E3 features powerhouse developers Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo
E3 (the Electronic Entertainment Expo) is an annual four-day-long video game trade show where developers, publishers and console creators come together in Los Angeles to unveil new products and promote existing ones. It is, without fail, the most exciting time of the year for video game news. The numerous demos and trailers showcased at this year's show will no doubt be circling the Internet for weeks to come. Here, I'll try to recap the main events of E3 (each console creator's press conference) and offer my opinion on what mattered most.
First up was Microsoft, who kicked off the show with a demo for "Modern Warfare 3." After the madness that was "Modern Warfare 2's" plot, World War III was really the only direction Infinity Ward could have gone with its successor. And what a war it is. The demo featured spec ops soldiers swimming through New York City's West River, attempting to track down an enemy submarine. By the demo's end, dozens of battleships were being bombarded and fighter jets were screaming overhead as the Manhattan skyline crumbled in the distance. It looked solid, and as chaotic as ever, but perhaps even more scripted than its already highly linear predecessors. After having over half of its development staff for "Modern Warfare 2" leave the company, it will be interesting to see how developer Infinity Ward delivers the much anticipated follow up.
Not long after, a demo for the new "Tomb Raider" reboot was shown. This demo also appeared highly scripted. However, it showed off the series' new direction remarkably well. Borrowing elements from the film "The Descent" (2005), the demo featured series heroine Lara Croft, armed with only a torch, desperately fighting for her life against unknown captors inside a dark cave. Some excellent voice work and animation expertly provided a sense of desperation to the demo. This also helped to give a much needed sense of humanity to Croft's character — a warm welcome after a series of games that have so blatantly exploited her sexuality.
Afterward, the company (as could be expected) began to talk up its Kinect device (after all, the thing has sold remarkably well). In the first-ever demo for Bioware's "Mass Effect 3" the developers showed off how they had integrated Kinect's voice recognition into both the game's conversation system and into combat (by allowing players to send orders to their squad via voice commands). It wasn't the spectacular first look many were expecting of "Mass Effect 3," but the Kinect aspect of it actually seemed interesting and natural.
After showing off the addition of live television on Xbox Live (which could be a big deal if it pans out), design director of Epic Games Cliff Bleszinski took the stage with Ice-T (yes, the former rapper and actor) to demo "Gears of War 3." The demo featured Delta squad (heroes of the previous "Gears" games) fighting an enormous tentacle monster while aboard a cargo ship. Not much gameplay appeared new, but things certainly seemed to be on a larger scale. The visual fidelity was also quite high, as has become expected of the series.
Then, developer Turn 10 showed off a slick trailer for "Forza Motorsport 4," backed by the song "Power" by Kanye West. This was followed by a demo for "Fable: The Journey," which appeared to be an "on-rails" shooter for the Kinect in which the player casts spells by using hand gestures. And though they offered almost no details, Microsoft then announced that the PC megahit "Minecraft" would be heading to Xbox 360 with Kinect support. What followed were more Kinect titles that appeared targeted at kids, including Disneyland, "Star Wars" and "Sesame Street" games.
The Microsoft conference finally ended with a trailer for a game that they said would mark the beginning of a new Xbox-exclusive trilogy. The trailer was a bait and switch of sorts but eventually revealed to the world that "Halo 4" was currently in development. Crowd reaction was somewhat mixed, given that the series developer Bungie Studios was not going to be behind this game.
Personally, as much of a "Halo" fan as I am, it was frustrating to hear Microsoft jumping the gun and announcing an entire trilogy of new games, especially a trilogy starring Master Chief again.
In other "Halo" news was the announcement of "Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary," which is a rerelease of the original "Halo" with updated graphics and Xbox Live support, due out this November. The remake utilizes all of the same code from the original game, so "Halo" purists need not worry about changes to gameplay.
Later in the day was Sony's conference, which began on a rather serious note, with Sony President and CEO Jack Tretton personally apologizing to both consumers and developers for the roughly one-month outage of the PlayStation Network last month. As expected, he then tried to spin the story on a positive note. After that introduction, Sony wasted no time in ushering the co-presidents of Naughty Dog onto the stage to show off a spectacular demo for "Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception."
The demo featured series protagonist, Nathan Drake, aboard a cruise liner as a torrential storm raged all around him. Gameplay wise, not much appeared to be different from "Uncharted 2: Among Thieves" (2009). However, the demo showcased superior visuals and weather effects, along with some jaw-dropping exercises in physics. Throughout the demo, the entire ship was swaying and tipping back and forth as it crashed into wave after wave. At the demo's finale, the entire ship flipped on its side after taking on sea water. At this point, the entire physical space of the ship became turned 90 degrees, with Drake walking along what once were the ship's walls and swimming through flooded corridors. The game looks absolutely stunning and is already a sure contender for game of the year.
After spending a large chunk of the conference talking up 3-D TVs and the PlayStation Move motion controller, Sony wrapped up with information about what it had been calling the Next Generation Portable. The successor to the PSP was finally given an official name at the conference: PlayStation Vita. This portable gaming device, which many have claimed has graphical capabilities approaching the PS3, is certainly a sleek piece of hardware. It is packed with tech. It features motion controls, a touch screen (which is one of the sharpest looking screens I've seen on a portable device to date), a touch pad on the back of the device and even that second analog stick that every PSP user has been dreaming of.
Demos and videos were then shown for Vita-exclusive titles in the "Uncharted" and "LittleBigPlanet" franchises. Though they both looked very solid, the question from the PSP approach to portable gaming lingered: Why would people want to play a dumbed-down console title that they can take on the go? Sony seems to miss the ideas that Nintendo nailed down with the DS and now mobile gaming developers are pushing further. The novelty of having a console experience in the palm of your hand only goes so far. I predict the Vita will be successful at first (among very hardcore gamers) and have its sales taper off after a year or so (much as the PSP did).
The price point for the Vita was also announced: $249 for the Wi-Fi-enabled device and $299 for the AT&T-powered 3G version. This was much cheaper than anticipated, given its level of technical prowess, and was good news in spite of the sad decision to use AT&T as a carrier for the device.
But at this year's E3, all eyes were on Nintendo, as it prepared to unveil its new home console and what would mark the first system of the next generation. The eventual reveal was dubbed the Wii U. This new console, which finally supports 1080p HD, is also completely backward compatible with the Wii. Not only can any Wii game be played on the Wii U, but current Wii Remotes can be used with the device as well. Nintendo kept exact hardware specs on the system hidden, focusing instead on the capabilities of the new controller.
The Wii U-specific controller features a 6-inch touch screen embedded in the center of a traditional set of dual analog sticks, a directional pad and four face buttons. It also boasts a microphone, two speakers, a gyroscope and an accelerometer (meaning it has motion control built in) and a front-facing camera. The touch screen is the primary addition, and it utilizes this screen in a similar way that the Nintendo DS utilizes its dual-screen capabilities. Games can be played on the TV that the console is connected to or entirely on the controller's screen. Some may even allow developers to display differing perspectives of the same 3-D game environments on the TV and the controller screen simultaneously.
An example of this was given in a demo of a golf game. In it, the TV displayed a golfer readying to hit the ball out of a bunker, while the new controller lay on the floor, displaying a close-up of the ball in the sand. From there, the player used a standard Wiimote to swing the club, lining up his shot by looking down at the controller to see where he would contact the ball.
One of the more impressive technical elements about this controller is that there isn't much of any hardware in it. Rather, it receives real-time video that is wirelessly transmitted from the Wii U. What this means is that the game is being processed inside the system while the video output is being streamed to the controller's screen without latency (video lag).
Many other possible uses for gameplay were discussed, but this was all still incredibly theoretical. Such is the way with Nintendo: create lots of crazy tech along with some inspirational ideas and see where developers can take it. However, as successful as the Wii was for Nintendo, it certainly alienated many dedicated fans. Experienced gamers (myself included) found the console mostly devoid of interesting releases for long stretches of time. It catered instead to introducing a new audience to the world of video games. While that is a noble goal, it couldn't help but feel like Nintendo had turned its back on those who loved it the most.
Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime made clear that he understood the frustration from long-time gamers and that the company was looking to integrate both hardcore and casual gaming audiences with the Wii U. The Wii's hardware was always its drawback, and it prevented many large developers from releasing their games on the system. Thankfully, the Wii U is rumored to be just as powerful as an Xbox 360 or PS3, if not even more so.
It might have been all talk, theory and video demonstrations from Nintendo, but a series of short video interviews showed that several industry heavy-hitters had already been experimenting with and conceptualizing ideas for the console. Among those to express interest in Wii U were Peter Moore (president of EA Sports), Ken Levine (creative director on titles such as "Bioshock") and Warren Spector (project director on "Deus Ex" and producer of "Epic Mickey"). Finally, a few titles were promised, including "Darksiders 2," a yet unnamed "Tekken" game, "Batman: Arkham City" and an "Assassin's Creed" title. The system is still very much in the infancy of its development, but so far it looks very promising.
At the end of the four-day video game extravaganza, things seemed a tad tamer than in years past. Despite the announcement and detailing of new hardware, there weren't really any huge surprises or announcements that came out of left field. The future seems to hold a lot of large-scale market competition, with Electronic Arts positioning upcoming titles to attack competing publisher Activision's biggest money makers. They have been promoting "Battlefield 3" in the hopes that it may dethrone "Modern Warfare 3" come this fall. They have also been hoping against hope (for years now) that the upcoming Massively Multiplayer Online game "Star Wars: The Old Republic" will be able to compete in any real sense with the juggernaut "World of Warcraft." In both instances, I'm quick to doubt that EA will put a dent in either game's fan base, but only time will tell.
On the hardware side, we have Sony reentering the competition in the portable gaming market with its PS Vita (which is going up against the new 3DS and, let's face it, the mobile phone market as well). Then there's Nintendo's Wii U, opening up the next generation of consoles. That system raises a lot of questions, not least of which is how Microsoft and Sony will react to it in the coming years. How long until we see an Xbox 3 or a PS4? And what about Kinect? Is this technology ever going to be integrated into more traditional games in a meaningful way, or will its uses always be segregated from other Xbox games?
But at the end of the show, the games left me most impressed. Demos for "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim," "Bioshock: Infinite" and "Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception" were my personal highlights and are a must-see for everyone. In the coming months, and with the plethora of fall releases, we'll get to see how all of these games pan out. The most striking fact seen when so many games are shown off in such a short time period is how diverse the gaming industry is becoming. Yes, there are plenty of shooters, but the list of what developers are trying to deliver to the player broadens all the time. It's an exciting time for video games, especially as the definition for what constitutes a video game gets more and more complicated with each passing year.