E3 2008 Coverage

[Nate]

Just let people buy the system of their choice, fanboys, and let it be freaking over and done with!!

They can't, and the reason why has been covered on a gaming site before (can't remember which one).

The way it works, is this. Most people only have enough money to get one system. There are three on the market. So they buy the one they want, but then they see a good game on one of the two they don't have. Now obviously they don't want to feel like they've made the wrong decision, so what do they do? They rabidly defend their choice. They feel the need to constantly belittle and insult the other two systems to further put the thought in their mind "I got the BEST system."

I remember hearing a Penny Arcade podcast where Mike was talking about how when he was a kid, he had a Sega Genesis. Because he couldn't afford to get a Super Nintendo, he had convinced himself that Mario and Zelda and Metroid sucked. That they were terrible games, and nothing compared to the Genesis. It had nothing to do with how good they were, it had everything to do with the fact that he couldn't have it. The whole "sour grapes" thing.

So, fanboys are never going to die, because it's a matter of money. You'll notice that for people that own two or all three of the systems, they're not really fanboys (at the very least they're not as big of fanboys as those who only own one system). They may occasionally make a remark like "Man, Nintendo needs to get in gear, I haven't touched my Wii in months" but they say it because they really do like the system, not because they hate it.

Is it just me, or does this sound like Nintendo saying, "Shucks, we promised big things but didn't supply the hardware to pull it off, so we're selling this upgrade to bring the hardware closer to where it should have been in the first place"? Maybe I'm just cynical.

That's exactly what it sounds like to me, but maybe I'm cynical too. XD

[Etoh*the*Greato]

They may occasionally make a remark like "Man, Nintendo needs to get in gear, I haven't touched my Wii in months" but they say it because they really do like the system, not because they hate it

Considering everything I have seen for FF13 looked like garbage to me...*shrug* Guess I don't care that much. I got MGS4, so I am happy. Considering Xbox is still using HD-DVD stuff that everyone is bailing on, at least the PS3 will sell for its Blu-Ray. I seriously don't see this as such a headshot on Sony. I've noticed a bunch of 360 titles getting on the PS3, such as Saints Row. So I guess its better for fans all around.

Well... they still have HD in the sense that it is still being sold in some places because they haven't run out of supply yet. I believe Microsoft stopped producing the HDDVD players awhile back. I suspect it's only a matter of time until they make a blue-ray version. Still, since I don't even have an HD television yet, what DVDs it can play was a very low selling point for me, especially given the cost of Blue rays.

Being unexcited about FF13, though? I'm totally on board with you there.

Edit: Sounds like FFXIII vs 13 is still gonna be PS3 Exclusive.

Edit Edit: Alright, is this a sign of how pathetic the showing at this year's E3 is? My favorite announcement is that the 360 will be releasing GREEN CONTROLLERS! Booyah!

[Kingdom]

I hope everyone is happy, im a wii owner I know I will be, hope everyone else is too! I'm sure no matter what there has to be something fun to play!

[Popsicle]

Edit: Sounds like FFXIII vs 13 is still gonna be PS3 Exclusive.

Nooo!!! I read about this yesterday! This is the game that I want to be multiplat. I'm not too excited about FFXIII, but FFXIII Versus...oh yeah. I'm hoping Square will announce that it's multiplat. later this week for some reason, lol.

[Bobtheduck]

Hey nate, speaking of fans being upset with the things they like, mind if I rant about Sony for a minute?

Just got done with the liveblog for Sony's thing...

So... No RPGs and a massive, record breaking shooter... Yeah, MS and Sony switched places game-wise...

My teacher is really excited for MAG, and me? I don't give a crap. I bought into the shooters before MGS4 hit, and I thought FFXIII and WKC were on the way to appease my inner RPG fan, but now? Well, we get... Um... A non-exclusive XIII (meaning it won't help PS3 sales and won't help convince devs to dev for the PS3 and it won't spur the release of future RPGs), and a year old game is actually coming to the US (Eternal Sonata) which we were told it wouldn't...

DOn't get me wrong, I was drooling over ES when it came out originally, but what about WKC? What about some new RPGs? What about the mother loving FF7 remake that everyone expected?

It's ironic that I hate Microsoft's underhanded tactics, but I hate their control much more, and I like the freedom Sony gives to devs (UT3 vs Gears DLC as a case in point), but I wish, at this point, that sony got their hands dirtier... That they played the moneyhats more.

When they were competing with Sega and Nintendo, there was no need to throw money around to draw developers... Giving the most creative control to the development and design teams out of the 3 is what won them support from Sega and Nintendo's previous faithful... When you have someone willing to pay extra money initially to snag devs, the money beats the creative control because as much as I hate it, game making is a business... I'd rather it be like hollywood, where there could be room for lower budget, highly artistic (no input from execs) works, but it's not like that... The very nature of games may mean that a high quality production is lower cost than that of movies, but at the same time, the floor is much higher as well...

If Sony is going to survive, they'll have to start paying up, and it'll have to be, like, 10 games to undo losing FFXIII exclusivity. Pumping out more shooters isn't going to help them.

[Etoh*the*Greato]

driving down the price of the PS3 and taking a slightly more humble stance wouldn't hurt either. Pride goeth before the fall.

[Bobtheduck]

driving down the price of the PS3 and taking a slightly more humble stance wouldn't hurt either. Pride goeth before the fall.

That explains the decline of Epic... We should see Valve go down soon, and Nintendo? Yeah, that'll cause Japan's next earthquake... MS... MS doesn't have any pride left, only their fans do. After releasing the 360 XMB, the 360 miis, and grabbing Sony's biggest franchise, no pride there. Just good business, I suppose.

(actually, the verse says "Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before the fall" and all of the console makers are a bit snobby, but big N is the most at the moment, IMO)

[Etoh*the*Greato]

Sony developed a bit of an attitude around the beginning of the PS3's release, causing them to perhaps become less aggressive than the other companies, feeling that because they had such a reputation they could simply rest on their laurels. As for my quote, I was going more for the colloquiel expression and less the verse.

Pride can make you become complacent. Will MS do the same the next console cycle? Maybe. Valve? I'll warrant that they write a good story but the games always felt a little unpolished to me. I think they're probably less prideful than their fans are. Japanese Earthquake? Whut? Nintendo? yeah, I'll give you that. And they're suffering for it too. Yeah, the consoles are selling like hotcakes, but as has been mentioned who really honestly constantly and consistently plays their wiis? Are there many games that stand the test of time outside of a group audience? Nah. They also got a lot of flack for the Gamecube. If they don't change they are on the course to destruction and no one doubts that.

[Monkey J. Luffy]

Dude the PS3 is getting INfamous, why couldn't that be multi-plat. I couldn't care less about Squeenix's degenerating RPG series. I just want some infamous!

[Midori]

I've heard it said that Sony is having what they call "Third generation blues", where they've got two successful consoles behind them and they think nothing can go wrong with the third. Similar things happened with the Nintendo 64 and the Sega Dreamcast

[Omega Amen]

DOn't get me wrong, I was drooling over ES when it came out originally, but what about WKC? What about some new RPGs? What about the mother loving FF7 remake that everyone expected?

For someone who says he is all about JRPGs, you really do need to keep up-to-date.

Eternal Sonata
Valkryia Chronicles (A PS3 exclusive, being made by the team who made Skies of Arcadia.)
White Knight Chronicle (Level-5 RPG, published by Sony)
Disgaea 3

These are all slated to either come later this year or early next year and way ahead of FFXIII.

And I say that after looking at the liveblogs on Square Enix's conference. If you actually read them, they are planning to only work on the PS3 version first and release it in Japan. Then, and only then, they will even start to make the 360 version as they are localizing it for Western audiences. And they still have no clue when it is going to be released in Japan. The earliest you will see FFXIII in the West is probably around Fall 2010. That would be 4-5 years within this console cycle. I would not be surprised if Microsoft moved on to their next console by then.

And it seems people here have some serious misplaced expectations on news coming out of the new down-sized E3 this year and last year. Most Japanese companies have decided not to make major announcements on Japanese-oriented franchises (like most of their JRPGs) in E3 since most Japanese press are not even invited. Therefore, they have reserved most of their big announcements for Tokyo Game Show in September, and that was what happened last year.

And FF7 remake? That is not going to happen. They are not even disciplined enough to get their current project out the door.

EDIT:

Dude the PS3 is getting INfamous, why couldn't that be multi-plat. I couldn't care less about Squeenix's degenerating RPG series. I just want some infamous!

It won't go multiplatform because it is made by Sucker Punch, which is a Sony-owned studio.

[Etoh*the*Greato]

Dude the PS3 is getting INfamous, why couldn't that be multi-plat. I couldn't care less about Squeenix's degenerating RPG series. I just want some infamous!

Infamous is a work of Sony's own. It'd be like Playstation getting Mario. I'd totally like to get my hands on that one, though.

[Bobtheduck]

For someone who says he is all about JRPGs, you really do need to keep up-to-date.

Eternal Sonata
Valkryia Chronicles (A PS3 exclusive, being made by the team who made Skies of Arcadia.)
White Knight Chronicle (Level-5 RPG, published by Sony)
Disgaea 3

And FF7 remake? That is not going to happen. They are not even disciplined enough to get their current project out the door.

On another topic, I don't see why people are drooling over Infamous... It's like Crackdown Redux (I've said that since the first trailer)

To be honest, when i saw it (Valkryia) was on the PSP, I forgot it already came out for PS3 in Japan, and I thought they were saying it was moved to JUST the PSP. Are we even getting it in the US? Disgaea 3... Hmm... It would have been very easy to release that game on the PS2.

Oh, and an FF7 remake would sell 10x what Crisis core did and 15 times what FFXIII will even if they only released it (the remake) on the 3DO or the Ngage...

So, yeah, i have kept up to date... I was really eager for Valkryia Chronicles, and REALLY REALLY eager for WKC... But ES came to the 360 first, SE4 is 360 exclusive, Infinite Undiscovery is 360 exclusive, Last Remnant hits the 360 first (and WELL before FFXIII hits the PS3, even in Japan, as they gave a release target for this year), and Namco's press conference went by with nary a word about a PS3 Tales game... We have a Wii tales, a 360 tales, and no PS3...

[Omega Amen]

To be honest, when i saw it (Valkryia) was on the PSP, I forgot it already came out for PS3 in Japan, and I thought they were saying it was moved to JUST the PSP. Are we even getting it in the US?

Why don't you stop acting overdramatic, turn on your PS3, go to the E3 section of the PS Store, and download the E3 Valkyria Chronicles Trailer where it says the release date is November 2008?

For crying out loud, Bob....

In fact, did you even bother looking at the PS Store at all today?

Oh, and an FF7 remake would sell 10x what Crisis core did and 15 times what FFXIII will even if they only released it (the remake) on the 3DO or the Ngage...

No one is arguing that it would be a good business move, but ever since Enix bought out Square and their executive management took over, they have become ultra-resistant in listening to fans' demands. They have changed to only remaking old titles on portable hardware, and the rest of their teams are tied up with their current projects. It is not happening.

SE4 is 360 exclusive

I think you really mean Star Ocean 4? A 360 version was announced at a Microsoft Japan event before E3 (in fact, a lot of your list comes directly from that event so don't expect them to talk about the PS3 there), but Square Enix did not say it was exclusive and you will not see it listed as one either.

And so, they come to the 360 first. Big deal. They will tank in Japan like every 360 JRPG has done there, and they will tank in the West like every JRPG so far (only Lost Odyssey did barely okay). The 360 has a larger userbase right now, but it does have a large enough audience. Japanese companies cannot ignore that for long either.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

Hmm, well Nintendo and Sony didn't have much of a strong showing this year. Animal Crossing for the Wii? Seriously, I'm getting absolutely sick of that game. D:

Seems like Microsoft won this round. XD Kudos to them.

[Omega Amen]

I just finished downloading E3 trailers on the PlayStation Store, and I saw something unexpected and worth mentioning on CAA.

There is a trailer for a Japanese Anime series called Xam'd. And the studio that makes it is Bones, which I believe made RahXephon, correct? It says it is exclusive through PSN.

Right now, I cannot find a website that has the trailer yet. When I do, I will post it up here.

EDIT: MSP, I would say Sony had the most substantial E3, meaning announcing the most games, and if you look at trailers from the PS Store, there are more titles they did not mention in their press conference that now have release dates.

[Monkey J. Luffy]

Infamous is a work of Sony's own. It'd be like Playstation getting Mario. I'd totally like to get my hands on that one, though.

I was simply saying how much I want to play infamous!

[Mr. SmartyPants]

EDIT: MSP, I would say Sony had the most substantial E3, meaning announcing the most games, and if you look at trailers from the PS Store, there are more titles they did not mention in their press conference that now have release dates.

I see, but to be fair I only read what's on Wikipedia's E3 article. I'd look at the trailers on the PS Store, but my internet is totally wigging out on me. D:

Nonetheless, I am absolutely STOKED about a number of 360 titles. Fallout 3 and Gears of War 2? Yes please.

As for Resistance 2... meh. The first one was absolutely boring.

[Omega Amen]

I found the trailer (there is an advertisement first): [url]http://crackle.com/c/Animation/Xam_d_Trailer/2337955#ml=fi%3d%26fu%3d121068[/url]

It is called Xam'd: Lost Memories, and it is made by Bones, who have made RahXephon, Wolf's Rain, Eureka Seven, and Fullmetal Alchemist to name a few. (Here is their wiki.)

This is odd. It is exclusive through the PlayStation Network, and this is not some small, unknown anime studio either.

Interesting.

EDIT: MSP, Fallout 3 is coming to PS3 on the same date as well.

EDIT 2: Resistance boring? Huh, funny, the second half of Resistance seemed a lot like Half-Life 2 to me, but I guess you find that game boring as well....

[Yuen Fei Lung]

Honestly, Final Fantasy got old to me after Final Fantasy 8. Final Fantasy 9 was a nice throwback to old school FF games but it just wasn’t my cup of tea. FF10 was a decent game but I hated the main character (Tidus) and really didn’t find any of the other characters to be very enduring either. If I’m not mistaken FF11 was the online game and I’m not a fan of MMOs.

I know this is going to be debatable but in my personal opinion Final Fantasy 12 was simply awful. I LOATHED the “combat” system and wow… I thought Tidus was a horrible character until meeting Van… augh… at least Balthier was a pretty cool character. Seriously, I think Final Fantasy 12 was by far the worst in the series… but I digress…

In any case, I realize there are still lots of big Final Fantasy fans out there and I for one am happy that Microsoft is also getting the game for 360. I hope it’s going to help them acquire a Japanese audience… something the 360 desperately needs. The Japanese don’t seem to care for the 360 to say the least. From my point of view, I feel that for a long time Sony has been a VERY arrogant company and I feel that they’re just getting theirs. When the Playstation 3 came out of the gate I can’t remember how expensive it was exactly… something like $600 or $700.00? That just really rubbed me the wrong way. Did they really expect tons of people to fork out that kind of money on a system that not only came out with virtually nothing but also didn't even (at that point in time) have much software planned for the future? Furthermore, going back to the Playstation 2 days—Sony refused to ever acknowledge that the PS2 had faulty lasers in some PS2 models (and I had to go through a lot of trouble before they eventually replaced our unit). I’m not saying Microsoft is all that, but at least they acknowledged the red rings of Doom and are replacing faulty 360 units (by the way, I’m on my 3rd replaced XBox 360 unit... man, I with they work out all the kinks in the 360. *_*).

While I do want to play Metal Gear Solid 4, I don’t feel that game alone is worth the price of a PS3 even now. I gotta say though, I might be tempted when God of War III hits. In my view, the XBox 360 and PS3 have much of the same titles but the XBox 360 seems to have better exclusives like Halo and Gears of War.

I think the Wii is a really awesome machine (if you can find one). I’m very lucky to have two close friends who own the system so I can play it pretty much whenever I want. Mario Galaxy = AWESOMENESS!

For me, the games I’m most excited about thus far coming out of E3 are: Street Fighter IV, Resident Evil 5, Fable 2, the new Prince of Persia, Gears of War 2, Fallout, Animal Crossing, UFC ’09, Left 4 Dead and Ghost Busters. How about you, everyone?

[Mr. SmartyPants]

EDIT 2: Resistance boring? Huh, funny, the second half of Resistance seemed a lot like Half-Life 2 to me, but I guess you find that game boring as well....

Only to the untrained FPS gamer...

Lol jk. Nah, I played through the first couple levels, but I kind of got tired with the whole overused "Year 20XX and the DELTA TACTICAL OPS FORCE must stop aliens/demons/robots from taking over Earth!" story that FPS Developers keep doing]This is odd. It is exclusive through the PlayStation Network, and this is not some small, unknown anime studio either.[/quote]
It's all going to eventually be available for torrent anyway. XD



*We all know by now how much of a Valve fanboy I am.

[Etoh*the*Greato]

Dunno, many of the "exclusives" for Xbox are technically made by different companies, but practically in house projects.

[Kkun]

To hell with all of these new systems.



I'm buying a Sega Nomad.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

Didn't you just buy a PS3 earlier last month?

[Nate]

By the way, I want to agree with the people here that just don't find FFXIII that interesting. I've lost interest in the Final Fantasy series ever since Square decided that exercising control over party members was a bad thing. When they said "Hey the summons are Transformers!" that really just killed my interest in the whole thing. At this point the only thing that could get me interested again is if they said "It will be turn-based combat like FFX" or "It will be ATB like Final Fantasy IV through IX."

Square already got told off and slammed into the ground for making a freaking DRAGON QUEST game that wasn't turn-based. After they got a verbal beating from 90% of the population of Japan though they came back to their senses and made it turn-based again. Seriously, Square has been making some really retarded decisions.

The Japanese don’t seem to care for the 360 to say the least.

Well, we've talked about this in the Gamecast before, and really the reason why the 360 doesn't do well in Japan is because it's American. Remember the Japanese are fairly xenophobic, and have strong loyalty to Japanese companies. There isn't really anything Microsoft can do to increase the fanbase of the 360 in Japan. Blue Dragon probably would have sold five times as much if it had been on the PS3.

When the Playstation 3 came out of the gate I can’t remember how expensive it was exactly… something like $600 or $700.00? That just really rubbed me the wrong way.

When the PS2 was launched it was 300 dollars which at that point in time was a ridiculous amount of money for a game system. Gamers cried foul; they said it was too expensive.

Did they really expect tons of people to fork out that kind of money on a system that not only came out with virtually nothing but also didn't even (at that point in time) have much software planned for the future?

The PS2 had crap for launch games and at that point FFX wasn't even announced.

By the way, in 1994, the 3DO had a 700 dollar price tag. When the Neo Geo launched in 1990 it cost 650 dollars. And the games were 200 dollars apiece. I'm not saying that this justifies the PS3's price tag but what I'm saying is that money is worth less than it was in the early 90's, and so therefore a 700 dollar price tag now really isn't all that bad, compared to a 650 dollar price tag in 1990 dollars.

Everyone likes to forget that the PS2 launch was rocky as hell, but it eventually went on to be the dominant force in the market, even if it took it a couple of years. :p

I’m not saying Microsoft is all that, but at least they acknowledged the red rings of Doom and are replacing faulty 360 units

Yeah like a year after it happened.

(by the way, I’m on my 3rd replaced XBox 360 unit... man, I with they work out all the kinks in the 360. *_*).

This is why even though there's a lot of games I want for the 360, I haven't bought one yet. XD

[Kkun]

Didn't you just buy a PS3 earlier last month?

I've had a PS3 for like seven or eight months. o.o

I'm just saying, the Sega Nomad won't let me down. Unless I run out of AA batteries.

To actually jump into the discussion, though, I think what Nate is saying is dead on. The PS2 took a long time to become what it did. I think by next year, the PS3 could be a really great system. I think hardware-wise it already is considering that the cost of what you pay for it is considerably less than the cost of the hardware itself (so I've heard). I'm not terribly gloomy about a lack of exclusives. It makes sense for Squeenix to want to put FFXIII on the other systems. If worse comes to worst, I'll just sell my PS3 on Ebay and use the cash for an Xbox 360. It's just a video game. However, I don't want to have to do that... I like my PS3. It makes the rest of my room look bad.

[Kingdom]

I can't read through all this, but i think the FF XIII is coming to XBOX in 2010. So, if you have a PS3 you'll have it before them anyways.
But, I do believe that the PS3 owners will have the game first.

Anyways, the more the cross game franchises the more it gets closer to one console it seems, unless you go with something like nintendo, innovative people.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

This is why even though there's a lot of games I want for the 360, I haven't bought one yet. XD

I say get it. I've not had a SINGLE problem with my 360. If you do get an error, Microsoft will fix it for you for free. =)

And while Nintendo has been making tons of money the past couple years, their fairly small library of quality titles has been of concern for me. Most of their better games are only good at best, whereas I'm finding other titles on other systems to be what I consider some of the best gaming experiences of my life. (Metal Gear series, Bioshock, anything that Valve makes, COD4, etc) I can't speak the same for the Wii.

[Kingdom]

Sega Nomad, awesome!

I remember thinking about how cool my friends Sega Saturn was.
I actually loved the Game Gear tho, it was awesome.

[Bobtheduck]

Why don't you stop acting overdramatic, turn on your PS3, go to the E3 section of the PS Store, and download the E3 Valkyria Chronicles Trailer where it says the release date is November 2008?

For crying out loud, Bob....

In fact, did you even bother looking at the PS Store at all today?

Checked just after I wrote that... Since the PS Store's supposed to be updated on Thursday rather than Tuesday, but then I remembered that they said the movie store was coming tonight, and on PS3 forums, people were saying the R2 trailer was live on the PS Store, so... Yeah...

I'll leave out the rest of what I said before the edit...