YAB Review: E3 2009 From A Young Gamer’s Perspective
Posted by meredith on 06-09-2009
Today’s Youth Advisory Board post is a review of this year’s E3 conference from our resident gamer Michael Hayball who attended the show “virtually” by watching G4′s coverage as well as his favorite gaming blogs. As always, you can communicate directly with any member of the Ypulse Youth Advisory Board by emailing them at youthadvisoryboard at ypulse.com…or just leave a comment below.
What was the biggest draw?
Oh my, one of the draws going in was totally the return to the “old” E3. In previous years, there was less…excitement. it was more of a trade show and less of an event for gamers. This year E3 moved back to it’s original home in LA. The biggest draw had to be the games (obviously). I’m drawn to music games, such as DJ Hero and Rock Band, and the high budget types like Halo ODST (A side story to Halo 3).
What did you expect going in?
I expected quite a lot, since a lot of announcements were leaked in the days and weeks prior, especially in Sony’s camp. the PSP Go!, Sony’s new model of its portable video game system had been leaked about three days prior. I felt bad for Sony, since it seemed that all their announcements had been made public. Boy, was I wrong.
How did you tune in?
I watched E3 on a combination of the internet and G4. I do this thing every E3 where I go to joystiq.com and get a copy of their E3 bingo cards for Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony. then I watch the conference on G4 and i watch the live blog of it on kotaku.com. It’s very strange to be watching a conference (or anything, for that matter) from two different perspectives.
Which announcements caught your eye?
Microsoft: Microsoft started off the conference and E3 with a demo of “Rock Band: The Beatles”, that even got me excited, and I’m not even a super-mega-ultra fan of The Beatles like other people are. They also announced a bunch of social networking services for Xbox live, like last.fm, Facebook and Twitter. The biggest announcement of the conference, E3, and i would go so far as to say the decade was Project Natal, which is a camera that functions as what I call a “gesture-sensitive” controller.
Sony: Sony I only got to watch midway through, but I saw the demo of their new motion sensitive controller, which was a cross between Natal and a Wiimote. From what I can tell, it maps a green screen to your hand, allowing whatever you’re holding to become whatever you want it to be, like a gun, or a sword.
Nintendo: Ah, Nintendo, you don’t even belong at this convention anymore. This place is for gaming, not for stuff like Wii fit plus, and “vitality sensors.” On the plus side, they did announce a Metroid game by the people that do the violent “Ninja Garden” series. Everything else seemed like a joke. Last year at E3, Nintendo did nothing to appease the hardcore gamer crowd, instead pushing “casual” gaming aimed at non-gamers, and this E3 was mostly a repeat of this. One of the biggest announcements was a four-player version of New Super Mario Bros., which was such an upset that only the Metroid game, which should have been a tiny announcement in a string of big ones, became the most important news to come out of Nintendo in a long time.
Did you see a lot of games that appealed to your age group/young gamers in general?
Yes, I saw plenty of games appealing to all demographics and age types, from the bloody God Of War 3 to the turntable sim DJ Hero. Let’s not forget the endless possibilities of Project Natal! There was a lot more focus on motion controls and what Wikipedia calls “Augmented Reality,” i.e. you see yourself on screen next to a monster in your favorite video game, or you use yourself as the controller. Sony had their wand thing with ping pong balls on the end, Microsoft had Natal, and Nintendo had the “Motion Plus” attachment for the Wii remote, which is supposed to improve the controls of the Wii Remote.
Anything you’d go out and buy?
I’m very motivated to buy DJ Hero, since I have had dreams of being a DJ for years. DJ Hero, by the way, is like Guitar Hero, but with a turntable, simple as that. And I would definitely tune in to E3 next year. It was awesome watching all that high quality game footage on TV and geeking out about the newest Call Of Duty, or Project Natal.
About Michael
Michael lives a simple life in Allen Park, MI. When he is not attending Henry Ford Community College for his Associates, he can be seen chatting and socializing around campus and the local coffee shop. He enjoys a good iced caramel cappuccino, or a regular coca-cola. Michael loves what he calls “The Blog Music,” and he was and still is raised on a steady diet of electronic music and old-school hip hop. Michael hopes to work for Spin magazine one day, and screams like a little girl every time a new issue comes to the local coffee shop.
Categorized under: Gaming, Youth Advisory Board