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Weekly Roundup 7/21: Post E3 Hangover Edition
E3 '08: Nick's Take On The Week
E3 ’08: Meagan’s Take On The Week
E3 '08: Jeff's Take On The Week
E3’08: Square Enix Roundtable Discussions
E3 ’08: Madworld Impressions
E3 ’08: Bayonetta Impressions
E3 ’08: Hands On With Tomb Raider Underworld
E3 ’08: New Animal Crossing: City Folk Details
E3 '08: Updated Dark Void Impressions
E3 '08: Hands On With Mega Man 9
E3 '08: Hands On With Wii Music

E3 '08: Nick's Take On The Week

e’re pretty lucky here at Game Informer Online to participate in shows like E3. This is the fourth E3 I’ve had the opportunity to cover for GI and saw a lot of games this year. A lot of people in the press have been focusing on the major differences between this year’s show and previous ones. While I must admit it was like walking through a closed airport at times, I’d rather just focus on the games and announcements so here they are!

The Press Conferences:
Besides the fact that hammer Microsoft threw down with Final Fantasy XIII coming to Xbox 360 was huge, there were not very many big E3-style announcements across the board this year. Microsoft also announced their redesign plans for the Xbox 360 Dashboard. I felt like they didn’t quite show the new system off well during their conference because I and everyone else was on the edge about it. When I finally got to see it in motion up close, I really ended up liking it. The guide button’s new function of bringing up all of the blades from the current system at any time even in game is really awesome. And 8 player chat? (and movie sharing???) Awesome.

On the Sony side, MAG from Zipper Interactive was the most interesting thing from them for me. 256 players online is pretty damn ambitious. I’m pretty interested to see if they can pull it off in a fun way. New Ratchet & Clank is always a plus and Resistance PSP could be awesome. Other than that, I felt like the movie announcements were a bit of catch-up to Live Marketplace and I really wish they would have done more with the God of War III announcement. Also, no Twisted Metal?

As for Nintendo, I felt like they just phoned it in this year. Wii Music was their big focus and like Wii Sports and the new Wii Sports Resort, it feels more like a quirky demo rather than a full game. Nintendo went on about not forgetting the hardcore audience and yet spent most of their time with boring sales numbers (including attachment rates that were both confusing and slightly unbelievable) and casual games. I feel like they blew their best stuff by making the Shaun White’s Snowboarding corny and not even showing the Grand Theft Auto DS title.

The Games:
Well, first I will just lay out my picks of the show. Please keep in mind that I did not see every game at the show because, well if you’ve been to E3, you know that’s just not possible. Fallout 3, Fable 2, Left 4 Dead, Pure, Resident Evil 5, Dead Space, Operation Flashpoint 2, Borderlands, Force Unleashed and Rock Band 2. Games I did not get to see that I wish I had include: EndWar, Infinite Undescovery, Flower, Killzone and the new Mega Man.

I had a chance to play Fallout 3 for about 25 min and it just wasn’t long enough. They pretty much had to rip me away from console. I spent my time roaming around an old high school filled with bandits. Nearly everything I came across was a fully realized item that could be opened, knocked around or picked up. Too bad that whole nuke thing happened and I don’t need 47 rusty cans, but it’s nice to know the option is there.

Left 4 Dead is going to change the way I look at multiplayer, something a game hasn’t been able to fully challenge within me since the Battlefield franchise was born (although Call of Du4 and Rainbow Six were badass). The idea that we can live out a Dawn of the Dead/28 Days Later situation in a well produced co-op game is so smart, I can’t believe no one thought of it before (no, the RE: Outbreak games don’t count because of their slow pace and focus on conservation of items). Every time I played Dead Rising, I thought that the only thing that could make this better is more people. L4D has done that but turned the speed up ten fold. Left 4 Dead literally rewards the players for mowing down zombies by throwing more zombies at them to shoot. And isn’t that the greatest reward of all-time?

Finally, I had a chance to play Pure, a game I’ve been telling people to watch out for. As it stands, it would seem like 3D arcade games (no, not Xbox Live Arcade, I mean arcade style games) are disappearing and being replaced with games with epic narrative (this year’s buzz word) and complex design. Don’t get me wrong, I played through Bioshock in one sitting and Mass Effect is near and dear to my sci-fi loving heart but I still think there’s still room enough for a balls-to-the-wall arcade racing game like Pure. (Think SSX on steroids and ATV’s) The amazing heights, awesome tricks and nearly perfect handling takes me back to why I started playing video games in the first place. Pure is a good reason not to push Disney Interactive aside as just a kids’ game factory.

The Rest:
So E3 was definitely smaller and for sure different. I don’t know what the ESA is up to for next year but it seems like the show needs to find itself in Europe for a semester and figure out what it is. But I still had a great time nonetheless and here’s a list of things that happened along the way: Meagan’s phone found hole in the floor at the Sony Conference and jumped in. We had an awesome turn out for our live blogging sessions. Vans slip-ons aren’t very good walking shoes. Drumming ‘Testify’ by Rage Against the Machine is totally awesome. Jeff and I ate more IHOP in one week than should be legal. Seeing The Who in concert is pretty much the definition of the word kickass.



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