Last week was the E3 Media and Business Summit, formerly known as Electronic Entertainment Expo also known as E3. I thought I’d post my take on the show this year and give an overview of the major announcements.

MS definitely won E3 this year. Hands down. First they announces a refresh for the Xbox 360 dashboard interface. The new look is similar to that of Vista’s Flip3d and the new Media Center. I can’t wait to play with the interface when it is released. Along with they new interface they’re also allowing 8 person voice chat and the ability to copy game discs to the HD to speed up load times. Microsoft is also adding avatars, which are basically Miis for the 360, and along with them a casual games section for XBL called Primetime. Not extremely exciting but kind of neat. Two other things that don’t really interest me are Lips and Netflix. Lips is a karaoke game and Netflix is partnering with MS to allow movie downloads. The big reveal for MS was Final Fantasy 13 was going to be available for the 360 (everywhere but Japan). That’s a pretty big blow for Sony since the Final Fantasy series has always been a huge exclusive for Sony.

Harmonix also announced the entire set list for Rock Band 2 and it is chock full of awesome. One of the coolest parts of the announcement was that for $5 you can unlock get most of the RB1 content as DLC for RB2 which will go nicely with the ability to use any RB1 DLC in RB2. Activision also annouced that the Rock Band guitars and drum set will work with Guitar Hero 4 which means there is actually a chance of me buying GH4 now, depending on the set list.

The Nintendo conference was just weak. Wii Music was announced and looks pretty useless, basically it amounts to a video game version of the toy instrument they make for kids. Other than a generic statement about more Mario and Zelda coming they didn’t really say anything about any games I actually care about. They did announce Animal Crossing: City folk and eventually Pikmin 3. Neither of which I’ve play or have much interest in right now (although I did order Animal Crossing: Wild World for the DS). I was hoping for a new Kirby, Kid Icarus, or a new IP. Of course they did announce two new periperals for the Wii, WiiSpeak and the Wiimotion+. Wiimotion plus comes bundles with WiiSport: Resort looks and interesting but it would have been nice if it was built in to the Wiimotes to begin with. Apparently WiiSpeak, which comes with Animal Crossing, works pretty well but I think I’d just prefer a headset.

OK, So there was some good news for Nintendo on the DS side. Chrono Trigger (aka the best RPG ever) and Kirby Superstar are being remade for the DS.

As for Sony, they didn’t have much that interested me. probably since I don’t own a PS3. They some new PSN games and a video download service. They also showed a trailer for a game called MAG which is supposed to feature 256 players at once.

Some other stuff worth mentioning:

• PC/360: Left 4 Dead
• PC/360/PS3: Return to Castle Wolfenstein 2
• 360: Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts
• 360: No Bungie announcement
• Wii: Dead Rising is coming to the Wii
• Wii: Mad World
• Wii/360/PS3: MegaMan 9
• DS: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
• DS: Puzzle Quest: Galactrix

In the end, I think this sums it up the entire conference pretty well.

Somewhat recently my current favorite online multiplayer game, Team Fortress 2, received a large update. There were two major things added in this update the first is a new gameplay type called Payload and it’s associated map Gold Rush. Payload is an escort mission similar to the hunted in TFC. The difference is instead of escorting a player you escort a giant bomb that moves along a track. There are always a ridiculous amount of deaths once you get close to the target which is frustrating but it’s a fun map and payload has some definite potential.

The second major part of this update is the more interesting one. The Medic class recieved 36 new achievements and for every 12 achievements you unlock you get a new weapon that can replace one of your current weapons. The Blutsauger replaces the Syringe gun and sucks health from enemies but doesn’t get critical hits. The Kritzkrieg replaces the medigun and rather than making your opponent indestructible it causes all their attacks to be critical hits. Finally the Ubersaw replaced the normal saw and adds to your ubercharge each time you hit an enemy. Sounds pretty cool right?

There’s two problems here, first, a lot of people are playing medics now, it’s not so bad after about two weeks but when the update first dropped every server I joined was at least 80% medics. I’d like to see multiple new character updated drop at once just so people might mix it up a bit while trying to unlock the new stuff.

Second and most importantly, I haven’t managed to unlock any of them until tonight. I only managed to get that one after spending an hour farming the achievements on a map designed solely for that purpose. I just don’t have the time to play enough TF2 to unlock some of the achievements. Finally managing to unlock at least one of the weapons was nice but I really  wasn’t having much fun doing it. At this point I’ve pretty much given up any hope that I might get the Ubersaw.

No More Heroes is exactly the kind of game that should be on the Wii. It’s a unique new IP, doesn’t suffer from the waggle effect and isn’t a quick cash in on the Wii’s popularity or a mini game festival. More importantly it’s also one of the few Wii games squarely aimed at mature gamers and make no mistake this is truly an M rated game. There’s sexual innuendo, decapitation, blood spewing from enemies like fountains, incest and more! Here’s the two sentences run down of the story. You play as Travis Touchdown whose hobbies involve anime, wrestling and killing people. After becoming the 11^th ranked assassin in the world he decides that he might as well go all the way to the top. The rest of the story doesn’t matter much but is pretty entertaining none the less.

I spent the first hour of No More Heroes thinking about how disappointing it was. The overworld was probably my biggest gripe; it just felt clunky and lifeless. No one interacts with you, people walking on the street will slide in whichever direction they are pushed, and cars stop when you get near them. The graphics work well enough during the battles and cut scenes but are noticeably lacking most other times. The side missions are a bit uninspired. The motorcycle doesn’t handle very well. Everything worked but it all had an unpolished feel to it.

Once I got to the ranked battles though, I completely forget about all the annoyances of the game and had a blast. Collecting money to unlock the next ranking battle at first seemed like it was going to be painful but luckily you earn most of the money to enter the next battle in the pre-ranked battle massacres. Normally it only takes one or two side mission to earn enough for the next battle. Of course you can also spend your hard earned cash on weight training, new wrestling moves, beam swords and clothes.

You definitely tell that the development team focused on the right areas of the game: the combat and the boss battles. After paying the entrance fee, each the ranked battles start by letting you slaughtering a couple dozen grunts on your way to the final battle area. These areas range from mine filled beaches to baseball stadiums and parking lots. Combat is simplistic; hit A to attack with your beam sword; hit B to kick or punch all the while keeping the wiimote help upwards for high attacks and low for low attacks. Once you do enough of either you then slash the wiimote/nunchuck to execute a finishing or wrestling moves. Upon killing the enemy you’re rewarded with a ridiculously large shower of blood and coins. Occasionally Travis will also enter darkside mode which lets him shoot energy from his beam sword or kill enemies with a single blow, among other things. One neat feature is right before the boss battle Travis gets a call which requires you to use the wiimote like a cell phone.

As for the bosses they each have their own quirky personality. Each boss is a new challenge and requires a different strategy to defeat. One of my favorite things in the game was the cut scenes that introduce each of the bosses. One of the final (and best) cut scenes virtually requires rewatching it on youtube.

It’s odd thinking back on No More Heroes. I began playing it with somewhat high expectations and was almost immediately disappointed. Once I got further into the game most of my complaints dissolved into to a deluge of blood, coins and joy. Had some of the graphical issues been ironed out and the overworld further fleshed out like the Godfather: Blackhand edition which I played earlier in the year this could have been an easy candidate for game of the year.

2007 was a big year. I graduated college, got a crappy job, got an awesome job and had a few ups and downs. It was also the year I returned to gaming. In 2006, aside from the occasional round of CS:Source, or Mario 3 Battlemode, I didn’t do hardly any gaming. I’m not even sure if I bought any games that year. This year; however, I got 3 video game systems (Wii, DS and 360) and more games than the past five years combined (30+). All that and there’s still a rather beefy list of games I didn’t get around to checking out. Here’s my top 5 games played in 2007:

1. The Orange Box (PC)
   Portal and Team Fortress 2. Enough Said. I’ve already talked about TF2 and gave a brief mention to Portal. Combined together in one box this package is almost unbeatable. Portal was short but the most inventive game I’ve played in a long time. TF2 has already replaced CS: Source as my go to game on the PC. A great value and a great time!
2. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
   This is easily the best game released for the Wii to date. The controls are great and use just the right amount of motion without feeling tacked on. The gameplay is fun and I constantly find myself saying “just one more star”. There’s also tons of variety in levels, I haven’t found a level yet where I thought the game was overly difficult or broken. Although Two player co-op is somewhat disappointing.
3. Rock Band (360)
   Despite only owning the game for six days last year it’s easily one of the best. Guitar/Bass is a bit easier that GH3. The drums are wicked fun to play (despite my lack of coordination). Singing is fun when you have someone who can sing. The track list is better than GH3 despite having less songs. There’s just something undeniably awesome about getting a bunch of people together and rocking. The downside, It is a huge pain in the ass to carry around all that crap; My original guitar was defective and I’m waiting on a replacement; and I can’t use the same characters for different instruments.
4. Guitar Hero 3 (Wii)
   Before Rock Band there was Guitar Hero 3. I bought this game twice, just to get a second guitar for multiplayer. Even after Rock Band it’s still a blast. (It’s also much more portable) Despite the Wii version getting screwed over with mono sound, no DLC (until later this year), and crappy online multiplayer, I’m still happy I got the Wii version. It’s waay more portable and GH3 (and Rock Band) are meant to be played with people in the same room.
5. Paper Mario (Wii- VC)
   Initially I was going to put Super Paper Mario here. The dialogue was great, I had fun playing it and have no regrets buying it but realistically it’s not top five material. It was waaay to easy. Less like a game and more like a story with a lot of walking and jumping. It did get me interested in it’s great granddaddy, Paper Mario. So Paper Mario came out six years ago, I never bought an n64 so it’s new to me. Anyway back to the game, It was a lot of fun but I’m still disappointed I got a fish instead of getting to ride Yoshi around.

Close but not quite:

• Metroid Prime 3 (Wii)
  I like the game so far especially the controls but haven’t had a chance to play much of it yet.
• Halo 3 (360)
  It’s pretty looking and I hear the multiplayer is good but this is another game I haven’t had much time to play with. I plan on using this game to learn how to play console FPSs.
• Bioshock (360)
  Supposedly one of the best games this year, I want it and I want it bad but I don’t have to time for another game right now.