God is a Geek @ E3 2010 – Impressions

A couple of weeks ago two members of the GodisaGeek team (Asim and Calvin) were in sunny Los Angeles attending E3 2010 and after a brief recovery period (yes, it takes that long!), they have finally managed to compile together their thoughts for your reading pleasure. The big three conferences, Microsoft’s Kinect, Sony’s Move, Nintendo’s 3DS, the top publishers and the top three games – Asim and Calvin cover it all.

So, what are you waiting for?! Click here to see what Asim and Calvin had to say about E3 2010.

Calvin’s View of E3 2010

What an amazing experience! I met some great people, played some fantastic games and ate some bloody good food in LA!

As far as conferences go, I think Nintendo won it this year, with the launch of the 3DS and a bunch of great titles to go with it. Closely followed by Microsoft, who also have a load of brilliant titles and some shiny new hardware (free Xbox 360 Slim, yay!). Sony flopped on the conference front this year. Although they had some decent title announcements for their existing franchises, they had no new hardware and they lost huge points for the disrespecting of both Microsoft and Nintendo during their conference. This wasn’t funny, and it only highlighted Sony’s insecurities.

The PlayStation Move is essentially an advanced Wii remote. There’s no denying that. I must say, what it does, it does well. This to me, is exactly what the Wii should have been. I didn’t buy a Wii because of the poor graphics and the rubbish responsiveness of the infra-red system. With the PlayStation 3′s graphics and some epic responsiveness with the Move, we now have something that could actually interest me.

Xbox Kinect is another kettle of fish altogether. Now this is something new and innovative. Although it came in response to Nintendo’s motion controller, it’s not a direct copy like the Move. This is something new and refreshing. I think Dance Central showed off the Kinect’s potential best, with a dance game that requires you to actually dance (rather than stomping on pads). With dance/yoga/martial arts titles on this platform, gamers will get a lesson or two while playing.

Myself and Asim were actually asked to give our thoughts about Kinect by the US Inside Xbox team, which you can see below!

Nintendo did it again with the 3DS. This is why they’re on top. It’s innovation after innovation with this company. There’s no doubt the 3DS will sell well and keep Nintendo at the top of the handheld market for years to come. This is just what they needed, with Apple’s iOS devices creeping up, having already overtaken the Sony PSP. The 3D camera alone is enough to make me want to buy one – fantastic piece of kit! The games may give users a headache after a while, but the 3D aspect can be turned off/down. Nintendo also announced the option of partnering with movie studios to release 3D titles on the device. Interesting!

EA were probably the publisher with the most to offer this E3, especially with upcoming come-back title Medal of Honor. Their booth was one of the most interesting places in the whole expo, with a whole range of big titles including Crysis 2, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, The Sims 3 (for consoles) and Tiger Woods. I’m not going to talk about their shameless marketing scheme at the event (the Raybans were a lie!) but without a shadow of a doubt their line-up for 2010 and 2011 is impressive.

Asim’s View of E3 2010

The big three (Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo) conferences are always a huge talking point of any E3 and this year was no exception. All three companies showed off some impressive/interesting products but I thought Sony and Nintendo were joint winners of the “conference war”. Sony’s conference was balanced, they showed off Move but (unlike Microsoft) they didn’t make it a boring focal point. They also focused on new (even though they are sequels/follow-ups) exclusive titles such as Killzone 3, inFamous 2, LittleBigPlanet 2 and Twisted Metal. Add to that the “MEGATON” announcement that Portal 2 (plus Steam) is coming to the PS3 and you have one very good conference. Oh and don’t listen to Calvin, Kevin Butler and his jabs at the competition were just hilarious, truly fantastic. The other two (Nintendo and Microsoft) do it regularly so why can’t Sony react?!

There is one reason that I think Nintendo are joint winners of the “conference war” and it is called the Nintendo 3DS. We all knew the announcement was coming but they still managed to “wow” and impress the gaming world with the official reveal of their new handheld. It’s so hard to describe why the 3DS is so great, you just have to see it in person. Trust me when I say, the 3D is just superb. Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater on the 3DS…..fan-bloody-tastic! Apart from that, they also announced/showed off some good Wii titles such as Donkey Kong Country Returns, Goldeneye, Epic Mickey, Metroid: Other M and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. The latter had a rather poor on-stage demonstration but don’t worry folks, it played without any issues at the Nintendo booth!

The Microsoft conference or as I like to call it “The Kinect conference featuring other games”. Fine, maybe I’m being a bit too harsh but it’s not too far off the mark. Without a doubt, the showings of Gears of War 3, Halo: Reach and Call of Duty: Black Ops were impressive but it was all Kinect focused after that. I totally get that they want to show off their new motion “controller” but surely there has to be a limit?! For all the right reasons, the “hardcore” gamers were laughing out loud at the Microsoft conference. They did redeem themselves slightly with the announcement and unveiling of the Xbox 360 “slim” (I think it’s more squashed than slim) at the end, especially when Don Mattrick said that everyone in the theatre would get one for free. Yay!

Moving on from the conferences, the discussion at E3 2010 was “Kinect or Move?”. Well, I got to try out both of these new products and they both work quite well. As Calvin stated, Kinect is something new and different than the competition therefore in theory it should spawn some quite interesting games or, at the very least, gameplay elements. The games I got to try out at E3 didn’t really suggest that though, they were all similar to games that we have already seen on the Wii or PlayStation 3 (or even 2 for that matter if you consider the Eye Toy). The only difference, obviously, is that you are the controller. As I said earlier, despite being a little imprecise, Kinect does work and is fun to play with but the question is…..for how long?!

Move (just like Calvin stated) is the Wii remote (even with MotionPlus) but better. The motion controls are more precise and accurate. They are said to be 1:1 but at times you might not get that feeling, it totally depends on the game you are playing. The most interesting thing when it comes to move is that Sony seem to be targeting it at both the “hardcore” and “casual” market, you only have to look at the games supporting it to see that. It could definitely be a huge hit for Sony but all depends on how they market it and if the gaming public are willing to part with their hard earned cash.

Outside the big three, EA and Ubisoft were the companies that stood out for me. EA’s booth was full of some fantastic games and, quite rightfully, had queues aplenty. Crysis 2, Medal of Honor, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, Dead Space 2, MMA, Bulletstorm and NBA Jam all looked fantastic. Ubisoft didn’t skimp on the goods either, their booth had the likes of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, Driver: San Francisco, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier and the Kinect enabled, Your Shape. To add to that their conference (which was superb) showed off upcoming titles such as Rayman Origins, Child of Eden and (my personal favourite) a Michael Jackson dance game. A plethora of quality titles from both companies, I’m sure you’ll agree.

Overall, this was fantastic E3 and showed off the power of the gaming industry as a whole. I had a great time and I cannot wait to return to LA next year for E3 2011. E3 2010 gets an official GodisaGeek.com 10/10.

Asim and Calvin’s Top 3 Games of E3 2010

There you have it folks, our thoughts on E3 2010. Oh and there is no need to adjust that screen/monitor, Mortal Kombat is quite rightly our top game of E3 2010. For more detailed thoughts on why it grabbed the top spot and a whole lot more on E3 2010 listen to our latest podcast. For now, we leave you with this…..