Kotaku: E308

Nintendo Says "Thank You" For Watching Its E3 Press Conference

Brian Ashcraft — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 09:20:00 EDT

E3 2008 is over. Finished. But Nintendo hasn't forgotten and is sending out thank you notes, thanking folks for attending its presser. The letter reads: "THANK YOU for attending our E3 media briefing. Nintendo aims to bring people engaging experiences...to make them smile...and we hope we provided you at least a little of that during our event." Below that, it's signed by Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime, vice president of corporate affairs Denise Kaigler and vice president of sales & marketing Cammie Dunaway. Regardless of what you thought of Nintendo's E3 press conference (eh...), classy of them to send out thank you notes. More »

Does Kotaku Manscape?

Mike Fahey — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 12:40:00 EDT

E3 was pretty hectic for me, so I only vaguely remember Flynn and the GayGamer crew pulling me aside to answer me several questions, most of which were gaming related. Thankfully they've been posting a series of videos called "My Scrapbook of Precious E3 Memories, in which members of the gaming press offer up their opinions of the import topics of the show, such as Favorite Game, Worst Game, Pet Peeves, and the most important question of them all, "Do you manscape?" More »

Do E3 Awards Really Matter?

Mike Fahey — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 10:40:00 EDT

On Tuesday we posted the official Best of E3 awards, but do they really make a difference? Do what the critics feel are the best of the best actually translate into higher sales? UBS analyst Ben Schachter seems to think so, compiling this handy chart to prove it. More »

Game Critics Best of E3 By the Numbers

Brian Crecente — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 18:20:00 EDT

You've had a chance to digest the raw data of who won what from the Game Critics Best of E3 awards. Now here's a bit of fuel for that angry fanboy deep inside you: A run down of all of the 2008 Best of E3 Game Critics Awards stats. More »

Game Critics Announce Best of E3 Winners

Brian Crecente — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 13:20:00 EDT

Fallout 3 and LittleBigPlanet tied for the game with the most awards handed out for this year's Game Critics Best of E3 awards. More »

Kotaku's Picks for Game Critics Best of E3 Awards

Brian Crecente — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 13:20:00 EDT

Last week the Game Critics Best of E3 finalists were announced with much fanfare and debate. More »

Hollenshead: E3 Was Pretty Much a Disappointment to Everyone

Brian Crecente — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 17:00:00 EDT

"E3 this year, in my opinion, it was pretty much disappointing to everybody" id CEO Todd Hollenshead told me early today during an interview. "The press were disappointed, the people I talked to in the industry are disappointed, almost everyone agree that that was the wrong way to do it." More »

E308 Michael Fahey's Snoring Scares Intern, Singing Karaoke Hilarious!

Adam Barenblat — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 14:00:00 EDT

The idea of going to E3 for me was nothing less than a dream come true, seriously. About a week before we embarked to Los Angeles Crecente sent a letter of how the housing situation as going to work, along with a few friendly reminders. More »

E3 2008 Predictions: How'd We Do?

Michael McWhertor — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 19:40:55 EDT

Let's just say we shant be getting any job offers to be Michael Pachter's trusted aide, as our incorrect guesses about what we thought we'd see at E3 this year grossly outnumbered our correct ones. In our defense, we cast a wide net with our E3 '08 predictions, with some clearly outrageous bets that were ground more in fantasy than reality. Plus, E3 sucked. More »

Game Critics' Best of E3 Finalists Announced

Brian Crecente — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 10:00:00 EDT

Each year journalists from 36 North America media outlets come together to select what they believe are the best games of E3. The annual Game Critics Awards are meant to recognize the games that "will shape the future of interactive entertainment." More »

Indiecade 2008: Winterbottom! Gravitation! And More!

Maggie Greene — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 18:40:00 EDT

During my practically nonexistent downtime, I wandered down to check out the offerings at the E3 installation of Indiecade 2008. Indiecade is, as the name implies, a celebration of a variety of indie games ranging from 'art games' to more mainstream-type titles. We've covered at least two of the games here on Kotaku — Jason Rohrer's Gravitation and The Odd Gentlemen's The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom (begun as an MFA thesis at the University of Southern California). I had a chance to check out some of the games, talk to the people behind Indiecade, and watch the goings on — which included a surprising amount of hubbub and talent scouts from several companies lurking around. And there was more than just games: art prints were featured from various games (I even spied a screen from Blueberry Garden), plus videos of ARGs and installation games. My impressions and some pictures after the jump. More »

The New York Times Analyzes the (Bitter) Core

Owen Good — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 18:00:00 EDT

We've chewed this topic to death, but it's always interesting to know how others see you. And The New York Times' Seth Schiesel comes up with a rather solid analogy to describe the backlash to the parade of dross we saw in Nintendo's E3 presser (and, to a lesser extent, others.) More »

Naruto: The Broken Bond Raises The Ninja Higher

Mike Fahey — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 13:20:00 EDT

Here's the E3 trailer for Naruto: The Broken Bond, the Ubisoft follow up to Rise of the Ninja on the Xbox 360, a game I enjoyed very much. This next installment is due out this fall, picking up where Rise left off with the Return of Itachi and Sasuke Retrieval story arcs. They've spiced up the fighting side of things this time around with 25 player characters, so if they at least maintain the quality of gameplay that they featured in RotN Ubisoft will have another winning Naruto title on their hands. More »

Sega Can't Find The Source Code For Your Favorite Old School Arcade Games

Adam Barenblat — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 11:00:00 EDT

In our last video featuring Sega of America's Simon Jeffery, the president of the company explains why we haven't seen any System 16 or System 24 games on Xbox Live Arcade or the PlayStation Network. He also talks about his reluctance to put some of those games on Live due to Microsoft's requirement to update a game's graphics before porting. More »

What happened to Fatal Frame 4 At E3?

Brian Crecente — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:20:00 EDT

Tecmo, sensing a disturbance in the fanboy force, sent out a preemptive email today explaining to anyone and everyone why Fatal Frame 4 was not at E3 this year. More »

E308 Sega Can't Bring Back or Make Sequels to Previous Platinum/Clover Games

Adam Barenblat — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:00:00 EDT

God Hand 2? Viewtiful Joe 3? Not coming, at least not from the Platinum Games, formerly Clover, guys. But that doesn't mean we wont' be seeing echoes of those games in their fancy, new Sega published games. More »

Don Mattrick Says Nintendo And Sony Have Been "On Vacation"

Brian Ashcraft — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 07:00:00 EDT

Forget what you think about how those E3 pressers went, Xbox honcho Don Mattrick is here to tell you what he thinks. And what does he think? He thinks the other companies have been slacking off — that they've been "on vacation." No, not just "on vacation," make that "on an extended vacation." Here's the sound-byte: More »

E308 Simon Jeffery Destroys All of Your Hopes For Dreamcast 2, Shenmue 3, and Seaman 2

Adam Barenblat — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:20:39 EDT

See Brian try to talk the head of Sega of America into launching Dreamcast 2 to take on the Wii. More »

E308 Simon Jeffery, "We're Saving Aliens For Something Special"

Adam Barenblat — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:00:00 EDT

We explained it in detail, why Aliens didn't make E3. But it's so much more soothing hearing the news come in the Anglified voice of SEGA of America's head honcho Simon Jeffery. More »

The Sims 3 In Full E3 Technicolor

Adam Barenblat — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:00:00 EDT

Still The Sims, now with a shiny 3 after it. If you're interested in all things Simlish then you probably want to take a gander at the offical E3 Sims 3 trailer, sent over to our tower fresh this morning. What does this have, Sim faithful, that would make me want to drop whatever other Sims game I happen to be currently playing? More »

Molyneux Is Sorry For Denis Dyack

Mike Fahey — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:20:00 EDT

VideoGamer.com sat down with Lionhead's Peter Molyneux at E3 last week, where he apologized for Denis Dyack not living up to his creative vision. "I feel sorry for Denis Dyack because you know, I think a few things were said wrong," he explained, responding to criticism that his original plans for a more dynamic, more interactive Dyack didn't come to fruition. Molyneux's original vision for Dyack was of game developer that matures with time, reacting to the environment and society in a natural way that would be appealing to all gamers. Players were promised a Dyack where you were fully free to explore, and were instead presented with a final product stubbornly set in its path. More »

Midnight Club: Los Angeles Hands-On

Michael McWhertor — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:00:00 EDT

When we last saw Rockstar San Diego's Midnight Club: Los Angeles, way back at the Leipzig Games Convention, we walked away impressed. Pissed that we weren't allowed to actually drive, but impressed. Thankfully, E3 wasn't a total bust, given that we got to spend a good hour playing the Xbox 360 version of the newest Midnight Club. More »

What Microsoft Did At E3 2008

Mike Fahey — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 10:20:00 EDT

E3 2008 kicked off Monday last week with a press conference from Microsoft that started out quiet and ended with a shot that rang out across the internet. While many people expected this year's event to be dominated by attempts to snag the more casual gamer with gimmicks like motion control, Microsoft instead stayed the course (with a few notable exceptions), building on their own concept of community and social gaming rather than going for the obvious aping. In case you missed our extensive liveblogging of the event, here's a run down of the big news out of Microsoft at E3 2008. More »

Things We Wish We'd Seen At E3, But Didn't

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 09:20:00 EDT

E3 was a disappointment. We covered that yesterday. Didn't meet our expectations, even though they were sensible, lowered expectations. A lot lower than those we dreamed about! You should see those expectations. If they'd come true, it would have been awesome. More »

Hey Kinda Famous Person, Do You Know What GameSpot Is?

Brian Ashcraft — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 07:00:00 EDT

GameSpot held a big E3 party filled with Hollywood C-Listers like Vida Guerra and pro athletes like Rashad McCants. But the question remains: Do they know what GameSpot is? Oh, the suspense is killing us. More »

Holy Smoke, There Will Be E3 2009!

Brian Ashcraft — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 03:00:00 EDT

Even if this year's E3 wasn't exactly all that and a bag of chips, there will be another one. And you know what? It will be next year. That's right negative humanoids, the Entertainment Software Association is plotting E3 2009. Says an ESA rep: More »

Iwata So Very Very Sorry For Nintendo's E3 Presser

Luke Plunkett — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 22:20:00 EDT

Of all the lowlights of last week's E3 "festivities", none were lower than Nintendo's press conference. A fact I'm sure, by now, they're acutely aware of. And in response to the, uh, less than warm reception to their offerings, Nintendo President Satoru iwata is sorry. More »

Hands-On With Fable II, Molyneux's "Biggest" Game

Michael McWhertor — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 19:40:35 EDT

Getting a proper impression of a game like Fable II, one that spans the lives of multiple generations, is almost impossible at an event like E3. And if Fable II lead Peter Molyneaux is being accurate when he calls the game "The biggest, most complete story of any game I've ever created," we haven't seen, well, anything yet. More »

E308 Get Your Buzzers Ready, It's The Executive Pop Quiz!

Adam Barenblat — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:00:00 EDT

When it comes to asking the industry's bigwigs the big questions, we here at Kotaku aren't afraid to get our hands dirty. So, while we were at E3, we asked some of the top executives from each of the major companies questions on their own material. I mean think about it, when do you get to quiz your teachers? This was an opportunity we weren't going to miss. We present the Kotaku Executive Pop Quiz! More »

Tecmo's SPRay Brings Puking Adventures To Wii

Michael McWhertor — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:40:05 EDT

Tecmo's SPRay — oddly capped that way due to the game's protagonist, known as Spirited Prince Ray — may serve as an adequate substitute for Wii gamers waiting for Nintendo's Mario and Zelda teams to wrap up their next projects. SPRay is not unlike a Zelda-style adventure and comparisons to Mario Sunshine will likely be inevitable, as the game features a liquid spraying mechanic that's not too dissimilar from that GameCube non-classic. More »

The E3 No Shows: Why They Weren't There

Leigh Alexander — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:20:00 EDT

The E3 party is over. We here at Kotaku are crumpling up the paper tablecloths, throwing out the empty cake boxes, and pulling your shoe out of our fish tank as we wrap up the last of our coverage of the many, many things we saw and did at the event. More »

Dragon Age: Origins Gameplay: Our E3 Preview In Just Three Minutes

Michael McWhertor — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 16:40:47 EDT

While we didn't actually get to lovingly touch the mouse and keyboard used to control our Dragon Age: Origins preview, we still got to see plenty of what the BioWare developed role-playing game will have to offer. If you'd like the alternate universe experience of what we saw in the bowels of the Sheraton Hotel at E3, edited down to just three short minutes, watch this down and dirty Dragon Age gameplay clip. You'll feel like you were there — minus the swag and European journalist aroma. More »

Halo Wars Is In Control

Michael McWhertor — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 15:40:27 EDT

Halo plus real-time strategy plus gamepad controls may sound like a recipe for a franchise misfire, but Ensemble Studios has polished Halo Wars to the point of an immediately playable console title. While some may argue that, like first person shooters, RTS games should only be played on a mouse and keyboard, Ensemble has done an admirable job of nailing the controls. We got a chance to go hands-on with the game at E3 and came away surprisingly pleased. More »

Rounding Up Sony's E3 Presser Announcements

Leigh Alexander — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 15:20:00 EDT

Jack Tretton took the stage at Sony's E3 2008 press conference and proclaimed it "the year of the PS3." Reflecting on the oft-touted ten-year lifespan of the PS2, the underlying message seemed to be similar to what we heard from Sony in the past: Just wait, a little bit more. More »

Red Faction: Guerrilla Rhino Packs, Destruction and 360 Avatars

Brian Crecente — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 15:00:25 EDT

I know the video game industry seems to be perpetually going through a shooter glut. And, yes, I love shooters, so I tend to put up with it. So bear that in mind as I proceed to fawn over Volition's upcoming Red Faction sequel, Red Faction: Guerrilla. More »

CNBC's Jane Wells - Sony Is Winning, My Son Says So

Mike Fahey — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 12:20:00 EDT

I have to get me one of these "children" I keep hearing so much about. They seem terribly handy. Jack Thompson uses his to help expose the chinks in video game retail, our own Brian Crecente does some of his best work when dealing with the tiny person he helped manufacture - even CNBC reporter Jane Wells is getting in on the act, using her son to illustrate while Sony is going to win the console battle via humorous anecdote. Her 16-year-old son remained an Xbox 360 fan throughout the Microsoft E3 presser, but then Sony went and changed his mind. More »

E308 Justify Your Game: Left 4 Dead

Adam Barenblat — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 11:00:00 EDT

In this terrifying edition of Justify Your Game, Doug Lombardi takes a crack at justifying Valve's upcoming co-op FPS Left 4 Dead. Can he persuade us in 15 seconds? More »

The Only Reason I'd Want Anything to Do With Spiders

Brian Crecente — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 10:00:00 EDT

I had a chance to sit through a demo of upcoming Wii action adventure game Deadly Creatures Rainbow Studios in the lead up to E3. The game has you taking turns controlling a spider and a scorpion as they make their way through a hostile desert environment and try to suffer the indignities, and boots of a pair of humans. More »

Things We Don't Ever Want To See At E3 Again. Ever.

Luke Plunkett — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 09:20:00 EDT

E3 was a disappointment. But you knew that already. Yet do you know why it was a disappointment? Sure, there are the easy answers. Few new game announcements. Anything Nintendo said or did. But they're just that. Easy answers. There were a lot more things wrong with the show than just those limelight-grabbers. Things that we never want to see at E3 again. Ever. More »

More F.E.A.R., Different Name

Brian Ashcraft — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 09:00:00 EDT

As previously announced, developer Monolith Productions is back with a new F.E.A.R. game, but it's not called F.E.A.R. 2. And we had a chance to check it out at this year's E3. Since publishers changed during development, the game is now called Project Origin. Different titles aside, this actually is the sequel and is set in the same world F.E.A.R. was — though the game does follow Delta Force sergeant Michael Beckett instead of the mysterious Point Man. The devs are giving Beckett the same slow motion that Point Man had in the original game. More »