E3: The greatest show on Earth
by Ben
E3 is just around the corner and, as it approaches each year, the level of excitement within the ranks of gamers worldwide steadily increases to fever pitch proportions. 2010 is looking like it could be a belter of a year for gaming goodies but, as all eyes descend upon Los Angeles, nobody is quite sure what exactly we’ll be talking about following the show. There’s always that “whoa, I didn’t expect that” moment that literally has people in raptures across forums for weeks.
It’s the time of year when hopes are raised and then subsequently dashed; a time when, no matter what your gaming affiliation, you can’t help but get a little excited at the prospect of what might be coming. It’s like Christmas but without the packaging from hell that is all but guaranteed to cut you to pieces. So what exactly am I hoping to see?
Hardware
Xbox 360 Slim
It’s got to happen eventually and while the Elite is still holding on a slim line version the Xbox 360 could be just the ticket heading towards a pivotal Christmas period. Hopefully it would also put an end to the technical problems that have plagued the console since its release. Not to mention it’d be a great thing to bundle with Natal at launch.
Nintendo 3DS
The successor the Nintendo DS, complete with 3D capabilities has a lot to live up to following the success of Nintendo’s DS series of handhelds. So many questions regarding the new piece of tech, many of which will no doubt be answered, with the biggest surely being, does it work? Will we still be touching the screen, or will we now be poking thin air as move into the world of 3D.
PSP2
Just what can Sony do to keep its foot in the handheld market? The companies shift away from physical media to digital only will surely have people raising eyebrows to see if the trend continues, even more curious is whether or not UMD will survive. The PSP was a great handheld and it’d be excellent news to see a true successor.
Services
BBC iPlayer for Xbox 360
I stand by my claims that the iPlayer is one of the best things the BBC have ever created and think it’s a shame that it’s yet to arrive on Microsoft’s console. With any luck it’ll be announced during the press conference much akin to the Facebook, Twitter and Last.fm announcements last time around. Bit of gaming followed by a quick snack break while you catch up on the latest Doctor Who, yes please.
Will Microsoft be going mobile? After all, who could resist achievements on the move?
Windows 7 Mobile Gaming
The iPhone has proved that mobile gaming can not only be good fun for the gamer but also quite successful for developers as well, so as the song goes “everyone’s a winner baby”. With any luck we’ll see Microsoft’s answer to mobile gaming, complete with Xbox Live integration. On display, and with any luck some games to boot as well.
Cloud gaming for consoles
Cloud gaming is already around for PC players, but even then it’s still in its infancy. What would be grand is if you could have your game saves with you no matter where you go. It’d be great heading to a friend’s house, dropping your profile onto their console and having access to your save files via the power of the internet. A bit of a data storage nightmare I imagine, but my guess that it would be part of a higher level of subscription fee for Xbox Live and PSN that has long been rumoured.
Ben’s Big List of Games he wants to see something of:
- LittleBigPlanet 2
- Gears of War 3
- Halo Reach
- Driver 5
- Civilization V
- Fable 3
- Gran Turismo 5
- Forza 4
- New Zelda
- Star Wars: Old Republic
- Fallout New Vegas
- The Last Guardian
The ‘dreams can come true’ category
Half Life 3 [with brand new state of the art Source Engine]
It’s been a long time since Half Life 2, and despite having a couple of new episodes the thought of Half Life 3 will be on any fans mind. Every time Valve opens their mouth it’s as if there’s a collective breath holding amongst the gaming community only to be followed by disappointing sigh. It’s almost six years since the release of Half Life 2 and the announcement of Half Life 3 would be most welcome.
Final Fantasy VII HD
It has the possibility to ruin the memories but quite frankly it’s a risk that I’m willing to take. If there’s one title that seems to be touted about as possible remake material then it’s Final Fantasy VII, make it so Square, make it so. Hopes were raised but subsequently dashed when a video of what appeared at the time to be a re-mastered version just turned out to be a demonstration, for shame. Just imagine the reaction from Final Fantasy fans at the news, even more so imagine if it was multi-platform.
So, with E3 right around the corner, what are you wanting to see?
Last five articles by Ben
ohhh im so excited
I admit that, perhaps in an almost ridiculous manner, I was shocked when I first discovered that save files were linked to my actual XBox and not to my gamertag. A save file in, invariably, quite a small file and takes up very little space in the grand scheme of things… unless you’re looking at a badly coded save file where it’s not just co-ordinates and logistics that are stored but massive amounts of data… so it always made sense for me to have the save data attached to my gamertag in some central hub. I was, quite literally, stunned to discover that this wasn’t the case.
If you take my last Borderlands save (I was playing with Willow Tree to see what I could do with the weapons), it’s only 72kb and contains ALL the data on my character… her stats, her inventory, her class details, the current location in the game, her level, total XP… everything… all in 72kb. If space is an issue, there could be a caveat that save information was only stored in a dormant state for three months and then it is removed unless you paid for a premium “unlimited” save storage.
I was down at Pete’s recently and it was suggested that we go on a Crawmerax killing spree… but I want to play with MY character, not one of Pete’s secondary characters… and this would have made that possible. So yeah… I’d like to see that announced
That, and a special DLC addon that allows you to play Fallout 3 (or even New Vegas) in co-op mode as I’d love to have a couple of friends with me in the Wastelands. Great fun killing Deathclaws!
I would be supised if fallout 3 didn’t have some sort of co op. That would be awsome to show off and trade weapons you’ve made and stuff like that. And I’m totally with you on the cloud storage that would be a cool thing for gold subscribers. Even if it’s just like 6 slots and you can pick what to upload. Lol can you belive we just completely made up xbox live cloud storage between us?
I want to call it Cloud City
I can’t see Fallout New Vegas having co-op or multiplayer, simply because it would damage the appeal of the Fallout MMO they’re working on. If you can already explore the wasteland with friends in the main entries, why would you want to pay a subscription fee to do it in the MMO.
I also do not think we’ll see anything of a possible Forza 4, which was on Ben’s game wishlist… it’s simply too soon after Forza 3 has been released.
It’s what WE would like though, not the industry or developers… and I don’t like MMOs at all, so I’d rather see a co-op version of Fallout than an MMO. Doesn’t mean I’m expecting it, just that I want it. It’s like me saying I’d love to have a night of sex with Stoya – I don’t really care that it’ll never happen, I don’t expect anyone to assume that I ever expect it to happen… but it’s still what I’d like
I think you’re taking the responses too literally, and as expectations rather than wishes?
I’d like some kind of co-op in New Vegas myself, so long as it was entirely separate from the single player game and none of the missions or side-quests forced you to either take a friend or an AI partner; I don’t like MMOs for a variety of reasons, but I just don’t see it happening… I know a lot of gamers would welcome it, and it’s a nice wish, but it’s not good business sense for the developers or publishers.
I know it’s wishful thinking, and not an expectation, but I’m unable to shake the pragmatist in me telling me that it won’t happen.
Now, if you don’t mind, I have to get back to painting my “The End is Nigh” sandwich board.
oohh i just thought of a good one. a new G police or that other space flying game from the ps1 it was called Crimson something or something Red something. argghhhhh thats gonna drive me crazy all night now
colony wars: red sun. they should remake that. Bring back space games!!
[...] Ben went into this a little yesterday but I want a go, so here are my predictions for E3: [...]
I’d love Elder Scrolls V, Mirror’s Edge 2, and Hitman 5 to be announced. I’d love for the Natal and Go demonstrations to fail halfway through. I’d love for Hydrophobia to get an actual fucking release date finally.
I’d also like to believe that the rumoured Animal Crossing game for the 3DS will actually be a sequel rather than a rehash but sadly, that is a step too far for my imagination.
[...] E3: The greatest show on Earth [...]