Update: SCEE just confirmed with VG247 that the God of War III demo will be available to the public, but no actual date has been announced.
A rep had this to say about the demo:
“The GOW3 demo being given away with Game is only active until the 24th. Pre-orders after this date will not receive it. There will be a demo on the PSN but the date is still TBC.”
Previous: Should this information be correct, the God of War III demo should be available to the public next week on February 25th via the PlayStation Network.
It appears to be the same demo that was given out with pre-orders, the one that was released to a restricted number of PSN users, and the same demo that was playable at last year’s E3, gamescom and TGS.
God of War III is available in the US on March 16th and a tentative release date in the UK of March 19th, but the latter is still unconfirmed.
Destructoid picked upon a survey by Microsoft today indicating that it might bring E3 2010 directly to the home console, allowing people to “attend” a virtual version of the event. For free!
The service (stated to be free), would allow your Avatar to walk around a virtual show-floor of the event, with booths for all the major publishers, holding videos, trailers and possibly even demos and betas to interact with. Of course, the press conference would also be streamed, if things went according to plan.
GamesCom, BlizzCon and other gaming conventions are apparently also being looked at. Full details on this inventive idea through the link.
Developers from the East and the West sides of the planet tend to be two negative sides to a magnet. Neither can really get a hold in the other’s market place, with few exceptions.
So how about this for a universe-breaker: Square-Enix is taking a traditionally Japanese franchise, completely changing the genre to appeal to western audience, and going as far as working with a western developer to make sure the job is done right.
Short of a teaser trailer, and some basic details people have gotten from previous games in the Front Mission franchise, there wasn’t much going around. All we knew for sure was that this was supposed to be a much different game from previous entries, and western developers Double Helix would be working with Square-Enix on its creation.
We sent our man, Alex Donaldson, to get more information from E3, and he delivered in style. Below is his report on a small conference between himself and representatives from Square Enix and Double Helix.
Representing Square Enix is producer Shinji Hashimoto, and representing Double Helix is development director Jeremy Lee.
Modern Warfare 2 is shaping up to be both bigger and longer than its predecessor, Call of Duty 4. Though all Infinity Ward cares about is making the game the best game ever.
“It’s really hard to say, because it’s not done yet, it’s not balanced yet,” Infinity Ward’s Mark Rubin said at E3.
“We don’t go into it saying we need to build a 20-hour experience or a ten-hours experience. We say, ‘What’s the best fucking experience we can possibly deliver?’
Rubin added that the game’s levels will be “bigger”, but if that has to do with length of play of map size remains to be seen.
No matter how big it ends up actually being, it’ll still sell like proverbial hotcakes.
Disclaimer: This views expressed in this article are those of the writer, and do not reflect the general opinions of The Gaming Vault or its staff, so take it as is.
Why do we still have E3?
Three years ago it was announced that 2006’s E3 event would be the last event of its kind in the gaming industry. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) decided that booths, booth babes, massive press conferences from everybody and a yearly takeover of the LA Convention Centre was not worth the time, effort and money to run anymore.
To be fair to the ESA, they had good intentions. E3 was originally set up to give some credence to the emerging industry as it was in 1995. By 2006, the games industry was one of the major economic earners in entertainment, and easy access to information via the internet had began to render the show a bit of an expensive, moot, point.
Straight from Ubisoft’s press conference at E3 comes never before seen footage of the upcoming Red Steel 2, functioning exclusively with the Wii MotionPlus. The game features refined swordplay and what appears to be a western steampunk meet MadMax setting rendered in cel shaded graphics, giving Red Steel 2 the feel of playing a graphic novel.
The game will be bundled with the Wii MotionPlus at launch, which according to Ubisoft is “very exciting news”. I’ve said it before, and I’ll damn well say it again: Who says there aren’t hardcore game on the Wii?
This little piece of concept art surfaced during Miyamoto’s round table conference at E3. It’s basically concept art for the new Legend of Zelda game currently in development for the Nintendo Wii.
As you can see, Link is holding his shield in his right hand, but is strangely missing a sword. And who’s that figure standing in front of him?
The Konami press conference was naturally going to be an interesting one, simply due to the universal love for Hideo Kojima, and the hope that we would hear more about the previously announced Metal Gear Solid: Rising and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. There was also hope that we would find out about the mysterious MASK project, which had unsurprisingly fell under the radar with the Metal Gear hype machine chugging away.
The press conference started a bit late due to the number of press in attendance. People had spotted Kojima about so the general feeling was that it was to be a good conference. After a brief montage of what we were going to see today (which included stuff we had seen before, but also some new releases), the Executive Vice President of Konami came up on stage.
During Konami’s press conference at E3, Hideo Kojima took the stage to talk about some of his upcoming games. Obviously Metal Gear Solid was a huge part of the update, but a few surprises were in store as well.
First off it seems Metal Gear Solid Rising isn’t going to be Xbox 360 exclusive as it was initially assumed. Kojima said Rising is for next-gen consoles, meaning 360, PC and PS3. MGS Peace Walker was also mentioned, but nothing new other than what we saw at Sony’s press conference. Kojima wrote the entire game himself and the MGS4 team is heavily involved in the creation of the PSP exclusive.
Metal Gear Solid Arcade was announced and is being built on the PS3 engine. The game will come with special 3D goggles and features an online component so gamers can compete across arcades. Seeing as arcades aren’t as big in the West as in Japan, it’ll be interesting to see if it will even make it to our neck of the world.
Finally, Hideo Kojima’s “mask game” was revealed, and I am definitely excited about this one. A debut trailer narrated by none other than Patrick Stewart showed off Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. The trailer was full of incredible fights, huge bosses and gothic locations. Lords of Shadow is a re-imagining that’s not connected to the other games in the franchise. LoS tells the story of Gabriel, voiced by Robert Carlyle, who’s looking for “revenge and retribution”. According to Kojima, Konami found that the world audience “demands bloodthirsty action with men that wield crucifix-whips”. Could this be one of the few good 3D Castlevania games?
Lords of Shadow is being released 2010 for PS3 and Xbox 360.
The release date for Halo: Reach has been somewhat nailed down recently, with a tentative “next autumn”, rather than the “2010″ date given at Microsoft’s E3 press conference.
“We don’t have an actual firm date for it yet, but I don’t anticipate it being day and date with the game,” said a staff member at Bungie to Gamespot.
“I can say you will need the Halo 3: ODST disc to access the beta when it does become available. I can confirm that that beta will go live sometime between the release of Halo 3: ODST on September 22nd and the release of Halo: Reach next fall.”
Halo: Reach is the next “big Halo game” and will focus on a planet named “Reach” and some Spartans, though probably not Master Chief.
Peter Molyneux has just announced in a personal message at E3 that he has been promoted to creative director of the European studio branches of Microsoft Games Studios. He will still continue to oversee Lionhead Studios.
Molyneux already assumed the role as far back as March, apparently.
“What you’re not going to see is ten Peter Molyneux games,” he said. “The value of this role is for someone like myself going in and making those little tiny lights of an idea shine as brightly as possible and ensuring everybody within the organization clearly understands why we’re making those titles, the purpose of those titles and their importance to Microsoft overall.”
“All I’m going to be doing is making sure those lights are as bright as possible. People at Rare and other European studios are super, super bright and creative people and I’ll learn as much about design from them as they would from me.”
Congrats, Peter. It couldn’t have gone to a better man.
This just in from the Square Enix press conference.
Square Enix has just stated that while Final Fantasy XIV will be exclusive to PS3 and PC right now, the game is “being considered” for other formats. We can only assume that this means the game may appear on the Xbox 360 based on its success.
Although it has been confirmed to be an MMORPG like Final Fantasy XI, it will have no direct connection with that game and will be set in a new world and setting of its own.
The game will be a more casual gaming experience than the famously hardcore Final Fantasy XI, looking to draw consumers into an enjoyable experience instead of isolating new players from the game.
Team Ico main-man Fumito Ueda discussed with IGN today some of the basic mechanics behind the recently announced The Last Guardian title.
Interacting with the eagle appears to be one of the central aspects to the game. You’re free to touch the eagle whenever you like. Its reactions will differ depending on where you touch it.
There’s a care aspect for the eagle as well. You can feed the eagle and remove spears and arrows that have pierced it. Ueda feels that the development staff will have to take care to strike a balance and make sure the care aspects do not becoming a chore.
Yes, apparently that’s an eagle.
Miss the Ubisoft E3 2009 conference? Never fear, we have a recording of the Microsoft conference below as well, for you to watch, courtesy of GameSpot.
Highlights included… oh come on, It’s Ubisoft! Do you even need to ask?
A word of warning for the Beyond Good and Evil fans though, you’ll be disappointed if you were hoping to see something from the game at this year’s event. Sorry to break your hearts…
A new trailer from Fumito Ueda’s new game was revealed during Sony’s E3 press conference. The working title “Trico” has now been changed to “The Last Guardian”, but nothing new in regards to story or setting has been revealed.
The trailer was the same trailer we’ve seen previously, the little boy running around with a monster companion, solving various puzzling situations.
The difference between the two trailers was the fact that this one had been given a massive visual overhaul, sporting redefined textures and better lighting. In short, it looked absolutely beautiful, if just a bit too bright.
Michael cried, so at least he’s satisfied with the game!
© Copyright 2009 UFF Network and its owners. All rights reserved.
RPGSite
Media Vault
UFFSite
Sound-Test