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E3: Street Fighter IV Trailer and Thoughts

Capcom treats Street Fighter fans to a new trailer at E3. The trailer displays all the characters from the arcade roster (Ryu, Ken, Chun Li, Blanka, E. Honda, Guile, Zangief, Dhalsim, Sagat, M. Bison, Vega, Balrog, C. Viper, Rufus, Abel, and El Fuerte) and shows a lot of the new gameplay system. I must say, as the product is getting closer to its final version, it certainly looks promising in many aspects.

I will admit I was not part of the Street Fighter IV bandwagon, when I first heard that they were bringing Street Fighter back to its roots I was upset that they were reverting back to the Street Fighter II feel. More details came about and it sounded like a faster paced SF2 with unblockables. As a competitive Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike player, it just sounds like a chipfest and move spamming game. More testings and videos came out and SF4 just didn’t look like it can be a polished, competitive game. However, the E3 trailer shows the unlimited potential of the new gameplay system.

The developers have been talking about the Revenge/Saving system since day one. In the trailer, it displays focus attacks in use. Focus attacks are unblockable attacks which take a while to charge up. While it is charging up, you can eat a hit without flinching and hit them with the unblockable attack. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Focus attacks can be canceled, leaving a variety of options and mind games. The E3 trailer also shows that any attack can be canceled (similar to Guilty Gear’s Roman Cancel). All these nifty mechanics look nice on paper and from the trailer, but how will it feel when people play the game? People will find it soon (even sooner if they do go to Evo World in Las Vegas during August).

Check out our Street Fighter IV gallery after the cut.

Continue reading E3: Street Fighter IV Trailer and Thoughts

Tags: E3, SF4, SFIV, Street Fighter IV

Sony Press Conference Recap

Sony just wrapped up their press conference for E3 in Los Angeles an hour ago, and in this write up I will specify the major points that took place. First I will start off with the money machine that still is the Playstation 2.

Jack Tretton announced that by the end of this year, the Playstaion 2 will have 130 new games launched for its growing library. This really is a huge number for such an old console, especially with HD being all the rage today. Games shown included; Madden 09, Yakuza 2, and Mercenaries 2. It was also announced that a new bundle consisting of the new game, Lego Batman, for $149.99.

The PSP had a really strong showing at the press conference, with games as well as PSP/PS3 integration. For game announcements, the huge one was Resistance Retribution, a side story 3rd person shooter which looked great from what was shown. The other games were basically just PS2 ports, like Madden. PSP also has not one, but two bundles for the fall; the Ratchet and Clank/National Treasure 2 bundle, and the Madden 09 Metallic blue bundle for $199.99. The PSN announced that users could buy movies on the PS3 and then put them onto the PSP for portable use, which was the real huge announcement for the PSP, and was quite a good one.

The last thing I will be discussing is the Playstation 3. A great deal of games and a huge PSN update stole this show for Sony. Ted Price came onto the floor within 15 minutes of the start to showcase Resistance 2, with some glorious gameplay footage and an astounding trailer. Really, it was phenomenal. In the gameplay, Nathan Hale is escaping to safety on rooftops from the 300ft monster that was hyped about for a while, and was also glimpsed at on Gametrailers show, GTTV. The monster seemed like he will be a great enemy for players to fend off, and I know I can’t wait to. LittleBigPlanet only had a few glimpses of gameplay footage, and Killzone 2 was nowhere to be found. The heavily hyped God of War 3 had a terrible teaser trailer towards the end of the conference as well. Infamaous had a great new trailer showing more gameplay footage, and looks to be promising. Playstation 3 will also have a lineup of “Greatest Hits” this fall consisting of: Resistance:Fall of Man, Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, Call of Duty 3, Rainbow Six: Vegas, Assassin’s Creed, and Warhawk. The 80gb model may be the only SKU soon, because its now has a price tag of $399.99.

The real kicker for game was a new title from Zipper Interactive, MAG-Massive Action Game. Say what you want about the title, but 256 player online should be the real draw in. It is pulling a Resistance 2 feature, which is breaking the teams into squads, in this case 8 players. A trailer was shown for the game and it looks to be, as Mel told me, an MMO-War. That does about sum it up for that one…which comes out in 2009.

PSN’s big announcement, as I’ve said before, was the ability to download and rent movies. The price to buy is $14.99, and renting was a little bit lower, but I don’t believe was mentioned. This feature will be available today, June 15th.

I will leave you with this question; what happened to HOME?

Tags: E3, News, playstation

Nintendo Press Conference Thoughts [Rant]

At first, this was going to be a professional write up on the Nintendo Conference that finished minutes ago. Then I actually saw what was presented, and I just got heated. So this write up is more of a rant including all of my thoughts and speculation.

The biggest game announced was Wii Music which to me was just a huge letdown, and the drums look stupid as you just bang the air instead of a drum kit. Most of the conference was spent talking about how much money Nintendo got from everybody, including me, who were suckered into buying the white paper weight called the Wii. Reggie Fils-Aime said that Nintendo has a huge lineup, actually, “dozens and dozens in the next few months”. Three were showcased with trailers, which are; Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Rayman Raving Rabbids: Tv, and Call of Duty: World at War which will utilize another dust collector, the Wii Zapper.

On the DS side, a new Pokemon game was announced which will surely please the 10 year olds. A huge surprise was a new Grand Theft Auto game titled, Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars. Unfortunately, no gameplay was shown.

The biggest announcement was Animal Crossing: City Folk for the Wii. This game looks very interesting because it comes with a new peripheral, Wii Speak. This item will allow everyone in an entire room to speak, as opposed to a singular headset. On the trailer displaying this, the sound quality was perfect, it was absolutely clear, but I just hope this will be the actual quality when shipped this year. Players can also jump into other players worlds and see how the other player plays the game and builds the town, which is a really nice touch.

As I stated, this was a write up of my thoughts, so this was purely opinated. I did state many facts of what went on and what was announced at the conference, but I also stated why the conference was, in my opinion, an epic fail for everyone who’s not a soccer mom.

Tags: Conference, E3, Nintendo

Sony E3 Press Conference Live Blog

Join us as we live blog Sony’s E3 press conference starting at 2:30PM EST!

Tags: E3, live bog, Sony

Another Gears of War 2 Update

During Microsoft’s Press Conference today, Fan favorite Cliffy B came out and demoed the higly anticipated Gears of War 2. He presented a 15 minute excerpt from a level where Marcus and Dom are fighting there way to a huge Locust sinkhole. The graphics are improved in tiny areas, especially the characters and shadowing. A few new enemies were featured, like a chain wielding locust and a pyromaniac locust wielding the new flamethrower which was used in the demo. Towards the end of the demo there is a hint at riding a Brumak, with Marcus’ line being, “If they can ride it, so can we…”. This will surely be a huge aspect of gameplay and please all the fans who were upset at Gears PC being able to fight the Brumak, but now they can ride one!!

Tags: 360, E3, gears of war

The Battle of the Bands - literally

Yes, this year will in fact be the true battle of the bands for the music-games genre, for this year Guitar Hero: World Tour will now feature drums and vocals. The drums for the new Guitar Hero are vastly improved aesthetically over the Rock Band drum kit. As many already know, this kit includes 3 pads and 2 symbols, all of which are touch sensitive and will make sounds based off of the intensity of the hit. Gameplay wise, this hasn’t been discussed much, and most gameplay hasn’t shown much of the drum aspect. Guitar Hero: World Tour also has a music creator, all of which can be shared over the Live/PSN service. Vocals however, are not in the creator mode, due to ” legal issues”, which is what one producer said in an interview on an episode of Gametrailers’ “Invisible Walls”. The game is set to feature 85 songs, consisting of the most Master Recordings of any other music game to date. Metallica’s new album which is set to release in September will be downloadable for both Guitar Hero 3 and World Tour, and 3 songs off of REM’s new album will be downloadable.

On the Rock Band 2 side, the entire set list was released in a joking manner during the Microsoft Press conference. Basically, the whole RB2 conference was on the set list, which is what I will mostly write about. The set list was displayed on the huge screen but in tiny font which caused the crowd to laugh. I will post the set list at the end of the article for you to drool over. There are 80 songs out of the box, plus another 20 available for free during the holiday season, one song consisting of a new Guns n’ Roses song, Shacklers Revenge. AC/DC has also made there debut into the music-game genre with the release of their popular song, Let There be Rock! The last major artist, Bob Dylan, has made his first ever debut with licensing his music in a video game with his song, Tangled Up in Blue. For those who purchased the first Rock Band can upload all the tracks onto the new installment in order to make life easier for players, which is a cool addition. Rock Band 2 will be a timed exclusive for Xbox 360 this September.

See the track listing after the jump.

Continue reading The Battle of the Bands - literally

Tags: E3, gutiar hero 4, rock band 2

E3 News: Square Enix Panel, Talks of Final Fantasy

If you’ve been keeping up with E3, Square Enix had breaking news; Final Fantasy XIII will be released on both the Playstation 3 and the Xbox360… in Europe and North America anyway. It will still remain a PS3 exclusive in Japan. Final Fantasy Versus XIII (not to be confused with FFXIII) is still planned as a PS3 exclusive.

It turns out that the decision to release FFXIII on both consoles was quite recent and the reason for it is because of console sales in Europe and America. There is no announcement for bringing FFXIII to the X360 to Japan.

Also at E3, Square Enix unveiled a new trailer. This trailer had Japanese text, new scenes, a new character, and some looks at what might be summons (Shiva/Ifrit?). The trailer didn’t show much of the battle system, just a glimpse of it recycled from a previous trailer. At the very end of the trailer , it states that it is for the Playstation 3 ONLY… in Japan. The game does look nice. Character models look very smooth and the effects look dazzling (especially the machinery, gunfire, and magic). Square Enix did stress that it will have a different feel/atmosphere.

Good news, Final Fantasy XIII will be multiplatform in Europe and North America. Bad news is it looks like the death of console-exclusive games will be coming very soon.

[Via Silicon Era]

Tags: E3, FFXIII, Final Fantasy XIII, News, ps3, X360