Behind the Brow

My picks from E3

2006-06-10T03:17:00.000-07:00

Ok, so it's officially WAY past E3, and I didn't even get to go this year, but from extensivley reading all of the E3 news on the internet I possibly could during the show, I, your more thoughtful gaming informant, have picked out the games that you should be excited about.

So, in no particular order:

Bioshock, XBox 360
A creepy action RPG, with killer art direction, and great graphics! It appears that the game is set in an underwater station of some kind.

Assasin's Creed, PS3
This game looks freeking cool, and I am possibly more excited about it than Metal Gear Solid 4!

Mass Effect, XBox 360
A very cinematic sci-fi RPG. The screen shots remind me of Blade Runner, and the scene in Star Wars, Ep. II, where Anakin and Kenobi are searching in for Padme's would-be assassin in a bar on Coruscant.

Spore, PC
I wouldn't want to be a programmer for one of Will Wright's games...

Gears of War, XBox 360
Not exactly new news, but this game looks better every time I see it!

MGS4, PS3
Jaw, meet floor.

Viva Pinata, XBox 360
Crazy, CRAZY, looking game! The graphics just make you want to jump right in! I really love the art direction for this game more than anything else.

Halo 3, XBox 360
Great, goose-bump inducing trailer. Check out IGN's behind the scenes video on the trailer, it's pretty cool.

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, Nintendo DS
The reason I will enevitably get a DS (well this and the fact that Nintendo finally came out with a DS with good screens!).

Loco Roco, PSP
Again, love the art direction.

Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, PSP
Reason 1 I will get a PSP.

Earthworm Jim, PSP
Reason 2 I will get a PSP (although this game wasn't really at E3).

Rayman Raving Rabbids, Wii
Cool looking Wii game...

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Pricess, Wii/Game Cube
I will definitely be playing this on a Wii the day it comes out!

That about covers it. I'm sure there are other great looking games from E3, but these in particular, really excited me. Most of the games that looked the most exciting were for existing consoles, namely the 360, PSP, and DS. This is great news, as the systems are finally coming to their own. While I am super excited about PS3 (well, mostly) and Wii, there were only a few glimpses of promising games. I'd be willing to bet that there will be a bunch of mediocre games at launch for those two systems, especially the PS3, but by next year's E3, there will be a ton of awesomeness!

AWWW YEAH!!!

2006-06-05T00:13:00.000-07:00

Terrific news everybody! I got a job offer at Shiny! I can't wait to start! I will be an jr. environment artist for some next gen stuff (I think)... freekin' sweet man!!

Now I have to find a place down in orange county, which will cost me a shitloada cash (as the great Alan Emrich would say). Because I will be contract labor for 6 months, I have to find something that could potentially be tempoary; but hopefully Shiny will see my brilliance and decide they just have to keep me around after that.

Thanks to all that helped make this happen, especially Big Jim, to whom I owe a beer.

VIVA LA EWJ!!!

Wii controller

2006-05-17T12:46:00.000-07:00

I just read this article discussing the technology behind the Wii controller. The kicker was, it stated that the controller does not track in 3D as it was described to be able to do by Nintendo when they announced the controller. However, the article links to another article that announced a partership between Nintendo and PixArt to provide "sensor tracking for Wii Controller". Maybe big N just didn't have that aspect of control implemented yet for the E3 demos...

As it is, the Wiimote, and Nunchuck have several accelerometers inside them that allow to have tilt sensitivity (like the PS3 pad), and the Wiimote has a very obvious infrared window on it, which is used in conjunction with the elusive "sensor bar" that the user would place in front of your television. This feature is only used for aiming. It takes the place of the original NES lightgun technology which does not work with HTDV's. Apparantly, if a game does not use this aiming feature, you don't even need the sensor, and at that point, you have a remote controll shaped PS3 pad (as far as motion tracking goes)!

I don't know how much true 3D tracking will benefit over the "tilt and aim" configuration they already have, but I was certainly expecting it, and hope it gets implemented.

One new feature that I am really excited about, is the speaker in the Wiimote! How cool is that? Between the speaker, vibration, and motion tracking capabilities, I couldn't be more excited to play games on the Wii (ha! You thought I was going to crack some silly joke, didn't you?).

The PS3's 2 sku's

2006-05-16T20:47:00.000-07:00

Ok, so after Sony execs ripped on Microsoft for releasing the XBox 360 with 2 sku's, they went ahead and did the same thing. Except the $500 PS3 cannot be completely upgraded to match the $600 version. Which is a shame; I think the $500, 20GB version looks better without the slightly tacky silver accents of the 60GB model.

Looks aside, I am far more concerned with the fact that the less expensive model does not include HDMI. Recall that Blu-ray discs can be encoded such that if you are not using an HDCP digital video connection, it will not display the full resolution of the Blu-ray format, effectivley scaling down the resolution almost as low as DVD resolution. Aka, if you get the less expensive PS3, you could be getting a crippled Blu-ray player.

On the other hand, in an interview with SCE Studio President, Phil Harrison said something along the lines of, "if you want a media center like experience, then you will buy the $600 version, but if you just want to play the games, and watch Blu-ray high definition movies, then the $500 version is for you".

Maybe Sony is betting on content providers to not include the down-res flag. Or maybe the PS3 will be immune to this issue. Regardless, shame on Sony, they are simply going to confuse the hell out of everyone!

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, my bets are the 360 and Wii will prove to be the more popular game systems in this generation, although I do not doubt the PS3 will be successful too.

Seeing double D vision...

2006-05-16T16:26:00.000-07:00

Like every self-respecting gamer, I was watching G4 and criusing the internet non-stop during E3 since I couldn't go, and I happened to recognize one of the booth babes... She happened to be the same girl that I had my photo taken with last year at the Gun booth! Ok, well it was exciting for me...

So for those of you who went, was it tamer this year? Or was all this talk about covering the booth babes just talk? G4 had a funny segment on the poverty of booth babes...

Viva la booth babes!

Web site updated!

2006-05-16T13:38:00.000-07:00

I spent some time tweaking my website. I finally added some more stuff to my 2D section and added another video. Let me know what you guys think!

E3 competition?

2006-05-16T00:43:00.000-07:00

Everyone seems to be asking, "who won E3?" I don't get it; well I do, but it doesn't make any sense. Since when did E3 become a comptetion? It's a press junket!

Of course they are referring to the console wars between Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft, but E3 also has other stuff, like games and PC related stuff...

Unfortunately, I was not able to go this year as my school stopped giving out passes... (photo is from last year, and BTW, I saw the booth babe on the left all over G4's coverage of E3 '06!) Of all the E3's to go to, this was easily the most exciting!

I watched the three big press conferences online. I gotta say, my jaw hit the dirt when I saw Sony whip out a motion sensitive pad. My immediate reaction was "how sleazy of Sony to rip off Nintendo that blatantly!", but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited about the possibilities with that controller, and that system. Being a huge Metal Gear fan, I will enevitably end up droping 600 clams on the PS3, but not after a long wait till there is some must-have content available... and possibly a price drop.

I have decided that I need to get a 360 ASAP. Gears of War looks like it will be better than I had imagined, and the Halo 3 trailer got my blood pumping! Belive it or not, I am "very curious" to see what Viva Pinata is all about... It has an awesome art style! And OMG, I am not really a fan of Splinter Cell, but the new one looks very sweet indeed.

Of all the new consoles, the Wii (dispite the gay name) will be on my "must buy on release" list. I am super exited about this thing. With games like Twilight Pricess being there at launch (despite the fact that it's GC game), it will be irresistable (expecially since I don't have a Game Cube). Mind you, probably my favorite game of all time is The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time!

Despite being a graphics whore, the Wii's control scheme has me the most excited in the next generation of videogaming. Don't get me wrong, I can't wait to play some next-gen HD eye candy, and see some revolutions in animation and physics; I just hope I can afford to get all three new consoles, and a HDTV to play 'em on!