E3 2011 Day 1
Yes I did! I sat through all of the first day press conferences and I’m not even a journalist. Why? I love the game industry, I love presentations, and I love set design. I’m still eagerly awaiting for Nintendo to release details of “project: cafe”. Ok… The morning started with Microsoft. While I do not own a Kinect and have only played up to Halo 2 and Gears of War 1, I found the highlight of the show to be Double Fine’s Sesame Street game. I know, before you say what about the awesome spoken dialogue tree of ME3 or what about the fact that you can use Kinect to play gunsmith the game on GR:FS. The Sesame Street game is something I was looking forward to.
When Kinect was anounced. Peter Molineux showed a tech demo named Mylo. Mylo was able to interact with you on a one to one ratio. He spoke, listened and reacted to what you did. This is something I saw in the Sesame Street Game on a base level. The posibilities of teaching children with interactive characters and not a tiger blew me away!
The next press conference was EA. While I’m looking forward to the canceled, not canceled, just a misunderstanding sequel to Mirrors Edge, EA showed off Battlefield 3. Built with the Frostbite 2 engine, this game looks amazing. The textures and lighting actually look too crisp to be real, but that comes from a man wearing glasses. EA also showed a brand new IP named ‘OverStrike’. This game looks over the top and reminds me a bit of Team Fortress 2. Additionally, Peter neglected to mention if Kinect integration might be available for Madden. I would like to call audibles.
The stand out title for EA was Rocksmith. I might actually have found the tool to help me learn Guitar. Visit the website to learn more about this edutainment game.
Then came Ubisoft. They are celebrating their 25th anniversary and wanted to make sure everyone knew. They kept showing a rendition of what the game might have looked like in 1986. Known for Assassins Creed, and the Splinter Cell franchises, Ubisoft showed off a beautiful Rayman sidescroller. It features hand drawn animation and a cartooney style that is oh so hip. My main gripe was the absence of Sam Fisher? Instead we get an overactive MC with questionable jokes and some rabbids that you can kick.
Finally, Sony! Somber and apologetic this was not the apology I was hopping for. I really wanted them to troll out Kevin Butler to make a joke about downloading porn. I can just imagine him clicking on a naughty link that brought PSN down. The true highlights for me were two. Firstly, two players one screen. Sony showed a very creative use for active shutter 3d tech. The ability to have two individual player screens from one TV. The idea of a switching display is pure genius! Secondly, cloud saving. With always on internet, this idea makes game portability between PS3 and PSVita amazingly easy.
I will address the concerns and benefits of the “cloud” on another rant.
Still missing from E3 2011 are news on the following.
- GTA 5
- Half-Life 2: Episode 3
- Mirrors Edge 2
- Kingdom Hearts 3 (just for x-play)
- Microsoft console updates – hardware, disk capacity
- Prototype 2
- THQ – Press Conf
- Valve Software – Completely missing from E3
- and Hitman