>> ^Farhad2000:
Everything at E3 looked like shit. Bad economic times guarantees formulaic and safe games with sequels making the biggest showing.


In bad economic times, even the criticism becomes formulaic and safe.

The games industry has been all but recession-proof. In fact, up until very recently, the game industry seemed to be gaining momentum as people started staying home and curling up with videogames instead of going out.

The real thing that pushes games to be "formulaic and safe" is the same thing that always happens when there's really only a handful of companies with deep pockets competing with one another: they need to invest so much in individual products just to compete, it's hard to justify making a big bet on an unproven concept.

That said, "formulaic and safe" in the game industry usually means betting on the big name developers and development houses. Sometimes that means a sequel factory, other times it means God of War, Assassin's Creed, Mass Effect, Brutal Legend, Resistance Fall of Man, and Halo come out, rather than just seeing the same IP getting dusted off year after year (Hey there Mario, Zelda, Metroid!).

That said, usually there's at least one title that gets announced at E3 that surprised me, and this year there was nothing.

As far as original IP from this year, look to things like Brutal Legend, The Last Guardian, Heavy Rain, Dragon Age, and Alan Wake.

If those don't qualify, what is the last game you thought was not formulaic and safe?

On my must have list after E3 are Crackdown 2, Alan Wake, Brutal Legend and Splinter Cell: Conviction.

Mass Effect 2 and Forza 3 also look pretty good but I'm not exited at all by Assassins Creed 2 and Modern Warfare 2, they look like they're just more of the same.



>> ^Fjnbk:
I'm most excited about God of War 3, if nothing else, because you can rip off the sun god's head and use it as a flashlight.

Don't you mean headlight?

Honestly, nothing at all.

I found AC repetitive as hell and I don't see the gimmick of flying or dual hidden blades being of any real significance to the gameplay.

Don't own a console so I can't really be excited about God of War, Galaxy 2, or Final Fantasy 'whatever number they're up to now'.

Modern Warfare 2 is intriguing and will no doubt have a compelling but all too predictably short single player but I'm kind of pissed off from initial reports that they won't really be changing much in the way of multiplayer besides changing some guns. Perks will remain the same except for eavesdrop as far as I've heard and that's just really a silly move when some of them are either just badly conceived ideas, or are plain out useless.

Can't really get excited about motion control technology until I see it implemented into an actual triple-A title in a workable way. The tech demos, especially Sony's, which actually showed off a live demonstration rather than showing off 'hard to believe this would actually work in real life' video footage a la Microsoft, was pretty interesting.

Monkey Island SE looks like something to put on the to play list, although I don't know what to think about the episodic sequel yet.

Also, Deus Ex 3 didn't make a showing which probably says it'll be ages before its release sadly.

I'm most excited about God of War 3, if nothing else, because you can rip off the sun god's head and use it as a flashlight.

^It's a sandbox action/exploration game. There's ranged combat, non-linear gameplay and stealth involved. No, apart from both being action games, I don't think it will resemble God of War in the slightest.

Is this going to be a bloody, 3rd person, God-of-War-like button masher with combos and shit? Cause that's what it seems like it would be. And that would be a let down.

I missed the part where women became game consoles. The ones I've been with couldn't be turned on and off with the push of a button, couldn't look and act completely different based on my mood, and most importantly they didn't have a joystick.

So, when comparing gaming consoles, I'd say if I were recommending someone who had to choose one, the 360 is the way to go. It has the largest/best game library, has Xbox Live, Netflix, etc.

As much as I think the PS3 is a technological marvel, there just aren't enough console exclusives to warrant recommending one. Resistance, MGS4, and Little Big Planet are stellar, but until we get God of War 3 and Gran Turismo 5, I'm not sure why you wouldn't go for Xbox with Halo, Gears of War, Mass Effect, etc. However, if you just want a Blu-ray player with some added functionality, PS3 is definitely the way to go.

The Wii is in some other space. It's great fun for parties, but hardcore gamers have little else except Zelda and Metroid.

That said, if I have to choose between sex and the 3 videogame consoles, I pick sex.

>> ^jdbates:
I might have to watch this series, the scene also shows that he's smart, he knew that ares was the greek term for the god of war while mars was the roman adaptation.


you should definitely watch this series...best show on T.V. easily

I might have to watch this series, the scene also shows that he's smart, he knew that ares was the greek term for the god of war while mars was the roman adaptation.

she is like one of those monsters from the God of War games. Are they called Hydras?

>> ^EDD:
Unless they borrow heavily (gameplay-wise) from Shadow of the Colossus, which they should if they plan to have any meaningful references to Alighieri's poem, it will probably be a God of War clone more than anything.


Yeah, a God of War clone is exactly what came to my mind while watching this trailer. Meh.

EA Redwood Shores are the devs behind this: they debuted with Dead Space last year and unless one is a Halo and FPS-obsessed limited tosser one'd agree that it was one of the best games of the year.

That said, and taking into account that EA marketing is in overdrive for this title while we've yet to see any gameplay footage, I have serious doubt this game will live up to all the hype. Unless they borrow heavily (gameplay-wise) from Shadow of the Colossus, which they should if they plan to have any meaningful references to Alighieri's poem, it will probably be a God of War clone more than anything.

>> ^legacy0100:
lol why would he kill the harpy when he's hitching a ride from it?


That was not a harpy. It was just a gull.

My problem is that I've not played many of the marquee games of 2008 yet.

So far, MGS4, GTA4, and WOTLK are the top I've played.

However, I have not yet taken Gears of War 2, Fallout 3, or Resistance 2 out for a spin, and I suspect all of them will vie for my Top 5 (seeing how lots of pro reviewers gave these best of the year awards of one type or another).

I may need to try LittleBigPlanet, though the idea of creating my own platforming levels doesn't sound like my bag (or sack, as the case may be).

But I did not play many games in 2008. It's almost like my time was consumed by some sort of non-gaming activity for much of 2008...

Anyone know of something hot to look forward to in the world of games for 2009? None of the titles I'm seriously salivating for have release dates (or years) attached yet.

(For those who're curious, that'd be God of War 3, Starcraft 2, Diablo 3, and the full version of Gran Turismo 5)

The Ubisoft developers themselves were pushing this as one of the selling points of the game, and this video does a much better job of arguing its effectiveness than Ubisoft themselves did.

Reading through the comments, there seem to be a lot of hardcore gamers who seem to be dissing this concept as superfluous, because there are too many "easy" games out there already.

I disagree.

I've been trying for a while to get mintbbb to try some of my console games. She's interested, since she knows they're very pretty looking games, and given the way that I rave about some of them, she knows they're fun too. She's an EQ/WoW vet, so I know she can play complex and difficult games, that's not what's holding her back. It's the controller.

She simply isn't used to making quick, precise movements with her thumbs, especially when the damn controller has some 16 different buttons that you need to accurately locate and press, often with a precise degree of timing.

I've been trying to find her a good onramp for a while, but she mostly just gets frustrated. Katamari Damacy is a good one, but, well, the King of All Cosmos can be a real ass, and there's not a tight enough feedback loop to really help her learn. I tried Overlords, but the game concept was tough for her to grasp, and past the first level it became clear its difficulty was tuned to be a challenge for someone like me, which made it nigh impossible for her.

We have a Wii, but that controller won't teach her how to play a 360 or PS3 game. I admit I haven't plonked her down in front of Zelda or Metroid which have traditional-ish control schemes, but I don't know that it'd get her comfortable enough with the controller to pick up something like Mass Effect or God of War on a more traditional controller.

This vid has me thinking I should give the new Prince of Persia a try for her. I'd crossed it off my list after hearing the reviews, since I don't want to pay $60 for a game I'd finish in an afternoon without breaking a sweat, especially when they didn't rate it as being some sort of must-see story or gameplay experience along the way.

At a minimum, a rental might be in order.