E3!!!!

From Nintendo:

E3 2006: Nintendo Media Briefing Recap

Just like the first time you played Mario 64, with the Wii Nintendo wants you to feel the experience. With motion sensing in the main Wii Remote, the Nunchuk controller and an additional speaker in the Remote, you'll be immersed in games like never before. Still no price and date, though.

Nintendo's press conference was arguably the most entertaining and engaging of the big three. In typical Nintendo fashion, the company introduced a new theme, "Playing = Believing." The media briefing itself began with the legendary Shigeru Miyamoto appearing on stage (to huge applause, naturally) with Wii controller in hand. He proceeded to conduct a virtual orchestra as it played the theme to Legend of Zelda.

Conducting music is but one of many gameplay possibilities the Wii will offer. Nintendo demonstrated a number of titles including a Wii Sports compilation which features baseball, tennis and golf, Metroid Prime 3 Corruption, Super Mario Galaxy, Excite Truck, WarioWare: Smooth Moves, Red Steel, among others.

What really stole the show, however, was a live demo of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, which Nintendo revealed would be made available in two versions on Wii's launch day. The GameCube version will play as a typical Zelda GameCube title, while the Wii version will make use of the Wii controller for added functionality such as sword slashes, pointing and shooting arrows or a grappling hook, fishing, and more. Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of sales & marketing, proclaimed that Twilight Princess is the best Zelda game ever made.

Nintendo also revealed its final two secrets, although exact price and date information is being saved for another time. Secret #1 is that the Wii controller will include a speaker emitting occasional sounds to add to the immersion factor through positional audio. For example, if Link shoots an arrow you can hear the pulling back of the bow and subsequent release as it snaps, and then the sound will move to your TV/sound system speakers when the arrow makes contact. Secret #2, as some in the industry had guessed, was revealed to be motion sensing technology in the nunchuk attachment as well. With a sensor in both the main Wii Remote and the nunchuk controller all sorts of possibilities are opened up to developers. Just a few examples include the use of a sword in one hand and a shield in the other, or a clamp and a scalpel, or a pair of boxing gloves.

"The Wii console gives every game developer a tool to create new experiences, not just linear advancement," said Fils-Aime. "It will attract all kinds of new players, and thoroughly satisfy the hard-core gamers."

"Not only is Wii compelling to current game players, but it also will entice new players with new experiences," added Nintendo President Satoru Iwata. "To expand the total number of game players, we must make our experience both friendlier and more compelling. With Wii, it is."

Nintendo also briefly touched upon what they're calling WiiConnect24, which represents the Wii console's low power consumption (as low as a miniature light bulb) and "sleepless" feature. Users never need to turn it off and therefore content downloads can take place even when you're not using the console. The Wii will also be able to start up very quickly and enable players to get into their games without delay.

Reggie also revealed that 27 different Wii titles would be shown off on the E3 show floor, and while not indicative of the system's launch lineup it's a good sign that such a wide variety of software is already in the works. GameDaily editors will be bringing you hands-on impressions of these Wii games.

While Wii was no doubt the highlight of the briefing, Nintendo also took the opportunity to trump the success of their Nintendo DS handheld. The system has sold a whopping 16 million units to date, and by the end of this year over 100 new titles will join an already formidable library. George Harrison, Nintendo of America's senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications, introduced the term "Touch Generations," which represents Nintendo's more unique DS offerings, such as Brain Age. "We remain committed to going where others can't - or won't," said Harrison. "By grouping our innovative DS games together under the umbrella term 'Touch Generations,' new players will easily be able to identify games designed for them."

In addition to the already announced New Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, Nintendo introduced more promising DS titles including a new Star Fox, Pokemon, DK King of Swing, Diddy Kong Racing, Elite Beat Agents, Yoshi's Island 2 and more. As was previously announced, the DS Lite hits the U.S. on June 11 for the price of $129.99.

by James Brightman

Sony:

Sony Press Conference Re-cap

Written by Adam Woolcott on May 08, 2006

As with the recent times at E3, much of the big information makes itself known before the show even starts, at the press-only conferences that are hosted by many game publishers and most importantly, the three major hardware manufacturers, who lie their cards on the table with no fear. E3 2006 is shaping up to be no different, if Sony's mammoth conference is any indication. As always, Sony pulled out all the stops at the briefing, and very well could be the talk of the entire show again like last year...though this time it might not be quite as well-received. Making up for a nearly 1 hour delay from the original 4PM pacific start, Sony's show was huge and notable, and whether you're a PS2 or PSP owner, or a future PS3 user, there was something for everyone.

Naturally, Sony Computer Entertainment America head Kaz Hirai spent much of his time anchoring Sony's forthcoming monster, the PlayStation 3. Right at the outset he confirmed that the PS3 was set to ship worldwide in November of 2006, and would come with a detachable hard drive standard, the latter of which was up in the air following Ken Kutaragi's comments at the March briefing in Tokyo about the HDD. Hirai mentioned the system would indeed be playable on the show floor, putting an end to that issue. Kaz then spent some time explaining what they still tentatively called the PlayStation Network Platform, best described as a clone of what Microsoft has done with Xbox Live. He emphasized that all of this would be free and that the money would be generated from microtransactions which have proven popular on Xbox Live Marketplace. Seeing that this was said some 2 years ago when initial PS3 discussion began, hearing this wasn't much of a surprise. To demonstrate, Kaz brought out Sony Worldwide Studios head Phil Harrison (the tallest gaming personality in the world), who used Europe's mega-popular SingStar game to show how you'd log into PNP and purchase new songs to use.

What was a surprise took place at the end of the show. Everyone's favorite crazy genius, Ken Kutaragi, came out to mention the issue of control. Last year of course, Sony displayed PS3, with a strange and goofy controller that looked like a boomerang or a banana. And though anyone who was paying attention could see it already, he showed off the 'new' PS3 controller, which was the same as the old PS1/PS2 dual shock, with a fancy button in the middle that probably function like the Xbox 360 guide. Kutaragi-san then brought out Harrison again to demonstrate something new. Again showing Sony's penchant for 'innovation', the final new feature of the PS3 is the use of the controller for in-game motion, and they demonstrated Warhawk with the feature, using the 6 degrees of motion to move around the aircraft and land it on an airstrip, while also playing the game traditionally with the face buttons. All this is built into the console without any need to use added hardware. Somewhere Nintendo is laughing and perhaps cringing too.

While it's perhaps not really a surprise to see Sony 'borrow' things and make them their own (and rumors about Sony doing this have been around for a while now), they did surprise almost everyone by announcing the price of PS3 as the final bit of info before the show finished. In short, American gamers can hop down to their local game store and buy a PS3 in November...but pack lots of cash. Clearly not learning from the silliness of Microsoft's two system setup (after Harrison himself flatly said they wouldn't follow that path), Sony will release 2 different packages. One will feature a 20GB hard drive and retail for a tidy $499.99. Meanwhile, the original 60GB drive mentioned in March still exists – but prepare to pay a whopping $599.99 for that configuration. A hundred bucks more for an extra 40GB seems a bit...much but it is better than the 20GB drive Microsoft sells for the same price. Either way, PlayStation 3 is going to cost a whole lot of cash come November 17th. I know I just felt my bank account collapse, and we don't even know if Sony will charge premium game prices to go with the premium cost of the console. At least Sony announced there will be 2 million consoles ready for the worldwide launch...better than the paltry 1 million.

[AM edit: It seems the price has less to do with the hard drive and more with features. The cheaper PS3 will lack built-in Wi-Fi (something that is $100 on 360 and could have been used to Sony's advantage), no memory card slots for Compact Flash, SD, or Memory Stick, and no HDMI input for true 1080p high-definition. Suddenly we're way beyond just removing the HDD like the Xbox 360 and into the realm of a true, real 'tard pack here. Sigh.]

Between all this madness were the important thing, games. And if Sony is going to charge so much cash, it needs to back it up with software, which they did show plenty of in both playable and video form. First off was Gran Turismo HD, which was a cleaned up version of Gran Turismo 4 but shown off in 1080p. It was quickly dubbed a work in progress, and hopefully so, as the game looked more PS2 than PS3. Sony's EyeToy was on display with the new card-based game Eye of Judgement, that used your hand movements to fiddle with the cards on the screen. In usual fashion, a rubber ducky ended up being a terrorizing force on the board, kicking ass and taking names. Moving along, there were demonstrations of Genji 2, Heavenly Sword, and Resistance: Fall of Man. While Genji 2 was somewhat underwhelming, both Heavenly Sword and Resistance were slick titles, showing off the intense action that both promise. On display were also non-playable videos, featuring Lair, The Getaway, a new Hot Shots Golf, an original title called Afrika (which made very little sense), and a new Naughty Dog title that could be Tomb Raider if Lara Croft was a guy but wasn't given a name during the video.

Things then turned over to 3rd parties, starting with a video montage of many of the PS3 games known. Assassin's Creed, Tekken 6, Ridge Racer 7, and Fatal Inertia were some of the more notable games. From there we got some real goodies. The hyped trailer for Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots was displayed, full of weirdness and sadness, ending with a shot of Snake holding a gun...in his mouth. Sadly the trailer didn't have the same sort of impact that, say, Metal Gear Solid 2 did for the PS2 all those years ago. Finally we saw a double trailer for Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Versus XIII, which is a direct sequel to FFXIII. That's right, a sequel to a game that hasn't even come out yet. Both take place in highly futuristic, science fiction worlds, a vast departure from what we've come to expect from the franchise. While FFXIII is a standard FF game in design, FF vs. XIII is a Kingdom Hearts-esque action game. It was all so confusing, but yet intriguing all the same.

Though PS3 dominated the show, some PS2 and PSP info trickled out. On the PS2 front, Kaz emphasized that PS2 was going to be around for quite a while, as demonstrated by forthcoming games like God of War 2, Final Fantasy XII, and Guitar Hero 2, and the E3 floor would have over 200 games for the console. Which might be a good idea due to the whole PS3 price issue; many people won't be owning one for quite some time. The PSP on the other hand is just growing, with well over 100 games for the system coming down the line. In addition, Sony is finally starting their Greatest Hits program for the portable, with 5 titles going for $20 – Hot Shots Golf, Wipeout Pure, Twisted Metal, Ape Escape, and ATV Offroad fury. To be eligible a game must sell 250k copies and be out 9 months. Finally, Sony began to show off the PSP download system for emulating PS1 games; something that seems to work with PS3 without too much info as to whether it'll work without owning one. It's possible you'll have to 'beam' a game to the PSP unless you have a memory stick large enough to hold a file. Hirai took the time to show off one game for the service; naturally it was Ridge Racer, widely known as the very first big PlayStation must own way back in 1995. By default it was shown in 4:3, but you can stretch it to fill up the wide screen of the system.

WARNING:  Extreme Opinion to Follow!!!  Just My Opinion, Gary Holmes

Bottom Line:

Nintendo won over crowds with the announcment of TWO Zeldas, one for the GC and one for the Wii. An actual on-line plan similar to Wi-Fi on the DS, New Super Mario (like I predicted) in Super Mario Galaxy and more. Nintendo allayed fears of their leaving the industry behind in telling us that their hardware specs to date have been innacurate and the games showed this. Many people were scratching their heads as to why the games looked so rough for third parties whilst Nintendo's first party games looked so good. Nintendo later told everyone that the hardware isn't done and that the games shown were on mock up hardware. Being Nintendo, they'd of course have the latest build, explaining the discrepancy.

Metroid Prime 3 Corruption, Super Mario Galaxy, Excite Truck, WarioWare: Smooth Moves, Red Steel, among others were shown. Also, they announced Super Smash Brothers Brawl including Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid, with on-line play! However, no pricing plan or date has been given, and the on-line looks to work on the friend code that the DS does, whoch is angering some fans. All in all, Nintendo has done a great job in getting people ready to be hyped for the Wii, as awkward as it is to verbally relay.:) On a personal note, I'm more enthused for Nintendo than I have been in years.

Sony...oh boy. First off, they cast off the boomerang controller for the DS2 modified with a button that resembles the 360 guide button, and they removed the rumble pack in lieu of "6 degrees of freedom." It's an axis control, like has been found in PC controllers like the sidewinder, except with (I'm guessing) better responce and more freedom of movement. The price? $500 for the basic and $600 for the premium. That's where the comparison to the two 360 SKUs ends. The basic model has NO HDMI port for full fledged Blu-Ray playback at 1080P (like Sony promised was the REAL High Def), no card ports for SD, Compact Flash or even Sony's Memory Stick and no built in Wi-Fi. Take into account that the dual HDMI ports for the premium seem to be scrapped as well and this isn't looking good. In the XBOX 360s case, you could always (at a price) upgrade to the full premium at anytime. With the basic PS3, you cannot. All you can do is buy another PS3 at $600, which gamers are sounding off on all over the 'net. But, they both come with a removable HDD, so that's good news.

The games seemed a lot less flashy than last year's event and in the case of the missing Killzone, no game came near last year's render. Assassin's Creed, Tekken 6, Ridge Racer 7, and Fatal Inertia all looked good, but nothing far and above current and future 360 games and in some cases, worse.

With the controller and the backpeddling, it seems the theme "welcome Change" is a misnomer.

I can't stress enough how much you need to see this all and read it for yourself. I was massively disapponted in Sony, entertained and enthusiastic about Microsoft and flat out flabbergasted by Nintendo this year. I'll still make fun of the name, but I'll be in line to get my hands on a Wii...

Some vids from E3:

Halo 3

MGS4

Mario Galaxy

Zelda Wii

Just go raid the whole site.:)

Interesting news:

MGS4 on 360?

New Resident Evil for Wii!

Red Octane, the Bemani games maker and peripheral designer, bought by Activision.

Alone in the Dark for PS3.

Demo for Wii shows off ease of control.

What I've been playing:

Oblivion

Lots of E3 demos like Lost Planet and Test Drive Unlimited!! Whoo-hoo!