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E3 2010: Shoot To Thrill |
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Shooter fans were the real winners at this year’s E3. |
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E3, America’s monumental video game expo, fired through a compelling three days in June and STACK was on hand to push in to queues and wrestle the sweaty controllers from a reported 46,000 attendees, all intent on grabbing a piece of the gaming action.
Housed in the colossal Los Angeles Convention Center, gamers were treated to an ensemble of quality titles destined to find their way to the shelves of JB H-Fi in the coming months.
The run-in to Christmas is going to be massive!
E 3 P A R T 1
Microsoft, the first of the three format holders to hold their press conference, kicked E3 into action on Monday June 14 at the Wiltern Theatre with a blisteringly loud demo featuring the latest member of the Call of Duty family, Call of Duty: Black Ops.
Developed by Treyarch, who last worked on Call of Duty: World at War, Black Ops is set during the late ‘60s cold war era, and missions flip between Vietnam and Russia.
A release date of November was quickly followed by an announcement that a three year exclusivity deal had been signed enabling all Call of Duty map packs and expansions to launch on Xbox 360 first.
The Metal Gear Solid series returns with Rising, a game that features the character Raiden, last seen in MGS 2. He wields a sword that, during a gameplay demonstration, could seemingly cut through virtually everything, dropping buildings by slicing away support pillars.
But fan service was well and truly delivered when Epic Games’ Cliffy B strode on stage to deliver an intense Gears of War 3 four-player co-op mode that left the crowd breathless.
Gears 3, slated for release April 2011, featured new enemies and a brand new mode known as Beast, swapping shoes with a Locust soldier.
Peter Molyneux walked the audience through Fable III and Bungie’s Marcus Lehto gave gamers a first look at a campaign level in Halo: Reach before Microsoft turned its attention to the newly christened Kinect, revealed as Project Natal at last year’s E3.
The motion sensing controller-free system, straight from the pages of a Peter F. Hamilton novel, was introduced, highlighting the peripheral’s voice-recognition abilities.
Voice-activated commands are used to turn the console on, operate the options menu and to play music and movies.
Kinect will release with a wide selection of first-party titles including a game called Kinectimals, Kinect Sports, Kinect Joyride and Kinect Adventures.
Third-party support included a Ubisoft calorie-burning game entitled Your Shape: Fitness Evolved.
Other games include the Harmonix-developed Dance Central, Forza 4 and a yet-unnamed Star Wars title.
The other significant Microsoft announcement was the immediate release of a new slimline Xbox 360 (available in-store now). The black console will feature a bigger hard drive and builtin Wi-Fi connectivity [Finally – Ed].
E 3 P A R T 2
A day later, an early start for the Nintendo briefing at the Nokia Theatre left a bedraggled mass of dehydrated journalists and retailers searching desperately for bottles of water to allay the effects of the previous evening’s late night exploits.
Shigeru Miyamoto was on hand to play through a brand new Zelda game called The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword as Nintendo drew upon its rich gaming heritage for inspiration.
Iconic games such as Donkey Kong Country, Metroid, Kid Icarus and even Kirby are all set to make a return on the company’s two platforms.
Mario is back in a brand new sports game for the Wii: Mario Sports Mix and will release in 2011.
An address by the Nintendo of America President, Reggie Fils-Aime, reiterated that both the Wii and DS were still performing above expectation.
Perhaps this optimistic admission was made on the back of Nintendo’s E3 crown jewel, the 3DS. The latest in a long line of handhelds will feature full 3D gaming without the need to wear a pair of 3D glasses, the bane of 3D advancement.
A close inspection at the Nintendo stand revealed that the incredible 3DS, and its impressive software demonstrations, will undoubtedly take gaming platforms to the next level – the inclusion of 3D photographic capabilities is the icing on the cake.
Nintendogs + Cats, and games from the Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy franchises are among the selection of titles due on the 3DS.
Finally, Sony extended its PS3 future-proof message with the president of Sony Computer Entertainment Kaz Hirai’s declaration that: “PlayStation has always been centred on two tenets the family can enjoy: innovation and content”.
Sony’s introduction into the motion-sensing market, the PlayStation Move unveiled at last year’s show, was high on the priority list for demonstration to a packed house assembled at the Shrine Auditorium.
Sorcery, a third-person Harry Potter-influenced game, was used to highlight the accuracy of Move, quickly followed by Tiger 11 – a game perfect for the peripheral.
The format’s 3D drive was headlined by the first-person shooter Killzone 3 and a list of games known to have been built from the ground up to support 3D, including Gran Turismo 5, Mortal Kombat, Crysis 2, Motorstorm: Apocalypse and Tom Clancy’s: Future Soldier; these demonstrated in a video presentation.
On the show floor, queues snaked around the Mortal Kombat booth, and gamers, sweating from the heat of a thousand consoles, impatiently shuffled three inches every ten minutes for the Medal of Honor hands-on presentation.
Groups of scantily clad Californian booth babes paraded through the Convention Center, dropping jaws and widening the eyes of crowds of transient gamers.
E 3 P A R T 3
There was an overwhelming focus on shooters at E3 2010. If this is your thing (and it is ours), then the release slate for the next six months could potentially keep you busy for a further twelve.
Socom 4 on PlayStation Move played surprisingly well – the controls were accurate, the targeting reticule picking off enemies with pinpoint precision.
Epic Games’ Bulletstorm was a superb, addictive and comedic journey synchronising gun and boot in unison.
Similarly, hands-on time with Bethesda’s Brink was a blast (literally).
Medal of Honor looked polished and was smooth to play and will lock horns with Black Ops at the end of the year.
And then there was Homeland. Unfortunately a live developer demo is the closest we came to playing this, but we left the room wanting hands-on.
Time spent with GoldenEye 007 Wii multiplayer, Killzone 3, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, Dead Space 2, XCOM and the exciting looking third-person shooter from Sega, Vanquish, are all worthy of a mention. Rage will set the world alight.
Ubisoft have introduced a multiplayer mode to their stellar Assassin’s Creed franchise and were keen to unveil the mode in Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood when we passed by the stand.
Players are assigned a target to hunt, employing stealth and creativity to avoid detection. The stakes are raised, however, when it’s revealed that you are indeed an assassination target from an unknown foe.
Gran Turismo 5, unsurprisingly, looked good, but other racing titles like the beautiful looking Test Drive Unlimited 2, Driver: San Francisco and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit looked and played like solid racers.
Motorstorm: Apocalypse lent itself nicely to a 3D gaming experience.
E 3 P A R T 4
Overall, E3 was a resounding success. The big three all displayed new hardware initiatives and the software line-up was the most impressive in recent memory.
STACK was expecting a more top-heavy 3D games slate, but it would appear that the industry is initially taking a cautionary approach to the technology.
The popularity of the 3D format was always going to be driven by gaming and the titles that we did see in 3D – that had been built from the ground up – were truly spectacular.
But it was Nintendo’s 3DS and Microsoft’s Kinect that provided the most conversation starters in bars around the Los Angeles convention centre after the day’s events had concluded.
They could well be the defibrillation that the video game industry is currently in need of.
STACK RECOMMENDS @ E3
• Killzone 3
• Bulletstorm
• Rage
• Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds
• Portal 2
• Homefront
• Mortal Kombat
• Gran Turismo 5
• Crysis 2
• Deus Ex: Human Revolution
• Halo: Reach
• inFamous 2
• Fallout: New Vegas
• Medal of Honor
• Dead Space 2
• LittleBigPlanet 2
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