e3-2009
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The Agency trailer filled with spies and CG, devoid of gameplay
We're starting to wonder if The Agency will ever come out. How many E3s has it been since we first heard of SOE's ambitious spy-themed PC/PS3 MMO action game? While The Agency is still being worked on (read our impressions here), we're concerned by the complete lack of gameplay footage in the latest trailer for the game. Yes, we're digging the spy vibe, but we'd like some sign that -- maybe, just maybe -- we'll see The Agency come to fruition before the PS4 comes out.
Splinter Cell: Conviction trailers: Then and now
When we saw the newest trailer for Splinter Cell: Conviction at last week's E3, we were a bit more than taken aback. A handful of glaring changes have been made to the game since we last saw it, and it's obvious that an enormous amount of time has been spent to mold Conviction into what it is today. These changes became all the more apparent when we re-watched the original 2007 trailer for the title, featuring emo Sam Fisher in all his polygonal glory. What you see above is the closest approximation we could make of running both trailers concurrently, highlighting the incredible metamorphosis it has undergone in the past two years.%Gallery-64705%
Smash Cars to flip onto PSN this month, demo planned
Creat Studios continues to support PSN with exclusives, like the upcoming Smash Cars. This is easily the most "hardcore" game the studio has offered on PlayStation Network, and is the first of many to come. Planned for a release later this month, Smash Cars will offer stunt-infused arcade racing action -- online only -- for a low-budget price of around $10. Considering the production values of Smash Cars, that's a pretty incredible value.For the first time ever, Creat Studios will offer a demo of one of their games. Previous games were geared towards the casual player, so the studio thought a demo was unnecessary. However, Creat Studios believes a demo of Smash Cars will really whet the appetite for more. From what we've seen so far, we'd agree.%Gallery-48220%
The Digital Continuum: SWTOR turns up the heat
E3 2009 has come and gone, with it came new information on Star Wars: The Old Republic -- and fresh concerns. To call BioWare ambitious would be an understatement of vast proportions. Every NPC receiving full voice acting ratcheted up my curiosity as much as it did my eyebrows. We may need a new word to describe the depths of this game's ambition.As if the voice acting news wasn't enough, BioWare revealed a cinematic trailer that reminded me how powerful this property can truly be, in the right hands. The excitement was so immediately potent that it caused some people to cry "over-hyped!" in the few short minutes between the trailer's beginning and ending.I think it's time to asses the current situation, and maybe ponder a few things about Star Wars and BioWare.
Mushroom Wars brings more cute, cuddly RTS death to PSN
This isn't PixelJunk Monsters -- but you'd be hard pressed to say otherwise at first (or second) glance. Creat Studios is bringing yet another PSN exclusive this summer, and this one seems to be inspired by Q-Games' popular tower defense game. While the art and music styles are more than a little reminiscent of Monsters, the gameplay is closer to that of IGF nominee Dyson. While Monsters is all about defense, you'll have to be far more aggressive in Mushroom Wars, amassing a giant army and strategically taking positions as quickly as possible. It may not look original, but we're excited to get our hands on the game as soon as possible.%Gallery-64654%
Hands-on: Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter (DS)
5TH Cell received a lot of attention at E3 for its DS platform adventure Scribblenauts, but that wasn't the only DS game 5TH Cell brought to the show. THQ had a demo station set up running the DS sequel to the company's first DS hit, Drawn to Life. Planet Moon's (different) Wii version of Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter was also on display, but we were unable to spend any time with it.%Gallery-65513%
Impressions of Halo 3: ODST campaign -- Life in a sandbox
Call us foolish, but walking into the Bungie demonstration of Halo 3: ODST at E3 last week, we had no idea that the main campaign mode consisted of, more or less, a sandbox environment. Truth be told, we knew of stealth bits and that, as per the title of the game, there was something to do with Orbital Drop Shock Troopers in the story, but not much else. Bungie's Lars Bakken commandeered "the rookie" -- the character you'll basically use as a vehicle through New Mombasa's variety of flashback missions -- introducing us to the character in an opening cutscene rather reminiscent of previous Halo games from a style perspective. We are introduced to "Dutch" early on, the subject of our one guided flashback mission of the walkthrough, who's a bit of a fast-talking hardass, as ODSTs are wont to be. %Gallery-64703%
MMO Roundup: Last week on Massively
Sometimes you'd like to know that there are other MMOs out there, right? Our sister site Massively can provide you with everything you need to know about all those other shiny MMOs! Check out this roundup of the latest news from the wider MMO world. E3 2009: A complete roundup of Massively's coverageElectronic Entertainment Expo 2009 proved to be a significant event for the gaming industry once again, with a fair amount of news and announcement related to MMOs. Massively was there on the ground for E3 this year and we've been putting up breaking announcements, interviews, and hands-on previews throughout. Final Fantasy XIV is a good, good thingSo, unless you've been under a rock, you probably heard Sony squeeing in happiness about Final Fantasy XIV Online, otherwise known as just FFXIV. This is indeed the next MMO that Square-Enix has been hiding from prying eyes, and unlike the indications we got from the company a year ago, this is another Final Fantasy Online. Global Agenda trailer puts pansy elves in their placeWe just had a look at some of the gameplay from Global Agenda at E3, but the latest trailer from Hi-Rez studios is a bit different. It's a more humorous look at the sort of characters that will be found in-game, or rather, the sorts that won't. Walking around in a flowing robe and attempting to fling fireballs won't get you very far in Global Agenda, as the trailer points out so clearly -- a Recon character makes short work of an elf trying to fill his cast-bar to attack, proving that technology is the key to victory in this particular world, and that other elves hoping to join the game's cast need not apply. Star Wars: The Old Republic demonstration The trailer for Star Wars: The Old Republic blew nerds around the world away, and has managed to build some of the greatest hype possible for an MMO in just a few short days. The question has been asked whether or not a trailer which contains absolutely no gameplay footage should be producing that sort of hype, but that trailer wasn't all that we saw of the upcoming MMORPG at E3. A panel dedicated to The Old Republic had much more to say.
Hands-on: Brutal Legend (the umlaut breaks our RSS feed, sorry)
This is going to be the easiest preview ever. Though Tim Schafer calls Brütal Legend the most personal game he's ever done, it's possibly the most widely, inescapably appealing project he's been involved with. I don't need to champion the amazing band of kids at Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp or Manny and the delightful denizens of the underworld this time. We're talking about a hilarious, open-ended heavy metal epic starring Jack Black. Do you really need me to tell you it's awesome?Because, you know, it is.%Gallery-41208%
EA VP says the Xbox 360 is "maxed out"
Microsoft might be busy extending and building on the Xbox 360's capabilities with Project Natal and all manner of NXE and Live updates, but it sounds like some of their third-party devs think they're running out of headroom -- in an interview with the Official Xbox Magazine, EA senior VP Patrick Soderlund said that "we've maxed out the 360 but we haven't maxed out the PS3." That's an interesting parallel to what Miyamoto was just saying about the Wii, of course, but it doesn't seem like the situation is entirely dire: Soderlund also said that he's "truly impressed" with the 360 and that he "would have a headache" if he were running Sony. Still, that doesn't bode well for Microsoft's planned 10-year 360 lifecycle if it's true -- we'll see if Redmond has something new for us before 2015 after all.
TUAW at E3: Guitar Rock Tour 2 and DJ Mix Tour
While we really liked Gameloft's Castle of Magic at E3, these two music games in their lineup didn't impress nearly as much. Guitar Rock Tour 2 is a sequel to Guitar Rock Tour, and as you can tell from the picture at right, it's more or less a Guitar Hero knock-off: hit the notes as they pass the line at the bottom, and you'll hear whatever song you choose to play. At this point, gameplay on all of these games is more or less the same, so song selection makes the difference, and that's where Guitar Rock Tour 2 falls short: the game contains only four original tracks, and fifteen covers. While they do lay claim to tracks by Judas Priest, Panic at the Disco, Wolfmother, Placebo and Twisted Sister, Tapulous pretty much has the market covered in terms of getting great music playable on the iPhone, and we didn't see anything during our hands on that would attract us away from Tap Tap Revenge and its various forms.DJ Mix Tour is the other music game they showed us -- this one had a club feel and had you pressing notes on a turntable rather than guitar frets. There were some interesting choices in that game -- we saw some covers of Britney Spears club mixes, as well as Lady Gaga and Darude's famous Sandstorm tune, so if you're a die-hard techno fan, there might be some new tunes in there for you among the sixteen total songs. But again, Tap Tap Revenge is so polished after all their updates, and already has such a great selection of tunes that it's hard to recommend Gameloft's versions.Both will be available for $5.99 in the App Store sometime this month.
Seen@E3: Huge lines!
(click to DS Phat-size) If there was one thing completely different about E3 for us this year, it was the mass of people now occupying the Los Angeles Convention Center's West and South halls. Compared with last year's ghost town feel, E3 2009 was brimming with gamers vying for hands-ons with the biggest games of the show (we're looking at you, Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks and Halo 3: ODST), which made us feel that much worse when we were ushered to the head of a line to play this game or that (we repeatedly apologized!). Like it or not, E3 is (almost) back to how it used to be and we've got the pictures to prove it, just below.%Gallery-65403%
ESA's Michael Gallagher: 'Piracy is a scourge!'
Michael Gallagher's role as president of the Entertainment Software Association involves spewing a bunch of numbers and being one of the most vocal cheerleaders for the entire video gaming industry. On Tuesday afternoon during E3's opening day, he addressed a small group of journalists and ran through some of the latest figures from their "Essential Facts" booklet that was released before E3 even started. Their favorite being "68 percent of American households play computer or video games."Surely, we thought, a rehash would include some fascinating infographics and possibly even photos to support all the empirical data. But the only thing provided was a single slide featuring the E3 logo on it. Not even one pie chart or bar graph was present. Basically it was a lecture (in a lecture hall setting) full of numbers that we already knew, with no possibility of a pop quiz. So what could liven up this event?Yes! The Q&A. When asked about piracy, Gallagher seriously came to life and barked "Piracy is a scourge!" We half expected him to set sail and hoist the ESA flag onto the entire convention center. He went on to explain how piracy is theft that's costing the industry between two and three billion dollars a year. He encourages vigilance, but didn't suggest a way to combat the scoundrels. We say give Gallagher a cutlass and let him go at it.
Nintendo sneaks out Monado: Beginning of the World trailer
You remember watching the Nintendo E3 keynote liveblog just last week and seeing the huge reveal of Monado: Beginning of the World, right? And then Ms. Dunaway returned to the stage, clad in JRPG couture, ready to challenge Reggie Fils-Aime to a turn-based battle. It all seemed like a dream. Oh wait ... none of that happened! So what if we just passed out during the keynote and dreamt it all? But we did wake up with that gunblade in our hands, so, maybe not? It remains a mystery. Nintendo did, however, drop a trailer and artwork for the game soon after its presser had concluded which we're presenting to you here. Get your world beginning on, in trailer form, just above.%Gallery-65431%
Hands-on: Samurai Shodown: Edge of Destiny
Samurai Shodown: Edge of Destiny, the latest in SNK's long-lived weapons-based fighting game series, feels totally different from its predecessors. The K2-developed fighter doesn't just add 3D graphics to the series more successfully than the version on the short-lived Hyper Neo Geo 64 system -- it adds some 3D movement as well, in the form of a dodge move. During our quick match, Ignition's Shane Bettenhausen described it as "Samurai Shodown meets Soul Calibur meets Bushido Blade," a classification that aptly encapsulates some of the changes in the game.%Gallery-65488%
E3 2009: A complete roundup of Massively's coverage
Electronic Entertainment Expo 2009 proved to be a significant event for the gaming industry once again, with a fair amount of news and announcements related to MMOs. Massively was there on the ground for E3 this year and we've been putting up breaking announcements, interviews, and hands-on previews throughout. Given how much info came out of E3 on Massively, here's a roundup of our coverage, day-by-day. Be sure to check out the rest after the jump as there's plenty more content, plus you'll find E3 galleries for these games as you click through. To cap it all off, we've also put together an E3 2009 wrapup video for you at the end of this post. Read on to see where the MMO industry is headed in the next year and beyond! Day One Star Wars: The Old Republic world's first fully-voiced MMO Final Fantasy XIV announced Jumpgate Evolution releases E3 trailer EA to publish All Points Bulletin in 2010 PlayStation Home hits 6.5 million accounts Trion World Network unveils Heroes of Telara Massively's day 1 video from the E3 floor
Hands-on: Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (Wii)
"I've heard 'Shat-On Memories.' That's a good one," remarks Shattered Memories producer Tomm Hulett, taking the complaints from the so-called "unreasonable" Silent Hill fans in stride. Remaking -- or "re-imagining," rather -- a horror classic is no easy task, least of all when the leading platform's scariest trait is its abundance of minigames. Calling it a re-imagining seems appropriate, with familiar characters and themes returning in unfamiliar ways, but that belies the fact that the upcoming Wii title (PSP and PS2 versions are also en route) is the freshest and riskiest Silent Hill game to come along in years. Conveying an intense, unnerving experience in the din of E3 is like reciting a poem behind an airplane barreling down a runway. The packed show floor, filled with colossal sub-woofers and eccentric excessiveness, couldn't be a less ideal place to play a survival-horror title. And yet, despite the copious distractions and some truly awkward sensor bar placement, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories managed to fool us -- if ever so briefly -- into thinking we were skulking around the world's least hospitable and most perplexing town. %Gallery-49995%
Impressions: Invizimals
While conducting some tests for SCEI, a researcher at Sony's HQ in Japan realized that the PSP Go!Cam could see a visual spectrum far beyond human vision. Scattered throughout the world is a mystical energy that only the PSP camera could detect. Clearly, this is the beginning of something big!However, what if this energy fell into the wrong hands? Couldn't someone harness the energy for the purposes of evil? What if someone were to create a weapon with this mysterious energy?This meta-story sets the stage for Sony's upcoming camera-required PSP game, Invizimals. Those lucky to see the behind-closed-doors demonstration at E3 were charmed by its high-tech devilry and innovative concept that many have been quick to call "Pokemon ... on crack."%Gallery-64979%
E3 2009: CrimeCraft producer says game is the next step for Call of Duty, Halo players
All Points Bulletin wasn't the only crime-themed MMO I saw at E3 last week. I also got to check out Vogster Entertainment's CrimeCraft. Just before the conference, the developer announced an August 25 release date, a monthly subscription as their business model and an exclusive deal with Best Buy. On the floor, associate producer Aaron Krasnov laid down what's new in the game, how it's different from APB, the help he got from former Warhammer Online developers and how CrimeCraft is a natural progression for players of Halo and Call of Duty.
E3 2009 press conference winners and losers: The Joystiq reader poll
You already know what we think about this year's E3 winners and losers, but we want to know what you think, Joystiq Biomass™. Did the inner speed hair teaser in you get all giddy when EA dropped Charm Girls Club on us? Was James Cameron's treatise on Avatar at the Ubisoft presser (sans any gameplay whatsoever) making you chomp at the bit for more? Or maybe Nintendo's announcement of a Team Ninja-developed Metroid game reminded you of when Nintendo used to make game announcements at E3? We've dropped the big three (Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo), and the various major publisher conferences, into two polls, found after the break. Vote away!
