CeX Review - New Super Mario Bros. U

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CeX Review - Nintendo Wii U

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Muveez.com News - PlayStation 4 to include Kinect-style controls?

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E3 2011 Part 3 –- Nintendo Press Conference, the future is U

Before this conference Nintendo were suffering--with Wii sales diminishing by the month and the very poor launch of the 3DS, something needed to change. Fortunately, if there ever was a good opportunity to get the masses back on the Nintendo bandwagon, it was during the E3 press conference. Nintendo started slowly with their tribute to The Legend of Zelda’s 25^th Anniversary, but stepped up the pace with solid title announcements for the Nintendo 3DS and impressed the crowd with a brand new console--The Nintendo Wii U. Overall it was a well-organised presentation that gave the audience what they wanted, high-profile content.

A glorious trip down memory lane from the Orchestra.

A beautiful orchestra alongside Shigeru Miyamoto spent the first portion of the conference reminiscing over The Legend of Zelda and its 25^th birthday. With the release of Ocarina of Time 3D round the corner and Skyward Sword for Wii due this holiday season, it was a welcome presentation--one that reminded the crowd of all the incredible adventures the series has offered and what is yet to come. The announcement of free downloads for The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening and The Four Swords Adventure gave fans plenty of Zelda based content to look forward to.

Nintendo were all about their hot property franchises this E3 and the majority of them will be coming to Nintendo 3DS. Lengthy Mario Kart 3D, Luigi’s Mansion 2 and Super Mario 3D trailers were highlights of the handheld portion of the presentation--showing off brand new ways to play Mario Kart, Luigi capturing ghouls and an all new Mario adventure designed specifically for the platform. Other games of note included Star Fox and Kid Icarus and a highlight reel showed glimpses of Resident Evil: Mercenaries, Resident Evil: Revelations, Tekken and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. More in-depth footage of the above titles would have been very nice at this point.

The Wii U controller--Nintendo's future.

The Wii U console--confusingly overlooked at the conference.

Of course the final section of Nintendo’s conference concentrated on announcing a new home console and subsequent games. The Nintendo Wii U was revealed to everyone’s confusion--with so much emphasis being placed on the intuitive controller that resembles a Dreamcast pad blended with an iPad, many people assumed it was a peripheral for the Wii. The clever piece of kit has a 6”2 inch touch screen and gyro technology--with the ability to transfer the game you’re playing on the TV onto the Wii U controller being the unique selling point. Wii U revealed full blown HD graphics--while specs were yet to be revealed, HD footage of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword was shown off alongside a montage reel of strong third-party title support like Batman: Arkham City, Ninja Gaiden III, Assassin’s Creed, Darksiders II, DiRT 3, Aliens: Colonial Marines, Metro: Last Night, Ghost Recon Online and a guest stage appearance from EA. Perhaps the biggest games announced at conference were Super Smash Brothers for both Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. 

These are certainly early days but the scrapping of friend codes and confirmation of a strong online system could allow Nintendo to compete for online dominance. It seems that Nintendo are attempting to capture the more hardcore market while keeping their casual gamers appeased with the Wii U being backwards compatible and Wii-remote enabled.

The Legend of Zelda gameplay footage for Wii U.

Overall Nintendo did a good job at their press event--unveiling hot property titles and a fresh machine to challenge for the attention of hardcore gamers. One can’t help but wonder if this machine has come too late however. As next generation projects are underway at Microsoft and Sony, if Wii U is only just more powerful than the PS3 and 360 now--it could find itself already outdated even before launch. We assume that new machines Microsoft and Sony will announce specs that would blow Wii U out of the water. The competition from the PS3 and Vita is already a threat and that is still this generation’s machine from Sony. Nevertheless, it is still early days and I think everyone is fascinated to see how the Wii U will try and change the course of video gaming once again for Nintendo.

E3 2011 Part 2 -- Sony Press Event, PSVita is vital.

 There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that Sony needed a stellar presentation at E3 to make up for the horror show on their Playstation Network. Not surprisingly the conference began with a heart-felt apology from Jack Tretton, promising that the next two hours would re-affirm our trust and faith in a bright future for Sony and its customers. Over the course of two hours we were treated to a great range of highly anticipated titles, a clear push for further Playstation Move and 3D compatibility and the brand new handheld Playstation Vita.

Drake gets ready for another action packed adventure.

Uncharted 3 was the first game to be demoed and why not begin with arguably the best title Sony have to offer. I am excited for the third title from Naughty Dog and quite frankly, you should be too. It will be very interesting to see how Tomb Raider 2011 compares to Uncharted 3 and if Lara Croft will give Drake a run for his money. I love how the guys from Naughty Dog took inspiration from the original treasure hunter and now roles have reversed once again and the re-creation of Tomb Raider now looks like Uncharted--the irony is fantastic.

Infinite is sure to tackle some interesting moral dilemmas.

Bioshock Infinite was another AAA title shown off and it was obvious from the audience’s reaction that everyone wanted to get their hands on Irrational Games’ horror adventure. I couldn’t help but feel disappointment playing number 2--maybe this was because the original was just so awesome and Bioshock 2 changed literally nothing--here’s me hoping the new setting and environment will force progress and change in the Bioshock universe.

Resistance 3 was the final hot-property franchise demoed and the alien shooter did look fantastic. I want to see the ending of the trilogy anyway but a few tweaks to the online multiplayer could really help the series challenge amidst the top-tier online FPS games such as Call of Duty and the up-and-coming Battlefield 3. This is obviously me with high hopes but I always felt that the Resistance series had a lot of potential and perhaps it will end with a big bang?

Unfortunately Sony seemed to lose count of the amount of games they wanted to show off during the presentation and instead of progressing smoothly onto Move, 3D and Playstation Vita, they kept unveiling games throughout. These included Starhawk, Sly Cooper, Dust 514, Star Trek and SSX--games that while aren’t high-profile, do show off the depth of Sony’s catalogue of games. Nevertheless, it was apparent that this list could literally have been removed from the presentation and more concentration should have been spent on more important announcements.

Kobe Bryant tries his hand at NBA2K11 with the Move.

Focus was placed upon the Playstation Move, but nowhere near as much as Microsoft gave to their motion sensing Kinect. Sony also unveiled the desire to introduce Move to core games including NBA 2K12, newly announced Medieval Moves: Deadmund’s Quest, InFAMOUS 2, Saints Row and Star Trek but I liked that it wasn’t pushed as hard as Microsoft’s Kinect, giving gamers a vibe that implied a choice to use the peripheral as opposed to being forced by Microsoft.

The new 3D monitor from Sony is a bargain bundle.

3D is certainly not dead according to Sony, who actually had their audience put on 3D glasses during specific segments of their presentation. It was clear that another push for 3D incorporation was well under way with the announcement of a new Sony branded 24” TV package--allowing gamers to access 3D technology in one neat bundle. There weren’t really any exciting game announcements for 3D, but God of War: Origins and Ico and Shadow of the Colossus Collection are both being prepared with 3D technology. A 3D trailer of Uncharted 3 was also shown off but I can’t comment on that for obvious reasons.

The brand new Playstation Vita announced by Kaz Hirai.

The star of show was undoubtedly the Playstation Vita, Sony’s super awesome new handheld console. With a fantastic price point ($249.99 for the Wi-Fi model and $299.99 for Wi-Fi and 3G) and a very impressive roster of games including Uncharted: Golden Abyss, ModNation Racers, Little Big Planet, Street Fighter x Tekken and newly announced Ruin--the Vita is going to hit the ground running. It also seems that Nintendo’s new machine the Wii U and its touch-pad controller could very well be obsolete even before it hits store shelves next year. This is because with its own touch screen and almost PS3-like graphics, the Vita could be the perfect partner for the Playstation 3--doing the same type of things Nintendo hoped their new pad would achieve, but better. 

Let the war begin!

While Sony certainly had plenty of content, the presentation lacked direction at times and it seemed pushing more of the high profile content would have been more effective than trying to fit some of the lesser titles in and around the big announcements. Nevertheless, having too much content can never be a bad thing--that alongside the Playstation Vita and it’s obvious that the future is bright for Sony. I was never a fan of Sony’s handheld machines but I think they have finally found the perfect formula and will be more than prepared to tackle the launch of Nintendo’s Wii U--the Playstation Vita will be vital to Sony’s future success.

As always I hope you enjoyed reading--hit me up on Twitter @ss4Igor