Wi-Philes

At last year's E3, I had a chance to test out Need for Speed: Shift.  It was probably the most realistic racing-sim I've ever played, apart from driving a real car.  But with Need for Speed: Shift, like many of EA's Wii games, EA Montreal had to custom-build a version based on the specifications (see: limitations) of the system.  The result isn't comparable to a next-gen racer, but it still has merit as a fun, worthwhile arcade racer.

Nitro is designed as a pick-up-and-play arcade racer for all audiences with a simple control scheme.  You have the basic controls of acceleration, steering and drifting which all feel pretty natural.  Drifting around corners could use some minor tweaking though, as it feels a little clunky coming out of drifts which really slows the pace down.  The single low camera view behind the car can cause a little trouble in certain parts of a race too.  I wouldn't think it would be too difficult to add another camera mode slightly above the car.  The fun part comes when using nitro boosts, which are continuously replenished based on racing performance, by shaking the Wii remote.

And that's what makes games like these enjoyable: sense of speed.  Two particular games that I can liken this to are 1080: Avalanche and F-Zero GX on the gamecube.  Using the nitro boosts gives a feeling of being sucked back into the crazy blur of speed, all while running at sixty frames a second.  The vibrant locales and sunny city streets only add more to this.  While it does look great as a whole, there's not much variation in the five global cities you can choose from.

The real meat of this game comes in career mode.  This puts you in the role of a rookie street racer working your way around the world and collecting cash to buy more powerful supercars.  Everything is done through a star system.  You get stars by completing circuit races, time attacks and other fun events, which then unlocks new cities and various upgrades in your shop.  There's some challenge to these events, but not so much that you have to be a perfect racer to complete everything.  Unlocking challenges and new cars is a very rewarding aspect of this.

The unlockable car selection is vast and somewhat true to their real-life counterparts.  You'll start out with only enough money for a cheap Volkswagon with eventually enough to buy a Lambourghini and many cars in-between.  Car enthusiasts should love all of the choices, as well as paint and body modification options.  But the cars do have a slight cartoony disproportionate look to match the feel of the game.

Contrary to some nuances in the car's design, the engines sound incredible.  Each one has a distinct roar as it shifts up which adds some realism to an otherwise static tone.  The soundtrack is par for street racing including a lot of hip hop, Spanish and rock from smaller bands.

Need for Speed: Nitro is a step in the right direction for racing games.  It's a fun arcade racer, but still lacks some depth with things like generic tracks and no online.  If you're looking for an entertaining racer on the Wii, this one should definitely be considered.

I originally thought about putting off my thoughts on this show until a few weeks in, but the pilot episode was just too good. It managed to introduce most of the characters at a quick pace and I never lost interest for more than a few seconds.

Community is about a diverse group of community college students centered around Joel McHale who plays a former lawyer now returning to school to get a real degree. His character reminds me of Jason Bateman in Arrested Development. He's a likeable, fast-talking guy who holds the group together. He meets up with a girl who resembles Elisabeth Shue and starts having a back-and-forth relationship that I can see lasting the whole series.

Chevy Chase plays the old dude. If you've ever seen The Office (US version), he's like a Creed-lite; delusional and old-fashioned with a little bit of crazy. They threw in an Indian, or some dark-skinned Asian guy, who may or may not be the same guy from Parks and Recreation without a beard. And he has Asperger's. There are also appearances from John Oliver of Daily Show fame and some other enjoyable minor characters.

The second episode airs Thursday night at 9:30 ET on NBC. I think anyone would find enough enjoyment in the series to at least last until 30 Rock comes back in October.

I ended up playing roughly 23 games at E3 this year. I didn't get to play any on Tuesday due to the Nintendo and Sony press conference and an interview but it's something I guess. And I know I missed a lot of games like the new Zelda, Left 4 Dead 2, Endless Ocean 2, Trauma Team and so on but it's a good read nonetheless if you have the time to read nearly 3,000 words worth of impressions.

101-in-1 (Wii)

The lady at the Atlus booth told me this was similar to a bargain version of Rayman Raving Rabbids, which is "like 50 or 60 dollars". I think this game is $20. Of course I didn't play all 101 minigames, just one where you're a bear and you throw a tiny person across a lake or something. I then used the Wiimote to guide my little character across boost pads and out of the way of flying birds until I stopped and got a distance score. The games all don't look that good but someone might like this for the price and amount of games.

Fight Night Round 4 (PS3)

I've never held a PS3 controller in my hands before and I only played Round 2 back on the gamecube but I decided to give this a shot since there was nobody in line. The game has a good list of playable characters including Muhammad Ali whom I chose. So I started playing and then I couldn't figure out how to punch. I pressed all of the buttons the little sticky paper next to the console told me to, but my character kept headbutting and grappling the other fighter. A few minutes later I figured out that I had to press those buttons while tilting the control stick in a certain direction and after that things went pretty smoothly. It's standard boxing affair and I really don't have anything else to say about it.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game (PS3)

I was really excited about this game because I liked the Ghostbuster series. The first thing I noticed, in the demo at least, is the amount of text and cutscenes. Some people played this for a good 15 minutes while others got bored and left because they didn't want to listen to Bill Murray and his lame jokes. Those amount of dialogue was probably a bad choice for a game demo but I just tested out the controls while listening to them. The gameplay is comparable to a real version of Luigi's Mansion but instead of sucking up ghosts you lead them over traps and have the option of slamming them down and it focuses on teamwork too.

Need for Speed: Shift (360)

They had a demo of this right in the corner of a hallway and some others at a NOS (that energy drink) party. The controls are pretty simple with gas on the right, brake on the left and a drift button for curves with the A button. Probably the most realistic racer I played at the show. They were having a contest to see who could get the most points by following a path with arrows along the middle of the track, and you also got points for passing gracefully and placing in the top three. It handled pretty realistically but I thought the blur effects when crashing and tight corners slowed down the gameplay.

Grand Slam Tennis (Wii)

This was the first time I tried out the Wii motion plus attachment. It handles better than a standard Wiimote but still had minor problems. The game is similar to Wii sports except a little more accurate and with real life Mii-ish versions of famous athletes. The controls were pretty accurate but it felt like things were moving in slow motion. It was pretty fun but still not the perfect tennis experience yet.

Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing (360)

I was the only the only one playing this the first time I tried it out. I would describe it as simple, more of a game kids would like. They had two playable tracks in the demo. One was a Billy Hatcher inspired level and another was something like a Green Hill Zone track. I think myself and most of the other staff who played this thought it was decent but not that great. It has some ok powerups like bananas, missiles and specials like super sonic that makes things a little more interesting.

Bayonetta (PS3)

This game looks pretty cool. It reminds me of a more stylish version of P.N.03. It controls fast and smooth too. I didn't make it very far before I died but some people played against one of the bosses and used some weird attack where her hair turns into a giant dog and rips the other monster apart. Probably the most popular game at Sega's booth.

Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games (Wii)

I played on the balance board for the skiing demo of this game. I was told the balance board is optional but it helps. To get Sonic going down the slopes I held the Wiimote and nunchuk in both hands and waved downward. Then it was a matter of shifting my weight side to side to go through flags before my time ran out, similar to time attack in the original 1080.

Wire Way (DS)

Nobody was playing this in Konami's booth but I decided to give it a shot. It's a pretty easy pick up and play platformer where you guide a tiny alien onto bouncy wires to the end of a level. The rubber band physics worked pretty well but I'm hoping this is a budget game.

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (Wii)

This game has a creepy vibe to it, no question about that. I was wearing headphones which may have added to the feel. I started off in what I believe was the middle of the demo in a schoolyard environment equipped with my flashlight. I found some empty beer bottles and shook them with the Wiimote to find some keys which led to me to a wintry abandoned road outside. Then I wandered into a diner to talk with some woman before wandering around opening cabinets and then left.

Afrika (PS3)

I asked a guy from Natsume if this was similar to Pokemon Snap. He said a lot of people had compared it to that but he'd never heard of it. Then I asked him if I could run over the animals with my Jeep to which he also replied no. The graphics also looked kind of bad so I asked him if this was a PS2 (I can't tell the controllers apart) and he also replied no. Then I asked him if I could have one of the Harvest Moon bags he was carrying and he said ok, and then I left.

Mini Ninjas (Wii)

I saw Matt Casamassina play this game for about a minute and then walk away which doesn't surprise me. The graphics are pretty bad with the worst draw distance I've seen this generation. It's full of Asian-y generic writing and ninja items. The booth had a nice presentation with bamboo trees and the fakest looking grass ever, but not many people were playing this.

The Conduit (Wii)

Sega had this set up in three different areas. Multiplayer was at their own booth, then one single player demo in Nintendo's booth and I think a few more in Sega's. It was cool to see Tony Mecca, the guy I interviewed, walking around. Chief creative officer Eric Nofsinger was also there and he was much taller and punk-ish than I thought he'd be.

Multiplayer mode was fun even if I died way more times than I should have. There was zero lag and the graphics looked amazing, for a Wii game that is. Aiming was a little loose for me so I adjusted my bounding box to a smaller size for a slower turn. Shooting is fun and controls just like a Metroid Prime game, with other customizable controls. Grenades can also be thrown through the aiming reticle which feels pretty natural. I'm really impressed with what HVS has done making a game like this and getting it out there. If they can nail the story and the long-term aspects, this could turn out extremely well.

Saw (PS3)

I don't know why they're making a Saw game now, or if this is based on any particular movie. It had a vibe similar to Silent Hill but more mature. I started off in a dingy bathroom with one of those head clamps seen in the movie so I had to get that off in a limited amount of time by pressing a series of buttons. After rotating the control stick and press a few buttons as the ticking got faster, I popped it right off. Then I wandered around the bathroom looking for a way out but couldn't figure out how to open the door, and there was nobody from Konami in the area so I left.

Tony Hawk: Ride (PS3?)

I think a lot of people were interested in this just to try out the new skateboard peripheral. The skateboard itself is all black plastic and is a little heavier and solid than the real thing. The sign said it supports 250 lbs. The demo guy Activision had was probably the most helpful one at the convention and clearly explained how to pull off every move. I started with Tony Hawk in a large skate park in Venice Beach, which looked nothing like the Venice Beach I experienced. To start off, I had to flip my board up and down (not sure if there's a name for that) to get started and then slide my foot past the side sensors to start moving.

It's a little difficult to balance on the board, maybe it was the carpeting or maybe because I have bad balance. I started to get the hang of shifting left and right around curve and straightening out. Then to grind along a rail I had to perform an ollie by kicking up and shifting weight to my back leg. Next, the guy had me turn the board sideways for the half pipe stage. Tricks were the funnest part of the demo for myself, even if I didn't get the hang of it until near the end. I tried to do a 180 and 360, I think by turning the board 90 degrees and holding it. Then I did a few nose grabs by placing my hands in front of the sensors, and some other combination of tricks by doing the same on the two near the sides of the board.

Pinball Hall of Fame: Williams Collection (360)

This is the same as the Wii version but with three more added pinball tables and better graphics. I'd recommend the Wii version and probably this game to anyone.

Real Heroes Firefighter (Wii)

Crave had some kid who looked younger than me walk me through this. He was actually kind of snarky and didn't help much until I ran out of options but he was fun to talk to. Basically you're a rookie firefighter in this game who's stuck in a burning building. I kept dying near the beginning because of these blue gas leaks that I just stood in but I figured out how to run through them pretty quickly. Then I did typical fireman things with the Wii Remote. I put out some fires and then used an axe to knock out some windows so I could see inside a warehouse. Inside was a guy I needed to rescue so I grabbed him and then fire started spreading all around me. And because I was lugging around some guy on my shoulder I ended up dying quickly after that.

Red Steel 2 (Wii)

Gareth and a few other people told me they liked this game. A French person from Ubisoft who did some animation led me through the demo. The graphics look better this time around with the cel shaded Western look. Red Steel 2 definitely has more precision with Wii Motion Plus. It's not as accurate as people in the trailer make it look but it's better than the first. The demo was a little tiring because of the amount of enemies. The normal bad guys could be taken down in a few katana swipes or gunshots, while ones with armor were more difficult. I was told to swing the Wiimote harder to break the armor which made me a little sore after a while. The guy next to me mentioned that too. At the end I faced against a boss with a giant hammer. I waited until he swung and missed before shooting and slicing him in the back with a downward slash and defeated him pretty easily.

Wii Sports Resort (Wii)

I saw them giving away free frisbees so I had to play this. After waiting in line under distracting bright lights at Nintendo's booth, the guy next to me asked if he wanted to do the swordplay minigame and I accepted. The Nintendo rep claimed everything was 1 to 1 movement with the Wii Motion Plus attachment which is true even if it's not perfect. The game I played had more waggle than I would have liked. I tried stabbing at my partner and blocking before we both decided to wave our Wiimotes back and forth. This worked surprisingly well. I tried blocking but to no avail, he kept hitting me closer to the edge of the ring. This game didn't go over so well with me but that's not to say others were more fun. The people next to me were playing a two player canoe game which sounds boring but it looked to control just like rowing a real canoe. And some other staff members said archery was fun.

Muramasa: The Demon Blade (Wii)

This game looks beautiful. It's a lot like Odin Sphere with the hand-drawn art style. I didn't play much besides some casual katana wielding with the female character in my demo. Adam seemed to be impressed by it and I'm sure it will turn out great.

Resident Evil Darkside Chronicles (Wii)

I played this with a lovely young lady from Capcom while a guy explained details of the game. I liked playing this because I could tell everyone was tired so we just talked about random stuff while blasting zombies. The demo was a little slow with lots of cutscenes and very little zombies, probably because it was on an easier mode. We played in a dark building from Code Veronica which looked like a concentration camp as the Capcom rep next to me described it. We continued talking and shooting zombies and dogs for a while just taking things at a slow pace. Like I did with some other demos, I asked if I could kill my teammate and I tried and found out I couldn't. I also asked the guy from Capcom if there would ever be a true Resident Evil 2 remake. He said he got that question a lot but didn't know anything about that or something along those lines.

Sin & Punishment 2 (Wii)

I really liked this game. I played as Isa (Saki's son) who has this short range sword attack compared to the other character, Kachi, who has some other special attack. It played a lot like the first game with the only major difference I saw was the ability to hover with a jetpack by tapping C if I remember correctly. I played in an urban area like what was shown in the trailer last year with all types of flying enemies and a birdlike creature near the end. I can't remember everything on the screen so I just shot at just about everything, like any rail shooter with infinite ammo. Anyone who played the first should like the fast-paced action in this one.

New Super Mario Bros. (Wii)

I predicted seeing a New Super Mario Bros. game on the DS, but I wasn't expecting this kind of game on the Wii. It's basically the same as the DS version with four players and better graphics. Three other players and I had ten minutes to try out three stages. The first stage was standard Mario affair, green hills and the like. I died a few times but came back in a bubble where my teammates then had the option of getting me out by jumping into me, which they did. The ice stage was pretty fun. Somebody got a penguin suit which he used to freeze some enemies. The last stage was like Bowser's castle with lava and giant gears floating in midair. I got squished and fell into the lava a lot of times because I was just messing around. Two people made it to the end where they faced one of the Koopalings on a bridge and took him down pretty easily.

Let me start by saying that no company "won" E3.  It is difficult to judge them, for me at least, because I haven't gotten much sleep lately and I've been more wowed by the initial atmosphere itself rather than watching the live streams on a computer.  I'll probably put together some video of my perspective of the conferences and other events later.  I think all of the n-philes staff (at the hotel at least) went to Microsoft, Ubisoft and Nintendo's conference.  And technically we didn't get invited to Sony's, but a few of us decided to sneak into the conference uninvited, which was pretty easy.  I think just about anyone can get into one of these conferences, besides Nintendo, if they blend in with the crowd and walk into the theatre.  So I guess I'll give you all a rundown of the big four, excluding EA because nobody cares about them.

Microsoft

Microsoft was pretty similar to Sony.  I really wasn't expecting to see Yoko Ono and other celebrities at the beginning.  But it was all pretty commercialized since they only came out for like a minute, told a joke or something, and then left.  The amazing sound system and blinding lights in the Galen Center also got everyone pretty hyped.  In terms of games, there wasn't too much out of the ordinary.  Nothing was too out of the ordinary, besides that Natal thing.  The best part of the conference for me, and perhaps my favorite moment since coming to LA, was the part where that dude-in-the-orange-shirt's avatar starting glitching like it was having a seizure when he demonstrated Natal's technology.  All of the interconnectivity between social networks and the Xbox 360 was kind of good for most audiences and tried to bridge gaps between different gamers, which seems to be the trend this year.

Ubisoft

I think Ubisoft tied Microsoft with celebrity presence.  Joel McHale was great and improved some jokes and seemed pretty loose with the whole conference.  But I did hate how he made it tried to sound like he was pesonally connected with Ubisoft at the beginning, when he probably knew very little about the company before getting asked to do this.  Then there was James Cameron.  I know Jordan was asleep for most of his 30 or so minute long presentation where Mr. Cameron basically summarized the entire Avatar series with unnecessary information.  I guess Ubisoft's had an amazing press conference in terms of how hilariously weird it was.  When the president of Ubisoft announced the Imagine series as the best selling NDS series, there was an eerie calmness that could be felt when maybe one person clapped afterward.  The Los Angeles theatre was pretty cool though and I give them credit for giving some of the larger companies at least some competition.

Nintendo

Nintendo gets a Z- for presentation in my book.  Why would they hold the conference in a small room and trick us when we think there are live people on a stage?  It was probably best for people like Cammie Dunaway to be protected from the angry "hardcore" gamers after hearing however many casual spinoffs were announced during the first half of the conference.  The weirdest new idea definitely goes to the Vitality Sensor.  I don't even know what that is.  It sounds like one of those love test machines I used to waste money on at movie theatres when I was a kid, or some astrology bullshit that doesn't even work.  Regardless of bad presentation, Reggie did address the hardcore crowd with a new Metroid and Mario Galaxy 2 which is something to look forward to, even if it won't be released for a while.

Sony

Sony had some great game announcements with pretty decent presentation throughout the show, even if they didn't have the celebrity apeal like Microsoft or Ubisoft.  They definitely had the most cheers, and it wasn't just forced claps like during parts of the other conferences.  The presenters knew how to demo the games and everyone cheered during most big moments in Assassin's Creed 2 or God of War III.  And most everyone loved their knew motion controller prototype.  It's definitely smoother than Wii Motion Plus with the most accurate 1 to 1 movements shown yet.

Six months ago I didn't know I would be writing for a video game news site and I hadn't even thought about e3 after Nintendo's embarrassing press conference last year. Hitler and I are on the same page on that subject. But this year's show promises to be the best one ever, or at least better than '07 and '08. Needless to say I'm slowly starting to get excited about all of this.

The thing is, I've never been to L.A. and know very little about the city. So to familiarize myself with the area I couldn't think of a better way than to play True Crime: Streets of LA. on my GameCube. As most people know, the game is modeled after the city itself and is like a poor man's version of GTA. I don't have any intention to ever finish the game because it's just more fun to drive around the city than to do any missions. And I'm surprised to say that after casually playing it for a while I now know most of the city just as well as any other I've been to. It's more fun to learn while killing innocent civilians than it is just staring at a map.


That off-white building on the corner is where our hotel is. It looks a lot like the actual thing with the palm tree out in front, but I'm sure that wasn't intentional.


I have no idea how this happened. I was just standing outside the hotel. :/


Some gamers headed off to the convention centers. There are a lot of twins in this city...


And there's the convention center. Nextdoor is the staples center.

Well, we've got a lot of great interviews/impressions lined up concerning the convention itself. Besides the bare bones features we'll probably have some unplanned articles and more original/personal stories, because that seems to be what our forum users want. I think myself and other staff members agree that we're always game for new suggestions on what you want to see, even if you're like Hilary and suggest that we "find out some stuff about video games." Don't worry, we got that covered.

So I've compiled this short list of what could happen or I expect to happen at e3 this year. I'll probably do this list format for all future impressions too since it's easier that way:
-high voltage software will have playable demos of The Conduit before it releases in late June, and two new Wii titles, one of which is another FPS, that's been confirmed
-we have to see something with Pikmin 3, playable demos are possible
-a new mario bros. Game, maybe New Super Mario Bros. 2 on the DS will be announced
-new starfox game
-don't think we'll see a Zelda game until one on the Wii next year
-Red Steel 2 info, maybe playable
-a new kirby or donkey kong game, but it will be a spinoff like Canvas Curse or Donkey Konga
-an educational wii game for children or some new family oriented game
-new Tales of Graces info
-some more Beyond Good & Evil 2
-Assassins Creed 2
-God of War III
-I hope to see some more Dead Rising 2
-probably see a No More Heroes 2 playable demo at e3, or soon afterward

I'm not making any outlandish predictions on other consoles, but I'm pretty sure Nintendo HAS to deliver to their fans this year more than ever.