In only 72 hours, I will be surrounded by the best the gaming industry has to offer. Sony, Activision, Konami, Ubisoft, Capcom, Electronic Arts, etc., all of them will be there at my disposal, for me to peruse and find out everything they have planned for the upcoming months. Every gamer in the world will want to be there to experience it, but only so many will get the opportunity to do so. I’ve been privileged with this opportunity, and though this will be my first time stepping into the Los Angeles Convention Center for the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), I bring a lot of expectations with me. I won’t let the experience blindside me from bringing everyone here my honest opinions on what I take from the event. So, without much else to explain, this is what I’m going into Los Angeles and expecting.
Going into my hands-on experiences with LEGO Batman and Project Origin, I expect both of these titles to live up to the hype surrounding them and the hype their predecessors have created. While FEAR may have taken a lot of its elements from other games, it offered up a truly frightening atmosphere and overall experience. If Project Origin lives up to that standard and delivers that type of environment, I will be satisfied and look forward to its release. On top of this, if LEGO Batman can live up to the standard set forth by Star Wars and Indiana Jones, I think that Warner Brothers will have a very excellent showing at E3 this year that will leave very little to be desired.
My Expectation: Warner Brothers will satisfy
The next stop on my schedule will be the SCEA Press Conference. Obviously this is going to be the jewel of the entire E3 Experience and I know every single one of you is waiting for this conference the most. What do I expect to happen? Well, I do expect Sony to lower the price tag on their 40GB console, despite saying they won’t. I’ll be surprised to hear otherwise. I also expect Sony to deliver on an incredibly teasing God of War III trailer that will leave all of the media at the event with jaws dropped and anticipation high.
I’m going to also go out on a limb here and say that Sony and Square Enix will reveal something to do with Final Fantasy XIII during the press conference. I’m aware it isn’t part of their specific official lineup, but I have a strong feeling Sony wants that part of their lineup to make a splash during their conference. It only makes sense and I think it would do incredible things for the support Square Enix seems to be losing amongst the PlayStation community due to recent moves they’ve made. Much like a lot of you, I also expect Sony to display their video download service and other odds and ends that are blatantly obvious, so I won’t bother mentioning those.
On an overall scale, I expect Sony to steal the show at E3 and slaughter, yes, slaughter the competition with their upcoming roster of titles through this fiscal year.
My Expectation: The Sony conference will steal the show
My next two big stops on the tour will be meeting up with Ubisoft and checking out a lot of their upcoming titles and then finally ending my day with some hands-on time with ROCK BAND 2! I know a lot of you are anticipating Rock Band 2 information, but let me start off with Ubisoft. I’m going into this part of my trip expecting to see a TON of new information about Prince of Persia and everything that title will have to offer us. I don’t think any Ubisoft title at the show will take precedent like PoP will for fans of the series. I expect that Prince of Persia’s new art style will blow me away, but I have a feeling I’m going to leave unimpressed. I can’t really explain why, but I don’t expect the game to live up to the hype. This doesn’t mean I won’t see it and be blown away, it just means I’ll be wrong from this point in time.
As for Rock Band 2, I’m excited to play it and excited to check it out. I have to be honest though – I’ve never sat down and played the original release, so I’m not really sure what to expect from it. I understand this franchise has gained a lot of support (and addicted a few of my co-workers), so I’m hoping that Rock Band 2 builds on the first title. I expect Harmonix to display all instruments and detail their differences from those that launched with the original title. I expect to get my hands on the full track list and more information about backwards compatibility with the original Rock Band for you supporters out there. I think Harmonix has an amazing formula and understand the way their fans love the game, and that’s what makes them the best in the business right now.
My Expectations: Ubisoft will leave me wanting more while Harmonix will deliver the musical goods
I’ll be waking up Wednesday morning, exhausted from my long day before it and walking into a hands-on opportunity with a highly anticipated title named inFamous. To tell you the truth guys, I think that inFamous has so much to offer and will blow everyone away. If they display the open-world gameplay I’m hoping they will and they make is a game truly designed for the adult gamer in mind, I think I’m going to be impressed beyond words or description. Unfortunately, I’ll probably be forced to sign a NDA for this hands-on and won’t be able to report much on the experience, but I will try and relay as much as I can to you guys that they allow me to. I know for sure I’m not the only one looking forward to this title.
My Expectation: inFamous will be everything we hope for and more
My next two stops on the tour are a racing title most are just quickly dubbing as a MotorStorm ripoff, Pure, and a title everyone and their mother is anticipating, Fallout 3. I will be getting hands-on time with both titles and I’m very excited about both ventures. I think Pure is going to offer up a nice arcade feel to the off-road genre and give gamers a sense of “belonging” within the atmosphere. I understand that MotorStorm is a fantastic franchise and I think they’ve done a lot right, but I’m going into this expecting that Pure can potentially rival its competition. Do I think it will outclass MotorStorm 2? Probably not, but I think it will be a step in the right direction, as well as force the MotorStorm guys to step up their game and deliver on a massive scale.
Fallout 3 offers up so many unanswered questions. We all know the first two were absolutely brilliant, but what about the third? Don’t games tend to generally dip the more you milk them? I think so, but I also think Fallout 3 is going to be the pinnacle of the series. I expect Fallout 3 to offer up almost endless playability and to ultimately drag the user into the experience unlike ever before. Bethesda has an amazing track record working for them and I think they’ll continue to boost that reputation with Fallout 3.
My Expectations: Disney Interactive will give an okay showing while Bethesda will rock your nuclear socks off with Fallout 3
I’ll be closing out my Wednesday with a handful of titles I’m looking forward to checking out. These include such gems as The Agency, BioShock and NBA 2K9. Now we all know that The Agency is going to be SOE’s first dip into the MMO genre on our beloved PlayStation 3, and we’re all wanting it to be something special. It seems a lot of people are on the fence about it and I think E3 will give us a great representation of what to expect. I’m expecting the game to offer up a similar experience to Warhawk except on an MMO scale. I think the unrealistic graphics and over-the-top elements will make this game very enjoyable and offer up an experience worthy of checking out.
BioShock is BioShock, arguably one of the best games created in recent times. I have absolutely no expectations for this considering I’ve played the title and beat it on its original platform. I do expect to find out all of the latest information about extra content that will be exclusive to our platform of choice, but that’s obvious and very expected.
As far NBA 2K9, undoubtedly the champion of its genre and the best the NBA has to offer year in and year out, well, I expect it to give fans what it always has. 2K Sports has made a name for themselves through this franchise and I think they’ll continue to offer up the best basketball experience possible. There isn’t much else to expect, but I think I’m going to go out on a limb and say that you’ll see something similar to EAs “5 Vs 5 FIFA/NHL” offering, but applied to the basketball title from 2K.
My Expectations: SOE will give us something to smile about and 2K Sports won’t let me down
Finally, we’ve come to Thursday. This day for me isn’t E3. To me, Thursday is SCEA day. It is the day I’ve been waiting ALL week for. It’s the day I purposely chose for the events I picked because I want to end my E3 experience on the highest note imaginable. Let me give you a glimpse into my Thursday schedule.
10:00 AM: Resistance 2 Hands-on
1:00 PM: LittleBigPlanet Hands-on
2:00 PM: Killzone 2 Hands-on
3:00 PM: flOwer Hands-on (Trust me, this is looking fantastic)
Could you have dreamed for a better way to end an E3 trip? I can’t. I also can’t even begin to tell you what I expect out of this final day of the event. I think Thursday will overload my senses, make the first 2 exhaustive, energy-draining days seem beyond worth it and will give me something to smile about for the next 6 months of gaming. Every single one of these titles is going to deliver, all of them. You can call me biased, you can say I’m showing favoritism, but I’m being honest. I am going into Thursday expecting to reach the level of enlightenment that makes me say, “This is why I bought a PlayStation 3, this is what I game for, and most importantly, this is why I do what I do for a living.”
My Expectation: A+ across this entire day, no doubt
In conclusion, I expect A LOT out of this event. I know I’ll have some disappointments and I know I won’t be head over heels for everything, but I do know one thing for sure – I plan on enjoying every moment of it. For those of you who can’t be there beside me to enjoy it, I will do my best to continually keep my live @ E3 blog rolling in order to provide you with the closest hands-on experience to E3 that you can be offered. I’ll do my best to bring you guys the goods as they happen.
I’ll see you guys on Tuesday.