GameSpy's Best of E3

[Hardknock]

http://www.gamespy.com/articles/709/709100p1.html

Pretty good list. I only wish we had more videos of Mass Effect and Bioshock. Everyone seems to be extremely impressed by them.

 

[Sdw]

Yeah, that was a pretty good writeup. Bioshock seems to be the major sleeper hit (i hadn't even heard of it before E3)

 

[Platon]

That was indeed a nice list. I do hope that GoW, Mass Effect and Bioshock, live up to their promise, they seem to be pure masterpieces. The problem, atleast with Bioshock and Mass Effect, is that when you have not seen those behind clossed door demonstrations, the hype genes get a bit too activated and might start expecting the world...

 

[Gollum]

Good list, so Bioshock really seems to have left a deep and lasting impression! I'd love to see more Bioshock and Mass Effect media too, especially in video form! Its good to see the PC do so well this year. If I had to rank the major platform's performance this year, it'd probably be like this, although all had their strong and weak points:

1. PC: surprisingly good; managed to present many astonishingly good looking and actually interesting games in development; my #1 because it managed to to get noticed at all, despite all the next-gen console circus
2. Xbox 360: simple but effective performance; very strong 2nd gen game lineup, visually at least on par if not ahead of what PS3 had to offer; all of a sudden has a surprisingly attractive pricing policy
3. Wii: all major N brands get a new title and they show up exciting new concepts using the ever more interesting remote; nobody really seems to care about the lack of "raw power" and the way N positioned themselves, I agree
4. PS3: several exciting games and sequels to traditionally strong franchises, but most were not playable and/or very early in development; weird controller choices, high price and plenty of small dissapointments (quietly dropping ports and features, "me too" motion sensing, no rumble, no Killzone quality graphics, loss of exclusives, etc.); rather average show for Sony

 

[Ferrari_pro]

[*]PS3: several exciting games and sequels to traditionally strong franchises, but most were not playable and/or very early in development; weird controller choices, high price and plenty of small dissapointments (quietly dropping ports and features, "me too" motion sensing, no rumble, no Killzone quality graphics, loss of exclusives, etc.); rather average show for Sony[/LIST]

A lot of people have been slating Sony for their showing at E3 but I think those people need to put things into perspective... Remember Microsoft's displays at events previous to the consoles launch - There was very little finished product on display. The main thing they played on was that whilst things may not be 100% up to scratch yet, they had real demos and some playables whilst the others had nothing.

It would seem that Sony is in a similar position to Microsoft pre-launch and things on the 'polished games' front can only get better for them from now.

As far as I can see, the only real problem Sony will face is whether the consumer will view the high price of the console as being worth it over the Xbox360.

 

[Hardknock]

Good list, so Bioshock really seems to have left a deep and lasting impression! I'd love to see more Bioshock and Mass Effect media too, especially in video form! Its good to see the PC do so well this year. If I had to rank the major platform's performance this year, it'd probably be like this, although all had their strong and weak points:

1. PC: surprisingly good; managed to present many astonishingly good looking and actually interesting games in development; my #1 because it managed to to get noticed at all, despite all the next-gen console circus
2. Xbox 360: simple but effective performance; very strong 2nd gen game lineup, visually at least on par if not ahead of what PS3 had to offer; all of a sudden has a surprisingly attractive pricing policy
3. Wii: all major N brands get a new title and they show up exciting new concepts using the ever more interesting remote; nobody really seems to care about the lack of "raw power" and the way N positioned themselves, I agree
4. PS3: several exciting games and sequels to traditionally strong franchises, but most were not playable and/or very early in development; weird controller choices, high price and plenty of small dissapointments (quietly dropping ports and features, "me too" motion sensing, no rumble, no Killzone quality graphics, loss of exclusives, etc.); rather average show for Sony

I think this is a very accurate assessment, but I would personally put the PS3 over the Wii because the Wii didn't have much playable software either nor did Nintendo announce a price. Pretty good E3 for all those involved though.

 

[Cryect]

Yeah, that was a pretty good writeup. Bioshock seems to be the major sleeper hit (i hadn't even heard of it before E3)

Heh, I'm saddened. But people rarely seem to hear of Irrational's games. System Shock 2 is my favorite game of all time but most people have never heard of it (it got basically all the game of the year awards when it came out but only sold moderately well).

 

[Gollum]

A lot of people have been slating Sony for their showing at E3 but I think those people need to put things into perspective... Remember Microsoft's displays at events previous to the consoles launch - There was very little finished product on display. The main thing they played on was that whilst things may not be 100% up to scratch yet, they had real demos and some playables whilst the others had nothing.

It would seem that Sony is in a similar position to Microsoft pre-launch and things on the 'polished games' front can only get better for them from now.

As far as I can see, the only real problem Sony will face is whether the consumer will view the high price of the console as being worth it over the Xbox360.

I'm aware of the state of development Sony is in right now, doesn't change anything though. I only stated my impressions from this year's E3, not comparing console launches here. One year from now many of those games will probably be much further along in development and Sony will have one heck of a portfolio. This year? Not so much.

MS didn't do stellar last year either, actually I'd say they did worse than Sony did this year, one of the reasons being the massive PR spin that Sony launched at E3 '05. Ironically many of the things Sony used to steal the show then, were actually missing or silently removed this year (no Killzone, Motorstorm looks good but noticably inferior to last year's CGI presentation, stripped down connectivity, removed ports). But memories are short and I'm sure the Sony fans already forgot most of that stuff anyway. They're too busy working their 2nd and 3rd jobs to actually afford the frickin' thing...

j/k

I think this is a very accurate assessment, but I would personally put the PS3 over the Wii because the Wii didn't have much playable software either nor did Nintendo announce a price. Pretty good E3 for all those involved though.

True, all did rather well. I never was much of a Nintendo fan, can't stand the sight of Mario and his various purple, green, pink and other oddly coloured friends. The Wii remote has finally managed to get me interested though. It really seems to offer something new and more substantial than e.g. EyeToy, which is more of a curiosity than anything else IMO. I'm also a hardware geek, so me actually preferring the less powerfull system is kinda weird. Its simply that Nintendo managed to be a bit more exciting and interesting this year than Sony, but that's only one tiny person's opinion.

 

[Acert93]

A lot of people have been slating Sony for their showing at E3 but I think those people need to put things into perspective... Remember Microsoft's displays at events previous to the consoles launch - There was very little finished product on display. The main thing they played on was that whilst things may not be 100% up to scratch yet, they had real demos and some playables whilst the others had nothing.

On the other hand the PS3 was supposed to launch in Spring 2006, so it should have some finished software, right?

I agree that the PS3 has a better showing of software compared to MS at this point last year. But that is not directly comparable either because MS was still 3 months away from getting their CPU and GPU into developer's hands and they were still working on Alpha boxes. Of course that is MS's fault -- and an EXCELLENT move on Sony's part in 1) getting partners, like NV, who could provide similarly features and performing silicon in Spring of 2005 and having samples of CELL out in the wild and 2) giving developers a long lead time to transition between this gen and next gen. MS kind of sprung next gen on everyone, and after seeing their 2006 lineup compared to the 2005 one, well, portware is the only word I can think of Outside of PGR3 and the Rare titles, the 3 of the 4 best looking titles (Oblivion, GRAW, and CoD2) have been PC titles -- that is, stuff working on high end processors and SM2.0+ GPUs. The only exception is FNR3, which looks great but also has the advantage of a much smaller graphical focus.

Anyhow, Sony does get some slack. But then again, they were already supposed to be shipped and in reality they have had as much dev time as the 2nd wave (not 2nd gen) of 360 titles. Why I would cut them for slack: They are priming for launch this fall. Most of them have deadlines of November 17th, so they really cannot afford to waste too much time.

It would seem that Sony is in a similar position to Microsoft pre-launch and things on the 'polished games' front can only get better for them from now.

Right, but this goes for everyone in the industry to a degree. Unless your game is more toward the end of development and you are spending more time tweaking and polishing, spending time making an E3 specific build for play testers can put you a month or two behind. So MS's fall titles fall under the same umbrella.

 

[Tap In]

paraphrased results here for those with no time to read the article.

although it is a worthy read and not just a list as Gamespy is more thorough than most.

Gamespy's
E3 2006 Best of Show:
BioShock

Runner-up:
Gears of War

Top 10 Console Games
1. Gears of War (X360)
2. BioShock (X360)
3. Assassin's Creed (PS3)
4. Mass Effect (X360)
5. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
6. The Legend of Zelda: T P (Wii/GCN)
7. Heavenly Sword (PS3)
8. Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway (PS3/X360)
9. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii)
10. God of War II (PS2)

It appears as if Nintendo may be on to something here. It seems it IS about the games. The technology may not be up to par in the box, but the gaming experience is evidently good.


I also think Sony did OK considering the state of their software (and better than MS did last year) but Nintendo did better. Although MS didn't have everything polished yet either, they just had game after game that was well received and looking on par or better with what we now should expect from PS3. I think they had a very good show and compared with Sony's lackluster conference and price bomb, MS came away looking very good IMO.

Sony can afford to lose a little ground here though, I'm sure they'll recover and most people who are stil married to the Sony "brand" will never even hear of how it went at E3.

Now the price and cost efficiency strategy in the long run by Sony is another matter altogether.

 

[Platon]

It appears as if Nintendo may be on to something here. It seems it IS about the games. The technology may not be up to par in the box, but the gaming experience is evidently good.

It sure is, no doubt about it. XBLA wouldn't be so popular if not for example. Especially at this level of graphics, something like xbox 1.x is more than sufficient for most people. Personaly, although I do plan on getting an xbox360 I can without a problem wait till next year, I just don't feel the need to upgrade just yet...

 

[aldo]

BusinessWeek'sTop 20 Games

Deano and nAo make number 1!!

BusinessWeek : Top 20 Games We'd Like to Play


1: Heavenly Sword (Sony, Ninja Theory, PS3)

O PlayStation 3 game to feature in the top 20, its ranking is a measure of the dedication and self-belief of developer Ninja Theory in the face of the early obstacles thrown up by the hardware Heavenly Sword is running on. And despite the washed-out graphics — there should be a gaming disease called 2MHDR (too much high dynamic range) — it's the fluidity of the controls combined the consistent ability to physically interact with the environment that really impresses. How the scripted nature of the smallscale environment highlighted in the E3 demo will map out to the promised more expansive environments can't be judged yet of course, but on this showing Heavenly Sword seems odds-on to be PlayStation 3's killer app, even at $600 a console.
​

2: Guitar Hero II (Activision, RedOctane/Harmonix, PS2)
3: Lost Planet (Capcom, Capcom, X360)
4: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (Buena Vista, Amaze Entertainment, DS/PSP)
5: Children of Mana (Square Enix, Next Entertainment, DS)
6: Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam (Activision, Vicarious Visions, DS)
7: Wii Sports (Nintendo, Nintendo, Wii)
8: Every Extend Extra (Buena Vista, Q! Entertainment, PSP)
9: Crysis (EA, Crytek, PC)
10: Crackdown (Microsoft, Real Time Worlds, X360)
11: Yoshi's Island 2 (Nintendo, Nintendo, DS)
12: Hellgate: London (Namco Bandai, Flagship Studios, PC)
13: Final Fantasy XII (Square Enix, Square Enix, PS2)
14: Shadowrun (Microsoft, FASA Studio, X360)
15: LocoRoco (Sony, Sony, PSP)
16: Okami (Capcom, Clover Studio, PS2)
17: Killzone: Liberation (Sony, Guerilla, PSP)
18: Resistance: Fall of Man (Insomniac, PS3)
19: Snoopy vs. the Red Baron (Namco Bandai, SmartBomb Interactive, PS2)
20: Virtua Fighter 5 (Sega, arcade)

Hey, maybe it's just BusinessWeek, but it's a list so it counts.

-aldo

 

[RobertR1]

hahahah first time I've seen Gears not make the cut.

 

[Acert93]

hahahah first time I've seen Gears not make the cut.

Or Bioshock (PC/360/PS3?), BiA3 (PC/PS3/360), and Mass Effect (360). Bioshock, specifically, seems to have been a huge hit with the media and from the couple people I know who got to see a 20min demo they cannot stop chirping about it.

But everyone's tastes are different. It is good to see different lists so more games get exposure.

Edit: Noticed they have Shadowrun on there... EGADS!! I have read mixed results on Crackdown (also on there) but Shadowrun? Wow...

 

[thenefariousone]

To be fair the numbers don't favour any one console.

Each one has three exclusive games available, and sony and microsoft share an additional game.

In my opinion, both Microsoft and Nintendo did well at E3. Sony's decision to announce the price hurt them more than anything else they did. Their games were being judged not only on how they compete with xbox360 titles, but also by the console price.

paraphrased results here for those with no time to read the article.

although it is a worthy read and not just a list as Gamespy is more thorough than most.

Gamespy's
E3 2006 Best of Show:
BioShock

Runner-up:
Gears of War

Top 10 Console Games
1. Gears of War (X360)
2. BioShock (X360)
3. Assassin's Creed (PS3)
4. Mass Effect (X360)
5. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
6. The Legend of Zelda: T P (Wii/GCN)
7. Heavenly Sword (PS3)
8. Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway (PS3/X360)
9. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii)
10. God of War II (PS2)

It appears as if Nintendo may be on to something here. It seems it IS about the games. The technology may not be up to par in the box, but the gaming experience is evidently good.


I also think Sony did OK considering the state of their software (and better than MS did last year) but Nintendo did better. Although MS didn't have everything polished yet either, they just had game after game that was well received and looking on par or better with what we now should expect from PS3. I think they had a very good show and compared with Sony's lackluster conference and price bomb, MS came away looking very good IMO.

Sony can afford to lose a little ground here though, I'm sure they'll recover and most people who are stil married to the Sony "brand" will never even hear of how it went at E3.

Now the price and cost efficiency strategy in the long run by Sony is another matter altogether.

 

[DemoCoder]

IMHO, PS3 displayed more exclusive titles I was interested in playing compared with X360. Of all exclusive X360 titles, only Gears of War interests me (and many Halo3 when it comes out). Sony had HS, Resistance, FFXIII, and MGS4. Sure, the prior two were trailers, but that's no different than the prior non-playable GoW trailers we saw last year that hooked me. And my gut tells me that HS might be the best of the bunch in terms of replay value just because I like fighting games and games where your character can take down the enemy in a variety of ways instead of just shooters. (I loved HL2, but I have never replayed through it, nor Doom3, nor pretty much any FPS. But I do replay through games like God of War)

 

[pegisys]

A lot of people have been slating Sony for their showing at E3 but I think those people need to put things into perspective... Remember Microsoft's displays at events previous to the consoles launch - There was very little finished product on display. The main thing they played on was that whilst things may not be 100% up to scratch yet, they had real demos and some playables whilst the others had nothing.

It would seem that Sony is in a similar position to Microsoft pre-launch and things on the 'polished games' front can only get better for them from now.

As far as I can see, the only real problem Sony will face is whether the consumer will view the high price of the console as being worth it over the Xbox360.

you can't put on a show like they did in 2005 and then show up with games not looking like what they showed the year before

 

[scooby_dooby]

To be fair the numbers don't favour any one console.

To be fair, that's the worst E3 list I've seen. It's horrible.

Other than HS at #1 everything is pretty much ridiculous. Lost Planet #3? Uhhh...wHaT!? Lost Planet over GOW, ME, Bioshock, RS, BIA, SC: 4 etc?? I don't know who threw that list together, but their opinion doesn't mean much as far as i'm concerned.

MS showed more titles I want to play in 2006, sony showed more titles I want to play sometime in 2007 or 2008.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

To me this shows a schism in the gaming community as it were. There's been virtually nothing that has appealed to me on XB360, whereas others are really keen. I think there's a definite distinction between the software for XB360 and PS3. If I were writing a top ten list mine probably would look more like this than the others that have the XB360 titles near the top. Though to be fair, a top ten list wouldn't feature ten games I'm actually interested in/wanting to play. I'd just have to say which on show I thought most interesting.

Of course it goes to show these top ten lists are all subjective and based on personal opinion, and can't be taken as an indicator of and real sense of 'the best games'. Different tastes in graphics, gameplay, genres and technical qualities are going to produce different lists. I wonder what the location of the editor's is, whether US sites are more one way and Euro sites more another? Do we have a Famitsu top ten yet? What's the likelihood FFXIII isn't at the number one slot?

 

[Gollum]

IMHO, PS3 displayed more exclusive titles I was interested in playing compared with X360. Of all exclusive X360 titles, only Gears of War interests me (and many Halo3 when it comes out). Sony had HS, Resistance, FFXIII, and MGS4. Sure, the prior two were trailers, but that's no different than the prior non-playable GoW trailers we saw last year that hooked me. And my gut tells me that HS might be the best of the bunch in terms of replay value just because I like fighting games and games where your character can take down the enemy in a variety of ways instead of just shooters. (I loved HL2, but I have never replayed through it, nor Doom3, nor pretty much any FPS. But I do replay through games like God of War)

That's the cool thing about opinions, everybody has different ones.
For my tastes there were way too many action/shooter games on show for both PS3 and X360. So many upcoming games offer expansive environments, awesome graphics and combat with dozens, if not hundreds of enemies. Its getting hard to differentiate between them. That's why almost all my personal E3 highlights were from different genres. The two games I'm most looking forward to are Bioshock and Mass Effect. Followed by Spore and Supreme Commander. Only then the other "big ones" slowly start to roll into my list...