05:03
Craig Mcbeth
WOW! What an show we had at E3 this year. We saw some amazing new titles and new 'futuristic' technology to get excited about over upcoming months. We at CDS have decided to hand out awards for some of our favourite (and less favourite) E3 moments!
Best game in show
Craig: With so many brilliant games at this year’s E3, this has been a very hard choice for me. We saw some awesome games but for me the winner has to be the all -new, reinvention of Tomb Raider. The pre-E3 trailer gave me wet dreams leading up to the spectacular 10-minute technical demo, which pretty much finished me off! Gameplay looks fantastic with very fluent controls, awe-striking atmospheres and an interesting and compelling story, told in a pretty original manner I may add. She had some close competition, but the once polygonal femme-fatal destroyed her competitors and blew off the failure of previous titles.
Dave: For me this is a tight choice between Battlefield 3 and Bioshock Infinite, with my decision being (drum roll) Bioshock Infinite! The 2nd in the Bioshock series wasn’t overseen by the genius Ken Levine as he was deep into creating his next masterpiece which left Bioshock 2 wanting. Bioshock Infinite captures the soul of Bioshock but looks to reinvent the franchise. Jaw dropping action and visuals look to be the order of the day. Also, Elizabeth has an ample bosom which will please some people *cough* Craig *cough*.
Anthony: There were a few games that I could choose from this year across all the platforms. No doubt Tomb Raider, Battlefield 3, Uncharted 3, Modern Warfare 3 and Super Mario 3DS will all be great hits in the coming months but it would be foolish of me to choose one of these games when a titan of gaming had its coming out party. Of course I mean Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Not only did it look insanely good graphically, so good in fact that it could easily be a launch title for a new generation of consoles. But it also looked hugely engaging, innovative and so much more than a simple Oblivion upgrade. The gameplay demo look fluid, intuitive and genuinely breathtaking, oh and the dragons look bad-ass! Mark my words, when the games community decides which game deserves the accolades from E3 it will be Skyrim that sweeps the board.
Best game on Xbox 360
Craig: My choice for this seems rather unfair, as the title will be on multiple platforms. That said Bethesda’s newest addition to the already spectacular Elder scroll series blew me away, with its spectacular and expansive landscapes, innovative and modern gameplay mechanics and the immensely detailed character models. Skyrim is an RPG to get ‘very’ excited for, boasting over one hundred hours of gameplay and an almost endless expanse to explore, with secrets to discover. That and they put dragons in it… Freaking dragons’ man! What’s better than frigging dragons man!
Dave: I’ll tell you what’s better than dragons Craig, being a master assassin! Assassins Creed: Revelations (or Assassins Creed 2: Part 3) looks to be the best yet. Ubisoft have improved each game without fail and this looks to follow suit. Ezio is older, and sports a quite magnificent beard now. Ubisoft have said this game will include more “Prince of Persia-esque” platforming, which can only be a bonus!
Anthony: For me, Microsoft’s showing this year was rather weak and far too Kinect heavy. With that being said though, I am very excited to see Halo 4 now that it isn’t Bungie at the helm. Hopefully it can master the great story telling and gameplay that Halo: Combat Evolved enjoyed. Speaking of which I’m also looking forward to the HD remake of Halo: CE. It will be great to the see the game that started it all for Microsoft in glorious 1080p, oh and it will be awesome to fight against Elites once again!
Best game on PS3
Craig: Again, I’m going to cheat and choose ANOTHER multi-platform title (There is a lack of ‘good’ exclusive games here!). It’s been 5 long years since we’ve heard from agent 47, but now he’s back in the all new Hitman: absolution. Though we are not shown much of this game, what we are treated to is immense. The 2-minute video shows of some spectacular graphical animation (and tits), some potential new assassination moves (and tits) and the premise of a pretty good storyline from the looks of it. Character movement appears to show brilliant and fluent improvement, similar to that of Splinter cell. It’s been such a long time since I’ve been able to leave someone naked and pretend to be the gasman!
Dave: Without a shadow of a doubt, this HAS to be Uncharted 3. I’m currently playing through Uncharted 2 so I’m laying low in terms of reading about the game, but the video and demo at E3 blew me away. Naughty Dog keep ringing the best out the PS3 and it just keeps giving. I cannot wait for this game and a bit more Drake!
Anthony: This is a difficult one for me, as I didn’t really take too much notice of Sony at this year’s E3, I’ll sidestep my own misgivings and blame the recent PSN hack for that. The one game that demanded my attention though was Uncharted 3. Visually stunning and with a great story it looks like a real winner for Sony. Couple this with the fact that Uncharted is great in the control department, playing like old school Tomb Raider, it runs away with the title, the Usian Bolt of Sony’s showing if you will.
Best game on Nintendo’s many...many consoles
Craig: Ugh, this had to be a category… Basically I did not enjoy Nintendo’s E3 conference or many (if any) of the games they had on show. But what did catch my eye is the new ‘Wii-U’ console. It’s pretty old technology but has been utilised in a manner that is genius! I can’t count the amount of times I’ve had to turn off my console to allow someone else to watch TV, that little part of the many features of the Wii- U won me over, I didn’t need to see more. I like how it’s able to connect and integrate with some of the established Wii equipment, like the Wii fitness board; Nintendo have been smart, making this ‘Backwards’ compatible, allowing them to keep the established-old and bring the modern-new into play. This is going to be on every kids Christmas list next year, guaranteed!
Dave: Despite Craig’s sadness at Ninty’s show I thought they delivered a wealth of titles to make my trousers slightly tighter. The main announcement for me was Luigi’s Mansion 2! The first was a massively under-rated gem, and it makes me happy that Nintendo have seen fit to hand development over to the quite excellent Retro Studios. With the addition of 3D I can’t wait to see the finished article, I better go empty the Dyson; I’ve got ghosts to catch!
Anthony: Nintendo had so much going on this year that it’s was hard to really focus in on some games. I think this is one that deserves a few mentions. Skyward Sword on Wii looked incredible, it’s got that Wind Waker feel which ensures that this entry into the series will have so much more personality that Twilight Princess did. On the 3DS front it was madness. So many great games it’s hard to choose just one. Super Mario 3DS had the Tanooki suit and should win game of the year just for that! Luigi’s Mansion got a long overdue and well-deserved sequel and Mario Kart 3DS looks like it can carry on the fine tradition of Mario Kart on handhelds. If I had to choose one though, it has to be Skyward Sword. The visual style is stunning, Wii motion-plus implementation looks fantastic and it’s sounding like the story is going to be yet another engaging and engrossing chapter in the Zelda universe.
Best game on PC
Craig: There wasn’t much love for the PC gamer this year round at E3, I think most companies have pandered more for the ‘casual gamer’ market this year, leaving the golden PC gods of gaming with nothing but a few measly scraps. My game for PC would have to be the new Bioshock game (yes it’s multi-platform, now shush!), and it’s already being hyped as the game of the year for 2012. I have loved this series since the first game and so have many of the devoted fans; great storylines with amazingly deep and complex characters, tantalising graphics and scenery with a well established 50’s vibe (So goddamn tasty); just to list a few of the best features of the trailer… Oh and Big daddies (yey!). This game is beyond this writers capabilities to do it any justice, If you’ve not seen the trailer, please for the love of everything you hold dear in video games, go to your favourite games website and watch the trailer, you will thank me!
Dave: Battlefield 3, hands down. It’s quite possibly the best game I’ve ever seen running. The visuals and the audio are a level up on anything that was on show this year and proves just why EA hold DICE with such high regard. Watch your back CoD, it may have a building collapsing on it soon. *What’s that? Your engine doesn’t support destructive scenery? Ah well, never mind then.*
Anthony: You don’t need me to tell you what the best game on PC was at E3 do you? You do!? Hands down it was Battlefield 3. DICE have created a game that is simply sublime. Unmatched graphically by anything else and looks like the fluid shooter that the Battlefield series has become known for. My only misgiving is that the demo was running on super high-spec PC that virtually no gamer will be able to afford, but it was still the best PC game at E3.
Unexpected surprise
Craig: Tomb raider… Thought I already kind of implied that…
Dave: Even though Womb Raider looked superb, one game was shown which I have held close to my heart since its origin on PC. That series is the Hitman games. IO have finally stopped making games with naked men as main characters and brought Hitman fully into the current generation of consoles. The trailer implied 47 was hunting Diana from the agency and I hope the game continues in its attempt to be an assassin simulator and doesn’t just become a 3rd person murderfest. Even though that’s how most of the missions end up anyway, it’s nice to have the choice to be quiet!
Anthony: It should have been Halo 4, but some idiot leaked the info before the conference, which was a huge let down as any entry into the Halo series deserves the fanfare that Bungie worked so hard to attain. Tomb Raider and Hitman were both shocks but the biggest shock game wise was Luigi’s Mansion on 3DS. The original is such an underrated gem that was criminally overlooked for a sequel on Wii. The biggest shock overall though has to go to WiiU. Just seeing the controller with that screen was a shock but when Nintendo eventually decided to tell everyone that it was a console too I nearly fell off my chair!
Biggest let down
Craig: Although no games let me down, well not the ones I was expecting or cared about, some companies let me down terribly. I’m looking at you Microsoft! Don’t hide behind your mountain of unsold Kinects, get out here and take your verbal punishment! When the kinect was first announced I was sceptical and intrigue at the same time. As I saw more ‘casual’ and ‘crap’ games being designed for the Kinect, I lost hope and became ridiculously cynical about the whole thing. And yep… I was right. It pretty much destroyed E3 for Microsoft, I mean besides from Gears of war and Battlefield 3, every game used it in some form or another… I don’t want to play a game where I have to dance around and make stupid gestures with my hands; if I wanted to look a fool I’d go out with my genitals on show… I know most people have issues with this too, so Microsoft… Shame on you for assuming we’re all 7 years old!
Dave: Gearbox what have you done? Brothers in Arms had a brilliant formula, one that didn’t need tainting. Then you go and announce BIA: Furious 4? What is this filth? Seriously, if you need an example of using an established name to sell copies look no further. It hurts me to speak more of the game so I’m not going to. Harsh words here but I hope the game bombs, deserves nothing more.
Anthony: This falls squarely at the feet of Microsoft’s conference. Although it was spoiled by a leak, the Kinect heavy affair reeked of Microsoft’s desperation to shoe-horn the device into the mainstream. The biggest letdown in this poor showing was Kinect Star Wars, which looked awkward, uncomfortable and just painful to watch and play. Sorry Microsoft, I love the idea of Kinect but I prefer not to be force-fed a device that I have no interest in.
Worst.Game.In.Show.
Craig: An unfortunate miss by one of gaming’s most well established companies, known to you and me as Konami. Never dead, a potentially brilliant concept, implemented terribly. The 3-minute trailer is barely watchable… Terribly annoying and grinding voice acting, strange and just goddamn weird character design (with personalities to match), sub-par graphics (especially considering this company brought us MGS!) and a sense of it just been made so Japanese themed to make me nauseous. I’m sorry Konami, but no one wanted, cared or even asked for this crap… Now get on with making MGS Rising!
Dave: This is a tough one, as hardly any games at the show looked “Bad”. So i’m going to go back to bitching about Brothers in Arms. This has to take worst game in show for me as it has lost the soul of what BIA is all about. To me it looks like Gearbox enjoyed gluing the last bits of Duke Nukem: Forever together and decided they wanted to make a “funny” game too. Now let me get back to building a wickerman so I can burn every copy they create.
Anthony: This is a direct toss up between Kinect Star Wars, which I’ve already had my opinion on above, and Fable: The Journey. Both games looked clunky and uninspired. Couple this with the fact they are both ‘on-rails’ and you’ve got two pretty bad games. The only thing that saves Fable is that there were some nice uses of gestures, which may eventually lead to a better Kinect experience if it can be developed properly. So worst game in show goes to Kinect Star Wars.
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