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The Watercooler: The Muppets vs Fox News

Sam Naylor — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 03:00:03 +0000

Warning: The Watercooler is the best thing you will see on the Internet today, mainly because it is the best thing I saw on the Internet yesterday. Be advised that The Watercooler is not necessarily videogame related (it usually won’t be), and is often silly, controversial, and/or not safe for work (NSFW). If this type of content frequently offends you, please be aware that I just warned you — if you still click through and get offended, it will be your own stupid fault. Otherwise, please continue…

Kermit and Miss Piggy were attending a press conference at the UK launch of their latest film- when they were asked about Fox News’ coverage in the US. The result was as follows…

Just more evidence on the pile that The Muppets are bloody brilliant.

Think you have something that could be Watercooler material? Send it to me via email: sam@ripten.com or on Twitter: @greeneggsnam. If your submission gets featured, you will win a prize package full of pride and accomplishment.

E3 2011: Full Sony Press Conference – Video

Garrett Hartman — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 03:47:14 +0000

Sony had a number of big E3 announcements at their press conference. Miss It? Don’t worry, we’ve got the whole Conference here for you to see courtesy of out friends from G4.

Video Games – E3 2011

Nintendo To Live Stream E3 2011 Press Conference

Justin Berube — Tue, 10 May 2011 16:56:31 +0000

Nintendo’s official E3 site has just confirmed that they will be streaming their yearly press conference for all to see. This highly anticipated press conference will, no doubt, be when Nintendo unveils their newest console to the world currently known by its codename, Project Cafe. New Wii and 3DS titles are also likely to be shown during this event.

Nintendo fans looking to catch the live stream will just need to go to Nintendo’s E3 site at http://e3.nintendo.com at 9 a.m PDT on June 7th, 2011. RipTen will be on site for this exciting press conference so be sure to check back for the latest news and hands on impressions from the event!

Want to stay up to date on the latest Nintendo news, information, editorials, and more? Follow me on Twitter @KingNintendoFan or Like Me on Facebook. Be sure to let me know what you think about the live stream of Nintendo’s press conference!

This Diagram Shows Exactly How The PSN Was Hacked

Dave Oshry — Sun, 01 May 2011 19:01:12 +0000

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then this one is probably worth about 10 million or so. After Sony‘s press conference last night, this is one of the illustrations that was given to the press:

If anyone would kindly explain to me just what the fuck happened there, I’d be very grateful.

It looks like there was a vulnerability in the application server and that was exploited to pass a multitude of firewalls and access our PSN account information on the database server. Either way, it’s a lovely and colorful diagram and thanks to Sony for putting it on page 10 of the press booklet.

Our webmaster should be able to make sense of that diagram, unfortunately it’s Sunday and he’s not easy to get a hold of. I think he’s playing golf…

You can view the diagram in full size below:

PSN Will Return This Week With “Welcome Back” Benefits

Dave Oshry — Sun, 01 May 2011 10:22:16 +0000

Sony’s press conference wrapped not long ago, and with it came some good news. PSN will be returning next week, and with it will come some benefits.

This will be a “phased restoration” beginning with gaming, music and video services being turned on. So, we’re not going to get the full shebang right out of the gate, but it looks like we’ll get everything we really need.

The initial services which should be available next week are:

Restoration of Online game-play across the PlayStation®3 (PS3) and PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) systems
-This includes titles requiring online verification and downloaded games
Access to Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity for PS3/PSP for existing subscribers
Access to account management and password reset
Access to download un-expired Movie Rentals on PS3, PSP and MediaGo
PlayStation®Home
Friends List
Chat Functionality

Sony will also be rolling out new security measures that include:

Added automated software monitoring and configuration management to help defend against new attacks
Enhanced levels of data protection and encryption
Enhanced ability to detect software intrusions within the network, unauthorized access and unusual activity patterns
Implementation of additional firewalls

They say they still don’t know who is responsible for the intrusion, but Sony is working with both the FBI and DHS to find the intruders. They have also stated that Anonymous has currently not been implicated in any way nor have they taken credit for the intrusion. Al Qaeda has not been ruled out, neither has Zero Cool and/or the Boogyman.

Sony also made this statement:

“This criminal act against our network had a significant impact not only on our consumers, but our entire industry. These illegal attacks obviously highlight the widespread problem with cyber-security. We take the security of our consumers’ information very seriously and are committed to helping our consumers protect their personal data. In addition, the organization has worked around the clock to bring these services back online, and are doing so only after we had verified increased levels of security across our networks,” said Kazuo Hirai, Executive Deputy President, Sony Corporation. “Our global audience of PlayStation Network and Qriocity consumers was disrupted. We have learned lessons along the way about the valued relationship with our consumers, and to that end, we will be launching a customer appreciation program for registered consumers as a way of expressing our gratitude for their loyalty during this network downtime, as we work even harder to restore and regain their trust in us and our services.”

However, there is even more good news. As a “welcome back” gesture, Sony will be providing 30 free days of Playstation Plus, 30 free days of Qriocity and some free downloads that have yet to be announced.

So, to sum up, PSN is coming back and we’re going to get some free shit.

Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back.

Sony Confirms Anonymous Has Not Been Implicated With PSN Intrusion In Any Way

Dave Oshry — Sun, 01 May 2011 06:51:52 +0000

Just to make it clear tonight, the final question asked at the PSN press conference dealt directly with the subject of Anonymous.

A Japanese reporter asked what involvement, if any, this infamous group had with the latest PSN intrusions.

Kaz Hirai, Sony’s EDP and Ridge Racer‘s #1 fan responded stating that Anonymous has not been implicated in any way with the current attacks.

Anonymous themselves (whoever they are) have also denied any involvement in the recent attacks. Does this rule them out completely? Of course not, but it’s safe to say someone else was likely responsible.

Sony is currently working with the FBI and Department of Homeland security to find out who is responsible for the intrusion, but so far they have no reason to implicate Anonymous.

Stay tuned to RipTen as our coverage of PSNightmare 2011 continues, or until we get tired of reporting on this nonsense…

Listen In To Sony’s PSN Press Conference – We’ll Blog About It Later

Dave Oshry — Sun, 01 May 2011 05:18:44 +0000

While we’re busy compiling notes from Sony’s press conference concering the PSN intrusion, you may as well listen in for yourself. You might learn a thing or two.

Check it out HERE

Check back into RipTen later as we sum up what we learned in our usual nonsensical way.

^__^

PlayStation 3 Pitchman Kevin Butler To Make E3 Appearance?

Chad Lakkis — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 06:25:28 +0000

A recent exchange of tweets initiated by GameTrailers TV host Geoff Keighly, and directed towards Sony’s PlayStation 3 pitchman Kevin Butler, seem to give the impression that funny-man Butler will be lending his comic genius to an E3 2010 appearance. The tweet rundown is as follows:

@thekevinbutler So Kev, are we going to see you next week at E3? Amanda MacKay keeps asking me…. (link)

@geoffkeighley Well played, Keighley. (link)

@TheKevinButler I didn’t know Kevin Butler signs NDAs…I thought you were a man of the people. (link)

I’m personally all for this as I find most press conferences extreemly dry in their current format. If this holds true, it’s safe to say that Kevin weould bring lots of laughs to the Sony E3 2010 keynote.

GDC09 Nintendo Keynote Video Impressions – New Zelda Game Announced

Chad Lakkis — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 17:55:10 +0000

Ripten TV’s Jonathan Zungre gives his impressions of Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, Warioware Snapped and other cool stuff talked about at the Nintendo Keynote at the Game Developers Conference ’09. Also, check out the photos Joystiq snuck while at the press conference — one below.

Nintendo Fall Press Conference Announces New DSi and Slew of Games

Sam Naylor — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 15:38:26 +0000

Nintendo’s fall press conference brings us confirmation of a cornucopia of new games and announcements. Some are even saying it was what E3 should have been. Chad already posted news of a new Punch-Out title, but that is just a tiny slice of the cake that Nintendo so generously handed out to us all. Hit the jump for the full list!

The Nintendo DSi is the updated DS model, reports Shacknews. While it lacks a GBA slot, this is compensated by:

- the larger 3.25 inch screen
- two 640×480 pixel cameras
- audio enhancements
- an SD card slot
- and internal memory.

Not only this, but DSi owners will be able to download games for points on Nintendo’s website, for prices from free to 800 points, and the DS web browser will be built-in. Surprisingly, the DSi launches November 1 in Japan, for around $180, with a US release scheduled for sometime in 2009.

Nintendo also played two trailers featuring plenty of new games, for both Wii and DS, including the much anticipated Punch-Out. Here’s a list of everything shown:

Wii:
- Let’s Tap (Sega)
- Karaoke Joysound (Hudson)
- Klonoa (Namco)
- Taiko no Tatsujin Wii (Namco)
- “Start with 100 Words!”
- Punch-Out! (Nintendo)
- Another Code (Nintendo)
- “Kensakusu”
- “Cosmic Walker”
- “Spawn Smasher”
- “Dynamic Combat”
- “Wand of Magic”
- Sin and Punishment 2 (Treasure)
- “Forever Blue 2: Beautiful Ocean” (sequel of Endless Ocean)
- “Line Attack Heroes”
- Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time (Square)
- “Samurai Warriors 3″
- New ‘Tales of’ game.

DS:
- “Wagamama Fashion Girls’ Mode” (Nintendo)
- Aruite Wakaru Seikatsu Rhythm DS (Nintendo) (Features a pedometer!)
- “Sekai no Gohan Shaberu! DS O-Ryouri Navi”
- “Taboo: The Sixth Sense 2K9!”
- “Tomodachi Collection” (Nintendo) (Featuring Miis!)
- Mario & Luigi RPG 3 (Nintendo)
- Made in Wario/WarioWare (Nintendo) (Unconfirmed to actually be a WarioWare game)
- 3D Picross (Nintendo)

(Courtesy of NintendoWiiFanboy and DSFanboy)

Not only have all of these games been confirmed, but Destructoid reports that Nintendo will be porting GameCube games to the Wii, complete with waggle controls, starting with the original Pikmin.

Miyamoto Talks Tradition: Mario Game In Works

Chad Lakkis — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:48:08 +0000

In a recent interview with the UK based Telegraph, Miyamoto stated that there are teams working on new Mario, Zelda, and Pikmin projects.

“They are all working on more Mario, Zelda and Pikmin projects … And they all work in close proximity to me, so I can keep a good eye on them.”

Not exactly sure who “all” is, because surely the entire company is not working on a new Mario title — who would be left to fine tune Wii Music? Ok, ok, I will let it go.

Miyamoto adds that traditional games are his area of expertise and offers insight as to how the company rotates staff internally to ensure that the “traditional” titles always have people working on them.

“Making these ‘traditional’ games is what I am best at. Because games of that nature take upwards of two or three years to make, we always have to keep the teams working on those projects going. At any given time, the team could be five to ten people, or it could be 50-plus. People are always switching in and out of those teams.”

I can’t help but feel like this is all damage control 101, but even if it is, it shows that the company does care to some extent about its hardcore gamer base. It would seem that they realize their E3 presentation didn’t have the impact they had hoped for.

All we can ask now is that they learn from their mistake, and keep the traditional teams closer to 50-plus, with five people working on the next Wii Music.

Source: Telegraph.co.uk

Ripten Real-Time: Capcom Press Conference

Andrew Podolsky — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 23:40:46 +0000

It’s the second day of E3, and we’re about to head over to the Capcom Press Conference. We’ll begin liveblogging from 4:30 pm PST on, so check back shortly for our immediate, firsthand response to Capcom’s big announcements.

5:01 pm: The press conference is underway, and some big news– Lost Planet film confirmed! Script written by David “Voice of Solid Snake” Hayter. They’re starting a panel right now.

Avid Arad, Chairman of Arad productions, is talking about games that have major themes, like love and hope, with interesting villains and heroes. The theme of the movie/game is energy, that which gives us the ability to survive.

They’re showing some concept art, character designs, alien designs, and interiors. I’m just hoping it’s better than Doom. “Not on the page, not on the stage”, meaning that it’s all about the script. Now he’s talking about David’s vision of the film, which is hopefully to respect the source material while making Lost Planet a blockbuster film. Avi expects this to be a big franchise, and he thinks there will be more games (which he wouldn’t say if he wasn’t sure).

Now here’s David Hayter. He’s worked with Avi before, and says he has exceptional taste. David says he wants big movies, with big stories behind them. He also says he likes the main character’s story arc, and the snowy expanse that is the background. He cites John Carpenter’s The Thing with reverence. David passes things off to Ari Arad, Avi’s son.

Ari Arad, President of Arad production, speaks briefly about his excitement for the project, and then passes the stage to Keiji Inafune, the maker of Lost Planet (also the creator of Mega Man, Onimusha, and Dead Rising). Inafune says he fully expected to turn Lost Planet into a movie while they were making the game.

Inafune says things like massive robots, which the Japanese do well, are one reason he predicts success for the Lost Planet film. Speaking through a translator, he says that these elements were natural for a transition to movies. Inside Capcom, that was the understanding, but they met some resistance outside of Capcom.

So, Inafune says, it was great to meet Avi and find him to be receptive to the idea. Keiji says, essentially, that Avi understood his vision. Keiji’s team put blood, sweat, and tears into it, and they want a successful transition to the movie world. Since David Hayter knows movies, and games, and can speak Japanese, he’s the best person to bring this vision to life through his writing.

After a few more speakers from Capcom (who don’t really say much more than what’s already been said), the conference is concluded. This was the only item for discussion here. Hopefully we’ll get to see more on the show floor and in the Capcom meeting rooms.

Ripten Real-Time: Sony Press Conference

Andrew Podolsky — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:17:41 +0000

It’s the second day of E3, and we’re about to head over to the Sony Press Conference. We’ll begin liveblogging from 11:30 am PST on, so check back shortly for our immediate, firsthand response to Sony’s big announcements.

11:37 am: Here we go! Sony has a shitload of TVs set up onstage– about 60 of them. The giant ones are running multiple games– Madden, Resistance, Force Unleashed, Socom, Tiger Woods…

We get a glimpse of Ghostbusters, too… a nice shot of the Stay Puft Man scaling the side of a building.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Jack Tretton, CEO of SCEA. Jack is welcoming us to the Shrine Auditorium, where big movie stars won awards. Some kind of Jack Palance reference– Jack Tretton is happy to be alive. Why is he dropping big names? Ah, here’s the point.

Solid Snake, Kratos, the guy from Resistance (Nathan Hale), these are the new celebrities.

Jack is proclaiming 2008 to be the year of the Playstation. 15 years ago, the seeds of the Playstation were planted. Does Sony make its own game system? (Their partnership with Nintendo at the time is not mentioned by Jack). Intense, vivid, powerful– bold words, sure, but I think it’s fair to say they describe Playstation games overall.

Two years into the PS1, we had Crash Bandicoot but not FF VII, Gran Turismo, and Tony Hawk for a few more years. The point here is that if you like what you’ve got now on the PS3, just wait until the middle and end of the console’s life cycle.

The PS3, Jack brags, set a world record for distributed computing with Folding@Home. Jack is happy about the movies, photos, and music you can store on your PS3. He quotes Henry Ford: “If I asked what my customers wanted, they’d tell me they wanted a faster horse.” The point is, tell customers what they want?

“Genre-defining, kick-ass games.” Yes, now you have my attention. 2008 Recap: Gran Turismo Prologue, GTA4, MGS4. All great games, and 2 out of 3 of them are PS3 exclusive.

Ok, let’s talk about new stuff, starting with the PS3. All screens fill with bright red backgrounds with a PS3 in front of it. Here comes Resistance 2 from Insomniac!

Resistance 2

We’re on an overpass, firing a rocket launcher at at GIGANTIC, building-sized alien. It looks like something out of Gears of War, only huge. It picks you up, and you fire down onto it, and the thing drops you down onto a rooftop. You enter the building, with the beast peeking in through the windows. He roars.

Scaling the building from the inside, Nathan ventures out on some sort of crane-like structure between buildings, firing at the huge monster with a machine gun. It smashes through the walls of the next building, but we don’t get too much of a look at the destructible environments. Now, moving downwards from inside this second building, we’re picked up again and flung into a new area, through a building in slow-mo (with shattered glass), and to a new area. The Resistnace 2 logo comes up against a map of the United States. The crowd cheers.

An Insomniac developer is laying out the story. The Chimera have been attacking the US, and finally invaded in 1955, raining twisted creatures down. Nathan might have “more in common with the enemy than those he’s trying to defend”. 8 player co-op, 60 player multiplayer… Insomniac likes to talk about “scale” and thinks they’ll deliver. And we’re not talking Wii Fit type scale, we mean giant monsters and huge multiplayer matches.

Here’s a new trailer, with a new level: Twin Falls, Idaho. A Kennedy-like voice is intoning over the radio that America is under attack, but not by communists– by aliens! We’re seeing lots of scattered destruction. Seems like in-game footage to me. We see a few woodsy outdoor areas too. It’d be great if Resistance 2 went in a HL2 episode 2 direction. Cut to: Nathan Hale, turning off the radio. A few more shots of the environments. The logo comes up, and that’s the end.

Little Big Planet

11:56 am: Jack thanks Ted for the presentation. The topic turns to user-created content, so of course he’s going to talk about Little Big Planet.

Jack is going to show us a level from Little Big Planet. This also seems to be how they’re going to talk about the business position and boring stuff. This level was created just for the press conference.

Since Jack is from Boston, his Sackboy gets a Celtics jersey. The first part of this level is a bar graph like platformer– but not actual data, just bullet points. Innovation, games… and 23 billion in videogame sales in 2008. This is a bizarre presentation. Little Rube Goldberg devices are pulling up the “slides”. It’s jazzing up the data presentation, but actually I find it a bit distracting.

Jack says they’ll be getting into Latin America in 2008, and to illustrate this Sackboy stands in front of a little train. Sackboy runs to the right, revealing the phrase “Greatest Hits”… starting this year, the best Ps3 games will be $30, including Motorstorm, Warhawk, CoD3, Fight Night, Resistance, and Need for Speed Carbon. From Ubi: R6 Vegas, Assassin’s Creed, from Bethesda: Elder Scrolls, and from Tecmo, Ninja Gaiden Sigma.

Sackboy takes off in a pink truck, with a sign: Little Big Planet is coming in October 2008.

That was strange… not a good way to get information across, but at least it wasn’t dull.

PS2

Now we’re going to talk about Playstation 2. What are the new games? Force Unleashed, Yakuza 2, NCAA Football 09, Tiger Woods 09, Singstar pop vol 2, Mercenaries 2. Not much applause for the last-gen.

“This is the year Buzz! really makes the big time”. Buzz will be on PSP and on PS3 with special themed packs you can download this year. Singstar is also a huge deal– 15 million in sales.

New PS2 bundle: Lego Batman and the movie Justice League: New Frontiers, for $149. Not bad.

Jack says the fear is that technology will isolate us, but he is hopeful we will be connected instead. Just so everyone knows, I feel very connected to all of you reading this live right now.

Seriously, you guys rock.

PSN

Now it’s time to talk about the Playstation Network. This should be good! Jack mentions the PSN facelift, saying you get all the good stuff with “no hidden fees” (up yours, MS!)

Jack says he has a surprise for us. A new title. Ratchet and Clank Future: Quest for Booty. Shorter game, lower price. Paced like a blockbuster film.

Quest for Booty takes place after the last PS3 game… Clank has been abducted. One of the new abilities is an energy tether, sort of like the gravity gun. You can pick up lightning bugs and use them as a torch, for light/dark gameplay. This will also answer some questions lingering after Tools of Destruction.

This will be available for $15 on PSN. Not clear if you need the original game to play– I’m guessing yes, it’s an expansion.

Are you ready for a montage? First, Quest for Booty. Then Crash Commando, sort of a twin stick shooter with jetpacks, a side scroller. Fat Princess, which is… who freaking knows, but it looks cel-shaded and gorgeous. Pixeljunk: Eden, a trippy game. Another Pain game, this one set in an amusement park with roller coasters. Here’s Flower, the sequel to Flow, where you apparently control a gust of wind or flower-petals. Next a very scary looking, Silent hill type game called Blood Curse, then Ragdoll Kung Fu. Seems quite solid.

Of these, Flower, Eden, Fat Princess and Blood Curse look very intriguing.

Gran Turismo TV

GT TV is an update to Gran Turismo prologue. Pay per view and free racing programs. Vroom! Specials like “All about Ferrari”, hosted by Yamauchi, GT’s creator. If you like racing, this will probably be right up your alley. Light applause from the audience. This will be available August 1 via GT Prologue.

Home

12:20 pm: It’s all about bragging rights, Jack says. PSN will have gameplay+ community. And that brings us to Playstation Home.

“Your patience will be rewarded”. After listing off some big name partners like EA and Nike, they’re going to show a video. The videos shows Home characters dancing and decorating. To me this looks better than Microsoft’s avatars– and it doesn’t smack of desperation like the MS avatars. A group is standing around a Warhawk war room table, then they launch the game. End video. Smattering of applause.

Downloadable movies

Movie studios are getting in on the action to offer movies, both rentals and purchases, priced competitively. TV shows will be 2$, movies will be 3-6 bucks for rentals, and 10-15 for purchase. Plus you can put these on your PSP. We’re going to learn how this new service works.

Starting in the PS Store, next to games is the movies tab. movies like Bank Job, Cloverfield, and Rambo are listed. Browsing through the movie category we see Crash and Napoleon Dynamite. You can sort by Studio– but who wants to browse by studio except studio execs?

On the Sony Pictures page, our guide takes us to Walk Hard. We see a description of the movie, and you can stream a trailer immediately. Hitting the square button makes this trailer full screen. This title, it seems, costs $3 to rent.

There are two ways to get your movies onto PSP. With the movie on your hard drive, you connect your PSP and can send it on over. Or you can access the store via a PC and download it that way. No direct PSP downloads without a PC or PS3.

These movies will be available TONIGHT.

PSP

12:31 pm: Last year saw the release of the PSP Slim. Elegant design… unless you like homebrew, but Jack’s not going to talk about that scene. We also saw the Madden and God of War packs. There will be a new one this year, one for the young ‘uns: Ratchet and Clank Size Matters pack. Silver PSP, the movie National Treasure 2, and of course Ratchet and Clank for PSP. Also, you get Echochrome. Total price: $200.

Resistance Retribution

New PSP Resistance game! It looks like a third-person shooter, like Star Wars Battlefront. Not sure where this falls story-wise, but the cutscenes look nice. This game is coming out Spring 2009.

New PSP games for this and next year: Patapon 2, LocoRoco 2, shooters, sports games… Valkyria Chronicles, which looks like a neat anime-inspired shooter or RPG.

Back to the PS3. Live News, weather, and Webcam feeds. They call it “Life with Playstation” and it will be available by the end of the month.

DC Universe Online

What are the new games? Here’s one: DC Universe Online, from Sony Online Entertainment. It’s an MMO. We’re watching ahot new trailer– very bright and colorful, with characters like Batman, Wonder Woman, the Joker. No real look at the mechanics, but all the big figures seem to be there. If you’re playing as a nobody it might not be so great, unless you’re continually rubbing elbowswith the superheroes.

PS3 Pack and Development

80 GB Core Pack PS3, with same functionality as the 40 GB, for $400. Now they’re running a video, asking developers what they think of working on the PS3. Surprise, they are impressed and love it. Call of Duty 5, Madden 09 being shown. Far Cry 2 looks great, that’s coming from Ubi. They’re also talking about Fallout 3, Prince of Persia… jumping around between developers and titles.

They’re showing Force Unleashed, which has been talked about for every Sony system today. The PS3 version looks absolutely stunning– it was playing before this press conference began. That is one game that, now that I’ve seen it running in HD, I can’t wait to play.

We get a glimpse of the Fallou 3 shoulder-mounted mini-nuke that kicked off Microsoft’s press conference. These titles are all available on Xbox 360, but they look very nice in this promotional video.

AAA PS3 Titles

Now we’re talking about some of the exclusive games, like Motorstorm and Resistance 2. Here’s a video to illustrate this point. Most, but not all of these are actually exclusive Little Big Planet, to start. Motorstorm: Pacific Rift, MGS4, Quantum of Solace (007), Socom Confrontation, Ghostbusters. The Agency, Soul Calibur, Mirror’s Edge, Resident Evil 5. This segment shows some kind of new villain from RE5, a guy in a green blazer saying “just in time for the party”.

Killzone 2 is in the video, looks fantastic. That ends the trailer. Some hot games in there. Are these all coming out in 2008?

God of War 3

God of War 3 is coming to Playstation 3: Not much of an annoucement. But here’s a trailer! Titan’s voice over: “Our victory brought order to the land, prosperity to mankind”. This is talking about the new Titans vs Gods war that Kratos started at the end of God of War 2.

Kratos: “In the end, there will be only chaos”. These are cutscenes only– crashing waves, a darkened Mt. Olympus, and a close-up of Kratos’ eyes, sneering and saying that last line.

InFamous

Now, a trailer for inFamous. What is this game? Looks similar to Prototype, a sort of super-charged city-crawler. Not sure what to make of this one.

MAG: Massive Action Game.

Brand new title: a massively multiplayer online action game from Zipper Interactive. It’s called MAG, Massive Action Game. 256 Players (wow! A few oohs from the crowd). Key features: Squad based, character growth, and of course 256 players. Here’s the first glimpse of the game, in trailer form.

Has that same yellowy-brown, washed out look of Call of Duty 4, and Resistance 2. Plus lots of Tom Clancy style overlays. We see a commander’s view of hundreds of soldiers on the field, plus lots of graet closeups of firefights and tank battles. This game looks sweet, if this is in fact in-game footage. The camera is whipping around as soldiers target eachother. Since there are so many, there’s a lot of pray and spray. After the battles, the dead litter the ground. Airstrikes are called in, with paratroopers. And that’s the end of MAG.

Big applause. That was really cool. We’re going to get to play some of these games (not the ones they ended the show with, unfortunately) over in the press area. We’ll let you know what we’re able to go hands-on with, and have more to say then. And with that, this press conference is concluded.

Sony’s press conference really delivered, I think. The Reistance 2 opener was huge, and we got our God of War 3 confirmation, plus a really short trailer. MAG was a nice surprise– this will be one Battlefield type game to keep an eye on. Other than that, it seems like they have a solid PSP lineup, with a new Resistance PSP game to keep that system going a bit further.

It’ll take a bit for all three of the hardware makers’ press conferences to sink in, but I think Sony might have edged out Microsoft in this one. There weren’t any real clunkers– the crowd responded well to every bit of information they offered. And don’t forget, as of tonight you can rent and download movies on your PS3.

Ripten Real-Time: Nintendo Press Conference

Andrew Podolsky — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:42:55 +0000

It’s the second day of E3, and we’re about to head over to the Nintendo Press Conference. We’ll begin liveblogging from 9:00 am PST on, so check back shortly for our immediate, firsthand response to Nintendo’s big announcements.

Shaun White Snowboarding

9:05 am: The press conference begins with a discussion of snowboarding, and the revelation of a new snowboarding game using the Wii Balance Board. To kick off this game is a celeb– Olympian Shaun White. Ubisoft created this game and it will be out by the end of 2008.

9:15 am: Here’s President Iwata. He’s talking about the seismic shift that’s occured in this industry in just five years ago. And he’s right– in America, at leats, Nintendo was in third place, but they’ve leaped to first because of the DS and Wii.

He says games like Brain Age, Nintendogs, and New Super Mario Bros for the DS are “evergreens”. He’s certainly got plenty of green. He says that the team that makes Mario games and Zelda games are both “hard at work” to bring new titles to Wii. Also, new concepts like Wii Sports and Wii Fit have been met with a lot of success (especially in the mainstream).

Iwata says: Instead of games being a holiday gift, it’s more likely to be purchased by people for themselves during any time during the year. People are buying Nintendo like it’s Xmas all the time.

What can we expect next? Great question. What’s next, Nintendo?

Well, Iwata’s not going to tell us right this second. There’s some kind of hint about new, non-game experiences.

Animal Crossing

9:23 am: Video: Katsuya Eguchi. He’s going to talk about Animal Crossing. Coming to the Wii in 2008.

Different aspects of Animal Crossing: The Town. No required goals– just dick around and “do things your own way”. Even when you’re not playing the game, characters get up in the morning and go to bed at night (how would you know if you’re not playing?) 24 hour, year round clock.

The City: New place to explore. This looks cool. Auction house, where you can buy and sell items. There’s an academy where you can find out what other players are doing. There’s a fashion store from Gracie. You can also go to a beauty salon and change your hairstyle, or put on a mask to look like your Mii.

Communication is a big deal in AC, like writing letters, attaching pictures, and send to people’s phones and computers. The biggest news is a MICROPHONE.

In the video, a bunch of Miis are fishing in Animal Crossing. They’re chatting and talking smack. How will this fit will Nintendo’s “safety first” policy of online gaming?

The game is called Animal Crossing: City Folk. The crowd seems pleased.

Reggie Speaks

9:28 am: Here’s Reggie! The Microphone is called “Wii Speak”. Reggie is going to brag for a bit– 5 billion in revenue, but they’re still “not satisfied” (to use a phrase from last year’s E3). Veteran gamers, he says, are hungry for what’s next. Oh, and here comes the marketplace perspective– but he promises to keep it short.

DS is dominating. The PSP is second, and the Wii is the top console. They expect total DS sales to be almost 100 million. Ridiculous!

Pokemon was the key franchise for last fall. 600,000 copies in 6 weeks. Lifetime total sales for all Pokemon is 180 million. Again, ridiculous. They have a license to print money. Games like Mario and Sonic are helping push the Wii as well. He’s happy with the rate of Wii sales, but also with the fact that people are buying the game in volume long after launch, which is turrning things around a bit when it comes to hardware sales history.

9:34 am: He’s showing Mario and Metroid, but also Wii Sports and Wii Fit. These are how they consider both hardcore and casual gamers to be covered. Will they start making real games for casual gamers? They seem to think there is an expanding middle ground as casual gamers get savvier.

Here are three new games that bring different approaches to the Wii Interface. Here we go!

Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Looks like a lot of lightsabre battles. The Team America graphics of the Clone Wars movie seem to be a good fit for the Wii. We see people shaking their Wiis while thye lightsabre duel. These games still look like PS1 though. That’s not a dig, just a fact.

Rayman Raving Rabbids: TV Party. Yet more minigames. We see a young girl using the Wii and nunchuck as a motorcycle handlebar. Also, using the Wii fit board to “butt slide”.

Call of Duty: World at War. This looks a lot nicer. We are seeing some sort of co-op mode, sort of like a light gun game. One person controls the view and movement for both. In the video, the guy’s using the Wii Zapper.

9:39 am: Focus shifts to the DS. 30% of gamers were female in 2005. By 2006 it was 46%, and in 2007 it was 48%. Guitar Hero On Tour, for example, sold 300k copies in America in the first week (although our reviewer didn’t care for it).

DS Games

New Guitar Hero On Tour game– Guitar Hero: Decades. This is coming out this year, and you’ll be able to share your songs (not sure what this means exactly). It’s also going to use the microphone– we see a guy blowing into the mic to put out his flaming guitar. The other DS game they’re talking about is Spore. This isn’t the full PC version of course. It’s much more of a platformer with some slight customization elements.

The next Pokemon, Pokemon Rangers: Shadows of Almia is coming November 10. So, Guitar Hero, Spore, and Pokemon.

And an announcement: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars comes to DS this winter!! Custom game engine, new characters, and the same hooker-killing gameplay we’ve come to expect.

9:45 am: What if DS and Air travel came together? Why doesn’t it tell you where to pick up your luggage, or what gate your flight is at? What about changing up your experience at a baseball game? Why not watch highlights, check out scores, or order sushi from your seat in Seattle.

One more idea: Could the DS earn a spot in your kitchen? Dang, Nintendo wants to be everywhere. Recipes and cooking tips when the game comes out in America this November. Will it help you cook Thanksgiving dinner?

Wii Sports Resort + Wii MotionPlus

9:47 am: Reggie introduces Wii MotionPlus, an add-on accessory. Makes your wrist or arm movements more sensitive. We’re going to see how this “worthy successor” to the Wii remote will work. New game: Wii Sports Resort, which is “literally a day at the beach”. Here are three of the minigames.
When you buy Wii Sports Resort, you’ll get the chunky butt add-on included, plus an extra large sleeve.

They’re demonstrating a frisbee throwing game, and showing off the fine-tuned motion controls. They’re tossing the disc to an adorable puppy, and the goal is to get the puppy to catch it. Looks fun!

Now Reggie is showing off a jetski game, which he thinks is much manlier than Cammie’s frisbee game. Now it’s time for some “old fashioned sword dueling”. Hold the Wii remote with both hands. In the minigame, you’re chopping wood at different angles. You can block and twist your wrists. Instead of wood, a pencil drops down, and they try to “sharpen the pencil” (unsuccessfully). Reggie and Cammie of Nintendo are dueling. Cammie loses and is knocked into the water.

Wii Sports Resort will have more activities… that they’re not going to tell us about yet. The game comes out next Spring. How about some of those third-party Wii MotionPlus games?

Wii Music

Here’s a game that comes out this year, and doesn’t need the new Wii MotionPlus. Very dramatic lighting and smoke effects. Hey, it’s a virtual drum set. Using the Wii Fit Board as a bass drum, a guy is bapping on the snare and cymbals. Looks noisy! But takes up a lot less space than a real drum set (or even Rock Band/ Guitar Hero World Tour). Extended drum solo!

Shigeru Miyamoto is introduced, and he’s using the Wii Remote as a saxaphone. How does this work? The drum guy is playing a beat behind him. Some kind of music game. We also see a standup bass and xylophone in the background. How can this be anything other than a noise machine? Let’s let Miyamoto explain.

Wii Music is the name of the game– was developed alongside Wii Fit, Wii Sports, and Wii Play. Different from past music games, because you’re not trying to match to an on-screen indicator. You can experience “the joy” of playing music even if you don’t know how. Note to self: Start new Internet meme, “Wii Noise”.

To play the Sax, Shiegeru is just twiddling the buttons, and decides the timing himself. The game will automatically pick the right notes based on the song. He toodles out an unrecognizable version of a song from F-Zero.

You’ll be able to play 50 instruments just by moving around. He demonstrates by playing piano, just by banging downwards on an imaginary keypad. To play violin, you make the motions and can adjust the volume. To play guitar, you hold one arm out and one down, and waggle at waist level. You can also bang on some of those giant Japanese drums.

Miyamoto says you can learn the drums in just a few weeks using Wii Music. He’s bring up the orchestra conducting intro from 2 years ago. So in Wii Music you have a conducting game and a Handel choir. The game won’t evaluate your performance, but instead record your performance. One player can play and record individual parts and then layer them into your own video.

Now they’ll play an ensemble song. You can play with up to four players simultaneously. Robbie is going to play the drums. This is a Nintendo exec supergroup.

They’re playing the Super Mario Bros. theme song. Oh god, it’s horrible. It sounds a bit off, but it looks like they’re having fun. Do these people have any rhythm at all? This game is going to drive parents nuts everywhere. Their Miis are all rocking out on a giant screen behind them. In the corner is a timer counting off the beats.

10:07 am: Recap time… Animal Crossing, Wii Sports Resort, Wii Music. Any more good stuff? Kid Icarus? Punch Out? Come on, throw us real gamers a bone.

Reggie is talking about “creating new advantages”. What’s the next advantage? Seems to be building to some significant announcement. “This week, Nintendo builds the next advantage.” Is that the end? Oh man. I’m slightly disappointed.

Well, now it’s over. The lights are up and the screen is showing some slides of the games they’ve announced. But what can we take from this press conference? Nintendo is dominating and now it seems they’re coasting. Wii Sports Resort and Wii Music will be huge sellers, but that doesn’t mean we have to like them.

For people who like flashy graphics, online multiplayer, and white-knuckle action, looks like you’ll have to buy a console from Sony or Microsoft. Nintendo is ceding the hardcore market, while Microsoft tries to be more like Nintendo. No hardcore games– unless you want to count Grand Theft Auto for the DS, which we didn’t see any screens or videos for.

We’re a bit disappointed. Expectations were high, but the big announcement was a game they showed off 2 years ago when Shigeru conducted the orchestra. Chad’s pissed– he was expecting a new Punch Out game.

Ripten TV: Top 5 Microsoft E308 Press Conference Crowd-Pleasers

Jonathan Zungre — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 06:28:34 +0000

I recap the Microsoft press conference, highlighting the top 5 crowd-pleasing moments. Click the jump for some first hand E3 Microsoft press conference impressions.

Reactions to the Microsoft Press Conference

Wade Larson — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 02:18:32 +0000

My first reaction to the Microsoft conference was: Resident Evil 5: ZOMG DO WANT NAO!

Second reaction: Clean pants: ZOMG… probably should put on now.

In all seriousness, the Resident Evil 5 demo with online co-op really caught my attention. I’m a huge RE4 fan, so the similarity to RE4 isn’t a bad thing in my opinion. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, except the part about being able to switch guns without the menu screen. That helps.

Fable 2 is also on my watch list, but my enthusiasm mirrors that of the audience apparently: pleasantly bemused. Like the original, it has potential. Let’s just hope it lives up to it a bit more than the first one did.

And then there was Cliffy B. While I do not share Chady’s heterosexual (I’m assuming) man-crush on the guy, I am a big fan of Gears of War, and introducing ugly aliens to the business end of a chainsaw never gets old. It looks like (or reads like, since I didn’t actually get to see the video) GoW 2 is going to bigger, better action. Brumak fights, Locust shields, flamethrowers, it should be a helluva ride. Especially if that ride is on a Brumak.

Say it’s true, Cliffy. Say it’s true.

The junk in the middle there seems… weak. But that’s what the middle is for. Start of with a bang, end with a bombshell. In the middle is all the requisite PR stuff they have to say. Still, the mention of a new interface had me laughing. Or maybe it was just Andrew’s description of the audience’s response, or Emily’s “Do not want.”

The Guitar Hero / Rock Band stuff really doesn’t do anything for me, even though I enjoy both games. They’re announcing new songs and content so often that I just drown most of it out. I am stoked about “Tangled Up in Blue” though. It is my favorite Dylan song, after all. (Betcha didn’t know that! And double or nothing says you don’t care either!) But, for some people I’m sure the new songs and drumkit are better than a backstage bus full of groupies.

The deal with Netflix has my interest, but I’m going to need more details on that. I like the idea of being able to download movies right to my Xbox, but how much is it going to cost, how many can I download, can I fill up my hard drive or do I only get three at a time? Such questions demand answers before I will hand over my hard earned money.

As I said before: Start with a bang, end with a bombshell.

Final Fantasy XIII on 360. Fuck. Yes. And in the immortal words of Forest Gump: That’s all I have to say about that.

Ripten Real-Time: EA Press Conference

Andrew Podolsky — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 21:44:11 +0000

It’s the first day of E3, and the EA Press Conference is just about to begin. We’ll start liveblogging from 3:00 pm PDT on, so check back shortly for our immediate, firsthand response to EA’s big announcements.

3:05 pm: We’ve been asked to turn off our pagers and cell phones. The lights are starting to dim. Looks like we’ll be starting soon.

3:05 pm: Flurry of EA games– Skate, Mercenaries, Dead Space. “New Sports”, like Facebreaker, NCAA, Hockey, Tiger Woods, NASCAR, and of course Madden 09. “New Sims”, same as the old Sims. Plus the mini-Sims for Wii. “New Casual Entertainment”, Monopoly, Connect Four, Operation. Here’s Harry Potter… looks like a Quidditch game? “New Games”: Battlefield, Spore. “New Partners”, Left 4 Dead, Crysis expansion, Rock Band 2, Burnout, Mercenaries 2, and Mirror’s Edge. Very impressive quick-cut trailer. No game names were shown.

3:09 pm: Exec takes the stage. The people who make the games will be showing the games, they said. Less boring marketing and sales talk. People here cheer appreciatively.

SimsAnimals

3:10 pm: Here’s our latest Sims game: SimAnimals. You can create groups of animals, their friends and adversaries, and shape their habitat. And they will have a mind of their own. Friendly animals like rabbits and deer, and some mischevious like foxes and wolves.

Sim Animals trailer starts. A gloved hand (sort of like the hand in Black and White) picks up a sleeping bear cub. He is chasing a squirrel, stop to talk to a fox who is eating a mushroom. The squirrel steal the mushroom. Both bear and fox go after it. Pretty stylized– not super realistic, but attractive. This is CG, not gameplay. The gloved hand removes a tree, and the bear falls into a stream, then the gloved hand picks it up. The end!

Sims 3

3:14 pm: Here’s the real Sims. Sims 2 Store Beta was just launched, it is now live. You can buy individual items, and buy Sims 3 digitally. Coming in 2009. Sims 3 will have “the most complex characters ever put into a videogame.” Like we haven’t heard that before.

3:15 pm: First look at Sims 3 gameplay. Your entire life starts inside the house. Now someone’s opened the door. Change from black and white to color as Sims run around outdoors– jogging, fishing, beign stylish, talking Simlish on the phone.

They’re having a fabulous party– and you’re invited!

Dead Space

3:17 pm: Next up is Glen Schofield of EA Redwood Shores. He’s introducing Dead Space, a gory M-rated game. This game offers “realistic zero G, just like in Space”. This game has no HUD– (heads up display), so no “clutter”. Here comes a demo of live gameplay.

OK, this looks REALLY cool. It’s over the shoulder third person, like RE4, but with a creepy space atmosphere like System Shock 2. When he aims, a hologram indicates how much ammo he has left. He enters a new area, and a creature attacks and knocks him down. He’s getting smacked around, fighting this monster, aiming for the head but not doing much damage.

Now he’s aiming for the legs, which takes it down. Finally he turns a flamethrower on the thing and lights it up. I guess flamethrowers are in this year (see Gears of War 2 at Microsoft’s thing). The controls seem to be very similar to RE4, and that’s not a bad thing.

Using some sort of electric crossbow, he zaps the thing into submission. That guy took a lot of hits. He makes it to an elevator and rides up.

On the second floor, the halls are covered in organic material. Our hero is snagged by an alein tentacle and dragged through the halls. He fires from the ground but is sucked into a pit killed. Coming out on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 on October 21 2008.

Here’s a new trailer now, with all real time gameplay. This is the first time I’ve seen more than just screens, and I’m definitely impressed. RE4 meets Event Horizon/ System Shock 2/ Bioshock? Yes please.

The trailer’s plenty gory, but isn’t nearly as cool as the gameplay footage. “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” is sung by a creepy girl. Hm, a little cliched.

Mirror’s Edge

3:25 pm: The makers of Battlefield: Bad Company are showing us Mirror’s Edge, the first-person platformer that had an impressive trailer debut about a month ago. You play as a courier, in an age where information is highly monitored. We watch a lengthy gameplay demo.

Items in the world, like pipes or ropes, will turn red to indicate you can cross on them. Your character’s arms and legs are visible around the periphery of the screen, along with a slight blur effect.

Our character makes an impressive leap of faith. A few people in the audience go, “oooh!”

She enters a room with some boxes piled up. She leaps from a pipe on the wall to a vent, and up into another vent, where she encounters bad guys who start to fire on her. It looks like color is a big part of this game– red items show your pathway, and much of the rest of the game is a stark white. You have a “reaction time” (bullet time) to perform big stunts.

After making another leap, crossing over rooftops, she takes down a couple of guards– first with a kick to the leg, then with a Judo flip. You can complete the whole game without firing a single bullet– it’s hard, but possible, and will earn you an achievement.

Our courier makes it to her target– another courier, to whom she tosses the package. Now she’s stuck on the roof with guards closing in with guns. She makes a leap onto a helicopter, and when she faces the building, you can see her holding onto the helicopter in the reflection. Very pretty.

New trailer: same intro music as before. “The following is all in-game footage”. Showing off some new environments, interiors, color schemes, times of day. These locations are seamlessly edited together. This game has a very Portal-like look to it– very clean and sparse, with the environment the main focus.

Hearty applause– we like Mirror’s Edge.

Spore

3:32 pm: Rock star music introduces Will Wright, the rock star developer. His shirt says “Save SETI at Arecibo.” It’s no Darfur, but a worthy cause anyways.

The Spore creature creator has been a big hit, of course– 1 million species created in a week. More Spore species now than real species on Earth. So Will Wright is bigger than Jesus?

It took about 3 weeks to get 1.7 million species (the number on Earth), and that’s 3 times longer than God, so… “Spore Fans = 38% God”. Flattery will get you everywhere, Will.

Players have made realistic creatures and human creatures. Where are the sex creatures? Creatures in the shapes of ships, planes. Bizarre stuff. No mention at all about obscene creatures. Probably for the best.

Apparently there’s some kind of celebrity website for Spore– Stan Lee, David Lynch, Adam West, and others have made their own Spores. Kotaku’s Brian Crecente is featured on the list– you celebrity, you. Or maybe that’s the gigolo from Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigalo. No, it’s Brian.

A documentary for National Geographic is in the works. The DVD will be include with the deluxe Galctic edition of Spore.

Will believes non-gamers will fall into Spore the way they did for Sims. By the way, everyone here picked up a copy of the $10 retail creature creator when they walked in– and one of you lucky Ripten readers will win it as part of the “Win Chad’s Swag” contest (look for it on the right side of the site.

3:41 pm: New trailer. The voice over definitely plays up the intelligent design angle. “Someone looked at the microbe and decided they needed a longer flagella.” “Someone made our little champs irresistable to the opposite sex.” “Now we’re talking… or mating, as the case may be.” It’s a very quick, quirky trailer that rushes through the different stages of Spore, from cellular level to planetary level. This game will be out Sept 7 (but we knew that already).

NBA 09

3:43 pm: Hey, it’s Peter Moore! People are asking to see his tattoo. But he says he’s out of arms and legs.

Peter’s excited about EA Sports (he should be, it’s his job). Twenty years of Madden football this year. Exec Producer for NBA Live 09 is going to demo the game for us. Plus a celebrity: NBA Hall of Famer Bill Walton. He starts to go on about how excited he is– rambling, almost, and then says he’s interested in Spore. Peter steers him back to “Sports, not Spore”.

They’re having a boring, manly sports talk on stage. Peter brings up “dynamic DNA”… interesting name. This is going to be “more than stats”, it’s about getting the attributes of the players in the game in a more realistic fashion. Your player’s DNA is made of things like “Isolation, cuts, post up, Pic and roll man”. Man, this is all Greek to me. Here’s a video to help demonstrate it.

In NBA 09, DNA is made of “player tendencies”– the decisions they make in the middle of a game. Bill makes some sports joke. People laugh– I have no idea why this is funny. Did I mention I don’t follow sports? I feel like a nerd in gym class here. I wonder if Peter Moore ever stuffed Will Wright into a locker.

I have no idea what they’ve been talking about, but here’s some actual gameplay. The animations look nice. DNA strands are going down the right, next to play calling. This shows which options are more likely to be successful. The replay is a bit choppy when it cuts to the hoop view.

Peter asks them to “light up the hot zones”, and Bill says he loves the hot zones. This shows you where you’re most likely to sink the ball. Marv Albert is calling the action in the game. This is the first time we’ve seen NBA 09 running, says Peter. Peter mentions the Celtics, and some people in the audience boo. Man, can’t we go back to Dead Space now?

Bill gets a good round of applause– he did pretty well, considering his specialty is real basketball and not videogames.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09

3:56 pm: Natalie Gulbis of the LPGA comes out on stage to introduce Tiger Woods. Aw, too bad Tiger isn’t here. She’s going to play the game on Wii. She’s having a friendly game with Peter. The motion controls look like fun, but the graphics are nothing to write home about.

Natalie’s shot lands in the rough– nearly in the water. She’s playing as herself in the game, wearing the same clothes she’s wearing onstage. Khaki shorts, red t-shirt, white cap. She’s not doing too bad against Peter, but Peter just made his putt and won the hole.

Natalie misses her putt. It’s Peter 2, Natalie 4. Not too bad though!

Peter closes. “It’s in the game”.

EA Online

4:02 pm: John Pleasants, of EA’s online organization. They’re “driving a type of connected consumer experience”. Nanea Reeves, who runs the EA online group, takes the stage. Here’s what’s online for EA.

You’ll have a “nucleus” that is the same across all games– your login is your email address. Helps you find friends and a good match online. In Battlefield Heroes, which is free to play, you can get new clothes “so you can look hot”. Big concern for me. Sims 2 also has downloadable stuff at the EA store. Nucleus should be in 25+ EA titles by the end of 2009.

Shawn Fanning is going to tell us about Rupture– a way to challenge friends across games and platforms. You can see what your friends are doing, and these are not all EA games. World of Warcraft, for example, is on the list. You can send achievement challenges to a friend, and respond to trash talk. For more, check out Ruture.com/developers.

EA Mobile

4:08 pm: Travis from EA Mobile takes the stage. This is an area I’m familiar with. He’s talking iPhone and iPod Touch. He likes App Store and the 3G iPhones. Tetris, Sudoku, and Scrabble are available now. Tetris has some touch features– very hot (not).

In Spore for iPhone, you can guide your little cell guy by tilting. In Scrabble, you can shake the phone to shuffle up your tiles. A Scrabble upgrade will let you play over wi-fi– very cool!

3d games like Tiger Woods and Need for Speed are coming to the iPhone too. Here’s a trailer showing some of the upcoming titles– Monopoly is coming, too. No 3d shown– it probably wouldn’t look so good compared to the console games. Interestingly EA only showed iPhone mobile games.

Dragon Age: Origins

4:11 pm: Dr. Greg Zeschuk of Bioware is going to show us Dragon Age: Origins. Here’s a new trailer. Starts with some BS fake gospel quote, the Canticle of Threnodies 8:13. Oookay.

Very Two Towers-like. Soldiers standing in the pouring rain. The armor looks very nice, and there are a ton of battle hounds and soldiers charging into an army of orcs. Archers let a shit-ton of flaming arrows loose (think 300). Aragorn– I mean, some other bearded dude– is looking mighty pissed with his sword. Legolas is there too! Well, at least a Legolas looking elf.

Left 4 Dead

4:15 pm: Gabe Newell from Valve takes the stage. He wants to talk about Left 4 Dead. He shows a slide with a bunch of features– is 2 player on-screen co-op newly announced? The idea of Left 4 Dead is it’s a horror movie you can live with your friends.

The Director in Left 4 Dead sets up the enemies, AI, stuff like that. Depending on how you play, you’ll get different outcomes. For example, here’s two groups– the first is not doing so great. They are beaten up and playing poorly, so they’re getting a pretty easy encounter. Just a few zombies charge them in a gas station.

The second group, however, has been doing much better. The payoff is a dozen or so zombies, plus a boss that blows itself up and takes out the entire damn gas station. Very impressive explosion.

New Survivor designs– chick with a red jacket, old grizzled war vet, lean biker dude, business guy with a pistol. The last guy has amazing skin texture and details, like a half untucked shirt. Now we get to see another trailer. Chad points out that Gabe isn’t very well animated. Well, as long as the characters in the game are, I guess that’s all that matters.

The trailer’s not too impressive– we’ve seen all this stuff before. It’s all gameplay footage, though, and shows some pretty cool action. Shooting zombies doesn’t really get old.

Rage

4:22 pm: We’re back to another EA exec from the beginning, talking about how well EA gets along with other companies. He’s announcing a new partnership with a big name. This is ID! Welcome John Carmack.

John likes that EA can advertise their game for him, but doesn’t take away the creativity. He’s going to show off RAGE– an action/exploration/driving game with new technology. To John this is a new direction. More will be shown at Quake-Con, but here’s a taste.

The trailer: Outdoor environments with dune buggies. Inside environments with Doom 3-looking monsters and humans. A gnarly ogre roars into the camera. Fin.

4:24 pm: This press conference is wrapping up. We never even got to Harry Potter, Mercenaries 2, Skate It, and Warhammer Online. But we’ll have more on that when we visit EA’s booth.

Here’s that trailer from the beginning again– and this time we recognize a few more of the games.

So what stood out at this press conference? Dead Space, Mirror’s Edge, and Left 4 Dead. Spore we’ve seen plenty of times before, and I wasn’t that impressed by the Sims and Sports games. Overall I’d say they’ve got a solid lineup, but that’s mainly because they’ve got the old standbys like Madden and Tiger Woods. In terms of new stuff, Dead Space and Mirror’s Edge are definitely two to watch.

Make sure to check back with us tomorrow for our Nintendo (9:00 am PST) and Sony (11:30 am PST) liveblog sessions.

Ripten Real-Time: Microsoft Press Conference

Andrew Podolsky — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:37:20 +0000

It’s the first day of E3, and we’re about to head over to the Microsoft Press Conference. We’ll begin liveblogging from 10:30 am PST on, so check back shortly for our immediate, firsthand response to Microsoft’s big Xbox 360 announcements.

10:24 am: The press conference is about to begin! We’ve taken our seats– the place is packed, and they’re showing us Xbox ads and interviews with “people on the street” who look like no gamers I’ve met. It’s kind of like the ads they show you before a movie starts. Jump in!

The West Hall of the LA Convention Center is bathed in green light, with three HD screens on stage left and a couch and coffee table set up on stage right. Emily points out that it gives the stage a talk-show like appearance.

10:29 am: Getting started for real now. Blasting techno music: JUMP! JUMP! Kriss kross is nowhere to be found. It’s like a rock concert, movie, and motivational seminar all rolled into one.

10:30 am: One of Microsoft’s Execs takes the stage. He says, how do we keep our hardcore fans and bring in new ones as well? Scene-It and Uno are part of the plan.

Fallout 3

10:35 am: Vintage clip: Crazy 50s family with a robot. Friends, your future may not be as certain as you think. Atomic blast occurs outside. It’s Fallout 3! Cartoon selling the vault. “Dating experiences in the vault may vary”. Repopulate our great country. Reserve your family’s spot today.

10:38 am: Live Fallout 3 demo. What a great way to kick off this conference! Takes place in DC, 2277. You can play in first or third person. A robot playing patriotic music (Yankee Doodle?) flies by, apparently to maintain belief in the destroyed US Government. Pip Boy comes up– showing off some cool abilities. One ability lets you receive radio transmissions.

Ad is running on a TV set against a colorful, charred landscape. And there’s the guy from Vault 101. Todd Howard, of Bethesda takes the stage.

It’s the first half of a new trailer, debuts in a few hours on XBL.

10:40: Fallout 3 has a Very typical FPS style– blurs when you’re hit, and Bioshock-style you can hack turrets and security systems. Zapping baddies, and if you use a shotgun, the gib in a bloody fashion.

10:42 am: The Brotherhood has taken up in the Pentagon. The Enclave, the remnants of the government. Todd launches a mini-nuke from a shoulder rocket. Nice mini-mushroom cloud, and that’s the end of this demo. Oh, and Todd loves XBL marketplace– lots of “substantial” DLC for Fallout 3. Horse armor 2?

Resident Evil 5

10:43 am: June Takeuchi from Capcom takes the stage to show off his game, Resident Evil 5! Through a translator, he announces we’re going to see the first playable demo of RE5. Without any further ado, here we go. Chris is standing in a doorway with his pistol drawn. Looks much like RE4. A LOT like RE4. Perhaps this is intentional? Maybe showing off the new stuff later. The zombies all seem to be white, or at least multiracial. Chad predicted this one.

Gasp! Online co-op for RE5! Chris and Sheva do a tandem leap across a broken bridge, much like the Leon/Ashley cooperation in RE4. Also, it seems you can change weapons without going to the menu screen. Chris is now sniping with a bolt rifle. Sheva is using an AK. Items appear when enemies fall, just like RE4, complete with colorful light to indicate what they are. One of the African zombies is wielding a massive wrench. Sheva shoots a lock so Chris can go through.

Here’s a tougher enemy– a variation on the chainsaw/bag headed dude. They need to work together to take it down… but not here. They’re out of time. Oh, both Jun and his translator are wearing Umbrella Corporation jackets. Awesome! News: RE5 will be out Friday the 13, March 2009. Not releasing on a Tuesday? Oh well.

Fable 2

10:48 am: Peter Molyneux takes the stage. “Fable 2 is finished.” Light applause. Shows off a new trailer. Pretty CG. Seems very WoW.

The new Fable 2 trailer shows some good looking streets, buildings, and human figures– all CG. A piece of bird crap lands on a non-CG, in-game character– you. You start as a little kid (either gender). Your character grows up from a child to a “full blown hero” (Peter’s words). Peter has one more innovation: the dog. He’s your companion, best friend, yadda yadda. But that’s not what he wants to show us.

We can play co-op over Live– with a twist. Your friends are playing single player games, and you can invite them into yours from inside the game.

Fable 2 will let you get drunk at the bar, chat up people, get married. Let’s meet Molyneux’s fake wife. She has “strange tastes”. Uh oh. His abode is poor, but he has a young son and “beautiful” (chesty, pigtailed, thick) wife. His co-op buddy is belching, and she is laughing, clearly she finds it funny. Their enthusiasm and love for you is going up (indicated by number like +24). Fable 2 is coming out in October of this year.

Gears of War 2

10:54 am: New Gears of War 2 trailer. Creepy Vincent Price style voice over. Marcus is using a Locust as a shield. And running. Trailer ends. Logo up. Ladies and gentlemen, Cliffy B.

Cliffy B is going to take us through multiplayer co-op, playing as Marcus and Dom. Crumbling buildings on fire, typical Gears assets like wrecked cars. Lots of pretty smoke effects. Whoops, it crashed. Let’s reset that…

We start again. Marcus runs across a fallen crane and starts to fight the Locust. He takes a Locust as a shield by pressing the A button when he gets close to a fallen badguy. One of the Locusts is swinging a big medieval mace. Why bring a mace to a gun fight? Hey, there’s some kind of big new spider-walker. Looks pretty neat. Marcus takes it out with the Hammer of Dawn.

Bitchin’! Here’s a new weapon- a sweet flame thrower. All the flame effects look pretty nice. Locusts are scaling the cliffside rooftop where Marcus is standing, using grappling hooks. You can shoot the hooks to knock them off. The roof starts to crumble and collapses– all in real time. Transition to a new area. A faster version of the Locust is running circles around Marcus and Dom. Now a Brumak enters the scene. Looks like you can finally fight it on your 360. Marcus wields a mega chain gun (think Doom) and wipes it out, triggering a cutscene that Cliffy skips.

Now Marcus is in a sideways elevator, complete with funny elevator music. He gets out, and there’s the Brumak– kind of like in God of War, how the bosses are visible as you approach them. “Let’s get over there and finish it off– or we could ride it”. “If they can ride ‘em, so can we.” New announcement: Horde mode. 5 player coop, where you take on waves of Locusts. November 7 2008 release date.

XBL Movies

11:03 am: Microsoft’s Senior VP of Xbox takes the stage again. Sold more than PS3 this year, blah blah… zzz… Will sell more consoles this cycle. Undisputed leader– but I bet Sony and Nintendo would dispute it. A new member joins XBL every 5 seconds. One BILLION dollars spent on XBL. Cue the Dr Evil pinky smirk. This must be the infomercial part of the press conference.

A third of all paid downloads in the US come from XBL. NBC and Universal will be joining Office. That means the Office, Battlestar Galactica, Heroes. USA and Sci Fi channel are part of the NBC deal.

New movies coming: Scorpion King, Fast and the Furious, Bourne Supremacy, 12 Monkeys, American Pie… lots of classics.

MGM and Constantin films will be available starting today. More content is coming. There you have it– fueling growth, giving more choices, blah blah. How do we bring in more people to Xbox 360?

John Schappert, VP of Live takes the stage.

New Interface and Avatars

11:10 am: Here’s an announcement… a new system update. What is it? Brand new interface? Yep… looks like Windows Vista. Welcome to the new Xbox experience. No applause, then nervous applause, then pity applause. Wow. “Creating a new Xbox through the magic of software.”

Hey look– avatars! They look a lot like Miis! For a “market leader” they sure are taking their cues from Nintendo. Wow, a red shirt turns green! Thrilling! I think people here are disappointed. Emily says: “Do not want”. Developer video: titles can include avatars. They like the idea. We don’t.

11:15 am: “Avatars are just the beginning”– we sure hope so. He says, the new Xbox will be easier to discover stuff. The community channel has avatars, instead of just a friends list. When they sign on, you can see them. New feature: Live Party, and hang out and chat with your friends’ avatars. You can also stream photos to people in your party.

Another new feature: Xbox Live Primetime. This will let you create game shows for you and your friends. For example, 1 vs 100. You can play from the stage or the crowd. Win real prizes!

New Games channel– and a new Uno game, Uno Rush. One person in the crowd: “Whoo!”. This Uno uses new Avatars. They went from a party to the game quickly.

Xbox Live Arcade

11:19 am: New version of Geometry Wars coming next month– Geometry Wars 2 has co-op, different enemy types. You can see the whole screen during co-op. No applause… seems pretty by the numbers. Due next month.

New Galaga update– Galaga Legions. Same team at Namco that made Pac-Man World Championship Edition. Similar style– exclusive to XBLA, will be available next month.

11:21 am: GladOs introduces Portal: Still Alive, with new, more challenging levels. And it’s coming out this year to Xbox Live Arcade. Sweet! Hearty applause.

One more 2009 XBL game: South Park. 10 second trailer! No gameplay shown at all– just Cartman’s voice. We have no idea what the actual game will be.

11:22 am: Here are some XNA games. They all look like free web apps. Xbox Live Community Games will launch in the fall as part of the “new Xbox Live experience”.

Netflix

11:23 am: Microsoft announced Netflix service. If you’re a Live member, you can double the amount of video content. If you have XBL, you don’t need a Netflix account (after playing back the audio from the conference, it appears that you will need a Netflix account). And you can share these with your friends, to watch them together online. Emily: “That’s totally cool.”

11:25 am: Shane Kim takes the stage. He talks about big franchises: Prince of Persia, Tomb Raider, Call of Duty. First GTA4 DLC “promises to be another huge event for Xbox 360 and XBL”.

Banjo Kazooie 3

New Rare game– Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts. Here’s a trailer– cartoony, as expected. Some kind of witch is watching B-K create a funky flying machine. Now we see gameplay video– land, air, and sea vehicle creation.

Next up: Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise. Polar and Desert regions. 100+ varieties of pinatas. Buy a card, scan it with your camera, get a new pinata.

Box Office Smash and You’re In The Movies

Now, a new game: Scene-It: Box Office Smash. First retail game to feature avatars.

Codemasters is bringing a new Xbox 360 game where you can make your own movie. “You’re in the Movies”. Wow, this is pretty interesting. You act out in front of the camera, and it puts your image into a CG-type clip– here one of the demoers is pretending to be a clown, running against a bungee. The next “actor” is swatting imaginary wasps, which are added in later. The camera seems to recognize when you hit one.

The next actor is dancing in a goofy disco scene. This actually looks like a fun party game.

When you’re done goofing off, you star in your own movie trailer. Here we see Cold Blooded, a 50s horror movie about a giant lizard. The actors are all running, screaming from the monster. Pretty well edited.

You’re in the Movies includes an XBL camera. You can also share these movies online.

Guitar Hero: World Tour

11:38 am: Kua Huang of Red Octane is talking about Guitar Hero: World Tour. Drum kit with cymbals, and a guitar with a “touch-slide”. “Most master tracks from the best bands.” New music studio will let people make and share music. When “GH Tunes” launches, it will distribute songs by aspiring artists.

Two announcements: GHWT will give XBox owners 3 tracks from a new REM album. Also, Van Halen and The Eagles will join METALLICA on Guitar Hero– and not on Rock Band. Death Magnetic will be available as DLC at the same time as the new album. First for GH3 in September.

Lips

11:43 am: New karaoke game for Xbox 360. Flashing microphones. You can plug in your Zune to get new music. The game is called: Lips.

Lips is the first game that lets you sing from your own music collection (can’t you sing along to music without the game?) Lips has new light-up mics that are also motion sensitive, so you can use it as a tambourine. Here’s Duffy, in real life on stage, singing “Mercy”. She’s not using the Lips microphone– this is a real one.

This is an impromptu concert, but it’s a little off. For one, she’s singing in front of a screen playing the karaoke version of song, so there’s a bit of an echo. Also, she’s not actually playing the game– it just looks that way.

Rock Band 2

11:49 am: Now we’re talking Rock Band, continuing the music games theme. RB2 will be coming out on Xbox 360 first. Harmonix’s rep takes the stage. Announcement: Rock Band 2 disc soundtrack: it’s so small we can’t see it. The Go-Go’s, Beck, Disturbed… we can see a couple songs. 87 tracks.

Noteworthy tracks: Axl Rose’s “Shackler’s Revenge”, from Chinese Democracy. Bob Dylan’s Tangled up in Blue. AC/DC will appear exclusively in Rock Band 2– not in Guitar Hero. “Let there be rock” is the track. Metallica’s in here too– ok, so that one’s not a GH exclusive.

20 bonus songs will be available for free, so that’s over 100 songs included with the game. All of the old songs you downloaded will work on RB2. Plus, you can play your RB1 disc songs as well. 500 songs available by the end of the year. More than any other music game ever– up yours, GH!

Final Fantasy 13

11:54 am: President of Square Enix takes the stage. Star Ocean, Infinite Undiscovery, Last Remnant. Emily is psyched. Infinite Undiscovery is an XBox exclusive. Star Ocean will be on Marketplace exclusively.

New footage of Last Remnant. Looks like, well, Final Fantasy 12. Not very much shown– just a couple creatures, a couple bad-looking guys, and some magical spells. Coming 11/20/08.

12:02 pm: Holy shit: Final Fantasy 13 will be on Xbox! This new trailer shows a good deal of CG.

This trailer is unspeakably awesome– tons of characters, action, and a bit of what appears to be battle gameplay. The character models are great. The music is impressive– I’m liking this part a lot. The crowd goes wild.

Lots of enthusiasm for this title.

Well, that’s the big climax. Pretty damn good. No Bungie/Halo announcements, here at least. OK, people are clearing out. We’ll clean up this post a little so it’s a bit more legible. Check back later for all the live breaking news from E3.

Make sure to check back with us tomorrow for our Nintendo (9:00 am PST) and Sony (11:30 am PST) liveblog sessions.