The Damned

Whaaa...? No Golden Sun DS thread? Shame. Shame on all of you. Yeah, so there's a new Golden Sun game, set for release in 2010. Video of the trailer: Looks like a nice little 3D RPG, but will it carry on the charms and nuances that made the GBA games so good? I guess we'll see next year.

I'd like to point out the year they announced Twilight Princess. And the Wii. It's a little far and few between, but they have have some years when they absolutely dominated the event with their conference. Sadly, I fear that we will not be seeing much more this year. The conferences are where you bring out the big guns, and show everyone what you got. Yes, they can hold back and announce games and stuff, but the whole "shock and awe" of the conferences is the big draw. Bo, bad show, Nintendo. You better have something for us later, or you're off my christmas card list.

That's it? THAT'S IT? Wow. Nintendo disappoints again. You would think that after the last few years, they would have kept something really big and awesome to gee everyone going. So far, Sony and MS are tied for best conference. And that's just a shame, really, because neither are really that good.

Yeah, I'm really, really, reaaaaaaly hoping this is an odd-on, or at least you can somehow integrate both versions. I look at L4D, and I wish there was more going for it. I like the game (hell, I had one hell of an awesome laughfest with some guys last night... Survival with sudden "OH SHIT!" moments at the expense of your teammates can really make you crack up), and I do plan top play it as long as I can, but it needs more content. We've had the same four campaigns forever, and the two campaigns they added to Versus should have been there from the beginning. Sadly, I fear that we will see this as a straight-up stand alone. That sours the whole deal a bit, as it's a lot of money for what other games get for free.

Bahamutt? Mahabut? Hahahahanut? I know those guys, but who is this "bahamut" you speak of? Is he some new member? Oooooohhhhh... that guy. Yeah, he's kind of cool. Does somethings and stuff. Mostly stuff, though, but that's OK. I guess he rates high enough to get a birthday thread. Happy birthday, you glorious, magnificent bastard!

I KNEW IT! What utter cockfaggery!

OK, seriously though... Is this going to be "Wii 2.0"? When you think about it, it sort of fits. You have a serious change in the direction of control interface, aimed at making casual gamers, where the action on screen in determined by the natural movements of the player instead of buttons and d-pads. That's what Nintendo did, and it payed off big time. Is MS going for the same sort of market now (which makes sense... Nintendo showed there really is a market made up entirely of non-gamers, and they profited quite nicely from it)? Also, that skateboard things for Tony Hawk's new game just screams WiiFit board. Longer, with some fancier guts, but it's the same thing. Now I have to see what Sony is going to do this year. Will they step into this new pseudo-virtual reality race? How will Nintendo respond? Will they even have anything to offer that can compare? Maybe this E3 won't suck after all.

http://kotaku.com/5274544/why-xbox-360-new-controller-is-called-natal Named after a town one of the people involved in the development lived in.

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/e3_2009_left_4_dead_2_announced_4_new_survivors_5_new_campaigns New Mode (no description for it yet), some new weapons, at least one new Special Infected (the "Charger"), and the Witch now wanders around all day, like some homeless woman. Oh, did I mention all the campaigns take place in broad daylight? And what may be either the best or the worst idea... the AI Director has the ability to alter the map layout during the game. Suddenly, we may not be able to go the safe route, because it no longer exists.

I just thought of something. You walk around and talk to a little boy, all by yourself. He's not afraid of you, and there are no parents around. You can play together, chat, go out on the ranch by yourselves... Micheal Jackson must be following this game very intently right now.

After last year and some of the stuff they've announced since then, they really, really need to do something good. Like, Twilight Princess announcement good. Remember when that was shown a couple of years ago? I don't think anyone talked about anything else for the rest of the week. I like the ideas behind the new motion, face and voice recog stuff, but I got to wonder how they will use it. Really, most of those demos felt very "Wii Sports/Mii-mini game 2.0". If they use it for future games (real ones, not just Avatar and Arcade games), maybe it can work. It's got some interesting potential... Also, I'd like to once more state that Molyneaux can suck it, I'm not buying into his bullshit demo and false promises again. It's vaporware, and it will never see the light of day. If it ever does come out, it will be a gimped and scaled-down version of what we saw.

Lea' fo' Deyad deux, mon'ami.

No, I'm not bitter. I'm saying that that creepy kid thing is bullshit. We aren't going to see anything like that when it comes out. Oh, wait, you're trying to me all trolly. Gotcha. OK, everyone! bleck is trying to troll a little bit. Everyone just pay him some token attention and then he can go take his nap.

It's all fluff. All of it. Molyneux promises the world and hands us a handful of dirt, and expects us to thank him for it. The motion tracking system in general, the voice and even the facial recog system, I can see working, but how well it will turn out in the end remains to be seen. But the whole demo with the kid? Not happening. It will end up being just like everything else he's promised, amazing in the demo videos, but hackneyed and broken when you get your hands on it. Now, I loves me some game immersion, but walking around, talking to a kid, and maybe splashing some water around? I can do that for free any day I want by going over to my sister's place and seeing the nephew. I'm sorry, but that's a horrible use of this technology.

Oh wow, a lot of sites are full of people being pissed at Valve for releasing a new game so quickly, and not putting any more DLC for the first game. Which isn't proven yet, seeing how the new one was just announced, and I bet they haven't even started level design at this point. But yeah, I can see what they mean. L4D 1 only got two new maps for Versus (which should have been included in the first place), the new mode Survival (which is short as hell)... and that's it. Maybe it will be some sort of add-on or something. Patch it into L4D 1 and get both games going?

I'm guessing it was awesome, then?

Video for those who want to see the new trailer.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/06/01/left-4-dead-2-nov-17-on-xbox-360-pc/ Damn, that was quick! Only a year between games? I'm guessing this will be more of a major up-grade than a full out sequel. Takes place in New Orleans, features new characters, and according to the trailer, a chainsaw for melee! (In retrospect, according to DS's E3 sticky, this may be better off in the L4D thread. But then, that's more for social stuff than game news lately, so...)

Did anyone see the short at their viewing? The theatre we went to didn't show it. I feel cheated.

It's all a conspiracy, man. They, like... want you to do all your interneting under one name, man. One name, one way to track everything you do. It's... it's like, they want to keep track of everybody all the time, but they can't, right? Too many people and not enough infringements on our rights, right? So they want you to do all your stuff under one name. Makes it easier to to keep an eye on everything you do, man... Shit, I think they know we're here, man. Better take a long walk, like, to another country. A country where it's not all fascist and stuff, right?

Wait, I got it. Some of the music seems like it's from one of the Castlevania games. I can't point out the specific game, but I can imagine playing the music from PvZ to footage of said game, and it fits for some reason. Mystery (partly) solved!

A forum run by the very person(s) we suspect of faking the whole thing, filled with fanboy bias from the people that followed the game in question with eager anticipation, who were then conned into thinking it was axed by Square-Enix. Yes, that does sound very fair and unbiased.

Paying for a remix of a Dragonball Z song? Son, there are better ways to throw your money away. Trust me on this.

Yeah, some of that music sounds really familiar. Like, as in, it's from something else, slightly rearranged. I just can't tell where or what.