See you Soon!

Alright guys. I’m leaving for about two weeks to France for a bunch of weddings.

I’ll be back in July. Have fun!

Necessary Force Could Be the New Max Payne

While Max Payne 3 is being developed we are, as best as I can put it, cautiously hopeful. The game looks very different and developed by a new company so there is worry. But we shall wait until we actually play the game to pass final judgment.

If all else fails there is one game that could carry the torch. Necessary Force looks to be this game. I just discovered the debut trailer and it looks very promising.
The setting is very noir, looks to be set in a New York type town, featuring a gritty detective and even the music sounds very similar. It looks great and I will keep an eye on this one.

The issue being that is is developed by Newcastle, a Midway UK branch, who may go under soon…. Let us pray people.

Max Payne Voice Actor to Change

The Max Payne series was known for a few things. The Bullet Time, the dark gritty New York ambiance and Max’s voice…among other things.

But this time things are different. Max is old, he’s not in NY but in Sao Paulo, Bullet Time has been done to death…. and we just learned that he had an operation on his vocal cords.
Rockstar announced that the actor who voiced Max to perfection int he first two games, James McCaffrey, will not be returning. The main explanation is that Max is older and so his voice has changed and the actor needs to reflects this.
Now I get the idea but I don’t know about you, my mom’s voice hasn’t changed dramatically in the 29 years I’ve known her… But let’s give them that.

What worries me is that Rockstar’s art director Rob Nelson stated that “All the Max Payne themes will remain intact – manipulation, betrayal, and the stuff that really made Max Payne“. But that’s not it! What Made Max Payne Max Payne was the noir ambiance, the NY setting, the moody soundtrack and of course Max’s thoughts being voiced by James McCaffrey.

I fear Rockstar will not be able to capture the feeling that Remedy gave to the series. But I will wait and hope.

Max Payne 3 First Info

Game Informer once again scores big, after Halo 3: Recon, Uncharted 2, God of War III, BioShock 2, Assassin’s Creed II and Modern Warfare 2 (Phew!) it’s now time for our favorite gritty cop (sorry Vic Mackey) to take center stage.

Taken from the cover story of their last issue we get the first few details of Rockstar’s Max Payne 3.

• Max is bald (as we can see)
• He has become addicted to Pain Killers which will affect gameplay in some way
• The game will take place 10 years after The Fall of Max Payne
• It will take place in Sao Paolo with urban battles in the slums
• There will be Bullet-Time but it will be more violent
• There will be a night/day cycle
• You can destroy environments
• The game uses the RAGE engine (GTA IV, Red Dead Redemption)
• There will be a multiplayer mode

Seven Haunted Seas Trailer

The E3 mayhem is over so I can take a breather but that doesn’t mean that another sweet trailer didn’t just come to my attention.

Said trailer came out about a month ago but I only heard of the game while reading the latest issue of Play (Bayonetta cover) last night.
The game looks really interesting. The first thing you’ll notice is the art style which is gorgeous and obviously reminiscent of The Curse of Monkey Island but much darker.

The game will be an action RPG and you will travel the great sea to discover new islands but the developers have said they want this travel to be a very dangerous endeavor where you will have to face hard weather, sea monsters and more.
The team at Titmouse Games said the game was a mix between Fable and Wind Waker with a darker tone.

In any case I’m keeping an eye on this one because I love the art style and I love pirates and ocean exploration sounds great.

E3 2009: Sony Press Conference

Damn it is nice to end on a good note! Sony’s press conference once again delivers. Bear in mind I’m no fanboy, I love my PSX and PS2 like anyone else and I think the PS3 is a good console picking up steam. I also own an Xbox and a 360 and a Wii and a GameCube and a DS. I’m a gamer and that’s it.

But now that I’ve seen all of the Big 3 conferences I come out with the same feeling I did last year: Sony tops the show, but not by much. What makes Sony’s conferences so nice is that there are very stylish, they are pro without being pompous or boring (see the Hannah Montana announcements) and they have games. MicroSoft is always close being with usually a bit more games but in terms of the conference itself they fall just a little short. And then, of course, there’s Nintendo, our beloved Nintendo, which has given us cringe-worthy conferences back to back.

But this is about Sony who reminded us nicely that the PlayStation came out 15 years ago… I know right?

Mantra: One Vision

One of the big ‘news’ today that was not software related was the PSP Go! which as Jack Tretton put it is “the worst kept secret of E3“. As a result nothing really new was said on the technical side. It will have 16G of flash memory with possible extension, built-in WiFi and Bluetooth.
Jack made a point to say that the all-digital console would not replace current PSPs and that all games will be available digitally as well as in UMD format.
They also unveiled Media Go which is an app allowing you to access the PS Store directly from your PC. The PS Store will have new content partners including Showtime and Manga Entertainment.
The PSP Go1 will be available on October 1st for $249.99. No price drop of previous versions was announced.

The other big news was Sony’s motion controller. It was unveiled by Richard Marx, creator of the Eye Toy and is in essence a WiiMote but with a twist or two. First of all it seems to be color-coded so for instance if you waggle the controller while it’s red it will throw a fireball, if it were blue it would be an ice ball. Second and most important it looked very VERY precise during the demo, precise enough to actually write smoothly with.
It’s important to keep in mind that, like Natal, this is still a project in development (this is set to launch in 2010) so neither the design nor the technology is final. both technologies are very impressive and promising but for now Sony’s seem more game-ready.
It will certainly be exciting to see where this goes in the future.

Now let’s move on to the games. Sony had prepared 2 videos featuring all the upcoming games for PSP and PS3 and they also announced 50 PlayStation games coming to the PS Store this year starting with Final Fantasy VII available today! But they also had some more in-depth trailers and demos for several games.

• Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Sweet gameplay demo with lots of destruction and flying objects everywhere. Awesome dialogue as well.
• MAG. Live demo of a game session involving 256 players at once! seemed very complex but interesting. There appeared to be a very slight lag in the gameplay though.
• Gran Turismo PSP. it will be in full 60FPSas shown in the trailer and will feature 800 cars and 35 tracks with 60 variations. You can play with 4 players and will be able to trade cars with others.
• Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. Ah now that’s a trailer! Unlike yesterday’s lackluster Rising trailer this one was great. This a “true sequel of the franchise” not a spin-off and the MGS4 team is developing, Kojima will write the script and produce. The game will take place in the 70s, ten years after MGS3. It is due in 2010.
• Resident Evil Portable. Not much was revealed except that it will be a complete new game.
• Agent. A new Rockstar property that will be exclusive to the PlayStation 3 and will be set in the late 1970s.
• Assassin’s Creed II. Awesome demo and great trailer! you will not start out as an assassin but will become with the help of people like Leonardo da Vinci! You will have more diversity and more options available to you. Double Headed Blade! The game will be out the Holiday season along with Bloodlines for the PSP. Out November 17.
• Final Fantasy XIII. A new great trailer but with so-so dubbing, not bad but not great either. i’m still on my knees for Japanese VO.
• Final Fantasy XIV. Wow now that was unexpected. The trailer reveals that it’s actually an MMO and so a spiritual sequel to FF XI. The game will be exclusive to PS3.
• Mod Nation Racers. The new game in the Play, Create, Share line. It is a fun kart game with more adult graphics. The very impressive demo showed the track creation tools which offer tons of options and can be tried instantly.
• The Last Guardian. Otherwise known as Project Trico. The trailer was a gorgeous graphical update of the one we saw a few weeks ago, though a few scenes were added at the end.
• Gran Turismo 5. A decent trailer shows WRC and Nascar but not much else was revealed as usual.
• God of War III. An amazing demo!! Brutal ,bloody, gorgeous. The game is the final chapter of the trilogy. Coming March 2010.

E3 2009: Nintendo Press Conference

I don’t know what it is. Is it my skewed view? Is it that we have loved Big N for so long that we expect nothing short of perfect from him? Is it that we are being too harsh? or Is it that the Nintendo Press Conference was really disappointing?

Whatever the case may be the conference left me with mixed feelings. I was mostly boring and there were some announcements that can only be seen as a joke (I’ll get to that). But there were also some good and a few great announcements no matter how jaded we may have become.

Mantra: Everyone’s Game

NB: Keep in my mind that I will add/update links as HD videos pop up on the web.

A bulk of the conference was spent crunching numbers and explaining why Wii is #1 and such. It was boring to a fault. MicroSoft got it right with there “Showing Not Telling” philosophy.
Nintendo talked a lot about there Wii Motion Plus with some more gameplay from Wii Sports Resort (Archery and Basketball) and while we are all excited about this addon (aside from the attached rubber case) the way Reggie Fils-Aime talked about it made me cringe. He said “you cannot SEE the difference” and quickly queued in a trailer which seemed ironic to me… He said “every mistake you would make in the real world will reflect in the game” but then how is this a game… and is Motion Plus really that precise??
I know and understand I am really nitpicking here but that’s what I’ve come to these past 2 years with Nintendo.
And for all my criticism I’m convinced that Wii Sports Resorts will be very fun to play! It is just there delivery that annoyed me. Cammie Dunaway I guess felt annoyed that everyone last year made fun of her lame jokes and so this year she was all business. And she looked it too. Not a smile and every sentenced delivered as if we were rebellious teenager who need to hear the truth but so sick of telling it that you’d rather walk away.
Again I may be over-analyzing but I really felt this way.

Anyway enough of this. There wasn’t any really big new hardware or partnership announcement (aside from the fact that pictures taken with your DSi can now be uploaded to Facebook) so let’s get on with the games.

• New Super Mario Bros.Wii. Fairly exciting looks very similar to the DS game playable with 4 players. Coming Holiday 2009. Here’s the trailer.
• Wii Fit Plus. It’s Wii Fit with new activities….YAWN! Cammie actually said “It’s Brain Age for your backside” and “it’s the game that will help the Wii stay at the top of mind“. Sad. It’s coming Fall 2009.
• Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story. A new game in the RPG series looks really cool with a trailer to boot. The game will come out on DS in Fall 2009.
• Super Mario Galaxy 2. Should be the biggest announcement of the day but it looks exactly like the original except you can play with Yoshi. Still it’s Mario and a nice trailer to go with it.
• Golden Sun. A new Golden Sun for the DS!!! This is all that’s know for now. Check out the nice trailer.
• Metroid: Other M. A new Metroid for the Wii!!!! Looks like a 3D platformer. Great trailer.
• Dead Space: Extraction. Nice trailer with great ambiance except for the sound glitch. Looks promising.
• Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles. Likewise looks promising. Nice trailer with some gameplay.
• The Conduit. The graphics look nice in the trailer but that’s about it. Nothing new.
• Final Fantasy: The Crystal Bearers. Not much is revealed in the trailer but it looks like there is some aiming/targeting involved.
• Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days. Showed a nice trailer and will be released on September 29.
• Wii Vitality Sensor. The daily joke. Iwata unveiled this new ‘game’ in the Brain Age, Wii Fit series. It looks ridiculous, it attaches to your finger and………reads your pulse. That’s it. Pathetic.
• Style Savvy. An import of Girl’s Mode in Japan. It’s a dress up game for teen girls. At least the music in the trailer is cool.
• Women’s Murder Club: Games of Passion. Based on the James Patterson novels the trailer shows the game which seems to be a mix between interactive novel and adventure game. It could turn out pretty fun.
• C.O.P.: The Recruit. Oh well, the trailer started out really nicely but then the game looks very average so wait and see.
• Mario Vs Donkey Kong: Minis March Again. It will be available only through download on DSi Ware next week. Here’s the trailer.

The Best of the Rest From E3 2009

In this post I will post everything that impressed me that didn’t come from the Big 3 conferences. So this includes EA, UbiSoft and of course the various booths throughout the floor.

Let’s dive right in!

Star Wars: The Old Republic
OMG!!!!!! As soon as i saw all the Jedi walk in I knew it. But still the trailer blew me away. It is as high quality as a Blizzard trailer would be and that is the biggest praise I can give it. Watch and rewatch it!

The Secret of Monkey Island – Special Edition
Yes Yes Yes!! This looks and sounds amazing!!!!!! I’m a huge LucasArts and adventure games fan so this is just amazing. The instant switch between classic and special edition is truly impressive

Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box
Sweet trailer. I loved the first one and have been expecting this ever since so this is great news!

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years
Sequel to FF IV available through nine episodes on WiiWare

Castlevania: Lord of Shadows
Amazing trailer!! Potentially a great 3D Castlevania at last. Kojima Productions is working on it. It looks really polished and the gameplay looks nice.

Academy of Champions
This trailer caught my eye. I’m not a big sports fan but I like the Harry Potter meets Captain Tsubasa feel of the game.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine
Another Warhammer 40,000 another great trailer! And this game is an action-RPG so it’s more up my alley.

E3 2009: Microsoft Press Conference

Today at 10:30am PST E3 officially launched with the Microsoft press conference. It feature several announcements, some big and some small, some exciting, some yawn-inducing. But overall I think it was a good conference.

Mantra: Showing Not Telling.

NB: Keep in my mind that I will add/update links as HD videos pop up on the web.

The big announcement of the conference was Project Natal. The long speculated camera with movement recognition. It turns out it will also feature facial and voice recognition.
They really pushed it with appearances from Steven Spielberg and Peter Molyneux but it was a mixed bag.

The lame painting demo, though somewhat fun gave me the same feeling as Wii Music last year. Completely gimmicky and useless. Not precise enough to be used in games. The Ricochet demo, likewise, was fun in the sense that the girl who did the demo after 5 minutes seemed ready to jump into the shower. So what of hour long sessions…..

The whole Lionhead demo is also bittersweet. On the one hand the demo itself is sad! Following on the whole new stuff for Live, now you don’t need to press a button with Natal voice recognition, you don’t need to see your friends because you have Facebook and Twitter everywhere and with Milo you don’t even need a friend! Sad really.
But on the other hand if you look past the presentation itself. What it offers in terms of new technology, when harnessed, could be amazing in games. Imaging being in Resident Evil 5 and instead of having to go through ammo inventory management hell, you would just say “give my shotgun ammo” and ..voila! Truly an amazing potential that has yet to be developed.
It is after all still a ‘project’ so let us give them the benefit of the doubt.

In other none-straight-game-related stuff, Microsoft announced new partnerships:

• Last.fm which will allow access to the famous music site. In addition people with gold subscriptions will have access to it all for free. This feels like this year’s Netflix deal.
• Facebook. This a a pretty big thing if it’s exclusive but all in all it allows you to do what you already do on your PC and Blackberry from your 360. YAY lazy.
• Twitter. Same as Facebook, nothing to add.
• Sky TV in the UK which will allow you to watch live TV.
• All videos will now be available instantly in 1080p. Nice but I’ll believe it when I see it.

The announcements most of the people who may read my blog (however few) are interested in are the games. On that front I thought Microsoft did pretty well so let’s dive in.

• The Beatles Rock Band. Paul, Ringo and Yoko! Pretty big PR. Check out the amazing game intro. All You Need Is Love is a 360 exclusive and I am so getting this game! I don’t own it yet and the Beatles guitars look awesome. Out 09-09-09!
• Modern Warfare 2. They showed the long trailer that came out last week but they also had a gameplay demo in the snow with blizzard weather and snowmobile that was awesome!
• Final Fantasy XIII. It was basically the Japanese demo of the English version with English voices. I’m still praying for VO in the game though. They unveiled Odin which was cool. It’s set to release in Spring 2010.
• Splinter Cell: Conviction. They showed a very nice demo and trailer. The game looks darker and features some new stuff like an EMP grenade and ‘Mark and Execute’ which allows you to sort of set a sequence and get it going for a fast kill.
• Left 4 Dead 2. Featured a great trailer and a release date for October of this year.
• Halo 3: ODST. Another sweet trailer, Bukcle up and prepare to drop! Some gameplay footage in New Mombasa as the Rookie. The game will have a flashback systema nd you will play several ODSTs to build up the plot.
• Halo: Reach. Unveiling of the game. Set around the time of the novel ‘Fall of Reach’ which was a prequel to the game. No surprise another nice trailer. Set to release in 2010 and there will be a beta access with ODST.
• Alan Wake. At last!!!! A very nice footage of the game. Walking around at night with a tryst flashlight. It reminded my a lot of Alone in the Dark on the DC. You seem to be facing ghost which are neutralized with a sort of EMP weapon. The game is coming out Spring 2010.
• Forza Motorsport 3. A short trailer and a live demo showing the different views with the head vision going left and right. A new very deep costumization and video editing system for Live. Release date set for October.
• Metal Gear Solid: Rising. and HERE. WE. GO. After Devil May Cry and Final Fantasy Sony lost the Metal Gear exclusive. Aside from this the whole thign was fairly poor. Same trailer we’ve been teased with for weeks (and the countdown hadn’t even reached zero!). Even though it’s called Metal Gear SOLID it Kojima made a point to say it doesn’t feature Solid Snake but Raiden as we knew.
• Shadow Complex. New Epic Game for XBLA. was unveiled through massive sound problem so we didn’t hear a bunch of stuff. The animation looks a lot like Bionic Commando Rearmed and the map is reminiscent of Metroid/Castlevania.
• Crackdown 2. Featured a nice trailer but that’s about it.
• Brutal Legend. Tim Schaeffer detailed some of the voice work and characters in the game with a  fun trailer. Included are Ozzy Osbourne, Motorhead’s Lemmy Killmeister, Lita Ford and more. Still coming out Rocktober!
• Tony Hawk Ride. unveiled the final design for the skate peripheral as well as a basic trailer. nothing thrilling.
• Joy Ride. A sort of Mario Kart with your Avatars in the cars. But it’s free so there’s really nothing to complain about. Could be fun.