E3 Impressions: Splinter Cell: Conviction: Too Many Colons: This Time It’s Personal

Splinter Cell: Conviction has been plagued with numerous delays dating back to 2006, so imagine a lot of peoples surprise when Ubisoft brought the game out for a full demo for E3.

For fans of the previous Splinter Cell games, this entry is a huge departure for the series.  An obvious difference between this and the previous games is the stylistic approach to storytelling within the game.  Instead of cutting the action for a cutscene , the story is told by projecting movies onto the walls, while the action still continues.  It keeps the player immersed in the game so there’s a smaller chance of them not being involved while the game dispenses narrative.  Mission objectives are also shown during gameplay, imagine the words “GET SARAH’S KILLER” projected on a wall as you walk down a hallway.  It progresses the story as well as the objective at hand.

Several gameplay innovations have been put in place to keep Sam out of harms way such as the “last known position” feature.  If Sam is involved in a firefight and he hides, an outline will appear where his last known position was.  This is where the enemy will search for him so the player is able to escape, flank or sneak up behind them to get the upper hand.  In the demo there is an EMP grenade where he is able to shut off the lights in a certain area to sneak up on or sneak behind enemy sentries while they search in the dark.

The developers, during the demo, highlighted Sam’s thirst for revenge, which taps into his predatory mode.  That, in turn made him more limber and faster than the previous games.  Sam Fisher actually moves more like Altair from Assassin’s Creed than his previous iterations.  The demo displays this as he dispatches of unknowing guards and pounces on gun wielding thugs when they walk into the shadows.

For a long time, people were wondering if Splinter Cell was even going to make an appearance at any E3 in the past 2 years.  Personally, I was pleasantly surprised at how far along and how different it looks from what I expected it to be.  I’m glad they’ve revamped some of the gameplay elements as well as the storytelling mechanic but a veteran of the SC series can definitely tell that it’s same old Sam with newer tricks at his disposal.

Splinter Cell: Conviction is slated for October of 2009.

E3 Impressions: Nintendo

Everybody is wondering what Nintendo has up their collective white sleeves these next 12 months.  A lot of people take issue with what Nintendo has turned out to be: a casual gaming company that has abandoned their core fanbase (this is what the message boards are saying, dood).  Although you will have a silent minority or majority who still hold faith in Nintendo, this doesn’t stop them from selling a trillion systems per week.  What surprises lie in the world of the N?

• Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo’s Executive Vice-President of Sales and Marketing enters the stage in a tasteful pristine white pant ensemble.   Nobody asked what she was wearing so I’ll assume it’s Dolce?  No Gabbana.  Gabbana’s very vocal about being a Sony fanboy.  I always enjoy watching her talk and I don’t think this would be any different.  She’s adorable: she just said hi to the people watching online.  HI!!
• She starts off with NPD numbers (audible groan) to illustrate how big video games have become.  Apparently they’re larger than movies, music, the airline industry and dinosaurs combined.  I don’t nesscessarily listen to this part that much because it’s an intro.  I’m spending this time to play Contact on my DS.
• There’s a bunch of Mario Bros characters and villains flashing on the screen.  She introduces New Super Mario Bros 2, which is a four player Super Mario game.  Three other Nintendo staffers join Cammie on stage, dressed to the nines in pastel colored shirts to demo NSMB2.  It reminds me of Legend of Zelda: Four Swords, where you have to collect more and perform better than your three co-players.  You can carry other players and also throw them as well.  It looks like this game will depend on teamwork but also start many fights between my friends and I.  I see much potential for assholery during gameplay.  There’s a new suit called the propeller suit in which will let you float over traps and pits as well as fly.  I can’t wait.
• My mother would probably like this part:  WiiFit.  WiiFit sales numbers, blah blah blah.  What’s new: there’s a locker room available where you can customize your excersize regiment with a circuit of workouts to target specific parts of your body.  It looks pretty fun and intuitive.  Also, there’s some new games such as Perfect 10, in which you use your hips to hit specific parts of the screen.  She describes it as “Brain Age for your backside”, which is better than what I woulda called it: It’s like Simon for your Ass.
• Big Reggie Fils-Aime takes the stage.  Literally takes the stage.  This guy is built like the Colossus of Rhodes.  He talks about the history of thier controller and shows a video about the WiiMotionPlus and WiiSportsResort.  The coolest part is that it starts during a skydive (like an Army of Two mission without the inate homoeroticism) in which you control your Mii with the controller.  You can also make formations with other people.  Next is the archery demo which looks pretty nice and easy to use, although Bill Trennon has a hard time trying to get a bullseye.  Reggie and Bill then have a basketball three point contest which is punctuated by a short joke by Reggie (groan).  They really get into it and Reggie “threw up some bricks”, which is probably not biologically possible.  Bill almost wins the shootout but Reggie eats his lunch when he hits the money ball at the last minute.  Another game in which my assholishness can hit it’s full potential.  Before the WiiMotionPlus presentation is over, he mentions the Red Steel franchise and how it’s ONLY compatible for the add-on.
• Square-Enix shows up on one of the monitors and presents two titles: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Crystal Bearers and a DS version of Kingdom Hearts, which looks fucking fantastic, btw.  Oh, and Mario and Luigi: Bowsers Inside Story as well.  This seems pretty RPG heavy but I’m happy.  I’d buy all three of these titles.  But wait, he mentions some “important news”.  A franchise that’s been gone for quite awhile but it’ll be back.  Golden Sun for the DS will be released and you don’t know how fucking happy I am to type this.  Call me a Nintendo fanboy all you want, I WANT THIS GAME.  The visuals look pretty good for all four titles.
• Cammie returns back to the stage to introduces James Patterson’s Womens Murder Club for the DSi.  Hm.  Not interested but hey.  Nintendo is trying to get that “stay at home mom” money.  I’m totally not mad at them.
• It’s evident that this part is very DS/DSi heavy and they introduce a new IP from Ubisoft camed COP: The Recruit.  It looks like GTA4 with fully 3d environments and an open game world.  I’m very interested in what this turns out to be.
• Uh.  Style Savvy is a game that girls can use to dress themselves and buy clothes and get dey hurr did on the Nintendo DS.  This is first on my list, yo.  YOU CAN PERFORM IN FASHION SHOWS. OH SHIT.
• After this they show a tired montage of people on the street talking about their DS’s.  Fast forward.  Nintendo flashing those awesome console sales numbers.  Flip Note Studio will be available this summer as well.  It’s a small movie making game which I’m sure will be a hit with the perverts out there.
• Mario vs Donkey Kong is coming out for the DS as a DSiWare download.  It lets you create and upload your own levels.  Looks pretty cool.  I hope the DSiWare store will be full of titles like this.
• Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks is availble on the show floor, apparently.  I’ve seen a couple fo videos and I can’t wait for it.
• Satoru Iwata, President and Grand Overlord of Nintendo approaches the stage to discuss corporate strategies to keep people buying Nintendo Wii’s and DS’s like they’re made of heroin.  He brings out the Vitality Sensor which makes sure you’re not dead while you’re playing the Wii, I guess?  Oh.  It’s for stress.  Wat.
• Cammie comes out to talk about Mario Galaxy 2 for the Wii.  The video looks really good and the music is very addictive, as always.  Yoshi is in it and you can ride him.  That’s a good thing, by the way.  It looks the same as the previous SMG, so you know the visuals are beautiful and colorful and the level design is interesting, to say the least.  If it seems like I’m not interested, it’s because it’s the same game but it’s a sequel.  Almost like an expansion pack.  But I can’t wait for it.  No release date is mentioned, however.
• Big Reggie comes back out to talk about three high profile third party titles: The Conduit, due out later this month, Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles and Dead Space: Extraction.  Apparently Nintendo spinoff games are fans of subtitles.  These games are already well known but it’s good to see them flash them in front of the hardcore audience’s face to shut them up.  I’m saying this for the lulz, btw.  Note: Reggie’s on the messageboards.
• It seems as if the wrap up is coming but Reggie announces a “new edgier game” and brings out the new Metroid trailer DEVELOPED BY TEAM NINJA.  Basically it looks like Ninja Gaiden with arm cannons.  It moves very fast and there seems to be a lot of acrobatic moves at Samus’ sweet ass disposal.  Wait…did I just see Samus do a bulldog wrestling move?  I’m impressed and I can’t wait.

My thoughts

Nintendo really doesn’t have to do much this year to stay on top, as they have a healthy bit between them and the 360 with more peripherals being released in the future.  I’d enjoy some talk about their online support or some mention of more games released on WiiWare.  It’s good to see Nintendo directly addressing their detractors by showing more “hardcore” games, the first coming out in a few weeks from now.  It doesn’t look like they’re doing a lot of new things with the platform, which isn’t bad if they want to stay on top but it’s bad when a lot of your audience is looking for some newer gaming experiences.  Metroid looks kick ass. SMG2 looks kick ass.  My mom will probably buy the new WiiFit game.  I wish they showed some of Red Steel 2 for the WiiMotionPlus.  Bottom Line: Nintendo played it safe.

Impressions of E3: Microsoft

Since I’ve been really busy these past couple of days, I’ve just been able to run through the Microsoft and the Nintendo media briefing.  So, I’m going to fashion these E3 impressions in a bulleted format with several curse words interspersed throughout.  Also: incorrect grammar and punctuation.

• Microsoft opens with The Beatles: Rock Band intro video.  The art direction is amazing and it spans their whole career.  Heart flutters a bit.  After those videos, several staff members(including a cute girl with piercings) do a live demo to “Day Tripper”.  It seems like three part harmony is going to be included in this game.  I’ve never been a fan of watching people on a stage playing Rock Band.  Watching it being played by a smattering of random friends in a den seems to resonate more with me.  But that’s just me being an asshole.  Soon after that they show the official trailer which includes my favorites “Back in the USSR” “Taxman” and “I Want To Hold Your Hand”.  Once the trailer concludes, they confirm all Beatles albums available for DLC with “Abbey Road” being first to be released.  Dhani Harrison, Olivia Harrison and Yoko Ono come out and wave and leave.  Then Ringo and Paul come out and ham it up for the cameras…well, more Paul than Ringo.  Ringo just looks a bit perturbed but not too much where it disrupts the mood of the presentation.  Ringo just looks like that all the time I guess?  Anyway, his sneakers look freaking great.  They make a couple of jokes and bounce out.  Great introduction to a press conference.
• John Schappert comes out and discusses how they want to introduce 10 exclusive titles for the 360.  He discards the sales numbers crap and moves on.  Pretty exciting considering nobody wants to listen to that.  I always thought those sales numbers were for investors and board members rather than the press or the gamers anyway.
• Tony Hawk comes out on stage and it’s sort of disconcerting.  This is like his 6th E3 appearance it seems.  I’ve seen him at more E3s than Kaz Hirai.  I wish that was a joke.  He introduces a new skateboard peripheral for the 360 which would work with Tony Hawk Ride.  There’s a video with a bunch of skaters such as Christian Hosoi and others talking about how easy it is and how much it is like skating.  I’m not terribly impressed.  I wouldn’t be surprised how a skater sees it being easy to skate with a skateboard shaped controller.  You want to show me how easy it is?  Get my dad on that motherfucker.  If she can do it, anybody can do it.  Not really impressed with the game or the controller as much as I am impressed with how much Tony Hawk hasn’t aged.  He’s gotta be at least 84 by now.
• Modern Warfare 2’s trailer plays and it’s the same one that they showed during the NBA finals.  Then afterwards they show an impressive live demo.  This might be the best live demo I’ve seen in a long time.  The guy they choose to play this flinches when he gets hit, jerks his hand back and forth as he runs and is visibly frustrated when he gets into a firefight.  It ends with a snowmobile firefight.  Win.  They announce two map packs in timed release for the 360.
• Yoshinori Kitase comes out to show off Final Fantasy XIII for 360 which looks the same as the demo that came out in Japan with the exception of Odin being summoned.  He’s huge and he actually fights alongside your character as a secondary party member.  Looks pretty cool.  I just now noticed, as of this writing, how cut short and trunucated the FFXIII is compared to the other live demos.  They’re going for a Spring 2010 release.  Yawn until then.  Show me some new footage.
• From here on out these are considered exclusive titles as of this event, Schappert says.  He disappears in a cloud of butterflies.
• Cliffy B. comes out.  Okay, maybe it’s me or maybe I just haven’t noticed, but has Cliffy been working out?  This guy is almost Carrottop size by now.  He looks like Dom.  They show off this new Live Arcade game called Shadow Complex after mentioning Castlevania and Metroid as influences.  Wow, let’s hope the hubris translates into a good game, guys.  I have no idea what that means but the game has this weird 2-D perspective where you can shoot enemies in the background as well as in your plane.  The demo is short as hell.  About as short as the FFXIII demo.
• Joy Ride is announced and shown and it’s FREE. But you have to pay for other cars and customizable items.  Second Life on the Road.  Home with cars.  You get to use your Avatar in the game at least.  Not really interested but it’s free so its bound to be fun right? RIGHT?
• A Crackdown 2 (Jizz-In-My-Pants) trailer shows where a new character jumps around, shoots some guy in the face and moves in slow motion.
• Surprise of the show to me seems to be the Left 4 Dead 2 trailer.  Although I love the first L4D, I’m not sure if I’m ready for another one so soon.  Not sure if it’s going to be DLC or not but the inclusion of a chainsaw, frying pan or a baseball bat adds to some variety to the weapons.  The fact that a black woman is fighting zombies really excites me (harkens me back to Michonne in The Walking Dead).  Seems to be set in the south and also some dude that looks like Rick Ross is in the game as well.  November?!!?  Jesus Valve, you really do love us.
• Now my favorite demo of the show HAS to be Splinter Cell: Conviction.  I’ve never fancied myself a huge SC fan but I have played them all and I’ve been thoroughly impressed with them.  This game seems to throw away the mechanics of previous games and given you free roam over any given area, with millions of different ways you can beat the shit out of someone.  A cool story mechanic is showing flashbacks of certain narrative elements in the form of projections on a wall or a ceiling or the floor.  Also contextual clues on where to progress the story.  They show Sam Fisher decimating some guy in a bathroom, shooting a bunch of guys in the face, and acting on his predatory nature by crawling onto ceiling fixtures and pouncing on enemies.  They also mention a marking system which is straight out of Rainbow Six but this seems a bit more brutal.  During this whole demo, I believe 485 people got killed.
• Forza Motorsport 3 is unveiled.  It looks VERY impressive.  They take several shots at Gran Turismo and calls FM3 “the definitive racing game of this generation”.  Ouch.  FM3 seems to aim towards everyone including beginners by making it more accessible through “one button driving rewind”, whatever the hell that is and gameplay rewind.  There seems to be a cool video editing feature to make your own car commercials as well. Nice.
• Halo 3: ODST goes past the foreplay and into the intercourse by heading in with a live demo with commentary by a Bungie staffer.  The game looks cleaner and faster.  Since this is a different type of trooper from than the Spartans, they have a few different things to their disposal including a night vision toggle for their visor.  Nothing really new in this Halo release it seems but it looks good.  They also release a Halo: Reach trailer which will be available with ODST.  They also mention a Co-Op mode for ODST called “Firefight” which will be shown later at E3.
• Finally, a freaking Alan Wake live demo.  Correct me if I’m wrong, but is this the first time they’ve shown this? Jesus Christ.  This game has been in development for as long as my niece has been alive (hyperbole).  It looks like a weekly serial TV show with it beginning with “Tonight on Alan Wake”.  It looks pretty though.  The enemies seem to be afraid of light but Alan has a flashlight.  How convenient.  Whoa someone just whacked Alan with a sledge hammer or something.  Spring 2010?!!?  What?  Wasn’t this supposed to be the first PC game to use Direct X 10 graphics native or take advantage of multicore processors or something?  Or was that a rumor?  Jesus, this game is older than Jesus…seriously.
• After this time, I kinda blanked out because I knew I wanted to see the new games but I’ll give a quick rundown:  You can put Netflix movies in your queue through your 360, Last.fm support and streaming, Facebook integration, Twitter integration (uh oh), Zune Video relaunch with all 1080p movies available instantly, the UK can finally get movies per an agreement with SKYTV, nice, Felicia Day (swoon).
• It’s about over but…wait.  Hideo Kojima pops up out of nowhere.  He announces Metal Gear Solid: Rising.  Snake is nowhere to be found but whatever dude, we have Raiden now and he’s cool now that he’s 95% robot.  No gameplay is shown.  Just a short teaser with Raiden’s metal face staring at you.
• Project Natal is shown which uses your whole body as a controller.  It looks cool as hell but eh.  I’m not impressed to be truthful.  I”m a lazy fatass and although I’d like to try it out….HOLY SHIT Steven Spielberg?  Micro$oft apparently enjoys making it rain by bringing out these people.  I’m just now noticing in my stream on IGN, the green lights in the background make my head hurt.  For some reason after this, I’m pretty impressed with Natal.  Kudo Tsunoda (good to see him again) is on stage, either visibly drunk and/or high with sunglasses on.  He displays some early prototypes and shows us the bottom of his Avatar’s shoes.  It’s quite funny to see his Avatar moving like a ragdoll with broken arms.  He shows off Richochet where it’s like a 3-D game of Breakout with your body.  Looks super tiring but fun.  It’s amazing how NOW i’m quite excited about this.  AAAAAND Kudo fires shots at “Waggle” commands.  ETHER.  Next they show some game called Splat, where you make art using your whole body.  Color (pun) me impressed.
• Peter Molyneux (of Lionhead studios) comes out and introduces Milo, who you can interact with and apparently draw pictures for.  Pretty impressive and innovative.

My Thoughts

I didn’t really want to grade anyone’s press conferences like I enjoy doing so I’ll just give a short review:  Microsoft wants to keep players on their side.  They’ve thrown a lot of money into R&D for Natal and spent a gang of money to secure exclusives and timed releases for certain DLC.  They’ve also expanded their integration by throwing Twitter and Facebook into the mix.  Digital content seems to be a big thing this E3 as well by improving their video service and expanding their video service across the pond with the inclusion of the SKYTV partnership.  Microsoft seems to be making their system for everyone.  Should Nintendo be shaking in their boots?  No.  Nintendo already has their audience and it’ll be hard to catch up to them.  Microsoft, however is great at marketing their platform as a media device as well as a gaming device.  If anything, it’ll give reasons for current owners to stick with the 360.

Big update week for fans of TF2 and L4D

The image above is what I’d imagine what Valve’s servers looked like for the past two days.  Brainless shells of former selves with no life running through a cornfield to download free downloadable content.

Valve’s date for the DLC seems to be an intelligent choice for both the consumer and the developer, seeing that everybody else is coming down from their 4/20 highs today.  I’d have to admit, even if i did smoke weed, this still would’ve been downloaded yesterday.

The update information goes as follows:

The Left 4 Dead Survival Pack is now available for the PC and Xbox 360, free of charge to all owners of the game. The full change list for the PC release is below. In addition, both the retail and Steam versions of the game (PC and 360) are now available for a special price. Check Steam and local retailers for pricing details. For more information about L4D, please visit www.l4d.com

Survival Mode

• New gameplay Mode
• 16 maps including Last Stand
• Leaderboards
• 7 new achievements

Versus Changes

• 2 new versus campaigns
• Fixed a case where versus team score would continue to be recalculated after the score panel was displayed
• Fixed an issue with recalculating the versus score health bonus for a player when they are rescued from being incapacitated
• Fixed being able to start a swing as an infected, then teleport to the survivors and have the claw swing hit a survivor
• Fixed a case where teleporting to the survivors would not reset the ability timer
• Fixed an exploit where you could load the chamber of a weapon with bullets by holding down the melee key
• Fixed a case where it was not possible to join a game while it was in a finale
• Fixed a rare case where listen servers would speed up the game over time
• Removed convars related to melee fatigue
• Fixed a case where infected players would get a respawn time on their initial spawn into a map

Server Changes

• Made ms_force_dedicated_server not require cheats
• Add a message when queuing a heartbeat
• Simplified setting of game mode
• Removed convars director_no_human_zombies and director_holdout_mode
• Added mp_gamemode [coop,versus,survival]

General

• Added lobby join and leave messages

Along with that, in the past few days there was a pretty substantial update for Team Fortress 2 as well which hints at “future features”.  There are some files that mention headgear and grenades but this is just purely speculation until they implement them into the game.  But this is just me here and if you’ve played with me in TF2, you know these updates mean jack to me because I’m clearly not the best TF2 player in the world.  Arguably, I could be the worst TF2 player on earth.