E3 2009 part 2~Roundup of news.

There are some other things I am pretty intrigued by. E3 2009 has finished now, and I'm gonna round up all the news that I think is worth talking about. I had wanted to do this initially, but I got swamped by the amount of announcements at the time.

Star Wars: The Old Republic (PC)

Whoa...awesome! If only I had a PC to run this. I doubt my ancient piece of crap will be able to... T_T  Would be cool if it was on 360 too, but I dont think it is.

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (DS)

Gimmicky? Zelda good? Both probably true. Video:

It just looks like they've palette swapped the ocean from Phantom Hourglass for a kind of on-rails continental setting. Cant help all those mountains and trees will make it look very linear and closed in. Hopefully theres a good deal of scope to explore and freely roam about the place. This could be good, but could be more of what we've seen before in Zelda games.

Final Fantasy XIV Online (PS3)

Yup, not a typo. FFXIV will be online only MMORPG a la FFXI. PS3 only apparantely.

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3174536

Castlevania: Lord of Shadows (Xbox 360/PS3)

Oh yeah! Don't let us down Kojima!

Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box (DS)

There are a few of the Layton games out in Japan, good to see we are getting more of these now. I'm pretty sure Curious Village sold well, and it was a pretty well done game in my opinion.

http://www.gametrailers.com/game/professor-layton-and-the-diabolical/5429

Project Natal (Microsoft)

This isn't a game per se, just a kind of announcement of something in the works at Microsoft. Its basically this piece of kit which will have motion sensing for controlling, as well as the ability to "scan" items in. For example, on a Tony Hawks or skateboarding game, players will be able to scan their own decks in for use in game. Sounds pretty cool, but hmm also seems familiar...where have I seen something like that before? Yeah, the Wii is way ahead of you Microsoft. They've basically done that already...I'm not too much of a fan of it at times. Although it can work, and perhaps this could be good. With that technology, it could be expensive too. In these times, are people going to want a bunch of peripherals for the console? Price has got to be right for this too. Here's a video. Some of it looks like a direct ripoff from the Wii.

This Natal hardware will be able to recognise a lot of stuff too, Lionhead showcased Natal with Milo, which can recognise details such as facial features and voices and how they change with emotions for example. Apparantely its not scripted, but I dont see how the whole handing the paper thing wasnt. Seems a bit unbelievable really. Pete on youtube (Link) talked about it in his video coverage of E3, check his stuff out, I would really recommend it. Potentially, it could be a very interesting piece of kit which could be capable of breaking down the game to gamer "barrier" that is the controller. Will it be interesting though, or just a gimmick? I don't know if I would be that drawn in to something like that, because of my inhibitions or something, I would feel stupid talking to the TV, similar to the fact that I dont like dancing around like an idiot in the front room on the Wii. Peter Molyneux said everyone that watched the video went to catch the goggles thing that Milo threw, but I'm not so sure I would.

Turning an invisible steering wheel or pointing an invisible gun sounds cool, actually..no it doesn't it sounds a bit stupid really. I'd rather have a more responsive controller, thats one of my qualms with the Wii controls at times, but who knows, this might work well.

Alan Wake (PC, Xbox 360)

I'm not too interested in this at the moment, looks a bit generic. Nice graphics in places though.

Modern Warfare 2 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)

I'm not sure if it will be called this or CoD:Modern Warfare 2...but anyway, looks like more of the same, which probably is a good thing. Don't see what sets it apart from the first though. Heres some video:

Misc Microsoft stuff:

Facebook, Twitter and Last F.M coming to Xbox 360. Urgh...Social Networking's world domination continues to new heights... T_T

Forza Motorsport 3

Nintendo stuff

New Super Mario Bros Wii (Wii)

Visually it could be better, but the gameplay looks really good, like the look of that co-op. I'm wondering how it will turn out. I loved the DS game!

Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii)

Wii Fit Plus

Wow, now theres this, Wii Fit and that EA Sports thing or whatever it was. Fitness is a big thing they got going on the Wii. Pretty interesting.

Maybe I missed something, but I dont see why you'd need or want to weigh your dog...

Wii Vitality Sensor

So what does this do? Sounds like if you are about to die from overexertion on Wii Fit or whatever, this would start beeping. Hmm, close, but heres what wikipedia says about it.

"The Wii Vitality Sensor is a fingertip pulse oximeter sensor that connects through the Wii Remote. According to Nintendo, the device "will initially sense the user's pulse and a number of other signals being transmitted by their bodies, and will then provide information to the users about the body’s inner world." The Wii Vitality Sensor was announced by Satoru Iwata at Nintendo's E3 2009 media briefing on June 2. No specific applications were revealed for the device, but when presenting the device Iwata suggested that video games may soon be used for relaxation."