E3 ‘08

E3 Launched today, July 15th 2008. Marking the enhancements in technology and gaming while showing the world how much a force the gaming industry has become.  It is amazing how mainstream video gaming became. From its roots in pong to parents telling kids that it is stupid to actual tournaments being played where the top seeds get a six-figure salary in earnings.  It is amazing how the industry has sky rocketed into stardom and has become the new powerhouse in entertainment.

With E3 starting today, Microsoft were the first to present their upcoming games for the later quarter of 2008 and upcoming 2009.  Demoes of highly anticipated games have already been shown like Fallout 3, and Gears of War 2.  Viewers were given a glimpse of Square Enix’s new game, Final Fantasy XIII and as well as Fable 2.  There’s new information on Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero, most noteably the downloadable/playable content for each game (WOOO METALLICA!).  Many new trailers were also shown at the conference: Rage, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, Too Human, Dragon Age, Mortal Combat Vs. DC Universe, and a whole lot more.

Tomorrow, will be Nintendo’s press conference and many are anticipating new game demoes coming out for the Wii and new weird, bright, and cooky ideas for the Wii, like Wii Motion.  Most likely they will be a blunder, but still there will be people buying it.

In the next few days, many of the Second Party game developers like Activision, Konami, and Ubisoft (They are Second Party I believe, or are they still considered third party?) will showcase their new games and show off the new visual enhancements and gameplay innovations like Farcry 2.  It will be amazing to see what these developers have in store for the rest of us.  This year’s E3 will be a blast – it better be, it can’t be the 2007 fiasco that the ESA did with the event.

Guitar Hero: World Tour with Metallica?

I would not really know how Activision would be able to compete with Red Octane’s ‘Rock Band’ but I guess they would have to go with the flow as since they are presenting their new Rock Band-esque instruments.  Included with the guitar which I believe has playback so people won’t have to buy the guitar with the whole package will be the drum set and the microphone.  From Microsoft’s E3 conference today, they announced that the drum set will be wireless which will be kick ass!  It looks a lot more realistic than the Rock Band one as there are actually cymbals on top of the drums and the tom toms.  The new guitar is different.  I believe it is a Gibson guitar, it is the same model as the Ibanez S/SA series, but the stock looks like a Rickenbacker stock which is weird because that stock is usually made with banjoes. I don’t think it is an Ibanez because Guitar Hero only carries Gibson Guitars but after the lawsuit Gibson filed, I’m not sure…maybe a PRS guitar but haven’t seen any PRS models like that.  It could be a bass guitar model that they showed at the conference though.

A really neat feature that is coming with the World Tour set is the ability to have an eight player guitar battle or co-op mode against people online.  It could get crowded on the screen, but still, it is going to be fun.  The best feature presented is now the user has the ability to create and edit their own music which I am confused about.  I’m pretty sure they can only create their own signature layout for each song, but not actually create and record an actual song.  It would be the shit though if the game allowed the user to do so.  Along with the XBox Live feature and PS3 one, I don’t know what it is called, their will be the new GHTunes distribution system that will allow the people to share their own creations.

The best announcement from the Microsoft conference at E3 was the content that Guitar Hero will have at launch.  R.E.M (of all bands) have actually signed a contract which will allow XBox users to download an R.E.M package of their hit songs and such to be played in World Tour. Not only that, but they will have three new songs included in their package from their new album, ‘Accelerate’ which will be pretty cool to listen to if you are an R.E.M fan (I am not a fan though).

The very best announcement for World Tour was that Van Halen, and the Eagles have exclusively lent their songs to be played and listened to for the game and, AND SOMETHING I NEVER WOULD HAVE IMAGINED, Metallica will have their new album, ‘Death Magnetic’ available on XBox Live for people to download and play to coinciding to its release in stores. I can not believe that Metallica are actually doing this.  They really have thought hard about the fan backlash from the Napster controversy.  I hope the new songs will be good, much better than St. Anger, and it will be THE SHIT to play on Guitar Hero. Sweet deal, I can not wait until it comes out.