In the release, CEO Mary Dolaher states: “We want to thank all of our E for All partners for their support, and we encourage E for All exhibitors to participate in the E3 new event, which we believe will meet their needs as well as those of the industry at large.” “IDG World Expo is very pleased to be partnering with the ESA on E3 and continuing to play a central role in that important industry event. We look forward to furthering our contribution to the success of the video game community.”

With 2008’s E For All reminding us how much we really missed E3, no one is going to miss this. So what are your thoughts on the closing of E For All, and E3’s return to the big stage? Hit the forums to discuss.

-Justin

You should be thankful I am the way I am. The alternatives are frightening.

e3 was cancelled! I– I– I’m so bummed. I’ve gone to e3 the past four years now, and the prospect of trying to weasel my way into the GDC is abhorrant. I can’t speak much on the topic… I’m just too sad. Oh, well. Another topic for the next podcast, I suppose.

Speaking of sad, my boss’ boss recently announced he was leaving the company and moving to Arizona. He was/is one of the best superiors I’ve had; he got the job done and was wicked cool. He said he’d definitely be back in town next year for ComiCon. Here’s to hoping.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, Tycho Arlo’s quote comes from Mark Twain. Just picked up a couple of books by ‘im. You can find the whole quote, in its entirety here. The ending is the best part, and I love his point. Oh, and this is Wordsworth. I’m not boring, I just happen to have complicated quotes in front of me when it counts.

-Arlo

Everyone used to be worried about Nintendo…I’m actually kind of worried about the PS3. (I can only imagine John Romero punching a time card at the beginning of the day.) If you saw my last post, you would know my problems with Sony’s new system, but I’m worried because if those problems don’t get fixed, this may just be Sony’s Gamecube Generation. Or even worse, its Dreamcast. I honestly don’t want it to fail, but in the past, the Playstation has been all about the jock, the casual gamer, the RPGer, and the fanboy. The price point may alienate the casual gamer and large chunks of the other groups. The question there isn’t “Is it worth it?” It’s “Can I Afford It?” Many fanboys will find a way to afford it, and many jocks just don’t know any better, but now, with SquareEnix and Mistwalker pulling through on the 360 tip, the RPGer is getting a choice. And a space ship for a million dollars may be a hell of a steal, but 99% of space ship aficionados still wouldn’t be able to buy one.

Hey, and we have pics from E3. Go.

Anyway… THE… umm… NOT-SO-DOOM LIST!

TOP 5

5) Final Fantasy — The first ever RPG I played was Final Fantasy III for the SNES, so it has a place in my heart. I still think it is my favorite of the bunch, if only for sentimental reasons. Up to this point, I’ve played every Final Fantasy released in America (except for X2… that one doesn’t count). And to this point, every english speaking gamer has been incapable of playing all there is to play when it comes to Final Fantasy. Until now. Square had a demo of Final Fantasy III for the DS (See? Nintendo.) playable at the show and it looked good. Blown up on the big screens where Race and I first saw it, we thought it looked blah, but on the DS screen where it belongs, the images were vibrant and alive. I can’t wait. Also, I played Before Crisis, the cell phone game. I’m buying that one for sure. Live action, and Turks. (When I was a kid, my dad used to call me a “turkey” when I was goofing off. Through the years he shortened it to “Turk.” I’m like, “Dad! What the fuck?”) On a cell phone. My sentimentality begged for this a higher position on my list, but the bugs in Dirge of the Cerberus and the general blah-ness of XII that I’ve seen keep it from higher echelons.

4) Okami — Jesus. There exist playable demos. Just. Check it out. Innovative gameplay and beautiful graphics (if only slightly dulled by hardware performance) make this title one to watch out for. It’s “low budge” nature also ensures that this guy is going to be in short supply and most likely not at every store. So get it when you can.

3) Microsoft — Crackdown. Crysis. Gears of War. Etc. Announcements for Fable 2, as well. Of course, they also had Shadowrun.

2) Booth Babes — Ok, let me explain this one. They toned down the Hottie presence at this year’s show as we’ve mentioned before. As a result, the whole costume thing pretty much disappeared. I’m glad for that. Most of the time, the models didn’t look anything like the characters anyway. But, what’s more, it made me comfortable. The same models were there from the same agencies, only they were wearing pretty normal clothes. The Nintendo girls even had vests. I can handle hot girls, but if one is standing right next to me wearing a bikini top and boy shorts while I’m trying to play some nerdy strategy title, then it is over. Race didn’t mind the addition of more booth hunks, either. Attractive people showing attractive games. Much more comfortable than trashy models distracting from what should be the focus of the show. I gotta say, they made the right decision on this one.

1) Nin-freakin’-tendo — I can’t tell you how mad I am at the line for the Wii. Everytime you came to a corner in it, you would round and see another stretch. It did this something like seven times. No joke. Even so, I gotta say that Nintendo had the best presence at the show. The scenario presented here totally happened. We walked up to an empty turnstyle announcing 30 and 60 minute waits at certain signposts and couldn’t figure out what this could possibly be for. I asked the guy at the front of the line and the bottom of a staircase. He said “PS3,” handed me a lanyard, and let us walk right up stairs. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying Sony did good by making the system accessible (Which is still the case. Props). What I’m saying is that no one wanted to see it when the Wii was right next door. The only other things in their booth were DS Lites. There was a bigger line to play the new Super Mario Bros. game than for that other thing. Man, I hate sounding like a fanboy, but I gotta say… I’m getting a DS Lite on the 11th and I’m also with Peter Moore on this one. ALSO! BIG ALSO! DS: Holy Shit. At least a quarter of those titles I’m itching like a heroin addict to play. Come on: Castlevania, Touch Detective, Children of Mana, Hotel Dusk, Diddy Kong Racing (seriously), new Phoenix Wright, Star Fox, Zelda (!), Opera (I mean, it’s practically ready made for this!), Kirby, Yoshi’s freaking Island 2 (!), Super Mario Bros. (tomorrow), and two Final Fantasies. And damn if this isn’t a wicked crazy list for a system with no launch date. This is a proud time to be old-school.

-Arlo

Bottom 5

Having more of an open mind than the usual discriminating gamer, combined with the fact that I probably don’t have any standards, just tells you how much these games blow.

5.) Bratz 2: Forever Diamondz – You realize that for a “2″ to follow that title, that they would have had to make a first one, right?

4.) Desperate Housewives the Show the Game – Now anyone can be a sloppy suburban slut in this Sims-like mystery-adventure thing! Get into catfights, go in for Botox shots and fuck the gardener! OH, THE DRAMA!

“Oh, Race, you shouldn’t make fun…I’m telling you the writing is really good.”

Yeah, and you play Rumble Roses for the wrestling. *rolls eyes*

You know what, that’s it. Fuck it. Who says a top 5 has to have 5 things in it? Consider me an optimist anyway. Onward! Cuz I’m a rebel like that.

Top 5

5.) Rockstar Games’ Table Tennis – Yeah, I didn’t expect it either. This game actually looks pretty good. I enjoy playing sports games that are not really “sports,” like *cough*golf*cough*, so putting this out into the market may be a refreshing change. It also helps that it really does literally look good.

4.) Children of Mana – It seems like it plays out just like Secret of Mana, only miniature size in your hands on the DS Lite! =D I loved Secret of Mana, so naturally I’m anticipating this game. The art looks fantastic, as always, and gameplay is of course very reminiscent of Super Nintendo.

3.) Final Fantasy – With the release of FFXII, FFVII: Dirge of Cerberus, Final Fantasy III and the Final Fantasy CELL PHONE GAME, SquareEnix has provided something for everyone in their coming year’s Final Fantasy line.

2.) Enemy Territory: Quake Wars – It just looks freaking amazing, I don’t know what to tell you. I loooove Enemy Territory and I love Quake 4, so the blending of the two is just naturally sexy. It’s going a little beyond “realistic” war games like Call of Duty 2 or Medal of Honor, but without going so overboard like Unreal Tournament. It seems like they are sticking with the existing Wolfenstein Enemy Territory formula, so it should adequately take away from more unimportant things, like sleep and employment.

1.) Nintendo Revolution or Wii or whateverwhogivesafuck – I know, I know, I didn’t even get to see it! Regardless, I’m still excited. Granted that by innovating, Nintendo is taking a big risk of getting shot in the face amidst the next generation console wars, but their track record isn’t so bad. Sure, there was Virtua Boy, but there’s also DS! Plus, it’s the most affordable of the next-gen consoles at time of release, so automatically that makes it the most friendly. It should go without saying that I’m anticipating this, as it seems most everyone else at E3 did (4 hour wait to see it!!!!), but I’m mentioning it anyway..mainly because I have not much else to say, but mostly because it just seems so friggin’ cool. Besides, didn’t I tell you I was a rebel?

Alright, that’s it for me. Picture time!

~Race

But unfortunately, we didn’t Wii all day.

While we were at E3 getting little to no swag, or even brochures and the like, someone handed me a flyer for a game called DOFUS. It’s an MMO, it’s free (to an extent), and it has a great art style reminiscent of various other games. Plus, it’s a tactical game much like those from Nippon Ichi and reminds me a lot of Ragnarok Online with strategy action. So go check it out. I’m on the only English server (as the game is mostly French) and my character’s name is Ashrium. I’m just checking it out for now, so don’t expect me to be on much.

Also, I started Suikoden V finally today. So far, it has me by the face. I’m feeling that Suikoden tingle that I get and am already starting to forget Suikoden IV and Tactics. Hopefully, this will pan out. Until then… THE DOOM LIST!

5) Release Dates — This one should just be obvious. It’s a bit counter-intuitive, considering their place on my list, but Nintendo is the biggest perpetrator of this heinous crime. The Wii gets no release date, Mario Galaxy and SSBB get a vague non-launch 2007 ETA, and Twilight Princess is most assuredly getting pushed back for the Wii release. Also, at the end of the Metal Gear trailer, you see the date 2008 written then the 8 is crossed out and a red 7 replaces it in an excited fashion. Like I’m supposed to be happy it’s coming out next year? You guys were talking launch-title before! I called this a couple months ago, so I’ve been prepared and I understand it, but the assumption that 2007 is supposed to make us happy really just makes me want to spit.

4) Swag Lackage — DS Bras should fully explain this…

3) Shadowrun — A hot contention among my friends is which Shadowrun is better. It definitely isn’t this. I was playing the mulitplayer function of the game and was having some fun until I found out that it was the ONLY function. Fuck. I was really looking forward to this.

2) Wii Wait — Well, we didn’t get our hands on it…. We sat outside like wet puppies in the rain, looking in at your human food, comfortable carpet, and loving warmth.

1) PS3 — I’m not a Sony hater… I went into this show thinking, “Man, I hope they give me a reason to spend 600 dollars,” and they plain didn’t. I have some big gripes with the controller. Mainly, it feels cheap and plastic. If I spend that much money on a system, I don’t want to be holding something that feels like I bought it at a kiosk in the local mall because it plays 100 unlicensed games. The R2 and L2 buttons have been changed to triggers but are convex and when squeezed tend to make your fingers slide right off of them. It has a center button and triggers like the 360 and motion detection like the Wii — last minute changes to broaden the appeal that were thinly veiled. I got to play Gran Turismo which, yeah, was in HD, but why? No games until next year, crap controller, way high price point. Sure, it’s a Blu-ray DVD player, too, but by the time it comes out, it won’t be that much of a steal. It just seems like they hitched their wagon to a star that was just too far away and not even in the right solar system and thus suffer the consequences for it. The PSP had a good showing if that means anything to you. I appreciated the themed play area idea, so I can give Sony props for that. See? I’m not a Sony Hater.

Join us next time for my TOP 5! I’m much nicer in that one.

-Arlo

We saw a skate demo at the Activision booth….

We did lots of things at E3 this year….

We got some DS Lite cases….

Hey, we’re still on time…in Hawaii. I sincerely apologize for this strip’s lack of punctuality. Bad strip, bad. It’s all your fault I got mad at my pen and beat it to death, without keeping an extra lying around. It’s also your fault it leaked all over my hand. No dinner for you!

Arlo and I tried applying to E3, and we were rejected, so with all the pre-E3 coverage going down on the interwebs, suffice to say we were, ya’ know….sad and stuff. Both he and I were independently researching alternate ways to get in this year, and we didn’t get our hopes up as to if our contacts would follow through. However, I just checked my e-mail and we are, indeed, confirmed attendees of this year’s hoedown! Considering that both of us are employed full-time, we’re not quite sure which day we’re going, or if we’re going on both of the days we asked for (thursday and friday), but if our bosses make a stink, it might just have to be Friday. We’re not sure yet, so we’ll keep you all posted. Maybe we’ll see some of you there. =D

It’s hard to say as to what our update is going to be like this weekend. We weren’t really planning all this so much, so I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. My prediction: Race will not get much sleep at the end of this week. In the mean time, go read Arlo’s much more informative post , as well as his much-anticipated review of Oblivion. Wheee!

~Race

I just wrote this review for Oblivion on the 360, but I do have something very important to mention.

They’ve announced a price point for the PS3, along with launch date and package details. They’ve done well by adopting the 360 two-package system while keeping both units with a hard drive so the developers can use them as standard. The system with a 20-gig hard drive, or “Core” package, is listing at the previously hypothesized $500. Wowzah. I guessed that’s what they’d release the 60 gig for, but the two package dealy worked in raising the standard price 100 dollars for the 360, so why not 200 more for the ps2, huh? Huh? Right? Well, at least it’s a cheap solution for a Blu-Ray DVD player. That is, if blu-ray wins the war. Otherwise you’re stuck with a betamax that plays games. Kick-ass games, I’m sure, though.

Well, as you can guess, that means the 60-gig system, or “Premium” package, is goin’ for a cool 600 smackeroos. ::sigh:: Guess like I really am throwing in with a friend on this one. No way I can swing that at Christmas time. I wonder how many people will buy the Wii because of this. I just hope Nintendo doesn’t get any ideas and raise their price to $300.

They have, however, done the stupid thing and tried to trick us. They drop the 20 gig on us to reel us in with 500 instead of 600 dollars, and then say, “Why, for only 100 more you can get 40 gigs more, plus memory stick, SD, and Compact Flash reading capabilities. OOOOooooo!” No, Sony. The Premium package isn’t “plus” those features; The Core package is “sans” them. You’re trying to sell us a package lacking tons of features you promised for 100 dollars more than the 360’s Premium package cost. That “slight” price increase is looking larger and larger. Don’t get me wrong, though. Those features are pretty cool. My big gripe so far? The price and the package tomfoolery. Still gonna buy the damn thing.

As for the release date, no real surprises here. Japan on Nov 11th and US & Europe on Nov 17th.

Oh, and apparently, the boomerang controller is back to the dual-shock form. Only with less shock and more gyro-sensors. Can’t wait for that to be implemented. They also promised to double their production numbers to 2 million per month in the first couple months. Yeah, I’ll believe that when my shit turns purple and tastes like rainbow sherbert.

-Arlo