me worried over the future support for Left 4 Dead, the original one. If you look at Team Fortress 2, you know what to expect from Valve. But when you release a game every year, what will happen to the old game, will we see new levels (we haven’t seen any till now, and the SDK is still in beta, so no user-generated levels till now too. So, comes November 17th, will the original Left 4 Dead be dead? The game did offer very low value for money when it comes to levels and campaigns, but it offered incredible value for the fun factor of playing the same levels over and over again and again and each time you will have fun. I really want to see more from the original before I see a sequel. But if the mighty Valve chooses to grant us a sequel, let’s hope it’s for a reduced price for the current owners of L4D. And the trailer looked like it was in CGI, or they are using a new engine other than the Source Engine. The concept of chainsaws is great, but the one who is using it will simply be slow, how they are going to balance this for the remaining 3 team members to keep things moving fast? We will have to wait and see. Valve have the talent. I just wish they would announce Half-Life 2: Episode 3 and Portal 2 too. I am dying for this.
I hate the fact that Splinter Cell: Conviction is now a X360 exclusive. I still have to play Chaos Theory and Double Agent, the previous two games in the series, though. But I didn’t like the departure from the gameplay style of this new game. This was more Jason Bourne than the Sam Fisher that I liked from the first two games in the series. But I think, ultimately, UBISOFT is going to release this on the PC.
Next up, was Halo. I haven’t played Halo 3, so I don’t know how the fight ends, so I have morbid fear of having the game spoiled for me. But luckily there was no such thing. The gameplay footage of Halo 3: ODST was great. But I thought that it would be a team game in the manner of Star Wars: Republic Commando. Maybe it’s because the footage was early near the start of the game, so you haven’t met the members of your team yet. But it looks really promising, and after all, it has Halo on it, so it will sell like crazy, but Bungie makes great games.
The reveal of Halo: Reach confirms the rumors and here we have a game about the early days of Master Chief during the Fall of Reach which was told not in the previous games but rather in the novelization of the Halo universe in the novel, The Fall of Reach, which is considered the first of the 4 Halo novels. There were no further details other than a 2010 release date. A beta key will be included with copies of ODST. Good.
I don’t like racing games that much, so Froza 3 didn’t catch my attention.
Now, Alan Wake, that’s more like it. I am glad that the game is nearing release (Spring 2010) and it does look good. It has the same Silent Hill atmosphere but with a Max Payne style. But what was Alan’s flashlight? It’s beam was too powerful and highly focused!
The surprising Kojima announcement is discussed in the previous post, so I am not going to repeat the same stuff here.
As for the Xbox Live, Last.fm, Netflix, Facebook announcements, I simply couldn’t give a rat’s ass. Live is not available in my country, and until MS has the decency to respect my country, I am not interested in the service, besides, all this requires special internet broadband speeds that are simply science fiction where I live. As for Facebook, I am the site’s public enemy #1.
Now, let’s talk about the Natal Project. Natal? What’s wrong with Natalie? No, seriously… I love controllers. They provide accurate and responsive controls to all games, regardless of the genre, and I am not going to mention the magnificent keyboard and mouse combo. This new project is simply a camera that reads your body motion and translates it into commands for the X360 to integrate into the software. There is also voice recognition software that identifies the person and possibly, his/her emotions. The press conference showed some applications in both gaming and social Xbox Live activities. I am not going to talk about the Live activities, as simply I won’t use it and I won’t have a video chat with my friend to help me choose what dress to wear! LOL!
The showed games were all concepts with nothing that is actually in production. Both Stephen Spielberg and Peter Moylenaux (of Lionhead) made an appearance and discussed the future capabilities of the device. Moylenaux even made a concept project about a virtual boy called Milo that the player can interact with, emotionally.
Now, I may seem like a backward, stone age person, but I don’t like this new direction. About the Milo thing, first, it will be a world of hell to the developer to record all the pre-recorded audio for the virtual character, because voice generation software can’t simply simulate human emotions. Now add the needed animations and facial expressions and you will understand what I mean. Besides, didn’t you think that Milo was so close to HAL? I mean, it’s scary. And if I want something to talk to, I will get a real person, or I will simply talk to my cat, which is easier, and the little furball understands it all!
Don’t get me wrong. The technology is wonderful, and it has an edge over the Wii, namely the graphical power of the X360, and also over similar PS3 stuff like the Singstar camera. But what this technology needs is careful implementation into games. When the Wii was announced, it was praised as a game changer for the console market and as a revolution (the old name for the Wii was the Nintendo Revolution, back in 2005) in the video game industry. Now after almost 3 years of being in the market, the number of really imaginative games that took advantage of the technology are less than 10. The rest are mediocre at best.
So, if you want to sell me this technology, show me its integration into games, good games, and I am sold. But until then, it’s a nice gimmick.
Finally, I would like to illustrate my stance about controllers to my dear friend Falcon. I think that controllers are here to stay. They are wonderful at what they do, and they work for everything. The new motion sensing techniques failed for the Wii and failed for the PS3 (miserably). Motion sensing can work for some games, but not all. Imagine playing a RTS with this, it’s useless. A fighting game like Street Fighter or Tekken, how the hell are you going to do the insane combos? Finally, it’s potentially disturbing. I know that you will accuse me of nice things regarding testosterone deficiency… But I won’t be comfortable playing a game like God of War or Manhunt with motion sensing. It’s very, very disturbing. Imagine doing the motion necessary to snap someone’s neck… That’s not why I am playing games. I don’t want this. Also, the transition of controlling in a game like Battlefield or GTA where there are on foot sections and others with vehicles. How can you motion control this? Or are you going to sacrifice vehicles and mounted turrets for mimicking firing an AK in a game. And imagine the disadvantage this is going to introduce in multiplayer games. If you are not fit or if you are sleepy and tired, then you are pwned! But I have to admit, playing a Star Wars game or a samurai game with this technology will be interesting.
I also would like to stress on something, everyone is so irritated that gaming needs a wider audience. I don’t agree. Gaming is a hobby that has its fans, not all people are gamers or capable of being gamers, so don’t punish the real gamers by forcing them to play using pathetically simple controls to please the non-gaming base. This is what Nintendo did with the Wii, they profited from the sales, but the real hardcore gamers got very, very few good games. The rest of the garbage are made for lonely mothers and grandmothers. I am not an elitist, but if the controller is the barrier that prevents these mindless masses from destroying my hobby, then I will protect the controller with everything I have got. Gaming is not a casual hobby, it’s something that you either have it or not. No body buys a digital SLR camera for $$$ and then complains that there are way too many controls on it and they need to be simplified like a point and shoot camera. Why didn’t he/she buy a simple camera from the start and saved him/herself the trouble, instead of forcing the industry to change itself to accommodate his/her needs, regardless of the real photographers who benefit from the added complexity?
Just think about it.
MS is not stupid, I just hope they do it right and not to chase a quick buck.
Finally… (no, really) we didn’t get Halo 3 for the PC, or Gears of War 2. This is just sad.
