E3 2009 Commentary Thread

[Schuyler Colfax]

I figured this thread would have been made a while ago, but since no one did it here you go. I'm not sure why it was bumped up to be this early, the last two years it happened mid-July. I missed the Microsoft press-conference because I was at school and will be for the next couple of days while the conference is being aired. I'm trying to look up what Microsoft announced, but I'm getting much, anyone mind giving me the details.

So yeah, if you're interested it is on the G4 network and the EA press conference is starting in a bit.

[General Zod]

According to Kotaku Microsoft will be launching a Steam-style download service for full 360 games in August. That's easily the biggest announcement so far imo.

[Zac Naloen]

Bigger than Natal?

Although that is big news to me, because I rarely have time to go shopping and I have a big enough hard drive. I already have several games installed on the hard drive.

[Lord Relvenous]

According to Kotaku Microsoft will be launching a Steam-style download service for full 360 games in August. That's easily the biggest announcement so far imo.

That's awesome. However, I know that some games suffered performance drops when installed on the hard drive (mostly on Live). Is there any indication that the experience will be lessened by playing a game installed on the hard drive?

[Stark]

By 'some games' do you mean 'Halo3'?

[Zac Naloen]

nuh uh, GTA and Fifa 09

[Dorsk 81]

According to Kotaku Microsoft will be launching a Steam-style download service for full 360 games in August. That's easily the biggest announcement so far imo.

Depends on what you're looking for, I can already hear the MS fanboys declaring Metal Gear: Rising on the 360 is the death of the PS3. They had a fairly strong showing though, 2 new Halo games, Crackdown 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Metal Gear: Rising, the Natal, HD movie streaming, the facebook and twitter stuff if you're into that. Wouldn't be surprised if it's the strongest conference of the three.

[CaptHawkeye]

New Halo game announced of course. The prequel to the main series "Halo: Reach".

By the way, did anyone find the presentation for the Halo ODST a bit funny? The Rookie has access to night vision and other "gadgets the spartans didn't have" according to the Bungie rep. Remember, the Spartans are awesome soldiers with advanced supa suits that don't even have access to night vision it seems.

Crackdown 2 i'm happy to see. All they really have to do is fix the co-op functionality and it'll be golden.

MGS for the Xbox. Whatever. Console loyalty was never something I, or anybody with a life, cared about.

The Ubi conferance is in a few hours. Who wants to bet they won't announce another Silent Hunter/Naval Sim and will spend 90% of the time talking about AssCreed 2? Not that that's a bad thing.

[Stark]

By the way, did anyone find the presentation for the Halo ODST a bit funny? The Rookie has access to night vision and other "gadgets the spartans didn't have" according to the Bungie rep. Remember, the Spartans are awesome soldiers with advanced supa suits that don't even have access to night vision it seems.

Wait, are they making Reach so the SPARTANS still don't have decent HUD or powers? That's asinine. Oh well; the Halo franchise always was stupid. OFP + supersoldier = fun, but don't tell MS.

[General Zod]

According to Kotaku Microsoft will be launching a Steam-style download service for full 360 games in August. That's easily the biggest announcement so far imo.

That's awesome. However, I know that some games suffered performance drops when installed on the hard drive (mostly on Live). Is there any indication that the experience will be lessened by playing a game installed on the hard drive?

Is this a real performance drop or is it the type of "drop" that only fatty nerds care about? "ohnoes, it takes a whole 5 seconds longer to load a stage!11!1!"

[Dorsk 81]

The Old Republic at the EA conference; they said it'll be fully voiced game and gave us a very nice cinematic trailer. Plus one comment I found hilarious, the Lucasarts guy said something along the lines of "when we decided to go ahead with a SW MMO, naturally Bioware was our first choice", really? You sure it wasn't SOE?

[CaptHawkeye]

I imagine it took them much deliberation and round table discussion as to which studio they'd be better off working with.

Am I the only person who was wholly unimpressed with everything about Mass Effect 2?

[General Zod]

I imagine it took them much deliberation and round table discussion as to which studio they'd be better off working with.

Am I the only person who was wholly unimpressed with everything about Mass Effect 2?

People care about Mass Effect 2?

[Dorsk 81]

I imagine it took them much deliberation and round table discussion as to which studio they'd be better off working with.

Yea, much deliberation to come to the conclusion to not go with the guys who have a proven track record of fucking up royally with a SW MMO. Wouldn't be at all surprised if SOE pull the plug on SWG like they did MxO once TOR comes out.

Am I the only person who was wholly unimpressed with everything about Mass Effect 2?

What "everything"? They didn't really say anything about it at all that hasn't been said already and just showed a trailer which has been on the 'net for about a week.

[CaptHawkeye]

Yea, much deliberation to come to the conclusion to not go with the guys who have a proven track record of fucking up royally with a SW MMO. Wouldn't be at all surprised if SOE pull the plug on SWG like they did MxO once TOR comes out.

What is sarcasm?

SWG has been dieing a slow death since the day it was released. Some fans will say it was "good" before the NGE. But lets face it, it was always a festering pile of stat-ridden shit. To be frank, I liked KOTOR but never thought it really deserved its immense popularity.

[Dorsk 81]

What is sarcasm?

Something that doesn't work very well online.

SWG has been dieing a slow death since the day it was released. Some fans will say it was "good" before the NGE. But lets face it, it was always a festering pile of stat-ridden shit. To be frank, I liked KOTOR but never thought it really deserved its immense popularity.

It had a fairly stable player base pre-CU, nothing huge, but enough to get by. It only really started haemorrhaging subs when they pushed the CU, and then more heavily with the NGE.

[Ford Prefect]

Am I the only person who was wholly unimpressed with everything about Mass Effect 2?

Ever since I realised that we won't be playing as Geth Shepard, the game completely dropped off my radar. Yeah, we're getting a Geth party member, but Bioware is pretty hit or miss when it comes to how interesting party characters are.

[Havok]

Is there something you can link me to for ME2?

[Nephtys]

Is there something you can link me to for ME2?

All I can find is this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIOaJA-apis

tl;dw -> ZOMG SHEPARD. Maybe.

...

When I heard about how it reads old savegames for how things ended, I thought 'hey, that could be sorta cool. Perhaps since I was a ruthless bitch and killed everyone who got in my way or was convenient, they won't be around and my people will be'. Then I realized this is Bioware. That probably means there'll be two or three different lines of dialogue different, since they 'ran out of time' and just stopped caring.

Also, why must I carry a Sniper Rifle if I don't know how to use it? Ugh...

Oh. And will there be a billion more time filler missions driving your magic jeep over improbably spiky landscapes? Probably

[Schuyler Colfax]

I was really excited when Joel McHale came out, but after he left it all went downhill. Ubisoft is really tanking right now. Stop talking and actually show us something. 4 people have been out there and we have yet to see anything, they're a bit under 30 minutes into this.

[Commander 598]

They say that they reworked the inventory system for Mass Effect PC but I still think it's a shitty excuse for an inventory system.

[SylasGaunt]

I was reading an article on ME2 in this month's OXM and they said they pretty much nuked the old inventory to start over from scratch in that respect.

[Stark]

It's funny that people see that as an 'upgrade' and not 'catching up with state of the art interface design circa 1998'.

[CaptHawkeye]

Ass Effect's inventory was just the tip of the iceberg. Their were plenty of other issues with the game. Many of which had to do with the awful writing Bioware advertised as epic. And the completely two dimensional morality system which was little more than "be an asshole".

Edit: This responce was intended for Sylas.

[Stark]

Yeah but anyone over the age of 15 could have told them 'wow your inventory interface is shit'. There's an audience for crap pompous Bioware writing; there's no market for clunky interfaces.

There's a huge fanbase ready to generate excuses, though.