E-3 2006

Ok this will have to be semi brief as I am only doing this to kill time. I am in line right now for Zelda and the guy next to me happened to have his computer (with internet connection) and let me use it…I think I'll hang around this guy so I was able to check my email real quick as well as let you all know what is going on…

So here is what I have seen thus far.

DS

Final Fantasy III – Plays incredibly well. Battle system similar to FFI. The graphics are gorgeous. The game has been completely rehashed as it is no longer in NES graphics, its fully 3D Look forward to finally playing this game. Rob…this game is the REAL Final Fantasy III not VI…sorry to ruin your dreams of masturbating to a 3D Terra.

Mobile

Final Fantasy I – God fucking bless Squenix. They are porting FFI to cell phones. It’s what you expect to be. If it comes out for Verizon, I’ll get it.

All right…enough bullshiting around…lets to get to what matters.

Wii

Metroid Prime 3 –When I first picked up the wii-mote for the game, I was less than impressed. This was the first Wii game I played. At first it felt nice in my hand. But then I tried to move Samus around and immediately got dizzy. Nintendo did a VERY good job of making sure the sensors on the controller were (literally) pixel perfect. I spent the first 2 min. trying to catch my bearings as the smallest movement of my hand would send the screen into a fit of movement. Ok, so there is a learning curve, hopefully it isn’t too large.

Amazingly, I caught on pretty quickly…I learned how the targeting vs. rotating system works. It was kind of like having a strike zone on the screen. As long as you were in the strike zone you could just aim, but if you go out side the strike zone, you start rotating your view. This sounds bad, but it is actually INCREDIBLY intuitive, especially for those of us who have played a FPS on the computer. Ok…4 min. or so have gone by, and I realize that I was wrong with what I said in the past, Keyboard + Mouse is not always going to be the best way to play shooters. You can do things with this Wii-mote that could never be attained on a standard computer.

Ok on to the cool stuff…what can this thing do…well obviously…you point and shoot, simple as that…the nice thing is they allow lock targeting or free shooting. When you have an enemy in sight you can either shoot at him pointing your remote at him, or you can target him (as in previous games) and Samus will center on him and you can just shoot away while locked on.

On of the coolest things I encountered was a door that didn’t open when I shot it…this at first infuriated me. Metroid = open doors via shooting it. Upon further inspection, I saw a small hole but couldn’t figure out what to do with it…at this time one of the Nintendo booth babes came over and mentioned to me “remember the remote controls where you shoot which means it controls her right arm.” I can feel the joy building inside me as I figure out what to do. I, slowly, point the wii-mote at the hole and literally push the controller forward. Samus then pushes her right arm in to the hole. Fucking cool. But still nothing? What the fuck…so I start fiddling with the wii-mote and think about the situation a bit. A simple rotation of the wrist (as if I were turning a key) rotated her arm in the hole. Still nothing? Ok. So I pull the wii mote back and Samus pulls the lever she grabbed in the hole and the door opens…This is made my trip to E-3 worth it. Another cool feature is the ‘nunchuck’ adapter is also motion sensitive. This is how you use Samus’ grappling hook. Ok cool feature, but in past games you don’t use it THAT much. Well in this game, with a flick of the wrist you grapple on to the shield of an enemy and pull back to pull the shield away then blast the shit out of them.

Only one word can describe this game…Amazing. Retro studio really out did itself this time. My 10 minutes at MP3 went by SOOO fast. I refuse to believe that anything else will be as impressive at this show.

Nintendo Sports Tennis – Graphically this game is awful. I’ve seen better graphics on SNES. However, it plays pretty well…not perfect but well. The game is by no means an OMG game. But it is a shit ton of fun to play with other people. I got to play with one other guy (we played doubles, either with a computer partner) and actually had a lot of fun batting that stupid tennis ball. One of the coolest things about the game is you can either get into it or relax and the game play is the same…if you are playing with 4 of your friends and you want to make big exaggerated moved as if you were really playing tennis, you can with no penalty to game play, or you can sit back and make small flicks with your wrist….Fortunately, this game is going to be part of the ‘sports pack’ because it would not be worth buying by itself.


Ok…I need to end this as I’m almost in the door for Zelda…Yes…I already have a hard on.