After a week of facing down the relentless onslaught of the gaming industry’s marketing jackhammer, our Xbox department has emerged alive, yet forever changed by the ordeal. What have we learned from this experience? What wisdom can we impart? Did Microsoft “Win” E3? Our team of Charles Battersby, Joe Button, Alex Martinet and Curtis Bloomfield discuss.
OK, I admit it. I am one of those people who waited in line at launch for an I-Pad 2, me and my buddy took shifts waiting outside HMV for the 3DS, and heck, I even bought a Playstation Move on the first day (only to sell it a week later.) But for some reason, I didn’t bother with Kinnect. Every now and again I give it a second thought, but nothing has enticed me yet, and after the slightly misleading stage demo at E3 this year, I feel my decision has been vindicated.
Bethesda’s award-wining RPG, Oblivion didn’t miss out on much. It had an epic story, a vast world to explore and dragons… No… Wait. It didn’t have dragons. But the sequel, Skyrim does, and they are looking an intriguing prospect to say the least. Many have tried and failed over the years to get these creatures right in videogames, but it seems that Bethesda has finally nailed it. They are incorporated into Skyrim with purpose, extreme technicality and grace.
What has always
been a dry period for big triple A releases, the summer has become the best
chance for smaller games to get some real attention. There have been some truly
amazing games released on the Xbox Live arcade and it has quickly become one of
the best features of Xbox Live. This E3 has seen a lot of titles announced to
kick off their Summer of Arcade and they all look really impressive.
Halo: Combat
Evolved anniversary, a new Halo trilogy and Gears of War 3 – they are the heavy
hitters this E3 for the Xbox 360. But their showcasing really makes something
hit home with regards to Microsoft’s exclusives. That being the barrel is
drying out fast! I love both Halo and Gears of War, but they’re not going to be
enough to carry another console. Mass Effect and BioShock were huge losses for
the Xbox 360, and the overwhelmingly negative reaction to the Kinect-based
Fable is not good news for them either.
As I said before, I love me some Ninja Gaiden. So I was really looking forward to seeing some real gameplay at this year’s E3. My wish came true and that’s exactly what I got. While not perfect, I was certainly pleasantly surprised by what I saw for the most part. I’m just going to break this down simply, the good and the bad from an avid Ninja Gaiden player.
E3 is here and we’re in for a bombardment of video game related news. Some of these unveils are actually pretty predictable; there’ll always be a new Call of Duty, every blockbuster film is getting a video game adaptation, and new hardware is endlessly hinted about for months in advance. So here are some of our predictions about what’s in store at this year’s E3:
There have been a significant amount of games
announced for the 2011 season for Xbox Live Arcade. Naturally there will be
several games that flop but here are some titles that gamers can look forward to.
Well Sony has their new killer app coming out in a few days. Infamous 2 will give Playstation 3 owners a dose of super-powered sandbox action that will only be available on their console. Which is a shame, because the game and its hero would have worked so much better on the Xbox 360.
Be glad this games exists. A few years ago the Dungeon Siege franchise was going strong, then “filmmaker” Uwe Boll adapted it into a horrendous movie that nearly killed the franchise. It took a new publisher and a new developer to salvage it, so we should all be grateful anything Dungeon Siege at all.
