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Making the grade: Nintendo's E3 presentation
Where would Nintendo be if not for controversy? Lounging in a gold plated mansion built a top an enormous mountain of platinum bars, no doubt. Their rise to power no longer a question but an inevitability, all eyes were on the potential market leader Wednesday morning to see what sort of stunt they would pull. In our previous E3 feature, the guessing game, we said that Nintendo potentially had the most to lose coming out of this conference as a lack of content could easily derail the hype train. As it turns out, we were half right.In part two of making the grade, we look back on a conference that was at times inspiring and at others down right frightening.
Making the grade: Microsoft's E3 presentation
"So, who won E3?"No matter the location or the format involved, everyone just wants to know who "won" this years E3 conference. Do you want to know who won? We all did. The closest thing to massive damage was Peter Moore's singing and even that was charming in its own unique way. The big three had a lot of great games to show off and quite frankly, it's going to be an incredible year."Unacceptable! Tell us which of our favorite major corporations won!"So be it! Here we begin the first of our three part series, focusing on the E3 presentations of Sony, Nintendo and our first target, Microsoft. Jump in after the break as we cast the first stone of judgment!
E307: Get body conscious like the Cho Aniki dudes with Wii Fit
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/nintendo_wii/Wii_Fit_an_in_depth_look_and_why_gamers_should_care'; Or maybe not. We're not insinuating anything here, because we love you no matter what. You know what else we love? That's right: Wii Fit. While it's funny to quip that this is a perfect game for moms across America, we recommend that everyone take a closer look at the versatility of Wii Fit. How many of you own a treadmill or other exercise machine? Those things take up space. Maybe you'd like to own something like that, but you live in an apartment, like many Americans, particularly those under thirty who maybe haven't bought a house yet. Then space becomes a real issue, as this blogger well knows from years of apartment-living. But with Wii Fit and the balance board peripheral, suddenly working out with gear can take a lot less space -- and you get the added benefit of monitored results, which we always thought was an excellent feature.Working out with the Wii has already become a popular hobby for many gamers -- the addition of this software just makes it that much easier. Maybe some gamers would have liked to have seen less focus on the title during Nintendo's keynote, but this kind of thing is rapidly becoming a cornerstone of Nintendo's winning strategy, and we all better get used to it. The Wii is to Americans what the DS is to the Japanese, it seems; it's an all-in-one device that can fit anyone's needs, and Wii Fit is a strong part of that.%Gallery-4745%
Joystiq hands-on: Assassin's Creed
Fueled solely by caffeine and pure grit, we managed to get some hands-on time with Ubisoft's much anticipated action game, Assassin's Creed at E3. Our session with Ubisoft began with a representative walking us through a sample mission (which, incidentally, is the same one Jade Raymond walked us through last night at the MS press conference) to show us the ropes. Of course, like any good company rep, he also made sure to lay down some readily quotable stats. First of all, the city featured in the demo, Jerusalem, is fifteen times larger than the city featured during last year's E3. Pulling the camera back, we could see that the city was indeed pretty damned big. What's more, our rep informs us that all of it is interactive. You can climb it, throw enemies into it, use it to hide, whatever. Every surface that extends more than 2" from a wall is scalable, and Altair -- AC's protagonist -- will make his hand-holds realistically. In other words, there is no canned climbing animation. Finally, the city is populated with lots of NPCs, some of which can be hostile (guards and mad vagrants), others can be helpful, and the rest are neutral. And of course, they all have dynamic AI and other quotable features. But how does it play?
Engadget & Joystiq live from Sony's E3 2007 keynote
We're running off from Nintendo's E3 2007 press conference to Sony's. Check back here shortly for our live coverage of the event. The conference is set to begin 11:30 PDT.11:30AM PDT - Ok, we're seated, and things are getting started. Swirling images on four massive displays, like the flowing background on the PS3.11:32AM PDT - Opening promo movie coming up, kaleidoscopes of PS3 and PSP, but no gameplay. "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Mr. Jack Tretton."
BigRedKitty: Just Say No to Serpent Sting
Each week, Daniel Howell contributes BigRedKitty, a column with strategies, tips and tricks for and about the hunter class sprinkled with a healthy dose of completely improper, sometimes libelous, personal commentary. One of the problems with leveling a hunter is that one gets used to grinding. Nobody can deny that leveling a hunter is pretty dag-gum easy and it is all too simple to fall into the trap, "What was good for leveling is good for instances." But it is a trap and far too many hunters never realize that they're caught in it. We call it "Grinding-Think". The perfect example of Grinding-Think is the use of Serpent Sting. Serpent Sting is first learned at level four. It's the first sting we're given and we use it on every mob we face. It's our opening salvo for level upon level and it becomes so ingrained in our thoughts that we can smash our Serpent Sting key blindfolded and wigged-out on "Mountain Dew and Red Bull" smoothies. But Serpent Sting stinks and BigRedKitty wants you to quit raiding with it. There is a much better Hunter Sting that we want you to learn and use in its place. You guessed it: Scorpid Sting. Scorpid Sting? But it doesn't do any damage! That's right, Chester, it doesn't. But then if you think applying Serpent Sting is "doing damage" you might want to ask your friendly -- or not-so-friendly as is more likely the case -- Warlock what his opinion of Serpent Sting is. Just be prepared for a snort, giggle, and guffaw in response, in addition to: "You call that a DoT? I've got moldy greenies from Scarlet Monastery rotting in my bank that'll do more damage than that. You keep playing with your kitties and puppies while we 'Locks summon our minions, use them for our personal pleasure, sacrifice them for fun, and drop 10,000-damage Seed of Corruption crits in 5v5 arenas. Now get outta the way; you're hogging all the darkness." Warlocks. Do they all have mild personality disorders because they play warlocks, or do they all play warlocks because they have mild personality disorders? Someone should do some research into this; it would make a good paper.
Joystiq hands-on: Mass Effect
Before our sleep-deprived and sensory addled brains shut down last night, we were ushered by Microsoft secret agents into a hotel room to spend some time with Mass Effect. Finally, hands-on instead of just eyes-on. Although it had been a long day, we managed to find a burst of adrenaline deep down within to keep us going.We were shown the basic in-game talk interface: get near another character and hit the A button to start talking. You can direct the flow of the conversation, by selecting your responses with the left thumbstick, choosing from a radial menu. For instance, if someone is telling you about an attack, you can pick things like "Too bad they didn't kill you" to "I'm sorry" to "Really? What happened?" They aren't exactly what your character will say, they're more like the gist of it. We tried to piss the people we encountered off, but no one took great offense. One woman we encountered really wanted to tag along with us, and although we tried as hard as we could to dissuade her, the last talk menu we were offered with her was something like, "Sure", "Go ahead", and "Okay". No, "Get lost!" option, so she must be important to the mission.%Gallery-1968%
Engadget & Joystiq live from Nintendo's E3 2007 keynote
8:33AM PDT - It looks like we got here pretty early. After getting our tickets, grabbing some coffee, and mingling with industry buddies (like Joystiq columnist Dennis McCauley) we find ourselves waiting just outide the entrance to the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium's main, uh ... auditorium feverishly checking the time. Thirty minutes to go. 8:42AM PDT - Entering the auditorium, we're greeted (assaulted?) by the family-friendly sounds of The Monkees' "I'm a Believer."8:49AM PDT - Giant screens flanking the main stage share a dozen plus shots of various demographics all enjoying the pick up and play experience offered by the Wii and DS ... or something. No one up there looks like us ... they're all well groomed and a significant percentage of them enjoy senior citizen mass transit discounts.
Engadget & Joystiq live from Microsoft's E3 2007 keynote
Ok, we're live from Microsoft's E3 2007 keynote! The event officially kicks off at 8:30PM PDT, but we'll be doing our usual pre-game coverage here. 8:06PM PDT - Ok, so the event is being held at -- get this -- a high school? It's a damned fancy one if you ask us, full coliseum style seating.
Officers' Quarters: Tips and tricks
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.Hello, fellow officers! For a change of pace I'm going to forgo the usual Q&A format this week. Instead, I'm going to share a few random tips that have served me well in the past. Let's jump right in, shall we?1. Use the guild UI to keep track of your members' alts. A lot of serious guilds don't allow alts, or only allow raiding alts. In these cases it's pretty easy to keep track of who's who. But most guilds don't restrict how many alts a player can have on the roster. Eventually you're going to wind up with one of those altaholics who is compelled to roll a character (or two) for every class. It might not seem important to keep track of all those alts, but if that player causes a big problem down the road, you'll want to know exactly which toons he or she plays. Also, it's just handy to see which main characters are available to your party or raid, assuming that player is willing to switch over.Whenever an alt joins your guild, make sure the officer who invites them puts their main character's name in the officer's comments section of the guild UI. Assuming you've set up your ranks properly, you'll be able to see who's playing that level 12 Draenei warrior or which member is leveling up a Blood Elf paladin to help out with raids. And speaking of ranks . . .
Spiritual Guidance: Know your heals
Every Saturday (usually), Eliah or Elizabeth will bring you their thoughts on the Priest class with Spiritual Guidance. Whether it's keeping your fellow players alive or melting their faces, you can read about it here!Healing spells are to a priest what fire spells are to a mage. Other schools tend to be more efficient in raids (shadow for priests, frost for mages) and are generally thought superior for leveling, but when you think of a priest, you probably think of heals first, just like when I think of a mage, the first thing I think of is a nice fat pyroblast headed right for me. So it comes as no surprise that we have quite a variety of heals.
Podcast Rodeo for July 8: Norman Ear
It's pre-E3 week, and almost everybody is phoning it in. Not one to buck tradition, the Rodeo's also taking it easy this week ... if you can call any week where we slog through the podcast trough and bring back them gems taking it easy. Here's what the hardest working act on the Internet found for you this week.NooBTooB: If you haven't kept up with the NooBTooB duo this year, there's a perfect way to get started up now, an encapsulation of all the best moments from their first year all reduced to one manageable, 15-minute morsel for the mom on the go. This episode is a video-only cast, by the way, so don't go hunting for the audio.The Bobby Blackwolf Show: We've always believed that this show hit its stride at episode 99, about 23:50 in, but it's definitely still worth your oh-so-precious time. The show's main draw is that callers can get a chance to weigh in via Skype, but Blackwolf, a slick, well-informed host, is certainly no slouch. This week, hot topics are broken DSs and XBLA discounts.
Peter Moore tells Joystiq about the new warranty program
After reading about Microsoft's admirable decision to extend their warranty coverage for those suffering from the Xbox 360's Red Ring of Death error, we were given an opportunity to speak with Peter Moore about the move.When asked why this move -- a sort of mea culpa of a growing failure rate -- has taken so long, Moore replied that it was important to "gather data and weigh the financial implications" in addition to "preparing logistics and identifying problems." While it may have seemed like a long time for those of us in the grips of the hyperkinetic blogosphere, Moore assures us that, for a multi-billion dollar mega-corporation like Microsoft, they acted with some celerity. So, they've identified problems? What exactly has been killing these Xbox 360s? Moore said there were "a number of issues" that they discovered from collecting data. When reminded of the great job they've done in servicing 360s to date still hasn't stopped some people from having to get their console serviced numerous time, Moore said that they've put "fixes in place" to address them. He pointed out that Joystiq was a great conduit to that very community and extended (what sounded to us like) a sincere apology. They're fixing these systems because the level has been unacceptable of late ... and no, Microsoft has "no intention" and sees "no value" in sharing what percentage of failure there is.
