E3 2010: The David Awards

As was mentioned in last night's Day 3 recording, which will be posted Monday Morning, we will each be posting our Game of Show. Here's mine and in addition, I've gone through a run down of games that deserve a mention and a quick explanation on why.

So if you would like, use this as a road map on which titles to do further research about.

Game of Show - Portal 2
After barely being teased at the Sony Conference, there were a lot of questions about this title, leaving me unsure about the future of my 2007 Game of the Year. After going to a behind closed doors preview, I can say that there's no doubt in my mind, Valve is prepared to deliver new, fresh, interesting content and gameplay ideas. Even more they went into specific details about steps taken towards the second game including difficulty ramp up, game length, and humor. All of which were confidently addressed. Technically, this is my Game of the Show for Seen, not played but it also wins my overall Game of the Show Award.

Game of Show - Ghost Trick/Layton
This is award was for the Game of Show that I actually could play. I thought about giving this to Vanquish as it was one of the more interesting titles this E3, but who am I kidding? I'd only be giving it to another game because I've talked about Ghost Trick before after TGS. The two games I'm most excited about coming out of E3 are Ghost Trick and Professor Layton and the Unwound Future. Seeing the new story from Layton this week got me excited. Layton gets a letter from a mysterious person claiming to be Luke from the future while the demonstration of a time machine goes horribly wrong leaving the two presenting the technology missing. In Ghost Trick I got a feel for further levels and while I am cautious about the Trial & Error gameplay, it's one of the most creative puzzle games I've seen in the last few years, so I'm sure I'll get over it.

Biggest Surprise - Driver San Francisco
I was not expecting this. I've NEVER been interested in a Driver game. Why am I interested in this game? You have the ability to "jump" from car to car. Why didn't anyone think of this before? So instead of all those GTA like chase missions that get ruined by having one crash, resulting in frantically running around trying to find a replacement car,  it'll be quick and painless to just continue the chase or change directions. Think of it as a car chase sequence while having the powers of an Agent from the Matrix. Yes, it's a stupid idea. But so is regenerating health in Call of Duty. It's a video game and it makes it more fast paced and enjoyable. That's the important thing.

Biggest Disappointment - Child of Eden/Last Guardian
So obviously, I thought we were going to see Last Guardian. Bummer. But for the more interesting discussion, why Tetsuya Mizuguchi is working on a spiritual successor to Rez  is beyond me. I wasn't too impressed with Rez when it came out and I wasn't really shown anything that would change my mind this time around. I don't think Kinect support is what is going to completely change my complete opinion. On top of that it was only playable through appointments and that had me dealing with the douchebags at Ubisoft PR, who eventually said [No, By Appointments Only]. I needed to see more from this title. Big disappointment.

So here's the rest of my thoughts on what occurred this week.

Kinect & Move
I want to avoid these two like the plague. Both seem like interesting pieces of hardware. I'd love to have them and try the games/modes being offered but most importantly, I DO NOT want to spend the money on this shit. Easily it will run over $300 dollars for all the hardware and then tack on the 3-4 games I'd be interested in playing, it's not worth it. But because I like to try new things and we do a video game show, I'm sure I'll be trying to justify these purchases. Not cool.

Rock Band 3
Wow they're adding a fuck ton of improvements to the series. It really puts confidence that Harmonix knows and understands that part of the music game genre. They've either listened to their fans or have played the games themselves to know what is a hassle and what needs to be fixed. You look at Guitar Hero and the lack of changes, really makes me want to shout about their incompetence. Plus now with Midi support, keyboards, and the crazy ass Pro Guitar Mode, what else could you ask for?

Dance Masters over Dance Central
I know I just said a bunch of positive things about Harmonix. I think they're great with the music game genre. But that doesn't mean I'll love every single one of their games, especially over one that's more tailored to my interests. I think I've been labeled as the Just Dance guy. And in someways, that's fair. But in this case, Dance Central is a Kinect game and honestly, the presentation and visuals are not my thing. I feel that the 3d character models are too complex and difficult to read, at least in the beginning. There's a game called Dance Masters by Konami, while not any better, has a form of dance I'd much be more interested in learning, Para Para.

I guess that's it for now. There are a few things rolling around in my brain but I'm not sure if those will congeal into an actual blog post.

For now, thanks for reading.
David