BitSnark

Like all the other highlights I shall be doing, this will be done in a shorthand-esque format style to ensure a timely delivery of the briefing highlights.

-Media Briefing Starts

Ok so the briefing starts with the Reginator! Good start 🙂

He welcomes everyone and we begin to get underway. He talks about the buzz of technology, and quotes HD, 3D, motion control and other jargon. He wants to adjust the perspective, saying that tech is just a tool – it is the end product that matters.

The best experiences come when tech and game design are perfectly matched.

He will show us how Ninty is raising the bar.

Wii is shown. NEW ZELDA!! We get an evolution of Link and then it finishes on a more adult link. We get in-game footage!! Not much, but it looks awesome! A mixture of a mature style and wind waker it seems. It’s called Legend Of Zelda: Skyward Sword!

Shigsy is there! With his trusty shield and sword! He goes on to talk about the history of the Legend Of Zelda series. He wanted a game that would allow him to use both sword and shield freely. He refers to Wiimotion Plus as allowing this freedom. Nunchuk is used to raised the sheild and the wiimote for other interactions.

In-game demo! He is showing the intearactions with the WiiMote and Nunchuk but he sucks, so Shigsy teleports(!) on stage to show folks how it is meant to be done. War Miyamoto!

Shigsy wants the interaction between the player and the controller to be natural and seemeless. You want to block with the shield, then you do the appropriate gesture. You want to cut someone down, again you make the right movement. Hmmm, 1:1 motion plus tech should make this feel as responsive as it looks on stage. Impressive.

Miyamoto owns the enemy (a big gaping plant) and we move on to the next part of the stage. If you hold the sword up to the sky you can charge it up (Thunder, Thunder, Thundercats Ho! *ahem*). So far so good, too early though to see if our fears regarding dungeon design have been realised at this stage.

The interface seems quite intutive and helpful too – Illustrating the correct movements required for the correct actions to be performed, so you’re not just sat there waggling for dear life.

The precision of the sword strikes doesn’t appear to be 1:1, but appear close enough that it is convincing (think slighty better than Red Steel 2). Shaking the nunchuk makes Link roll it seems. Ergh, the interpreter is a tool, he is talking over Miyamoto at times.

Inventory selection seems easy to do. Slingshot accuracy seems reliably accurate too – should make it easy to nail any golden spiders lurking about methinks.

Back to the sword swingin’ again. I do have to say, this all looks so effortless – it’s amazing what you can do with a game when you build it from the ground up with a new type of controller input.

Now onto Archery. Ooh, not good. They appear to be having interference and are telling people to turn their mobile devices off. Apple conference anyone?

The idea of pulling back on the c-stick and letting go to fire the arrow seems quite well realised, but the interference is fucking it up. Now we go onto boomerang bug throwing (yep the boomerang has bug wings). Interference fucks that up too. Any second now Miyamoto is gonna ingest a flame mushroom and burn all those pesky iPhones in the audience. Kill two birds with one stone 🙂

Now we see the whip being used to grab items from a distance. Interestingly, you can switch between items instantly, allowing some cool looking combos to be created. Shigsy assures us that the game plays smoothly and cleanly and that the hiccups were interference related. He hopes people give it a fair shake when they play it on the showfloor.

Release date; game is due in 2011. Not surprising.

In-game trailer is shown. Lots of different dungeons, environs, bosses, tools and enemies are shown. By all accounts this should be rocking the awesome-scale.

Good way to start the briefing.

Reggie is back.

He tells us the Zelda is just the start.

He begins to talk about new experiences (a familiar theme it seems).

Introducing new titles now. Refers Pro Evo, Madden, NBA, other franchises and then talks about NBA Jam. He talks about NBA Jam Wii being on the showfloor.

He is talking about a new Mario sports title for Wii and the unique places mario can go. The title is called Mario Sports Mix.

Trailer is shown with a mixture of hockey, basketball and volleyball. We see a number of different stages including lava pits and so on. Different power-ups are shown also. It is due in 2011. Not bad for multiplayer fun fests I reckon.

He talks about people being full of shit. Using last years quote that ‘Wii momentum is slowing down’ and that ‘Casual wii owners don’t buy games’ (oh, they do, it’s just shovelware bollocks). He counterpoints each quote with facts and figures.

He says that the popularity of Wii lies with ‘Bridge games’; titles which combine core and casual appeal. Holy shit! Mario Kart Wii has sold 22m copies!! Really?! I call bullshit.

New title is about to be shown. Wii Party.

It’s a party game that uses your Mii with lots of different mini games to play. It is due this holiday season. A nice little entertainer for the casuals I reckon. Not quite the ‘bridge’ title he says though.

Next title up is Just Dance 2 by Ubisoft. And FUCK that is some awful music they have playing over the promo. You can do dancing duets and a just ‘sweat’ mode to burn those pesky calories. It also supports up to eight players. No date given.

Yay! They haven’t forgotten about Golden Sun DS! It has a substitle – Dark Dawn. In-game footage is showing now. Looks very nice indeed – full 3d models, towns and dungeons. The stylus is used in different ways to affect puzzles, such as dragging statues across or creating runes on the ground. Whoa, we have massive detailed bosses that take up two screens. Looks very nice indeed. A proper AAA title for the DS, it’s due this holiday season – woo!.

Reggie refers ‘golden’ and then we go to a promo and it looks like Goldeneye Wii remake.

Trailer is shown. Daniel Craig is now Bond (Bye pierce!). Splitscreen and online multiplayer. You can be Oddjob in MP! Yay! Seems pretty good actually, and hell, the Wii needs a decent FPS. That gets LOTS of cheers and whooping. I’ll remain quietly optimistic.

He talks about Goldeneye being exclusive to Wii and arrives in store this holiday. Good stuff.

Talks about a different kind of hero – Mickey Mouse. Epic FUCKING Mickey! Let’s go! It’s exclusive to Wii. A whole new direction for Mickey. Warren Spector comes out along with Adam Creighton who worked on the game. Spector is taking over and will be showing us the game.

The game is set across eighty years of Disney animation legacy. He is showing us ‘Venture land’ which is a quest zone. The cut-scenes look… amazing. My eyes are lying to me, this can’t be on the Wii… yet it is. We see some platforming and a targeting recticle is being used to fire paint. Warren talks about drawing and erasing, through the use of paint and thinner. Using these you can destroy and restore parts of each world. Play style matters we are told.

Lots of references to multi-branching narrative and gameplay. Good stuff. Appears to be a platforming RPG. The paint can be used to create platforms for example, and the thinner used to break down walls. He now talks about action zones.

The sodding stream has baad feedback. They need to sort this shit out.

Still fucked up, but we see a steamboat willy inspired world, many other worlds will be present and accounted for too. He says it’s fun to do the impossible and combine that with worthwhile inspiration. He says it is playable on the show floor.

He talks about a new kirby game!

Looks like a 2d platformer with charming sketch/crayon style visuals. Including a lovely creasing effect which happens when Kirby pulls something together. Kirby just made a kirby tank and is destroying enemies! Kirby’s Epic Yarn is the name of the game and it is coming to Wii!

He is now talking about Dragon Quest IX. Looks like he’ll be pimping the Western release.

Which he is. There are new maps for the Western release.

It’s due in July.

Metroid Other M is up now. Straight into in-game goodness. Looks like a cross between 2D platforming and Metroid Prime style 3D shooting. Looks good, if not overly surprising.

Reggie talks about exploration and isolation being the core of the game, with Other M having a more enomtional hook than previous titles. It is due on Aug 31st.

Retro Studios project… Hmmm Donkey Kong??

OMG.. It IS Donkey Kong!! It’s a 2D platformer, it’s like Donkey Kong Country! WIN! Lovely, lovely visuals (Who’d have thought the Wii would still have some juice). The DK music plays as DK and Diddy tear through a mine cart level, jungles and other zones as they scoop up bananas. Looks brilliant. In fact! It’s called Donkey Kong Country Retruns! It’s out this Holiday!

He talks about going into the future of gaming. Talks about Mario 64 moving us into 3D platformer and the Wiimote getting us up off our asses. Looks like this could be 3DS.

Yep here we go.

Let’s see then. Nope, he is still saying that 3D sucks for a lot of things because of the glasses. He also says how expensive 3DTV at home will be. I can see where he is going with this.

He talks about ample game content being available Day 1. Here we go with a video.

Please be good.

Video showed fuck all.

Stop the cockteasing asshole! Here we go, a zoom in on the unit. Looks like a DSi from the outside (case closed). Iwata comes out and announces 3DS. It DOES look like DSi but with the upper screen (the 3D one) being bigger (as expected). Looks like it has an analogue stick. He talks about making 3D gaming a reality.

Incoming demonstration.

There is a slider which toggles the 3D function. Still a touch screen based console (duh) and is recognised as the official successor to the NDS (no more fucking remodels!).

He is talking about the ‘nature’ of the graphics. He said that improvements have been made to the graphics capability. He is talking about control. The ‘slide pad’, is what the analogue stick is. The machine also has a gyrosensor too (think iPhone4). It is fully backwards compatible with DSi. It has a camera with two leneses. You can take photos and view them in 3D. Cool shit.

The machine can do 3D movies too?!? Awesome! Avatar 3D! In mini-3D 🙂

Tangled, Legend of the Guardian and How to Train a dragon are all being shown on the showfloor later to leverage this feature.

Gamers care about games he says. Fucking right. Take note MS.

He is now talking about ‘Project Sora’. The game is specifically designed for 3DS. Looks like it will be based on an existing character. KID ICARUS! HOLY SHIT!!!

Kid Icarus: Uprising. Graphically it looks superb. Far beyond what the DS can do. Easily PSP level. Massive landscapes, high res models, advanced graphical effects; it all looks superb. Kid Icarus itself looks like a God Of War esque title (minus the maturity obviously). Fuck. That is a bombshell.

He encourages people to see it for themselves.

He talks about 3DS periodically searching for WiFi access when in ‘sleep’ mode to communicate with other 3DS’. The 3DS supports automatic wireless communication regardless of what is being played on the other 3DS. Multi-tasking. Shit, that must be a monstrous processor at the heart of that mother fucker.

He talks about free access to online features. He talks about it being Ninty’s job to build an install base on good software.

He talks about there being a lot of thrid party support. He says that first party stuff is coming too, 3D Nintendogs (Well, that’s that then). Lots of third party support for it seems.

Level 5 and Square Enix are supporting it along with EA, Activision, Capcom, Konami, Ubisoft.

New Metal Gear is coming. New Resident evil is coming. New Kingdom hearts is coming.

That right there, is how you debut new hardware.

3DS presentation is in the bag.

We get a lot of devs giving their opinions. Most are either like ‘brilliant’ and a few were like ‘What the fuck’ to start with. Overwhelmingly positive as you might expect.

One developer touched on an interesting fact: The 3DS has all three types of control – DPAD, Analogue stick and Touch/Motion Control. Should make for some inspired stuff.

We now go back to Sir. Reggie.

He says that they promised something for everyone. He basically says that they delivered (can’t really argue with that).

He talks about additional news and content being unveiled later today.

We then get quite a funny advert for the 3DS in which Reggie gets set on fire by Bowser. Youtube it. Seriously.

He is giving everyone present at E3 – It’s the 3DS babes, who have a 3DS attached to them.

Their job will be to show folks what the 3D effect is like as they work their way through the crowd. Each person present there will get to see it. He is also making the new Zelda title playable for folks there.

The show concludes as we get roaming footage of lucky journo bastards getting to play all this lovely new stuff. Ooh just realised – No price or release details were given!

That is how you put on a show.

No fucking Cammie Dunaway either! WIN!

Very good showing indeed.