Another day of trailers and announcements gone by. Nintendo and Sony were the two main heavy hitters to toss some words around for the audience to greedily soak up. While there is still the rest of today left before the “winner” of this year’s E3 will be decided upon by the collective masses of gamers, I shall step forward to declare who I believe has already won E3. More on that later, now for a quick round of highlights.
Nintendo stepped onto the stage to chat awhile, mostly about 3D. Then up out of the floor, accompanied by a smoke machine, rose the 3DS. Interesting little hand held, looks a lot like a DSi with a shinier finish and an extra camera. This little device is capable of delivering a 3D picture on the top screen, but you aren’t stuck with everything in 3D since Nintendo graciously included the option to turn it off. I like options so you get points for that, Nintendo. Soon after the unveiling of the 3DS was the first showing of the new Kid Icarus game. Needless to say there were several members of the audience a bit excited about this.
Epic Mickey had a demo shown of it along with the announcement of Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, personally excited to get my hands on both. Of course, it would be a travesty to not mention the fact that Goldeneye will be making a triumphant return to the gaming arena as a remake featuring at least eight of the original characters playable. Goldeneye will be a Wii exclusive and also answers the question why an XBLA port of the game was refused earlier on. Interesting note, a new Kirby game is apparently in the works called Kirby’s Epic Yarn. The whole world looks like it is made of various cloth as you dash about through the side scrolling action. My one question for Nintendo: why the sudden interest in the word epic? Just now noticing its proliferation amongst the internet populace?
Several other trailers were shown, Donkey Kong game, Metroid: Other M, Dragon Quest IX. Honestly the one that really caught my eye out of all of this has to be The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. That’s right, a new LoZ game is in the works. Well, some un-confirmed rumors and leaks around the net hinted at this, but having solid proof of its development for the Wii is gratifying. Seems this new LoZ game will make heavy use of the Wii Motion Plus as you actually use the nunchuk to raise your shield and defend while slashing with the Wiimote.
Sony’s end of the E3 fun was rather interesting as well. A new Twisted Metal was announced, finally a continuation of the longest running series in PlayStation history will be coming to the PS3. Tons of fans are probably grinning like idiots, or it could have been the ice cream truck they drove out on stage that did that. Playstation Move was dated and priced officially, if you want to just grab the controller itself it will set you back $49.99. The Playstation Navigation controller is priced by itself as $29.99 but you can go out and buy a bundle pack including both controllers and a sports game for $99.99 if you planned to get both anyway.
Rumors had it that PSN was going to go subscription based and this E3 has semi-dispelled those rumors. PSN will still be free but there will also be a premium version where you can get access to content early and some content that isn’t available to free members of PSN. The service will run $49.99 for a year of service, and Sony is offering up a free three months so you can try it out before you lay down the cash.
In a shocking announcement, Steam will be coming to PS3 starting with Portal 2. It seems the bad blood between Sony and Valve has finally been laid to rest, and now Valve wants to bring the Steam platform to Sony’s console. Obviously this has Sony and PS3 owners fairly excited, for us with Xbox 360’s we will just have to keep waiting for that Team Fortress 2 update if you catch my drift.
Now, let’s get to the juicy stuff. I know it was weird for me leaving Tech Tuesday off yesterday without a video. That’s not my style. Today I promise to make it up to you by bringing you the recording of the winner of E3 in my book. Sony’s very own, Kevin Butler. This man is a gamer, and if this was all just acting. Well then he is a damn good actor. Regardless, best moment from today and has redeemed Sony for a few things in my book. Congrats Kevin Butler, you sir are the winner of E3.
