I started my second day a little slower than yesterday, still fighting whether I should continue or not.  Today was a little easier to shake the feeling of “WhyTF bother?”  , Alarm didn’t go off on my phone, a little worrying, but I think I know why it didn’t go off, so, this time, I won’t be powering down and changing batteries, powering back on and expect the alarm to stay put (even though the little symbol was still in the taskbar.)

Didn’t see too many games today, spent most of it talking with developers of controllers and peripherals.  But, here is what I did get.

Transformers: War for Cybertron.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was very cautious about this game.  There hasn’t been a good Transformers game in… ever.. I think.  Transformers 2 was playable, barely… but not very fun after you play a couple maps and realize…this is all you’re going to be doing.  The first Transformers movie game failed as well, being too little and too shallow. Transformers Armada wasn’t bad, but wasn’t hyped either. 

Transformers War for Cybertron is being developed by High Moon Studio, a subsidiary of Activision.  After playing Transformers:W4C.  I can’t wait for this game to come out.  The controls are pretty easy to get your head around.  A-Jump, B-Grenade, Y-switch weapon, X-reload, Left trigger zoomed, Right trigger fired.  The bumpers are assigned to special abilities of the particular Bot you have selected.  Left stick button was to transform, which aided in faster travel, and the right stick button was to melee attack.

We where placed in a 5 vs 5 match, Autobots vs Decepticons.  We where allowed to create our own Transformer.  Which sounded a lot cooler than it really was, I’m not sure if they are going to expand upon this or not.  But we where given about 20 different “presets” to select from, then we could choose the chassis and color.  hopefully in the final you can select different body parts and such.

We started in a defend the base type game called “Power Node” I believe, same concept though, you have to capture a “Power node” and make sure the other team doesn’t take it back over.  As the game began and I got a sense of the controls, they felt good.  Smooth and responsive.  shooting and aiming was easy.  Moving around as a vehicle took a little longer to get use to, and wasn’t like driving in a racing game.  it was acceptable though.  Actual gameplay was really fun,  It wasn’t a particularly intense match as we, the Decepticons, owned face.  at halfway point we where ahead by 100 points.  in a 300 point match.  So, yeah, it wasn’t even close at the end.  The Camera never got in the way or stuck behind something while I was playing.  Graphically, it looked great.  The game is running on the Unreal Engine, so of course it’s going to look good.  So, as of right now.  The game looks, plays, and feels great.  It’ ships June 22nd.  So next week.

 

Power Gig: Rise of the Six String

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here, I played a new game from Seven45 Studio.  The studio, from what I’ve seen, hasn’t done anything else, this is there first actual game.  They are, though, a break-off of "First Act” Manufacturing.  Who make guitars and so on.

Keeping that in mind, we’ll have a look at everything. Graphically, it looks alright, nothing mind blowing, but it looks about as good as Rock Band did in it’s day.  What really matters is how the “Track” moves, right?.  Well, it seemed to flow pretty smoothily, I didn’t see any hitching or stutter (As I did see in Rock Band 3, it’s farther off from release, so, it’s still being worked on.)  The straight down approach of the board never sat well with me, I very much prefer the tilted look of GH and RB.  The actual guitar instrument(above) felt very good, very sturdy, and very much like a real guitar, which it is.  When I got into the game, I tested pressing down and strumming before the game actually started, the sensitivity under the fret board felt very good, it picked up easily, and picked up strumming well, responsive, no sense of lag.

Once in the actual game, again, it felt responsive, there was a large window of error too.  I could strum pretty late or early and still hit the note.  it did effect my multiplier though. dropping it down one notch, keeping a perfect “strike zone” would increase the multiplier.  missing a note right out, would lose the whole multiplier.  This type of system seemed to work well, and continually rewarded you for doing well.  I wasn’t allowed to select a higher difficulty, which I would have liked.  I’m interested to see how the different settings work.  For the setting I was on, all you had to do was mash on a fret board and strum, you didn’t have to single pick any strings, or tap an individual string on the fret board. 

The problem… was, it just wasn’t that fun… everything worked right, but, it just didn’t catch me.  And the “drums” (above).. don’t have pads or anything, you basically pretend to drum over a sensor, which triggers the note on screen.  From what I’ve seen, this wasn’t working for many people, I saw a few staff at the booth having to explain how to do it “right” in order to get it to trigger.  it simply didn’t look fun at all.  But the guitar looks great, and from what I was told, it will work with Rock Band 3.  Which, from the pricing I’ve heard on the “Premium” Rock Band Guitar, is a better option in terms of price.

Mad Catz Peripherals:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This, is the new "Pro" model (Not Premium) Wireless Mustang Rock Band 3 guitar… if you want to count, there are 102 buttons.  That….is… in…SANE

each button feels spongy, but not bad.  I think a click wouldn’t have felt good, and I can see that going with a spongy like depression is more realistic to a real guitar, while these are far softer and don’t require nearly as much strength.  Which is good too, after all, it is a game and you don’t want to get fatigued.  The strings feel too loose to me though, This isn’t a deal breaker at all, but, just a preference I guess.  the controller looks good, but the neck had a significant give when I applied torque to it, more so than the original RB controller.  Overall, it looks like a good medium ground for people wanting to get into “real” guitar work, but not quite ready for the real deal. I was also told it’s MIDI compatible, whats that mean?. if you have a MIDI adapter, you can use it as…basically, a real guitar. 

The R.A.T. 7:

I didn’t get many pictures, but I did talk with one of the creators of the Mad Catz R.A.T. 7 “mouse”  Nearly everything about this mouse is customizable.  The pinky rest can be removed, or replaced with 2 other rest options, same with the thumb rest, the palm rest is also interchangable and also length adjusted.  the knob at the end can be unscrewed, this holds the weights, you can go without, making it light, or add several weights to make it heavier. every button (but the small center button just under the mouse wheel.) is customizable.  the wheel on the side, to me, felt a little too lose, but still clicks unto place and is completely customizable as well.  The person I talked with mentioned how several of the guys working on it had set it to default as the volume for the computer.  it will feature the fastest DPI seen in a mouse, at 5600dpi.  They will release in July, no exact date yet, but July was told to me as the window month. 

Overall, it felt very good, and with all the customization allowed, anyone could have this mouse and have something completely different than there friends R.A.T. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Razer:

SixSense

And finally, I talked in depth with the guys at Razer about there new 360 controller, and there Six Sense prototype. First, I’ll talk about the Six Sense (videos above.)  Basically, it’s 2 “sticks” with there own analog “knubs” like on a PSP, “But much better, if you know how the PSP is” I was told, which, I knew exactly what he was talking about.  the “sticks” use an electronic magnet inside of a base you set up, that can sense the exact position, and velocity of the sticks.  From the videos above, it looked pretty accurate and easy to use.  Even with as much as the guy has probably done this, you can see that the latency is quite low, which is going to be required in order to get people to want to use it.

While talking about it to the couple of people I was in discussions with, they very much avoided saying “like the Wii”.  when I finally came out and said “Like the Wii”  they quickly said “No, this is going to be far quicker, accurate, and precise.”  I was then directed toward one of there developers named Daniel,  He explained a little further on how they worked and offered to give me a demonstration on how well it works with RTS games, like League of Legends tomorrow, as today was pretty packed.  I said I would return tomorrow to take him up on it.  He said he uses it exclusively.  That’s got to say something about the product.  So, come back tomorrow and I’ll have a video of that.

Razer Onza:

This is the Onza, Razer’s first push into the console business.  and from the feel of the controller, there pushing hard.  The buttons are WAY sensitive and have a shallow travel, it was a little shocking at first, but I preferred it over the traditional controller very quickly.  The D-pad felt good, it was going for more of a PS controller than an Xbox controller… and that is definitely a good thing, as the original 360 D-pad sucks.  a unique aspect of the controller is the sticks.  While at there default, feel much better than typical 3rd party controllers, these have a special feature that allows you to adjust the tension.  there is a little ratcheting wheel just under the stick head that you can turn which allows for a looser feel, or a tighter feel.  This worked out pretty good, when it got really loose, the stick still felt evenly looser, which is a huge pet peeve of mine on 3rd party controllers, the sticks ALWAYS feel way looser at the edges of its rotation then in the center, and I hate that.  these felt good under full rotation.  Under extreme tension though, it felt a little uneven.  I don’t see this being much of a problem though, as it was at it’s max tension and wasn’t easy to move, I see that MAX tension being a little much for anybody.  The biggest problem with the controller was it’s wire.  this is a corded controller.  Here is hoping they come out with a wireless along side when it launches.

 

The rest I’ll save for another day, but I want to leave with one more “interesting” item I saw.

DXT “Extreme Gamer” 10-disc Changer:

This crazy device is a 10-disc changer for both the PS2 and PS3.  I was told the PS2 version would be 119$, if I remember correctly, and the PS3 version would be $149.  While it seems like a great concept, and the design isn’t bad.  I’m worried about the price.  It seems a little steep, But, again, it’s a 10-disc Blu-ray changer.  which is very nice.  So, it would be a good add-on for movie buffs.  Also, maybe it would help the PS3 run cooler and quieter during movies. 

 

 

 

 

 

I got a lot more than that today, but This is a lot to take in for now, I’ll stagger some of the other stuff throughout the week.. Since… ya know.. I’m got time..

Well, after calling around, trying to figure out if going home would fix anything. (it won’t, I’m completely out of a job…)  and after calling the Airline to try and get my ticket changed without having to pay a bunch more. (I would have.)  I’m stuck here… I was set to just sit in my hotel room and wait for the 17th to come.  My heart still isn’t entirely in this.. and I’m thinking of maybe just going home tomorrow.  It’s kind of that bad.

But, I went through the whole day at E3, played a lot of things and took a lot of pictures of videos, trying to keep my spirits up.  Here as some of the results.  First up.

Rock Band 3:

They opened up playing the keyboard, bass, guitar, drums, and 3 singers.  That is 7 people.  They explained that when more than 4 people are playing, vocals switch to just a karaoke mode to get passed the limit of having more than 4 controllers hooked up at a time (something the 360 can’t do.)  The mics sync up, but don’t use controllers, they are joined in automatically when they are present.

They also demonstrated “drop in and drop out”.  Something they thankfully got from Guitar Hero 5.  With this ability, when you’re in the middle of a game and someone else wants to join, they can jump right in.  then later, if you have to leave, like go to the bathroom or get something to eat, you can drop right out without messing up the rest of the guys.  Also, you can change handedness, difficulty, etc right no the fly without missing a beat, the track will rewind a little bit even.. very cool feature.  Of course, the big guns, where the new Keytar peripheral.  a 27 button keyboard that doubles as a REAL midi board.  While in Pro mode (something I’ll get more into it a little later.) there are Easy thru Expert difficulty.  Yes, so this means, Rock Band now has a theoretic 8 difficulty settings.  In Regular easy, you will only use one octave of the keyboard.  Medium is two, Hard and you’ll start playing chords (more than one key at a time.) while Expert uses the the full visible on screen “Track” with chords.. then we go on the “Pro” easy.  where you start off using 2 1/2 octaves, medium you’ll use those octaves with chords.  Hard.. I believe is the FULL keyboard, and expert is full with chords and WAY more buttons.. you are essential playing what the music plays 1-to-1.

The way it works with full keyboard might be a bit confusing as you’ll see in the video.  When a higher or lower octave that isn’t on screen comings along, the screen will display flashing cues that the Track is about to shift higher or lower, from there, you move up or down the keyboard to stay on “track”.  Obviously, that is going to be crazy.

Whats more? The live demo on the Full Pro Guitar…with a REAL guitar. essentially, when you press down on a chord, the game will pick it up.  The Track for this mode is much different then the typical track you see when playing with a “toy” guitar.  You are playing the song 1-to-1 with this mode.  on top of that, if you have it plugged into a amp, you can just play the song, hear what you are playing, and you won’t hear the game music.  so you can listen to yourself play actual music.

I personally believe this is a game changer which leaves Guitar Hero far behind.  While the live demo seemed to lag with what was coming out of the amp in response to what is shown on the screen, I’m guessing they’ll either have time to tweak this, or it’s just something that can’t be tweaked, as it’s going from the game to the amp and there is a delay?.  not sure.. it was very impressive.

update: Ok, umm… I can’t post the hi-def videos of the guitar on Pro until I get home.. the Camera I brought doesn’t have a typical USB plug, so… I gotta wait til I get home to post.  Sorry.

Here is the live videos, not the best quality, but there something.  Select the Harmonix stuff from the list.

Webcam chat at Ustream

 

Kane and Lynch 2:

I was able to play a Multiplayer game of Heist for Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days.  The graphical direction they choice to go with this game is very unique.  it’s not clean, crisp, and “stunning”.  What is is though, is interesting, a little jarring, and perfectly expectable for the way the game is played.  When running, the game will shift WIDLY and sway a LOT!.  making running more of an effort, which is good.  insteadd of getting tired, you have to deal with a terrible camera.  Like there is a camera running behind you trying to keep up.  The game pixilates randomly, like it’s being streamed and the stream is interrupted. If someone is shot in the head, when they hit the ground and bleed out, the head will be pixilated over, as if it’s on an episode of Cops.  It was very interesting.

Control wise, it feels much quicker and tighter than the first game, which is great.  I loved the first game, but the controls took a lot to get use to.  These are much more responsive.  taking cover was easier, aiming as simple, and moving around felt much better.  Overall, I think K&L2 is going to rock.  But, It may be a hard sale after what the original went through.. even though I thought it was great.

OnLive:

I also tried out OnLive, the completely server based gaming service.  What this service allows is PC and TV users to play any game they want from the “cloud” (a server that is always on, and constantly streaming.)  While the idea is very intriguing, there are ALOT of obstacles to overpass in order for this to work out just like a home console.

First off is bandwidth, you are REQUIRED at least a steady 5mb downstream in order to even order.  On the PC, you can download a simple application that will open and stream your games.  For TV, they will be selling a little box they are calling the “MicroConsole”.  it really is tiny, only big enough for one USB, HDMI, Power plug, and Ethernet connection.  The price of this little box is not yet available, I was told repeatedly. “cheap, very cheap”.. So.. if “Very Cheap” is $50 bucks?.. thats not a bad deal in my book.  The service was a little muddied.  They only mentioned what they where offering us at the show.  a free year, with 4.95 a month after that.  Also, game “rentals”.  Let’s get into the niddy griddy. how it feels and looks.

In terms of graphics.  Each game has been toned down, some more-so than others, While Borderlands looked pretty good, Unreal 3 was muddy, not terrible, but obviously the stream resolution was less than the actual game setting on the backbone server.. it had that compressed look.  again, it wasn’t bad, just noticable.  Splinter Cell: Conviction had it’s textures turned down, not terribly, but again, you could tell.

Gameplay, Bordlands played pretty good, didn’t sense too much lag, it was a little choppy, but definately playable and fun.  Same went with Unreal 3..

….Dirt 2 on the other hand.  Personally, that was almost unplayable.  it hitched frequently and had too much lag to keep the corners tight.  What’s worse, the lag wasn’t consistent.  it changed, meaning, if I tried turning sooner than I did before, I would either hit the wall into the turn, and once, even turning sooner than usual, I hit the outer wall.  It wasn’t fun. So, obviously, racing games on the service, right now, isn’t a good idea. in my opinion.

Those where really the only games I had a good amount of time with, but I took many pictures.  Here are a few, and I’ll add write ups of my impressions when I get more play time with them.

Dead Rising 2:

Marvel vs. Capcom 3:

Zelda: Skyward Sword

Donkey Kong Returns:

 

 

 

 

 

Random Pictures of Cool stuff:

 

Ever since I got into gaming enough to find out what E3 was, I always wanted to go.  Being surrounded by people with the same passion as me, likes and dislikes, While not the same “genre” of people, at least people I could talk with who didn’t tilt there head after I talked extensively about The “Snake” bug in F-Zero GX or why I believed Nintendo’s loose standards for the Gamecube in order to bring in more game developers was the reason the Wii was going to full hard a few years after it’s release.  People who saw me and didn’t instantly think “what a nerd…”, but instead thought “Wow!, what a nerd!” (different tone and delivery..)

Some background about me.. My primary job is in a home for the MRDD.  IT’s not a glamorous job, it’s not even one of those jobs you get thanked for doing.  It’s not something I’m proud to proclaim.  It is a job that needs to be done and I was brought in by my father who owned the house when I was 19.  I’m 30 now, so I’ve been doing it awhile.  Last month my father became extremely ill and was in the hospital for a long while.  Since he was the owner and provider, the state had to issue a provisionary license for the business to someone else (a co-worker who knew all the ins and outs and knew all the paperwork.)  When my dad got better, both of us, him and I, where going to put in our paperwork together to run the house together as co-owners. 

Today, around 4:30, as I was getting ready to go to the Ubisoft press conference, I got a call that my dad was in the hospital again and the state was pulling his license application, and he would, at no time in the future, be able to file to run a house again… because of this, They are movinig our residents to another house.  Effectively shutting down the Adult Foster Home and rendering our staff, and I, without jobs.  I attempted to call the people in charge of this move, and only after several attempts was I able to get through.  I learned that there is nothing that can be done tonight.  But to call tomorrow morning and find out if I would be able to at least postpone there need to move the residents.  So, If I call in the morning and they tell me that “Yes, come home now, we can stop this if you’re here”…then I have to leave LA immediately.

This is devastating in every way to me and others.  for The residents, who a couple are handling it better than some.  I know the one that isn’t handling it well is really freaking out, and I feel so terrible for him.  Words can’t describe how much I feel like if I was there I could have prevented all this.  Also, the other staffers who depended on the money to live. 

Personally, working at this house was all I’ve ever known.  The economy in Oregon is nearly the worst in the country, and I don’t see me finding a job that provides enough to sustain myself.  I have no idea what my dad is going to do either.  This house was his life as well, and while I may be able to find another job.  He simply can’t work anymore and was already denied disability…even though his COPD is incurable, and is what will kill him eventually.

E3 is all I’ve ever wanted to do.. And with this news.. I don’t care anymore and I just want to go home.  My heart simply isn’t in this anymore, it’s amazing that not even 4hrs ago I was excited at the concept of seeing some of Ubisoft and Valves upcoming games and surprises live.  After the current events have unfolded, I missed Ubisoft and I’m not really worried about what I missed at Valves showing… I just want to go home and try to keep my life and everyone else’s from falling apart.

I guess it all depends on how I feel in the morning.. How the conversations go, what needs to be done.. but, right now, I don’t have it in me..

Just linking the press show here for you guys to watch.  Don’t worry, this wont be how I get everything to you.  The E3 show doesn’t even start until tomorrow.  Many of the companies press conferences are off site and before the official show start though.  *shrug*

 

Live EA press conference coverage.

 

2:12pm.  Video of the new Need for Speed MMO game is being shown.. Hot Pursuit.  With the new feature. “Autolog”.  which allows you to track you’re friends best times, notify you when they’ve beaten your times.  and then challenge them to a game.  looks pretty nice.\

 

2:15pm, EA is now about to show Dead Space 2 gameplay.  At the end of the trailer.. Isaac is about to get attacked by a huge new creatures when the trailer ends, and they announce “see how it ends at the Sony Press Conference”.. what.. a crock.. of shit.  lol  The game itself looked good, but a little too “familiar”but it still looked good.  very gothic and medieval.

 

2:27pm.  Now being shown, is the new Medal of honor game being developed by both DICE (creators of Mirrors Edge and Bad Company 2.) and EA LA Studio.  They are showing a LIVE 24 player game mode. there are 24 people up on stage..

2:33pm.  Now, talking about a new “gunclub” membership which will get you exclusive weapons for a wide range of games, and first hand demos before everyone else.

2:35pm  Bad Company 2: Vietnam. very short trailer.. just a hint..

2:37pm. Peter Moore came out and is talking about MMA.  There new Mixed Martial Arts fighting game.  And there new “Live Broadcast” service, basically… a bragging stat thing like many other things. lol  EA MMA Spoters is set to release October 19th

2:43pm.  MMA sports is done.  Now there is a clip of Active 2 (Fitness game.) being shown.  It looks like it will have it’s own heart monitor and allow to post results and keep update and progress on a website.

2:45pm.  Now there is a live demonstration.  Talking about the EA heart monitor for all consoles… even the Wii, which is a little odd considering the Wii is getting it’s own heart monitor.  Why 2 companies are releasing there own heart monitors?.. *Shrug*  weird.  But, Active2 will be fully compatible and utilize the xbox Kinect that was announced just a few hours ago.

2:50pm Peter Moore is now talking about Madden 11.  He brought out Joe Montana to talk about the game.  somehow it’s “game changing”… but, really, it looks a lot like the last 5 Madden games.

2:55pm  Peter Moore has left the stage.  Now, it looks like they are going to talk about a new Sims 3…..add on, I’m just assuming it’s an addon.  doubt they’d release a new sims yet.  they haven’t released 50 packs for it yet!  Oops.. my bad, it was The Sims 3 for consoles.  PS3 and Xbox 360

3:04pm  Crysis 2 is now about to be shown.. the guy is holding 3D glasses… that.. is interesting..

3:07pm  Demo being shown.. huge robots.  lots of shooting.  The lighting is very impressive.

3:10pm.. he now advises everyone to put on the 3D glasses..well, clearly what I see isn’t 3D as I’m not there. –.-  but, I’m sure it’s neat looking…

3:13pm, Cliffy B walks out on stage.  talking about “BulletStorm”  an extremely over the top First person shooter that gives points for big and interesting ways that you kill your enemies. They just announced the release date.  February 22nd, 2011

3:20pm,  ignoring the cheesy voice acting… the game looks pretty good for a FPS.  The graphics are top notch, and sound (aside from voice acting) is good, and the gameplay looks to change things up enough to keep it interesting.  Very nice!  Again though.. voice acting = fail!.  also, even though the graphics are very good.. the art direction looks too similar to EVERY GAME EPIC HAS EVER DONE!.. still, looks great.

3:23pm.  Bioware has come up on stage to talk about the new “Old Republic” MMO that is coming out soonish.  No gameplay is being shown yet, just a trailer called “Hope”.. which.. looks really nice. 

3:30pm.  Well, the EA press show is wrapping up, there just thanking everyone for coming and telling us to enjoy e3.  And that is that.. the Ubisoft press conference starts at 5pm at the LA Theater.

UPDATE:.. here is a link for the Microsoft PRess Conference. MS press conference. 

Update 10:45am: Microsoft announces Natal is now named “Kinect” (pronounced “Connect”)  They demonstrate how you’re going to be able to navigate the 360 dashboard using Nata… um, I mean, Kinect.  basically, you hold your hand over the dashboard item that you want to select, hold your hand there for a few seconds, and it selects it for you.  Everything “looked” pretty easy to do, also, with Kinects, you’ll be able to simply talk to your 360 to select items or stop and start playing movies and such.  a Little too 2001: for me, but still a cool feature, there where no hitches or missteps, everything seemed to just “work”.  it’s hard to say how much was actually just working, and how much they where able to rehearse to make sure it all went off without a hitch.

 

Many games for the Kinect are show, Kinect Adventures, Kinect Sports, an Animal Sim game called Kinectimals.  A couple 3rd party games are shown, like Ubisofts “You Shape” and Harmonix dance game called “Dance Central”.  Each game shows off the unique abilities of Kinect.

Update: 11am, Xbox and EPSN sports will be bringing live Sports events to Xbox live.  Over 3,500 different sports events just this year, live over Xbox Live.  The ability to play trivia about the teams you are watching, or vote for your team are shown off. 

 

UPDATE: 12pm.  At the end of Microsofts Press conference, they announced a new 360.  with builtin Wifi-N and 250gb HDD.  it’s a little smaller and shiny black.  will be shipping TODAY, and releasing next week.  everyone at the actual conference.. got a free one.  Those sons of bitches!..

 

As you can see, the new 360 is very shiny… a looks a little too much like this Toshiba “book” drive…which I can’t find a picture of right now. But, I found a pic of a Buffalo drive that kindof looks like the new 360 as well.

New 360…                                                      …Some Buffalo Drive

Finished registering, and began waundering around the convention center.  It’s a large place, pretty empty right now, but I’m imagining tomorrow is going to be packed and crazy.  I happened upon a few nice guys, one running his own site here. Evaxephon.  And another guy who …just let me play with his ipad, …I kinda want one now.

Aside from that, we are just waiting for the Microsoft press conference to start, in about 10 minutes. 

The picture to the left I was about to snap off real quick before being told “NO PICTURES!”.  take THAT security guard..  more to come.

 

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