E3 '06 MEGA-THREAD OF DOOM!

[Rostam]

Haven't exactly being following anything this year, but the amount of info I've gathered so far by forum reading is next to nothing. A lot different last year, with quite some anouncements... or atleast it seemed that way.

Meh, can't be bothered right now. As long as the Wii ends up cheap I'm buying it. I'd like a new game for the 360 somewhere in june too, but otherwise I won't be gaming much any time soon.

 

[UN17]

What exactly is so good about Supreme Commander? It has a nice 3D engine and features detailed units but... Isn't it just more of the same? Build a base, mass large numbers of troops, send in to attack? I saw that trailer video and there didn't seem to be any tactics or regard for life. Just mindless units attacking each other until they died! No holding positions and launching artillery, flanking through woods or aerial/orbital insertions. What makes it so "drool worthy"? Is it the simplified AI command structure or the use of land/sea/air/monster units? Or maybe you just like the creator?

 

[yurch]

That is an action video, correct.

The difference between supcom (and to an extent, TA) and the 'standard' RTS is the scaling of it all. If you paid any attention to the readings, the maps and numbering of units are positively huge. No one group of units, no matter how large, is going to accomplish much, and figuring out the enemy movements in the intelligence war is just as important as shooting him. When it takes several minutes just to drive to a "close" location, that's where tactics like flanking and surprise start to even happen. The standard trash RTS games like starcraft and the rest are the mass-and-die games.

The high unit fatality is just part of the game. A single factory can produce several hundred light or medium units over the course of a game. On a large map, coverage is often desired over firepower or staying ability. Resources are unlimited, and you actively have to search for ways to slow enemy production.

TA features artillery that can shoot clear across the smaller maps, cheap nuclear missiles, a radar system, an extremely efficient interface, and unit counts in the hundreds. That was in 1997. Supcom will be the modernization of this 10 years later.

 

[TheShiningWizard]

Guitar Hero II. Three-button chords, full co-op mode with split parts and combined rock/star power meter (Samantha and I are going to have some fun with that), some bands providing actual master tracks instead of having covers... Holy crap, I am so happy .

I apologise in advance to my fingers for what "Psychobilly Freakout" will do to them. Jesus Christ, that looks harder than "Cowboys From Hell."


I'm looking forward to the Wii. Basically, it was either Nintendo try something new, or we have the same thing we have now: three almost identical systems separated only by some exlusive franchises (Halo, Forza, Metal Gear, Gran Turismo, Metroid, Pokemon, etc.). The preview for "Red Steel" looked very interesting, and I think the new controller might just let me play a console FPS and not think "this would be a million times easier with a mouse."

 

[geogob]

Those new UT2007 screenshots look... mmm... interesting.
http://www.tothegame.com/screenshot.asp?id=4421

Oh and "lol" at the half-life rip-off

 

[cracwhore]

It's a shame that 'Red Steel' looks like a game built exclusively for wiggers. Shame on Ubisoft.

What I'd really like is GRAW with that controller. Excuse me, 'Wii-mote'.

I did enjoy hearing that Quebecuois son-of-a-bitch saying "...and you can shoot gangsta-style..." though.

Completely unimpressed by the Revolution, as it stands. I suppose I'll have to wait until I try Zelda on it - but so far - it looks like 'Gamecube 1.5', as they say. Nothing terribly impressive by way of graphics (especially the lack of HD support). I would hope that the Revolution version of Zelda looks much better than the Gamecube.

'Metroid Prime 3' looks fucking awful, as expected. All of those games are bad. Some games should never leave the second dimension. Besides, why would you need a lock-on with that control scheme?

Lame.

I did, however, pee my pants when I saw that you actually had to turn the lever next to the door to activate it. That's excellent. If they could come up with a realistic way to reload reapons and whatnot, that would be grand.

There's a lot of potential with that control scheme, but who knows if developers will actually take full advantage of it.


I must say, however, congrats to Konami, for making (what appears to be) the first awful 2D 'Castlevania' game. The animation in that game makes me cry. And what's the deal with the 'Wonder Twin Powers' shit?

Honestly, aside from the hot 'MGS4' trailer (we can only hope the gameplay isn't ass), the only things that have brought a smile to my face are:

-New Co-Op missions for GRAW
-Rainbow Six: Vegas
-Yoshi's Island 2

Well, the $600 price tag on the PS3 brought a smile to my face - but it was a different kind of smile.


Edit in response to Geo:

It's good to see that John Locke is playable in UT2k7.

 

[UN17]

http://www.tothegame.com/sshotfeat.asp?screen=7082&pic=2

In the distant future, people read backwards. You would think they could fix that mirrored texture bug after working on the engine for nearly 10 years. Who is John Locke? And where's the Half-Life rip-off?

 

[geogob]

UN17:

http://www.tothegame.com/sshotfeat.asp?screen=7082&pic=3

The striders, looks a lot like an HL2 inspiration

I have no great expectation towards vanilla 2007, but a lot on the Unreal 3 engine. You know... something to make a good mod off

 

[yurch]

I think he's referring to the tripod walkers. Not sure if I mind, HL2's striders are goddamned miracles of animation.

 

[TheShiningWizard]

After shelling out $1400 for a new computer that's not even top-of-the-line and will be screaming for more upgrades within three years, $600 for a console that is guaranteed to play every great looking game that come out for it for the next 5-6 years doesn't really seem all that bad.

edit: As for the striders lookalikes, it's not like giant robots with three legs is the most original idea in the world, anyway.

 

[cracwhore]

...$600 for a console that is guaranteed to play every great looking game that come out for it for the next 5-6 years doesn't really seem all that bad.

On that note, I feel justified for only having to spend $425 for the XBOX 2.

Personally, I'm waiting until the new Intel processors come out this summer before I upgrade. I feel your pain on the 'gaming rig' scenario. Consoles are better, in that respect.


Is it me, or did Sony just brush everything from E3 '05 under the rug?

It reminds me of that scene from 'The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever' from Invader Zim, where the Snowman pushes the little kid under the bed for asking too many questions...



"Killzone? What's that? We had an 'in-game' trailer of that last year? We promised it was real? Honestly, guy, no clue what you're talking about...

Hey, guys, we have Blu-Ray. Cool huh? You can re-purchase your entire DVD collection and watch it in 1080p, provided that you have a brand-new HDTV from 2005 that supports HDMI and our copy-protection monopoly - otherwise, your content is downscaled to 720p. *cough*

What's that again? Are you sure? Killzone 'real-time' demo? I don't recall that. You must be mistaken. But seriously, you can run Linux on your PS3. You can check email and shit.

What's that? You're worried that we're going to hype up the PS3's capabilities like we did with the PS2? I'm not sure what you mean, the 'Emotion Engine' was obviously 4x more powerful than the Dreamcast.

Did you see our revolutionary new,eighty-dollar *cough* motion-sensor controller? Pretty sweet, no? We have one game that takes advantage of it. We've been keeping it secret for a long time. We didn't want the competition stealing our idea."

 

[JaFO]

Never mind it's one game in beta version, while Nintendo's 'remote and nunchuck'-combo were demonstrated on two games (Red Steel and the new Zelda) and shown in use in quite a few more in their Wii-hype presentation.

I think Nintendo's system has more rights to the 'Next-gen'-tag compared to either the 360 or the PS3. So what if it doesn't support HDTV. I haven't got any such tv anyway and since it's only useful for games (as both HD-DVD as well as Blu-ray get downgraded unless you use the correct interface) I'm not even planning on 'upgrading' until DNF is released ...

 

[M. Fenix]

That mirrored texture thing usually has to do with the way the modeler uv mapped the mesh. If the weapon is symmetrical, the other side that faces the player in first person will have the text displayed the right way.

The striders look like the alien machines from the War of the Worlds remake.

EEE...I could give two grandiose ****s.

 

[Vega-don]

still no inf replacement here. E3 over

 

[tomcat ha]

supreme commander owned me.
www.supcomu.com

 

[chuckus]

The only console I'm getting is the Wii. It seems to be the only one that offers new gameplay rather than fancy graphics. When it comes to graphics you can't beat the PC (for long anyways). I'd rather get a Wii and playstuff I never could on PC and play some real innovative games with standard controls PC.

Xbox and PS3 do'nt really innovate as far as gameplay goes.

 

[Rostam]

Actually after this E3 I'm becoming more of a sceptic on the Wii. I'm still buying it, and I still have to see the Nintendo conference, but some gameplay videos just looked too damned stupid.

But then on the other hand, there are things like this to get me REALLY excited. Red Steel looks awesome in screenshots (the precision of the controller and such), but in video's it just doesn't look the same.

Although graphically the Wii looks a lot like the gamecube, meaning relatively good graphics at launch, I suspect that the controller means relatively bad gameplay at launch... I can only assume that the devs need a lot of time to figure out how to take full advantage of the controller.

Then again, using an Ubisoft game to determine gameplay quality of a console is a bit stupid....

edit:
BTW, by the time the PS3 comes out you can probably buy a 360, a Wii and a game for both for the same price as the PS3

 

[DEFkon]

I know. Microsoft and nintendo were said to be in talks to use that as a main advertising push.. rumored even to go so far as to offer bundle deal or coupons for each other's products in the future. even if that's totally bogus, the fact still remains... if sony wants to stay competitive it's going to have to suck it up and take a big hit on each system being shipped to keep the price down.

The next gen market looks to be shaping up to be a very tight space with no clear leaders to own the lion's share. Each of the players has some pro's and cons that balance each other out.

 

[Profe]

ftp://www.gamepark.cz:8021/ofpd/videos/arma_trailer.wmv

Armed Assualt(sequel to Operation Flashpoint) trailer

 

[cracwhore]

Not so impressed with the textures, and I saw some major FPS drop when vehicles were driving around.

So far, two thumbs down.

We'll see, I suppose.