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E3 Expo - The
Confrences An Story by |
| On Wednesday, May 16th the
gaming world was set on fire. The three companies (Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony) held
their press confrences at the E3 Expo in California. Though Vigilante here wasn't there in
person, he was able to watch the confrences through direct feeds coming from
videogames.com. Those direct feeds showed me things that I don't believe my eyes were
quite prepared for. The world of gaming shall never be the same again. Microsoft: At bat first was the Microsoft Confrence. Now if you know me, I'm not a big promoter of this upcoming X-box. But as a reporter for Gyeah.com...I have to take the bad just as much as I do the good. The X-box confrence started off with unveling the date and price of the X-box. The unit is to be released on November 8th for $299. Not a bad price, and right at the X-mas holiday. A pretty nice date...but it won't be nice for long. Anyway, they continued on by showing some of their games...none of them looked really interesting but this Pirate game they had playable. Then they talked about some of the exclusives they had snatched up like "A.I.", "Shrek", and the "Matrix"...none of them were playable..and only AI was in demo mode. It looked pretty nice. They then allowed a Sega representative to come talk about the games they had coming for the X-box. Those titles included a new Crazy Taxi, a new House of the Dead, and their sports lineup 2k3 series. Other than the 2k3 series, nothing really EXPLOSIVE from the Sega front. They then went on about their broadband capabilities, and showed Nascar heat which was a broadband capable game where 16 players from around the world can play on one track in one race together. Pretty damn nice. They then ended their confrence, as the date (which was mistakenly said to be October 8th this time) and price were repeated. Nintendo: About a hour later, it was Nintendo's time to show off a sytem that was so secretive. Nintendo came out the gate firing. They first showed off the jaw dropping Smash Brothers game. I can do it no justice, you just have to follow the lins below and see it for yourself. Next, Miyamato (creator of Mario, Zelda, Metroid...eh...u get the point) showed off the Cube and its controller. He went through the functions of the buttons on the controller, and then showed it in action with the hot off the presses completed version of "Luigi's Mansion". He played for a pretty lenghty period showing off the lighting effects and purpose of the game (basically Luigi is supposed to meet Mario at the mansion for some reason, Mario doesn't show up and Lugi is told by some wierd doctor dude that he has to rid the house of ghosts before he'll see his brother again. He's armed with nothing but a vacuum and a flashlight.) This game looks hot people. After that Nintendo got the business side of things and named off their release dates around the world. In Japan, the Gamecube will be released on September 14th. In American, the Cube will be released on November 5th (yes folks...Xbox has just earned the rights of the "shit face").Europe gets the system in 2002. Their price will be released within the next 8 days, but when asked will it be below $250....the response was it will be "competitive". After that bombshell...Miyamto revealed a new game called Pikmin. Which appears to be an addictive game along the lines of lemmings and pokemon. You have to catch these little insect creatures, and then use them to get past puzzles and obstacles. The more you have, the easier it is to past this tasks. After that, Nintendo showed a video for some more games in their lineup...those games inlcuded "Donkey Kong Racing", "Metroid", "Zelda", "Star Fox:Dinosaur Hunter", "Mario Kart", "Waverace", "Kobe Bryant Courtside", "Mickey Mouse", and a ish load more. It was enough to clear the load of any sex deprived male. Nintendo then had a Q & A period. One question stuck out to me as hilarious. A person asked them about their onlining capabilities. Miyamato basically said...have any of the people who have online capabilities made ANY money off of it.The answer is no. He said we are doing research on it, but we aren't going to jump into if its not going to make a profit for us. Another hilarious question came in saying "Do you have any free advice to give Microsoft."..his response. "This isn't spreadsheets." Philospher to the max, no? Sony: Last up to bat was Sony, in what would have to be the absolute LONGEST confrence in history. They started late, and it was overy long. Anyway, they had speakers from EA show the new Madden 2002 for the psx2. They also had Capcom their to show off the hot "Devil May Cry". The creator of "Final Fantasy" showed a breathtaking video of the new "Final Fantasy X" and a preview of "Final Fantasy:Spirits Within" that comes out in theatres this year. They then showed "Silent Hill 2" in action and on demo, and ended off with an extra long "Metal Gear Solid 2 "trailer Sony did manage to talk in length about their new online partners, and what they plan to do with it. They have formed a deal with AOL, Real (real players), Micromedia Flash, and Cisco to create what could be one of the biggest online/video/computer gaming system ever. They haven't given out all the prices yet, but the ethernet card only costs 39.99 and will be released in November. In addition to this news, they showed a name in action called SOCCOM, a Navy Seals game that can inlcude a team of 16 people from all over the world working together as a team. The leader can yell out commands (through a headset) to the rest of the team members over the net, telling them rather they should snipe out the target, or pull out an all out war. This game looks AWESOME. The three came with the heat, but its pretty obvious that the clear cut winner of the confrence war was Nintendo. They released a date that comes out three days prior to the X-box. Something that makes the Box very red faced. They can come with the greatest games ever created on Earth, but going against Nintendo around the holidays with games people know and price you can't beat....X-box is going to have a huge battle on their hands. Sony, on the other hand, is probably smiling ear to ear. They have their two opponents going head to head with 3 days between their releases....in other words the two of them are going to knock each other off while Sony still stands on top of the mountain. But, this is only one day. Check back later to see who stands out on the rest of the e3 shows. For up to the date information, go to |
-Now that you've read something, he's written. Wouldn't you like to find out more about Vigilante? Here you go. |
