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E3 Impressions – Bayonetta

Time spent with Bayonetta leads to more of a seduction rather than an impression. She called to me like a Siren at E3, causing me to crash into the Sega booth several times throughout the week. This isn’t the first time you’ve heard me praise the title, and it certainly won’t be the last. But let me offer you an anecdote taken directly from the show floor.

I enjoy watching other people play videogames at events like E3 nearly as much as playing them myself. It’s challenging to really feel a personal connection to the games on display with all the commotion surrounding every available screen as well. As I was watching a group of steady customers take turns at Bayonetta, I inadvertently eavesdropped on a conversation occurring behind me. Two people were obviously impressed by the game, and I turned around as they started discussing the more technical aspects on display to find that one was from Infinity Ward and the other was from Sony Santa Monica. Surely I thought that had to be noteworthy.

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Posted in E3, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 | 6 Comments »

[4CR]
Impressions – New Super Mario Bros. Wii

Despite being a complete throwback to the timeless gameplay of the original Mario Bros., New Super Mario Bros. on the DS ultimately left me feeling unsatisfied. The game was very good, sure, but it didn’t introduce enough interesting new elements to make me forget that I’ve been playing the exact same thing for almost 20 years. So, when New Super Mario Bros. Wii was first announced I was definitely interested yet decided to hold out on being fully excited until I got some hands on time with the game – which is exactly what I got each day during E3.

I’ll explain why I wanted to go back and wait in line to play this game every day after the cut.

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Impressions: G-Force

Upon finding out that a movie called G-Force was about to be released, my first instinct was to shudder; I couldn’t handle the thought that yet another favourite childhood cartoon was going to be turned into a Summer Blockbuster with no regard for the source material. Imagine my relief when I discovered this G-Force has nothing to do with Battle of the Planets.

Instead, the upcoming 3D flick from producer Jerry “Gratuitous Explosions” Bruckheimer is a kid-friendly movie about a team of very special guinea pigs that discover that they alone can save the world from technology gone awry.

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Posted in E3, First Impressions, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 | 1 Comment »

E3 – WipEout HD Fury

You didn’t think I forgot did you? No game, no matter how shiny, could distract me from a long overdue expansion to WipEout HD. It occupied a lonely corner of the PSN section at E3, and I promptly gave it the loving attention it deserved. The game is as gorgeous as ever, and the focus on the more aggressive aspects of the series made me salivate to be honest. There is no greater pleasure you can have with a controller beyond destroying another player in WipEout – except possibly flipping around to destroy the ones behind you. There’s a button for the action now, but I can remember a time when doing it manually caused people to scream about me cheating.

The add-on brings 8 new tracks and 13 new ships – which is an incredible amount of content. But more importantly, the Eliminator mode has finally returned, once again allowing players to focus on destroying one another for points rather than worrying about lap-times. It’s the most addictive feature the series has ever introduced – I’ve burned out several PSOnes playing it in Wipeout 3.

Fury also brings Zone Battle, which sets automatic acceleration as players pass over pads to fill the zone bar – choosing whether to boost speed toward the target zone or recovering lost energy. An additional Detonator mode brings a new ship to WipEout, and challenges players to destroy mines along the course to score points. But your primary mission remains clear – meet me in the Eliminator as soon as this releases.

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E3 Impressions – Heavy Rain

I spent most of the Nintendo Press Conference slurping a coffee, given how early Nintendo had insisted on getting us all out of our comfy borrowed beds. The immediate emphasis afterward was on blogging about the many splendidly inappropriate things one could do with the Wii Vitality Sensor. But what’s remained sharp on my mind is the approach to capturing, or capitalizing on new gaming markets, not by what was said, but by what was insinuated by the software announced. Nintendo’s overarching approach is in offering a more accessible means to games, period. But what I firmly believe is lost in this equation is that people have a habit of responding to content that respects their intelligence. While Wii Sports Resort will undoubtedly bring more gamers into the medium, murder mystery novels on the DS leave me feeling awkward.

Perhaps there’s a level of adult oriented entertainment we shouldn’t expect Nintendo to ever offer. Did we ever have an assurance that they would both raise us as a generation of gamers and then sustain us into our maturing years? And I’m not talking about a simple matter of blood and gore, but that level of adult oriented entertainment that keeps people tuning into their favorite late night dramas and mysteries every week.

Watching a demonstration of Sony’s Heavy Rain, I believe the game potentially offers the ability to approach a wider audience by different means, linked via the use of mature content to exactly what people are watching late at night while the Wii rests up for weekend visits from friends.

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E3 Impressions – Sin and Punishment 2

My memory is a little foggy these days, but prior to the launch of the Wii, we didn’t talk a whole lot about casual markets and new gamers. Instead there was the belief that Wii controls would allow gamers to experience familiar titles and content in a profound new way. If that idea has lost traction along the way and against the profit found in new audiences, Sin and Punishment 2 is the most precious gift imaginable to those who have long supported the evolution of this industry before a new wave of potentially fickle consumers entered the scene.

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Posted in Awesome, E3, Wii | 6 Comments »

E3 – Three Guilty Pleasure Games

I enjoy reflecting on what a wordy pain in the ass I can be. Some readers seem to enjoy that aspect of the site, and I thank you for supporting my eccentricities. But I know others sometimes wish that I’d just get to the point, and so I think I can offer a compromise with this post. There were three games I had the opportunity to play at E3 that utterly defy my ability to get overly philosophical when describing them.

That doesn’t mean that they don’t merit attention, quite the opposite in fact. They were all titles I enjoyed playing immensely – so much so that I whined about having to give back the controller. But the quality of the experience with each doesn’t seem to require too many words on my part. You simply need to play them to get it – to appreciate the gameplay on a more physical level that is hard to describe. No amount of words is going to change the nature of that type of gameplay. So with this in mind, I offer you three games from E3 that proved to be exactly the types of guilty pleasures I hope to get more time with as soon as possible.

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