Here's what Nintendo had to offer at E3: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/0XR7LaJLLf8&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/0XR7LaJLLf8&rel=0</a>
Also, Animal Crossing, WiiSpeak, Wii MotionPlus, and GTA coming to DS.
I would have wrote a more in-depth article, but that video pretty much shows the entire conference and what happened.
Here are three videos courtesy of GameTrailers.com, showcasing the gameplay of the Wii Sports sequel Wii Sports Resort. Included in these three are the sword dueling, jetski and frisbee gameplay clips. The sword dueling uses the new WiiMotion Plus add-on, to enhance gameplay and bring the Wii closer to a true 1:1 experience.
Special note of interest to those of you who are big fans of Wave Race, as this is touted to be the spiritual successor to that franchise and besides using your Miis, is supposed to be a deeper and more intuitive game.
Wii Sports Resort is expected to be released in Spring 2009 and it has been indicated that it will include as many as 10 different games in the compilation.
According to an interview with Electronic Arts president John Riccitiello, BioWare and LucasArts have teamed up for a Knights of the Old Republic MMO aimed exclusively at the PC market. A market EA analysts expect to grow from 33% currently to 50% of the total gaming marketshare by 2011.
"Increasingly, people are going to be talking about direct-to-customer in our business," said Riccitiello. "I think we'll be talking about it louder than most."
No details have been revealed about the game or it's release date, but EA is expected to use this as one if it's major products to appeal to foreign markets in particular the growing Chinese gaming industry. I just hope they include a single player game as well. Robbing us of KOTOR III is just cruel, making it online only, well that would be just bloody sadistic.
Well, Nintendo has just gave "hardcore" gamers something to get excited for! In a Developer Roundtable at E3, Shigeru Miyamoto was asked if they were considering to revisit Pikmin, he dropped a little bombshell announcement:
Quote
"We continue investigating all types of games," Miyamoto responded. "When it's time to announce such a title, I'll announce it." Then he did. "We're making Pikmin."
OH HELL YES! Still not quite enough to make up for the atrocious press conference yesterday, but it bandages the wound a little bit.
Details about the upcoming Pikmin are not known as of right now. Hopefully Shiggy has something to say about it soon.
Now that the press conferences from the big three console makers have concluded, it's time to take a look back at what was discussed during the conferences. I will be giving you a brief summary of the events along with links to videos showing the events from the conference and other relevant information. First up: Microsoft.
If you would like to view the entire presentation, you may do so at G4's website or it should be on the Xbox Live Marketplace for download.
The presentation was hosted by Don Mattrick, Senior VP of Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. He starts off by warning us that the games being showed during this conference "are INTENSE games! Many are not for the faint of heart."
Up next: the first demonstration of Resident Evil 5! The game is looking INCREDIBLE and looks like Gears of War crossed with Resident Evil. They also showcase the all-new online co-op mode and display how Chris and Sheva can work together to solve puzzles and destroy zombies. Resident Evil 5 will be released on Friday the 13th of March 2009 on both Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.
Peter Molyneux shows us Fable 2 and informs us that the game is completed and will ship in October. The game looks pretty cool, and the online co-op mode is extremely innovative. Also: the game has belching!
And now the game everyone's been waiting to see more of, Gears of War 2! Cliff Blezenski shows some gameplay footage and a new trailer. I think it looks like Gears 1 but outside, however I'm biased. Chainsawing people is AWESOME!!! Voice acting sounds horribly generic, but that's to be expected. Guess I'm spoiled after Metal Gear Solid 4. Great looking flame effects. New multiplayer mode is announced: Horde. Up to 5 people take on wave after wave of Locust of increasing difficulty. Game comes out on November 7.
Cliff exits, Don comes back on stage and starts the businessy part of the show. He informs us that games are the biggest form of entertainment in the world and claims that the 360 will sell more consoles than PS3 this generation. We'll see about that.
This fall, the Xbox 360 interface you all know and love will be replaced with a newer, more minimalist design. I think it looks better than the old one, but my opinion would change if they plaster it with ads like they do the current one. Along with the new interface comes several new features. First of those new features is avatars, which is pretty much a ripoff of Nintendo's Mii feature. These avatars could possibly replace your GamerPic that you currently have (no information is known for sure), but these avatars will show up in games just like on the Wii. Second, the community channel will be changed from a list of your friends to showing their avatars. The new community channel will also allow you to create a party, which allows you to join up with your friends to chat, share photos, and play games. Third, there is a new channel of Live called Xbox Live Primetime that will allow you to play free game shows online with people.
After that, they showed us a glimpse of many new Xbox Live Arcade titles. Among the titles shown are Uno Rush, Geometry Wars 2, Galaga Legions (done by the team that did Pac-Man Championship Edition, and holy shit it looks INCREDIBLE!), Portal: Still Alive, and South Park.
Microsoft then showed off clips of a few community games before dropping a bombshell: they have formed an exclusive partnership with Netflix. Subscribers to Netflix will be able to watch all of Netflix instant queue library on their console. But it doesn't end there! Your Xbox Live party can all join together and watch the same movie. Incredible idea, and a fantastic partnership for them.
Now things get awkward with the showing of You're In The Movies, which is a party game compilation of minigames that all use the Xbox Live Vision Camera. Watch the video to see people acting like jackasses and for GIANT ENEMY LIZARDS!
Guitar Hero: World Tour gets an apathetic reaction from the crowd while announcing that Metallica's new album will be available as DLC in Guitar Hero 3 on the day the album comes out.
Next up: the long-rumored unveil of Lips, Microsoft's upcoming SingStar ripoffKaroke Revolution ripoff karoke game. Developed by iNiS (Gitaroo Man, Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan, Elite Beat Agents), Lips will allow you to sing along to not just the songs they gave you, but dance using the motion sensitive wireless microphone. The coolest part about this game is that you can actually use your own music from your iPod/Zune (lol). Some pop "star" I've never heard of named Duffy comes out on stage and starts singing. I promptly run for the mute button.
Rock Band totally blows Guitar Hero away with a tracklist over 100 songs, the ability to port all your old Rock Band 1 DLC, and for $5 you will be able to play most Rock Band 1 songs in Rock Band 2 without the need to swap discs! By the end of the year Rock Band 2 will have a library of OVER 500 SONGS! Guitar Hero is done for.
Then comes Square-Enix with new trailers for Infinite Undiscovery, Star Ocean: The Last Hope, and The Last Remnant. First they talk about The Last Remnant and show a new trailer. The game is out this holiday season for 360 and sometime later for PC.
Don thanks us all for attending, but Yoichi Wada won't have any of that. He's got something to say! Lights go down, and the shot heard round the world is fired. Final Fantasy XIII is coming to Xbox 360.
That's it for Microsoft. Stay tuned for summaries of both Nintendo and Sony, coming soon.
So yesterday in the midst of the Microsoft Press Conference, The Track list for Rock Band 2 was unveiled. While only a few names were mentioned and the screen too small for most public viewers who watched the conference to see the list, staff at Kotaku who were in attendance kindly posted the list on their site. Besides the fact that the 360 version has the capability to download the entire original game's song list into the 2nd game seamlessly, every song in this huge list is a master track!!. So here's the list, enjoy!
Nintendo has made their first announcement of E3. It comes in the form of yet another Wii accessory, Wii MotionPlus.
The device plugs right into the bottom of the Wii Remote and will deliver "more comprehensive tracking of a player’s arm position and orientation, providing players with an unmatched level of precision and immersion." The press release continues: "Every slight movement players make with their wrist or arm is rendered identically in real time on the screen, providing a true 1:1 response in their game play."
Little is known about MotionPlus outside of the very brief press release issued by Nintendo earlier today, but this accessory sounds quite intriguing. Could it actually make a real swordfighting game possible on the Wii? What is Nintendo planning to do with MotionPlus? Check RF Generation for details on MotionPlus and everything else unveiled at Nintendo's press conference.
For those of you who have a bit of time to kill this week and want to be "in the know" here are the dates and times for the three main press conferences by Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft:
Microsoft: Monday July 14th, 10:30AM Pacific time (1:30PM Eastern).
Nintendo: Tuesday July 15th, 9:00AM Pacific (12:00PM Eastern).
Sony: Tuesday July 15th, 11:30AM Pacific (2:30PM Eastern).
As for where you can watch it or catch up with the latest minute by minute, here's a few websites you can stream it live:
IGN.com - Free low res stream from IGN, requires a minor download to view it. IGN Insider subscribers have access to a high res version G4TV.com - Live stream commercial free, also available on the television channel of the same name. Gamespot - Live stream plus other coverage.
If video isn't your thing, here's a few sites who will be live blogging it (updating their post every few minutes as the conference goes on):
Keep it tuned to Channel 3 this week as we bring you thoughts, impressions and hopefully other goodies from the shadow of the giant otherwise known as E3 2008.
Here's the first big news to come out of E3 this year. The rumors have come true. Microsoft is indeed dropping the price of their 20 GB Pro version of the Xbox 360 to $299.99, a $50 savings.
However, there is a catch: this price drop is the exact same thing as the PS3 60 GB price drop of last year. It's merely a move to get rid of the 20 GB models so they can replace them with the more expensive 60 GB model. Yes, that's right, MS is introducing a FOURTH MODEL. That's right, Microsoft is going to be selling four editions of the 360 at once. This model, as stated, will have a 60 GB hard drive and will retail for the $349.99 (the current price of the 20 GB model). So once the 20 GB Pro model is gone, the price drop benefits won't be there...but at least you get 40 GB of additional hard drive space.
But what about the other 360 models? There will be no changes. Yup. Ol' Gimpy (aka: the Arcade) is still $279.99 and the Elite is still $449.99.
Keep it on RF Generation for all the latest from E3.
This fall, 
Now things get awkward with the 
Nintendo has made their first announcement of E3. It comes in the form of yet another Wii accessory, Wii MotionPlus.
Here's the first big news to come out of E3 this year. The rumors have come true. Microsoft is indeed dropping the price of their 20 GB Pro version of the Xbox 360 to $299.99, a $50 savings.
