Thread: E3 2008 thread

Originally Posted by Iron Duke

I may be the only VIII and IX fan here I guess. I enjoyed them both (and liked VII, but it wasn't my favorite and I've never understood the hype), although the sheer amount of cutscenes in IX DID overwhelm the gameplay, IMO. VI is still the best. Wish I had bought a PS2 to play XII.

I really, really liked IX. I loved the characters and it had the best music of the series in my opinion. FF VII is still my favorite though - probably my favorite game of all time.

XII didn't have a great story, but I really liked the gameplay. It was ****ing addicting. It also has in my view the hardest boss of any FF game.

Microsoft had the best presentation and their work on improving the online interactive experience of console gaming eclipses everyone else.

Curious to see if Fallout 3 captures the fun of the first two. They really only showed-off the shooter elements.

Originally Posted by TooCool

Why did they make E3 so small again? I can't remember.

But E3 is still "huge" in a way. The Tokyo Game Show is pretty big too, in terms of announcing new things. But I think E3 is still the main one.

Also, didn't E3 used to be around during May or so? Not in July.

Last year was the first iteration of the small E3. There were two basic factors to downsize, from what I understand about it.

1) The small companies were complaining that they couldn't compete for Press with the larger companies at E3, since the larger companies were pouring millions of dollars into their booths.

2) The larger companies were complaining that E3 had gotten out of hand and was too expensive. Was the press coverage really worth the money they were spending?

Keep in mind that E3 was NEVER a consumer show. So companies were spending millions of dollars - MILLIONS of dollars - to impress each other. It was really a multi-faceted show in the past, with all the retailers meeting with each company's sales team, all the editors from the press seeing previews of the games for the first time, and all the PD guys trying to find the next developer with a new/original game and idea. Now it's just a PR event.

Yes, it used to be held in May. I think one of the reasons to move the show to July is because the games are closer to being final for the holidays, so they look nicer and are more complete. Trying to show a game in May created a lot of problems for developers. Nobody really programs a game that can be played from the start. It's usually in pieces of code that comes together at the very end, then is optimized for frame rate issues and bug fixing before it launches. In February/March, they had to stop what they were doing on the game, program a separate "E3 Demo" that was really like smoke and mirrors, and try to impress everyone with it. After the show, they had to go back to the old code again. I would guess that more of the games at E3 are now "content complete" and actually full games that can be played from start to finish, granted with some bugs, flaws, and frame rate issues.

All it's good for now is the news. I didn't even make it down there - too much trouble for what they had to offer.

Originally Posted by chaingunsofdoom

I kept hearing speculation and rumor but that's about it. Since both of their systems are money printing machines, they must've felt like 'why bother with E3?'. At least they only showed the same shooter every other console will have: COD 5. MS and Sony both had FPS overload going-on. Speaking of which...

Sony's presentation was almost as bad. Resistance 2 did not look eyeball-bleedingly good. That big monster just stands there for the whole level while you fire rockets into its mouth? Huh? GOW2 looked better from what I saw.

I hear ya on the Nintendo part. Their thinking right now is "don't bite the hand that feeds you" There's no way they're going to ditch casual gaming (i.e. soccer moms, puzzle games, party games, lame waggling games, etc.) if it's giving them the market lead, which it is. My main beef is, don't come out and say, we're gonna give the core something to be proud about, and then totally ignore that. But there is precedence for this. Last year's E3 had no mention of Metroid Prime: Corruption, or SSBB, and yet those came out within a year. Now, the release schedule certainly has nothing of that magnitude lined up for the near future, but there is definitely a new Pikmin and Zelda on the way, possibly Kid Icarus, and a possible sequel to Super Mario Galaxy (which I personally doubt, 1% chance of happening)


PS - couldn't they have showcased The Conduit? It looks awesome, and is exactly what fans have been clamoring for. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out the videos on IGN