Konami Kicks Off With the E3 preshow!

Konami press event is in the bag and out of it we had got a few new nuggets of information. They started the with casual games. A facebook based social game based on baseball was shown. Followed by a slot machine and poker mobile games. None of these were particularly interesting, but social and mobile have been gaining market share in recent years, so it is understandable that this would be
addressed. Thankfully this was a brief and did not take up to much time.

The console games began with Pro Evolution Soccer 2014. I'm not much of a sports game fan aside from NHL. So I don't have a much of an opinion here. They demonstrated a new engine, but it didn't look like it was close to completion. As the character models were still looking incomplete. We'll see if this can steal any of FIFA's thunder this year.

Hideo Kojima and Kiefer Sutherland

Next we saw the game I was looking forward to most: Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. There has been some controversy surrounding this game with the reveal that long time voice of Solid Snake / Big Boss, David Hayter would not be reprising his role. The new voice of Snake was revealed as Mr. Jack Bauer himself, Kiefer Sutherland. Mr Sutherland is a fine actor and I'm sure that he will have a fine performance, but I would be lying if I said I was not disappointed to see the David Hayter not be apart of the game. Is Hideo Kojima trying to pull a fast one on us like with Sons of Liberty? My gut says this is the genuine deal, but their are some conspiracy theories floating around out there.

Finally we were treated to the debut trailer for Castlevania: Lords of Shadows 2. We knew this game was in development so it was not much of a surprise, but the story is taking an interesting twist the battle for Dracula being taken in to the present day. An interesting idea and sure to be a fun game. The first Lords of Shadows was good, but not great. Hopefully the series continues to move forward, but I'll put my vote in for a challenging side-scroller in the style of the NES original.

Well that is the wrap up of Konami's event. I'll be doing these for the rest of the press events on Monday.

Looking Behind...

The next generation of console games is just beyond the horizon, and it's time to reflect on my experience with this generation of games. I had been working my first job and been saving up money for a new game console. I played Halo 3 at several friends houses, but I didn't feel the game was different enough from Halo 2 to warrant an expensive investment. My brother was the only person I knew that had a Wii, but he lived several hours away and I couldn't get time off to visit him and try it.

Then I saw it. Metal Gear Solid 4. This game was an amazing technological display and a fitting conclusion to a story that I had fell in love with on the PS2. I still think the parts of the game that are playable are amazing, but the game is bogged down with it's massive amount of cut scenes. While Metal Gear may have perfected the cut scene new story telling techniques were just beginning to evolve.

Naughty Dog was expanding motion capture technology with Uncharted: Drake's Fortune on PS3. The improved technique of performance capture would

Uncharted Performance Capture

get more believable and life like characters in our games. Looking at games like LA Noire, The Last of Us, or Tomb Raider we can see the performances of the actors giving the characters so much more life and emotion then the characters of the previous generation.

Another exciting change of this generation has been narratives that react to player choice. Telltale's The Walking Dead, and Bioware's Mass Effect Trilogy and Dragon Age provided decision points that effect the story in a unique way. It created exciting discussions as no one's experience was exactly the same.I found that these games would fill the drought of JRPG's that took a long time to show up on the system.

I have always been a fan of Japanese games. I wasn't following the business as closely back then so I had not realized that many Japanese developers were struggling with the higher demand of HD visuals, and many had gone to handhelds to make these games. I would later find these on my PSP and pick up a Nintendo DS to play many of these creative titles.

No retrospective of  this generation of gaming would be complete with out plastic instruments. In 2007 I had fallen in love with with Harmonix's rhythm games Guitar Hero, Frequency, and Amplitude had become addictions as well as Sony's Singstar. When I found out about Rock Band a game that combined Guitar Hero, Singstar, and added drums it was love at first sight. This game would become the focus of almost

every party or group gathering for the next several years. It was unfortunate that by the time RockBand 3 added keyboard it would seem that the bright burn of the living room rock-star had faded into obscurity.

I did debate between a Wii and X Box 360. Halo 4 looked amazing, and I had a lot of faith in Harmonix and couldn't wait to play Dance Central. Nostalgia won out though and I went with the Wii. I had not had a Nintendo console since the original NES. The virtual console. But it was The Legend of Zelda: Skyword Sword that drew me in. This game proved that motion control can work non casual games. Look forward to my top 10 game of the generation coming soon.