There’s only two days left until E3 begins and right now I am stoked. There’s always a great sense of excitement around the time of E3 and I think there’s a lot to look forward to this year, way too much to list here. There’s also been plenty of pre-exposition news to keep us well-occupied right up until the start of E3 proper. The only thing I’m somewhat disappointed about is Portal 2 being pushed back to 2011, which is unfortunate but I feel like I’ve waited so long for the game at this point waiting a little longer isn’t that infuriating, at least there is now some general sense the game is in development.

The thing that’s really impressed me thus far has been Rock Band 3. I’m happy to see that they’re not just making some kind of imitation toy keyboard controller and that they are implementing a real two octave keyboard in the game. The pro-mode also seems like an awesome feature and it’s somewhat unbelievable that there is going to be a 102 button controller out there for this game. The fact that you can take the instrumental tracks from Rock Band 3s pro-mode, transfer them over to a real instrument and they will play the same almost seems to be one-upping Power Gig in some senses. I’m liking the look of the track list so far for Rock Band 3 particularly because it seems somewhat different to what I’ve seen from most rock music rhythm games in the past but it still looks like a really solid set of tracks. Of course the pricing for all of this stuff is high to the point that I’m not sure I can afford it but I know there are going to be a lot of happy rhythm gamers out there when Rock Band 3 hits.

The new Fallout: New Vegas trailer is looking sweet and although the game essentially seems to be very similar to Fallout 3 that doesn’t bother me. I’m interested in how Obsidian will take Fallout back in a different direction after Bethesda’s work on Fallout 3 and I’m expecting great things from them. Another couple of games that have been recently announced, I’m eager to learn more and am completely mystified by are Telltale’s Jurassic Park and Back to the Future projects, Back to the Future is one of my favourite movies and I would hate to see it done badly but I believe Telltale do have the ability to pull off these games right and that they could be an enjoyable experience.

I’m not sure how I feel about Red Faction: Armageddon. Certainly some changes could have been made to Red Faction: Guerrilla to improve the gameplay but a big part of what made Guerrilla so fun was running around on the surface blowing things up and knocking things down and it looks as though Armageddon is going to be much less centred around that kind of action. Still, we can’t tell too much about the game yet and who knows, this could be a step up from the last Red Faction. Homefront looks like a pretty good game although I’m more intrigued by the story than anything else, with all the war conflicts that have been depicted in video games I’ve never seen anything exactly like what that game is doing and with the weird way US-Korean politics are going these days the game seems to be almost foreboding in what it depicts.

I could go on for a while longer here but I think when E3 hits the games are going to do the talking. I also think this will be a big opportunity for us to see whether there’s really something behind the Natal or Playstation Move or whether these projects are just destined to be short-lived gimmicks. I will be watching all of the press-conferences live and blogging on them during the week and a huge good luck to the Giant Bomb crew with their coverage of the event. Thanks for reading and remember no one is more authentic than Gamer_152.

-Gamer_152

There’s only two days left until E3 begins and right now I am stoked. There’s always a great sense of excitement around the time of E3 and I think there’s a lot to look forward to this year, way too much to list here. There’s also been plenty of pre-exposition news to keep us well-occupied right up until the start of E3 proper. The only thing I’m somewhat disappointed about is Portal 2 being pushed back to 2011, which is unfortunate but I feel like I’ve waited so long for the game at this point waiting a little longer isn’t that infuriating, at least there is now some general sense the game is in development.

The thing that’s really impressed me thus far has been Rock Band 3. I’m happy to see that they’re not just making some kind of imitation toy keyboard controller and that they are implementing a real two octave keyboard in the game. The pro-mode also seems like an awesome feature and it’s somewhat unbelievable that there is going to be a 102 button controller out there for this game. The fact that you can take the instrumental tracks from Rock Band 3s pro-mode, transfer them over to a real instrument and they will play the same almost seems to be one-upping Power Gig in some senses. I’m liking the look of the track list so far for Rock Band 3 particularly because it seems somewhat different to what I’ve seen from most rock music rhythm games in the past but it still looks like a really solid set of tracks. Of course the pricing for all of this stuff is high to the point that I’m not sure I can afford it but I know there are going to be a lot of happy rhythm gamers out there when Rock Band 3 hits.

The new Fallout: New Vegas trailer is looking sweet and although the game essentially seems to be very similar to Fallout 3 that doesn’t bother me. I’m interested in how Obsidian will take Fallout back in a different direction after Bethesda’s work on Fallout 3 and I’m expecting great things from them. Another couple of games that have been recently announced, I’m eager to learn more and am completely mystified by are Telltale’s Jurassic Park and Back to the Future projects, Back to the Future is one of my favourite movies and I would hate to see it done badly but I believe Telltale do have the ability to pull off these games right and that they could be an enjoyable experience.

I’m not sure how I feel about Red Faction: Armageddon. Certainly some changes could have been made to Red Faction: Guerrilla to improve the gameplay but a big part of what made Guerrilla so fun was running around on the surface blowing things up and knocking things down and it looks as though Armageddon is going to be much less centred around that kind of action. Still, we can’t tell too much about the game yet and who knows, this could be a step up from the last Red Faction. Homefront looks like a pretty good game although I’m more intrigued by the story than anything else, with all the war conflicts that have been depicted in video games I’ve never seen anything exactly like what that game is doing and with the weird way US-Korean politics are going these days the game seems to be almost foreboding in what it depicts.

I could go on for a while longer here but I think when E3 hits the games are going to do the talking. I also think this will be a big opportunity for us to see whether there’s really something behind the Natal or Playstation Move or whether these projects are just destined to be short-lived gimmicks. I will be watching all of the press-conferences live and blogging on them during the week and a huge good luck to the Giant Bomb crew with their coverage of the event. Thanks for reading and remember no one is more authentic than Gamer_152.

-Gamer_152

The Pre-E3 stuff is coming in pretty fast. I need to catch up.