(Credit:
Dan Ackerman)
With the new and supposedly improved Electronic Entertainment Expo just around the corner (here are some of last year's highlights), we decided to run down some quick predictions for what the overarching themes of the show will be.
Dan Ackerman:
- God of War III and Rock Band: Beatles will be the big mainstream games and public (and retail buyers) care about.
- Variable price points, which are easy to do on DLC, help gamemakers target recession-addled audiences.
- Booth babes return, but in a subtle, post-wretched-excess kind of way.
- New hardware/accessory pushes from Nintendo and Sony hope to boost flagging software sales.
- Chances of getting a decent Wi-Fi or 3G signal in a convention center full of game nerds -- slim to none.
Jeff Bakalar:
- PS3 and/or 360 will introduce some sort of social networking functionality. Whether it be tie-ins with Facebook or Twitter, or something proprietary, there will be ways to update status, etc.
- Sony will make Netflix on PS3 official.
- Nintendo will announce a new Mario game in development.
- A new Wii remote with MotionPlus built in will be available soon.
- Microsoft will unveil a motion-based controller for use with specific Xbox Live Arcade games.
Scott Stein:
- DLC and downloadable games steal the show almost as much as disc-based games.
- Nintendo pimps the Wii Motion Plus hard, with a handful of games that get "updates."
- The PSP Go will cost as much as a DSi, and not be quite as useful.
- There will be more "free" games in a weak economy, in the style of SOE's surprise hit Free Realms.
- Halo 3: ODST will emerge as a better all-around game than anyone expected...and it will support an unfortunately huge number of DLC "extras."
Additonally, our colleague David Carnoy is following a rumor about Hulu streaming on the Xbox 360. Next week, we'll be live at the E3 show, covering all the new hardware, software, and trends. Keep track of all our E3 coverage here, and follow Dan's show floor updates at twitter.com/danackerman.
NBA vet Kevin Willis visits the Digital City.
Episode 31 of the Digital City, where we discuss the Virgin Megastore liquidation sale (or lack thereof), Amazon's new big-screen Kindle, and how the video game DLC trend is jumping to handhelds. Later, NBA vet Kevin Willis drops by to talk about his love affair with the iPhone.
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The near universal penetration of broadband Internet connections on home video game consoles is giving rise to a new business model for games. With publishers able to reach consumers directly through Xbox Live, Nintendo's Virtual Console shop, and the PlayStation Network Store, there's a growing trend toward offering small, variably priced, incremental content to expand existing games, rather than focusing on a handful of expensive tent-pole projects that can take years to develop.
One of the games to best take advantage of this is Bethesda's Fallout 3, a post-apocalyptic role-playing game that topped many best-of-2008 lists. To augment the game's 50-plus hours of content, Bethesda has previously released two downloadable expansions, called Operation: Anchorage and The Pitt, both of which add several hours of new storylines and characters to the game (both are available for around $10 on Xbox Live or the Games for Windows marketplace).
The third, and most ambitious expansion, called Broken Steel, will be available May 5, and we sat down with Bethesda recently for a preview to find out what we can expect.
... Read more
(Credit:
Capcom)
What could be better news for a gamer than knowing there will be downloadable content for a game before its release? Capcom just announced Versus mode for Resident Evil 5. So, when you get tired of playing with them, play Versus, and take 'em out. Resident Evil 5 will be available March 13.
According to Capcom, Versus allows up to four players to match wits in online battles across two very different game types. Slayer's Rule is a point-based game that challenges players to kill Majinis. In Survivor's Rule, players hunt the most dangerous game, each other! Players can begin the hunt as Chris, Sheva, or other secret characters, and choose from either one-on-one or two-versus-two team matches for either of the two gameplay styles.
Versus will be available on Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network a few weeks after Resident Evil 5 is available. And will be available for 400 Microsoft Points on Xbox Live or $4.99 on the PlayStation Network. Versus mode requires the Resident Evil game software to be played. A broadband internet connection also is required.
Resident Editor Dan Ackerman did a hands on with Resident Evil 5 here.
For some time now I've only been a two-console owner, the PlayStation 3 and the Nintendo Wii. I received a lot of flack from co-workers and friends for not having an Xbox 360 and was even referred to as a "Sony fanboy."
Then Valve released Left 4 Dead and a group of us from the office downloaded the demo and had a little PC LAN party. From that moment I knew I had to add that game to my library; however, it was only available for the PC and Xbox 360. I was never a big PC gamer. So that left me only one option: get my hands on an Xbox 360. As fate would have it, I got one for my birthday.
I purchased Left 4 Dead. And played the hell out it; most of my friends list is compiled of people I met during online play (only the ones who healed me, and didn't leave me behind).
After a week of play and finally surviving all the campaigns, I wanted more. For some time now we've heard about an update coming as early as March or April that would bring some new life to this living dead shooter. But Thursday, IGN did a hands-on with the developers of Left 4 Dead, learned a few tricks, and posted actual game play video. First is "Survival Mode," and it's just that: the game will throw hordes and hordes of zombies at you until you die. Before the unending assault begins, players will have time to collect health kits, weapons, gasoline tanks, and other items. There's no time limit for this; the timer doesn't start until someone hits the button. Once that's done, be ready for a furious zombie onslaught.
According to IGN, "there are all sorts of personal records you can accumulate. The most obvious one is trying to get a best time for each of the 16 Survival levels in the game. There are extra incentives as well. You can earn bronze, silver, and gold medals if you survive long enough. Though the medal times for each map will be tailored for each map, right now the basic idea is that you need to survive for at least 4 minutes to get bronze, 6 minutes to get silver, and 8 minutes to get gold. Of course, online leaderboards will also let you compare your times with those of our friends for bragging rights." (In our play session, the best we ever got was within a minute of earning silver.)
The other new addition is a Versus mode for both the Death Toll and the Dead Air campaign. This allows two teams to take turns playing the survivors or zombies, in an-all out "who's the best" competition. When Left 4 Dead originally shipped, only two of its campaigns were playable in Versus mode. The upcoming update will be free for the Xbox 360 and PC,and expanding the killing fess with the addition of Death Toll and Dead Air to versus mode.
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