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View from an Outspoken Gamer #8: The One about E3 Excitement
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The pre-E3 hype is building and every gamer in the land is getting excited at the prospects of what they might see during the coming week. You can count me in as one of those people who will be hitting the refresh button on his/her favorite source of gaming news (besides Gamerandy.com of course). My work productivity will officially hit the floor and my poor wife will get to hear me get all giddy about games that won’t even come out until at least 5 months to 2 years later.

…More E3 Commentary after the jump…

I will not be able to attend the festivities with others from the site as much as I’d love to. I have higher priorities to deal with such as preparing a nursery for a Late July blessing named Brooke. I will be counting on Andy and crew, IGN, Gamespot, NEOGAF, VE3D, and Operation Sports for all of my E3 goodness so that I can plan out just how in the hell I’m going to be able to afford all of the kick ass games that are sure to be shown this year.

E3 is like a gamers version of the NFL draft, you’ve got a lot of choices but it’s not easy to tell which ones fit your needs or if they’ll even be able to compete with the other prospects. You would like to see every game live up to their expectations but deep down inside you know that quite a few are going to be let downs when they hit the shelves. It happens every year and there is no reason to think that the trend won’t continue this year. I always like to try and guess which games will shine and which ones are doomed to fail based on their showings. So I’m going to do something a little different with this article instead of my usual tirade against something. I’m going to make a list of games that I’m really looking forward to seeing and why. So without further ado, here we go……

The entire EA Sports lineup – I bet you didn’t see that coming from a mile away, huh?!? The word is that they have a new animation system in place for all of their sports lineup…does this mean that they have finally stopped using mo-cap or is it just an extension of that technology refined even more. I’m hoping that we 60fps and great animations across the board. This also should mark the debut of the NASCAR and NHL series on next-gen systems.

The 2k7 games (NBA and NHL) – After dropping the ball….wait, no, that’s not right….After grabbing your balls and tossing them off a cliff with the plastic circular feces known as MLB 2k6, maybe they’ll actually give us a next-gen game that a) plays better than last year, b) graphically looks significantly better than anything on current-gen, and finally c) actually frickin’ works WITHOUT a patch.

Gears of War – A graphical tour de force for sure but how does it play. The next Halo or the next PDZ?

Halo 3 – Yes, I know we won’t see the actual game on shelves till next year but right now, I’d just love to see one level of next-gen Halo goodness.

Mass Effect – I’m normally not big on RPGs but since this one has a sci-fi flavor to it, I’m a little more intrigued.

Metal Gear Solid – I want to see if they actually show gameplay footage this time around instead of a cutscene.

Spore – Can Will Wright top the charts for months on end again with his newest simulation game?

Command and Conquer 3 – Can they take what worked well in Generals and make a fun game that surpasses the series’ best, Red Alert 2.

Supreme Commander – Chris Taylor gets back to his roots and makes what everyone has been wanting him to do….deliver the spiritual successor to Total Annihlation….god, I hope this one delivers.

Playstation 3 – How much overhyped is this machine or will it be the must-have gaming system for this generation?

Wii – How much fun can one have with their own personal Wii? (Sorry, I just couldn’t resist)

There are of course, quite a few more titles that I will give a look but the ones I just listed are by far the most intriguing.

Next week, I’m sure I’ll have a tirade of some sort. E3 always brings at least one announcement which draws the wrath of gamers everywhere.

Posted by - May 4 06 11:27AM

3 Comments

Comments

Yes, that's just about right if you ask me. Nice one Brad!

Hawkes May 4, 2006 12:30 PM

Here's a few that are catching my eye, in addition to the ones you've already said Brad.

Alone in the Dark - Will its episodic gameplay and graphical wonder be enough to dethrone Resident Evil 4 from the Survival Horror throne?

Heavenly Sword - I've recently seen some scans of its gameplay, and boy does it look close to the E3 2005 showing (minus the cinematic camera angles).

Tony Hawk's Project 8 - ok, so most likely there will only be a small gameplay adjustment, but I'm pumped for the amazing animations (take a look at this video http://www.playsyde.com/news_2838_en.html ).

God of War II - If Sony comes through with the backwards compatibility, I'll gladly put aside some of my (eventual)PS3 games to bite into this amazing piece of work

BiA: Hells Highway - never played the 2 that were released for the PS2 (horrid reviews due to hardware performance issues),

Crysis - best. looking. foilage. ever.

Yakuza - Always wanted a Japanese GTA-esque game, and here it is.

Warhawk - Will be the first game I purchase for my shiny new PS3 this fall

Kyle May 4, 2006 01:04 PM

Looking forward to:

The next Tony Hawk for the Wii. I played the first couple of installments, then lost interest after that. But the thought of playing a skateboarding game with the new controller has me totally excited to play the franchise (and games in general) again! If you've ever been on a skateboard, then you can just imagine how well the moves (even simple things such as turning to doing an ollie) would translate to the new controller.

Red Steel. FPS and Swordplay with the new controller. Yes, I confess, I'm a Nintendo fanboy. But I'd love to see this game in action in order to find out just how well the Wii will hold up graphically in this next gen war.

Warhawk. Ok, so I'm not a complete Nintendo fanboy. This was awesome for the PS1, the sequel was rumored to be on the PS2 for a while, and so far this is the only game that has me really interested in the PS3 since I don't yet have a HD tv.

Mass Effect. Bioware. Sci Fi. Next Gen graphics. Nuff said. If this had been released at launch I probably would have bought a 360. (Now if only we could get those Advent Rising sequels...)

Wii Propietary ??? Game--I think this may have already been mentioned on this site, but in other words, the Wii's version of Pikmin, something totally unexpected that pushes the envelope in ways we wouldn't have expected.

slicethejazz May 5, 2006 09:53 AM