Be Excellent To Each Other

So we have around a week till E3 kicks off and we know that Nintendo will be talking about their new home console (Project Café) , that Sony will talk about the NGP , and that Microsoft may hint around a 360 replacement.

We also have a million game trailers and teasers which will be shown including stuff on COD / BF / GOW along with all the other big titles for the end of this year start of next (Mass Effect 3 / Last Guardian / Elder Scrolls 5).

Whats your E3 predictions , what do you think will be shown , what surprises do you think the various teams have up their sleeves ?

I want a release date for Animal Crosing 3DS.

Everything else will be a disappointment.

Surely, this is the year Shenmue 3 gets announced.

Nintendo

Nintendo Project Cafe will be bright orange and will be called the Nintendo Rainbow. The joy pads will be a beige creamy colour, similar to smoke stained controllers and carts of the SNES days, to help appeal to the smoking crowd.
Unfortunately the joy pads are controlled by both your feet and one elbow and 5 Styluses in each of your orifices.

Games include:

Super Mario Rainbow
Super Mario Kart Rainbow
Super Mario Party Rainbow
Super Smash Bros. Rainbow
And the New IP: Super Marion Rainbow. (The same as Super Mario Rainbow but with a bow)

Teasers of games that never materialise are:

PIlotwings
Pikmin
Earthbound
Excite Bike

Microsoft

Microsoft will not announce any new hardware or new IP's but will have plenty of new features that will either be only for Americans or you will not use. Such as Skype, Skype, Skype, and Skype.

New games will be..

3rd Person Shooter 4
HD Remake of that FPS 1 and eventually 2
Previously announced realistic Racer 4
Horror based 3rd Person Adventure 2
Exclusive Hats for GTA 5 and Mass Effect 3 (Not available on PS3 till the week after)
Also Rare's Kinect game will be unveiled called 'final nail in the coffin'

Sony

Sony will spend most the show umming and ahhhing whether to finally apologise for the PSN mess or pretend it never happened until they realise they've got the NGP is coming out. And they finally announce the name; PSP 2.
They will also mention lots of great looking games/new IP but then release only one of them every 9 months and never quite reach the hype the show seems to give them.

Games include:

Billion Man Shooter; simply called '1,000,000,000'
Numerous disappointing Next Gen Shooters with numbers at the end of them.
The entire PS2 catalogue remade in HD with move controls squashed in.
Heavy Rain FPS edition.
Also a solid release date of The Last Guardian that comes out today a year later and so on for the rest of your life.

POTW!

Runcle for President.

Mostly that companies will pretend that Apple's iOS devices don't exist or that they aren't remotely a threat to traditional gaming, while watching market-share erode.

Pretty much this.

I've a weird feeling that the new home console from Nintendo is designed to compete with the iPad* though. I suspect these rumoured screens on the controllers are basically going to be tablet-esque for gaming when the TV is occupied or just not needed. And web browsing and so on. But lumbered with £40 games that come in a box.

It will be interesting to see how miles off I am mind.

From MS & Sony I expect nothing at all of interest.

*weird housebound iPads at least

Yes. That reminds me of when Future mags were (intentionally) funny.

Hurrah!

I predict a riot.

Zardoz made me do it

A glimpse of the dildonic future.

That reminds me: Fanboy outrage

Nintendo will unveil their new console. Microsoft and Sony will make a number of mildly disparaging remarks along the lines of "well, that's fine if you're seven but we don't really think that sort of thing is our focus right now."
They will then run off to their Secret Development Labs in a panic going "Shit! Why didn't we think of that?!"
Nintendo will also admit that the 3DS was a little bit of a fuck up.

I like that one, especially when they announce the new model the Nintendo 2DS.

Not convinced that iOS is having any effect on the Xbox, PS3, or even the Wii platforms. 3DS and NGP, yes, but it's not like they're where most people's attention lies or most of the money is made.

So, when I was at my uni visit recently, and chatting to a professor of the games development department, she was telling me about the research she was into. 10 years ago she was doing all the kinect stuff that is out now, currently she is working on a bracelet that reads emotions via sweat, temperature, heartbeat etc... And feeds that back to the game.
Apparently there is a sweet spot where people get the most enjoyment from playing a game in terms of adrenalin/emotion/fear/whatever and they manipulate the game based on feedback, to keep you in the zone.
I didn't get a chance to have a go, but all reports say it works very well.

I wonder how long that will take to get on the shelves? I doubt this year, but maybe something along those lines soon.

There was also a guy who modelled sperm based on simple game based rules, but I doubt there will be much of a market...

Sounds like the unreleased Atari Mindlink, crossed with the Nintendo 64 Bio Sensor. With a thermometer feature. The future is rarely new, as they say.

Prediction: The Project Cafe with be more powerful hardware and more "hardcore" in orientation and than generally predicted. But still be half a hardware generation behind its competitors in several functions.

Longer term non-E3-related prediction: The PS3 will be abandoned and discontinued within a eighteen months.

I think with the recent surge in popularity of 3D stuff, Rockstar will introduce a third person version of their excellent top down crime game Grand Theft Auto.

Oh indeed, but using that feedback to change the narrative and experience of a game is novel. For example they have it hooked up to a version of Left 4 Dead, where the zombie attacks are different depending on the mood of the player.

This will, of course, make gamefaqs obsolete

Haven't Nintendo been going on about what they're calling a 'heartbeat monitor' that does that for quite some time now?

Maybe, maybe not. I take it you got the EA PR about it supposedly unveiling a ton of iOS stuff at E3 though?

No, I'm still below PR folk's radar, and happy to stay that way. I daresay my editors have had it.

I didn't get it.

But aren't they just trying to make more money by developing for all formats rather than jumping ship as you're kinda suggesting, Craig?

Xbox has just emailed me an early leak, they are bringing out a 'classics' range just 5 years into the console's lifespan which are expected to be on sale at just 200% over the price you would currently pay for them in the shops.

The classics include such critically acclaimed games such as Forza 3, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Gears of War 2 and Avatar.

That is out on the xbox, for Active 2...

Panzer Dragoon and Otogi titles for the 360 please.

I believe you are missing the point on purpose, good sir.

Not on purpose... silly Kov for skim reading.

Weeeeell, technically Active 2 responds to your heartbeat in game by speeding up or slowing down the exercises...

Weeeeell, you are are correct, of course, and it is the start of the technology, but it is very limited and doesn't actually deal with the emotional aspect, which was the cool stuff

Oh, I don't think iOS is a threat to consoles, but it is destroying the portable market, and I can't see NGP and 3DS changing that. And failing to repeat the success of the DS will effect nintendo a lot. Same case could be made for the PSP I guess. From all my time in schools it is incredible how none of them want anything other than iPod touches and especially iPads.

Although the NGP is interesting because it seems to want to tackle the apps market but with actual proper sticks and buttons, its got the potential to create a huge following on its own.

Also the NGP is apparently called the PS Vita, which is a truly terrible name of nothingness.

That sounds awesome Runcle, but considering how they balls up the PSP Go I've no faith that Spny know how to price stuff in. Digital marketplace. But don't get me wrong, I would love Sony to come out fighting with a full blown open marketplace to give iOS a kicking.

Eh? At what point did I suggest EA were "jumping ship"? My point was that a big chunk of the gaming industry goes LALALALALA! WE CAN'T HEAR YOU! while iOS continues to grow and grab market-share from Nintendo and Sony. A dev I interviewed also recently said EA's iOS income is about to eclipse what it's doing for the DS, which is pretty interesting.

My favourite bit of this has been watching Develop react to all this, though. A while ago, it barely noticed iOS. Now, it's reacted by welded Rovio to every sodding issue (bar the times they replace Rovio with OH MY GOD UNREAL ENGINE ON IOS FAP FAP FAP. Bizarre.

The 3DS is an end of life cycle rejig to get that last drop out before releasing a new product. I very much doubt they were expecting it to do as well as the DS.

Err, the 3DS is a whole new hardware format, not another DS redesign.


Pretty much, yes.

Which explains Nintendo's press releases where they've gone: "Shit—it appears the device isn't selling nearly as well as we'd hoped."

Oh puhlease. Sony did the Emotion Engine 11 years ago! Same thing, innit.

Sorry, misunderstood your post.

I don't understand all this ios talk (firstly I don't know what ioS means or where the capital letter is supposed to go). Just what reaction to Ios do people want from the gaming industry?

To stop producing handhelds and jump onto ipAp game developement?
To release more stuff which you can touch (aren't they doing that)
To go digital only?
To release cheap games for a quid?
Or to use acknowledge that the IpaD and ipHone are taking gamers away from the videogame big 3 and politely ask them to stop?

Sorry if I sound glib but I'm genuinely interested what people want the videogames industry to do about apPle and the like.

Probably the bit about offering software for less than a quid via online distribution. Which isn't too bad an idea in some respects: I don't want to know what Nintendo will expect people for pay for a download of creaky old Super Mario Land on the 3DS eShop.

Anyway, if you'll excuse the unintended pun, placing iOS devices versus games machines is like comparing apples and oranges. There have always been dedicated videogames devices (e.g. the Game Boy) and non-dedicated devices that can play games (e.g. PCs), merely the latter category is far more broader in scope these days. Whilst both sorts of devices compete with each other, as substitute goods, but always been plenty of space in the marketplace for both types to co-exist in various forms, which is unlikely to change. (Although, there is the issue that the two types of devices have converged a fair bit, e.g. games machines having web browsers and online features, and non-games machines being more technically competitive when running games. So, err, yes.)

Bethesda release 8 minutes of in game footage of new combat RPG "Rage"

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/30 ... -gameplay/

Looks pretty nice, but doesn't really look anything new. The opening reminds me of that "town" in AVP crossed with Fallout, the guns are from Painkiller and Quake, et al, and the enemy AI seems to be from Morrowind.

Konami's pre E3 press conference

http://uk.kotaku.com/5808147/go-ahead-w ... -all-of-it

new Contra teased , new HD MGS pack for PS3 and Xbox . Silent hill collection in HD , and new trailers for things like MGS : Snake Eater

schedule

unconfirmed source:



Super secxret remake rumoured to be Halo.

I was thinking Syndicate when I read it, also super secret sequel could be Alan Wake 2.

Twisted Metal!

I'm hoping that Super Secret Remake and Super Secret Sequel#1 and #2 are the actual titles.

That would be brilliant!

Why is Ubisoft's press conference before Nintendo's?