Wrap up and 'winners' of E3...

paul h · 05-19-2003, 05:03 AM

Gaming Age have posted their own wrap up of E3, i'd have to agree that Sony made a big impression this year, plenty of tasty titles heading to the PS2 and that minor

announcement of a handheld makes them the winner this year IMHO.

"First category is The best showing/lineup from a publisher. And the winner is, Konami, hands down. With the showing of MGS3: Snake Eater, MGS: The Twin Snakes, a new DDR, Gradius, the rebirth of the TMNT franchise, and a new 3D Castlevania, there was really no question about which company created the most buzz around the show. My second place award goes to LucasArts not only because of their annual showing of their hundreds of Star Wars that are currently in production, but also because of their showing of new content for the upcoming year.

Next category is Best Lineup for a home console system. And the winner of that is, drum roll please, the PlayStation 2. With a number of hot RPGs coming from Square-Enix, a number of the games mentioned above coming from Konami, and their own impressive lineup, including: Gran Turmiso 4, Jak II, and Ratchet and Clank II. Pretty much makes for another exciting year for the PS2. And second place goes to Nintendo. With Super Mario 3 coming to the GBA, Mario Kart coming to the Gamecube, and Square-Enix gracing both of Nintendo’s consoles soon, gives Nintendo the chance to have a very promising year.

Next on my list is Best “unhyped” game of the show. And this honor belongs to Atlus’ turn-based tactical RPG named Disgaea: The Hour of Darkness. With fantastic graphics, stylish art and solid gameplay, this is a title that is most defiantly worth checking out once it hits the shelves later this year. Running up belongs to Konami’s own Gradius V; all that needs to be said about this title is wow!

The next category is the infamous What happened to? This dubious award goes to X-Box’s RPG masterpiece (in the making, or so I’m told) Fable. A very short video clip is the closest we ever got to seeing or hearing about this MIA title. Hyped to be the X-Box’s first epic RPG, and not even a whiff of it at the X-Box booth. The runner up in this category goes to the Zelda titles for the GBA that were supposed here at the Capcom and Nintendo booth.And last but definitely not least, The Game of the Show. This honor was stolen by none other than Square-Enix’s very own, Final Fantasy XI. How they built a persistent online world, while capturing the essence and feeling of the Final Fantasy universe, I will never know. The runner up in this category resulted in a tie between Konami’s Castlevania for PlayStation 2, and Microsoft’s Rise of the Nations for the PC, created by civilization II’s co-creator Brian Reynolds.

Honestly, I had a blast while I was here in LA, and before I sign off for good from the convention center, I would like to leave you with some of the fantastic sights that I took in, while I was here. Make sure you look at Gaming Age legend, Patrick Klepek, playing the “Eye Toy” at the Sony Booth. Moreover, if you were wondering how the Godfather of gaming is looking now and days, don’t miss the picture of Miyamoto and I, as I had a chance to chat with him for a few precious seconds And also I would like to take this time to thank everyone for reading and for all of your kind responses and emails. This is Kevin M. Jones signing off for the final time from the end of this year’s E3 in Los Angles, California."

JamesH · 05-19-2003, 05:35 AM

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And second place goes to Nintendo. With Super Mario 3 coming to the GBA, Mario Kart coming to the Gamecube, and Square-Enix gracing both of Nintendo’s consoles soon, gives Nintendo the chance to have a very promising year.

That's an "interesting" spin to put on Nintendo's showing.

NES to GBA ports = promising?

I thought Nintendo did just about the absolute minimum possible and was WAAAAAY behind the PC and XBOX. Doom 3, Halo 2, Deus Ex 2, Half Life 2, Counterstrike XBL, etc. It's going to be a great year for fans of action games, FPS, and non traditional RPGs.

CaptDS9E · 05-19-2003, 05:45 AM

Im not gonna get into a console war here, but Microsoft had a way better showing then Sony. Sony's big thing was there portable handheld which wont be out till fall 2004. They announced a few good games, there own $20 price drop, decided to mention a HD which should have been in PS2 in the first place, and so forth.

Mean while microsoft announced Huge Upgrades to live, there $20 price drop, a ton of games for live (45 to be exact), DOOOm III coming to x-box, some other excclusive titles for x-box only which they really havent had many of, Rare titles, Halo II demo, the XSN sports network which looks to make the way online sports games were done last year a thing of the past.

There are some more things like the Music Mixer for those music fans out there and so forth which really arent game related but are still very cool

What we should really be talking about is how bad nintendo's showing was. Rogue III and Mario Kart were pretty much it.

capt

paul h · 05-19-2003, 06:10 AM

Horses for courses i suppose.. Doom3 is great but i'll get it for the PC and the RARE titles were disappointing.

Sony has all the new EA games online and with titles like Castlevania, Gradius, GT4, SOCOM2, Syphon Filter, MGS3, FFXI, Altered Beast, Arc The Lad, Drakengard, I-Ninja, Jak2, Maximo2, Onimusha3, Onimusha Blade Warriors, Ratchet and Clank2, Res Evil Online, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Silent Hill3, Star Ocean, GTA4, Unlimited SaGa, VirtualOnMarz, VF4Evolution they had a much better lineup for me and i own a PS2 and XBox..

Though it's a great time to own XBox or PS2

CaptDS9E · 05-19-2003, 06:15 AM

the rare titles were not a perfect dark announcement which dosnt mean its not coming. Conkur uncut looks cool and The Goulies looks fun as well from the video.

We could list games all day which i think i did in a thread on the hardware forum. We will just have to wait and see what happens

capt

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Chad Ellinger · 05-19-2003, 07:25 AM

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Doom 3, Halo 2, Deus Ex 2, Half Life 2, Counterstrike XBL, etc.

Ugh ... correct me if I'm wrong, but before the Xbox was released, didn't Microsoft insist that its library would not be dominated by PC ports? Halo 2 and Ninja Gaiden should be sweet though.

The titles I'm most excited about are Castlevania, TMNT, Mario Kart and F-Zero.

Dave.A.C · 05-19-2003, 08:02 AM

Uh, wasn't there a 15 minute long Fable demo shown at E3? I've heard a ton about Fable, but this guy says it wasn't even at E3? Actually, here's a link to a video showing the entiore demo:
http://lionsource.ngz-network.de/download/dl.php?id=433

Gaming Age is known to be anti-MS, but c'mon

Dave Falasco · 05-19-2003, 08:30 AM

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Ugh ... correct me if I'm wrong, but before the Xbox was released, didn't Microsoft insist that its library would not be dominated by PC ports?

I would hardly categorize the Xbox's current and future lineup as "dominated" by PC ports. Of the 43 Live titles announced, I count maybe 6 that can be described as "PC ports". And even so, I don't see that as a bad thing. Ghost Recon and Wolfenstein provide two of the most compelling Xbox Live experiences available--what is wrong with those being "PC ports"? I just don't get this line of criticism. Some of the most exciting PC games coming out next year are also going to be availble on the Xbox, enabling gamers to play them on much larger displays, in 5.1 surround, and in many cases with voiceover chat via Xbox Live. This is a bad thing???

Chad Ellinger · 05-19-2003, 08:59 AM

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I just don't get this line of criticism. Some of the most exciting PC games coming out next year are also going to be availble on the Xbox, enabling gamers to play them on much larger displays, in 5.1 surround, and in many cases with voiceover chat via Xbox Live. This is a bad thing???

It's not a bad thing per se, but for me, if the most compelling online gaming experiences are already available for PC, what's my incentive to pick up XBox Live? I can play the PC versions without an online fee and with a keyboard/mouse control setup.

Regardless, my point is that Microsoft went out of their way to separate the XBox's image from that of a "PC set-top box." Now it seems that many of their AAA titles are from the PC. I'm not trying to bash Microsoft or anything; I just don't understand the change in philosophy.

Dave Falasco · 05-19-2003, 09:24 AM

Okay, I understand. From my POV, I think MS is just trying to get the best games possible for their system, regardless of the title's origin. I know in the beginning they seemed to be quite diligent about expressing how the Xbox was a console and not a mini-PC, but now that that seems to have been established I think they are relaxing that attitude a bit (witness the keyboard on PSO, and as you pointed out the sharing of some AAA titles with the PC).

I see what you're saying if the PC version is released and then months later an Xbox version is released (as in Ghost Recon and Wolfenstein). In that case, there may not be an incentive to purchase the Xbox version if you've already played the PC version to death. But if the two versions come out at close to the same time (like Morrowind), I guess gamers will just have to choose if they want the PC or Xbox version. Both have their advantages to be sure, and personally I'm grateful for the choice. Doom 3 and Half-Life 2 look sexy as hell, but my motherboard won't support the graphics card required to run them even if I did have the $300 to drop for that card. I'm glad I'll get the chance to play them on the Xbox.

At any rate, I get where you're coming from now. If a trend develops where all of MS' A-plus titles are also available on the PC and if you have a high-end PC fast enough to run them, then your incentive for buying the Xbox version (or an Xbox at all) would be greatly diminished. I don't think MS is there yet, but I understand the concern.