The Shrine

impressions so far:

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin DS
http://media.ds.ign.com/media/774/774649/vids_1.html
The video is a must see for any fan of the series. This Castlevania looks like it is definately going back to its awesome roots while maintaining the open-endedness of the later games. This game might mark the beginning of a whole new breed of Castlevania titles. It remains to be seen. Lets just say I am incredibly impressed with this video.


Red Steel Wii
http://media.revolution.ign.com/media/8 ... ids_1.html
There are four new videos here which show (better than the E3 conference) what the game will be like. Some of the videos are interviews with gameplay shots integrated within. The two long ones are must sees. This game I am very excited about, especially considering it is from Ubi-Soft who may have been the most impressive developer of this past generation.


Two other games for DS have been revealed: Donkey Kong and Kirby. The videos are low resolution, so they are difficult to make out, essentially Kirby looks a lot like Kirby: Superstar on SNES, which in my opinion was BY FAR the best game of the series. Donkey Kong looks like another DKC title. I am not sure if Nintendo or Microsoft/RARE is developing the DK title.


Death Junior DS
http://media.ds.ign.com/media/827/827111/vids_1.html
Graphics look fairly good for a third party title. This one could be something, though I am always skeptical about Konami's 3D offerings.


Starfox DS
http://media.ds.ign.com/media/826/826993/imgs_1.html
Stillframes, the graphics seem to be downgraded from the N64 version: the N64 version was probably the best looking game that did not utilize the ram expansion; even then it was still one of the best looking games on the system and is still a lot of fun to play. The game looked to run fairly smoothly at the press conference. There isn't much more to report at this point. I guess Starfox also has Wifi multiplayer mode as well; it seems to be a standard among Nintendo's offerings.


Hotel Dusk: Room 215 DS
http://media.ds.ign.com/media/827/827002/vids_1.html
This is a graphical Adventure that I am definately buying (I really enjoy the genre, particularly after playing through Phoenix Wright). This one looks like a much more advanced version of Trace Memory which is quite a good game itself, one that really forces you to use your head. The video made the game appear to be very atmospheric, and in a very good way. Certainly one to keep an eye on.


Zelda: Twilight Princess Wii
http://media.revolution.ign.com/media/7 ... ids_1.html
It shows a bit of the gameplay. I think the fishing portion of the game alone could be a huge time consumer with the new controller. The game looks like a lot of fun though I am not sure if the controls will differ all that much from the gamecube version of the game. From this and all of the other trailers of the game from the Gamecube version, I am going to say that this is an AWESOME game to have right at the launch of the system: probably the best game Nintendo will have ever released.


Valkyrie Profile 2: Sylmeria PS2
http://media.ps2.ign.com/media/788/788661/imgs_1.html
What more can I say about this game than that it looks beautiful. I am totally in love with the graphics style they are using for the game, it brings back memories of SNES (as weird as that sounds). I am really looking forward to playing this one when it is released.



11:29 AM - Wednesday

Lunar Knights DS
http://media.ds.ign.com/media/695/695637/vids_1.html
This game looks like a GBA game, it looks like it might be cool. There is one glaring issue I have with it though; this game is mislabelled, it is not in any way or form a Lunar game. It is not even an RPG, it is an action adventure. There is no reference to anything having to do with the Lunar Universe; it's about Vampire Hunters. Not only that, but it is being developed by Konami, what the hell?

12:47 PM - Wed

Spore PC
http://www.tehnetwork.com/169_spore_ot_pc_050906.mpg
This is that Will Wright game that has you start out as a single cell creature, evolve through to a space fairing galactic Empire. Not much can be seen from this trailer. The game is probably not far along in development, but I do REALLY want to play it =)


That's about it for now, there should be a lot more stuff to show once E3 kicks off. Still nothing to show from Xenosaga 3, Final Fantasy 12, and Final Fantasy 3 DS. Those are three titles I am very much looking forward to.

Two more things that will be of interest: About 70 games have been announced for Wii so far, Nintendo and Namco both have 8 or 9 games announced each, are the major developers. Sony has announced that there are over 200 PS2 games still in development, and that PS2's lifespan is far from over and that the system will continue to have great games for years to come.

FASA ruined Shadowrun, those fuckers. E3 is dead to me now.

kali o. wrote:FASA ruined Shadowrun, those fuckers. E3 is dead to me now.

I can hardly believe that they ACTUALLY made a new Shadowrun. I don't know what to say about it at this point, there is not much to go on yet.

Actually, here is the preview that I found: http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/706/706623p1.html

I am not sure what to say. Though the guy mentioned the Genesis version of the game and not the SNES one. From my experience playing both, the Genesis version really sucked (it was very cheaply made) while the original SNES version kicked its ass in every way possible (actually had some of the best graphics and production value of its time).

Definately picking up the Star Fox game. I lost mine when Katrina hit =/

Where are all the next gen PC games you console fuckers???

kali o. wrote:FASA ruined Shadowrun, those fuckers. E3 is dead to me now.

Yeah, the nerd-rage has been palpable over on the SA forums, and they say it's even worse on the FASA forums.

On the bright side, the Wii will likely have both the SNES and Genesis Shadowrun games available on the Virtual Console. Having never owned a Genesis this means I can finally play that version, which I keep hearing is better than the SNES version that I really liked (although the you-can't-move-while-moving-the-finger-or-the-targeting-reticule thing was pretty retarded).

Agent 57 wrote:

kali o. wrote:FASA ruined Shadowrun, those fuckers. E3 is dead to me now.

Yeah, the nerd-rage has been palpable over on the SA forums, and they say it's even worse on the FASA forums.

On the bright side, the Wii will likely have both the SNES and Genesis Shadowrun games available on the Virtual Console. Having never owned a Genesis this means I can finally play that version, which I keep hearing is better than the SNES version that I really liked (although the you-can't-move-while-moving-the-finger-or-the-targeting-reticule thing was pretty retarded).

Whoever says the Genesis version is better than the SNES one must have brain damage, or a very different view on what makes a good game than I do =P

Personally, I felt the Genesis Shadowrun was one of the worst games I have ever owned.

Spent some time on XBLM last night downloading stuff and have some impressions. I must say, it's really nice to be able to watch E3 trailers in high-def on my 57" TV instead of low-res crap on my 19" monitor.

Shadowrun (trailer) - It's as bad as I was led to believe it was. The shamans in the (entirely pre-rendered) trailer looked like cartoon characters. This is a dystopian cyberpunk future we're talking about here - it should not look like a cartoon! There was some shooting and some magic. Extremely underwhelming.

Alan Wake (trailer) - This trailer told me very little about the game itself. From what I can tell, you play as an insomniac writer in the dark who has a lantern and a revolver. Other than that, who knows?

DOA Xtreme 2 (trailer) - The boob-jiggling is ridiculously gratuitous. It looks like the original DOA for PSX, where one movement of the character sent her nipples going from her chin to her belly button and back again. Again, nothing even resembling gameplay here - just tits, and lots of 'em. Apparently the focus has gone away from the volleyball - although it's still here - and moved to jetski racing. A preview I read said they were trying to recreate Wave Race 64-style gameplay while improving on the volleyball and keeping all the casino/pool-hopping/bikini-collecting elements intact.

Dead Rising (trailer) - Mostly gameplay footage in this one. Inspired by my favorite movie title of all time, this can basically be described as Zombies In A Mall - or to use another movie metaphor, it's kinda like a game version of Shaun of the Dead. And when I say there's zombies in it, I mean a LOT of zombies. Graphic detail on the characters didn't look that great, probably because they're trying to fit 500 zombies on the screen at once or something crazy like that. Lots of blood, explosions, etc.

Xbox Live Arcade montage (trailer) - A quick montage of some of the new Arcade games. Aside from some new, weird looking stuff, I'm most excited about Galaga, Contra (with arcade graphics and Live multiplayer), and Defender. Wish they would get a graphically updated version of Yar's Revenge going, though, and add a couple more gameplay elements or two. That would be sweet.

Viva Pinata (trailer) - This trailer was different than all the rest. Instead of a fast-cutting music video with pumpin' techno and all that other let's-appeal-to-teenage-boys crap, this was a nice, relaxed introduction to Viva Pinata composed almost entirely of gameplay footage and voiceover explaining everything. I've never played Animal Crossing, but the gameplay seems to be in the same vein - you start out with a wild plot of land and terraform it into a garden, which will then start to attract pinata creatures. The pinatas then interact with your garden and each other, and you have to manage things like building them houses and fighting off threats like evil pinata creatures and such. This one looks really cute and amusing, and is a welcome breather from the normal type of 360 game that tries to cram "cool" down your throat. I'm intrigued thus far.

Lost Planet (demo) - I gotta tell you, being able to download a demo of a game being shown this week is pretty freaking awesome. That being said, Lost Planet as it is thus far is a pretty solid-seeming third-person shooter. The extra mechanic in this game involves something called "T-Eng" - it slowly drains away, is replenished by picking up glowing things that came from defeated enemies, and automatically refilled my life when I got hurt if I had any in reserve. (Now that I think about it, it played kind of like third-person Gauntlet in snow.) There were a few weapons I got to try out, all standard shooter fare - machine gun, shotgun, rocket launcher, rifle, and an energy gun that was basically Halo's plasma pistol, except that it never ran out of ammo and it had slight homing capabilities. I also got to ride a mech with a gatling gun (how very Matrix of them!). My character could jump, had a Tenchu-like anchor to reach high places, and the shoulder buttons could be used to instantly turn 90 degrees in either direction, which was nice (very Panzer Dragoon-ish). I'm kinda surprised that there's no dodge move, though - your character doesn't move very fast.

I got to play two levels - a mountain/cavern level against the alien race, and a base infiltration level against a group of space pirates. Haven't beaten either level yet - got killed by a giant crab-boss in the alien level and a pair of enemy mechs in the pirate level - but both levels were pretty fun. (I especially liked climbing on top of a building on the pirate level and taking out most of the enemies from half a map away with zoomed-in rifle and rocket launcher shots.) However, it does look pretty similar to Gears of War, and it doesn't use a GRAW-ish cover mechanic (which I've grown to like). I'll definitely wait for the reviews of the full game to come out before I pick it up.


And that's all I looked at last night. I've heard rumors that the GeOW demo that CliffyB showed during the press conference on Tuesday will be available on XBLM on Friday - if so, I'll try that out too and keep you guys updated.

http://media.pc.ign.com/media/735/735340/vids_1.html

Here's a 200MB Spore presentation. This game looks like it'll be my most anticipated PC title. It's about 18 minutes long total.

My updated impression is that this is "Game of the Show"
Spore is perhaps the COOLEST game I have ever seen. I can't wait to play it.

Essentially in short the game flows like this: you begin as a single celled creature gain DNA points until you become a multicellular creature (I don't know much about the single celled game). The next part was demoed, and looks VERY impressive, the editor looks incredibly easy to use, and incredibly diverse. Essentially you gain DNA points and can add on various different body parts and such (think EVO on SNES). Once created, you control your creature, take it to eat to gain DNA points and such, and take it to mate with other creatures of the same species; when the eggs are laid, the purpose is then to defend the eggs from scavengers and then I guess protect the young (though you can actually play as the young if you wish). In the creature portion, herds can be formed. I guess the ultimate goal is to out-compete the other species and become dominant.

The next step is the Tribal phase, I don't really know anything though I would speculate that this portion probably has to do with making your particular tribe the dominant tribe of the region. Once this is achieved, City mode is entered.

City mode MUST be something along the lines of Sim City on a smaller scale. The cities didn't look huge, perhaps it is somewhat like building a city in Warcraft. I am not sure what competition factors are involved here. Though it seems as though custom designing your own buildings will be a huge part of this, I guess it is a huge part of every section which seems really cool.

The Civilization section was touched on, it seems that this is essentially about conquering the entire planet; other species seem to be able to form civilizations.

The Space section is demoed in the video, it goes on to show the importance of diplomacy, conquer and colonize your own solar system, conquer and colonize the surrounding stars, and then go on to take a look at the entire galaxy (which I guess has thousands to millions of different possible worlds, I am not sure how that is going to work). The battles look really cool. I am not sure what the ultimate goal of the space section is, I assume it is to diplomatically become the superior species in the galaxy.

All of this, and it comes with a devolping encyclopedia that the player builds over time by discovering new cities and civilizations. I wonder if multiplayer is a large aspect in this game, because if there are millions of planets, multiplayer could indeed actually be quite possible. Though it might be upsetting to wake up and find your interstellar empire demolished by an alliance of alien invaders =P