Rather than use E3 to pile on the mountains and mountains of hype of the big-bidget titles, I’ve elected to sprinkle through our coverage the small little gems that might otherwise go unnoticed. First on the docket is AAA: Héores del Ring a lucha libre (Mexican-style higly-flying pro-wrestling) game that’ll hit your Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, and PSP on August 10 of this year. I had some quality time with it this morning and I can say this: I left the booth absolutely shocked at how thorough the game is. → Read More
Do you want to see the same Portal 2 trailer that Matt and I saw a few moments ago during Sony’s press conference? Of course you do! Also: the game’s official site isn’t live yet, but it’ll be here when it is. → Read More
SteelSeries announced at E3 today three new peripherals for the XBox 360: the Spectrum 5xb premium headset, the Spectrum 4xb entry-level headset, and the Spectrum AudioMixer which “allows any headset with a microphone and 3.5mm jacks to function with Xbox 360 gameplay and Xbox LIVE chat”. The Spectrum AudioMixer is included in the box with both the 5xb and 4xb headsets. → Read More
What’s the hottest story on Twitter right now? Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal in the World Cup? Nope. Brazil? Sorry. Work or shoot: Bryan Danielson and WWE? Nein. No, friends, the hottest story right now is the goings-on over at Nintendo. The company is on stage giving its E3 presentation, and people are sorta all over the place. Has Nintendo’s fan service worked this time around? → Read More
Next week, the world’s leading video game makers and throngs of fans and press will unite for E3, which is generally regarded as the most prominent annual gaming-focused news event. And this year, fans will be able to watch live, thanks to a live stream that’s being broadcast through a partnership between YouTube and gaming portal IGN.
YouTube will be live streaming the main press conferences (Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, EA, Ubisoft) and content from IGN’s E3 booth which will include game demos and interviews. All of this will be available on the channel YouTube.com/E3.
IGN has of course been covering E3 for as long as I can remember. But this is new territory for YouTube, which has been gradually ramping up its live streaming efforts in the last year or so. → Read More
Here we have what is allegedly a “confirmed” E3 lineup. Let’s see… Guitar Hero 6, big surprise there… Call of Duty: MMO… KI3, maybe that’s Killer Instinct 3? And what’s Mass Effect 3 doing under the Sony heading? → Read More
We’re live at Konami’s press conference at E3 in Los Angeles… → Read More
Forget Twitter, Metal Gear Solid: Rising and Project Natal, this is huge. Xbox Live is getting full, downloadable games this Fall. The games can be purchased with just a credit card meaning you don’t have to mess around with Xbox points. Nice. More as we get it. → Read More
We’re live at Microsoft’s Xbox 360 press conference at E3 in Los Angeles. → Read More
Time sure does fly. It’s been a whole year since Devin and I popped our E3 cherries and we find ourselves back in LA for what is expected to be a return to glory for the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Not much going on today except for a few parties, but I did pass the convention center on my way to the hotel and noticed that Ubisoft and Sony dropped crazy money on signage. → Read More
E3 starts next week, and while I’ll be celebrating by, I don’t know, listening to Ron and Fez all day long, Peter, Devin, and Greg will be rubbing shoulders with celebrities like Adam Sessler and the girl who used to host “Cheat.” One thing the guys might run into in between chatting up G4 production assistants: SplitFish’s new controllers, the Dual SFX Evolution and Dual SFX Frag Pro. Both are for the PS3. → Read More
Is a fancy new controller enough to “save” the PS3? We’ll find out at E3 (which is in June; several of us will be there), when Sony is now rumored to debut its motion-sensing controller. → Read More
Expect more of these ^ Come June, we will face a different E3 than recent years, and if you believe the planners, different than even the old days. The confusing, “invite only” nature of the show recently has taken such withering criticism from industry heavies that the planners have moved back to the old format, and the most outspoken critics are now effusive in their praise. Attempts by the planners to adapt E3 — such as the separate “E for All” event — have been rendered moot, and were probably non-starters anyway. It seems that E3 has a role to play, and that roll is a colossal cluster…well, you know. It’s got to be huge, it’s got to be expensive, and once again companies will have to structure their development schedules around it. Why do I get the feeling the swag won’t be as ridiculous next year? → Read More
It was rumored for a few days but now it’s official: the E3 we all know and love is coming back next year. While the Entertainment Software Association says pretty much anyone will be allowed to attend, E3 2009 won’t suffer from the excess that plagued previous expos. Journalists will still be able to meet publishers behind closed doors without having to stand next to strippers, for example. Speaking of strippers, here’s the status of booth babes, as told to Edge: Here’s the thing. Our publishers will have the maximum ability to drive energy and excitement around their titles and their products. I would expect that you’re going to see models there, but there will be controlled guildelines, just like we’ve had previous years. Sure, “controlled guidelines.” What does that mean, no full-frontal? Anyone, to recap: E3 will be fun again. Lots of folks tangentially involved in the industry running around the Convention Center; publishers spending an incredible amount of money for a blurb in a magazine or 100-word post on a blog; young models showing off their bodies in the hope of being “noticed.” Real America, in other words. → Read More
Umm… Nintendo’s E3 performance didn’t please the hardcore types, the guys and girls who were by the company’s side since the days of the NES. Now Nintendo has admitted that it should have done an overall better job at the show, that it should have done a better job at catering to its fans. Says the head of marketing, Cammie Dunaway: I would say the message is we were disappointed with our performance at E3. There were titles like Wario which we think will be really fun titles that we should have show cased. We were excited that Mr. Miyamoto made the commitment that Pikmin is coming. It would have been nice if we could have said that on stage. But, we think it was a good recognition for us that we care for our core fans, and not just the new people who are now discovering Nintendo. There’s a lot going on in that quote, but most striking (to me, at least) is the fun notion of paying attention to the company’s actual fans. The person buying Mario Does the Dishes from Wal-Mart isn’t watching E3 on G4, nor reading Web sites for up-to-the-minute information. E3 could just as well have been used to announce or show off games that appeal to these real life gamers. In other words, do casual gamers even know that E3 exists? This is largely “who cares?” material, but it’s nice to see Nintendo recognize that, yes, it still has fans, and these fans weren’t exactly happy with what went down at E3. via Edge Online → Read More
Quick, someone get Columbo on the phone, we’ve got ourselves a veritable mystery that needs solvin’. Well, that may be a bit of a stretch, but some folks are wildly speculating over the fact that Microsoft withheld a Bungie trailer that was supposed to end its press conference last week at E3. Now, the only way that could happen, the only sway Microsoft has over Bungie, is if there’s a Halo game involved. The trailer was pulled, with Microsoft saying it’ll instead debut at its own dedicated event. Perhaps Microsoft felt the incredible amount of excitement generated by E3 would have overshadowed Halo. → Read More
