BitSnark

There are some nice little surprises there too:

SuperStreetFighter IV
Paper Mario
Starfox 64 3D
PilotWings Resort
New Professor Layton
Dead Or Alive 3D

To name just a few.

Take a look at the link below for the full list:

http://uk.ds.ign.com/articles/109/1097918p1.html

After Nintendo’s Megaton filled conference, eager showgoers were able to get a taste of 3DS games on the showfloor.

As a result, Kojima’s 3DS touted Metal Gear turned out to be a fully fledged (full PS2 visuals) 3D reimagining of Metal Gear Solid 3.

Holy shit!

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.

This was in all likelihood the shining star of Ubisoft’s conference.

A mission was shown from the single-player campaign of Ghost Recon: Future Soldier and good lord, does it look fucking awesome.

Dressed in a deliberately muted palette of seaside greys, our demo starts off with a tactical insertion on a beach with the eventual aim of taking a shoreline installation. The first thing that you notice, after a bad guy gets popped in the back of the head from the player sporting a cool invisibility suit, is the chatter. Holy shit, there is a lot of chatter, and it’s all low-spoken badass tactical jargon chatter too like ‘Tango setup on your movement’ and so on.

It really immerses you in the stealth and espionage aspect of Future Solider, brilliantly selling you the need for quietness and flair over storming through and blasting everything in sight.

The radio chatter also has a purpose too. It can be used for joint-commands. For example, in Rainbow Six: Vegas style, you can identify targets of opportunity to be taken down by your comrades and wait for the countdown – ‘3,2,1, fire’, to complete a smooth combined action which kills four or five enemies simulatenously.

I have to mention that invisibility suit again. It’s awesome. Completely freaking insanely good to look at too, with ripples coursing through the suit when you interact with solid objects in invisibility mode. It really makes you feel like an invisible, tactical killer.

At the end of the demo, everything goes to hell and the game effortlessly breaks from being a stealthy, cerebral experience to the frenetic pace of an accomplished cover based third person shooter.

This game just planted a big ‘!’ on my radar for games to look for this year.

It should also be on your radar too. Unless you have no eyes.

Look at the demonstration below:

One nice little surprise which popped up from Ubisoft’s E3 media briefing was Project DUST.

A strange, yet captivatingly beautiful title, it appears to revolve around primitive tribes utilising the power of the earth to varying effect. But to what end? Nobody knows.

More than anything, it reminds me of what an updated version of Peter Molyneux’s Populous title would look like if it was made nowadays. Apart from that, there is very little else which is known about this visually staggering and conceptually mysterious downloadable title.

I’ll be very eager to see more of this one.

Take a look at the trailer below and see if you can understand:

Have you ever wondered what Rez creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi has been up to lately? Well, now we know. Child of Eden is the name of his latest psychedelic work and in it players must use either Kinect or Move motion controls depending on their system of choice, to move and shoot different objects and shapes in line with the rhythm of the music.

Dependably surreal as you might be expect, but still likely pretty damn playable and enjoyable.

Take a peek at the trailer below for your fix of alternative J-music infused insanity.

Go nuts:

Due this Holiday season on Wii, PC, 360 & PS3, Ubisoft has unveiled the next entry in the Driver series of games; Driver: San-Francisco.

Story-wise the game takes place some twelve months after the events seen in Driv3r (are we still admitting that piece of shit exists?), with the Detective Tanner taking on arch-enemy Jericho.

Gameplay-wise it’s business as usual really, you chase down perps using any means available to you and you can still get out of your car and interact as you could do in the previous two titles in the series. Even though the game is supposedly new, it already looks tired, boasting very little you can’t do as a side mission in the much more grandiose GTA IV.

The one (somewhat implausible) ace it does have up it’s sleeve is the ‘Shift’ mechanic, which basically allows you to ‘jump’ from one car to the next, kinda like motor possession or something. If that sounds retarded, just wait until you hear the narrative justification for it.

After having a crash which put him into a coma he didn’t realise(!), Tanner apparently gains a new kind of power which allows him to shift (wink) his spirit from one car to the next. So for example, if you find yourself spinning out uncontrollably after a crash, you can use shift to switch to an overhead view and pick the nearest car for you to shift into.

In desperately trying to make itself stand out somehow, anyhow, from the GTA IV crowd, it seems all that has been achieved, at least on the evidence of Ubisoft’s presentation is that the fundamentals have once again been so cruelly undercooked and neglected.

There are under six months until the game gets it’s release, I don’t see much changing between now and then.

For you curious folk, there is a link below to the Driver: SF demonstration that Ubisoft put on last night:

With the exception of the Michael Jackson dancing game (i’m going to pretend that didn’t happen from this point on), Ubisoft had a good start keeping asses firmly in seats with a demonstration of their previously unknown 2D rayman title; Rayman Origins.

Debuting on XBLA and PSN, this game looked every bit the arty, humourous and characterful 2D platform title that makes you happy to realise that occasionally, just occasionally, developers can tell that third dimension to fuck right off at no detriment to the game.

The art style is simply superb. Boasting a look that is equal parts Henry Sellick and Nickoloden cartoon, Rayman Origins looks simply sublime with its crazy forests, thirty-eyed monsters and dark, silhouetted stages which are all brought to lush, virbrant life.

Gameplay-wise, our hero appears to have retained much of his original head-twirling and foe smacking arsenal. This time however, additional comic relief and co-op abilities come in the form of his strange new blue friend (apologies, I wouldn’t have a clue where to start classifying him) who can help Rayman by hitting an enemy or being used as a trampoline to reach previously inaccessible ledges.

No date has been given for this most pleasant surprise, but we can only hope it is soon.

Real soon.

Oh yeah, you’ll be wanting a trailer to go with that won’t you?

Perhaps the showstealer in EA’s whole briefing, few can deny that People Can Fly’s/Epic Games’ Bulletstorm is a true shot in the arm for what has been a stagnating FPS genre.

So, just how do you go about making FPS’s fresh again?

The on-screen demonstration looked like a wet dream of violence, style and colourful language. Starting off, the player would swing down to a platform, kick a steel door across a room, squashing the enemy that was stood behind it against the far wall and then proceed to obliterate everybody else in the room with electro-whips and by kicking them into electrical generators.

Each time an action is made by the player that wounds, maims or outright kills one of the bad guys they get points for it as indicated on the HUD. Kill more people in as many new and exciting ways as possible and watch those points rack up.

With a constant, frenetic pace of relentless violence, coupled with an innovative and addictive points system and a firmly tongue-in-cheek storyline, Bulletstorm is the perfect alternative to folks who are bored and saturated with stuff old modern day *realistic* shooters. I was giggling like a little (contented) psycho all the way through the whole retina-searing presentation. I don’t ever remember any game that has made me do that.

THAT is how you make FPS’s fresh again.

Bulletstorm is due to tear its way into our lives on February 25th 2011 on PS3, PC and 360 systems.

Take a look at the batshit insane demonstration below:

An important part of the EA E3 media briefing was their forthcoming mixed martial arts title; EA MMA. Peter Moore said he was very proud of the game that they had created, touting the title’s accessibility, strategy and timing over the complex button combination of ‘other’ titles (Well, there is only one other really).

The best news to come out of all of that EA MMA love was that the release date for the game has been confirmed as October 19th for 360 and PS3 consoles.

Russian Sambo submission machine Fedor Emelianenko and American Greco-Roman wrestling legend Randy Couture were also confirmed as the cover guys for the title.

It looks accomplished enough, but dammit, where is my demo EA?