E3 ’09 Live Running Coverage! Day 2!

9am – Day One has come and gone and I have barely scratched the surface of E3 ’09. Yesterday got eaten up pretty heavily by the Nintendo and Sony panels. As much as I loved seeing more of The Last Guardian on a big screen, me and my fellow bloggers here in the media room can’t help but feel like Sony missed the opportunity to show off some more of Heavy Rain. Still, seeing the gamer on the floor fighting a retarded Griffin thing in God of War 3 in front of a distant fire god got me pretty excited. If the line isn’t too bad (it will be!) I’ll try and get in on that one today. The other huge line of the event yesterday was for Zelda: Spirit Tracks. Nintendo only has ONE DS (two at MOST) on the floor! What is THAT ABOUT!?! Is there a release date yet?

I want to try out some Silent Hill: Shattered Memories but I might be a little too scared. I saw a guy yesterday playing it and it didn’t seem like the controls (waggle city) were too intuitive. Or maybe he was just too scared. I was watching him get chased around a dark locker room area (with an empty swimming pool) with only a flare. The monster chasing him is kept at bay by the flare but the second that thing goes out… WAGGLE TIME! He ran around a bunch of similar looking rooms and I could hear the zombie thing coming for him. Whenever it pounces on you, your character is locked up and you have to throw or push (using the waggle skills) to get the thing off of you. As much as this constant running away felt realistic (at least to my own life), this is a video game. The second you set that flare and the thing starts cowering… give it a solid curb stomp and keep it moving. You can’t trust a lot of things in this world, Geekscapists, but you can trust that when Will Smith unleashes the zombie vampire epidemic, you’re safe with me (at least until I die in 15 minutes).

Speaking of epidemics, I was walking to the convention this morning after parking and saw THIS at my feet:

Can I get a “f#$k yeah!?!”

Are people not as excited as I am about Crackdown 2? 4 Player Co-Op is DEFINITELY the theme of this year’s E3 with games like Lost Planet 2 (which I want to play so I can kill the red fire toad once and for all!), Crackdown 2 and even Mario getting in on the action. As much as I LOVED Crackdown 1, the co-op mode was only annoying to me. I got into the game a little late so whenever someone would join in with me they’d be hopping all over the screen with their enhanced abilities and going through MY GAME and killing MY BOSSES! What is that!?! It’s RUDE is what I say! I was FORCED to play that game single player to keep myself from HATING my XBL friends list forever. Hopefully, Crackdown 2 has its own 4 player co-op missions that keep the characters at a closer skill base so you actually have to use STRATEGY and TEAMWORK instead of “HEY, I’VE ALREADY BEATEN THE GAME! WATCH THIS!” and then 10 seconds later you watch as someone else kills YOUR badguy. We’re in this together people… let’s keep it that way… or this city will eat us alive…

Today we’re starting out with a private demo from Sega. We’ll make a GeekscapePod out of that one and they’ve promised to show us both Alpha Protocol and Aliens VS Predator. I saw some sick game play footage yesterday of a Predator kill where the player put the Predator’s forearm spikes through a marine’s head, taking it clean off his body. The eyes go dead while it’s sitting on the screen, impaled on your spikes. My step-mom would DEFINITELY approve of this game! I can’t wait to see what it looks like in action.

Okay. It’s 9:30am and I’ve got to get the gear together and head to Sega! Wish me luck (on getting to play some God of War 3)!

– It’s 1pm and I’m sorry it’s been a while since my last update. I went to the Sega appointment and checked out three of their games: Alpha Protocol, Alien VS Predator and Bayonetta. I wasn’t allowed to shoot anything so the GeekscapePod I promised earlier will now be a story on my impressions of all three titles (expect that next week!). My quick impressions are though that Alpha Protocol may quickly become next year’s Mass Effect. The game is incredibly in depth. The branching system and RPG elements are the most immersive thing I’ve ever seen in an action game and the level of detail is incredible. I wanted to play it the most out of the three. Bayonetta was a game that I dismissed as being Major Boobage but not a lot of substance but it looked like a lot of fun. Believe it or not, the two games it reminded me the most of was a cross between God of War and the Saturn version of Knights. The levels run fast with some really impressive changing environments and the fights are Kratos style but with multiple combos and finishing abilities based on spells. That, and the game has a great sense of humor that isn’t blatant but more irreverent and it’s one style. I got the smallest impression from Aliens VS Predator but it’s not because it didn’t impress me. The game does look and feel bad ass and has a great sense of atmosphere. It’s just EXACTLY what you would expect (and want) from an AvP game. We saw the Colonial Marine story line played through a bit and it was pretty fast and heavy action. It did not look fun to fight aliens in close quartered dark environments! Look for my full impressions next week!

Zack Haddad and I had some lunch after that:

We were hungry…

After filling ourselves with lunch, it was time to do what we were here for… GET SOME MERCH!

Dress like a man!

Dress like a woman!

I’m sure this will be completely unreadable… and cause my nose to bleed.

Zack doesn’t F around… on his boyfriend.

It’s going right next to my Sepultura patch on my jean jacket… ‘cuz I’m Hispanic.

This is the face of defeat!

I whooped Zack’s ass in the new TMNT Smash Up game which is WAY too much like Super Smash Bros. except for one major difference… it’s not fun at all. But at least we got these head bands, right?

Less this…

… more this, Zack. But not much more.

And of course… I found my MOTHAFUCKIN’ SPECTROBES!!!

Behold: The Mothafuckin’ Spectrobes

Okay, we’ve got to run to a Beatles: Rock Band appointment where Zack is going to get his revenge on me but I’ll be right back this time to flesh this mess out with thoughts on Brutal Legend, Wii Sports Resort, Uncharted 2 Multiplayer, Dante’s Inferno and Fright Night… I promise!

They were there for me long before I ever had friends…

– It’s 4pm and it actually rained here in L.A. I didn’t notice because I’ve been indoors. I’m tired and beat up after a second day at E3. Zack is about to take another 5 Hour Energy but there’s no way I would ever put that demon juice in my body so I think I’ll just have to wrap up here, go home for a quick nap and then head to the Comedy Store for my gig tonight. The Media Center is quiet and another blogger just made a good point that they remove the coffee in the afternoon after everyone is already worn out. The only option is a lonely girl trying to hawk energy drinks at a table claiming that they are “Fata1ity’s favorite drink” and that “each can burns 100 calories.” I saw that guy 10 minutes ago. He didn’t look like he could beat a Mogwai in an arm wrestling match so I’ll pass on “the fat burning energy drink” for the BS it appears to be.

Zack and I headed to the The Beatles: Rock Band presentation and were ushered into a room that was made up to look like Abbey Road’s recording studio. Some curtains were pulled back and we were presented to one of the Harmonix developers standing among members of the PR team (all holding Beatles replica Rock Band instrument controllers).

He talked a bit about the game and then kicked off into a rendition of “I Want To Hold Your Hand” from The Ed Sullivan Show set. I’m not a huge Beatles or Rock Band fan but I was immediately impressed by both the sound of the game and the strong art style. The trailer that was revealed yesterday really blew me away and this game seems like a lot of fun. The harmonizing elements to the singing are really cool and add a layer that (to my knowledge) wasn’t as present in the earlier Rock Band games. All of the instruments are compatible from Rock Band 2 and there are 45 songs that come already unlocked in the game. An Abbey Road DLC will be available shortly after release along with “All You Need Is Love” as a downloadable single with all proceeds going to charity.

I’ve never played a Rock Band in my life (I’ve barely played Guitar Hero or it’s grandpappy DDR), but seeing this presentation definitely peaked my interests to at least visit a Rock Band bar night and maybe give it a try. I won’t embarrass myself in the privacy of my own home… but you all know I’m not shy about doing so in public. And neither is Zack (who actually rocked the rest of his band’s score with a 96% on guitar while the rest of them barely scored 80% tops):

They broke up about 2 minutes after this picture was taken…

From here we exited the presentation and were met by the gates of Arkham Asylum! The game is fun but with a limited amount of demo time, I didn’t feel patient enough to play as “stealth” Batman. I wanted to run around, say “screw the gadgets” and just punch bad guys in the face. But they were pretty keen on showing off all of the bells and whistles of this title (and there are many). If you’re a fan of stealth gaming like Splinter Cell or Hitman, you’ll go nuts for this game.

Tim Burton called looking for this thing… We didn’t pick up.

Can I just say that the line for Halo: ODST was absolutely nuts? I saw the game play in action and it looks awesome. Visually, it’s more impressive than Halo 3. I definitely can’t wait to play this game while Graham and Jake108 yell in my ear that I suck. It just looks like a hell of a lot of fun. The past Halo games have had some awesome set pieces and big moments (ask Graham about the time I jumped a Warthog off a cliff and onto the back of a Scarab in a successful “screw it, I’m going in” moment) but ODST just seems BIGGER. Maybe it’s because as a character, you are smaller. There’s no giant leaping. The environment seems more dangerous and the explosions upon touching down come quickly, often and don’t let up. It’s these kinds of Black Hawk Down moments that ODST looks to capture successfully that I didn’t feel in the original Halo titles. This is Modern Warfare in the Halo universe. Watching everyone play, I decided to sign up for service come September.

Can we talk about one of the breezed over surprises from Nintendo’s presentation yesterday? It’s called Cop: The Recruit and it was developed by TWO people on their own! When Nintendo saw this, they founded the completion of the project and the result is a game that I have not seen anything like before. THIS is what a DS Grand Theft Auto was supposed to move like. It’s fluid, the camera is a constant 3rd person and there is zero lag. On a technical level, I was pretty blown away that this is on the DS. I hope the story is as good as this game is to play because just the brief experience I had with the game landed it on my radar screen. I was pretty shocked to discover it on the floor.

“You missed a minority. Go back and beat him up like a real cop.”

 How much do you know about James Cameron’s Avatar? If the answer is zip then you know as much as I do. But did see THIS (whatever the hell this is):

My heart jumped at the promise of a Robot Jocks inspired game. James Cameron crushed it.

This mech has something to do with Avatar. I have no idea what but I guess this is a prop from the movie. Speaking of movies and video games kissing each other, making nice and taking our money in the process, someone thought that THIS was a good idea:

“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do but I know that I hate it.”

This didn’t look ANYTHING like ANYTHING from that movie. Kung Fu Hustle is bad ass. This movie looked like a WiiWare download of Final Fight where Haggar has been replaced by the characters in the 8 bit Kung Fu. No me gusta! So instead, Zack and I played this:

Muramasa: The Mothafuckin’ Demon Blade! This game is a really solid side scroller in the tradition of Gunstar Heroes and Mickey’s Castle of Illusion but with some RPG elements built in. Either one of your characters (male or female) have two swords in their inventory and these spiritual blades have health bars. The more you use them, the sooner they break. You have to switch and conserve each sword’s specific abilities while the other sword “heals up”. The artwork is gorgeous, the game is fluid and the controls are tight (unlike the jumpy and not fun to play Silent Hill: Shattered Memories <— I hated this game). I saw Zack kill a giant headed monster monk that took up most of the screen and by that time I was 100% sold. The waggle in this game isn’t as important as moving around and picking your attacks mid-battle so sign me up. It won’t break my wrist (like Silent Hill: Shattered Memories threatened to <— no really, this game is miserable).

So that was my day numero two at E3. I saw a trailer for The Old Republic on a huge screen and it looked impressive. But before you get excited… I saw a trailer JUST like that which was ALSO impressive for a game called The Force Unleashed and that game was retarded, so check yourself before you wreck yourself. A lot of people got excited and clapped after that trailer and all I could think was “you poor bastards probably LOVED Revenge of the Shit“. I don’t care how many slow mo walks out of explosions Jedi or Sith do in a trailer. I’m not touching this game until it rocks a near perfect score.

Zack got a chance to play the new Ninja Gaiden and said it SUCKED. Wow. That’s a harsh statement. The framerate was super chuggy for a game that’s supposed to be near completion and the gameplay showed zero progression. So if you liked the first Ninja Gaiden for PS3/360, it might be more of the same… but I guess Zack didn’t like it.

Zack also claims that Uncharted 2’s multiplayer is great. It takes the same dynamic of the game and makes it social. It’s not the most unique experience but having different players running, hiding and sniping around one map. It’s more fluid than Splinter Cell and moves quicker. Instead of a standard capture the flag, you have to “capture the loot” which consists of a giant piece of gold that slows you down on a map while the other players are shooting at you and trying to take it back. You have to throw the heavy loot into a goal in order to score so performing all of this against faster enemies shooting you, from different levels on the map, can lend itself to a pretty intense experience.

I also witnessed a pretty flashy, giant trailer for Dante’s Inferno. As much as I’d love to comment… I really don’t know what the hell I saw except for Mr. Not Kratos fighting and killing giant demons that are Not The Big Monsters Kratos Fights. I’ll withhold judgement until the game is released but you know what? I have zero problems with God of War clones. God of War is a system seller in my household and I’ll follow Kratos into hell (which I guess for the purposes of this metaphor means buying a PS3).

Okay. I’m destroyed physically and still have a full day of E3 tomorrow for you vampires so I’m going to call it a day. I still owe you my quick thoughts on Brutal Legend and Wii Sports Resort but I promise that they are coming. Until then, I leave you with this:

Nap Time. See you tomorrow!