f13.net

The start of E3 is just hours away, with MS, EA, Ubisoft, and Sony all scheduled for their press conferences today.

MS starts first at around 9 - 9:30am PST, then EA at around 12:30, Ubisoft at 2:30, and Sony at 5.  Nintendo doesn't do their press conference until tomorrow at 9am.

This year, for me it's all about SWTOR, Skyrim and Kingdoms of Amalur.

You're in for a shit year.

I'm fairly interested to see more about how Skyrim is coming along.

So am I, after Alice I think Skyrim will be the next game I purchase.  I am hoping that they release a little more intuitive and robust editor to go along with Skyrim.

If Skyrim continues the spiral of Bethsoft, I'll be disappointed and they'll pretty much be relegated to bin purchases from me. Especially since they did decent with FO3.

TOR release date, PLEASE. Even if it disappoints on a mechanics level (I don't like WoW), there should be enough story to make it more than worth the box + a few months.

ME3! 'Nuff said.

So really, I'm looking forward to TOR and ME3. Sci Fi year!

XCOM!!!



As a shooter? Didn't we try this before???  :oh_i_see:

Hopefully people boo Ubisoft. Lord knows I would.

I'm morbidly fascinated by what whacked out shit Nintendo will try to sell as its next console, if only so I can stand back and LAUGH. I would also like to see Sony's press conference be filled with people wearing Guy Fawkes' masks.

Of course I didn't mention DX: HR because, even though it will be present at E3, release is just around the corner, so it doesn't count. But especially after messing around with the preview, I simply can't wait for it :). Maybe after I'll manage to beat the second, I'll actually start to be excited about Mass Effect 3 too :P

Had a good laugh at work - thanks. Of course having to explain it to one of my coworkers was a little painful.

Spike TV is supposed to be showing the MS conference I believe.  Gametrailers has a livestream here (http://www.gametrailers.com/netstorage/e3/e3-live.html).

Watching it right now.  They've got the new Tomb Raider on.  Looks like some people learned a thing or two from the Uncharted series  :oh_i_see:

BTW, shouldn't we move this to the Game Conference forum?

ME3 is on.  Kinect voice commands are demoed.

 :uhrr: for voice dialogue options.

 :drill: for combat action commands.

Ghost Recon Kinect is just sick.

Edit 1: Roman Kinect game looked sick.

Edit 2: Oh fuck...on-rails Fable?  GTFO Peter.

Edit 3: The Disney World game looks more impressive than half the stuff I've seen at this conference so far.

Edit 4: On-rails Star Wars...pass.

Edit 5: TIM SHAEFER!  SAVE US!!!  Damn, now I have to get an Xbox for my kid.

Edit 6: The Kinect Me Avatar maker; Because F- you Nintendo with your 3DS

Edit 7: Someone explain to me how the Kinect Sport Football game can properly simulate movement forward when Fable and Star Wars have to resort to on-rails?

You could just edit your post instead of posting 4 times in a row.

Hopefully there's a option for a frustrated "quit dying you stupid motherfuckers" and "keep the asses behind cover ffs" in ME, otherwise there's just no point.

It's a good thing I've learned to have low expectations for these press conferences.  So far three franchises I don't care about, kinect support for ME3, and voice commands, youtube, and Bing for XBL...  don't really care.

Edit: Now they're doing all the 360 exclusive stuff starting with Gears 3.

Edit 2: Aside from the odd Roman Kinect game, typical MS franchises.  Halo 1 remake, decent trailer for Forza 4, and now a new Fable (kinect) game.

Edit 3: Kinect enabled Minecraft on 360.

Ugh, why so much Kinect stuff?

More games, less gimmicks plz.

Holy shit the graphics on that Star wars game was bad....

So were the controls. That was really stiff.

EDIT: FINGER TRACKING!!!    :grin:

Is there any actual game play with this kinect stuff?  Looks to me to be entirely scripted.

Wat?  :ye_gods:

Body scanning, Object scanning, Finger tracking.

They know where the next paycheck is coming from.

Sony might actually have a chance to do better with their conference.   Here's a preview:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcO4MMzdYE8

Edit: Here's the thing...most non-hardcore people (read: the people not reading these forums, or even IGN/GameSpot) will but this stuff up like hotcakes.  They'll play with it for a few weeks, and then it'll all go away.

The less said about the MS press conference the better.

Armored Core V trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeP8xOwoxHU

Good lord. The games are mediocre these days, but holy crap the CGI animations are incredible. I want a movie like that.

Fable!

On rails.....  :awesome_for_real:

I hate there was zero news on Forza4. The same trailer was out 2-3 weeks ago with no definite info (eg: weather, time changes, etc).

Kinect: now you can take the pictures of your genitals and add drawn semen... in 3d!

MS conference in brief, courtesy of Keen:


EDIT 1: Watching bits of the conference again...Tim Schaffer was about the best part of the show, who sounded like if he was reading from a script, it was one he wrote.  "Unleash the simulated family!"

Watching some Batman: Arkham City footage on Spike showing off Catwoman gameplay.

That middle image is just asking for a Katamari game.

With that new item scanning you can scan your hamster and roll in the ball.

I'm not a console dude, and I don't mean that in the obnoxious PC V CONSOLE DEATH WARS sort of way, but that Kinect shit looks completely retarded.

That's it. I've had enough of all this kinect-this, move-that, 3d-gimmick-other shit. I'm building myself a cryogenic freezer-thing and going to sleep for some 50 years so I can skip all this fucking nonsense and wake up just in time for the good stuff.

I think you can more realistically expect a sudden influx of bald, red faced avatars. Since it supposedly goes live today?

Wash your eyes of Kinect and feast on a Battlefield 3 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFbAjRSyKOw) trailer.

I was watching the GT TV stream and was struck once again how gaming journalists sound like infomercial hosts. Only they do it for realz.

They really are reporters...not so much gamers...if they were gamers, why would they even try hyping any of this Kinect BS?

BF3 does indeed look amazing.

I am slightly interesting in Armored Core 5, but I want to see real gameplay.   :uhrr:

360p fuck yeah!

Pure gaming sex.

Yeah, it was painful watching the post MS wrap up on Spike with everyone trying to act enthusiastic for shit I'm sure none of them really cared about.  Of course it's even more cringe-worthy when they keep cutting back to the woman they have reading e-mail and twitter comments every 5 minutes.

The Forza 4 stuff was :drill: enough for me.  Can.  Not.  Wait.  Bonus points for letting me import the decals and what-not that I made in FM3 into FM4.

All that kinect stuff seems so useless and over the top to me: or it's me just being from a...umm, "previous gaming generation", a dinosaur with mouse+keyboard stuck in his brain? Oddly, I didn't feel that way with all that talk about Virtual Reality that you might recall from the early nineties...I don't know.

Anyway, waiting for the big EA conference, now (10 more minutes!).

bleh, EA's feed has the taintstains from Kotaku...

EA's Conference is starting...here we go...

Edit 1: Yup, pimping the Origin service...

Edit 2: @NFS; What...you can get out of the car and run on foot?  IT'S A CAR GAME.

EDIT 3: TOR TIME!

Edit 4: I stopped watching and closed about 15 tabs after the put out the real intro trailer.  http://www.swtor.com/media/trailers/return

The Kinect stuff, meh gimmicky and platform-bound. I am looking forward to it getting hacked and the hours of funny video on youtubes. Lucas, with VR, you were immersed in the world, not standing in front of a tv waving your arms like a jackass.

Xuri, go easy on 3D stuff, it works within the capabilities of stuff that's been developed for years, it's completely optional and hardly costs anything for developers (just stops them from cheating with effects and means they need to account for a 3D UI, like nameplates in MMO). Once you've seen something like Tomb Raider in 3D, you realize how amazing it can be - way beyond gimmicky...and that title was not developed for 3D tech.

:(

EA blokt seriously?

ME3 looks great.

Loved what I saw in Mass Effect 3, can't wait to see more.

Need for Speed QTE on foot? Lulz.

The conceit of these fucking clown developers doing their own scripted no Q&A presentations is driving me nuts. Hire someone to do the fucking presentation you twats I'm tired of listening to these guys stumble over reading a tele prompter while they deliver canned as fuck hype monologues. The absolute worst was that "black sheep renegade spy team" bullshit game, I was so embarrassed for everyone involved in gaming from devs to players watching that presentation.

Double that for Curt Shilling, thought he was going to shit himself.

That Star Wars MMO? They were fucking too scared to show one tiny shred of gameplay, it was just a shitton of cutscenes that must exist to really drive home how fucking boring and bland the gameplay you actually control is every time you finish a quest. Can't wait for that.  :oh_i_see:

Wouldn't mind World of Tanks look like the Battlefield 3 stuff...

Wife caught me jerking off to BF3 gameplay. Couldn't help myself after the Amulur presentation almost bored me sterile. I heard dead crickets cracking underfoot as Shilling entered the stage.

Too scared?  You act like they've never shown gameplay of SWTOR before.  They're going to have the gameplay there and playable at E3.  I imagine that they figured that showing a gameplay video of an MMO isn't the kind of thing that plays well in a press conference.  Certainly not to the extent that stuff like Mass Effect 3 and Battlefield 3 do.

Was mostly disappoint at leash half of it was mix of footage from the previous cgi trailers.

It wasn't the full trailer.  They've got an version up on the SWTOR site that's almost six and a half minutes long.

This trailer is so silly I love it, Saints Row 3 (http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2011-saints-row/714505)

Forza 4 (http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2011-forza-motorsport/714820)

Yeah they use the same music :(

Edit: Battlefield 3 (http://www.battlefield.com/battlefield3/videos/e3-multiplayer-reveal) trailer on the official site.

BF3, when he said they're bringing a new experience, I was hoping for the follow-up "...A NEW SERVER BROWSER"  :why_so_serious: The guy doing the tank demo was making me nuts. Hey, why not just sit there like a giant target? I'm guessing that was single player?

Skyrim...any word how much will need to be patched out by mods?

Ah, indeed. This one looks all new.

I'd rather have a nervous but genuine guy like Schilling than horribly cheesy low-rent actors pretending to have fun playing awful Kinect dreck, or this "Mr Caffeine" dude doing the Ubi conference.

Am I the only one who is thinks the Ubisoft presentation is boring beyond words?

Yeah, the guy doing the Ubi conference is just really awkwardly trying to be funny.

Maybe if he removes his DRM it's more engaging.

Rocksmith seems kinda cool (assuming it actually works well).

I lol'd. 

I kept thinking those kids doing the Disney demo had been kept in some kind of Soviet training center. I've never watched a live feed from one of these shows before, though, so I wasn't sure how normal it was to be so painfully forced and awkward.

About 10 minutes away from Sony's E3 press conference.

Also, is anybody here going to be attending E3?  I seem to recall Margalis being there the last couple years.  If anyone is going to be there, I wouldn't mind some hands-on impressions of El Shaddai.

The Dust 514 (http://www.dust514.com/) site is now streaming the Sony press conference. Perhaps a big tie-in with CCP?

PS3 exclusive. Fuck Sony and CCP in the goat ass.

Sony's playing dubstep?!

Why would you own a 360 at this point? For the rad Sesame Street games?  :grin:

I assumed the complaint was the lack of a PC version.

edit: spelnn iz hrd

SWTOR Return trailer:  Santoryuuu!  :drill: :drill: :drill: :drill:

Of course now thousands of fanbois will ask for dual wield double bladed lightsabers.

:roll:

Dust was always a console exclusive IIRC.

OOOOoooooo Starhawk!

And now it's NGP time.

Edit: Playstation Vita.  Apparently in a press release separate from the conference, they just announced a $250 price tag (or $300 for the 3G version).  Worldwide launch by the end of the year supposedly.

Yeah, but I was hoping for 360. At least I won't have to worry about multiplayer going down because a splinter cell of anonymous was feeling squirrely.

That's Microsoft's fault though I'm guessing.   CCP prolly wanted to do 360 but MS has way too many restrictions on that sort of thing.

That would by my guess. The game takes input from Eve Online right? MS doesn't like that sort of thing at all.

Just the XBox patching process alone would make a company like CCP run for their mommies.

CCP explicitly stated in the demo that EVE and Dust would be running off of the same DB (edit: or shard) which is kinda amazing that they are going to have that level of interaction across tranquility.

edit: more info!

This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by EA.

...promising.

It's at the www.origin.com site.  They just want people to visit their new platform, so they're killing all other copies of the videos. 

So it begins  :oh_i_see:

Skynet?

Only if skynet comes with DRM and a limited install base.

The more they tighten their grip the more systems customers slip through their fingers...

Wii U, kinda cool!

For what tho, its a controller, not a portable console, and only useful with the existing Wii. God knows what the price of this is going to be.

Sounds like Peeeyewww.

EDIT: Wait, what the fuck? It's not even a new HD console, it's just a shitty, small screened controller to add to the Wii? How the fuck is that even making any sense?

Does this work with the existing Wii though?  It looks like a new console box too (notice it's a small, flat dvd sized box under the TV)

Also the graphics are much better, which makes me think it's not just with the original Wii

Yeah looks like there is a new console but nothing said about it besides the controller.  :oh_i_see:

Queue Virtual Boy comparisons - just to prepare  :why_so_serious:

Another fucking peripheral device.

So they are doing a new console in 2012, though? I'm not missing something there?

It seems like it, they are focusing on the controller though.  I can't imagine how much a whole package will cost though

It's more motion crap?

There is a new console, AND a new controller. Please keep up!


Yes it is, and it stream TO the controller.

Still retarded.

Right now, Reggie's saying "Hey Steve, finger-track THIS!"

If I have to get out of my chair to play games or flail wildly like an idiot at my TV, I'm out.

Battlefield on a Nintendo console? Assassin's Creed on a Nintendo console? Arkam City on a Nintendo console? I'm in.

^^

(http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/gamelife/2011/06/2011_HW_3_imge11_E3-660x466.png)

Let me show you on the doll where Nintendo touched me.  :why_so_serious:

I didn't see a whole lot of arm flailing.  More sitting and using the new controller like a boss.

I'm not liking that controller.  Looks uncomfortable.

Reading through Wired.com's now-NDA-free play demo.  That part where they showed HD Zelda with the action on screen and your stats on the controller?  Those are hot-swappable  :ye_gods:

All Wii games and waggles still work.

One of the more awesome things about that controller, 360 degree games. Not joking, you turn the controller off screen around you and see more game world.

And yes, if someone changes the TV, you keep on gaming on the controller, even in another room.

As long as this console gets 3rd party titles that are comparable to the PS3 and 360 it won't be that bad. The new controller looks interesting, I'm just dreading how it gets shoe-horned into every game in existence.

Wii U Trailer E3 2011 Nintendo Press Conference [HQ] (http://youtu.be/J2X09hX3D8g?t=2m5s)


Better yet, take an image of it on the new controller and video chat with me!

 :grin:

I have a bad feeling the Wii U can only support one controller per system, so that kind of limits the usefulness of in the room gaming options. 

Here's a good vid showing off the controller (http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2011-wii-u/715104). Good to see they finally included all the controller basics (dual analog sticks, 2 shoulder buttons per side, etc).

I was just thinking, Don't have a TV?

Don't need one with Wii U. That's a lot of sales to students right there, and if you find a TV, your set.

I'm virtually punching you through the internet. 

(http://www.comicbloc.com/forums/images/avatars/misc/smiley_blackeye.gif)

I actually think there are some really interesting ideas here. I agree with Rasix that it does not look comfortable to hold, weight and bulk being potentially huge issues. Also controllers are already retardedly expensive, and I don't see how these will be as cheap as they need to be. On the flip side, moving the HUD to the controller, so the screen just has visuals on it, adding clever interactivity between multiple screens (tv-controller); those are some ideas with some real mileage in them.

I'm pretty positive this console will die without third-party games though.

Well now I'm sad...Reggie just said on GT.TV that all of the third party stuff that was shown was not Wii U rendered.  It was all stock PS3/XboX/PC footage.  The only thing real was the bird/garden fly-through demo.   :cry2:

They've already got experience with the Controller Screen/TV interaction from the Cube; there were a handful of games (FF:CC was the big one) that let you use a GBA as a controller so you had your own screen for inventory, menus, etc. without interrupting the other players.

Right... at the time I posted it we were into 25mins of talking about the controller with zero information about the platform surrounding it.

That Nintendo thing just looks wonky.

And where the hell are all the 3D games? I thought they were supposed to be the in thing this coming year. Maybe I am mistaken or imputed the movie/tv trend into the gaming world. (and no, I am not a fan of 3D anything, for the record)

Apparently you missed the first 30 minutes of the press conference?  Lots of 3DS games to be had...

Edit: Let's cross the streams!  Future Starfox 64 3DS beta tester! (http://imgur.com/V3LYM)

They opened with: "Wii U is the new console, now lets talk about the controller"

I don’t know if or when it will actually happen at E3 but Square Enix has released a new trailer for Final Fantasy XIII-2 which it is calling the E3 trailer. This is the first full trailer for Final Fantasy XIII-2, the sequel to Final Fantasy XIII, although a short teaser trailer released in January.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-75BdU8U-w

The game seems to star Serah, the girl you were trying to rescue in Final Fantasy XIII, a new character called Noel and members of NORAH, the annoying friends of Snow who featured briefly in the first game.

Where this leaves Serah and her fiancé Snow is not clear. More importantly, there’s nothing to hint at whether we’ll see more of the Fang/Vanille lesbian action which made Final Fantasy XIII so exciting.

In the unlikely event anyone doesn’t know, I think the general view of Final Fantasy XIII was that it was disappointing, partly because of the insane plot and partly because the game was almost totally on rails. You were suddenly allowed the freedom to explore a section of the world, about three quarters of the way through the game, but only until you decided to get back into the storyline part of the game.

But I’ll still buy the sequel.

Sega already tried this.  Sticking information you need to be situationally aware of onto two different screens separated by a significant distance is a fucking retarded idea.

And therein lies its doom. Or at least, that's where they lose me, because for what, 2, 3 iterations of Nintendo consoles, they've had shitty shit shit shit 3rd party support. It killed the Wii for me and I was a pretty big cheerleader for the system. Fuck Nintentdo until they can prove they deserve otherwise.

^^ Yep.

A HUD on the controller defeats the entire purpose of a HUD in the first place.   Split screen is probably the killer app for this product.    Some clown is going to say casuals don't care about split screen though so I'm going to go ahead and say fuck you you're wrong right off the bat.

HDD - heads down display!  :uhrr:

We may be disdaining it here, but the new Wii is the only thing from E3 to make the front page of my local newspaper's website. It's going to be another money printing press I suspect, at least initially.

This.  The idea of playing Zelda like this and having to constantly look away from the TV just to see how much health I have left is retarded and will be quite frustrating. It only works with the DS because the screens are only a few centimeters apart, but even then the user usually focuses on one screen and ignores the other most of the time. 

Dunno about that. I know quite a few people who have Wii's who don't use them at all. And these were people who were completely drunk off them when they "found" them in stock at their local store. I am sure people are going to be at least partially cautious about the fever this time. Then again, we are talking about the general public.

This.  My parents got one and now they never use it.   It ended up a big waste of money for them.   My father would use it to play golf but the stupid game literally forces you to stand up instead of playing it while sitting.   I think a lot of people feel they got burned and will not buy in this time.   They could lose 30% and still be printing money of course.

My Wii gets a lot of use. Quite sure I will have to get this new one.

Dude, you're supposed to hold the controller right below the TV ^^

So is the idea of making a gaming system that just plays games totally ridiculous?

I mean does it have to be in 3D or have wacky controllers or play Blu-ray?

Because I don't want any of that.

It's their new extension of Wii Fit!  Build up arm strength while playing your regular games  :why_so_serious:

Seems Nintendo has hit the press release rather hard. I have yet to see a news site not mention this new console along with "it will transform gaming."  :oh_i_see:

I eagerly await the line of neck brace contraptions that will hang the goddamn thing 6 inches from your face at eye level.

Controller the size of a dinner plate? I'm in!  :why_so_serious:

I guess it looks like, iPad sized. I got the Wii for something different. This just inspires indifference with me.

Someone get on the meme for "someone stuck an iPad in your Wii controllers."  :why_so_serious:

Is it also a touchscreen? That would be delicious.  :drill:

So someone decided to make an Atari Lynx work as a controller for a Wii? :headscratch:

Did anyone else catch Geoff Keighley "grilling" Reggie while looking like a complete fucking goon?

He raised a few good points, but good lord that was an embarrassment.

This quote is from Ars - "The new controller, with its motion controls, touchscreen, and ability to intimately share data with a single player, is the real draw."

Yes, it's touchscreen.  Might be able to play a decent RTS game on a console now, because of that touchscreen.

I have to say, if I had people that came over my house to play games with me, the bolded part would have me excited.  Simplest example that I can think of is: TV shows the board, controller shows my hand.  I think it opens up those types of games.

I don't get the hate for this, more choice of controllers seems like a chance for different types of games.  I'd like to see it succeed (which depends upon people having good game-ideas to work with the controller).

Designing games around hardware... hmmm... where have I heard that before.

Yeah this to me is the biggest potential awesome thing about it.

Who the hell is going to be able to afford this thing though?   That screen is not going to be cheap.  When the console costs you 300 bucks and the 3 controllers for your friends cost another 300 bucks it starts looking a bit iffy.

The Wii, which was wildly successful.  Was there a point there?

Yeah motion controllers were a complete dead end which is why you haven't seen Microsoft and Sony rushing to jam them into every goddam thing that they could.

Can the console even support more then one wiki screen controller at a time?  Multiple controllers would need multiple streMs of day being sent at o ce and none of the footage shows more than a single controller being used at a time.

Same trailer for ToR.  I wonder why it is that Bioware isn't showing us how this game plays.  At this point I have to wonder who made the decision to show CGI over and over again.  :ye_gods:

There is some group gameplay footage buried in live stream, link to it is in the SWTOR thread.

What you can see there kinda explains why they'd go with the cgi instead :why_so_serious:

Nintendo IS gaming to a lot of people.  They know about Sony and MS but they're "for those hardcore guys and kids" so it's not as accessible to them.  News did their tech piece about E3 today, 3 mins of Nintendo and the new console and then what amounted to "Sony apologized for being hacked and showed off a new device.  Microsoft was also there."

As for myself, I withhold judgment.  It's potentially a very nice integration of their strength in handheld systems with console power, but we'll see. If it only supports one controller it's pointless.

I've seen about a hour of unique ingame footage via live streams and fansites.  If you really care about the game, why would you solely rely on G4 for info?

I agree that it's not nearly as exciting if it only supports one controller, but I wouldn't say pointless.  By making it a touchscreen they are essentially providing a mouse to a console (e.g. touching the console screen turns on a mouse on the tv).

If you really want your game to be seen, why wouldn't you link such things from your main site?

They've failed marketing this round.



A console that supports only one player but isn't portable is pointless.  You've made either a very bad tablet or a very expensive, inexplicably tethered handheld.   Part of the appeal of consoles is the multiplayer on a single device.  If I want to play a game with my kids I shouldn't have to buy another $300+ unit and play over the internet.

I'm sorry the devs are trying to make the whole week entertaining instead of blowing their whole load on day 1?

It has nothing to do with that.  MMO combat is really dreary to look at and I'm pretty sure EA wants to avoid the whole "It's just WoW with Lightsabers" meme as best they can.

The thing they do want to push up (dialogue time) is also really dreary to look at so it's going to be cinematics for a long long time.

From what I heard it will support one tablet controller rendering an entirely separate game screen and maybe more than one for more simple functions.

Each screen takes up bandwidth and processing power on the host machine. So it seems highly unlikely it could support 4 of these things at once refreshing at 30fps.

The system supports Wiimote, Classic Controller, etc. I hope it does support more limited functions on multiple controllers, so you can do stuff like choosing plays in Madden on your own screen or games with hidden info and things like that. It seems like it should be technically possible as long as you lower the refresh rate. So if 2 people are connected you render each of their screens every other frame, taking the same bandwidth and processing power that a single controller would refreshing at 30.

That would be my guess, based on no inside information.


I think Nintendo is assume that most people already own Wii input devices that will also work on this thing, which is a pretty safe assumption.

In the past the differences between different hardware platforms were fairly substantial and cross platform games took a fair amount of effort and were often basically separate games. Assuming this is similar to previous Nintendo systems as far as APIs and such it's probably closer to the 360 than the PS3 is as far as programming for it. Until PS4 and XBox720 I don't see any reason why devs who have cross-platform engines wouldn't extend them to this.

If it is supported by Unreal Engine 3 that's like half of 3rd party games right there.  :oh_i_see:

E3's big three in a nutshell:

(http://i.imgur.com/BhYHo.gif)

From what I've heard though it sort of sounds like the whole idea is the games will be made with one super controller in mind.   Everyone else uses Wiimotes basically.   That basically kills my interest.   I can see how the system would be good if it gets good games.  We saw how that worked with the Wii though. 

Like luckton says, they've shown a LOT of gameplay. I've seen group and solo stuff with Daniel, and there's a raid video, too. The dude has been all over the place showing stuff off. What other developer is pushing a cart of four computers around to show off group gameplay to different media outlets during their interview?

You're getting a little defensive and fanboish, here.  It's a really simple thing for them to do that makes sense if they're out there throwing it out anyway.  Expecting those interested to hunt shit down like an obsessed fan is marketing failure.  They have a site for a reason, NOT putting the info up there is asinine.

This isn't some "wah, they're not telling us and trickling out information," bitch.  This is a "fuckers, you're showing it, show it on your site, too."   It's not unreasonable.

GT Video of Wii U controller in action (http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2011-wii-u/715306).  Tech demo "experiences" or not, I'm underwhelmed. It's like the Wii managed to get more annoying to play.

Golf was mentioned separately, placing the Wii U controller on the ground for its display to show the ball on the virtual ground.  That's a neat idea but I don't see anybody awkwardly swinging a second Wii U controller around as a club.  So while the Wii U may come with one Wii U controller I think the waggle controllers are staying around as alternate / multiplayer inputs.

Nine times out of ten watching MMO gameplay is a close second to watching paint dry (it certainly is for TOR), so they obfuscate this with big, shiny, expensive trailers (trying to push the narrative sensation the game's supposed to be).

Isn't that usually what marketing is for?

Devs may want the game to be seen, marketing wants it to sell, they're doing just fine considering.

Even games I *know* I enjoy playing, I don't like watching gameplay videos of, personally. I'm a terrible gamer nerd. :(

It's not unreasonable, no.  But again, if they put all the info on the website, what's the point of going to the convention hall for the exclusive?  A lot of press people could save a shit ton of money in travel fees and such if they could just sit in their lazy boy and report from home.  Considering how high profile the game is, I'm sure there's also several exclusive previews that members of the press have locked in too.  GT.TV did theirs yesterday with the raid trailer.  Today will probably bring more stuff.

And I'm willing to bet that at the end of it all, it'll all be up on their website. 

I also agree with the others...watching someone play a MMO makes my skin crawl at times, esp. if it's some newb keyboard turning.

Personally, not showing actual gameplay is a huge warning sign. It began (for me at least) around MW2 where all we got were a few sound snippets, which turned out to be from literally the most boring part of the game, and which the media drummed up a metric fucktonne of drama over. To me, it says "we know the game isn't good, so we're going to show you some mystical ad instead".

Showing some of the gameplay (not too much, but enough to give me an idea of what sort of game we're looking at, or what kind of story we'll be looking at) is, to me, pretty important. There's so many games out that I need as much information as I can to make a decision. vOv

There's pretty much a shit-ton of gameplay out there to look at though.  Yeah, they could have handled the marketing here a bit better, but really, who else is paying attention to everything coming out of E3 other than the hardcore gamer who already knows about this stuff and is going to hunt it out if interested.  The links to the videos, live streams, and hands on impressions are out there on NeoGaf and all the various major game sites and MMO sites.  You pretty much have to bury your head in the sand to not be able to find some E3 coverage and videos of SWTOR.

That's really it.

It splits up their audience between the MMO lifers that already check out fansites and such and the mainstream (gaming) press that gets a pretty trailer to link to and maybe some demo to write about.

Standing up a presser and saying "Behold, Diku combat!" isn't an effective marketing strategy.

Oh, my mistake. I was responding to Sjofn, and I was referring more to when there is no gameplay available anywhere, just a bunch of cryptic ads which says absolutely nothing about the game itself. SWTOR has had tons of gameplay videos out there, so I wasn't including SWTOR at all in my post.

Ah, sorry.  I wasn't entirely sure if you were talking about SWTOR or not, but it seemed like it due to some of the other posts.

I think I've gone to most of the TOR videos through links from f13  :oh_i_see:

Watching actors play like that is the uncanny valley of human behaviour.

You're welcome  :grin:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_vgHrNW4lg&feature=youtu.be&hd=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YN-ra_3kfyA

45 min demo (low quality) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uawd6Gq7Dbk

10 min demo of Alderaan group play http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PYlRac1510

That combat looks horrible.

Then again, I am completely jaded with tab-target-stand-in-place combat currently.

Also: HOW MANY TIMES YOU GOTA HIT A GUY WITH A LIGHTSABER!!  :uhrr:

They make it seem like you can jump around and fight and stuff...kinda hard to do when every vendor's monster size speakers are blaring at 11, plus having to conduct a Q&A sessions at the same time.

As for the graphics, they had to both tune it down so it could stream easier, and the stream itself degraded it further.  The demo itself was just that...only the content needed to show the demo was in the build.  They claim that the build testing right now is feature complete with all animations, vocals, etc. online and functional.

http://youtu.be/uawd6Gq7Dbk?t=10s

Is all that needs to be posted.

Graphics are fine.

That's a segment from the 45 minute demo I posted above where he is deliberately trying to be killed to show off the rez system and is not fighting back.


What?  You actually think that because someone has a lightsaber they were only going to have 1 hit kills?  Really?

You didn't post a 45 min video. Even so, my mistake, combat still looks terrible and stiff to me.

The combat is what it is. That's never going to be the draw on an RPG that's gone MMO. IF they can emphasize story, IF they can remove the grouping stumbling blocks, IF they can get the world feel right, and IF they design for the player they have and not the one they want, they will be fine.

It's a lot of IF's though.

I can't agree to this, there are games coming down the pipe shedding this type of system. The sooner the better. Like I said, I'm very jaded right now though. Even WAR's combat was much more frantic than this. Every video I have seen its slow, stiff, pondering combat that makes SWG-Post-NGE look good.


I did not expect 5 minute saber fights, no.

If by frantic you mean 'waiting for a bugged global-cooldown timer to work properly before I get use my skills again, then yes, WAR was very frantic gameplay  :grin:

BW liked APB (by liked I mean loved to the point of suspicion). Take the opinion with a grain of  :uhrr: Love you, BW  :grin:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h38VV7qkYNc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSwy412nttI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjCyZ2P9bCA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frCIQfpMOyo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4XMgQUqLZ0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UQ-pHa87Gc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XqKvKUTElA

 :awesome_for_real:

I did preface my comments with being completely burned out with this type of system.


If combat was anywhere near that reactive and visceral, I wouldn't say anything.

We gave WAR the opportunity to get all the way to live on it's hype train express before it crashed and burned.  We could at least extend the same courtesy to TOR.  I still say we're not seeing the finished product, and that's intentional.

We had this discussion in the TOR thread like, a year or more ago. Almost all lightsaber fights end in one hit kills (maybe a glancing blow here or there).  What makes them go on a long time is NOT getting hit in the first place.  I think thats why it feels so odd to see someone get beat on with a lightsaber.  You could accomplish the same sort of thing as a health meter with a kind of block meter v. lightsabers, and when it runs out then you get one shot by the Jedi and it would "feel" much better IMO.  I'd say this applies to SW games in general, I'm not so invested in SWTOR that I really care either way though of course.

I haven't really been paying any attention to TOR, but that UI is complete arse.

Yes, thats what I mean. Most videos I see have sand people taking 10-15 hits of a saber full on.

Ok, what examples of games are you referencing that shed this system?

I'm going to go with the cop-out answer (and actually it's a dev answer too) that TOR is really just KotOR 3, 4, 5, 6, and so on, and I'll leave these right here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eu8GuasvnAk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BTugg0xXBs&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlNf-1qkl5A&feature=related

You don't have to like it, but it's what's coming down the pike.  I believe that there will be enough fluff and polish to have people look past this stuff.

(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/85916/reggie_2011.png)

FireFall, Planetside 2, APB, Global Agenda, Vindictus, Possibly Warhammer 40000: Dark Millennium, Battlestar Galactica Online, Cabal Online, Blade & Soul, World of tanks, World of Warplanes, Mortal online, WWIIO, TERA Online. I am sure I have missed a bunch, and yes, they are of varying qualities..

So you want twitch game-play in your MMO, unless it's a vehicle-based game it which you apply vehicle mechanics.  Got it. 

Also, you didn't mention Archie-Age  :grin:

I am unsure of arche age systems.

I want ACTION, not more dam numbers, and number to counter numbers, with numbers to counter those numbers and 40 bazillion abilities to counter 40 bazillion abilities while I sit in one place and whack off an ewok with a lightsaber. At least games like AOC and Tabula rasa TRIED! Even WAR's system (despite its high end flaws) had a more engaging combat system.

I have done this for 10+ years now.

Don't get me wrong, I whole-heartedly agree with you...would love to have some twitch in the standard MMO affair.  If a really twitch game like ABP showed us anything, it's that gamers with reflex skills will dominate, and everyone else will just go home.  So then who do you have left to play with?

The number's system, while archaic, at least is something that everyone knows to expect and how it works.  I'm sure when the 10mil WoW kiddies grow up and are ready for something more too, then we'll get something going.  Until then, I'll settle for a MMO that offers me a hell of a lot more engaging storyline than just the standard "Here you are, go do whatever" affair.

The story part looks compelling, but hell its ripped from mass effect, and look at that combat system.


Fuck this shit ^

I agree with Bloodworth.  This game (meaning TOR) looks like complete garbage. It looks like someone reskinned Fallen Earth.

:oh_i_see:

That's some geldon quality stupid.

Sure.  :uhrr:

Like I said, I am completely disenfranchised with this type of combat system. If you want to make my personal opinions and preference as some "OMG they have to do it this way or they will fail" That's on you.

Games got a lot going for it, the combat, for me, is not one.


I can't go this far, its clearly not garbage.

Sorry, here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GO5PxpuLI1g&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Just wanted to clarify for your own peace of mind.  :oh_i_see: Continue thy crusade.

Its clearly a related system. Are you saying its not? It also was not the point of the sentence.

Call of Duty is one of the most brutal twitch shooters out there (modern ones at least, Quake Live and Counter Strike are still hanging around) and they sell a bazillion copies a year.

How many of those copies pay $15 a month in recurring sub fees?  

APB didn't really say anything about twitch, however.  It seemed to say a lot more about incompetence.

edit: At this point, bitching about SWTOR's combat system is akin to bitching about it being a Star Wars game.  It has been down this path since forever.

Yeah APB had more issues than good players stomping the bad ones.

I was very certain WAR would fail. I'd say I feel about ten times more certain that this Star Wars game will be a huge pile of shit. What could any of you see in this fucking game?

I feel as if the people who are acting like this game might be worth playing bought boxes of WAR, ChampO and Star Trek.

Two out of three...not bad  :why_so_serious:

Ok so let's investigate this:

Firefall - space shooter, team-based, so-called "horizontal" progression system that nobody has been able to pull off yet. Solid idea, but I've heard it before. I'm not sure they can implement it.
Planetside 2 - space shooter, a revive of an already failed franchise. Also, SOE, delays, and the chance that this game sees the light of day make it a non-issue for me.
APB - Dead game. From what I understand it had great character creation.
Global Agenda - It's a lobby shooter. Hardly what I would call an MMOG.
Vindictus - while I like the idea, I'm not sure this is even an MMO.
Warhammer - yeah, who knows?
WWIIOL - Good example, I'm not sure why this hasn't caught on more.

You are right, none of them are pure RPG MMO fair, that was the point. Ill gladly take a few loading screens and instances over ever having to tab-target 123 again. However the main commonality of them is they are shedding the MMORPG combat trappings, you asked, I gave examples.

They are at least TRYING. Most of that you typed had zero to do with the point of the conversation.

As for 40k: (http://news.softpedia.com/news/Warhammer-40-000-Dark-Millennium-Online-Ranged-Combat-Detailed-153675.shtml)


THANK GOD. I will gladly try this out, even if its not pure shooter, its at least the right direction.

So what you are saying is that you are tired of RPGs?

No, I'm tired of the same combat system that I have been playing for over 10 years now. Like I said at the beginning of this conversation.  :oh_i_see:

RPG has jack to do with the combat system. Was oblivion not an RPG? Is Mass effect not an RPG?

So, you would be ok with something like Elder Scrolls done MMOG then? Large worlds, swinging swords, more action type thingy?

Yes!

 :grin:

Heh, same.

I'm marking this day down on my calendar, as the first time in history MrB wasn't in love with an unreleased MMO.

Yeah, me too. Why hasn't anyone done that yet?

In a word, LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAG.....

That's a terrible excuse with today's technology.

An excuse nonetheless.  I thought Darkfall was action skill based?

Darkfall was my first thought, too.  It's as close to an MMO Oblivion as I've seen. 

I thought so...so why hasn't that taken off like a bat outta hell?

Ask WayAbvPar, he was the one who gave it a decent shot I think.

I would say mortal online is closer.

To use a possibly bad Analogy, it seems that what he wants is less Final Fantasy in his MMO (FF games generally being the equivilant of stand there / tab target / push buttons with it's staple combat faire of the static Attack / Magic / Item menu) and more Secret of Mana / Legend of Zelda, where you actually run around, attack stuff, set up combos and the like.

Personally, I am not sure why no one has mentioned Asherons Call in this discussion yet.  For all it's similarities to more modern MMO's, the simple fact that it had pretty much "true" projectile combat and that every single spell you had could be cast while moving still sets it's combat fun factor miles above stuff like WoW.

I played Darkfall for a bit, the reason it didn't take off is because the grind was pretty brutal, and people don't like being PKed.  I'd say it had little to do with being action oriented.

I bought WAR played it a month and got like 100~150 hours of truly great play out of it by smashing pubbies in battlegrounds with my guildies.  ChampO was an even better purchase for me.  I got maybe only 100 hours out of ChampO but they were truly fantastic.   Playing around with the powers and that skill system was some truly engaging shit.  I also bought DCU and got great value out of that as well.

I did not buy Star Trek.

By approaching these games with single player game standards I'd say I've made out quite well.    I like WoW style combat and systems and I love Star Wars.   If you think this game isn't worth getting hyped over and that I'll somehow be let down and not get an amazing experience you'd be wrong.  If it actually turns into an MMO somewhere along the way that would be somewhat amazing.

No.  We don't go around calling Brutal Legend an RTS.

Depends on which part you mean?   DCU tried action combat.

You guys, Ghost Recon Online is pretty fun. If they don't fuck it up too badly with microtransaction stuff, I will be seriously interested in this game.

Because we didn't want to risk having Hyu jizz all over us about this game again and it sucked and blew?

You have to aim spells, melee swings and archery. If you don't hit, then you don't do damage. Other than that its fairly traditional UO-esq mmorpg.


Not quite. The grind was/is Korean-strength and as tedious, and people couldn't help but getting PKed until they are done with the grind. Grind was ultimate cause, not PKing.

 :headscratch:

I guess you didn't play it then?  Can't really blame you for that.  My point was those are action games with rpg elements.   I liked them both but I don't see any reason to call them RPG's.   I mean damn near everything is getting RPG elements these days.

As well they should.  :awesome_for_real:

I did, they were clearly RPG's. The combat system has nothing to do with it.

I disagree with what you said.

Oblivion I can give you maybe.  I think the extreme consolish player skill based combat made it clearly an action rpg but maybe you think of action rpg's as rpg's.    Mass Effect though is a no way.  It removed everything important in the meaning of RPG.   That's why the second one was improved by making it further an action game.

I thought the combat system was what we were talking about?

I can't find any info on From Dust from E3 - anyone see anything?  I thought they were touting a summer 2011 release.

You just missed it.   They released trailers and stuff the first day and they launched a blog along with a bunch of stuff on the Dust site.

Coming out as part of XBLA's Summer of Arcade (http://www.joystiq.com/2011/06/06/xbox-live-summer-of-arcade-2011-kicks-off-july-20/) this year.

New interview about Journey (http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2011-journey/714629).  Didn't see this earlier because it was lost in the crowd of pre-E3 videos that got dumped onto game trailers.

Edit: And another video. (http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2011-journey/715200)

12 minutes of Saints Row 3 gameplay/interview. (http://e3.gamespot.com/video/6318145/)  November is way too far away.

So as an aside to this rip roaring good time... why is this thread in this subforum and not in the gaming conferences forum? You all make it a bitch to find if I am waiting for someone to post a new reply

Because that subforum sucks and nobody looks at it.

Oh hell yes.

As I'm digging further, I came across this on FB.  Holy shit this is awesome. 

From Dust running on an iPad, through Onlive, playing simultaneously on the iPad and his TV.  That is awesome.  It doesn't even seem real.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iY-Q8jxKggA&feature=player_embedded#at=61

Only one thing bothers me when I see something like that.  Any time something like that comes along, I have to ask myself: While this is an AWESOME looking tech idea, do the devs who make these things operate on the assumption that the general gaming audience who could make the idea hit big have an unlimited data pipe or something?   I mean, yay, nice cloud gaming idea.  Wait, what, streaming high def game video?!? Too bad I dont feel like forking over a 200 dollar a month phone bill to get a data plan from my carrier for my tablet device that will let me actuallly use that to it's fullest capability.

Hell, my ISP is still trying to constantly chop my monthly bandwidth cap down every chance it gets and force UBB down my throat, and you think I am going to jump on the "completely stream my games live all the time" bandwagon?  Maybe when the ISP industry stops trying to gouge me for every byte i download.

Unless this thing has the capability to run the game from my own personal self contained cloud (Ie, my home PC), and stream it through my personal home network so i can lounge around on my couch with my new fancy High Def Tablet game controller, I don't see this catching on with the general public very fast.

There might be hope for the new X-Com yet: http://kotaku.com/5810536/if-xcom-is-an-fps-then-so-is-mass-effect

The talk of time unit costs and switching to a tactical view initially made me think of an XCom game that plays a little like Valkyria Chronicles. Which would have been awesome, but I guess it's still going to be more shooter-like than that.

Uh, Wifi?

So, The Wii U.

I think this is a highly compelling answer to "What can it do".

http://kotaku.com/5810573/finally-a-game-shows-what-the-wii-u-can-really-do

Well, he's right in the aspect that some ISPs seem to be moving backwards in technology progression.  As we see everything moving to the "cloud" and services like Onlive and Netflix, these dumbasses are putting caps on bandwidth.  I mean Comcast and AT&T is one thing at 250gig a month; that's pretty fair overall unless you're file sharing.  But Canadian Bell's 25 gig limit is absurd.  I'm not sure what the caps are in Australia but I think I remember a few of the folks on here stating that it was pretty low.  

The whole thing is  :uhrr:.

This actually might get me to play FPSs on a console again...

Emphasis on 'might'  :oh_i_see: 

The tech looked neat, but if it makes women be that fucking annoying count me out. 

An RTS on that thing may be rather awesome.

How about give me a peripheral on my PC that I can set next to my keyboard that works the way that screen does instead of having to try and manage that while using joysticks to control a first person shooter.

Tablets?  :oh_i_see:

Cool, yes. But there can be a thing as too many interface parts. I got a distinct feeling that all the controller screen was used for was preliminary stuff like load out selection and maps, which are currently functional on a button that pulls up on your main screen. Why pull off the main screen and dump into a different screen? The drone cam was a nice feature, but you still require cover to view it so you aren't being made into swiss cheese which means your focus is on the camera and not on the field - hence why not just have it as a key press on your HUD or PiP?

Thing with FPS's, you have to be attentive on situational awareness on the main screen rather than horsing around looking down and up 8 times to see positions on a map or drone cameras or load out/HUD info. RTS, I can see the wow factor, but for a FPS? It feels gimmicky and really unnecessary when you can do the same shit with a key press. It's a nice theoretical showing of what it can do, but I doubt the uses over what already works. Still not sold on it... hell not even tempted by it. Then again, I refuse to play pvp shooters with a gamepad.

In that video, the guy with the Wii U-mote was running the tactical maps, squad management and Arial info feeds.  That was no ordinary solo-multiplayer-happens-to-have-walked-on-the-objective game.

But you are right, it depends on how they go about it. Having an overseer, sounds fun to me though.

That trailer makes me want to stab ad execs, not buy a Wii console. A team full of assholes with shaky cam that doesn't really tell me what the fuck the controller is being used for.

I am agreeing with you, but I fail to see the use other than a separate gimmick screen - that same stuff can be opened on the main screen or a PiP on the main screen with a keybind and there is little difference other than remaining on the main screen or going back and forth. I think it's cool and all, but hardly see it being groundbreaking or a main alternative to the status quo.

Well, the touch screen part does add a lot. Giving commands or setting way points and the like.

Agreed they didn't show jack shit about wtf the controllers are for.   I'm going to make a WAG here and say FPS's on the Wii U won't let you use the touchpad as a trackpad to aim.  If they do it'll be nearly as bad as mouse vs gamepad.   

That's only because consoles are fucking gimped without a mouse.

You can do that with a mouse click, too.

I'm with Haemish.  I just wanted to stab an ad exec, not run out and buy one of these.

Even so, it only shows 1 person out of the 4 actually getting use of the new controller

Looked like a LAN or networked game.

The data stream from the cloud still has to get to you somehow.  I am with Rogers net in Canada, who recently chopped our download cap from something like 120gig per month down to around 80, and would absolutely LOVE to cut that down even farther.  Plus, as I mentioned, they are dying to shove Usage Based Billing down our throats, so we can have tiny monthly caps, and pay through the nose when we go over, in the name of "fair usage for all".

The guy in the video also mentioned usage of the Onlive system "on the road".  Somehow, I don't think "on the road" means "sitting in your car in your driveway inside your home WiFi bubble".   Sure, I suppose you could drive around wherever you happen to be and try to score a connection to one of those free wireless hotspots, but I imagine after the first bunch of them get nailed with a giant bill because all the local kiddies are streaming Onlive game feeds in hi-def to their wireless devices, they will probably block access to the service.

They've gotten a lot better very recently. I'm on 500gb a month now. 6 months ago I was on 60gb

o.0  How much are you paying for that per month?

I believe we are currently on the Rogers Extreme Package.  Rogers pricing packages being as follows:

Express  - $47 for 60 gig
Extreme  - $60 for 80 gig
Extreme+  - $70 for 125 gig
Ultimate  - $100 for 175 gig

$100 for their max residential download cap (not counting taxes) is a bit much.  Especially considering that most people will want Cable TV and and a phone plan on top of that.

I believe it's AU$80 p/m for 500gb. It would have been slightly cheaper if we'd tethered a home phone plan contract to it.