Lame picture, I know.

I just looked at my GS level and it's 55 "Rise from your grave;" I thought that would make a fitting title for this entry because it's been a long time since I've done anything with my blog. Essentially, I just want to write about my thoughts on e3. No, I did not go, but I did watch those press conference things, so I guess I still have some basis for discussion. I hope that people are still willing to read and discuss the topics within; otherwise, I just wasted my time typing this damn thing.

After watching these things for the past few years you learn what to expect, and that's a lot of talk about boring statistics and a ton of lackluster surprises, but every now and then there are some legitimately shocking announcements. Unfortunately, nothing really surprised me this year, but there were still some good looking games amongst the plethora of extremely ***** looking ones.

I was originally going to start this entry off by explaining my feelings about every single press conference, but then I just decided for the sake of my always-dwindling sanity, I should make a "list" of the good and bad things that happened. Right now, I have no need to be all doomy and gloomy, so I'll begin with the good things about e3.

The good things...

Probably the most important aspect of e3 is the games themselves, and there were many quality titles this year, so I was not disappointed in that area. My personal favorite is AVP3, just because I love the movies that the franchise is based on, and the past games are amazing too. The stuff Rebellion revealed at e3 did not disappoint. It looks like the series has evolved a bit in it's gameplay and it has most certainly evolved in visuals. If Rebellion does everything right with the Marine campaign then this game will certainly join my short list of truly terrifying games. Perhaps the only complaint I had with the gameplay footage was the trophy kills. Although they looked impressive, I could see them becoming redundant rather quickly unless they increase the number of brutal death animations.

Another game that ranks high on my list is Brutal Legend. I'm getting a bit tired of all the depressing/serious games, so having a funny game like this should be refreshing. Not only does the game look fun to play, but the concept is awesome as well; a whole world based in metal music, gotta love that. So yeah, Brutal Legend is certainly high on my list of games to buy.

The new Splinter Cell game also caught my eye. The action looks good, and it has some interesting concepts; however, despite these positive elements I'm still rather disappointed with the direction of the game. It looks more like a Hitman game than a Splinter Cell game. In the original games, stealth and realism where emphasized, but the demonstration for Splinter Cell: Conviction gave me the impression that it is now a cartoony, action game. It looks like the intense stealth action of the originals is replaced by shooting-based action. Stealth looks like an option rather than a necessity in this game. Even though this is disappointing, the game still looks enjoyable, so I will definitely be renting this game when it comes out.

Finally, I'd like to mention Bayonetta. This game looks fantastic. Not only does it have a unique styIe, but the action looks insanely fast paced too. Further increasing the awesomeness of this game is the fact that the people who make the Devil May Cry series are involved.

Other games I would include if I wasn't so damn lazy:

Alan Wake

Borderlands

Dragon Age: Origins

God of War 3

Mass Effect 2

Uncharted 2

some other games I can't think of at the moment

The last thing on my "list" of goodness at e3 is Sony's motion control demonstration. Although the presenters were not very good, the visual presentation itself was great. The main difference between Sony's demonstration and MS' Natal is the fact that they showed better applications for the device. Sure, painting is fun, but talking to little boys... I'm not so sure about that. Sony actually showed how their motion control could be used for shooting games, sword fighting games, horror games (use the controller as a flashlight with realistic shadowing), and many other things. The vibe I got from Natal was that it was going to turn the Xbox 360 into a better-looking Wii, and that's something I'm not interested in. If they showed impressive applications for the device then I would certainly place it on the list of good things.

Now it's time to move on to the list of bad things at e3. I'm not going to talk about many games here, instead I'm going to talk about the new innovations each company brought to the table. Since Microsoft's show came first, it is only logical that I start there.

The bad things...

As I mentioned before, Project Natal is something that I'm not interested in, at least not yet. Don't get me wrong, this is a great concept, but the presentation was seriously lacking, and I think the implementation would not be very good for so called "hardcore" games. My favorite part of the presentation was when Peter Molyneux came out with his usual "this is the greatest thing ever" BS. He claims that science fiction books and movies never envisioned something like this, but anyone who has seen a crappy movie about virtual reality would know that his statement is full of crap. Also, the Milo presentation would have been impressive, if I believed it. The problem I have with this is that it seemed far too programmed to be real. Maybe, Milo really was reacting to what was being said to him, but I guarantee you, he wouldn't have been able to tell the difference between a fish being drawn on his paper or the word's **** you. I bet he would have still said, "that's a nice fish" regardless of what you drew or wrote on the paper. The voice recognition is promising, but at the moment, I seriously doubt that we will be having a legitimate conversation with any of our favorite videogame characters. Furthermore, there are mixed reports on whether or not the Milo demonstration is real, so until I see it for my own eyes, I will remain skeptical.

Is it just me or does this guy look like a (you can fill in the word).

I'm only going to put one game on my bad list, but there are more which deserve to be there. The game that made it onto my bad list is Halo: Reach. Now this might be a good game, but I was expecting something new from Bungie. I know that they are more than capable of making good games outside of the Halo universe, so I don't know why they need to continue with Halo (other than money). I'm pretty sure that Microsoft is already working on Halo 4, therefore, I don't feel that a sixth Halo game is really necessary. A new ip would have been far more interesting.

Probably the worst part about e3 was Nintendo's press conference because as usual they fail horribly to get me interested in buying a Wii. They did reveal a few interesting games like Super Mario Galaxy 2 and a new Metroid Game, but ultimately these things were overshadowed by colossal piles of ****. Mainly, I'm talking about the Wii Vitality Sensor. No offense to anyone who is interested in this, but it's probably the dumbest thing I've seen in a long time. Even though it is ridiculously stupid, and its relevance is almost non-existent, I still got a good laugh watching the person talk about it. To add insult to injury, they made a stupid speech about how they are trying to attract "Maybe" gamers. I have no problem with this, but in Nintendo's process of getting the "Maybe" gamers, they've turned away a lot of what they call "Core" gamers. For example, I can't find any decent FPS or RPG games on the Wii. I don't see how they can talk about reaching the biggest audience possible, when there is an absence of FPS games. Didn't Call of Duty 4 reach around 14 million sales (counting all platforms)? That is a lot of people, and many of those people aren't satisfied with what the Wii has to offer. Nintendo, you can try to get soccer moms and grannies to play your games all you want, but you should know that in the process "Core" gamers are losing interest in your system. There's no reason why you guys can't balance things out. How about you stop making **** like Cooking Mama for a while, and start making something new that interests people who have been gaming for a long time.

I can't wait to use my Wii Vitality Sensor!

Well maybe Nintendo isn't as dumb as the next thing, downloadable content. I understand the fact that this lets the developers make more money from their product, but really, a lot of this newer DLC seems like a joke to me. The prime example of stupid DLC is found with Rockband: Beetles. Guess what! If you buy the Xbox 360 version then you get to buy an extra song a few weeks later! Not only is this DLC small in size, but really this is the dumbest deal ever. Only an idiot would think that they couldn't add this song in real quickly before release, and that's where DLC is annoying the hell out of me. I'm fine with DLC that adds many things to the games (basically small expansion packs), but when they pull stupid **** like this, that's when it annoys me. I don't like it when they make you pay for crap that could easily be put in before the game is released. Another annoying element of DLC is the exclusivity. I don't have a problem with this, but I know people who don't own both a Xbox 360 and a PS3, so they can't get the full experience from their game when there is actually something worth downloading. That's pretty stupid if you ask me. I know this is how business works, but that doesn't mean that I have to like it.

Overall, I thought e3 was good. It returned to its old format with booth babes and all of that nice stuff, and it was far more interesting than last time. I could have gone into more detail about the games I liked and disliked, but in the end, I felt that it wasn't necessary. Anyone who watched the show knew about the games that made the most impact, and the games that fell flat on their faces, so it would have been like beating a dead horse.

Other stuff you don't need to know...

The main reason why I've stopped blogging is that I'm focusing on more important things in life. I'm finally getting into a real University this fall (it's about damn time), and I'm finally going to get a job that I'll enjoy (hopefully). Before I didn't have much to do, but now I'm doing all kinds of things, so I don't have the time to do an entry every week. However, despite my lack of dedication, I still want to keep this thing alive. I have a few entries in mind, but I don't think I'll be finished writing any of them anytime soon. In addition to blog entries, I'm still working on a few videos which I'll post on Youtube. One of the videos is going to be a contemplation of many FPS games (both old and new), and the other is my fourth weight lifting video. This time I'll have my brother and some of my friends lifting; it should be a lot more interesting then the other videos. I'm going to try really hard to make these videos good and lengthy, so it'll probably be a long time before I finish any of them, but I think the finished product will be worth the wait (not that anyone will actually wait ).

I guess I'll end this entry with a metal song just because that was sort of like a tradition back when I was doing this every week. The song I've chosen is D.N.R. by Testament. The reason why I chose this song over some others is that I just recently saw them live and I thought this song kicked ass.

I was looking through one of my old harddrives and I stumbled upon some old gameplay videos that I made a few years ago. I decided to post them on youtube just for the hell of it and I thought I should just post them here too...

Counter-Strike Source

Battlefield 2

Day of Defeat Source

Doom 3

Painkiller

I also decided to post another weightlifting video...

Weightlifting Movie

I'm planning to make some more gameplay videos in the future and I'm sure they will be a lot more interesting. So please watch these if you like and feel free to leave comments on GS or youtube.

Diablo 3 (PC)

Now this might be a bit of a stretch, but one can still hope that Blizzard releases Diablo 3 in 2009. The Diablo franchise is one of my all time favorites. I love hacking and slashing away at endless hordes of skeletons and zombies. I love collecting the loot after intense battles, and I love going through the creepy dungeons with my friends. In simplest terms, I love Diablo! And although there have been countless imitators throughout the past eight years, Blizzard is the single developer who is most capable of producing a new and improved Hack-n-Slash RPG formula. A formula that is familiar to veteran Diablo players, but also fresh enough to keep them interested. In addition to potentially great gameplay, Diablo 3 also features some fantastic visuals and knowing Blizzard, the game will run well on old and new PCs.

Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty (PC)

Starcraft 2 follows in the footsteps of what many gamers consider the greatest RTS of all time. Starcraft is the legendary RTS game that stole countless hours of PC gamers' spare time and the fact that many people play the game to this day is a testament to its stellar quality. No, I did not play Starcraft online very often, so I will probably get my ass kicked when I play Starcraft 2 online, but I did enjoy the singleplayer component of Starcraft. And I am looking forward to playing through the Terran campaign. I wish that Blizzard would not split the game into three, but as long as the campaign is lengthy, I will be satisfied. Also, despite of the fact that I will get my ass kicked online, I look forward to experiencing that element as well.

Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War 2 (PC)

Anyone who played the original Dawn of War knows that it is one of the most intense RTS games on the planet! Instead of focusing on base building, Dawn of War places the focus on brutal close-quarters combat. The necessity of capturing vital control points throughout the maps places additional emphasis on the action. Dawn of War 2 plans to take the action packed gameplay established by the original and create an even more intense experience. This time the base building is almost non-existent, and the player must use advanced tactics to succeed. The addition of cover alone is major enhancement to the Dawn of War experience and I am certain that Relic has more surprises planned for Dawn of War 2.

Deus Ex 3 (PC)

Deus Ex is my favorite game; therefore, my expectations for a quality prequel are unbelievably high. Deus Ex: Invisible War was not a horrible game, but it failed to capture what made Deus Ex great. So, I expect Deus Ex 3 to emulate Deus Ex and possibly surpass it in terms of quality. Of course, this will not be an easy task and some of the gameplay elements, which were reveled last year, have me worried. The stealth no longer being focused on shadows, but cover, is one of the most questionable gameplay elements. The Augmented people vs. normal people story element sounds intriguing, and the visuals look fantastic, so regardless of these questionable aspects, I remain optimistic about Deus Ex 3. Currently, there is not a whole lot of information on the game and judging it before I know more could be a big mistake.

F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin (PC)

The first F.E.A.R. game featured a series of intense battles, which played out in close-quarters environments. The brutal AI and the highly destructive environments enhanced the ferocity of these battles. Perhaps the only problem with F.E.A.R was the lack of environmental variety. F.E.A.R. 2 seeks to fix this problem and bring vast improvements to the level destruction and AI. F.E.A.R. was also a lot of fun to play online, so I am obviously looking forward to playing both the singleplayer and the multiplayer in F.E.A.R. 2.

Metro 2033 (PC)

Metro 2033 is a story based first person shooter that takes place in a post apocalyptic Russia. The developers aim to create an incredibly immersive singleplayer experience. Limiting the HUD and creating convincing animations for their mutated beasts are just a few of the methods they intend to use to create a grand singleplayer game. Also, many of the people involved with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. are involved with this game, so I know that it has a lot of potential. I just hope that it is released without countless bugs and endless delays.

Empire: Total War (PC)

The Total War series has been consistently fantastic ever since it started with Shogun. Empire: Total War takes this award-winning formula and makes ample additions to it. For the first time, naval battles will be playable in the Total War series. The developers also intend to release a cooperative campaign in the future. When you mix these additions with a new era and amazing graphics, I cannot help, but be excited about this game.

Killzone 2 (PS3)

Killzone 2 is one of those games that I am looking forward to playing, but at the same time, I am cautious in my expectations. Many people touted Killzone as a Halo killer, but it failed miserably. On the other hand, many people thought that Killzone 2 would not be able to imitate the original trailer in visual quality. Although Killzone 2 does not look as good as the original "gameplay" CGI trailer, it does look pretty damn good. I do not expect Killzone 2 to surpass Halo in influence, but I do believe that it will be a quality title.

Aliens: Colonial Marines (PC)

I am not a big fan of squad-based games; however, the fact that this game takes place in my favorite movie universe makes my resistance futile. Aliens vs. Predator was an amazing first person shooter game back in the day. It had amazing atmosphere and the qualities of both alien species provided a truly unique and at times, frightening experience. Most of the scares in AVP came from fighting the Alien species as a marine. So, although the Predator is missing from Colonial Marines, the same vile, wall-crawling, jaw extending, alien is in this game. I want Colonial Marines to freak me out, and from the looks of it, this game might just do that.

Duke Nukem Forever (PC)

For some strange reason this game always makes it onto my lists of games that I am looking forward to playing. Yes, 3D Realms announced it more than ten years ago, but I remain hopeful. How could I not hope for a next-generation Duke Nukem experience? Playing as the ultimate alien ass kicker is so damn fun and it would be amazing to play as Duke in a new and more up-to-date experience.

I know the list is longer because I always forget something, but these are the titles that I am looking forward to playing the most. 2009 looks like a fantastic year for PC gaming and I cannot wait to play these games!