Impossible's Second Annual E3 topic - 2005

[Impossible]

Hey, I did this crap last year, why not again? Plus it's a good way to keep track of all the news.

[pointless angry rant, nothing important past the first six words unless you want to argue with me] I'm mostly sticking to Nintendo stuff, unless Sony or Microsoft suddenly decide they don't want gaming to stagnate and become repetitive and pointless and boring, with nothing going for them except graphics. It really is true that many times more money and time is spent on graphics now than in the Golden Age of the SNES and Genesis, and less on making a solid, fun, unique, enjoyable game. It's a shame Sony and Microsoft seem to want to support the direction gaming is taking now, really, because we're getting stuck with countless casual gamers who have absolutely no ability whatsoever in the slightest to determine what makes a game good or bad - and so naturally they base it on the first thing that comes to mind, which generally seems to be the graphics. Nobody really knows what fun is anymore.[/pointless angry rant]

Or alternatively, just leave if you're going to whine about what I post. This worked fine last year, and certain people have no permission to post here whatsoever unless they're going to contribute. I don't care what you contribute with, so if my "coverage" is lacking do what you want. You know who you are. And Bikkel can't post at all, but will just to spite me for that, and if it causes trouble Jeramyu or Porter can delete its posts and leave this topic be...

As with last year, there are going to be lots and lots of hyperlinks. If you're too retarded to be using Firefox already, it's probably easier to do so and open anything you want to see in one post in seperate tabs.

Actual Stuff starts here.

Let's start with some good fun online news, for those who haven't heard it: Everything will be online, to put it simply. Although I'm not sure if Sony have said anything yet, I'm guessing the PS3 will have better online than the PS2 now. Seems like the XBox is the only console that has done it right... But that's all going to change next generation.
Nintendo have confirmed that the DS will be online for free by the end of the year. Animal Crossing Online is confirmed. This has two notable advantages - 1) The tens of thousands of people who stopped playing AC, including myself, will have encouragement to start again for the new stuff, the portability - VERY useful in a real-time game like AC, since you have much easier access to your town wherever you go - and the not having to delete all the precious belongings of their old town despite the fact that they'll NEVER use it again because it probably has hundreds of weeds right now. And 2) Online. Animal Crossing. Yes.
I have some ranting and speculation to do about ACDS, but I'll wait until we see it at E3 first, since there's no point doing it the day before a lot of questions will be answered.

If Nintendo don't confirm AT LEAST one of Mario Kart DS and Metroid Prime Hunters to be online, they must be absolute fucking morons. Mario Kart is definitely one of those games everyone wants to play online (I finally get to beat all my Internet friends >_<), and MPH online would hugely increase the multiplayer playability for those of us who don't have any friends with DS's.

Everything about the Revolution so far. This thing is going to be tiny. My only concern is they might be sacrificing system capabilities for size, and it is FAR from a fair trade - otherwise nobody would have an XBox. It'd be nice if they clarified whether or not it will be able to use DVDs... The wireless controller should be good, if the Wavebird is any indication, but I hope there won't be a problem with playing and charging at the same time. And it at least better be using rechargable batteries, although I can't imagine why it wouldn't - they're not going to force us to buy batteries to play a home console, and even their handhelds are rechargable now. And someone at Nintendo said there's going to be an emphasis on online play, too. See, I put an emphasis on "emphasis". Aren't I clever? But yeah, good news.

Oh, and as much as I would VERY, VERY, VERY much like a new 2D Metroid and Mario & Luigi 2 to be real (so... awesome...), I think this is fake. Plus, I really DON'T want "Twilight Princess" to be the name of the next Zelda. What I'll do for now is leave you with the link and see if you can spot the errors, we'll see who gets the most by tomorrow.

And finally, something I cannot stress enough: YOU MUST SEE THIS VIDEO. It is VERY, VERY cool.

[Impossible]

Oh, and I'll just leave this in a seperate post for easy reference. This will be for all the times I'm too lazy to get every single link with every new video and piece of information, so I can just refer to a site that has lots of important stuff. I also believe I did the same thing last year.

Major sites:

Planet GameCube
IGN Cube
IGN DS
IGN GameBoy

GameSpot is crap, and nothing else I'll check regularly, but if anything important pops up somewhere else I'll link directly to it.

[Impossible]

From IGN DS:

MARIO KART ONLINE CONFIRMED!

Downloadable DS demos:
Polarium (E3 demo) (I do wish I could give this a try...)
Meteos(E3 demo) (Same as above)
Table Hockey(E3 demo) (One of the tech demos I was so desperate for a chance to play watching a video of it at E3 2004 >_<)
Submarine (E3 demo) (Same as above)
Electroplankton (E3 demo) (Really weird game - more importantly, does this mean it's getting a US release? o_O)
Zelda Preview Trailer (Woo)
Zelda Gallery (Wow)

So yes, very jealous.

Also, new Viewtiful Joe DS pics which look much prettier than the first few. Geez, by the time this is done it'll just be a slightly more rough version of the GCN game.

And this is just weird.

There's probably more stuff than this, but I have school pretty soon, and I'll be late if I keep typing. >_<

[Daedalus]

It's been confirmed that the Revolution will come Wireless Internet capable out of the box.
But whether it'll have broadband options is as of yet unknown.

[Teenr0cker]

This just in: this bastard fucker has e3 tickets every year because of some old friend of his. I will kill him and steal what is rightfully mine!

[Impossible]

Yeah, I think there are a few people like that... Lucky bastards.

I'm going to be up at 2 AM tonight/tomorrow morning to watch a live stream of Nintendo's Press Conference. I do NOT want to miss out on another experience like last year - if you've seen a video actually taken at the conference of the Zelda trailer and the reaction to it, you'd understand what I mean. I doubt we're getting anything THAT great, but there is the Revolution. If we're lucky we'll FINALLY see a new SSBM, and definitely a Mario game as a launch title (SM128 was meant to be at E3 last year, in fact).

Since the Revolution will be using standard wireless Internet (802.11), so it's not exactly going to be on dial-up or something.

And everyone watched the ON mock-up video, right? Because it's so damn awesome. It's actually made by the same person as the Super Mario Universe video (and that game may become a reality with SMBDS), but it's over 6 minutes and MUCH cooler.

Okay, let's get started with PGC (link in above post).

Lots of Capcom news: Phoenix Wright, the DS game where you play as a lawyer, does look quite fun. But it doesn't seem that long, since there are only five cases. Each one is probably fairly substantial, but they can only take so long...
Mega Man Zero 4, blah blah, haven't looked yet, most likely more of the same.
Megaman Battle Network DS is actually a combined game of the two versions of MMBN5 with some DS touch-screen stuff. The bottom screen acts as a PET, but if they leave it so only one screen can be accessed at a time it will be quite retarded; I want to change my folder while going somewhere. And one of the screens looks like Lan will just look down on the PET and you won't be able to do anything...
Megaman X Collection on the PS2 and GCN. This is very good because I haven't played many of the MMX games. It's bad because Australia usually sucks cock when it comes to MM games. In recent months most of the MM games that mysteriously never really appeared in any stores at all near me suddenly showed up all at once at EB. Even the GCN game, MM Network Transmission (which I got on eBay) is there, but it's for a monstrous AU$100. Yeah, we really need to pay full price for a game that's at least two or three years old.

And remember that "fake" scan in my first post? Batallion Wars is the official new name for Advance Wars: Under Fire, which is nice because it wasn't really an AW game anyway. Although without the name recognition it could lose some sales.
After that it gets worse. There is going to be a Mario Soccer game, because already having Baseball coming out this year and before that Tennis and Golf isn't damn enough.

So the scan with mysterious early information GI shouldn't have been allowed to reveal may be true. Which may mean that Twilight Princess is the real name for the next Legend of Zelda game. Really bad marketing, IMO, since it sounds all girly. Geez, the fact that the series is named for a girl already (even though you play as a guy) is deterring enough - but Zelda is too universally recognized for anyone to care. "Twilight Princess" is not.

Oh, and let's look at the pattern in a few Zelda games:

Ocarina of Time: The pivotal item you use for the whole game is the Ocarina of Time, which you use by putting it in your mouth and blowing, while pushing buttons.

The Wind Waker: You use the Wind Waker frequently, by swaying it around from side to side happily.

Twilight Princess: Uh oh...

[Takarious]

None of that matters... When the PS3 comes out, Sony will go from having the poorest built console to by far the absolute best. The XBOX 360 can't touch the PS3, as they are forced to contend with normal processor chips and such. Sony made a wise move trading technology with IBM... Read into cell microprocessors... Simply amazing.

[Flibbo]

yeah the ps3 is looking pretty cool

i've known about it for...3-5 hours and already im bored of people complaining about the controller design

[Impossible]

TEH BOOMERANG LOLOL!1!1!

Oh, come on, it IS a shit design. I actually saw a fake picture of the PS3 as a grill, too, I'll have to post it here later.

Nintendo Press Conference: HEAPS AND HEAPS OF STUFF. Read it all.

There's the Revolution, which is TINY. There's the GameBoy Micro, which is so tiny everyone over the age of 8 will get hand craps from it. And there's METROID PRIME 3 AND SUPER SMASH BROS ONLINE ON THE REVOLUTION, which are HUGE. And, shockingly, no mention of SM128. I was hoping for a final surprise trailer of it like Zelda last year. But nope, yet again, our final trailer was a much longer Zelda one, which includes Link being a werewolf. Details here, and a link to the very awesome video on that page. I just hope the werewolf thing won't be so forced on us that we get less real Zelda action...

We also have confirmation of everything in that release list, including Mario & Luigi 2! I guess the title of Zelda works out all right, since it's apparently a reference to some manga or something (see the IGN page above). So it just won't make sense to MOST of the world. Yay.

Some highlights from the press conference:

Reggie says Nintendo partnered with IGN Entertainment's GameSpy division to provide wireless online play -- uses hot spots around the world. "Simple and intuitive." Believes 90% of DS owners will be online. the service will be free, outside the house via hotspots and free inside your house. "Users won't face monthly gameplay bills." Reggie says Nintendo is working to overcome the current "macho style of online games."

Reggie shows the Game Boy Micro. Says "I know you haven't seen this. It's a hair bigger and two-thirds the weight of an iPod Mini." It's not new technology, but a new look and has the "best and brightest screen ever in a handheld." Not a successor to DS or GBA, but an extension of portable play. The system can be customized with a wide array of face plates and will hit this fall.

"When you turn on Revolution and see the graphics, you will say 'wow!'" "Our competitors have detailed the power of their core processor and display. But the advantages of our technology will also have no bearing on gameplay. I know, this is one of those mysterious comments," he says. Says wifi will be built into every Nintendo product so controller, TV, console, and internet can interact. Nintendo intends to develop a device that's functional and appealing to every member in the household -- whether gamers or not. All controllers will be wireless. Also, the controllers will be very unique "in ways we will share with you... later." Already working on several wifi games for launch. Smash Bros. will be a launch game -- wifi.

Iwata then talks about backward compatibility. "Redefining term of backward compatability." It's a virtual console, able to download 20 years of Nintendo content. You will be able to Download NES, Super NES and N64 games. You can get every Nintendo game ever made. "Revolution shares a vision with DS. The machine is just a tool for software."

Heh, Nintendo compared the GameBoy Micro to the iPod Mini and IGN compared the Revolution to the Mac Mini. Always the best examples.

GameSpot should hopefully have the whole thing up to download later...

[loona]

None of the new consoles and especially the games they make for them these days interest me anymore. It's all new wine in old bottles. A new Zelda, a new Metroid, a new Mario... Yawn. Originality seems to be a lost art.

The Gameboy Advance is the worst of them all. They take old SNES games, port them and hey, new game! Not. Or even worse, an old NES game, and it gets sold for the price of a regular game, under the "Classics" moniker. If they'd at least make a bundle or something, but no, milk those consumers. They'll buy it, anyway.

Last console I owned was a SNES and that's when the golden age of gaming ended.

[Flibbo]

Oh, come on, it IS a shit design.

yeah it really is but i'm still bored of people complaining about it so much (even if i do have my own level of aggrivation about it. those elongated ends really don't look that comfortable. what are they thinking?)

[Takarious]

By the way... Doesn't this topic belong in the gaming forum?

[Inderos]

[pointless angry rant, nothing important past the first six words unless you want to argue with me] I'm mostly sticking to Nintendo stuff, unless Sony or Microsoft suddenly decide they don't want gaming to stagnate and become repetitive and pointless and boring, with nothing going for them except graphics. It really is true that many times more money and time is spent on graphics now than in the Golden Age of the SNES and Genesis, and less on making a solid, fun, unique, enjoyable game. It's a shame Sony and Microsoft seem to want to support the direction gaming is taking now, really, because we're getting stuck with countless casual gamers who have absolutely no ability whatsoever in the slightest to determine what makes a game good or bad - and so naturally they base it on the first thing that comes to mind, which generally seems to be the graphics. Nobody really knows what fun is anymore.[/pointless angry rant]

[Impossible]

Damn, you're right. There wasn't a Gaming Forum a year ago, was there?

Hey, you should be thankful! We have, like, one active topic on the entire Scratch Wall, and I'm trying to give it some life by stimulating some deep, thought-provoking discussions! And you're giving be nothing but one-two sentence posts! >_<

[Takarious]

Your last rant is probably a good reason for the gaming forum's existance.