E3: Day 1 in Review

E3 Review: Day 1 via G4TV

Although this is not the official start of the floorshows, Electronic Entertainment Expo began today with showcases on EA and Ubisoft. The convention is shaping up to be one of the biggest in years. Considering the flop of 2008, and the iffy 2009 game showcase. This year has a lot to be excited for, as we opened up with a preview in of Spiderman Shattered Dimensions, a preview pre EA Showcase show in the G4 Studios. The game is going to be inimitable to the other games out there including the web slinger. The game will be split into four different dimensions, each taking up a quarter of the game play.
Each dimension is shown to have existed at one point in the Marvel Universe, so this will be a game that is appealing to the comic book fan base, which is finally what Spiderman fans have been waiting to get. One fascinating demo from the game shows the dimension of Spiderman: 2099, a particular chapter in the Spiderman mythology not truly brought to a modern video game console. Although not based in the Peter Parker era of Spiderman, this Spiderman has been seen in both animated shows and comic book “other world” chapters that make up a niche fan base that is surprisingly strong.
The game shows a free-fall scene with the future Spiderman passing through tunnels, skyscrapers and everything in-between in pursuit of Hobgoblin through a futuristic New York City. The scene was quite similar to the scenes of Kratos from God of War III using the wings of Icarus, and flying up from Hades to Olympus.
What was great about the game was the visual graphics, similar to the shading of the upcoming Marvel vs. Capcom 3. The game is shaping up to look amazing, and I am sure that most people who are a fan of Spiderman will be pleased by the development of this game, and will definitely want to see some more of this game. The release date seems to be set up for an early 2011 release, which when you really think about it, is not that far away at all.
Still not the official start of EA’s Showcase, we are given another preview with a new music-based genre game that has a real six-string guitar that boasts the ability to even teach you how to play the guitar, which I personally doubt, but the game seems to want to be as close to realistic playing as it is from playing the real instruments. The game was impressive in both concept, and design, but I felt that there would be some issues, like say replacing strings if they break, that is of course if they are nylon, or some other tough compound. Aside from some of the issues seen, the game looked interesting, but not something I would personally buy.
Next, we were given a hands-on exclusive to the game Hunted. Hunted was not that interesting to me, but it was not really given much air-time, and the air-time given to it, they did not do well with their promo. The concept is actually not that new, with different characters in a role-playing style game that allows for friends to jump in at save points to help you out in the game. Sure, you are hacking away at skeletal warriors, but the real innovation is that you can change characters on a whim, and your friends can join in via online to travel through this adventurous role-playing game.
Again, not the true first day of the expo, but still major announcements made, one after another. EA had the spotlight on them first, being the industry’s leading developers with games like the Fight Night series, Madden series, and NCAA basketball. Not just a sports game developer, they showcased a mass amount of games like Medal of Honor, EA Active 2, and a few more I’ll recap in a minute. Considering it is not even the first official day of the event, we are already getting a taste of all the games we will be spending our hard-earned dollars on, because we all know that despite a recession, games are the hold-back to going on luxurious vacation. EA dropped jaws with the new Medal of Honor, showcasing an incredible eighteen-player demo online on the stage. The game was incredible-looking, and quite realistic, taking place in real Afghanistan, and demoed in Kabul.
The game will follow a group of Tier 1 military groups that are the tip-of-the-top of the Army. The game is going to be released in the fall, around October or November. Medal of Honor is going to be released for the two major consoles, and on PC. Expect this game to eat up a lot of hours, and the body counts rise, as Army troops go head-to-head with Afghan rebel fighters.
The next game shown was EA Active w, which looked incredible for the Wii. It is a fitness game that actually scans your entire body, and shows you as a figure in the game. The game is supposed to be constantly updated online, and able to keep you on top of your regimen. This game seemed interesting, and considering it uses things like weights, and calisthenics to get you in shape, I’m not one to personally use video games to get in shape, and Dance Dance Revolution was the major calorie burning game that I can recall. Considering I usually play a video game with pizza and soda on the table in front of me, and a cigarette in my living room recliner as I’m popping caps in zombies. Being “active” is nice, and playing while being active sounds like fun, but honestly it’s not something I wake up to early on Christmas morning excited to play, as my inner child screams in glee.
EA was impressive though, it has a show-off of Kinect’s technology, and they will utilize that, along with Playstation: Move, and of course the Nintendo Wiimote. 3-D is also being shoved down the throats of gamers now, and maybe in a few years, many of us will comply, but more-likely it is a fad, and I would hate to have to wear 3-D glasses over my prescription eyeglasses for hours on end, and probably go even more blind from watching blood and guts get spread all over the place.
With game titles like Bulletstorm, I’m not really looking forward to the push of 3-D, and having grand pappies across the nation dying of feeling like bullets are attacking them from all sides. Bulletstorm, an extremely blood-ridden game, that I am sure was toned down a bit for E3, but there is some serious bloody messes being set up for us in this game. EA has shown that they are the top developer in the business, pulling in over a billion dollars annually, they are top dogs and shown off their innovation with EA Partners. Now, if you’ve followed EA for as long as I have, since the mid 90s when I was practically too young to even know what a the 64bit system really was, I knew that there was something special of these guys in suits talking about shaping the future mold of entertainment
EA has been partnered with developers for years, bringing about new titles, and with the development of mediums that are the next generation consoles, we know now that the biggest developers have been doing the most business together to make innovation a possibility. EA has allowed for independent developers to come in and create many downloadable, and mini games online, and now we are seeing the future of gaming is allowing for independents to build and create, always invigorating the market. EA is doing this so games like Fat Princess, and Flower, innovative from the past few years, will be allowed to thrive in the future, and the kid that tampers around with this array of software can make it big in the video game world. Now we see communities of people come together to create different uploaded user content.
EA finished well, and brought a lot of pre-excitement to the obscene amount of senses overload come the next three days. EA wanted to assure gamers and developers that like last year; they are willing to share that wealth of open-ended development to newcomers and time-hardened veterans. EA was an exciting opening, but it lead into the bigger shocker of Ubisoft.
Ubisoft is a French developer that started out very small, and very low on the radar. One of the first games, Rayman became mascot of the company, and was not well known, mostly a cult following. After receiving the licensing of Tom Clancy, many saw Ubisoft as the first true tactical espionage thriller in the market. Games like Rainbow Six became very realistic to the tactical shooter genre, expanding it well beyond what it was in the early 2000s. Ubisoft has had a long history that stretches a bit above twenty years, but they showed that they wanted to open strong, being that this was the biggest event of the year in video games, and the subconscious psyche that this is the last big even of the decade.
Ubisoft really spread out their projects for all of us to see with the announcement of a new Tom Clancy shooter Ghost Recon: Future Warrior. It was interesting to watch the demonstration, with futuristic weaponry and tools, as the team of soldiers went invisible, and communicated very well to find and isolate the objective targets. Then were given an example of sniping and using that to our advantage in the setting of a hotel room. The game is to take place in the European beaches a bit in the future where economical and ecological disaster has overrun the continent.
As I was saying, the demo was crazy, sick to see a helicopter that is carrying an experimental vehicle go crashing and spiraling out of control after sniping the apache pilot in the head. Using the solitary setting of the hotel room, you find that it is amazing, as the AI actually seems to react to everything. Ghost Recon was perhaps one of the more anticipated games from years ago. Most games from the Tom Clancy series have people always anticipating the next big thing from Ubisoft, the leader in the tactical shooters.
After seeing the first demonstrations of this game, it was safe to say that Ubisoft did an amazing job, and I do look forward to the future of this European-based developer. Watching out for Splinter Cell titles, Rainbow Six, and the likes, it makes you wonder about the roots of this company. Enter the biggest surprise of the night, bigger than Ghost Recon, bigger than all the health mumbo jumbo bullshit, and event he innovative laser tag thing that made me question who develops these ideas to what audiences, was Rayman: Origins. Also add in there that crappy breathing game that is supposed to relax you but is taught at like every liberal college seminar to “reduce stress” when really I wanted to punch that developer in the face for such a lame idea of a “game.” Are we so masturbatory to our computers that we need a little “cute” video game to teach us how to breeze easy the way a simple yoga video can? Someone’s bullshitting us out of money.
Despite the stupid stuff, the core of Ubisoft this year was games. The announcement of Rayman: Origins will most likely be overlooked, but the fact that only five people are looking over the art and creation of this budding masterpiece of a game, I’m sure that most people will overlook it for other major announcements like Nier, Fallout: New Vegas, and of course, Halo: Reach. Do realize that although these games are respectable in their own way, from what I saw in that two minute preview of Rayman, I felt there was a distinctive line between the old-school gamers, and the new gamers that think that Nintendo 64 is “old-school”. Sure, I’m getting into an immature debate here, but my point being is that Rayman is an iconic character in a time when games were just getting to their first peak.
The graphical visuals that went into making this 2D side scroller is no small achievement, and if it turns out the way it looks, it can be considered an art piece all by itself. Hopefully what we saw was not just vaporware, but something spectacular that will teach an ancient dog some next generation tricks.
Ubisoft ended strong for the first day, unofficial first day of live coverage of E3, and though my only source has been the HD broadcast on G4TV, I believe highly that they may not be always the best when it comes to live technical broadcasts, but they are fans and gamers, to some degree. They know what the core gamers want to see, as well as showcasing some of the casual games that may not have as deep an impact.
I’ll give a brief analysis, as we were given a little bit more than expected for the day: First off, big hats off to EA, they showed us really what to expect, even though much of it felt like a rehash of what we already love, but being that most gamers are conservative of their favorite titles, they are showing us that games like Madden 11 will still have some different aspects. Games will take less time, there will be realistic huddle situations, and play changes will look like the real-deal.
Well, sometimes new is better than a game you just played the year before, and Madden is no different than any other AAA title that deserves a remake. Madden is turning out to be quite impressive, and people who love these sort of games, from the casual sports enthusiasts to the hard-headed no-necks that play football and eat pigskin for breakfast daily will find this to be the game they will want. Sure, I’m not the biggest football game fan, but if I were to play any of them, I’d rather play Madden over any other brand. It isn’t given it’s props every year for no reason, it is the best on the market.
EA wanted us to know that they will be rewarded for buying EA games, by getting access from the Gunclub, and games like Medal of Honor, and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 that are purchased, and being such a loyal fan, can get special online and DLC not available to those who don’t buy the games, or buy used. Gun Club can be accessed online from your computer, and it launches either today or very soon.
Overall at this particular spotlight, EA has brought together a great array of games for us to play next year and this fall. The question though, is what about this summer? There seems to be a draught of games for the summer season. And I am wondering what exactly we’ll be doing for fun, we may have to go outside and get some sun, and be active. This is a no-no on the hardcore gamer’s part, but maybe something will be revealed soon. We can only hope in the next couple of days.
Ubisoft is our closer for this day, and I might add they closed out quite impressively, even though I am not much of an Ubisoft player, compared to EA, but the do have some great games coming out that were not mentioned above: Driver Los Angeles will be one title that many people will be going ape over in the upcoming months. Driver Los Angeles will be a game that takes place right around to after Driver 3. The game’s trailer shows the two iconic characters of the series going head-to-head with each other. Although this game was not one that stood out to me as particularly interesting, it did not mean that it did not impress me to a high extent. I did find it more compelling of a story than recent driving simulation, particularly games like Motorstorm, and Burnout Paradise City. Older, but still games that are hailed as pinnacles for the racing genre on their respected systems.
Ubisoft’s biggest reveal had to be Ghost Recon to the hardcore gamers, but it is still to me the Rayman: Origins trailer that will stick out, and the art style may be retro but I love to find retro-like games done in a next-generation engine. I compare it to games like Street Fighter IV that came out with that classic 2D style but a bit of an added depth, called a “2.5D” game, and it was perfect to Capcom’s Franchise, when most other fighters are fully 3D.
Uibsoft will definitely have a great end year, and a great first quarter 2011, and one can only speculate just what the rest of 2011 will hold. Wow, I’m getting far ahead of myself! Let’s not forget that E3 itself is not even one day in! Excitement is abound and I feel terrible for some who haven’t had a chance to get there to this year’s convention. Don’t worry though, there’s always hope for next year, and E3 is still shaping up to have many wanted titles, and perhaps some sneak peeks at hidden games being kept under lock and key.
That’s all for this first-look at E3, I’m sure tomorrow will be packed with about seven hours alone of new games tomorrow with the official start of the convention. I’ll be loading up these full analysis of the E3 conventions whenever possible, but stay tuned in for more information as we get the big reveals at E3 all this week!

As always thank you for reading the Malacast Editorial, I appreciate every person that reads this blog, and also apologize for the limited amount of posts every month. You can also follow on the blog on Twitter: twiter.com/mcasteditorial, or @mcasteditorial. Thank you again, and please read Days 2-4 of coverage of the live E3 event June 14th-June 17th. For more news check out the E3 website, and G4tv did happen to promise extra content at G4TV.com.
Keep aware that although today is not the official day of the Electronic Entertainment Expo, I am calling it the first day, as a disclaimer has been put at the top of the page. Tomorrow I will have Nintendo and Sony’s showcases reviewed and analyzed, and although I for some reason have not seen Microsoft’s (it was not broadcasted in my area or even mentioned) I heard and saw clips, and it did suck royally. I try not to play favorites, but I absolutely hate Microsoft, and their showing of kinect, while not even really revealing anything for their core fan base made them seem off the bar this year. Maybe Sony and Nintendo will show them up, but who knows, we’ll all find out tomorrow, goodnight!