Category: Video

Hey, look at me! I am posting about Rage again! Big surprise! This video has even more footage and some interesting details about some of the gameplay mechanics.

Those of you that follow my blog should know by now that I am really looking forward to Rage, the next game from id Software. I tend to post about it every chance I get, so naturally E3 is going to be no different. The folks over at G4 TV got to sit down with Tim Willits, Creative Director of id Software, for a hands on demo. The game was running on the Xbox 360, and looks absolutely amazing. They really have outdone themselves this time with id Tech 5.

Part 1

Part 2

My thoughts to come soon.

Initial reactions:

• A new zelda game with Wii Motion Plus. It looks like it actually matters for the gameplay this time instead of just replacing button presses with waggle. Looks to be good for those of you who are still entertained by playing what is more or less the same exact game every couple of years. Not enough new to interest me.
• I don’t understand Nintendo’s statement that the ultimate goal of entertainment should be to have universal appeal and to cross culture, age and gender when there are clear differences between them. Some of my favorite games and movies have been made for niche audiences. For example, System Shock 2 is a hard sci-fi horror first person shooter with a ton of RPG elements. Certainly not a game that appeals to everyone. However those same elements that limit it’s appeal are exactly the same elements that make me love it to death. I would hate to see what Nintendo would have done if they attempted to make it. No two people are exactly the same and everyone has their likes and dislikes. It seems Nintendo never really picks a group of people and commits to satisfying them. Maybe that’s why none of their games have really appealed to me all that much since they are trying to appeal to everyone at once. Just a thought.
• Wii Party. Yet another Wii game with party in the title. I bet it will sell.
• The Just Dance 2 game seems really pathetic now after watching the Microsoft Press Conference and realizing that its only tracking hand movements since you are holding the controller while the 360 dance game actually tracks your entire body: arms, legs, head, everything.
• The Goldeneye Remake looks pretty cool. Glad to see they are updating the gameplay and changing the levels around a bit. As much as I loved it on the N64, I doubt it would have still held up today unchanged. I know some purists will hate it, but I am all for it. Although what is up with having Daniel Craig as Bond? That doesn’t seem right to me. I hope this is an early build and that the final game wont look like a budget title.
• Its good to see Warren Spector as it has been a pretty long time. They said Epic Mickey was exclusive to Wii, but I have heard its not exclusive forever. Hopefully true as the game looks pretty good.
• Metroid Other M looks pretty good. Hope it actually controls well.
• I really don’t care about the 3DS at all. Just like 3D did not change anything with movies aside from make them look a bit nicer, it wont change games in any meaningful way. Personally I don’t really care, but I didn’t care about the DS or the Wii either and the both sold amazingly. So what do I know? Clearly nothing. Hopefully it comes with the fog machine though. That would be pretty awesome.
• They said they updated the graphics on the 3DS, but Kid Icarus looked terrible.
• Nintendogs has Cats now!!! What!!??!! NO WAY!!
• Wow, that was a pretty boring press conference.
• When are they going to stop messing around and make a real new Star Fox game? No the 3DS one does not count.

Pretty good press conference this year. Here are a few bullet points of my thoughts.

• Driving vehicles in the new CoD looks good. Nice to see them coming back into the series. Hopefully they will not be in multiplayer though.
• Gears of War 3 Co-Op looks pretty good. They are clearly giving it more thought. Hopefully trading weapons isn’t the only new interaction between players. It is also nice to see that they are getting a bit more creative with the Lambent Locusts instead of just having them glow a bit and explode when you kill them. The visuals look improved a bit, which is pretty impressive considering how good the last one looked.
• Metal Gear Solid Rising is not at all what I was expecting. However it does look pretty cool. Sword gameplay that appears to actually work well. I will be checking this out. Now I just have to start playing Metal Gear Solid 4 first.
• Natal now named Kinect. Can’t say that I love the name, but I don’t dislike it either. Sounds like a very focus tested “neutral” name to me.
• Lots of new dashboard stuff announced for Kinect. The “Kinect Hub” was a smart idea. The video chat interaction to Live Messenger was a good idea, however I doubt I will ever use it. I have had a Xbox 360 Vision Camera for a long time now, and only video chatted with people maybe twice.
• Interesting selection of Kinect games. Naturally Microsoft has its own versions of Wii Sports and the like. However they actually look pretty decent, and way more interesting then what the Wii offers. Some of the interactivity there is pretty cool. Clearly demonstrates why full body tracking is superior to holding a motion sensing controller. I will be interested in seeing what Sony shows off tomorrow, but at this point I can’t see a physical controller setup beating this.
• Tons of ESPN content coming to live for free. I can see a lot of college students happy about this one. Especially those without Cable TV. I don’t follow sports at all, so I don’t really care at all about this. However the fact that its free to gold members is pretty cool. I was expecting some sort of subscription fee.
• Crytek is making some sort of medieval action game exclusive for the Xbox 360. The trailer showed absolutely nothing, so why even bother announcing. Perhaps once Crytek makes a game with gameplay that lives up to the visuals I will start to care.
• Halo: Reach single player looks pretty good. The animations on the Elites look more fluid then ever, and the environments look properly large and detailed. The graphics are not mind blowing by any means, but it is a step up from both Halo 3 and the Reach Beta. They show a little bit of space vehicle combat at the end. Could be cool, but from the little they showed it looked mindless and not at all tactical. Plus, who wants to fly in 3rd person. First person please!
• New smaller Xbox 360 console. This time with a larger hard drive and new case design. Personally I am not digging the new case, however the fact that its (hopefully) more reliable and comes with a bigger hard drive for the same price as the current elite means that there is no reason for any new buyer not to go with this. I just bought a new Xbox 360 in March when my previous one broke for the 3rd time and was finally out of warranty. Why oh why couldn’t it have lasted until now. Oh well.
• Overall it was a good press conference. Not as good as some of the previous ones, but still solid.