MuToiD_MaN's E3 2006 Experience

[MuToiD_MaN]

Hi everyone! I know that some of you might have read my earlier post that I wasn't going to go to e3 because of my own dumbassery, but I ended up scoring a few passes from my coworkers for use on Friday. So I went and JUST BECAUSE I'm that awesome, I've uploaded the pictures and videos I took with a bit of blog flare so those of you who are curious can get an idea of what it's like there.

Link to my pictures on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/94287861@N00/sets/72057594134040369/

Link to a YouTube playlist of my videos:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=F4547CF32E92F801

My legs hurt like a bitch after the day was over.

EDIT: Aww, my Crysis footage was apparently a terms of use violation ...

 

[VirusType2]

EDIT: Aww, my Crysis footage was apparently a terms of use violation ...

Great stuff man. If you view all the videos and slideshow the images (great feature by the way), it's almost like being there, except without all the lines.

What did you think of Prey? Is this is a stand-out game or just another game in the sea of high-caliber games?


I'm not sure why a video of Crysis is any different then the other stuff. Someone may have clicked to take it down on accident, or ... I dunno.

BTW those booth babes are on fire.

 

[MultiVaC]

That's some pretty cool stuff, I wish I could've gone. Which games did you get to play?

 

[MuToiD_MaN]

Games I got to play:
Sonic Wild Fire, Lumines for xbox arcade, Bomberman Act Zero. I could have stood in line to play Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, Prey, the Fear expansion, a crapload of Wii games (almost all the ones there were videos of), Battlefield 2142, but we had so much to see, so little time.

Prey seemed pretty damn cool. Now I know more than ever that I'm gonna buy it the moment it comes out. As far as whether it stands out over the other FPSs like Crysis, ET:QW, and Battlefield, I'd have to give it some points for the mindbending portal stuff and other innovations, but would be hard-pressed to put it blatantly above them. All I know is that it's going to be a great time to be a PC FPS gamer, despite the Wii

Oh yeah, I re-encoded the Crysis video and everything's fine now.

 

[destrukt]

hah, looks like soo much fun, watching some of the videos now.

i forgot about the fatal1ty match thing, did anyone beat him ?

 

[MuToiD_MaN]

i forgot about the fatal1ty match thing, did anyone beat him ?

aw hellz no! The video I captured was probably the best anyone did! And he didn't even finish with a positive score!

 

[AmishSlayer]

How was the control on Wii games? How was Mario Galaxy?

 

[Sparda]

Looked like fun

 

[MuToiD_MaN]

I didn't get to play Mario Galaxy, but from what I saw of other people playing it, it takes some getting-used-to. If you play alot of lightgun games (Time Crisis, etc.) you might have an edge on other people because it requires pointing the Wiimote at the screen, and otherwise it seems to control like Marioi 64. I can tell you, though, that Wii control in general has a bit of learning curve to it. Sonic sure did. But I'm sure practice makes perfect. But will your mom be able to pick up and play a Wii game because of this revolutionary new control scheme? Probably not.

 

[Warbie]

But will your mom be able to pick up and play a Wii game because of this revolutionary new control scheme? Probably not.

That's something i'm a little concerned with. The Wii is meant to break the barriers between gamers and non gamers with it's intuitve, pick up and play nature. However, most people i've seen using it at e3 were waving their arms about like numpties (vids of ppl playing Red Steal and Metroid were shocking) and clearly having trouble controlling which ever game/s they were playing.

I think you're right in that it'll be fine with practise, but that's not quite what Nintendo have promised. This could all be minor teathing problems, though.

 

[Gray Fox]

That's something i'm a little concerned with. The Wii is meant to break the barriers between gamers and non gamers with it's intuitve, pick up and play nature. However, most people i've seen using it at e3 were waving their arms about like numpties (vids of ppl playing Red Steal and Metroid were shocking) and clearly having trouble controlling which ever game/s they were playing.

I think you're right in that it'll be fine with practise, but that's not quite what Nintendo have promised. This could all be minor teathing problems, though.

The same applied to the eye toy for ps2 and singstar, you looked like you made a little bit of fool out of yourself, but that was honestly why people liked it. Waving your hand looks like fun to the avrage hippy instead sitting there playing with your controller. I mean just go to a disco and you'll see that most people enjoy waving their arms and legs in crazy ways.

 

[Warbie]

That isn't what I mean. My issue isn't with what people look like when playing (i'm all for prancing around like a tit), but the obvious difficulty they were having in controlling some of the games. Eye Toy works perfectly - even my mum picked it up in under a minute. At e3, people involved in the industry were having trouble with the wii with certain games.

Anyhoo, this is just a minor concern, and I still have faith in Nintendo. These issues can probably be ironed out over the next few months.

 

[weskerQ8]

sounds fun there, i hope next year i could go to E3 but ,, **** college

 

[AmishSlayer]

These issues can probably be ironed out over the next few months.

I bet they can manage to work out the kinks by then. After all the controller IS the major pull to the system.

I also bet that I won't have a big problem with it because like Mutoid said people with lots of light gun game experience will pick it up faster.

One more thing. I thought you had to point the Wiimote at the sensor bar on the actual console, not the tv. ???

 

[Warbie]

It doesn't sound like a pointing device at all. There's an interesting feature in this months Edge about how the controller works with Red Steal. It sounded a little worrying, with people having to aim at the ceiling to move the crosshair up, rather than pointing the device at where they wanted to shoot.

 

[Iced_Eagle]

One more thing. I thought you had to point the Wiimote at the sensor bar on the actual console, not the tv. ???

Haha no no no... That would make it really difficult.

You point the Wiimote at the TV, and the sensor bar just picks up your movements and translates them to on-screen

 

[AmishSlayer]

Haha no no no... That would make it really difficult.

You point the Wiimote at the TV, and the sensor bar just picks up your movements and translates them to on-screen

I'm just going off of what IGN said in their Red Steel play test. If they're wrong then no wonder they had so much trouble. If they're right, no wonder everybody else is having so much trouble. Red Steel could have their control style set up completely different as well...who knows?

Since the sensor bar is placed above or below the television, players point at the bar itself, not at the screen.

 

[MuToiD_MaN]

It doesn't sound like a pointing device at all. There's an interesting feature in this months Edge about how the controller works with Red Steal. It sounded a little worrying, with people having to aim at the ceiling to move the crosshair up, rather than pointing the device at where they wanted to shoot.

There are several different ways the controller is used. The "point the wiimote at the screen" method is what Mario Galaxy uses. You have a cursor on the screen at any time. As for the Red Steel thing: my friend played it and said that it wasn't that difficult of a thing. You only have to aim at the edges of the screen when you want the guy to turn or aim the camera up or down more.

 

[Stigmata]

I've heard that you can calibrate the Wiimote the way you might calibrate a joypad stick in Windows. The way I envision it (cmon, Nintendo), you just have to let the Rev know where the middle and edges of the TV are relative to the sensor bar, and it should take care of the rest.

 

[Warbie]

You only have to aim at the edges of the screen when you want the guy to turn or aim the camera up or down more.

That was another thing I wasn't overly keen on. It seems a clumsey way to look around - like playing Golden Eye while only using the crosshair. I did mean aim at the ceiling of the room they are playing in to move the crosshair up btw, not ingame (or at least the guys from Edge did). To put it simply, the wii remote doesn't seem to mirror the gun you use in the game.

You're probably right about the calibration, Stigmata.

 

[Gray Fox]

Well we'll see in the end what happens. new things always need getting used to.
I mean flying with a joystick in bf2 really needs getting used to, but once you are used to it's much nicer. And there will always be games that don't work with a particular controller, but Nintendo has the addons for it. We'll see if it's a nishe product or an overall upgrade from the old controllers, but you can't blame them for trying something new.

P.S. not that I think you would

 

[Warbie]

Agreed. My issue is only really with one game, and that's an early build. On the whole i'm psyched about wii

Watching the Zelda vid from the Nintendo conference again makes everything all good :thumbs:

 

[MuToiD_MaN]

I still defend the ps3, even if it's only because it's getting bashed from every direction. But I'll admit its showing at e3 was truly upstaged by the wii.