E3 2009 Roundup
Written by Simon Barker on June 8, 2009 · Filed under Games
Well the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) is over for another year, we’d hoped for good things in our E3 2009 Preview, but what can we take away from this year’s event? I think it’s fair to say that E3 2009 was back to its best after the last couple of years of it being scaled back a little too aggressively from what it used to be.
Not only are people excited and talking about E3 2009 in terms of the announcements, previews and demos that were made by the companies that attended the event, but it also seems to once again becoming the gaming industry’s premiere event again which people actually want to attend again – we couldn’t attend E3 this year ourselves personally, but it’s certainly an event that we hope to attend in future years and many other people seem to now have the same opinion. Well done E3, you’re now re-invigorated as an event and your place on the calendar now surely means something to a lot of us once more!
Despite not attending personally this year, we’ve tried to highlight some of the best things that we’ve seen coming out of E3 2009 in the following list – overall this year there’s been a lot announced which really interests us, a great sign of things to come and some great gaming for us to enjoy in the near future!
E3 2009 Highlights
Xbox Project Natal Full Body Motion Controller – for my money, this was THE big announcement of E3 2009 – not just for what this can do now or when it’s released, but the possibilities that this might open up for games in the next 5 or 10 years – simply jaw-dropping!
Project Natal – Milo – a closer look at Peter Molyneux’s artificial intelligence boy called Milo which while still in early development for Project Natal, looks quite impressive, let’s hope it lives up to the hype…
Alienware M17x Gaming Laptop – having always been known for high performance gaming machines, Alienware was back releasing an updated version of their M17x gaming laptop, expect to see it at lots of LAN gaming events near you soon!
Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition – some of my earliest and best gaming memories was that of playing games on my Commodore Amiga A500 and so it was great to hear that Lucasarts have given a true classic a modern makeover – Guybrush Threepwood has never looked better!
Tales of Monkey Island – I never thought I’d compare Monkey Island to buses, but it would seem that you wait years for news of a game, then two come along at once, Telltale are releasing a brand new Monkey Island title in episodic format – even more Guybrush on a regular basis!
Left 4 Dead 2 – this was one of the best games of last year, who doesn’t want to play through a zombie movie with their friends? Although, the question remains, are these updates too little, too soon for a full sequel game release instead of downloadable content update?
Super Mario Galaxy 2 – in my opinion, this was the best that Nintendo had for E3, very little else of what they had to say impressed me in the slightest, this won’t be innovative, but at least it should be a decent sequel to one of the Wii’s best games.
Wii Fit Plus – another further development of Nintendo’s Wii technology, much like the Wii Motion Plus – it does kind of make you ask the question why the original Wii Fit didn’t do what the Wii Fit Plus will?
Super Mario Bros (Wii) – another classic game being re-made for the current generation, a multiplayer Super Mario Bros game on the Wii, should be interesting, but again nothing revolutionary here.
Final Fantasy 14 Trailer – these Final Fantasy games really are stacking up for us now, we’re still waiting on Final Fantasy 13 to be released for the English markets and now we learn about another one after that, they’ll be coming thick and fast once they are released!
Assassins Creed 2 – the sequel to a game that divided opinion in many cases, hopefully the criticism has been taken on board and we’ll all like this renaissance-themed game more.
Sony PS3 Motion Sensor Controller – Sony presenting their motion control technology after what Microsoft showed with Project Natal was always going to be less impressive, but what it does it seems to do well, certainly should be comparable or better than Wii Motion Plus though.
Sony PSP Go – News of Sony’s latest addition, the PSP Go leaked out rather earlier before E3 started than what Sony would perhaps have preferred, but it looks like PSP gaming platform continues to expand.
EA Introduces The Harm Girl Club? – not so much a highlight of the E3 event, but a concern that certain games companies could be really missing the point when it comes to female gamers.
Two New Zelda Games To Be Released – again news of two games, this time in the Zelda franchise, although the DS one they presented was already known about, it looks good. Potentially even better is the rumour that behind closed doors, there was talk of another Zelda game for the Wii!
Star Wars: The Old Republic Trailer – can Bioware create an MMO game to rival that of World of Warcraft? Well here’s the cinematic trailer that was released – it looks like an interesting premise so far at least!
