I thought Ninja Gaiden 3 was supposed to show more of Ryu Hayabusa's feelings, to give the player more insight to the remorse the character feels after killing an enemy? If the video is worth anything, that ain't the case at all. Ryu clearly gives a flying ninja fuck as his cold blade pierces enemy after enemy.
The teaser images we've seen up to now haven't really done anything for me, aside from getting my hopes up for another Ninja Gaiden game. With E3 comes some gameplay videos, which in turn gets me kind of excited. Though Itagaki may no longer be with Team Ninja, Ninja Gaiden 3 looks like more of the same, which is good. Of course, Team Ninja has found ways to enrich the experience, such as 'Steel on Bone' sequences, which are sort of quick time finishers, meant to give the player true feeling of disemboweling an enemy. Ninja Gaiden 3 aims to immerse the player, and give a true feeling of being in Hayabusa's super ninja shoes. So far so good, but where are the huge breasted females at?
Lara Croft makes Tom Hanks look like a little bitch. She doesn't need a volleyball to keep her sane, her injuries and crafted bow and arrow are doing the job just fine! Here's our first cinematic look at theTomb Raider reboot, where Lara Croft sets off on her first adventure and gets her ass kicked by the elements in the process. No one said being a treasure hunter would be easy, babe.
What are you all thinking about this one? I haven't cared for a Tomb Raider game for years, maybe it's because Lara's boobs keep shrinking? Seriously though, gameplay makes it look as if Tomb Raider is learning toward adding some survival horror elements into the tried and true action adventure genre. I'd be all aboard for that. The videos are not much to go on, therefore the jury is still out until I can see a little bit more of what Tomb Raider is all about.
Every time I watch a Deus Ex: Human Revolutiontrailer, I'm left with chills. The latest spot from this year's E3 is no different. This title looks like it has everything going for it; lovely visuals, atmosphere inspired by Blade Runner, hauntingly beautiful music, a story of deceit and betrayal, and different pillars of gameplay. How will you play Adam Jensen? Will you move in silence, using subterfuge to avoid physical conflict by handling tasks quickly and quietly? Or will you overcome enemies guns ablaze, grenades aloft with arm-blades flailing like a (not so) typical third person shooter?
Rooted in the sensibilities of the original Deus Ex, a game that many consider amongst the best ever made, I would be surprised if Deus Ex: Human Revolution is anything less than an overwhelmingly incredible experience.
The title may be stretching the truth. One new Halo game, and one rework of a classic. That's right! Let's start with the more exciting news: Halo 4. If you thought the series was done for you're rudely mistaken. Bungie's departure has not deterred Microsoft from pumping out more Master Chief, but that doesn't mean it will be any good. 343 Industries is still a relatively unknown, so Halo 4 could go either way of north or south. If gameplay is anything like the trailer (which it usually isn't) Halo 4 is looking a might bit like Dead Space 2, don't you think? No details or release date yet, outside of the Holiday 2012 window.
In addition to a brand new Halo game, comes an old classic. Halo: Combat Evolved, remastered into Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary to celebrate 10 years of incredible success to the date, with a release of November 15th, 2011. Halo Anniversary will feature the original campaign, reworked and retooled with the Halo: Reach engine, and will support online co-op only. The $40 purchase will get you 6 multiplayer maps from the original Halo, which will be used in Reach's matchmaking multiplayer. Map names haven't been confirmed yet, but I will say this: no Hang 'em High, no buy. It's really that simple.
BioWare blesses us with two lovely Star Wars: The Old Republic pieces. The game's intro cinematic is a hefty 6 minutes of troopers, scoundrels, and good old fashion lightsaber battles. In line with the earlier cinematic trailers, this one is beauty and madness combined in one tight little package, like Britney Spears. In fact, BioWare should be responsible for creating a feature length, full CG Star Wars film, that's how good these trailers have been. Ray Muzyka > George Lucas. The trailer shows how the villainous Darth Malgus comes into power, and how the Sith reclaim their home planet of Korriban.
In addition, there's a pretty good braggadocio trailer that details what exactly The Old Republic brings to the table that your current MMO of choice may not offer. Heroic battles? Personal starships? Space battles? PvP Warzones? Okay, maybe every MMO in existence already offers these things, HOWEVER! They don't have Jedi and Sith do they? Game, set, match.
It is absolutely sick, twisted, and sadistic that a game exists which you're never meant to conquer. A game thats sole purpose is to utterly destroy you, mentally, physically, and spiritually. A game that humiliates you to the point of submission, where you may never come back to play again. That is Dark Souls, one of the games I am most excited to play this year.
Most times I like a good challenge, but I also like to be able to beat my games with minimal failure. When it comes to Dark Souls though, I could care less. I eagerly await the frustrating touch of Death before gigantic creatures I was never meant to defeat, all in the name of ep1c lo0tz.
Am I the only one who can't wait to kick a septuagenarian Mitsurugi's ass? I love beating on elderly combatants in fighting games. What is your old ass doing in a fighting tournament? Go sit in a park somewhere! Just kidding, I love old people. Except when they come at me with a sharpened katana, which happens much too often.
Listen to me, I'm talking crazy. God, I can't wait for SoulCalibur V, which will hopefully restore a shred of my sanity.
So apparently, the Warhammer world is this hugely popular fictional universe that spans decades and is the source of inspiration for many of today's popular ideas in gaming. If you're like me, and don't have the patience for lore, literature, and tabletop games, you probably could care less for this world. All that is about to change very soon, with the introduction of Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team,two-player twin stick shooter.
Kill Team will compliment Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, which I'm not as excited for in comparison. It's due out this July for PSN and XBLA, and priced at $10 (800 MSP). Love me some twin-stick action. Pause.
Despite how it may sound, PlayStation Vita is not Sony's foray into the multivitamin market. Are you as disappoint as I? My current multivitamin always makes me feel nauseas, I was looking forward to a powerful and perhaps poorly designed supplement to give my body what it needs. Instead, we get an incredibly powerful handheld device with heavy developer support and a bevy of very cool control options, priced fairly to boot. Bah!
Info on PlayStation's newest portable beast has been readily available for some time, but seeing it all come together during last night's PlayStation press conference was a heart warming moment. Okay, maybe not, but it was pretty neat. Aside from the games looking absolutely magnificent graphically, the press conference did very well to flaunt the new device's myriad of controls. Dual analogs, directional pad, SixAxis, touch screen, and back facing touch pad. Overkill? Maybe a little, as so many control options seem a little repetitive, but they're implemented so damn well!
For instance, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, which may look better than big brother PS3's Uncharted 2, but I digress. You can use the typical control of analog, directional, and face buttons to handle shootouts and platforming. Perfectly LAST GEN! Get with the new school, bitches. When platforming, touch the screen where you want to jump, or slide your finger across a path of surfaces and have a drink of water as Drake handles business and platforms for you. It's a new world of gaming!
Platforming-shatforming, how can you use these controls in new and innovative ways? Mod Nation Racers Vita illustrates this perfectly. Drag your finger across the touch screen to draw your own track, tap the screen to dig depressions for lakes, tap on the back-facing touch pad to sprout mountain ranges, and use SixAxis to create track tilts and such. These are just some of the clever ideas developers can implement when getting busy with PlayStation Vita.
More impressive than controls though, is the ability to go back and forth between the PlayStation Vita and your PlayStation 3. Ruinappears to be a 3/4 dungeon crawling lootfest in the vein of Diablo, which is what it is. It looks cool, but honestly, I'd rather play Diablo. What makes Ruin stand out is the fact that you can switch between PS3 and PSV seamlessly, and pick up where you left off. So if you're locked in an intense session of Ruin before a roadtrip to Grandma's house, grab your PSV and continue where you stopped on your PS3. Play to your heart's content, and when you get back home, load up your PS3 with every-damn-thing you accomplished on your handheld reflected on your home console. While Diablo is busy staying a while to listen, Ruin and PSV will be kicking ass on the go.
The handheld will be priced at a very reasonable $249 if you don't need 3G service. And if you absolutely must have 3G, you'll pay $299 and suffer through the terrible service of AT&T, PlayStation Vita's official 3G partner, an announcement which was met by a hearty chorus of groans from the E3 crowd. Smart people, them.
With an impressive list of developers already on board, PS Vita is trying to prove handheld gaming is still worth a lick, even if your name isn't iOS or Android. To be honest, I don't know if I can be bothered with adding yet another device to my ever-growing man-purse o' technology, but it's hard to argue with Vita's potential. It is, however, easy to argue that supplementastic name.
Well, not really outer space, but close. Microsoft has chosen to take Xbox where many companies have been going as of late; to the cloud! During Microsoft's E3 2011 press conference, it was announced that Xbox LIVE will begin implementing cloud features such as game saves and profile recovery. This means traveling with your Xbox LIVE profile will be easy-peezy, and much less of a hassle than either dealing with the dreadful 'Gamertag Recovery' or saving your profile along with all of your game data onto a dedicated USB stick.
I'm loving this direction, as I have two Xbox consoles in my house I play on, and carting profiles/saves back and forth is a huge pain in the red ring. Also, friends will now have easier access to their accounts without junking up my consoles USB ports with portable media. Everybody wins!
In addition to the knockout cloud announcement, Microsoft was getting busy in other ways. Like introducing another dashboard update?! That's right kids. It seems like Xbox LIVE gets a visual makeover every year, so why not another this fall? Long gone are the days of the blade, replaced now with a nice and simple interface reminiscent of the Windows Phone OS or the newly announced Windows 8 look. Microsoft seems to be following the footsteps of Apple by creating one unified look across all of its platforms, which ain't a bad thing, especially considering that this new look is actually quite snazzy.
Also announced are Xbox Live Beacons. It's an odd sounding feature that lets your network know what game you want to play. Then, you'll receive an instant notification when one of your friends has fired that game up. Sounds kind of silly, but sure, whatever. Must be useful if your friend list is at max capacity. Then again, if you're maxed out on XBL friends, you're probably exclusively playing one of either Halo, Gears of War, or Call of Duty. Beacons don't sound as awesome as bacon, but really, what does?
Expect more, such as YouTube and Bing search (through Kinect voice commands), increased Kinect support, and many more additions that have either flown under the radar, or I don't feel like writing about. Don't judge me, I'm pressed for time dammit. The latest Dashboard update will go live later this year, giving you plenty of time to save up for a Kinect.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011 at 10:42PM 
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