E3 2008

E3 2008: The Top 10 Showstoppers (Continued)

The video game industry's big show is over, but the buzz is just beginning.

6. Rock Band 2 vs. Guitar Hero World Tour: Fight!

Two bands enter, one band leaves! At least that's the way a battle of the bands usually works, although the spectacular showings of MTV's Rock Band 2 and Activision's Guitar Hero: World Tour makes us wonder if this stage just might be big enough for two (our living rooms are another matter.)

Last year, Rock Band stole the show by giving gamers their first taste of a four-player, full band experience. The next iteration cranks it to eleven by making some notable fixes, including adding the ability to form bands with friends online. Plus, you'll be able to export all the songs from the first Rock Band and play them in the sequel; coupled with the huge list of new tracks and the formidable assortment of downloadable songs, Rock Band 2 players will enjoy in the neighborhood of 500 tracks by the end of '08, including material from the oft-requested AC/DC and even a cut from the perpetual no-show Guns N' Roses album, Chinese Democracy.

Guitar Hero, meanwhile, is going for Rock Band's jugular by offering a competing full band game, exclusively locking up The Eagles and, awesomely, Van Halen, and even debuting the next full-length Metallica album the same day it hits music stores. In perhaps its biggest coup, World Tour lets players craft, mix and upload their own songs using a daunting but powerful music editing tool, breaking down the wall between music game and just good old music. Gnarly.

So was there a clear winner? Hardly, and we expect this fight to last well into the fall. Look for more news on both games as they inch closer to the arena.

7. Express yourself.

Way back when, it took a full team of talented professionals to create intricate add-on levels for popular video games. These days, thanks to amazing games like LittleBigPlanet, you can have a beautiful-looking, unique level ready to play in 15 minutes. If E3 2008 is teaching us anything, it's that game developers are getting tired of having to do everything themselves and, at long last, want YOU to make the games for a change.

Take EA's upcoming smash Spore. Users can design creatures, vehicles, tribal outfits, essentially everything in the game, and then share those creations with other players through a seamless online system that turns those designs into the content in other players' worlds. In fact, the distinction between EA-approved designs and user-created content is almost non-existent, turning amateur artists into pros overnight (good luck getting paid kickbacks, though).

In the music arena, Activision is stepping up with Guitar Hero: World Tour's music studio, which will let wannabe rockers create and share their own digital tracks. We're not sure how jazzed we are about listening to cousin Johnny's newest hit, but if those same creators can figure out a way to get a version of Pearl Jam's Alive sounding sweet, we're all ears.

Of course, you won't find a legion of fans waiting to create content for, say, the next Cooking Mama game, but Spore's impressive numbers -- over one million creatures were submitted in just one week's time -- is turning a lot of heads, and we expect to hear and see a lot more on this front.

8. Represent: Avatars, Miis and Home

Playing games is not about being faceless and nameless; at least, not if the Big Three have their way. Gamers looking for virtual representation currently enjoy Miis on the Nintendo Wii, Gamerpics and Achievements on the 360 and, well, not a lot on the PS3.

So where do social gamers stand after E3 2008? That depends on which console they happen to own, as all three systems look to up the ante on interactive avatars.

Well, maybe not ALL three. Nintendo is seemingly fine giving gamers Miis, as the company was silent in regards to extensive new Mii channels or functionality. Likewise, Sony did little to bolster support for its Home service, a super-polished 3D space more akin to Second Life than MySpace. Constant delays have bumped the service to a fall '08 "beta" release. While it does look graphically impressive, our expectations are that it will be a mess until it's out of beta, which we're guessing would be sometime in 2009 (prove us wrong, Sony!).

Microsoft, meanwhile, grabbed the torch and ran with it, introducing its Mii-ish Avatar system that lets gamers customize their own character and potentially outfit them in accessories and clothing via the Xbox Live Marketplace. More than just a showcase character for your profile, the goal is to make these Avatars playable in some arcade and retail games, including the new UNO and titles in the upcoming Primetime game show channel.

Will Microsoft knock Nintendo off its virtual perch, and if so, will Sony blow them both out of the water with Home? Guess that's ultimately up to you.

9. Get by with a little help from your friends.

Playing cooperatively with your buddies has typically been a luxury, as most games simply didn't offer it. At E3 2008, however, it's clear that playing alone is no way to play at all.

Shooters continue to take advantage of the idea, with games like Call of Duty: World At War letting WWII fans slug it out in pairs, while others, like Gears of War 2, offer 5-player cooperative play when facing off against the Locust horde. Sony's Resistance 2 plans on offering a staggering 8-player cooperative mode, and even single-player favorites like Resident Evil 5 now let you call in a friend to help take down some African zombies. Don't even get us started on Left 4 Dead, Valve's zombie action game that forces players to work together or become dinner.

Not everything is about shooting, though. LittleBigPlanet offers some lighter, platform play for four players, while the karaoke game, Lips, lets your duet partner drop in and out at will (we imagine this all depends on whether or not the song is by Def Leppard). And it gets even less conventional than that; the real-time strategy game Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 offers its entire single-player experience as a cooperative one, while the single-player RPG Fable 2 allows you to bring your equally heroic pals along for some dungeon crawls without ever leaving your solo world.

So the key takeaway? More game-themed ways for you and your significant other to spend time together, and that's always a good thing!

10. Hooray for Hollywood

Remember when your gaming console was just for playing games? If Sony and Microsoft have their way, you sure won't. Both companies made landmark announcements at E3 2008 aimed at turning your living room into an all-in-one entertainment mecca.

Sony revealed their entertainment plans for the PlayStation Network, allowing fans to download movies and TV shows from a wealth of partners including Lionsgate, Disney, Paramount, Warner Bros., Turner, MGM and Sony Pictures. Pricing is comparable to Xbox Live, but unless Microsoft buys Sony, they'll never have the studio advantage that Sony Pictures has in the entertainment space. More than just rentals for the PS3, videos can be purchased, downloaded, and then even transferred to a PSP for some portable viewing. We suppose this puts the final nail in the UMD coffin, but we'll have to wait and see.

Not to be upstaged, Microsoft announced their rumored Netflix partnership, which will allow Netflix subscribers to download and view any "Instant Watch" movies on their Xbox 360. Most impressive about the service is the ability to watch movies within Xbox Live's new Party system as a group, so theoretically, you can be at home watching Independence Day, pause at the part where Will Smith punches out an alien and says, "Welcome to Earth," and then invite a buddy in to witness one of the greatest alien takedowns in cinematic history. Of course, such a luxury comes with a price: Xbox Live Gold and Netflix memberships are required for any use of Netflix on 360. The fine print gets you every time.

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Posted: 13 Jul 2008

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