Argh

So much for my brief plan to ebay Disgaea and use some of the money to pay for a PSP. It's pretty much just Valkyrie Profile, Disgaea, and a few other titles that interest me.

Is that Metal Gear PSP game going to be card-based again? Or will they go a different route this time? Also, is that Silent Hill thing a game or that compilation info disc they put together?

http://www.gamespot.com/e3/e3story.h...188&pid=932978

"Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops could also be described as Metal Gear Solid 3-II. This PSP game will continue the memorably storyline of MGS3: Snake Eater, chronicling what happens to Snake--aka Big Boss--some years after his last mission. He'll need to deal with some treacherous FOX unit operatives in order to clear his name, having been wrongfully accused of treason. The newly released trailer is suggestive of all this, and of how this is very much a pure Metal Gear Solid game, rather than a spin-off, like the Metal Gear Acid series

Multiplayer, you say? That's right: Metal Gear Online, first introduced a short while ago in the special edition Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, will be integrated into Portable Ops, with both ad hoc and infrastructure modes. So you'll be able to wirelessly compete against other players over the Internet, playing a game that looks as good and plays as well, if not better, than Metal Gear Solid 3.

We got to go a few rounds in a four-player deathmatch mode as the producer of the game provided some detail about some of the differences (often while shooting us in the face--he was playing along with three others). Essentially this is the Metal Gear Solid 3 gameplay you'd expect if you've played Metal Gear Online as part of Subsistence. The underlying mechanics are nearly identical to the PS2 version, and we were relieved to find that the camera controls already seemed quite good. The analog stick is used to run in any direction, while the D pad is used to rotate your view around your character. The left trigger snaps the view behind your back if you need to reorient yourself, and when the character would obstruct the camera angle (such as when his back is to a wall), he becomes transparent so you can see. "


Same as Silent Hill - the compilation info disc is already out. This is a brand new entry into the series, revolving around a truck driver who is ensnared by the town. Apparently it's something to do with the "origin" of Silent Hill....

http://www.gamespot.com/psp/adventur...ml?sid=6149957

Cooking Mama was announced for September at $19.99!

Well that is a must buy.

I might get this.

Nintendo: A

Great news on the Wii. It works. It's intuitive. It's fun. It has a bunch of great titles in the works.

The DS lineup is currently great...and it's about to get ridiculous.

Nintendo put on a great show. Would have been A+ if they'd put out a price to counter the PS3 and hadn't named the Revolution...Wii.

Microsoft: C

I'm relatively indifferent to MS consoles, but they seem to be making some headway into Sony's bread and butter. I will probably be forced to choose between the PS3 and 360 at some point, and if the price difference holds, I can see me buying a 360.

Sony: C-

Sony showed some impressive hardware and software, but they have overpriced the PS3 in a major way. Making the consumer pay for Sony to infiltrate our homes with Blu-ray was a mistake as well. The controller looks kind of cool but I wish they'd move the analog stick.

Sony waited a year too long to launch the PS3, and they aren't ready now. The show looked disorganized, and the games looked like more of the same. Weak showing.

I thought Microsoft had a lot of great games.


I'll probably pick up a Wii but I really don't want to be leaping over my couch everytime I'm playing a game. We'll see how this all plays out.....

This is the general feeling of the media that was actually there...........

Pleeeeaaaase sell it to me

Whereas i would love for a game to involve me actually doing things to the point that i was leaping over my couch... well futon... without even being aware of it.

People are just assessing on their opinion, not trying to be objective.

Objectively, MS had a decent showing with several solid titles.

Subjectively, I wasn't impressed, as other than Blue Dragoon, there was really no games in the genres I enjoy.

After hearing the 1up podcast I'm pretty worried about Blue Dragon. Sounds like Myst Walker is in over their heads.

Mixed bag for me.

Sony reeked of desperation, trying to get every ounce of usability from the PS3 with no personality of its own. It's also a ridiculously priced and hideously designed console (I can't help thinking Indoor Grill when I see it.. Hi-tech 80s-style.). Assassin's Creed looked impressive as hell, but graphically and "theoretic gameplay" wise, the other games were mediocre (Eight Days especially came across as an okay tech demo (switching between CG and gameplay seamlessly, though still evident when it switched) but what little gameplay that was shown... was incredibly lame). The system looks like it can handle animation like a champ though (While I have no interest in the game and it isn't artistically or graphically (looked kinda jagged) too impressive, Heavenly Sword had some great animation.)

Microsoft didn't really show anything off we didn't already know about, no surprise titles or announcements. We basically have to look forward to what we had to look forward to.

Wii has some great ideas, and should be an affordable system. I'm sure I'll enjoy it, but again, for some reason, it just feels a generation behind.

That all said, the PS3 better be better than the Xbox360. Don't get me wrong, I support the 360, but for double the price (I'm almost positive Microsoft will drop the price of the 360 in time for the PS3 launch) I would absolutely expect the PS3 to be superior than a year old console. That said, while there were continual jokes that the 360 was Xbox 1.5, the same could very easily be said for the PS3. The PS2, imho, has always lacked on the graphical front (Visually, the games had wonderful art design (Devil May Cry, Shadow of the Collossus, FFX in spots... but the technical presentation just wasn't there.. everything looked messy and there was a definite lack of clarity and some extreme graininess.) So while the PS3 will be a step up, nothing thats been shown really looks like a generation step up. Guess I was expecting Fight Night round 3-style character models in different genres and roles. (noteably.. FFXIII reminded me of FFX with antialiasing turned on)



I'm not much of a podcast listener.. mind filling me in on what they said?

Please to explain.

The said what they have out there now looks like an early alpha. Microsoft has brought in Ensemble (Age of Empires) and Artoon (Blinx, Yoshi Island 2) already to help them with the game. 3 cooks on one game has me worried and they are saying Microsoft is really pushing to get this game out quickly.
Just not what I want to hear on a game this important. I'd rather see it done right in 2008 than rushed out for this holiday.

Are you kidding me?

Try looking at these - all real-time:

http://www.playsyde.com/news_3011_en.html
http://www.playsyde.com/leech_2648_en.html
http://www.playsyde.com/news_3004_en.html

And then tell me you're not impressed graphically with Heavenly Sword.

If they're just bringing in the programmers, that's fine. Once game design is locked, additional help could be a good thing. They didn't mention if it was for help designing the game or just making the game (programming, textures, etc; ), did they?

I'll watch them later (can't right now). I watched a handful of them a couple days ago, and while the animation looked splendid, and the locale wasn't bad, I couldn't wipe the feeling of deja vu from it. Of course, I do have to commend them - at least there's some variety to the enemies in the game, unlike Ninety Nine Nights.

Yeah, the description IGN put up had me, not worried, but I guess.. unimpressed for something that should be about a year along. I also agree with RichC2 that brining on extra developers is not really a bad thing as long as it is still under tight production and direction.

Gah, I hate hate HATE the term "real time". You should only measure graphics of a game based on "ingame", everything else is a cut scene.

What does "real time" even mean? I have never heard this term in this context before... is it supposed to be any different than a cut scene?

Realtime means the console is rendering the graphics in the cutscene on the fly, it isn't a pre-recorded FMV.

It just still looks better than gameplay as the processor isn't being used for controls, AI etc.

Real time means that the system's processing power is rendering everything as it plays. Non real time videos are cut scenes which are prerendered and can only play as is. The cut scenes from previous generation RPG's are a good example. If you play FFVII on PSOne the cut scenes look much better than the in game graphics because they are prerendered and don't rely on the system's power nearly as much. The reason I say previos generation is because a lot of current RPG's are able to use the in game engine to render the cut scenes becasue of the technology (Dragon Quest VIII is a good example).

Ah ha, thanks for the clarification. So it is essentially a step in between pre-rendered FMV and actual gameplay (eg. better than gameplay but not as good as a pre-rendered cutscene).

Yes, and it's a lot cheaper to create instead of FMV thus it's so popular.