Today, I played Unreal Tournament III on an iPad, thanks to OnLive. It was impossible to control, of course — it’s just a proof of concept that’s not available in the App Store — but it worked, proving that OnLive’s cloud gaming service can stream modern PC games to just about anything — but just Mac or PC for now.
Today, the service goes live, and at a price that’s making me eat my words.
Judging by intimidatingly long lines alone, Nintendo’s 3DS was the star of E3. Crowds made a beeline to Nintendo’s booth every morning and formed a queue that snaked around the booth for the remainder of the day. Fortunately, the crowd thinned in E3’s final hours, and I finally got a better picture of Nintendo’s 3D handheld hardware.
The race to successfully fuse a guitar video game controller with a genuine musical instrument is over, with two publishers showing off peripherals at E3 that double as real guitars — strings, frets and all.
For Rock Band 3, guitar maker Fender will sell a version of its Squier ax that can also play the game. A video from Engadget shows how the player can easily switch back and forth when the guitar is plugged into an amplifier. Lesser known, but also prominently featured on the show floor, is the guitar for PowerGig: Rise of the Six String. No need for a special edition here; even the default PowerGig guitar is a fully-functioning musical instrument.
I haven’t tried Fender’s Rock Band guitar, but I did play around with PowerGig’s peripheral at a pre-E3 event in Los Angeles. It is not a MIDI controller, like the YouRock and Gambridge guitars I played with at CES. The PowerGig guitar has six strings that run the length of the fretboard, complete with a sound pickup on the bridge and tuning pegs on the headstock. It’s smaller than a real guitar — a special full-size version is in the works — but it felt comfortable for playing the blues and noodling out solos high on the fretboard.
As for gaming, it’s just more fun when real strings are involved. When you want to play games with the controller, a small panel pops up on the bridge and mutes the strings. You’ll still hold down strings on the fret board as you would with Guitar Hero’s fat plastic buttons, and strum with your other hand, but any unwanted noise is silenced by the pop-up panel.
Best of all, both PowerGig and Rock Band 3 are using their software as music trainers. In PowerGig, advanced players can strum power chords, which require you to place a second finger on a different fret and string. Rock Band, according to IGN, replaces the game’s five lines of big colored button prompts with six strings and indicators of which fret you should hold down. Essentially, it’ll teach you how to play the songs you’re acting out.
Now, I could get on my high horse about how a music game won’t teach you concepts like groove or improvisation — or music theory — but whatever. This is some cool technology that finally bridges the gap between imitation and the real thing. PowerGig: Rise of the Six String is coming to Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 in October, and Rock Band 3 arrives this holiday season.
Who needs motion control when you’ve got inflatable game peripherals? CTA Digital has built a reputation for wacky Wii accessories, but none look more fun than the Wii Inflatable Racing Kart, ideal for Mario Kart but suitable for any Wii racing game. It holds up to 300 pounds and includes a spinning wheel to hold a Wii Remote. Any external air pump will do.
I talked to CTA spokesman Osama Hashmi, who said the inflatable kart shipped this week to Best Buy and the Web sites of Target, Amazon and Walmart. Then, I hopped on board for a quick ride and felt like a kid, sitting there on the floor of E3. Then again, I suppose that’s sort of the point. Best part about the inflatable racing kart? The little bit of bounciness you get after leaning into a turn. Potentially worth the $40 asking price.
Marketing taglines usually serve as little more than memory triggers, but there’s actually some truth to Sony’s claim that the Playstation “only does everything.” Today’s press conference showed a company desperate to make its console the jack of all trades, adding 3D gaming and motion controls to the Playstation 3.
For a while yesterday, I thought Nintendo would have a weak presence at E3. It’s a silly thought to have about the top-selling console maker of this generation, but the Wii and Nintendo DS were almost invisible during Monday’s press events for Electronic Arts, Ubisoft and Activision. But at its own press conference, Nintendo came out firing.
Short on shocking moments and big reveals, Microsoft pulled the trump card at the end of its E3 press conference today: Everyone in attendance would get a brand new, redesigned Xbox 360 for free. For all the journalists in the audience, it was time to make an ethical decision. For the rest of us, it was suddenly clear why Microsoft chose a small venue for the event, forcing many reporters, myself included, to watch via live video feed.
Microsoft’s new Xbox 360 model ships today. It’s not officially dubbed the Xbox 360 Slim, but it’s smaller than its predecessors and includes a 250 GB hard drive and built-in wireless n. Previous models had only wired Ethernet jacks and maxed out at 120 GB hard drives. The new Xbox 360, which comes only in black, sells for the same $300 as the current Xbox 360 Elite.
The new Xbox 360, and its subsequent gifting to the to the press, were among a few surprises dotting an otherwise lackluster press conference. Most of the games Microsoft showed off were obvious Xbox 360 exclusives, and looked just as predictable in action. Halo: Reach was more Halo. Gears of War 3 was more Gears of War. Call of Duty: Black Ops was more Call of Duty. And almost every Kinect game on display had already debuted the night before (the exception being Metal Gear Solid: Rising, which may support motion-controlled sword combat). The conference’s only new blood was a game codenamed Kingdoms, and its short teaser video had so little concrete information that the game is hard to get excited about.
But for existing Xbox 360 owners, at least there was ESPN. Rumored by the New York Times in January, ESPN for Xbox 360 will offer more than 3,500 live and on demand sporting events, including Major League Baseball, the NBA, soccer, college football and college basketball. No mention of the NFL, which has lagged on new media in general. In addition to the games, Xbox 360’s ESPN support will include trivia, highlights and voice activation with Kinect. Best of all, it’s free for Xbox Live Gold subscribers. The unanswered questions: When will the service arrive, and how subservient will the live broadcasts be to cable and local broadcasters?
Strangely, Microsoft announced a November 4 launch date for Kinect, but no price, nor any console bundles. Maybe the previous rumor of $150 is still in dispute.
As Microsoft representatives handed out smooth white tunics — they called them panchos — to everyone who entered the “Project Natal Experience” event last night, I realized this would be an unconventional press conference. Yes, Microsoft revealed some details and a final name for its 3D motion-sensing Xbox 360 camera, now called Kinect, but instead of using casually-dressed executives and a teleprompter, the company brought in Cirque Du Soleil for an elaborate show of audio and visuals.
The idea is that Kinect is a natural evolution of gaming. By removing the controller completely and sensing the movement of arms, legs and torsos, Kinect liberates the body — and gaming — from its primitive state. Hence the acrobatic dancers, animatronic elephant and jungle setting that filled the stage of USC’s Galen Center. But when it was time to show the actual Xbox 360 games, there was clearly a disconnect between the substance of Kinect and Cirque’s dog and pony show.
Video gaming’s biggest trade show, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, doesn’t officially start until Tuesday, but already the industry is descending upon Los Angeles for the show better known as E3.
Tonight, the first event of news value is a press conference for Microsoft’s motion-sensing Xbox 360 camera, so far only codenamed Project Natal. I’ll be there, but before the sensory overload of video games galore begins, I saw fit to throw together a short list of what I’m looking for at the show:
Sequels galore. Check out Kotaku’s list of all-star E3 games and you’ll see lots of 2’s, 3’s and roman numerals. Not that the industry usually swings the other way, but the sheer number of heavy hitters on hand — Gears of War 3, Killzone 3, Sonic the Hedgehog 4, Rock Band 3, another Call of Duty, a Medal of Honor reboot, just to name several — suggests a particularly busy holiday season and early 2011 for well-known franchises. The upshot is that any completely original games will likely get glowing praise from a gaming press tired of the same-old.
Return of the handheld. E3 2009 was quiet on the handheld gaming front, with only a retooled PSP from Sony and no news from Nintendo or Microsoft. With Apple’s iPhone making big moves into gaming, the stage is set for retaliation. Nintendo’s expected to show off the Nintendo 3DS, which will have a 3D display, and there’s a rumor that Sony will reveal the PSP 2. I’m more interested to hear Microsoft’s plans for Windows Phone 7 as a gaming device.
E3 2010: The Year of Exercise. Physically, this show’s a lot easier to cover than the sprawling hallways of the Las Vegas Convention Center during CES, but that could change with Microsoft and Sony sporting new motion controllers. Don’t pity me, but expect me to look at the new creations with a skeptical eye. Cool technology? Sure, but I need to see some amazing games, and not just souped up versions of Wii Sports.
The dark horse of cloud gaming. OnLive and Gaikai are two startups that want to stream video games to your computer as an alternative to owning expensive game consoles or PC hardware. Neither were present at E3 2009, but I’m planning to try both this year. I’ve got my doubts about the business model of cloud gaming, but here’s hoping the technology impresses.
For the last two years, the Entertainment Software Association downplayed video games’ biggest trade show, but 2009 saw a change of heart. E3 opened the floor to journalists and hosted more than twice as many exhibitors. Veterans say the show isn’t quite a return to form — I heard stories of fire dancers during the show’s peak — but it successfully made the statement that video games are huge. It was my first show, and while neon lights and low frequency rumbles will never stimulate me again, I’m glad I went. Here are the high and low points of E3 2009.
