Mass Effect 2
We told you this game was going to be big, but did you listen? Apparently, yes. The game sold very well, garnering quite a fan base in a short period of time. BioWare went back to the drawing board and started working on the second part to the saga, one that has been teased to contain the death of the protagonist, Commander John Shepherd. We got a sneak peek at some of the game's gunplay and storyline, and while we're not going to spoil it for you, we can say that this will surpass the first game in every single way. Elements from Dead Space, Gears of War, and Knights of the Old Republic make a seamless transition into the sequel and the story arcs are bendier, the conversations are shorter and tighter, and the gameplay has been given a bit more variety.
God of War 3
Sony showed a meatier six-minute demo of the beginning of the trilogy finisher and we were blown away. Kratos returns in all of his goriness, indicated more succinctly during the video by his stabbing of a horned demon being in the eye...with his own horn. The graphics look amazing, the boss battles look bigger than ever, and there are more bare breasts to be seen than we could handle. Especially the male ones—damn Greeks.
Eminem and Jay-Z Perform for DJ Hero
We usually hate when rappers start trying to do things they aren't good at—read: act...sing—but when two of the biggest acts in the world come together at one event, it's hard not to jump on the bandwagon. Activison recently announced that Eminem a.k.a. Slim Shady a.k.a. Marshall Mathers and "HOVA" will be lending some of the tracks for the upcoming DJ Hero game and had the two singers perform at the game's E3 premiere party. Some where at some time, large bags of money were exchanged.
Ghostbuster's Ecto-1 Car
Anything that brings us back to the days of Saturday morning cartoons is always a winner. This badass contraption can be seen parked right in front of the Los Angeles Convention Center, right next to the horde of video game journalists slobbering and having conniptions on the sidewalk.
PSP Go's $249.99 Price Point
A new and improved version of Sony's handheld console was finally announced after a week of tumultuous press leaks. It will feature a built-in hard drive (you can only play games you download from the PlayStation store) and bluetooth capabilities, but even with these new features, it's hard to justify jacking the price 80 dollars. Sony representatives mentioned that the price is what they had charged for the original PSP when it debuted in 2005 in the US, but with whatever engineering advancements their research & development team have done since then should, if anything, lower the production dollars needed to make the product, and inversely, lower the price for consumers. At 250 dollars, it will be 80 dollars more than the Nintendo DSi (which also debuted a new version of their console this year) and the now-yesterday's-news PSP-3000.
MAG
Sony teased this game at last year's E3, but finally showed some in-game footage of its much-touted 256-player online multiplayer capabilities. We can only assume that it's way too early in development for them to showcase some of the game's more finer points, but the demo shown onstage at Sony's press conference seemed like an overcomplicated version of Tom Clancy's EndWar, which wasn't exactly easy peasy either. The point of video game entertainment, and we stress the entertainment part, is that you're not going to have to do graduate-level studying just to play.
Left 4 Dead 2
Left 4 Dead? Awesome. Therefore, more Left 4 Dead would be...awesome too? Not if it's a sequel released exactly one year after the first game, forcing you to plunk down another 60 smackaroos (we assume it will be at the regular Xbox 360 game price) for some more zombie hunting. With all that's happening in the world of downloadable content, it's a shame such a great game is already being subjected to the Guitar Hero-like franchise-milking process. If L4D2 goes on sale at the normal retail price, we'd love to see purchasers of the first game get a special DLC discount for what is, at least at its core, an add-on. Pay it forward, Microsoft!
Wii Vitality
Remember the last time you went to the doctor's office and he put that thing on your finger to take your pulse? Yeah, that's going to be a video game now. Nintendo President Satoru Iwata, also known as the guy who convinced millions of Americans that Wii Fit is a weight loss device, showed off the new Wii peripheral at the company's E3 press conference and was met with a collective palm to the face.
Motion Controls...Everybody's Doing It
It's only day one here, but we've already seen a lifetime's worth of flailing arms and legs. Microsoft showed off their new motion controller named Project Natal during their conference, hoping to offer a new way to make a fool out of yourself in the comfort of your living room. The idea is novel enough because you don't need a controller to use it. Their trailer showed a happy family pointing, punching, and gyrating near their TVs, but everyone knows that's crazy talk. Happiness and families don't exist in America anymore. Sony then offered their take on the motion controller, which doesn't even have a codename because it's still in development mode. In fact, we were shown a tech demo of the thing and while it was quite impressive, the sheepish mention of a release date—Spring 2010—and the demoer asking for us to not pay attention to the controller because "it is going to change" has us wondering when exactly the new PlayStation controller will find its way out of the wilderness.
Final Fantasy XIII Trailer Is Shown...Followed by Final Fantasy XIV Trailer. WTFs Ensue
Reactions to the surprise announcement were meant with a thunderous applause, but, fuck us if we're wrong, did Sony just announce a sequel to a game that isn't even out yet...and will be released the same year? OK, we guess we'll prepare ourselves for one final fantasy, or until another two are announced next year.
Twitter on Xbox Live
The thought of broadcasting our every move to Internet "friends" becoming the norm has us wanting to punch ourselves in the face repeatedly. Sure, it's one thing to do this on-the-go, like say, "ttlly just farted k bai," but finding a purpose for this nonsense on Xbox Live is an exercise in futility. (Along with trying to walk the streets of Los Angeles unscathed, as we learned.) You're obviously on Xbox Live. You're obviously playing video games. Send us a tweet and we'll send you only four characters back: GFYS.
EA's Small Demo Rooms and the Smelly Nerds Who Populate Them
You'd think if you were one of the largest video game publishers in the world, you'd spring for a bit more leg room or plan accordingly for meetings with large men who've just walked 300 paces from the nearest vending machine. It's one thing to get to see some of the biggest upcoming games before anyone else does and a whole other animal to get to do so in the presence of Lord Smellington of the Kingdom of Pungency.