Well, I knew Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds would impress big at E3 this week and damn, it impressed big alright. I'm already digging what I seen from the videos alone with the fighting being a mix of Tatsunoko vs. Capcom and Marvel vs. Capcom 2. Hyper combos, DHCs, Snapbacks, Advancing Guard, Air Dashes, etc... yup its definitely Marvel baybee!!! I still need to read and hear more thoughts from the fighting game community that were at E3 playing the game. Keits from SRK posted his thoughts on his Twitter, so there's a start, but so far Marvel 3 is looking pretty HYPE right now. The playable characters in the E3 build are Captain America, Iron Man, Wolverine, Deadpool, and Hulk for the Marvel side while Ryu, Dante, Chris Redfield, Morrigan, and Felicia are playable for the Capcom side. Characters that were in previous versus games are pretty much the same for the most part retaining their special moves and their supers like Iron Man's Proton Cannon (now also anti-air too), Hulk's Gamma Quake, and Ryu's Shinku Hadouken. Dante and Deadpool so far make the transition to Marvel 3 pretty well as I like their playstyle. Dante can Devil Trigger as a super and has crazy combo setups and Deadpool hilariously has a Shoryuken and his super says "Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang!" Chris from Resident Evil 5 also has some neat stuff on his arsenal as well with his melee and shooting skills. The art style is truly living up to the comic book-y approach Capcom is going with as I do dig it. Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds will be out next year for the 360 and the PS3 as more characters will be revealed in the coming months. In the meantime, gameplay footage below...
Also for more info on Marvel 3, u can listen to the newest Wakeup SRK Podcast here.
Sony was once again the last of the big three press conferences and it was a solid showing of what is to come for the upcoming year for them. Obviously, the big focuses were 3D and Playstation Move, but also the most traditional conference of the three with information and montages. Let's run it down shall we...
They started off with their FPS banger, Killzone 3, also in 3D as you had to have 3D glasses on to see the full experience. As expected, Killzone 3 looks amazing with or without 3D and the shooting seems to be what to expect from the franchise. New this time around is the jetpacks, which seem cool as there is more potential for crazy setpieces. Killzone 3 will be out on February 11, 2011 3D ready and with Move support. A montage of games supporting 3D followed.
Then they moved on with well Playstation Move, their motion controller, with demos like Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11, which is pretty much self-explanatory with the Move controller as the golf club, but one of the better demos was next...
Sorcery seems like a cool game for those who like wizardry with full Move control with the wand. I still feel like the Move controller is still Lady Gaga's disco stick when it lights up in different colors. This is also out next year.
Heroes on the Move stars Ratchet, Clank, Jak, Daxter, Sly Cooper (also the Sly Collection coming in 3D), and Bentley and the footage seems early, which is also out next year.
It would not have been this year's Sony presser without an appearance by Kevin Butler with an inspirational and funny speech being one of the better moments of E3. This guy is pretty much Sony's mascot at this point and man he delivers on the charisma. After Butler's moment was done, they announced launch dates and prices for the Playstation Move, which is out on September 19 with the Move controller being 50 bucks, the secondary controller being 30, a Move bundle with Sports Champions for 100, and a PS3 with the Move bundle for 400. Not that bad of a deal considering Microsoft Kinect's current price alone is 150 bucks. Another montage of games with Move support then followed.
The PSP finally gets mentioned with no PSP2 announcement (oh well), but a new advertising campaign is being pushed starring Marcus. This is a similar approach to Kevin Butler is doing with the PS3 as this is going Genesis-Super NES territory here with the ads. It has worked for the PS3, so we'll see with the PSP in the upcoming months as they got some hardcore games out like Squenix's new games (Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep and The 3rd Birthday) and the recently released Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. There's also some camera thingy announced with some game too as well a teaser for God of War: Ghost of Sparta, also out next year.
LittleBigPlanet 2 then gets demoed and this game is filled with creativity being that you can create any game you want to now, which is too crazy for my mind to consume. The Play, Create, and Share formula gets expanded once again and with LBP2, there is like no limits. This is out this fall and I want to see awesome stuff out of the gate.
The Playstation Plus announcement came off a little bit iffy for me being the long awaited subscription plan for online. You still get to play games free for online, but this extended offering seems like just more goodies and first access to games and betas in the future. People will be suckered to getting this, but I don't see myself going Plus for now even though it would nice to have.
EA shows up now as a major third party partner to Sony giving the PS3 exclusive content for the future. Medal of Honor is one start with a limited edition featuring Medal of Honor: Frontline HDed up as a bonus, which is cool. Dead Space 2 then followed with a crazy demo of chaos and then their limited edition announcement of having Dead Space Extraction with Move support as a bonus, also cool! Sony has finally gotten around nailing exclusives from third party games, which has been Microsoft's thing for a while, but now they have Call of Duty timed exclusivity as Sony one-upped them with more support from other third parties.
In another surprising moment of the conference as one of the good moments, Gabe Newell from Valve shows up announcing Portal 2 for the PS3, out next year. Gabe has been a hater of the console scene, but he has seem to come around and good for Sony to make this happen since The Orange Box on PS3 was a disappointment. Portal 2 on the PS3 is the lead version as Gabe premiered the trailer here, craziness abound again as Glados does miss us wishing our return.
A new trailer for Final Fantasy XIV is next as it is still a MMORPG like XI. Nothing else to say for this one as its FF, so yeah.
One of my favorite trailers of this press conference is this multiplayer clip for Assassins Creed: Brotherhood just by the music alone. Ubisoft always nails awesome Euro-like music for their AC trailers as this one is no exception. The PS3 version gets exclusive content like more missions and a multiplayer beta soon. Another montage of PS3 games then follows...
Gran Turismo 5 will be out on November 2nd!!! Finally after this long wait as another amazing trailer with awesome music is above. I love the new additions like the Top Gear test track (because that show is still dope - New Series on June 27!!!) complete with the camera angles from the show and other stuff like Nascar and Rally. This game is just too big and also playable in 3D. Its definitely in my eye for best racing game of the year.
Infamous gets the sequel treatment with Infamous 2. Cole gets a new look and somewhat a new voice along with new ice powers. I enjoyed the first game a lot and expect nothing but good things for this one too.
Sony's last bombshell of their presser is the long awaited of Twisted Metal! This car combat franchise gets rebooted on PS3 as the original team, led by David Jaffe, is behind the project. Sweet Tooth finally makes his return to the gaming world as well as other characters from the franchise. Multiplayer is clearly a big focus with deathmatch modes as well as the new Nuke game. The Twisted Metal reboot is out next year and I'm excited for it glad it has returned since the car combat genre has been on decline.
That's it for the Sony presser as it is solid stuff with the 3D initiative and Playstation Move stuff. They had nothing but games and games for both casual and hardcore audiences, which is a good balance of what is shown compared to Microsoft's approach. It is clear that Sony still matters to the core and it definitely showed at this year's E3. Some things were missing like The Last Guardian, but all in all, a solid show by Sony with a great lineup for the upcoming year for the PS3.
Nintendo's Press Conference for E3 2010 today definitely brought the pain as I came out more happy after watching yesterday's conferences. Microsoft did sent out first blood yesterday with their presser, but Nintendo arguably went for the kill even with Sony yet to go.
The conference started off with a banger with the new Legend of Zelda game called Skyward Sword. Its definitely Zelda with Wii Motion Plus as the controls are more catered to that thing. I'm not exactly sure if it feels like a true reboot as we'll see how the core formula will still be in effect, but gameplay-wise, it is indeed going for something different especially with combat. The Wiimote w/ Motion Plus and Nunchuk truly act as a sword and shield as well as other items are easy to use too. Combat is a little more deep with specific sword strikes to kill enemies as well as defending yourself. Miyamoto demoed the game and it ended up sketchy with Wi-Fi interference, so the demo ended up a little disappointing. Oh well, since it is still Zelda as they ended with the trailer above. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword will be out next year.
Next up is Mario Sports Mix as Reggie only showed a clip of this Wii Sports title with Mario characters, so its pretty self-explanatory what is going on there as I don't need to say anything else about that.
Wii Party is next on the clips as this one was already announced, but hey its another Wii-like game for Miis. This time it is pretty much Mario Party with Miis, so I'm going to pass on this even though it could be fun when it comes out this fall.
Just Dance 2 is the sequel to the supposedly successful first game, which was quiet but why not announce the next one. Then again, Harmonix's Dance Central easily beats this, so pass on this too.
Golden Sun: Dark Dawn is the new Golden Sun game for the DS out this fall. I didn't play these games on GBA, but I heard they're pretty good.
A new Goldeneye game only of Wii got announced and it is cool that it exists, but yo only nostalgia alone will make people buy this game as I don't see this be any good at all. With the fake focus group crap and obviously u rather play shooters on the HD consoles, this would flop big this fall. I could be wrong though.
Epic Mickey gets demoed and I think its pretty cool. Its also Wii exclusive and out this fall. It has potential to be a sleeper game of the year in my mind.
Yay at a new Kirby game being announced called Epic Yarn out this fall. This new Kirby is pretty crazy as thought it would be Canvas Curse on Wii at first, but boy I'm wrong. I am digging this new take and it would be worth checking out. Reggie also mentions Dragon Quest IX's US release for the DS next month, but then the bangers started rolling again as if Kirby was crazy enough.
Donkey Kong Country Returns as been what Retro Studios (Metroid Prime Trilogy) has been up with lately and damn I was excited about this one. The DKC formula gets rebooted in 2D as if it is the New Super Mario Bros. for this infamous franchise from KONG letters, collecting bananas, mine cart sections, boss battles, and so on. I loved the SNES games and even though some would say they're overrated, they're still classics in my mind. I can't wait for the rebooted DKC as its now high on my most wanted list.
Metroid: Other M is out on August 31 as its my next Wii game to play. I also love the Metroid series as the Super Metroid music in this new clip brings it back. Hopefully Team Ninja will deliver with their take on this legendary franchise.
Now Iwata comes out with Nintendo 3DS talk as it is pretty awesome. I won't go crazy with the details other than no glasses required and it looks like a DS Lite/DSi with 2 cameras, a slider thing, and other stuff. Talk now from the press says it is pretty impressive stuff being the main highlight of E3 and I believe them. Developers also seem highly praised with what to do with the 3DS from Kojima talking how a Metal Gear Solid game would be on the handheld, Capcom with possibly a port of Super Street Fighter IV (Current word from the streets), Square-Enix with a Kingdom Hearts game, and others but Nintendo themselves have their own killer app ready for the 3DS which is...
Kid Icarus: Uprising!!!! Oh finally a new Kid Icarus game as Pit says "Sorry to keep you waiting!" Hardcore Nintendo fans would be crying watching this as the franchise finally gets back on track for the 3DS launch thanks to Sakurai (who did some Kirby games and the Smash Bros. franchise).
That's pretty much it for the Nintendo press conference and damn Nintendo did bring the pain like I said earlier. They didn't go crazy with the casual games like Microsoft did yesterday and core games delivered like no other from Zelda (Despite the shaky demo), Metroid, Kirby, and the DKC reboot by Retro. The 3DS is indeed living up as the showstopper of E3 even though no release details were given at the presser, but it is still a 2011 release worldwide. Most of Nintendo's bangers are out next year even though their fall lineup seems decent enough with Kirby, Goldeneye, Epic Mickey, and Wii Party, but compared to the other fall lineups other companies are offering, they might fall a bit short. Good thing they're still giving Zelda: Skyward Sword the time it needs to be amazing as well as DKC Returns being a return to the glory days. It is the best conference so far for me, so we'll see how Sony brings the pain in a bit.
Surprisingly last night, Capcom decided to roll out the Tournament Mode update for Super Street Fighter IV. This is free and and a patch for the game which has the mode as well as minor gameplay tweaks (very small that only serious players would know about). Unfortunately, I didn't stream myself playing and probably a good thing because I was having an off night to the point I was salty after losing some close matches I should have won. As for tournament mode, it is pretty self-explanatory if you have been competing in actual tournaments. The max players in an online one is eight and you are set in a bracket randomly. If a uneven amount of players are in one, some players will get byes to the next round, but there were instances when I was spectating matches where the match got restarted to the character select screen. Maybe it is the lag or something else, so I'm not sure how that happened. Anyway, you're also a spectator of the matches you're not playing, so it is nice to see how other players do their thing as you can conduct some sense of a gameplan if you move on (maybe counterpicking). Then again, if you lose your match and you're out of the tournament, you still have to sit through the rest of the matches if you want to stay in the lobby. Otherwise, you could just quit out and find another tournament to play in. Online tournament mode in Super SF4 is a good feature being what it is, but obviously these tournaments are not the real deal when you step into an actual tournament with other players getting hype and staring down your opponent as if you give him no mercy especially when Evo next month. I don't expect myself playing this mode as much, but its a good reason to get back on the grind.
