Sony E3 2009 Keynote Thread

Interestingly I'm sad to hear that.

 

I think GoW3 has this covered

I think God of War has always had this as well.

I don't know how I feel about this. While interesting, it could prove to be a bit distracting with so many elements on screen. I think a better solution would be to offer multiple "endings" for QTEs, all of which do the same damage, but offer different stylistic choices.

This could be interesting.

Doesn't God of War have this as well? the ability to perform combat moves while climbing walls, while hanging, and climbing on ropes?

Similar to God of War 2's opening boss fight?

Hmm...I like the idea, but I think it would be going against everything God of War has stood for. It's not a game about depth and difficulty, it's about fun and enjoyment. It is a title that needs to offer some depth, while remaining extremely accessible.

Can't argue with this. The platforming in those titles is amazing, and seeing something like that in God of War would certainly be cool. The only fault I would see is that God of War isn't really a "platformer" at heart, and I wouldn't want the game to lose any of it's charm or focus to add in these platforming elements.

 

How many of those games are considered the top of their genre. If any game is expected to raise the bar its the biggest franchise within its genre. Maybe DMC as a franchise wouldn't have declined so much if it maintained that "WOW" factor that was created with DMC 1.

Until someone actually gets to experience GOW3 enough to write a detail preview, assuming what GOW3 will or won't do is a little premature.

 

Reminds me of Excite Bike. Making tracks was one of the coolest things about that game. Modnation Racer was definitely one of the coolest surprises of E3.

 

The longest lineup today at the E3 Sony area was for God of War, so I think people are liking it. I watched people play it for a while and it does indeed seem to be mostly similar to the PS2 game but with massively upgraded visuals, and perhaps more violent than the previous games. It still looks like a riot to play, I think GoW fans will be happy. I know I'm buying it

It was funny to see that product. I worked on a similar product for Sony about 8 years ago, same kind of thing where you terraform, lay down track, add objects, then race. At the time it all ran in a web browser using a 3d engine browser plugin. It got shelved way back then, so it was interesting to see a similar idea up and running on PS3.

 

Physics by definition leads to alot of complex solutions that will have to explain the reasons it exists in a simulation racer.

3d Flipping has been around since Virtua Racing to Daytona USA to Sega Super GT aka S.C.U.D. Racer and the San Francisco Rush series, of course only Daytona USA and Rush used it aggressively in its A.I. system but those were "Arcade" racers not Sims if we can look back at what we could nit pick about flipping back then it would become a huge list of things to nit pick if implemented into a Sim racer because those of us who know what happens to a car in a real flip and that just means that the learning curve is going to become even much more steeper, almost like real life racing so your skills are going to become much more demanding of developing for something that you cannot just walk away from but you can in a videogame.

Basically for every feature that is added, its just going to ask even more of not only the game programming but of the videogamer and we can all just sit and say add more features but what happens when the game is out and is being tested and played by end users is hopefully not the same thing that happened when people tried to play SF Rush in multiplayer mode where alot of gamers refused to learn the handling and just went back to simpler racers.

I have been watching the e3 09 press conferences and I don't think alot of people are aware that Microsoft is treating this trade show as a MTV type of awards/presentation show complete with celebs who most likely don't really play videogames but will get viewers all nostalgic and distracted about what they are really watching.

Presentation may be nice but its the content of what was actually there that counts, not the fluff and its no surprise that Microsoft is following a pattern to make seemingly "huge" news getting announcements like a game that became popular on another platform showing up with exclusive features on their platform thanks to a business contract.

I mean, yeah if they want to spend all their money on these huge attention getting contracts but we even as gamers or couch analysts just cannot expect the other companies to simply follow suit.

Oh I almost forgot, isn't it a bit ridiculous how MS went to town to get Tony Hawk to announce his game that features a new way of controlling that game and MS ends the conference with a video showing that you do not need that controller to play a skate boarding game?

 

Tony Hawk has said it's accurate enough for TH:Ride.

http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2009/06/02/tony-hawk-not-worried-about-project-natal/

Uhh ... yeah ... missed the "not" out there ...

 

u mean it's not accurate enough.

 

The quote was:

 

Along the same lines, unlike what some people would try to infer, the absence of "flipping" is not an issue of technology. The presence of "flipping" in much older games proves this. Even if one is to harp on about accurate flipping, PC WRC games already demonstrated that.

The real overriding issue is that of licensing. Manufacturers do not want their cars to be perceived as unstable. Look up F3 developer's comments on it.

 

One of the cooler things to come out of E3. Realy surprised others have not invested in this sooner!

 

I totally agree and I find it strange that Sony hasn´t put the trailer on PSN yet, at least not here, anywhere else?

The kids will absolutely love this game, I wonder when it will be released. Making levels in LBP is to hard for small kids even if they want to try, but this may be just on the right level.

 

I remember it as well. I remember it being pitched to SOE circa 2004. In fact, a former coworker of mine that I ran into @e3 had just been playing around with an old PC binary of it a few weeks back.

 

The ModNation E3 conference demo/trailer is playing on my PS3 now. I felt something was missing during my first few viewings but couldn't pin point what.

Are they going after Mario Kart ? (on PS3 and with user generated content).

As a potential customer (but not really a racer fan), I feel that the editor should allow me to add more randomness or even enemies to the game. Mario Kart has a "weapon" system, power-ups and simple enemies to enrich the experience. The terrain building system is impressive and liberating but doesn't contribute much to the core game play (except for the track layout). Plus, what happens if the track is partially flooded by water ? No go ?

I think using one or two familiar characters will help too.

 

Small world eh? I always wondered what they were gonna do with it. Their plans were grandiose at the time, they wanted people to be able to create cars and tracks, trade them over the net, have the ability to create mario kart type games, GT type games etc, all through the web browser at some web portal Sony had at the time. I can't remember the name of the website, Screenblast maybe? Been a while. Seemed almost impossible to do at the time given that it was just me coding it (in Java of all things) and just one other guy doing the art, but some over zealous salesman signed the contract so we had to try. I wonder if the version you saw was the same one I had worked on, or maybe they had made an updated version by 2004.

 

You know they've got powerups/pickups, right? The track editor demo doesn't show the racing gameplay to any extent, so the quality of the gameplay is unknown at this point, but it looks kart-racer-by-the-numbers. My principle concern was that the graphics lacked character, and the whole experience was generic (a sentiment shared in previews). If the game had a lot more character it would be more inviting.

 

Yes, I saw them briefly. I think they underplayed those gameplay elements because the editor looks essentially like a layout system. The basic gameplay seems unchanged.

They should also allow players to change the power-ups (e.g., tweak the magnitude) and change the rules (e.g., do 3D tracks). Then play the game to show any grotesque effects or new racing experience. Otherwise it feels like an artist tool. How do you build a broken track anyway (so players need to speed jump) ? or a track segment that confuses player's sense of direction. If the user-created tracks look fun, it would sell the game by itself.

Hope they take some more time to really redefine the rules. They have already come a long way. I would hate to see them stop short of being mind blowing. The layout tool is very very simple to fool around with.

Also agree with your comments about "lacking character". If the visual design has personality, it would feel different too !

 

They didn't really go too deep into it because the whole point was to design a track in just a few minutes. I do wonder if we'll see Mario Kartish obstacles, though, or whether crazy layouts like the rainbow road are possible.

 

Why can't they build a fun demo track in a matter of minutes ? It may not matter how easy it is to build a regular/boring track.

EDIT: There is still time. Would be superb if their next demo shows more trickery !