Each year, the gaming industry descends upon San Francisco for the annual Game Developers Conference where new products are introduced, ideas are shared, business cards are passed out like candy, and adult beverages are consumed with the frequency comparable to that of a frat house. Fortunately, I had the chance to be there yet again to mingle with the minds that manufacture all things gaming while getting a first-hand look at what we can expect in the coming months.
While I certainly have my own opinions on what was hot and what was not, this week’s Member BattleCry topic is asking the EBA Community to sound off on what most impressed you at this year’s GDC. Obviously, Sony took center stage with the Move while companies like OnLive and Valve made some major headlines of their own. With that in mind, I pose the following question to you in this week’s MBC Topic Starter:
WHAT DO YOU THINK WAS THE BEST THING TO COME OUT OF GDC 2010?
Now, you don’t just have to pick a new piece of tech…It could be one of the videos, a particular game you got more info on, etc. Basically, we want the GAMER’S TAKE on the annual conference to find out what stood out from the crowd. This is your chance to let the game developers know what you’re pumped about!!! Oh yeah, don’t forget to vote in our poll this week which will present a few “that totally rocked” options regarding GDC for you to choose from.
That’s all from me for now, still busy recouping from GDC, but be sure to chime in to share your thoughts and check back daily to see which MBC becomes the featured BattleCry of the day here on EpicBattleAxe.com! Now, CRY HAVOC AND LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD!!!!
Peace,
DK
Move was suppossed to be the big thing, but i ended up looking like Wii HD. Really dissapointing to say the least.
The only fun stuff at the show was the GLaDOS blue-screen during Gabes speech. Gotta love the lengths they go to with that ARG. THAT is how you create hype for a game. buttersnapsQuote
Dear Epic Battle Axe ~
My member battle cry goes out to none other than Brink! Where do I begin to talk about how excited I have become upon seeing everything that’s going into this game? I remember the teaser, which was shown at E3 2009 but I quickly lost interest due largely in part to how vague it was. When I saw the cinematic trailer from GDC my interest performed a complete 180, kicked me in the face, and told me to pay-the-hell attention to this game because it’s going to be great. Not only does it contain elements from some of my favorite titles such as team fortress and borderlands it has also borrowed liberally from some of the most innovative titles to come out over the last few years such as mirror’s edge. Usually I dislike the idea of new IPs showing little initiative in making a name for themselves with originality in terms of game mechanics but this game gives me a very good feeling. Bethesda and Splash Damage have an opportunity to take certain elements of other games, which didn’t work or otherwise partially worked (mirror’s edge) and refine them into something simple and manageable for all types of gamers. Watching game play from Brink only helped me realize even more how much potential this game has. I haven’t been this hyped for a game in many years and that’s saying a lot with all of the great titles that have come out over the last year. Dr. Awesome MDQuote
My BattleCry goes out to Sony and their new baby baptized with the name “Move”.
Well it take some balls to bring something into the market which there already is – in which i am of course refeering to the Wii and its motion controller.
)
Not to mentione that if it will be as good as they say, with all the preciser motion capturing and the abilty to choose in several games from using the motion controller or the regular one it will fucking blew the Wii away (in means for the Hardcore gamers of course
finally sony is showing the PS3 some love it deserves and presents what it is reallt capable of.
Only thing i dont approve is the design of the controller which reminds me on something phallic…
Go Sony and the PS3 minions will follow with belive and trust in you… LogisticzQuote
my Battlecry goes out to Sony and the Playstation Move. Because it is the perfect example of how NOT to premiere your new motion controller. We all know that packed in with Move or Natal is going to be a game, a mini game collection, but when you first show off your new tech, the last thing you want to show off is it doing old things. We know the Move is more accurate than the Wiimote, but the demo they had up was an HD spit image of the demo Nintendo showed off years ago. Nobody is impressed by it Sony, Playstation Move actually made a half decent game like Socom 4 look bad, and the last impression you want from GDC is “well, at least I can play that with a controller when that comes out”. If MS is smart they will learn from Sony’s mistake and skip all the mini games and optional Natal tie ins with existing games. Just show off the games built to use the hardware in a unique and awesome way. Because I’m sure Sony won’t be demoing crap like Motion Fighter (worst name ever) again at E3
Oh and by the way Sony and MS, MAKE SOME FUCKING GAMES THAT USE THE HARDWARE RIGHT!!! Go on to any forum and you’ll see gamers and their potential ideas posted all over the place. Ideas much better than Paint Party or the Shoot (seriously Sony… was jizz on the screen taken, what’s with the names?) Gun_Metal_TigerQuote
My Battlecry this week also goes out to the Playstation move.
Not on the fact what games they have shown,
Not how much it is a rip off from the Wii.
But my problem is with the design of it. WHAT THE F!!!! A dildo combined with a lolly???
I really have my doubts about that man…
I know its an easy shot at Move, but the name too man. Move??? where does that thing have to move too? in your tv just like with the fake adds of the Wii?
And the presentation of it, was just terrible, just like the other guys stated :S
Good luck sony TimQuote
is this where I post my battle cry? Got nothing to do with GDC but whatever. My battle cry goes to all these music games that come out every week,they’re are all exactly the same and they could be DLC instead of being full price games. And Why are all the music games about pressing buttons to the music, where’s the creativity? Make a different music game! Like a action/adventure or something where the music plays a big part in the game? Perhaps a Michael Jackson game where you play through levels based on his songs/videos, now that would be Off The Wall or it could be Bad! PoetaytoeeggingsmarijuanaQuote
My battle cry goes out to Reggie and NINTENDO. I am suprised and glad that both Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Metroid other M are coming this year. But I am suprised that they are coming out in the summer. At least I we won’t have a game drought or a down pour of good games for the summer. And I am really looking forward to Metroid Other M. But Reggie won’t spill any beans on the second half for Nintendo. He says we will have to wait till E3, but does this mean that the new Zelda and other good games will be out or will we have a holiday like last year from Nintendo? Right now I don’t know. Taylor HemphillQuote
My battlecry goes out to motion controls. I think everyone is viewing them the wrong way (in terms of selling them to hardcore gamers) for two reasons.
1. Motion controls are a step towards virtual reality.
Virtual reality will never work because we are not soldiers, knights or treasure hunters, we cannot do the things that video game characters do. So the only options motion controls have are to dumb down the awesomeness so people can actually play or to make it awesome and therefore inaccessible because we don’t possess the skill set. (ie. a star wars lightsabre fighting game)
2. Immersion doesn’t have to mean you feel like you’re there.
People play games, watch movies/television, listen to music and read books for escapism, to push every other thought out of their mind and enjoy themselves. In these cases escapism=immersion. The technology that helps you feel like you’re there just takes away from the immersion because it takes focus away from either the narrative or what you’re trying to accomplish. (ie. 3d effects, surround sound, 1 to 1 motion)
I think motion controls should become the equivalent of the arcade sticks for the console versions of Street Fighter IV. All they need to do is make the fps, rts, mmorpg and pc rpg (ie. Dragon Age Origins) genres more intuitive to play on consoles, in the same way the consoles themselves have changed to help accomodate ports of pc games. I think the reason gamers aren’t impressed with motion controls are because they are being treated as revolutionary when they should be treated as pointing devices. SorryDudeIGottaBitchQuote
My battlecry goes out to Nintendo. Now that the Move is out this device will essentially make the Wii obsolete, seeing how it improves on everything the has to offer. This will force Nintendo to react in some way in response to the move so that will their users will have a reason to stay with the Wii.
Unless Sony comes out with a PS3 Fit along with some board with some board that will tell the user if the have cancer or not. I don’t really see PS3 even licking the plate, let alone tasting the the amount of money is making. With that said lets be honest Nintendo hasn’t really had much of a line-up since the release of the system. This year how ever thanks to GDC, Nintendo’s line-up has never looked stronger from Monster Hunter Tri, Sin and Punishment, Metriod, Mario and more have been dated to come out this year and that’s just the first half of the year. Zelda may rear it’s head around the corner before the years done along with some other titles.
I mean putting big titles like Mario and Metriod so close to each other in the beginning of the year? they could of spaced it out (they’ve spaced crap out for the past 2 to 3 years), so Nintendo must have something up their sleeve. With good games coming out for the hardcore as well as for the Vitality sensor that will probably sell to everyone else who isn’t interested in any of the titles above and their grandma. This will be a good year for everyone who owns a wii.
*Other thing that GDC has got me hyped about is the new Cryengine. Now we won’t get half assed ports, when both games can be done simultaneously. So we won’t have a problem like Bayonetta happen again. Rhino PubesQuote
My battle cry goes to the PlayStation Move (just like everyone elses battle cries)! I’m pysched about it coming out because I’m one of those core gamers that actually enjoy motion controls every now and again. People can whin and b!tch all they want but if we look back at what Nintendo has done with motion controls, I personally believee there’s a lot that can be done with better tech from the Move.
Everybody, including myself, was fast to say that motion controls on the Wii were dead-on-arrival. However I soon ate my words when “The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess” released with the Wii on launch. It’s easy to b!tch something that feels gimicky; but when I played that game (Legend of Zelda), I realized that the motion controls made this already monumental game way WAY better.
So closing off, heres hoping Sony will have their “Legend of Zelda”. As a gamer who wants to spend my free time gaming; I care about how motion controls can augment my game and make it better than just a standard controller. happyface1Quote
What be up, Axe Wielders.
My Battle Cry goes out to Deus Ex 3 and immersive gaming experiences as a whole. To explain, after seeing most of the GDC coverage all over the place, I was a little less than, um, ahem…”moved” by Sony’s official unveiling of their motion controller (yes, I had to give a nod to DK’s “genius” there). However, the first real trailer for Deus Ex 3 (I don’t count that non-trailer from a few years back) grabbed my attention. I was, and still am, a giant fan of the original Deus Ex and after the disappointment that was Invisible War, it’s good to see that the third iteration is still in development and the series has not gone, well, invisible (wow…sorry. I feel dirty). Now on the topic of immersiveness, I was and still am such a fan of the original Deus Ex, I am pretty sure I’ve played it through at least a dozen times, still watching every dialogue sequence and reading every piece of exposition. This just goes to show all that is needed for an excellent immersive gaming experience, at least for me. That game was made in the year freakin’ 2000 and it still, to this day, creates an illusion of true choice almost rivaling that of 2010 games like Heavy Rain, at least within the context of its world. In other words, last time I checked, Deus Ex didn’t have motion control and frankly, it didn’t need it.
Now I realize that Sony and Microsoft are indeed trying to cash in on this motion control craze established by Nintendo; I get it, it’s business. However, despite not being fully tapped into the video game business, I don’t necessarily see either of those companies seeing much of, if ANY return on these investments they’re making. Wouldn’t it be in their best interests to stick with developing and publishing amazing and immersive games like Deus Ex instead of jumping up and down with their new tech screaming “Me too! Me too!”? Couldn’t that perhaps set them apart in their own way? All I can say is that as a PS3-owner, I probably will not be giving the Move a second look when it’s on store shelves as I am walking up to the counter to purchase Deus Ex 3 (provided it doesn’t suck…which sadly is always possible). VonsterniumQuote
Me battlebellow goes out to the game trailers that are released nowadays. The devs hype ppl up about their video and then when the trailer is finally out…it will spoil the best parts of that game. Freakin infinity ward revealed their whole game in that eminem trailer…COME ON…..so my question is, what should trailers show, it sure shudnt ruin a whole game. BheemTairSinghQuote
My battlecry goes for Santa Monica Studios and the way they manage their production on God of War 3, specially on the voice acting department. Games like Mass Effect 2 came with marketing promotions making actors in their game talk about the game itself. Makes me wonder of this approach because when I play a game for the first time, I want to feel the character, not the actor that plays it.
This is where Santa Monica achieves on voice acting, they don’t go and spoil you who’s is the game acting what character, less goes on the internet and make videos with the actors like EA did with ME2. Unless you go and spoil it for yourself on IMDB.com, you will notice some recognizable actors that are newcomers to the game.
You can and go with the regulars like Terrence Carson, that is Kratos in all GoW games and you recognized it all the way. But to recognized voices after the fact with characters like Hercules in GoW 3 makes me not sidetrack of the voice actor and still be immerse in the game. Is hard in games like the Uncharted series not to envision Nolan North on his character Nathan Drake when you play it, Yet it fails when I play Mass Effect 2 when I see Joker in the game, always come to my mind Seth Green and I get sidetracked.
Santa Monica Studios make a nice job working with this group of actors that many of us know, but when all is set and done I’m thinking of the characters and not the actors. SilverJCQuote
on a side note: Elijah Wood was on the end credits on the voice part but it seems that they scratch his part on the game. And no He’s not a certain character that you interact most of the time in the game, even that perhaps immature people will connect him to that character (hehehe). Also if not mistaken was put on the Special Thanks section of the credits along with Stan “The Man” Lee for collaboration issues, if you see the Making of God of War 3 video you will know what I mean. SilverJCQuote
My BattleCry this week goes out to Sony and the Playstation Move. While I know to a lot of us hardcore gamers it isn’t that clear how this will actually enhance our gaming experience, I think this tech really is perfectly posed to really open up gaming to a bigger audience.
Obviously I’m NOT talking about giving people more casual shovelware since thats the Wii’s homebase. Rather, what I’m talking about is their potential to really bring in gamers to the more mainstream games. Specifically I’m talking about shooter games (but this could extend to other games too). First of all, I know most gamers nowadays have no (or little) problem with the standard controller + 2 analog stick mechanism, but to be honest, I really dislike it. The only thing that makes me play these FPS games is if they’re really a quality title, and really I’d actually end up playing these games online for hundreds of hours if they had controls like Resident Evil 4 or the Metroid games on the Wii. As it is I just go back to the PC versions when I can but with support for that going down so much of late, the Move is my main hope now.
Furthermore, really think about the experience people new to gaming have when they try to play one of these games. I’ve tried to intoduce tons of my friends and family to 3d games (most of em did like the 2d ones back in the day) and they just STRUGGLE with controlling the camera with one stick while moving with another. Seriously my brother just could not get the hang of using both sticks with any ease, and his reaction was that he got embarrassed for doing so poorly, and then rather than continue and eventually get the hang of it, he just gave up. So the Move could provide people like this with the opportunity to naturally enjoy this kind of gaming without having played tons of games and having years of practice.
I think the reason this isn’t happening more on the Wii already is that the Wii doesn’t have that 3rd party support for the simple reason that they can’t design a game well for it and then port it to the other consoles and still have the standard of graphics/control expected on the 360 or PS3 (There are some ports down from the other consoles to the Wii like MW1 and if you look at that, its usually described as a better control scheme but the lowered quality going down to the Wii makes it a worse experience). So Reggie and Nintendo might go on saying that they won’t develop another console until a developer can’t do something with the Wii (besides HD graphics) but the reality is that developers don’t WANT to even try since they can’t make it multi-platform. This is strengthened obviously if Sony is actually being genuine that its not that hard to implement the controls while STILL retaining the traditional controls for those that prefer that (and I believe that since A. I read an interview with I believe a Naughty Dog dev and they said they’d be able to put it in if they wanted (yea they’re probably gonna back Sony but I don’t think they’d overtly lie), and B. The PS3 is totally powerful enough to handle that kind of processing in the background. Just throw one of its bazillion cores at the job). Its just up to the developers, and now they actually have incentive to put it in with the Move that they didn’t with the Wii. The proof that it enhances the gameplay experience is already there with games like RE4 so I hope they do follow through. unindelQuote
Dear sirs (yeah, I said it!),
My battle cry this week goes out not to anything from GDC, but to lazy, cost cutting companies that put out online games and then short change their customers by not placing enough servers for their day one loads, and rendering the multiplayer games unplayable.
In recent years this has become a plague. I spent sixty dollars on SOCOM for PS3 when it came out, and it was two days before you could get into a game reliably, and that the game was even playable.
Then last summer, Battlefield 1943 was one of the worst offenders with a launch that was miserable. To make matters worse with both of those games, they are multiplayer only games! This means that when this happens, all of the hard earned money that you shelled into those games is rendered moot as you can not play your new game.
And to add insult to injury, not only does EA not learn from their previous mistake, they do an even worse job of responding and now Battlefield: Bad company 2 has had a series of problems because of a lack of servers.
While these companies eventually fix the problem, the fact that it exists at all is a shock. At this point in the game there is no excuse for it, other than trying to be cheap asses and sacrificing good customer service for a few more dollars on the bottom line. How dare they, especially with so many games coming out that are online only or online focused.
I’d love to hear your thoughts gents, because I see this problem only getting worse with each passing year, and never getting better. AceApolloQuote
My Battle cry goes out the these companies inability to name something well. Recently, during GDC, we heard the name of Sony’s motion control, Move (and the eyepet), which at least makes sense but is still not that great. Other horrific names range from the Ipad and Natal to the Wii and anything Wii related (Wiimote and wiiplay…).
Now some of the names aren’t that bad and Natal isn’t the final name yet, hopefully, so they could probably improve it. But even with how bad some of these names are they could at least make sense. The Ipad, Natal, and Wii makes absolutely none. Ipad sounds like a feminine product, the Natal sounds like new slang for the word “no”, and the wii sounds like wanting to go pee or a man’s genitalia.
At least these companies could come up with something that makes sense. Just look at the phantom, it was so well named because it was just that, a phantom. It never actually existed. Even names like “Move” and “Onlive” work because one actually makes you move while the other takes place live and online.
Some of these names just make me question who really comes up with these names. Because whoever did needs to retake marketing because I do not want to own an Ipad just because of the name. KalticQuote
My Battlecry goes to the new playstation Move trailer, not the color changing vibrator, but the trailer for it staring none other than Kevin Butler
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/kevin-butler-sony/63351
Honestly this guy always makes me laugh and the fact that he makes fun of both the wiimote AND natal just made it better.
I still dont think this is the right way to go for sony but this trailer almost makes me like the fact that they want to rip off the wii. OathQuote
My battle cry goes to the rumour that there will be a new xbox360. There might have been different “skews” with the arcade, premium and elite but we haven’t seen anything equivalent to the ps3 slim. It should be the same price as the current xbox, being cheaper than the ps3. If this happens and the RROD problem is sorted, along with the release of Halo: Reach and Project Natal. Microsoft should have an amazing Q3/4. Luke2903-recognise!!!Quote
Hellooooo thar! News from across the pond. I know it’s off topic but I’ve got a blood-curdling deafening battlecry for the BAFTA video games awards. Dara O’Brien as the host and the night in general were bloody fantastic. Not only that but it was a proper awards show with no need for any gimmicky crap on the side. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it Spike Video Game Awards!!!
P.S. Everyone should go and watch the ceremony on the BAFTA website. RotenoneQuote
My Epic Battle Cry goes to Demos done right. We hear all the time especially on the Axe about demos being given away as pre-order bonuses or in a number of other ridiculous ways. You guys talk about how demos are simply meant to be demonstrations of what the game is meant to ultimately represent and how it should be put out a few weeks before a release to get people who are sometimes sitting on the fence interested in the title. I am getting this from the Splinter Cell: Conviction demo that was released last week because to be honest this game wasn’t on my radar in any way. But after downloading and playing the demo due to boredom, I am now without a doubt buying this game. So I would like to remind developers out there to stop with all the demo bull shit and just give them to everyone in the public BEFORE a game releases because believe it or not, demos can actually help sell a game. Who knew?!?! HalfLifeQuote