My thoughts on E3 2011

Once again another E3 have gone and passed and once again it had it share of surprises and awesomeness. Kind of a mook point reviewing what happened since like everyone and their mom had done it already. So I'm not gonna review it, instead I'm gonna go Monday-morning-quarterback on this one and inform you what I thought was cool as a fanboy. Because that's what I am, that and I'm pretty bummed not having the means for going to LA to experience it firsthand. So here's my E3 2011 rant. 

Might as well get what's on every gamers mind out of the way first. The Wii U; WOW!!! What can't I say about it. It was all the buzz from everyone there during it's reveal and all I wish was that I was there to demo it. First the controller for it is a friggin tablet (once again Nintendo thinking out of the box from their competitors) which looks kinda intuitive but manageable I suppose in time. The console will be 1080p ready which is about time for them to step up to the plate graphic-wise with their competition is great thing. Also, it's Wii backwards compatible so those who still play (like myself and my kids) can ease into it. My main two qualms for it is that it won't upscale current Wii titles to HD which isn't really much for me cause it was a standard-def console; and in that spirit I hope it doesn't pull a Sony in removing the backward compatibility for it. That is what turned me off of a PS3 for the longest time. 

And speaking of Sony, their new handheld the Vita striking a lot of buzz, especially since it's been leaked for what seems like the better part of the year about design concepts and being part cellphone. One good thing I can say is thank goodness they're two thumbsticks. One thing I didn't like was the carrier they choose for their 3G access, why AT&T, why?!? At least they have a wifi only model and maybe someone will find a way to jailbreak it for other carriers. But for now, we'll take it as is, a not so hidden secret. Also, I'm glad that they discussed their security issue, way to own up for your mistakes, and I'm being honest about that.  It was a good show on their part with those being the big points for them.

And to conclude the big three, Microsoft, well, it was pretty much not much of anything to leave me wanting to remember them.  I mean, they had Halo 4 and that was it, blech...  I really wasn't impressed, AGAIN, this year from them.  It sucked and it was more or less a time-waster for me to wait for Sony to start.

But E3 is not about consoles and their advancements, it's about the games.  And boy were there games.  Zelda Skyward Sword looks great on the WiiU and the fact that they're hyping the 25th anniversary of it was great in all the stuff they planned on doing for it, such as Four Swords for free on the DSi later this year.  Street Fighter X Tekken makes me want to get back to fighters again, and that they're going to be a Final Fantasy XIII-2, I just hope that it's not anything like X-2 where it kind of went way off tangent from the original story (which I'm still playing, XIII not X, I've beaten that already). Oh, and Mario, the overflow of Mario titles, it gives me such joy to bring them back.

So that was my impressions on E3 2011.  From the TV in my living room to the Twitter feeds of all those whom I followed, and everything in between, that what I got from this.  Pretty damn exciting if I don't say so myself.  Until next year for E3 for more games, I'll just keep posting more random shit out of my mouth and into the blog.

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

The purpose of the Gaming Con

This is where I try to separate the fan boy inside of me from the critic and present the actual reason why we have them. Keyword in that sentence is TRY. Just in time for E3, right?! The thing about them is that it generates excitement from everyone; from people in the gaming industry to fanboys to media outlets a plenty. It's a orgy of bright lights, loud noises, and cos-players. No matter how it's diced, I love it. But in the end, what is it all about? Here's my feeble attempt to make something out of it. Now to make justice, there are multiple cons for multiple purposes. And to give them all justice I'll just have to generalize then as best as I can. Of course I'm gonna give some examples of each generalization but it won't be of each con. That's just too damn much. 

There's really two types of cons to consider, the ones that are for people in the industry to showcase their wares, and the ones that are for the fans that truly appreciate the work done. Guess which one I'm more in favor of. Let's get the industry con under wraps first. In essence it's core is for those who are within the industry to showcase their new wares to their peers and see among them is top dog. This is where CES and the likes are more prominent in that aspect. More the suit and tie aspect of the presenters and the viewers. The only flashy stuff in view is mainly the products and maybe some showgirls to model in front to draw the crowd. Ok, that I like... But as far as it's intentions I respect it. Their good in the aspect of getting to the root of why were all there ogling over all the shiny objects and pretty colors. That was what E3 was in it's infancy and it still retains such in their press conferences and product debuts for reviewers and analysts in the industry. But once you get to the showroom floor, it's a whole other story. 

Now here's where I get my shit-eating grin on my face (and have a hard time getting rid of it). The Fan-Cons. They are what we the general public are able to attend (after the cost of admission) and have fun being fanboys. It's a gamer-orgasm taken form. Full of people wanting to see the next big thing and willing to wait in lines for hours to do such. It's where situations like LAN parties might engulf the patrons and cos-players are the beautiful people. Events like PAX, TooManyGames, and the open showroom floor of E3 are prime examples of such. It's where the nerdy and the chic are married into one helluva experience. 

Now to make sense of how can the two coexist. Without the public wanting to display their allegiance to the developers games there wouldn't be games for us to have. And trust me we wouldn't want another 1983 again would we?!? But the whole point of conventions are to be among peers to compare their preverbal penis sizes (and nine out of ten Nintendo comes out on top; no pun intended if you read into that too much like I did). It's kinda hard to conduct business when you have hundreds of lunatic fans breathing on your shoulders. Thankfully conventions like the Tokyo Game Show and E3 are here, they're the closest things we have to marry them together. I just wish they're were more of them, but then again they wouldn't be as special. And I'm pretty damn glad to have them that way. It's like Christmas in June for us gamers. As for PAX's and the CES's, I'll respect your separation and enjoy the presences of them in their own rights.

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

P.S.  Look out for the next post and tweets on my thoughts on E3 2011.

Final Thoughts on E3 2009

All I can possibly say about E3 2009 is holy crap. The news and footage from the perspective of someone from the outside looking in was awesome. From the different innovative mediums that the big three are trying to implement to get the gamer to interact more with their games to the games themselves, it was a phenomenal feat in this year's showing. So lets break down the highlights that got me hooked on E3 '09.

Since I'm such a huge old school gamer fanatic, I think it's obvious to everyone that followed E3 to know where my focus was on, Nintendo. And this year was not a year of disappointment between me and Nintendo; especially with the presentation of New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Talk about improving on perfection; it took all that was good with NES classic and made it crazy hot by making it four-player-simultaneous where you have to rely on your comrades to get stuff done in the game, sick designs on the stages, and keeping it pure with all the old school characteristics that made that Italian plumber the super star of the Mushroom Kingdom. The controls from what I heard are pretty good for the most part, but what really annoyed people was when someone on your party died, the screen paused for a split second and that could possibly throw off someone momentum in the since of manuvering on the screen. Also it's more of an all for one versus one for all type of gameplay in completing and competing within the game in which could be dubbed as Super Mario Bros. Asshole. Another dose of nostalgia-revamps was the big announcement of Metroid: Other M. One word: sick! It encompasses in my opinion everything that Metroid should be and then some, especially with it's third person view. 2010 can't come soon enough for me to try that on for size. Plus one more thing to the new wave in Nintendo in which I'm a little skeptical about is the Wii Motion Plus peripherial for it's Wiimotes. It will allow a more sensitive feel towards the gameplay allowing it to feel more into the game. Such titles such as Red Steel 2 and Wii Sports Resort are to show off it's true protential and sure to add a more advance sense of difficulty in gameplay, thus making it more fun to play out. One thing that disappointed me about Nintendo was the tease of a new Zelda. Very little info about it and (all be it that's good) that they're actually doing a new Zelda, all they did was just one big cock-tease poster about it. Why Miyamoto, why?

And one more big nostalgic trip has to be the Ghostbusters videogame. It looks like a helluva trip acting out as the 5th member of the Ghostbusters, picking up as if it's still 1989 and being an eye feast as well as the handling of the controls leads much anticipation for the game that's due to come out later this month.

This isn't to say that Microsoft and Sony didn't show up, they made their presence shown. First with Microsoft's elongated pre-day 1 press conference where they showed off Beatles Rock Band. I've already commented on that on my previous E3 post so I'm not gonna waste the carpal tunnel on that one. But what I didn't post from Microsoft was it's innovative motion detection hardware they're trying to impliment and the game they showed off with it, Project Natal. In my observation, it's kinda like a hybrid of Sony's EyeToy and that peripheral from way back for the Genesis that detected motion from above eight different points the Sega Activator. It was in my opinion very creepy in it's presentation, but the only saving grace for it was that you can scan objects to use for certain games while you're playing them. Like I said, it didn't wow me that much. Sony however, was definately more impressive in their outing than Microsoft, with their demo of God of War 3 headlining all their software endevours as well as the PSP Go, their new handheld device that eliminates the need for carrying all those pesky UMDs and the ability to just download the content on its HDD (which I think will be awesome.) Sony as well has wowed me again with their news of getting Final Fantasy VII available to download for the PSP as well as Metal Gear Solid on the Playstation network. Two great classics finally getting ported and making good.

So pretty much, same as from what brought into this retrospect of E3 09 from my previous post on it, just a little more added flavor to what I'm looking forward to in the near future. I just hope that if you're a gamer like myself, than you were very satisfied toward what the industry has to offer us for 2009/2010. Can't wait for the next E3...

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

Comments on E3

Psst, your inner nerd is showing. That's about right whenever you hear that E3 is abuzz and goosebumps soon cover your arms. It's a nerd nirvana and since it's decision to make it an industry only event in 2007, the videogame-starved public just have to look at the media to deliver all the news that happen so far. Currently E3 (the Electronics Entertainment Expo) is running until Thursday and we're half way into what they had to offer. So much from the big three's press conferences (Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft) and so little time to soak all that it is, so I'll just write in about some of what I thought was the biggest highlights from each of the major keynotes.


As far as Microsoft goes, to have exclusive rights for Left 4 Dead 2 is good and all, but didn't quite wow me at least enough to warrant it being an exclusive. At least not as much as Forza 3 did during it's demo. Racing haven't looked so good since the last time I was at the track. Fast cars, smooth graphics, and drifting; man there's a lot of drifting. Pretty bad ass in my opinion. Also a big shock was the non-exclusity of Final Fantasy XIII, so that really brings in the question whether I should get a 360 or a PS3 for my next console of choice, since I currently own a Wii as far as current generation consoles are concerned. What I was shocked at was all the star power that Microsoft tried to put into their presentation; Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr coming out to introduce Beatles Rock Band. Holy poop-on-a-stick the two remaining members of the Beatles, needless to say that was EPIC!!! But in all efforts, not much but a lot of glitz and glamor, and them trying to spawn off of motion detection sensor for the 360 as well, way to walk on Nintendo's ankles for that one. Oh, and the new Halo games were pretty sweet as well, especially Reach, just saying.

Playstation goes for broke with having an exclusive Metal Gear game for the PS3 but no Snake in the game, kinda skeptical on that one in my opinion, but if they can pull it off well than kudos for them. Playstation also trying to capitalize on motion sensoring controls as well (but that even pales in comparison to what Microsoft was trying to do). As far as additional gaming, they decided to make two big Final Fantasy announcements: 1) Final Fantasy VII available as a download at their online store for the PSP and 2) Final Fantasy XIV; another MMORPG and to be released shortly after FF XIII comes out for the PS3. Why make another MMO Square-Enix, haven't you learned your lesson from FF XI? But Sony wasn't out of tricks yet, they came out (offically) with a new version of the PSP called PSP Go. God of War 3 was also a good showing for their press conference as well with showing actual gameplay looking pretty intense.

Nintendo, the name says it all from the casual gamer, to the hardcore gamer, to those who don't even know what the hell a videogame is (and for that one, where were you ever since circa 1973). The giant came out swinging (literally) with an advancement for it's WiiMote demoing their Wii Motion Plus, an attachment for the WiiMote to respond better to more actively intensive games, by playing the sequel to the best selling game of all time Wii Sports Resort and Red Steel 2. Nintendo also going back to it's roots barraged with an onslaught of Mario titles for both it's Wii and DS library. A remake of Super Mario Bros. for the Wii is slated to be available this holiday season which has 4 player co-op, but doesn't mention of any online compatibility. But for the most badass showing for Nintendo has to be the new Metroid, Other M, slated to be released in 2010 is action packed and very obscure on where the story line has our femme fatale heroine Samus Aran in this epic.

That's it as far as games are concerned, but I just wanna emphesize on the many, many different ways that are out there. Since I mentioned earlier, E3 is an industry event where the players who work in the industry come and gather for showing off their new goods. We, having to just rely on our own devices, have various means to view such greatness even though we're not on the showroom floor. I mean theirs various different videogame trade mediums out there such as screwattack.com, 1up.com, G4, Spike, hell even CNN and my local news outlet were covering snippets of the event. No matter where you are, you're gonna know about E3, unless you're in a cave on a deserted island in the middle of the ocean surrounded by a ring of volcanic faults that are ready to erupt and sink said pathetic island to the sea with the slightest mention of E3. It's every-friggin-where and you can't stop it. And the best part, there still two more days of it. That's nerd nirvana for ya.

BootLeG sampler.. Signing out...