My sorta-brief review of E3 so far (Updated)

This will be "sorta-brief" because, well, I think this sums my feelings up best...

Microsoft, for the most part, stank (it was Kinectmania).  Ubisoft annoyed me with their host Aisha Tyler introducing games I generally didn't care about.  EA was EA as usual.  Sony did a lot more of the same--sequels with little-to-no major changes, a showy 3D-scanned motion-captured "cinematic" game (Beyond, from the makers of Heavy Rain but not as good), a shameless clone of successful Nintendo game, and introducing an stupid investment that no one who owns a PS3 will buy (WonderBook).

Now this leaves me to Nintendo, which whom, personally, I was favoring.  I'm quite fond of the interesting concept of Wii U.  I've followed its development from day one.  I can see its clear potential in gaming.  After a largely boring and disappointing E3 thus far, the ball was clearly in Nintendo's court.  But Nintendo really dropped the ball.  In terms of presenting, yet again they present an interesting piece of hardware but once again they failed to provide an impressive list of launch games.

They introduced a new system that was clearly the best hardware of E3 (the Wii U console--namely the Wii U GamePad controller), and started off by introducing the long-awaited Pikmin 3, which was nice.  And then a special-edition Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition was shown.  It was okay, but nothing outstanding that the game that's already out.  And then it just kinda went south from there, when Nintendo soon gave the floor to Ubisoft (and you know Ubisoft, they're 8 out of 10 of their games are going to be forgettable).  And, well, just watch some conference highlights on somewhere like GameSpot or the E3 website.  Overall, though, it'll leave you feeling like Lemongrab.

I think Wii U still has a chance to make it, but Nintendo just needs to get their act together by taking advantage of their advantages.  In case you haven't seen the E3 presentation or heard news from it, just know that they started off good and then it went all downhill from there, ending the evening talking about a game that frankly should've been left to the show floor to reveal.

But here's 12 announced and strongly-suggested games that I was hoping would be talked about more from Nintendo during their main E3 presentation, but they didn't and for the life in me I don't know why:

1. Zelda HD (it's in the works and would've been pivotal--why not show something about it, even if just concept art?)
2. Star Fox Wii U (one developed by Retro Studios, just as they said they'd like to do)
3. Golden Sun 3DS (there's more 3DS games to announce later, but my hopes aren't up anymore...)
4. Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS (again, it's in the works and would've been pivotal--show something)
5. F-Zero Wii U (Miyamoto said he'd like to see it on Wii U--listen to the man!)
6. Zone of Enders 3DS (Konami tweeted about the game--show something)
7. Metroid Wii U (some guy hinted that it was in consideration--why not do it and show something?)
8. Fire Emblem Wii U (I was confident that this game would be announced...)
9. That announced RPG in development from Monolith
10. Project C.A.R.S. (again, it's coming to the Wii U--why wasn't anything on it shown?)
11. An MMORPG announcement from Funcom (as they indicated was a good possibility)
12. Ghost Recon Online Arcade (this game was one of the first games to exist for Wii U and would've been one of Ubisoft's better games to show--why wasn't it shown anywhere during the main presentation?)

Most of these games are actual Wii U games in development--why weren't they announced? It's so stupid, because the Wii U doesn't have to suffer the criticism it's now going to suffer if only they had announced some of these games.  I still haven't given up on Wii U yet, and I think it still has a reasonable chance at success, but I think Nintendo's made their already uphill battle just that much more harder for themselves.

By fumbling that golden opportunity of a second first-impression of the Wii U to more dedicated "core" gamers, they've especially disappointed longtime fans like myself who can also still see how much potential the Wii U has, but just didn't get met last night.  Now we currently look like fools for trusting Nintendo to knock it out of the part (for once).  We still might gain some vindication later from the Wii U later, but for right now, we're in bandages.

Anyways, while it wasn't a total lose.  At least I know that many of those games I listed are actually in development, and among some of the announced games for Wii U was the likes of Trine 2: Directors Edition a Wii U edition of Mass Effect 3, and a very interesting "mass-hero action" game currently called Project P-100.  As bad as Nintendo was on-stage, I've actually seen worse lineup of launch titles (even the recent PS Vita comes to mind here).  There's still more Nintendo 3DS games to be announced.  And things are still early even for Wii U.  So here's to looking on the bright side.

- Brian

Update [06/15/2012]:  Nintendo's president Satoru Iwata has spoken some more about just why Nintendo only announced their launch titles at their E3 conference, and furthermore, reason why I shouldn't have doubted them (and it's so simple, really): They didn't want other people to copy their upcoming ideas for Wii U, so they're keeping quiet about it.  Well, that's a relief!

But a lifelong fan, knowing their innovating characteristic and unconventional quirks for going against the grain, after many being relentlessly and shamelessly imitated, I should've known something like this was the reason why, because it was rather uncharacteristic of Nintendo.  I mean, even last year, they did announce new Zelda and Super Smash Bros. title before they were even in production.  All of a sudden, any remaining post-E3 stress I had has now died.  Though even before now, as you can see in my writing above, I was already waning in my initial disappointment about their E3 conference.  My anatomical structure has been prepared once again for Wii U, full throttle!

Just a little bit longer, folks, but check this out in the meanwhile...

Hey, guys!  Oy--sorry about the delay!  Ran into a few personal issues, and freeing up time has been crazy for me lately, but I'm back and running.  Anyways, I don't have much here to report just yet, but I did update my Downloads and Sharetorials pages a bit, and you can check out my uploaded Blender theme if you'd like.  I call the theme "Dream Blue" and I designed it specifically for my desire for a Blender color scheme that uses other colors than the dark gray scheme (which I think most 3D packages employ way too much these days).  This is just one of many themes I plan to design.  I want to keep them vivid and engaging, all while still being easy on the eyes.  Blue is one of my favorite colors, and is known to produce a calming and refreshing effect (and trust me--I need that!), so I used shades of blue together that relax me but don't make me sleepy.  I think it kinda looks like Daphne Blake's clothing motif from Scooby Doo a little.

I'm putting a lot of time in my videos, and I'm making more than one.  I had some issues with my screencasting software--like finding a free one that doesn't bug out on me!--but I think I've found a solution.  I am also working on a few scripts ideas for Blender add-ons, and these are some pretty neat ideas for add-ons that I'm working on, if I do say so myself.  And I'm still brainstorming some ideas for my software in development, which I promise you'll like if I can complete the thing.  Sorry I've been keeping any of you waiting, but I'm balancing a lot of things right now, so I hope this little bit of news shows some indication to you all that I'm working hard on my projects and will hold you just a little while longer.  Though, I must say, besides my coming work, there are a lot of things that I'm anticipating in the coming months that have got me really excited.

I'm looking forward to the release of Blender 2.58 coming next month on June 7.  I'm looking forward to end results of the various Google Summer of Code 2011 projects being done with Blender and Gimp.  I'm also looking forward to E3 2011, for news on upcoming releases for the Nintendo 3DS (which I'm just dying to develop some games for) and undoubtedly the event that will steal the show at E3 this year, "Project Café" (which, in case you haven't heard over the last few months, is the codename for Nintendo's next console, and Nintendo's really kicking butt and taking names with this one).  I've been following this project almost since day 1, and have been following the hints from Nintendo previous to this project's announcement, and I'm so glad to finally see some confirmations on this project, and that Nintendo will officially spill the beans about it at E3 this year.  (And Nintendo will be the first to present their baby, much to Sony and Microsoft's dismay!)

Some thing have been announced already, like the fact that the "Project Café" will debut sometime in Spring 2012, they're really pushing strong third-party support, and that the console will feature a revolutionary controller, but Nintendo is being careful not to have many leaks about their product.  But what they have revealed about the console, and what some rather third-party game developers and popular sources have been leaking and rumoring about the next-gen console from Nintendo, has me sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for Nintendo's official revealing at E3.  I'll just say this: as a lifelong Nintendo fan, I haven't been this excited about a Nintendo home console in a while!  You can trust this guy David Turnbull on his news, updates and discussing rumors about the Nintendo 3DS and "Project Café" (which, reportedly, many are tentatively calling the "Nintendo Stream" due to the console's special "streaming" controller scheme).  In fact, I recommend that you "Subscribe" to everything this guy David has to offer, if you care about this kind of stuff!  When E3 comes next month, there's gonna be a whole lot of awesome stuff to pique your interested throughout all this and next year (if you're a gamer)!  [giddy squeal]

Anyways, that'll do it for this one.  Be sure to Ctrl-click my links in this post and check them out.  I'll be back with more stuff pretty soon.  Later, and keep exploring!

- Brian


>> Be about others, and you will never be bored. <<


CORRECTION: I meant to say that the E3 show was on June 7, not the release of Blender 2.58.  That was a backspace error I forgot to fix when rearranging the sentences.