E3 2009 - Commentary
So, E3 2009 is winding down and all the cards for this year are on the table. We got flashy presentations from the major players and everyone is still competing hard for every bit of disposable income that is up for grabs. The effects of online media are clear - vast majority that was said was known beforehand either because it was already announced earlier, or because the news had leaked out. Sony even made fun about the fact, indicating that they were "industry leaders - even in press leaks". MicrosoftThe first up was The Microsoft Show. Or, it could be better labeled, "The Xbox Show". The whole show was exclusively about the console. PC and Windows were conveniently forgotten. Hey, Microsoft, PC still has a larger installed base than your box, you are still the company that makes Windows and the vast majority of the games coming out this year appear also on the PC. The total burial of the fact that the PC still exists was lame. Plastic AccessoriesThe Beatles: Rock Band was the big opener and they had even dragged the surviving members of The Beatles on stage. Am I the only one that feels like the whole music game genre is getting oversaturated with constant milking of the exact same games with new audio tracks? Gamers already laughed how Activision was running Guitar Hero to the ground with constant flood of band-specific versions of the game and now Harmonix had to jump to the bandwagon. The Beatles just had to have their own game, instead of logically being yet another piece of downloadable music for Rock Band and Rock Band 2. What wasn't told on stage is that The Beatles game won't even be compatible with the existing Rock Band games - you can't transfer the songs from the disc to Rock Band 2 and any upcoming downloadable stuff from The Beatles is only for play in The Beatles: Rock Band. This is exactly the kind of thing you get when you let music executives meddle with things. Harmonix had something good going when they stated that Rock Band was a platform that would get upgraded from time to time with the songs being just content, playable on any Rock Band game. Nice theory that went out of the window already... I say "keep your crap". At this rate in a year or two we'll have a huge landfill filled with unsold plastic instruments somewhere in the Nevada desert or something... Oh, and next up Tony Hawk joined the fray with yet another overpriced piece of plastic (the skateboard controller) that looks to me like the most impractical way ever to play a skating game. I used to play early Tony Hawk games exactly because I could pull off completely silly tricks with buttons while if I'd touch a real skateboard even with my little finger, it would immediately break every bone in my body. It is a cool idea on paper, but I doubt it'll fly. Plastic Skateboards - more filler for that landfill in Nevada. Actual Games Modern Warfare 2 demoed live. The first PC-bound game, Modern Warfare 2, looked okay. Then the mood was killed by the announcement that DLC map packs would be (timed) Xbox 360 exclusives. Thanks a lot. First of all, if you have maps already planned, why not stick them on the disc instead of milking for them as DLC and second - platform-specific exclusive extra content is lame. I wouldn't mind playing the GTA IV DLC content even with the current price tag attached, but as long as it is tied to the technologically inferior Xbox 360 version, I'm spending my time and money elsewhere. Same will be true here. Then Microsoft kept on boasting about Final Fantasy XIII and finally had code to show on Xbox 360. Still no word on a potential PC port - Square could do it, their development environment is multiplatform. It is just a business decision - console manufacturers are paying off so they sell more hardware. Epic's rumored "epic" announcement was a major let-down. They announced Shadow Complex - a Xbox LIVE Arcade game that isn't even developed by Epic's in-house team and a game that is a 2D sidescrolling shooter-platformer. When Bionic Commando was remade for LIVE Arcade, it was cute. This is... unimpressive. It could be a good game, but it wasn't what people were expecting. Then Microsoft went to the dark side. "Joy Ride" - Free to play LIVE Arcade racer where you can waste Microsoft Points to win. The day that the UN passes a decree that outlaws the "F2P" online multiplayer games as a business model cannot come soon enough. I couldn't care less if the game is fun to play or whatever - as long as it asks me to buy my way to victory by nickel-and-diming with gameplay-affecting items and upgrades, it should be burned. I hope this flops hard. Left 4 Dead 2!While there were some rumors pre-E3, it seemed improbable... a Left 4 Dead sequel? Already? Maybe they are mistaken - maybe it would be an expansion pack with additional levels or something... Nope. It's a full-blown sequel with new characters, new weapons and new levels. Looked damn good and contrary to the whiners, I think it'll be worth another full price. Left 4 Dead gameplay was just that good and with the gameplay improvements promised with the sequel, it is a fair deal. It is somewhat un-Valve of Valve, but I guess they had to do a sequel because that allows you to put out a fresh new box for Xbox 360. Xbox 360 ExclusivesForza 3 spelled out Microsoft's upper hand in gory detail to the tune of "Sony doesn't have Gran Turismo 5 ready before 2085 or something, so lets keep hitting them where it hurts". Halo 3: ODST - "Let's milk Halo a bit more" and to top things up, Halo: Reach or "Let's milk Halo even more". Whatever happened to releasing a sequel first, then worrying about the next one? And yes, it was later confirmed that Halo: Reach is also a FPS.
Then... Alan Wake. Looked damn good, even if the bit shown was very linear. I want to see the open world bits! It is obviously an exclusive title to the Xbox 360 on consoles, but the complete absence of any mention of the PC once again left many worried. I've poked and prodded Remedy on the subject, but so far they have refused to answer any questions about the PC version of Alan Wake. What little has been said by Remedy on Alan Wake forums indicates that a PC version obviously does exist, but... could it be that Microsoft is dictating a timed Xbox 360 exclusivity? They are the publisher, they are able to make such a call. I hope my worries are unfounded as I'd hate to play this on a gamepad. Spring 2010 - at least on the Xbox. Oh, and a Xbox 360 Metal Gear Solid game was announced. Except that a later Konami presentation confirmed that the Xbox 360 exclusivity that was implied wasn't actually true. I know, Microsoft never claimed it to be an exclusive, they just stuck it at such a point in their presentation that it was implied. In any case, the game will also appear on PS3 and PC whenever it'll be ready. It could be a long wait as almost nothing was shown. Things That Are Not GamesThen came the bits that had nothing to do with games. The expansion of the video store to a number of new countries was welcome news, as was the potential for 1080p streaming HD movies - assuming, I presume, you have tons of bandwidth and your ISP hasn't turned your connection to "web surfing only" with silly usage caps. I'm sure big media ISPs like Time Warner are already preparing for deals of special uncapped usage for stuff that comes from the Xbox video store - asking you to pay (directly or indirectly) extra for the bandwidth used. In any case, the concept of easy online access to HD movies without any silly discs (die Blu-ray) is a welcome one. On the other hand, with discs you can just import the movie from US when it is released and you can skip waiting for the often late local release in Europe. The release windows of movies have shrunk (thank you, online piracy), so I hope it is less of an issue whenever this system becomes practical. The only open question is pricing. Knowing the movie studios, they will probably do the usual seppuku move by pricing it way too high. People are willing to pay about $10 for a permanent copy of a movie and perhaps $2-$3 for a single viewing (rental, streaming). Yet Blu-ray is currently busy committing suicide by overpricing and even normal DVDs are trying hard to keep the price point closer to $20. I'm sure they'll continue the pattern with the Xbox 360 service. As for last.fm, it is a nice attempt at providing more value for people paying for LIVE Gold membership, but I don't see Xbox 360 as a jukebox myself. Silly Bits Facebook? Oh my... Then things went silly. Facebook and Twitter. On a console. Bonus points for Felicia Day on stage, but this seems just... silly. On the other hand, it was somewhat unusual to see Microsoft embracing existing services from third parties instead of trying to divide and conquer with their own rip off. Okay, Microsoft has a stake in Facebook, so that explains that in a way, but Twitter... it is obviously easy to implement and it is "in" at the moment, so why not. I personally know some facebook addicts and twitterheads who were impressed. I'm not one of them. Microsoft naturally failed to mention the fun fact that both PS3 and Wii have Twitter and Facebook available right now, just like they have every other thing you can find on the web, simply because PS3 and Wii both have web browsers. Xbox 360 does not. Of course all that was nothing compared to the final reveal. Project Natal or "Look at Microsoft airheads going bonkers about a glorified Eye Toy". Sure, their "vision" on what Project Natal could do was impressive. It was also rigged as hell. I'll remind everyone about two suitable quotes that fit the occasion: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo" and "Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary proof". I'm sorry, I didn't fall for their rigged demo and I'm not buying that this is practical.
The early video was clearly a bunch of actors showing off as if they were playing poorly rendered "games" that were nothing but poor mock-ups. The on-stage demo was only marginally more impressive than what was possible to do with Eye Toy on the PS2 years ago and it constantly showed how imprecise the thing was - the hands of that avatar looked plain hilarious, twisting into silly positions and the "human breakout" wasn't much better. It also looked far too much like exercise. Yuck. As for the Milo demo - it had some impressive moments, but I don't buy it. It was the ultimate rigged demo. The quote demanding for extraordinary proof came to mind, especially as Peter Molyneux is involved. Sorry, you have burned so much credibility with false or half-true pre-launch hype related to games you have been involved with that you have none left. Overall Microsoft has a good idea, but I'm nowhere close to being sold that it is a) something they can actually implement or b) something that is actually practical to use. The reason why Wii's waggle controls work is because you have a physical object to hold and even the WiiMote is useful only for a very limited subset of games designed for it. Minority Report-style UIs look damn cool on the movie screen, but that's all they do - look cool. Besides, any game that, by design, cannot be played while sitting down is epic fail. Yes, I'm a proud member of Gamers Against Exercise, dammit. Stop trying to get me up from my couch. Omissions by MicrosoftInteresting omissions in the Microsoft event included the complete abandonment of Games for Windows LIVE. Not even a logo or a mention to go with the Xbox 360 one when presenting obviously multiplatform games. It is as if Microsoft decided to deep-six Windows as a gaming platform. I'm sure they had the event jam-packed with so many important bits that it just "fell off" due to lack of time, but it speaks volumes about Microsoft's priorities. They want to sell you Xboxes and they want to control your living room. Kneel, peon. Yes, I know that E3 is mostly a "mass market, retail" show, but still... it has been proven over and over again that PC is not dead, not dying and not even wounded as more people play on the PC than on any other platform. They just don't want to pay to Microsoft every time they buy a new game (thanks to the massive licensing fees MS cuts off every Xbox game sold). Another interesting omission was Mass Effect 2, but that became understandable after EA press event. EA probably wanted to keep it for themselves. As for other multiplatform games - many were used as primary draws for publisher-specific events and I'm sure Microsoft wanted to minimize the time spent on titles that everyone knows they'll also be able to play on the PS3.
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