The Gaming Vault » E3 2010

E3 2010: Portal 2 Preview

Katie Punsly — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 04:20:20 +0000

Valve has finally decided to spill some secrets on their highly anticipated game sequel, Portal 2. As dedicated Portal fans remember, the last game ended with the destruction of GLaDOS and presumably of the labs at Aperture Science.

A lot of time has passed since the original Portal, and in this sequel, we see all of the testing chambers have been overgrown and fallen into disrepair over time. We find out that GLaDOS is back from the dead and is rebuilding her test chambers. Portal 2 developer Erik Johnson discussed some of the amazing feedback he received from the first game.

“Our fans said ‘We want more Portal, we want more Portal,’” Johnson repeated enthusiastically. “What we interpreted that as they wanted us to surprise them with the kind of game we’re building again. Which, for game developers, is kind of terrifying.”

Yet, so far, Portal 2 seems to be delivering on what they’ve promised. It’s the same Portal setting and style they love so much, with new and improved game mechanics that completely change the gameplay. The first surprise that Valve had in store was a new character. Wheatley is a Personality Core, a round robotic eye that is attached to a railing that runs along the ceiling.

At some point in the game, Chell discovers that Wheatley is trapped with her inside the dilapidated labs. He decides to free himself from the railing and swing himself loose. Chell can then carry her cheeky British sidekick around, placing him in door-locks and other enclosures where he can open secret panels and bypass security codes. Wheatley’s presence is refreshing, adding humor and companionship to what is often an alienating game, and offering a dramatic counterpoint to GLaDOS’ wry and threatening dialogue. Not that the companion cube wasn’t a cheery sidekick to have in the original, but Wheatley shows significant promise.

As for the gameplay itself, Portal 2 has a number of new, exciting features. Valve dubbed these game mechanics with names very fitting of Aperture Science — cold, scientific names with a hint of wry humor that masks how dangerous these testing apparati actually are.

For example, the Aerial Faith Plate is a large metal square that you land on that launches you into the air with 5000 lbs of force. The Thermal Discouragement Beam are laser beams that traverse various areas and kill anything that goes through its path. However, this beam can be used to your advantage. Portal 2 has modified companion cubes that are hollowed out in the center so that you can place the cubes in the line of fire and divert the beam in various directions, killing turrets and the like.

There is also the Excursion Funnel, which shoots out a sort of air vent from your portal gun that lets objects float through a tunnel into or out of portals. Finally, there is the Pneumatic Diversity Vent, which is a system of plastic tubes that has a sort of vacuum inside, which you place various objects into — companion cubes, turrets, and the like.

As confusing as it all seems, the gameplay itself is not more complex. “One of the goals for us is to not make the game more difficult or make the game require more traditional action game skills,” Johnson said. “We still want it to be a game you think your way through, so you feel kind of smart as you figure out parts of it. The game’s a lot bigger, so we have more room to ease people in at the right pace, to learn these new mechanics.”

The largest development in the gameplay is the introduction of gels. We were introduced to two different types of gels – repulsion gels and propulsion gels. These blue and orange gels spew out of a pipe or lie in puddles, and the player can use portals to redirect and splatter them all over surfaces. The repulsion gel is a sort of elastic substance that the player can bounce on that flings you and other objects up into the air. The propulsion gel, on the other hand, coats the ground and lets you build momentum to slide swiftly into previously unreachable areas.

Finally, the biggest reveal for this year’s E3, and personally most exciting reveal, is that Portal 2 will have a two-player co-op mode. Valve has made a number of levels specifically designed for two people to navigate together — and with four portals, the test chambers are even more complex.

“A lot of people played Portal 1 as a co-op game,” observed Johnson. “You’re sitting with a friend on the couch, or your parents are watching or kids are watching, so it’s a real natural fit there.” Although not explicitly stated, it seems that multiplayer mode will be both possible for two people next to each other on a couch, or online over Xbox Live and quite possibly the PSN.

Portal 2 will ship simultaneously next year for the PC, Mac, Xbox and PS3.

I am Alive E3 trailer

Jens Erik Vaaler — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 20:08:16 +0000

Ubisoft’s E3 press conference this year was fairly uneventful apart from the announcement of a new Rayman game, and some further details on Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood. One of the titles I’ve been anticipating for a long time, I am Alive, was a complete no-show.

I am Alive puts you in the shoes of a survivor of a massive earthquake that’s torn Chicago to the ground. And that’s pretty much all we know.
The marketing for this game never ceases to astounds me. It’s constantly being delayed, and details are sparse. The latest trailer for I Am Alive was released last week, during E3, meaning it got buried under a mountain of other announcements and trailers deemed more important.

But here it is, and you can find it after the cut. The release date is still TBA, but it is speculated to be somewhere around spring 2011. I just hope people still care once it finally rolls out.

E3 2010: What was missing

Herman S. Lilleng — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 14:17:19 +0000

The E3 Expo is over for this year, and we learned a ton of new stuff. We know the name and games for Microsoft’s Kinect, we know what the new Zelda title is, we know what David Jaffe has been working on, and that there’s a new Rayman title in the works. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg! However, there were some things gamers were expecting to see, but that never appeared. Here’s a rundown of things that were MIA.

Microsoft:

Molyneux: Microsoft spent a lot of time on Kinect during their conference, possibly to the determent of other titles. The one who seemed to get shafted the most from my perspective was Peter Molyneux. He did appear on stage, and gave us his regular lines about the future, but then he only showed a trailer of Fable III, before he disappeared. I don’t know about you, but I would like to have seen some gameplay of it. Molyneux promised Kinect integration for the title as well, but this has not yet appeared. Molyneux also showed off Milo last year for what was then known as Project Natal, but we saw nothing of the British little bugger this year. Turns out, Milo actually was at E3, but he was only shown to celebrities, but not to the press. He will be shown off in July instead.

Pricing: Microsoft also never said anything about pricing for Kinect, but retailers are putting their pre-orders at the rumored 149$. Microsoft have since said the price is speculative, and that they will announce the price at GamesCom.

Nintendo:

Nintendo spent a lot of time revealing things that had been promised previously, such as The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, and that Retro Studios had actually been working on a new Donkey Kong title. They also impressed with the reveal of the 3DS. Still, they left some gaping holes.

Vitality Sensor: Remember this thing? No? Neither does Nintendo, apparently. The peripheral, that was supposed to measure your heart-rate, was shown of by Iwata last year, but this year it was nowhere in sight. Turns out, Nintendo has wised up about their E3 line-ups. Iwata said to an analyst that they realized that with all these retro titles, they figured E3 wasn’t the right place to showcase it. Smart move Nintendo, you’re learning from last year’s errors.

Pikmin: Miyamoto first said that he was making this game two years ago, at E3 2008. Since then we have heard almost nothing about the title, building a steady buzz with all the Pikmin fans, a group that seems to grow every time Nintendo doesn’t say anything about the title. It wasn’t shown this year either, but after being confronted about it several times, Miyamoto confirmed the game is still being worked on by a small team.

Cammie: Just kidding, nobody misses Cammie.

Sony:

Sony also had a strong press conference this year, showing a wide array of titles, with much less sales and pie chart talk than previous years. They also spent a lot of time on 3D, something I’m not very excited for, but might entice others. Nevertheless, here’s what Sony neglected:

The Last Guardian: this is a big one. Last year, Sony showed off an incredible cinematic trailer for the next game by the creators of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. Even with no gameplay, it made it to many gamers’ list as the most anticipated game from E309. This year, it’s nowhere to be found. I can understand that if it’s not far enough in development, that Sony doesn’t want to over-expose/over-hype the game (That’s a dangerous place to be in, just ask Valve about Episode 3). But even if that is the case, it’s still a shame, because I, like most gamers, am really excited about the title, and would have loved to see some more of it. Sony hints at the game being shown of at another event, likely TGS.

Gran Turismo 5: No wait, my bad, they totally showed this. They even gave it a release date! Let’s consider this entry a celebration that GT5 didn’t actually get delayed, pushed back, hidden, or ignored. Granted, they still have several months to make sure that it gets delayed again.

That’s it for the hardware guys! Now, let’s see what’s missing from the rest of publishers:

Beyond Good & Evil 2: Another highly anticipated released that was announced and teased last year, only to never be acknowledged again. Instead, Ubisoft spent their time on a breathing game, and laser tag. At least they announced a new Rayman, a game that would certainly have made the list had it not been shown. And it has Michel Ancel, the creator of both Rayman and BG&E working on it.

EA Partners: While the EA conference was packed full of big titles, for me the most exciting thing the company is doing right now is in the EA partners program. While Respawn obviously is way to young a studio to have anything to show, neither Shank nor Deathspank were shown at the conference, only at the show floor. We also know they have a deal with Suda 51, but no word on this game either.

Valve: Ok, I have to include this. I was really dissapointed when Valve canceled their press conference, and even though the PS3 reveal was very nice, I would have loved to have seen a whole event exclusively dedicated to Valve, even if it was Portal 2 only. It would mean a big step for PC gaming into the more mainstream side of things.

2k & Activision: This one is more of a question. Why do these two large publishers, one who is bigger than both EA and Ubisoft, not have their own press conferences? With the advent of internet streaming, the focus for gamers when E3 rolls around seems to be primarily the press conferences, rather than the game previews. Both are on the show floor, but I feel their games could possibly benefit from a dedicated event, though that would make the E3 schedule even more crazy. 2K has Civ V, XCOM, Mafia II, Spec-Ops, and their sports games, and they could even team with Take Two-owned Rockstar. And I must admit, while I would probably hate most things Activision would want to promote in that way, it would still be interesting to see their take on it. Oh, and speaking of 2K…

Irrational’s new game: What is it? I want to see it. Apparently Ken Levine and team has been working on this since Bioshock was released, but we have heard nothing of the title. Hopefully we’ll hear something soon, but it certainly wasn’t at E3.

Ok, that’s all I could think of that was missing. Do you have anything else you really wanted to see at E3? Post it in the comments! Lastly, here are some bonus lists:

Games at E3 that has the same title as a previous game in the same franchise:

Mortal Kombat
XCOM
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
Twisted Metal

Press conferences Hideo Kojima appeared at:

Microsoft
Nintendo

E3 2010: DLC might be coming to Platinum’s Vanquish

Jens Erik Vaaler — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 17:24:14 +0000

It is the last day of E3 and The Gaming Vault is on hand to bring you news, previews and interviews from the show floor. Michael O’Connor sat down earlier with the team behind upcoming Platinum games action title Vanquish.

The full interview will be posted on the site later, but for now we have an interesting little tidbit for you all:

Antoine Molent, senior brand manager for Sega Europe, said “no comment” when asked about possibly DLC for Vanquish. When quizzed further, Producer Keith Dwyer replied “Thats not exactly a no though”.

I wouldn’t call it completely confirmed, but for now we can cross our fingers for Vanquish getting downloadable content. I spoke to Michael earlier and he said the game looked “fucking beautiful”. Keep your eyes on The Gaming Vault for the full interview later today.

E3 2010: Konami press conference wrap-up

Jens Erik Vaaler — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 10:45:26 +0000

Konami’s E3 press conference was held yesterday, and we here at The Gaming Vault thought we’d give you a quick rundown of the biggest announcements.

The first announcement of the evening was Terminal Reality’s Def Jam Rapstar, a karaoke-style game built around rap. Def Jam’s Russell Simmons was on stage to call the game “the best karaoke game ever”, though it’s going to take a lot for Def Jam Rapstar to make a dent in the Singstar franchise. The tracklist seems alright, with artists like Dr. Dre, 2Pac, B.I.G and Outkast, but there aren’t a lot of tracks that completely stand out.

Next up was Immersion Software & Graphics’ Lucha Libre AAA: Héroes del Ring, a wrestling title based on Mexican wrestling, of which I know absolutely nothing. It’s Latin to the bone, but I’m okay with that. The game looks crazy awesome, with lots of acrobatic wrestling moves you never really see in “regular” American wrestling.

Konami has also been at work with two Kinect games for the Xbox 360. Adrenaline Misfits is an extreme sports games focusing mostly on downhill snowboarding. Dance Masters is the equivalent to Harmonix’ Dance Central, developed by the people behind Dance Dance Revolution.

Speaking karaoke games, Glee Karaoke Revolution, an extension of the Karaoke Revolution franchise focusing on the TV show Glee. The game features 35 songs, with focus on sustained notes and harmonies.

Never one to let a dead franchise remain dead, Konami also announced Silent Hill 6, to be developed for the PS3 and XBox 360. Konami promises that the game will reinvent the series’ combat, and says the story revolves around an escaped convict who flees to Silent Hill in order to escape the police. The music will be composed by Dan Lit, the composer behind the TV show Dexter.

Metal Gear’s Shinta Nojiri’s new project Never Dead was also revealed, to be developed by Rebellion. The protagonist is an undead man named Bryce who can pick up his limbs after they’ve been blown off by his enemies. Dismemberment appears to be a core part of gameplay. Basically a third-person shooter version of Stubbs the Zombie.

And speaking of Metal Gear, Konami also showed off Metal Gear Solid Rising, further detailing what we saw at the Microsoft press conference earlier this E3. The robot parts Raiden consumes in the trailer are a form of energy chamber that Raiden uses to restore energy, gather items and acquire information. Everything within the game can be cut with precision, meaning you can dismember enemies without killing them.

There will also be stealth elements within Rising, but Konami promised faster paced stealth focusing more on hunting rather than evasion. The goal of the game was to make the player feel like they’re controlling the Raiden that appeared in MGS4. MGS Rising will be a prequel story, explaining how Raiden turned out the way he did.

Finally, Koji Igarashi took the stage to reveal Harmony of Despair, a multiplayer Castlevania game. According to IGA, the goal was to fill an entire HD resolution screen with pixel art. The entire world is interconnected, allowing enemies to pursue players across the map. Is it just me, or are these “Noun of noun” titles the Castlevania series has going a bit overkill? Mercury Steam’s David Cox was also on hand to present Lords of Shadow, the series 3D reboot. This final title is a definite buy on my part, though I hope it’s less God of War-y than it appears to be.

That’s it for the Konami press conference. Overall a pretty decent array of titles I should say. Not too sure about Def Jam Rapstar and Karaoke Revolution, but we can’t always get what we want it seems.

E3 2010: Blacklight: Tango Down interview

Michael O'Connor — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 09:35:51 +0000

We were on the E3 floor this year checking out Ignition Entertainment and Zombie Studios’ Blacklight: Tango Down, and managed to spend some time talking to the game’s lead level designer, Michael Schorr, who was gracious enough to take a moment out of his time time to answer some of our questions.

Michael O’Connor: The most obvious question first. Why did you choose to go with a digital download only game, as opposed to releasing Blacklight: Tango Down as a full priced retailed product?

Michael Schorr: I think we really found that that was a market that seemed very viable, and we wanted to explore it. As a studio and a publisher, we all agreed that that was a place that this game needed to be.

O’Connor: It’s definitely a great idea to release this kind of game through digital media, since the people who want to play this kind of experience will be the ones specifically with the access to do so.

The visual style of the game, the graphics, the way it looks. Was there any particular inspiration?

Schorr: Definitely. For some levels, we went with a certain Blade Runner vibe; this seedy underbelly with all this over-build on top. All this technology that’s kind of run-over. We’re trying to keep an over-arching them with that, but beyond that, this is set in a fictional European city. We wanted the architecture to be a facsimile of that.

O’Connor: Is there any particular story connecting the game’s multi-player together?

Schorr: Well the basic story is that you’re a member of the “Blacklight” team, which is a team that’s been sent into the area The Order, and the leader of The Order is this general, this crazy general that has sort of gone rogue. And this sets the basis for the setting of the game. That’s why you’re in this environment.

O’Connor: Are there any offline or single player elements at all in Blacklight: Tango Down?

Schorr: Kind of. We have four co-op missions, that can be played by yourself. It will be you against the A.I., with some objectives, similar in some ways to the Modern Warfare 2 Spec-Ops missions

O’Connor: Do you have any release date?

Schorr: This summer.

O’Connor: Can you be more specific?

Schorr: No, sorry. I wish I could.

O’Connor: If this takes off, are you looking to expand the game into future titles?

Schorr: It’s hard to say. As far as future plans go, we may not be expending this title as far as DLC goes, but I think if Blacklight does well, I would love to explore this world more, this type of idea. I think we’ve only touched the surface.

O’Connor: What about weapon selection? What kind of variety are we looking at? I’ve heard claims of millions of combinations.

Schorr: Well, your base weapons are the usual – the pistol, the shotgun, the assault rifle, the sub-machine gun, the sniper rifle, and the heavy machine gun. From there, you can customize those as much as you want. So as you play, you’ll rank up, unlock different scopes, cosmetic tags, different barrels, etc, etc. It all tends to add up as you level up.

O’Connor: I noticed a few of these tags are branded.

Schorr: We’ve partnered with a few people. Companies like ATI, AlienWare, and so on.

Michael: It’s looking like a great game. I’ll definitely be picking it up.

Schorr: I’m glad to hear that. I love seeing all these people come here and play our games.

O’Connor: Thanks for your time.

Schorr: Cheers.

E3 2010: Sony’s press conference impressions and opinions

Jens Erik Vaaler — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 20:08:41 +0000

We here at The Gaming Vault thought we’d give a quick run-down of our first impressions and opinions on Sony’s press conference. Sony had a rather long press conference this year, and was all about the 3D aspect of gaming. Yet Sony forgot to mention that you need a 3D TV in order to experience games in 3D, which goes against Sony’s boasts about being “best on 3D”, not to mention pushing several 3D games out the door.

As far as announcements went, we were only shown 3 or 4 games. Killzone 3 was shown in 3D, and appears to be an even greyer and grittier than current FPSes on the market. Yet it’s got jetpacks, and jetpacks are always cool.

Gran Turismo was given a release date of November second, but only a trailer of the game was shown off. Twisted Metal was revealed, with a live demo on the show stage, which appeared to be an early build.
Other than that, the press conference was very much focused on the PlayStation Move. A new Move game, Sorcery, was shown off, which looked alright, but felt like a Harry Potter derivate to me.

Little Big Planet 2 looked fun, but I have a feeling it will become just another collection of mini-games. The ability to create games is a great concept, but the question remains if the games users will spend enough time learning how to properly create these mini-games. Final Fantasy XIV looked absolutely amazing, but once again, we were only shown a cinematic trailer. Please, Sony, next year, bring us some live gameplay!

Infamous 2 was also shown off, and Cole has ice powers now. I’m betting he’ll be getting fire powers and earth powers in whatever sequels Sony has planned for the future.

Sony was all talk, little action this year, showing us very little but trailers as the conference went on. Kevin Butler made his obligatory cameo, but his speech can easily be summed up in the following sentence: “Microsoft and Nintendo sucks, our motion controller is totally not derivative, support casual games and gamers!” He also made a big thing about “showing [us] games”, but no games were shown! His appearance was to fill time and warm up the crowd, nothing else.

There were very few exclusives shown by Sony, and Portal 2 just didn’t cut it as it’s out on the 360 and PC as well. Sony was better than Microsoft, but dragged on for way too long than I would have liked.

E3 2010: Nintendo press conference impressions and opinions

Jens Erik Vaaler — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 19:47:36 +0000

We here at The Gaming Vault thought we’d give a quick run-down of our first impressions and opinions on Nintendo’s press conference. Unlike Microsoft, Nintendo jumped straight to the point and gave us a first look at the new Legend of Zelda title, which looked like a mix between Twilight Princess and Wind Waker. Shigeru Miyamoto struggled a bit with his live demo, but from what I’ve heard from the show floor, the game absolutely works.

And from that announcement on, the entire press conference was akin to a rollercoaster ride of announcements: a new Donkey Kong, new Kirby, new Kid Icarus, the unveiling of 3DS, Golden Sun Dark Dawn, Epic Mickey, Metroid: Other M were among the choice bits.

Nintendo was all about being straight and to the point, and while not everything was as exciting as the rest, they managed to keep the pace up and the audience interested. Just Dance 2, Wii Party and Mario Sports Mix weren’t exactly showstoppers, but they felt like they were par for the course in a Nintendo press conference.

Games like Epic Mickey, Kirby Epic Yarn (worst title ever!) and Donkey Kong Country all look great, thought I would have liked to see more of Epic Mickey. The sidescrolling looks good though, and I am definitely excited. GoldenEye is also getting a remake, and while I am excited, I doubt it will live up to the nostalgic reminiscence of the original title.

Donkey Kong Country is a traditional 2D sidescroller with an artstyle very reminiscent of a cartoon, which I’m loving. The same goes for Kirby Epic Yarn, which offers a very interesting artstyle built entirely around yarn. Gameplay and the game world is built around using yarn in various ways, which seems to offer up new and interesting play styles. But where’s the noms? Kirby doesn’t eat stuff anymore. Why?

Nintendo had a lot of bombs to drop and brought in their A game this year. The unveiling of the 3DS was a good move, with a ton of promised titles for both hardcore and casual gamers, and it is a definite launch day purchase for me. Their game announcements can best be summed up in four words: retro in new ways. Personally, I was blown away by most of their announcements.

They didn’t pussyfoot around and spent an equal amount of time on both casual and hardcore gaming, as well as consoles and handhelds.

E3 2010: Sonic Colours Hands-On

Zack Reese — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 15:28:57 +0000

My first real taste of the showroom floor was at the Sega booth and Sonic Team’s upcoming entry into their mascot’s fabled career. Both the Wii and DS versions were on display.

Sonic Colours on the Wii pretty much played exactly how I expected it to play. It was Sonic Unleashed, but without the controversial night-time Werehog mode. The action was fun, fast, and intense at times. What I enjoyed is how Sega understood the things that fans were asking for and were able to capitalize it by focusing on the blending of 3D and 2D. There was only one level to play on the Wii version, but it appeared to get what was decent about their most recent games. There was also a boss mode directly following it, where in order to get to the boss you had it take it across two sets of ferris wheels.

Overall, the game came across as way too simple and very easy. When I play a Sonic game, I want a good degree of difficulty to keep me wanting to come back and try again. That was one of the real draws of the old Sonic games (like the Megaman games), and I think it is something that has kind of gone lost in its transition to 3D, where the only real difficulty it had was dealing with a tricky camera or confusing level design.

The DS version, however, really showed that in the 21st century, nothing on the consoles can match what their handheld titles have to offer. It was an absolutely incredible experience that really brought that nostalgiac factor when I was a kid playing these games around my family. The best part is that they put a neat little twist on the gameplay where elements such as powerups and the use of flight comes into play. Aside from the Dash feature present on other Sonic handheld games, you can now control the element on fire, being able to jump multiple times in the air and get through these tubes to get through the stage. For flight, players can use a rocket to shoot around through the air, or a hand glider that cuts to a camera to a diagonal camera around the player to collect rings and avoid obstacles in the air. Even the boss fight, simplistic as it was, was a good time all around. I can really see myself playing this game as soon as it comes out, and I believe is doing a lot more in this space than anything I have really seen come out of Sonic 4.

Am I saying that Sonic has no real place in the 3D realm? Absolutely not. I actually really enjoyed a lot of their recent titles, but if Sega hopes to have its mascot on the top again, it needs to have a real masterpiece. They just need to stay true to the fast and furious roots of the SOnic franchise, but understand that people really loved that certain difficulty curve and amazing stage design (with a hint of strategy because it can’t just all be about the running). I don’t think Sonic Colours is that masterpiece, but it certainly is the step in the right direction that is bringing them closer and closer to reaching that mountaintop.

E3 2010: Epic Mickey Hands-On

Zack Reese — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 15:28:07 +0000

I had a great time being able to try the upcoming Disney title Epic Monkey. I was able to speak with one of the game’s animators, and she gave me the run down of this very stylistic title that is just oozing with cool. Even the cutscenes are amazing and reminiscent of something you see during the credits of a Pixar movie. They have this storyboard look that the developers created, and the end result was simply stunning.

Players will be able to run around Disney environments that have been modified to fit inside the bleak world that Mickey finds himself in, nicknamed the Cartoon Wasteland where rejected cartoons go to die a silent death. For example, I was playing on Skull Island, which is a twist on Skull Rock from Peter Pan. I was tasked to raise the boat that had sunk into the sea in order to go after Hook, the villain of Peter Pan. In order to get around from place to place, characters will be able to jump into these projector screens and visit gone-but-never-forgotten cartoons, like inside the world of Steamboat Willie.

With brush in hand, Mickey will have a myriad of tools made available to him as the game goes on. During the demo, the two major tools were used — Paint and Paint Thinner. There were many opportunities to use these tools around the environment where you will find things missing, like an outline of a bridge to the next area, or just something that is just plain blocking the way, like a giant boulder covering a cave. Basically, Paint restores, thinner removes. Characters will also use the paint to charm enemies, which comes in real handy when the stakes are against you, and thinner to destroy them which comes in use against foes like robots whom are immune to your mind-bending paint.

More tools will become available as the game goes on to help your way through the Cartoon Wasteland. How you use these tools during story objectives affects the outcome of the game completely. For example, during the demo, if you use paint to fill the machines that are creating these robots, you are able to turn these things back into human beings. If you fill it with thinner, you destroy these robots, and they will obviously not be skin and bone ever again. Based on your decision, the people you meet in the world will react to you differently when you speak to them, a great dynamic that really makes you think before you act. It is certainly different to see a morality system inside a game of this nature, but it just feels natural that works great in motion.

You could really see the mark that Warren Spector made on the game with the deep, deep character development and masterful storytelling. The game also had a lot of charm to it with all of these characters I remember from my childhood that I had nearly forgotten altogether (something the developers are deliberately doing, so don’t expect to see too many typical characters of the Disney pallate). The whimsical music only enhanced the already compelling atmosphere. But really, what did you expect with all of the hype surrounding a game of this nature? Ladies and gentlemen, we may be looking at the best Mickey game yet, maybe even better than Mickey.

Epic Monkey is set to be released exclusively for the Wii during the 2010 Holiday season.

E3 2010: Yakuza 4 Hands-On

Zack Reese — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 15:27:50 +0000

Right off the bat, I was not expecting Yakuza 4 to be at E3 at all. Yakuza 3 only came out in March! Let me just say though that Yakuza 4 had to be one of the best demos of the day for me.

In the demo, each of the four playable characters (yes, four) got a chance to show their fisticuffs as they battled the scum of the streets in their own unique fighting styles. They may all be rough and heavy men, but each of your choices vary in their stats. You have the highly agile, the slow and powerful, the grappler, and, of course, my main man Kazuma, the all-arounder.

I can already tell that being able to play multiple characters will certainly add dozens of gameplay hours to the completionists everywhere. Using any of the assorted weapons on the ground with the game’s over-the-top special moves also left me smiling from ear to ear the entire time that controller was in my hands. It was a short demo, but that is all it took to really get me hooked!

I am a huge Yakuza fan, and I consider it to be Sega’s best human-oriented franchise in the company’s storied career. To me, it basically fills any sort of void a Shenmue III A lot of people had their problems with Yakuza 3, namely the stuff that they ommitted. Talking with Sega’s Community Manager, he explained that the first thing brought up during the board meeting to discuss the sequel was this problem and how they wanted to remedy it.

For us Americans, it means the inclusion of the hostess bars. Fear not, young ones! You will dine with these fine ladies, or lie to your significant other and say that you are only there for a business meeting. Just don’t expect those Japanese trivia games, though. In some of the questions, characters are traveling across the screen which would take the developers months to do, and really, who is up-to-date on their Japanese culture and history? It’s hard enough for us Americans or Europeans to remember our history.

Yakuza 4 will be coming out exclusively for the PS3 in Spring 2011. Wha-wha-what? Two Yakuza games in the same number of years, and we won’t have to wait years after it comes out in Japan to play it? Yes sir! Look forward to it, because I will be!

What You Missed: E3 2010 Day Two Wrap-Up

Joe Pomerening — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 07:48:26 +0000

Today has been another exciting day at E3 2010. Today we saw Nintendo and Sony, rivals for over a decade, show off their newest creations. Needless to say, the announcements today were utterly mindblowing, and we even got a special surprise thrown in from Valve!

Before you continue, be sure to take a look at yesterday’s overview for Day One of the expo. And now, on to E3 2010 Day Two! Keep on reading for all of the big announcements from Nintendo and Sony, as well as trailers and gameplay footage straight from LA!

Kicking things off this morning was Nintendo, who, in typical Nintendo fashion, started in overdrive and just kept on going full speed ahead. What most will consider to have been Nintendo’s most important announcement of the year are details on the new Zelda title.

Now, a couple days ago, we had some rumors about the Zelda title that I was pretty sure were true. Turns out that not all of them are accurate. First off, the official title for the new Zelda game is The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Even though Nintendo had some technical difficulties during the demonstration (which, reportedly, caused Miyamoto to get very upset), the presentation was a huge success. The game features 1:1 sword handling controls, meaning that however you swing your Wiimote reflects perfectly with Link’s sword. Some new items have been shown off like a whip, a flying beetle (which looks like it might be a modification to your Hookshot), as well as some changes to items we’ve already known. Graphically, the game is cel-shaded like Wind Waker, but the character design seems to follow the path of Twilight Princess. It’s a very interesting look for the game, which seems to combine both the elements of the colorful cel-shading and the grittiness of a darker battlefield.

Needless to say, I could go on and on about Skyward Sword, but I think I should just let the trailer do the talking.

A few other games that Nintendo talked about today include one that I’ve been very excited about, Metroid: Other M. Ever since last year’s E3 where we saw some gameplay and some very impressive cutscenes, I’ve been nothing but stoked about Team Ninja’s latest collaboration with Nintendo. Metroid: Other M seems to be taking the Metroid series in a new direction, with some amazing storytelling unlike what we’ve seen in past games. It looks like Samus is going to be working a lot more closely with other people in this mission, and we should get to learn a bit more about her past.

As for the gameplay, this looks like it may be one of the most dynamic games we’ve ever seen. You’ll go from side-scrolling action to over-the-shoulder running and gunning. You’ve also got your first-person controls that we’re used to from Retro Studios’ Metroid Prime series.

Speaking of Retro Studios, we managed to get a confirmation on another rumor we reported to you yesterday. We have confirmation that Retro Studios is developing Donkey Kong Country Returns. Judging from the trailer for the new Donkey Kong game, it looks like we’re going to see some classic DK gaming. Now, considering that the original Donkey Kong Country was a pretty outstanding game back on the SNES (considered to be one of the most graphically impressive games out of the SNES’ entire, immense library of games), Retro Studios definitely has a lot on their plate. The gameplay, however, looks incredibly smooth. From what we can tell, anybody who’s ever played a Donkey Kong Country game will be able to pick this game right up and jam.

But Nintendo is STILL not done reviving classic series. We’ve even got a new Kirby game coming out, titled Kirby’s Epic Yarn. And I gotta say, this looks like it may be the cutest game I have ever seen. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some blood and guts in gaming. But the level and character design in this game is simply adorable. Don’t take my word for it, though, take a gander at the trailer. We see a very interesting theme with this title. It seems that somehow Kirby has managed to find himself in a world comprised of cloths and textiles. This may seem strange at first, but I think Nintendo really managed to pull this off. Some interesting elements we got to see are pulling on stray threads to reveal hidden areas in the game, or even going under pieces of cloth to access hidden areas. The trailer doesn’t show off a whole lot of what we’re used to in Kirby games, however. For instance, it doesn’t look like Kirby sucks up any enemies at all. Instead, he lassos them with a piece of yarn and then throws them around. We’re not sure what we’re going to see as far as ability stealing, but we’re definitely going to keep a close eye on this game.

Some other new Wii titles that didn’t get as much attention include FlingSmash, Mario Sports Mix, Pokepark Wii Pikachu’s Adventure (I really hope this is a working title), Samurai Warriors 3, and Wii Party.

But, Nintendo didn’t sit around all day talking about the Wii. We also got to learn of a few new DS titles, as well.

The DS title that I’m most excited about is Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. That’s right, it’s finally here. The sequel to what is considered to be the most graphically impressive game on the Gameboy Advance. Golden Sun: Dark Dawn features a new 3D style of gameplay that is otherwise new to the series, but still manages to keep its reputation at being one of the most amazing-looking games on the platform. Golden Sun: Dark Dawn seems to be bringing back some old characters, as well as a handful of new warriors.

Some other DS titles announced include Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies, Professor Layton and the Unwound Future, Mario VS Donkey Kong: Mini-land Mayhem!, and Pokemon Ranger: Guardian Signs.

If you think after all of these announcements that Nintendo has officially stolen the show, then you’d be correct. However, it doesn’t end here. Nintendo also confirmed some additional details about the Nintendo 3DS, the successor to the Nintendo DS.

We don’t know a whole lot about the hardware just yet. We know that it comes equipped with THREE cameras; one on front and two on the back. The two cameras on the back will be used for taking 3D photographs. We also know that we’ll still have two screens, and they will be able to display 3D graphics without the use of special glasses. This is a seriously important advancement in the world of 3D gaming, which Sony is also touching on (more on Sony’s 3D gaming later in this article).

Now, you may be wondering, how many developers are going to be creating games for this new technology? How about… Everyone. Take a look at the full list of launch titles for the Nintendo 3DS. Take a good look at that list. That is over seventy launch titles for the Nintendo 3DS. This. Is. Huge.

One of the most impressive 3DS titles we saw was Kid Icarus: Uprising. The trailer for this game looks amazing, and it looks like this game will be full of action coming at you from all angels. I mean angles.

After Nintendo’s amazing performance, I wasn’t sure how Sony would be able to hold their own. I mean, after all, Nintendo announced nearly a hundred new titles, including a new, groundbreaking console.

But, Sony managed to impress us all, and even surprised us.

Sony spent a good bit of time showing off Move, Sony’s new motion-control system. The controllers are wand-shaped pieces of equipment with a big, glowing orb on the top. At first, I thought that this glowing orb was a static color, so that the console could detect one player from another, since we previously saw these glowing in separate colors. Today, we learned that the controllers can actually change colors at will, depending on events in the game.

Sony showed off this feature quite well in a demonstration of Sorcery, which totally blew my mind. When the demo first started, I thought we were looking at some sort of Harry Potter clone, but I was slapped in the face with awesomeness when I saw what this game offers. You have full 1:1 motion with your character’s magic wand, and with a flick of your wrist, you’re able to send magic flying out of your wand in any direction you choose. It looks like it’s pretty accurate, and allows you to fire off magic bolts in any six-axis direction very naturally. The speaker showcased the ability to just flick the wand in the direction of a hanging cage and knock it down in one shot. I was truly impressed by this.

Sorcery also showed off the color-changing aspect of the Move’s controller. The color of the controller’s orb will reflect certain on-screen events, such as magic potions changing color, or the type of magic spell you’ve equipped to your wand. While a seemingly minor aesthetic element, this is just one of those small touches that makes a world of difference.

Take a look at the demo and see for yourself.

Later on during Sony’s event, the Aperture Science Computer-Aided Enrichment Center’s favorite Aperture Science supercomputer decided to drop by and give us a special message. In mid-sentence, the Sony speaker is cut off by GLaDOS, with a special surprise announcement on behalf of the Aperture Science Computer-Aided Enrichment Center. After a three second countdown, GLaDOS deployed the surprise in the form of Gabe Newell, CEO of Valve Corporation. Gabe Newell gave us a quick confirmation of Portal 2, the latest portal training simulator developed by Aperture Science.

Unsurprisingly, Gabe also announced a planned surprise, which caught everybody by surprise, which was surprisingly surprising, and surprisingly not Half-Life 2: Episode 3.

Instead, Gabe told us that Portal 2 is going to be available for both PC (and Mac) users, but it will also be available on the PS3, and will feature Steamworks, which will incorporate your Steam data with the game. Also available will be extra DLC in the future.

Gabe didn’t talk much about it, but Portal 2 will also feature a co-op campaign mode, which is actually going to be non-cannon to the main storyline. It will be in the same “reality” of Portal 2, but the events in the multiplayer campaign will not be directly related to events that we are already familiar with.

Speaking of the co-op campaign, Portal 2 promises to be a MUCH bigger challenge than before. Each player will have their own set of two portals that they can independently control, but they can both use. New gameplay elements, such as more moving environments and new surface textures will allow for a much more dynamic experience.

It is also rumored that Portal 2 will be running on a new engine.

Obviously, I’m going to be going on more and more about Portal in the future, but for now, let’s take a look at the high-res trailer, which Valve released. This is the best quality trailer for Portal 2 that you will be able to find on YouTube right now, as well:

Sony also announced Infamous 2, showed off some more footage from Killzone 3 and Crysis 2, and a pretty extensive look at Dead Space 2, which looks amazing so far.

Sony spent a lot of time showing off the Move controller, and the uses for it. It’s definitely going to give the Wii and Kinect a run for their money, with very minimal input lag (something that Kinect needs to work on) and some amazingly precise sensors to determine exactly where you’re holding the controller, and how you’re holding it.

That’s all we’ve got for now! Today’s been an incredibly busy day with more updates than anybody would have ever expected. Stay tuned to The Gaming Vault for more up-to-the-minute information from E3 2010!

Portal 2 coming to PS3

Jens Erik Vaaler — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 21:14:24 +0000

Portal 2 has officially been announced for the PlayStation 3. This announcement came courtesy of a very nervous looking Gabe Newell during Sony’s E3 press conference.

“PlayStation 3 is the most open platform of all the current generation consoles and has worked extremely hard to make the platform the most desirable for consumers and developers.

As such, we are delighted to announce Portal 2 for the PlayStation 3 and believe the Steamworks support included will make it the best console version of the game,” Newell stated in a press release.

A quick launch trailer was also shown, which you can find below. It looks like the player and GLAdOS will be teaming up to fight whatever’s taken over the Aperture Science facility.

E3 2010: Sony announced Twisted Metal for PS3

Jens Erik Vaaler — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 21:01:42 +0000

Sony’s E3 press conference just wrapped up and there really wasn’t a lot of big announcements to pick and choose from. Until the end of the conference. Sony’s final bid for your time and money was David Jaffe’s Twisted Metal for the PS3.

Sweet Tooth (the crazy clown mascot for the series) came out on stage in a gigantic ice cream van along with David Jaffe from Eat Sleep Play. The audience was shown an early build of the game, which was promised to feature 16 player online matches, and 4 player split-screen.

The game promises vehicular destruction on a wide scale, with motorcycles, cars and helicopters. The demo looked very unfinished, especially with some of the physics and damage models being out of whack. But it appears to be a solid foundation. Unfortunately it didn’t really make up for the massive snoozefest that was the Sony conference.

E3 2010: Nintendo’s big Wii games for 2010 unveiled

Jens Erik Vaaler — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 18:52:38 +0000

There were some fantastic announcements during Nintendo’s E3 press conference this year, both announcements of new games, as well as an update on games we already knew about. This post is a quick summary of the games we’re expecting during 2010, which were all shown off during Nintendo’s press conference.

First up was Just Dance 2, a game made exclusively for the Wii by Ubisoft and follow up to the 2009 title. Just Dance 2 features 40+ tracks, crew face-offs with up to 8 players multiplayer, dance duets, a workout mode and more.

Next up was one of last year’s jaw droppers: Golden Sun DS, now subtitled Dark Dawn. The game looks a lot like the previous two Golden Sun games, but with an updated graphics engine. Something has gone wrong in the world of Weyard, and a new generation of heroes must rise to the challenge. The presentation video showed off three characters and we managed to catch the names Matthew and Taris on two of them. The Djinns and summons return from the first game, as well as psynergy powers, which are now controlled by the touch screen. Golden Sun Dark Dawn launches this holiday.

Warren Spector took the stage to demo Epic Mickey. He didn’t suffer the same problems during gameplay as Shigeru Miyamoto, and the audience was shown how the game works. “Disney’s Epic Mickey is the culmination of 80 years of Disney history,” Spector said, and promised that this game would “Make Mickey into the video game hero he deserves to be” but setting a new tone and direction for the famous mouse. The game’s basic mechanic is still centred around using paint and thinner to dynamically change your environment, characters, plants, everything you want. The world also changes around Mickey in response to how you play the game. Each playstyle will have its own rewards and options, and the game combines conventions from platformers, action games and RPGs. Epic Mickey launches September 16th.

Dragon Quest IX was a huge hit in Japan, so obviously it’s coming to the US. Players will be able to experience the grand interaction Japan has been experiencing on July 11^th, less than a month from now.

And during the last days of August, we will once again be hooking up with Samus Aran in Metroid: Other M. Samus’ theme played during a stylish and atmospheric trailer which showed off a rainforest level, a space base, an environment in flux, the first person viewpoint, a lava level and finally a cinematic boss fight against a fire monster. Reggie Fils-Aimee promised that Other M would contain the same sense of isolation and exploration the Metroid series is known for. The game launches August 31.

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