E3 2011 Created 12 years ago2011-06-05 15:07:29 UTC by Penguinboy

Oh yes. It's that time of the year again!We've seen a lot of pre-conference trailers this year, including interesting titles such as: Darksiders II, Prototype 2, Prey 2, Uncharted 3, Batman: Arkham City, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Gears of War 3, Serious Sam 3, and many more!

...But everyone knows that the real meat and potatoes of the show will not be until the big 3 have their keynotes. In almost exactly 24 hours from the time of this post, Microsoft will step up on stage to make fools of themselves playing so-called "hardcore" Kinect games in front of the entire hardcore gaming community.

Several hours later, we will see Sony step up to show off their new portable console, codenamed 'NGP'. Everyone is expecting that a number of launch games to be announced, and possibly even a launch date and retail cost announcement. All while dodging the PSN hack in its entirety.

Finally, around this time in two more days, Nintendo will unveil their successor to the Wii, codenamed 'Project Cafe'. Everyone is waiting to see what the gimmick will be. The rumours on this one are flying around the Internet like a truck full of viral videos (I even noticed one that claimed that Half-Life 2: Episode 3 will be a launch title on it, but let's not go there...)

So! Let's discuss E3 in it's entirety. What are you hoping to see, and what are you expecting to see? Which keynote speech will be the best? How many times will somebody say "innovation"? Speculation is accepted! The person who gets the wildest speculation correct will win a prize of unimaginable value!

(PS: Before you start, Valve has announced they have nothing to present at E3, and they are not even attending E3 this year. Don't expect anything interesting from them.)

(PSS: I've posted a list of my own predictions on my blog. To avoid doubling up of content, go there if you want to know what I think will go down.)

Well I just got back from a 3 day event with Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. You got a lot of stuff correct there!

The coolest thing I saw, and to spring board off your blog, is how the Kinect will work with FPS.

They are making it where you use a combonation of both the controller while using Kinect. Say for example, you needed to hide around a corner, you would just move like that. The coolest thing though, is being able to grab a nade from your side and throw it.

Half life 2 Episode 3. Nuff said.

That was a really good read, I didn't know you had a blog.

My totally outlandish prediction is that Sega are going to announce re-entry into the hardware development side of things.

I would like to see an announced Simcity 5000 (or 5).

Also I'd love to see more footage from the new Tomb Raider game that is in production and will be released late 2012. And 2 good simulators: a car racing game(I'd expect GRID 2 or something) and a flight simulator.

@Don Punch: Cool, what event was that? I cant imagine them giving away any of their secrets right before the main E3 event. As for Kinect FPS, it might be cool to physically throw a grenade or lean out a corner for maybe...ten minutes, but that sounds really inefficient. Not only that, who wants to play an FPS with an Xbox controller while standing up? I really don't see the appeal of that. I guess we'll see tomorrow, though.

@Huntey: Thanks for the ego stroking - Feel free to check on the blog every now and then (or use the RSS) if you feel like reading some of my brain dumps. I don't really advertise that I have it all that much, but I try to keep the posts ticking across when I find the time to do a write-up. As for Sega hardware....let's see a GameGear 2.0! I don't think they'd do very well in the home console market, but maybe portables?

@Striker: You may be pleased (or more likely, mortified) to hear that they recently announced a comeback of Sim City.

...As a Facebook game.

Keep 'em coming! I'll try to provide some commentary on the conferences after I watch each one live.

E3

Where and when!?

I live near Vancouver now So I'll have to check the dates, and see how close by they come, hopefully to victoria.. (3hrs away)

Tomorrow, in Los Angeles. They don't travel around

E3 today!

It's tomorrow.

I don't give a ...Well actually I do. But teleportation hasn't been invented yet. Will be reading the news online.

Well, the Microsoft keynote just ended, and it was REALLY awful. Probably equally as bad as last year.

---

Highlights:

Gameplay demo of Modern Warfare 3. Looks even tackier than MW2. Very explosion-y.

Demo of the new Tomb Raider game. Just a cinematic cutscene with some quick time events, but it looks like it could be decent.

Kinect integration for EVERYTHING. Mass Effect 3, EA Sports, Ghost Recon, UFC, Bing search, Fable, Star Wars, etc etc etc.

Ice T is a douche. So is Molyneux.

Halo gets a HD re-release. Halo 4 gets announced (the beginning of a new trilogy, so expect Halo 5, 6, and a boat load of spin-offs).

Minecraft gets an exclusive 360 release.

Way too many kids on stage demonstrating Disneyland and Sesame Street Kinect games. It was painful.

Kinect Star Wars looks appropriately terrible.

Some sort of Kinect mini-game library is made available.

Kinect dancing games still look awful.

---

Predictions:

"Hardcore" games for the Kinect will be demonstrated. The graphics, gameplay, and controls will all look terrible.
Partially correct - To be fair, the graphics on most of them looked pretty good. The gameplay and controls were awful, though.

Somebody will make an idiot out of themselves on stage while demonstrating a Kinect.
Extremely correct - You should have seen the ANNOYING KIDS or the Ubisoft guy trying to play an FPS with Kinect. The worst one was the guys playing Kinect football. Definitely the worst part of the show.

A Halo game will be announced. Possibly two.
Double correct - They didn't just announce one. They announced FOUR. (HD re-release, and a new Halo trilogy)

Two people that nobody cares about will talk for WAY TOO LONG about something that nobody cares about. (Think the ESPN crap from last year)
Partially correct - We had the Disney kids, the UFC guy, the EA sports guy, the voice controlled menus, and much more. Nobody cared about any of them, but they talked for too long, just not WAY too long.

Cliffy B will, yet again, wield a Lancer gun (from Gears of War) on stage.
Partially correct - The Cliffster was on stage, but no plastic gun. He did wield Ice T (the rappper) instead, so I think that counts.

Microsoft will show off a bunch of statistics and numbers to show why they have been the most successful game company this year.
Incorrect - Microsoft actually didn't do this. They said that this was their biggest year yet, but didn't actually do the boring stats.

Minecraft gets an exclusive 360 release.

And so rains the absolute terror of the xbox live idiots, to a level that hadn't quite been before.

Dead Island looks great in some aspects, and terrible in others. The core combat system looks really lacklustre and clunky.

The last video of it that I saw showed that it was Far Cry 2 with zombies. I have zero interest in it now.

Ok, we just finished the EA keynote. Nothing very interesting. Some new Mass Effect 3 footage, new Need for Speed, some info on the bound-to-fail Star Wars MMO, some sort of SSX game.

Then we had AGES on the sports games that NOBODY cares about. Some padded-up beefcake American football player douchebags were on stage, everyone was hoping that they'd leave soon. They didn't.

Then we had something even worse. The Sims. On Facebook. The audience clapped for it too, what the fuck is wrong with them?

Then some sort of generic western fantasy RPG called 'Kingdom of Amular', and a shooter (maybe? only saw a pre-rendered cinematic) called 'Overstrike' - both looked unimpressively average.

We saw a load of Battlefield 3 single-player footage. The guy playing the demo was on a PC. Thank god they're sticking to their guns about the PC being the primary platform for the game. Great work.

And that was it. Next up, we have Ubisoft starting in little under an hour. Let's hope that it's not as awful as last year. We've had enough Kinect dancing to last several lifetimes.

Ubisoft just ended, and I'm pretty sure it's the worst keynote I've ever seen. The presenter was a massive douchebag, and kept cracking awful jokes that got ZERO laughs. it was truly terrible.

Highlights? Not much. We saw Far Cry 3, which is set on a jungle island. Some footage of the new Assassin's Creed game, some Trackmania, and that's about it. Sony is in exactly one hour, they'd have to do pretty bad to beat the Ubisoft keynote to last place.

Yeah, I'm double posting. Suck it.

You're setting a very example of the forum.

Halo 4? Modern Warfare 3? I just lost all faith in humanity.

Oh god I miss the original Ghost Recon so much. What they have done to the franchise is terrible. Seriously how did they go from a PC exclusive tactical combat simulator to a generic third person shooter designed for Kinect?
I'd totally buy a remake of the first game with better graphics and AI.

MW3 seemed fine to me, but I guess the biggest reason I want it is because I want to finish the story. And Battlefield 3 continues to impress me, although I've never liked when they mix in player controlled tank battles into single player FPS shooters. It always turns out bad. This time it looked okay. I'll allow it. What impresses me is the amazing graphics, and it looks fun.

I for one am looking forward to MW3.

I for one am looking forward to MW3.

I am too. MW2 was entertaining both online and single player. Sure MW1 was better but it was still good fun.

Also, you blocked my edit. I realised that Ghost Recon 1 wasn't PC exclusive however at least it wasn't a shitty console port, it was made for the PC.

The Sims Social. Mixing The Sims with Social Networking...

Hmmm, like mixing vomit with shit?

I am still waiting for Modern Warfare 2 to drop down to £5 because there is no way I am paying the same price for a half-assed 4 hour campaign as I would pay for, say, Skyrim which promises 300 hours of gameplay.

Enough said.

MW3 seemed fine to me, but I guess the biggest reason I want it is because I want to finish the story.

There was a story in between all the generic set pieces, scripted sequences and unbelievably unimaginative gameplay of MW2?

Looks like your "PS3 hack will go unmentioned" prediction was wrong PB. They never referred to it as a hack though. They called it the 'outage'.

Wtf? Does no one else want to take Battlefield 3, melt it into a spoon, and inject it directly into their veins? No Battlefield 2 players here? As for MW3, no dedicated servers AGAIN.... And a monthly premium service... I think I'll just be looking forward to whatever Respawn releases instead.

Also some leaked Nintendo news got out. Halo 1 remake on the new console as well as an (non-MMO) online Pokemon RPG. Delicious, except I'm probably not going to buy the new console.

I'm really looking forward to BF3. It's going to kick ass.

I've never played any Halo but I may, with the new remake, try it out.

Nothing about Duke Nukem?

Uh, I'd think that the Halo 1 remake is being released on the 360, considering Microsoft announced it just a few hours ago. It would be odd indeed to see Halo on a Nintendo console.

Anyway, just finished Sony's conference, and it was the best one yet. Which isn't all that impressive when you remember that everything else so far has been complete shit.

We opened to Jack Tretton from Sony openly discussing the PSN hack, and he even apologised!

Next we move onto a sexy gameplay trailer of Uncharted 3. Game of the year, right there! Or it would be if they didn't start judging game of the year awards in October or something.

Next an Insomniac guy demonstrates a grey FPS known as Resistance 3. It looks grey, and it looks generic.

After that Jack reveals a Playstation branded 24" 3DTV and glasses set for $500.

We then move on to the ...Move. We see some basketball, and a terrible-looking medieval FPS game using the move.

Then it's an Infamous 2 trailer (out tomorrow), followed by an announcement that LittleBigPlanet 2 will be patched to support the Move. Then it's a pre-rendered trailer for a futuristic space western known as 'Starhawk', and another one for a new Sly Cooper game.

The makers of Eve Online are making an FPS for the PS3 that integrates with Eve Online on the PC. No idea how they're going to do that. The FPS gameplay demonstration is pretty much the greyest grey shooter I've ever seen. It's seriously really, really grey.

We see a quick demo of Bioshock Infinite, which will have Move support. So will Saint's Row 3.

Finally they start talking about the NGP, which is officially named the 'Vita', which rhymes with 'Cheetah'. The 3G version of the console will be locked into AT&T, which I hear is rubbish.

Finally we see some games: Uncharted, a Diablo clone, ModNation Racers, Street Fighter vs. Tekken, Wipeout, and a few others.

Retail price for the Vita, which releases this year, is $250. The 3G version will be $300.

---

Predictions:

Nothing will be said about the PSN hack.
WRONG! - Jack Tretton opened the keynote by talking about the PSN downtime.

Sony will brag about how the PSN is such a great and robust service (while still ignoring anything about the hack).
Partially correct - They bragged about the PSN, but they did acknowledge the hack.

Uncharted 3 will get a sexy new trailer.
Yes, yes, and double yes - A new trailer AND a bunch of gameplay!

Resistance and/or Killzone title(s) will be announced. No gameplay will be shown, just a very cool looking cinematic cutscene.
Wrong - Nothing. Got a bunch of Resistance 3 gameplay, but we already knew about that one, and it was gameplay.

The new Sony tablets plus the phone will be talked about for an extremely long time. Nobody will care about them.
Wrong - Nothing at all was said about anything that wasn't PS3 or NGP.

More games for the NGP are announced, but none will look as cool as Uncharted.
Correct - Dead on with this one.

No price tag or concrete release date will be given for the NGP.
Incorrect - Nope, got a price and a release "window" for the end of this year.

The menu screen of the NGP software will look less terrible.
Incorrect - Nope, it still looks like shit.

Somebody makes a "RIIIIIIDDDDGE RACER" joke.
Correct! - Almost missed it, but the Ridge Racer joke made it into the very end of they keynote. Hooray!

Sony will show off a bunch of statistics and numbers to show why they have been the most successful game company this year.
Nope - Pretty light on stats all around this year. Good for you, Sony.

Sony apologises for withholding information during the PSN hack incident.
Partially correct! - They apologised for "any inconvenience", which is part of the way there.

---

Nintendo is in about 14 hours. I'm going to try and get some sleep in the meantime.

Sony will show off a bunch of statistics and numbers to show why they have been the most successful game company this year.
Nope - Pretty light on stats all around this year. Good for you, Sony.

Thats not completly correct, somewhere in the middle of his keynote, he gave a shout out to retailers, bragging how last week they were at a 27% comp to last year.

some sort of SSX game

Am I the only here interested in this? I've been loving the SSX franchise up until Blur and On Tour (so 1, Tricky and 3) and the latest one looks like it's going to be something rather awesome.

I've always enjoyed the SSX games, but I don't really want to buy a PS3 for it.

I feel really excited for Skyrim. I didn't really like the other Morrowind games that much, but they're supposedly doing a lot of work to make all professions equally usable. The melee classes have traditionally been terrible. Also, the setting looks amazing on that new engine of theirs.

Naturally I'm going to play the shit out of the new Mass Effect game. The biggest thing I didn't like about the trailer was that dumb multi-tool blade. I don't like the idea of a holographic blade killing people; It's stupid. It better not act like halo assassinations either. If there's a blade at all I should be able to stab someone in the dick.

Well actually I do. But teleportation hasn't been invented yet. Will be reading the news online.

E3 is not for the public, only the big game companies etc that get invited by E3.

The makers of Eve Online are making an FPS for the PS3 that integrates with Eve Online on the PC. No idea how they're going to do that.

They're making it so the corporations (guilds of most other games) of the Eve MMO hire corporations of Dust 514 people to fight their planet-side battles for them. Planets in Eve allow people to reap nice amounts of money from them so it's worth it. The hiring corporations in eve will pay for their equipment (tanks, upgrades, those command ships, off map support), and then the individual dust games work like a normal fps multiplayer for the most part.

I dont really know how shitty players will factor into that though. I don't expect good corporations to pay for people to fight who are terrible. There should be a cool air of competition though I think. I just hope they've included safeguards in the game to turn it into a regular shooter if the idea fails miserably.

If there's a blade at all I should be able to stab someone in the dick.

This. Times infinity. You people need an Infinite symbol or BBCode.

Damn! I live half an hour away from E3, yet I cannot go because I have to work.

Well actually I do. But teleportation hasn't been invented yet. Will be reading the news online.

E3 is not for the public, only the big game companies etc that get invited by E3.

Wait, I thought this is a public event?

Anyway, from what you all have been discussing here I can tell that the E3 from this year has been boring. At least until now. Common games(idk really what's the expression for "dozen common games" in english, something that you'd say about movies sometimes too) that people show little to no interest in. Only a few attract some attention.
As the technology advances, the creativity curve in entertainment drops, sadly. You can tell that even by only looking at the gaming industry.

Remakes, same stories, series of the same game, but rarely anything new.

[EDIT] Btw, have you seen any Dirt3 footage yet? Or was it already released?

LOL i'm just realizing now you're actually AT E3. (is that good?)

Jealous. I want to hear about the drinking parties and the hot cosplayers more than the video games... Pictures please?

Generic games Striker, plain, bland and boring. Overdone.

I've had DiRT 3 for a couple of weeks, Striker. It's so infinitely better than DiRT 2 I almost shat myself.
The GNARLY AWESOME DUDE stuff has been reduced to tolerable levels and the game is once more about rally, rather than the wank DiRT 2 focused on. There's still an element of fluffy stuff - x-games still features and there's a new GymKhana mode, but they serve to compliment the rally this time, not overwrite it.
It's also fucking beautiful, and one of the lead track designers is an Interlopers regular, and he openly talks about the development process which is pretty awesome.

I will have a look into it then Huntey.

Somebody mentioned about Battlefield 3 on this thread. I ignored it until I received the IGN newsletter which linked me to this:

FrostBite 2 engine footage

I really wonder if that FPS is almost achievable with my rig, since the subtitle states that it is a "next generation engine" on a current generation platform.

Battlefield 3 - what games can look like when the devs concentrate on the PC version, then downscale it for consoles, rather than concentrating on consoles, and not scaling it for PCs.

Ugh, this trend of re-releasing HD versions of games is ridiculous... Halo: CE remake for the X360, God of War remake for the PS3, not to mention the fuckton of remakes/reboots from Nintendo (and probably a ton more I haven't heard about)... am I the only one who'd be happier with some new IPs?

Oh well, as a PC gamer not a whole lot of interest in E3. I'm excited about Skyrim and will probably buy Battlefield 3.

Did they announce the release of StarCraft Ghost? OH WAIT, they'll be doing that at BLIZZCON.. =) =) +)

I'm sitting up until 1am tonight to see Skyrim. I watched the preview the other day and it looks pretty sweet. The only issue I can see is the combat. Melee still looks flat, even in the days of advanced physics systems and fluid animation you can strike a guy in the face with a sword and he just shrugs it off. Keep slashing his face a few more times and eventually he falls over. Pretty disappointing.

Other than that, still really excited.

A lot of the stuff is gimmicky console bullshit which I could do without. What the fuck is a WiiU!? Good job NintenD'oh!

Ugh, this trend of re-releasing HD versions of games is ridiculous... Halo: CE

I'm actually a little excited about the remake, all they are doing is updating the engine and shit, I'm a fan of the original, and would love to see it with modern graphics. And forge would be pretty kick ass on some of the old halo 1 maps.]

As for Halo 4, Bullshit, It won't be the same without Bungie.
And then Mojang sold out to Microsoft! What the fcuk?

I hope the Halo remake comes to the PC. Probably won't. I like Halo on Xbox and on PC. Halo 2 sucked and after it they stopped with the PC releases.

I'm all for a remake of the first Halo, to be honest. As long as it comes out on PC, too.

Is PB doing a Nintendo one? He's the only source I have on E3 that I'll actually go to the trouble of reading.