Welcome to Beyond Co-Op E3 Edition where I link up all I can from sister site Colony of Gamers about single-player games that have little to nothing in relation to co-op gaming.
The stories for Day Zero of E3:
- Microsoft Press Conference
- Electronic Arts Press Conference
- Ubisoft Press Conference
- Overall Thoughts
Microsoft Press Conference
Microsoft started off the festivities as always. The night before they had the Kinetic Experience (talked about here on Co-Optimus) where Nick and Jason had to don white ponchos and be shown mostly, if not all, games in video form with no one actually playing them.
Most people feel today’s conference didn’t help things much and felt rather disappointed by it. I do think too much time was given to Kinect, but then again they are trying to sell the system (although they didn’t give a price, but a November 4th release here in North America). I was honestly impressed by Kinectimals because I honestly think it is from Rare since it has a Viva Pinata like look to it. I was also interested in the Sports game and the Adventure game. Video chat also looked very cool and could be quite interesting including the ability to watch movies, listen to music and a bunch of other things with your video chat friends.
Outside of that the usual lineup of games was shown: Halo Reach, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Fable III and Gears of War 3. Along with this a Crytek game produced by Microsoft was shown in CGI format called Codename Kingdoms, it looks like a gladiator related game, but no clue what type of game or when it will be coming.
Here is the rest of what the presser showed covered in this thread over at Colony of Gamers. Also of note is anyone in attendance got the new Xbox 360 Slim that was shown off. That is being shipped today and should be available later this week for $299. It will include an 802.11n Wi-Fi card, 250GB hard drive and the ability to connect Kinect without an extra power brick.
Source: me
Electronic Arts Press Conference
EA’s press conference was impressive to me. Starting off with the long rumored Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit from Criterion (makers of Burnout). Full campaign as either a driver or a cop and “revolutionary” online play. They showed off a chase between driver and cop live and the game looked wicked fast. It is due on November 16 this year, same as Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. No doubt I’ll pick this one up!
Live demo of Dead Space 2 was shown next. The game looks more ingrained in shooting than before and the demo ended abruptly with the note that it would be continued tomorrow at Sony’s press conference. The game is due on January 25, 2011.
Medal of Honor was shown off next and a live 24 player game was shown using PS3. There will be a beta demo of multiplayer out on June 21, although those that pre-order this game and own Bad Company 2 w/VIP benefits will be able to get ahold of it this Thursday. Game is due October 12 of this year and will include real-life maps from modern day Afghanistan evidently.
The Bad Company 2 expansion Vietnam is coming this Winter. Next up was EA Sports turn. EA Sports MMA was shown off and will include Live Broadcast which will allow you to make a video hyping yourself up. Then an EA producer may choose you and you will play against an opponent live online (where thousands can watch live supposedly) and win prizes. That game is out October 19.
EA Sports Active 2.0 was next shown on all platforms with one person playing each system (Wii, PS3 and 360 w/Kinect). Not sure a date was given or not, but I believe Peter Moore said “holiday”. Madden 11 was next showing 3 vs. 3 online co-op team gameplay and a streamlined playbook enabled through a headset. They for sure shrinked the playbook overall.
Crysis 2 was then shown, this time being played on 360. The game looked awesome and the graphics were also awesome. They announced as previously said that all the versions would be 3D enabled as well as the 2D. They had a piece of the demo where they had people in attendance put the glasses on to see 3D. It even looked good ini the 2D I was seeing on G4’s television coverage.
Bulletstorm was shown next and probably gave the guy manning the censor button fits. A lot of swear words thrown about, but the game looked entertaining and the dialogue I could hear sounded hilarious.
Last, but not least, Star Wars: The Old Republic had a new CGI trailer. They also noted the game would be playable on the show floor and that each player will get their own starship. Still no date given for release.
Full notes can be found over at this thread at Colony of Gamers.
Source: me
Ubisoft Press Conference
This was a very weird conference, but not as weird as last year when James Cameron lulled us to sleep. There were games that really had nothing to do with any game system and just general oddities. However, there were some very cool looking games shown off.
First thing shown off was Child of Eden from Rez maker Tetsuya Mizuguchi. He was in attendance playing the game, obviously through Xbox 360 w/Kinect. He moved his hands forward to fire off bolts of energy at targets and seemed to be able to angle his shots. The audio cut out after the play, so I’m not sure what all was said. Later I would get PR that said this is coming to 360 and PS3 and will use controllers or use Kinect for the full body experience. The game looks interesting and will be out Q1 2011.
Next up was Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. They showed the opening of the game in 1499 after the events of Assassin’s Creed II. Some devastating act happens that will obviously make Ezio pissed again and then we jump 4 years ahead and he is now with his Brotherhood. No word on what co-op or multiplayer there will be, but supposedly it will be shown on the show floor. The early play certainly looked single-player, I figured this was a co-op centric game, but maybe not.
Shaun White was carted in to talk about his skateboarding game. A rather long live demo was done and the game looks interesting in concept. You play as someone who skates around a dark city and do tricks to give color and life back to it. I kind of zoned out during the play because I was trying to do other things and thought this was good time to do that. Boy, was I wrong!
Then things went weird with a bunch of people running around the place playing a Laser Tag-like game called Battle Tag (real original!). This is a game beyond the screen where you play in real life, but use a computer to track the results. No word on price, how many guns you get, when it is due or anything. Not really a videogame, but it could be interesting…just kind of odd though.
Then there were weird things like Innergy, a repeat of the YourShape demo from the Microsoft conference and additions to the Motionmania online hub, including Trackmania 2, a shooter game and an RPG game upcoming within the next year.
Then things came back to normal showing off Ghost Recon: Future Soldier and saying it will have 4-player co-op through the campaign, a first for the series according to the guy. Next up was Driver: San Francisco, a return to the first and second game in the series. One character from each of those games come together to do battle. The game will be available on 360, PS3, PC and MAC (!) later this year. It’s big claim to fame is the shifting system where you can jump into another car/driver at any time and supposedly there is an interesting multiplayer component as well. The game is playable on the show floor.
Raving Rabbids: Travel in Time and a 2D Rayman: Origins game was shown.as was the downloadable game Dust. The conference ended with dancers dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Beat It”, but no game was really talked about. Later I would get a PR that says the game is coming to PS3, 360, Wii, PSP and DS. For the PS3 and 360 it sounded like you had to have Move and Kinect to play either version, but I’m not positive on that. It will have a large number of Jackson songs and will teach you to dance like him I guess. The game is due by the holiday.
Notes can be found at this thread over at Colony of Gamers.
Source: me
Overall Thoughts
Day Zero was interesting. I think Ubisoft was easily the oddest and worst of the three and I think EA did well enough to be the best one today. Microsoft sits in the middle and it is weird that later they would give info about the Games of Summer and the fact that a Crackdown 2 demo would be out next week. The game is less than a month away, why not highlight it at the press conference?
Tomorrow is Nintendo and Sony. Nintendo will show off the 3DS, something I want to see. Sony will probably show off their games and Move stuff. We shall see though and I’ll see you again tomorrow.
Source: me