E3 2008 highlights

[Marik]

Microsoft:
-New Dashboard. Looks a little like Vista's 3D Desktop.
-8 Player Party system. Everyone joins a party and will not leave party when switching games or on dashboard.
-Avatars. Mii ripoffs basically, will be intergrated in games ala Wii games. A lot more detailed though than Miis. Friends list will be intergrated with Avatars instead of a list.
-Netflix joins Video Marketplace lineup as well as NBC and Universal Studios.
-Banjo Kazooie(N64) hitting Arcade with Geometry Wars 2, Galaga 2, Uno 2, South Park, 1 vs 100, and Portal Still Alive!
-Fallout 3 looks amazing, DLC only on 360 and PC.
-Resident Evil 5 is awesome, hits March 13th 2009 with online co-op.
-Fable 2 has online co-op too, but differently. You'll see orbs flying around a screen, and it'll actually be another player on your friends list playing and their location. Seemless drop in/drop out. October release.
-Gears 2 will have a 5 player co-op mode called horde. It's basically 5 guys vs infinite Locusts in a timed survival. Get to ride a Brumack in campaign too. Hits November.
-Final Fantasy XIII hits 360!

[Marik]

Nintendo:
-Typical Nintendo, touting numbers, they're #1 and they introduced people to gaming. More females playing and handhelds are growing in terms of console/handheld ratio.
-Wii Sports Resort, bundled and uses Motion Plus, a 1:1 motion sensing attachment for the remote.
-Wii Music, over 50 instruments to use.
-Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars exclusive to Nintendo DS.
-Pokemon Ranger 2, Spore and Guitar Hero On Tour Decades for DS. Call of Duty 5 uses a same screen lightgun style co-op for Wii.
-Animal Crossing: City Folk for Wii, bundled and uses WiiSpeak, which is online Voice Chat for Wii! 4 player co-op online. Uses a new city function for visiting.

[Marik]

Sony:
-Eternal Sonata hitting PS3 in September.
-Resistance 2, Insomniac's third PS3 title(awesome achievement BTW for only 2 years) and fourth PS3 game: Ratchet and Clank Future: Quest for Booty, Shorter, but a lot cheaper, $14.99, it'll be on PSNetwork. Resistance hitting PSP too.
-Sony uses their number crunching using Little Big Planet's user created level design.
-Greatest Hits coming back for PS3 for $29.99.
-Gran Turismo 5's TV option allows PPV content on car shows.
-PlayStation Home(PS3's Second Life-like social network) is next year.
-PS3 will do the Video Marketplace exactly like 360's, but allows permanent purchase and PSP linkage. Launching tonite!
-MAG: massive Action Game: 256 player online. Huge scale battles
-God of War 3 coming this year!

[Marik]

Other stuff:

-Sony disapointed with FF13 hitting 360. But not surprised.
-Miyamoto: "We're making Pikmin"
-Dead Rising hitting Wii(wasn't from E3, but whatever)
-Sony CEO agrees piracy is killing PSP(100,000 illegal downloads of God of War on day one!)



Number crunching from the ESA (Trivia!!!):
* 65 percent of American households play computer and video games;
* 38 percent of American homes have a video game console;
* The average game player is 35 years old;
* One out of four gamers are over age 50;
* Women age 18 or older represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population (33 percent) than boys age 17 or younger (18 percent);
* 41 percent of Americans expect to purchase one or more games this year;
* 94 percent of parents are present when games are purchased or rented;
* 88 percent of parents report always or sometimes monitoring the games their children play;
* 63 percent of parents believe games are a positive part of their children's lives.