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Brand new iPhone this week. Loving every moment of it. Serious, If you are in need of a new phone GO GET THIS ONE!.

Microsoft E3 2008 Press Conference Run-Down

Microsoft E3 2008 Rundown.

As I sat wearily at my PC at 3 in the morning I was hoping and/or dreaming of a good MS press briefing. First try to get some of the love coverage at Gamespot was cut due to the huge amount of traffic that those guys got; I then resorted to Majornelsons blog and found another route to the E3 goodness. I was liked to the Gamertag Radio homepage which provided some really close up coverage but was spammed by fanboys and 8 year olds the entire time. I finally got back to Gamespot after about 10-15 minutes and was fine (just in time for the Fallout 3 trailer and gameplay).

Fallout 3 seems to be the kind of game that doesn’t demo well and this is why:

- It’s an RPG (I don’t think RPG’s demo well due to their depth of gameplay and story)

- Was shown as a shooter (VATS looked cool)

- Not a leveled up character

- Playable in many different ways

Fallout is a game that can be played in many different ways as stated by Tod Howard at Bestheda who was demoing the game live.

“This is the game you can play any kind of character you want, you can play a stealthy guy a combat guy or use speech to pursway people”

Real-time combat and VATS combat (Size up your enemy and choose a point to target) are also available. Two of the most exciting things about Fallout 3 s the downloadable continent exclusive to 360 and the promise of over 100 hours gameplay.

It was then time for Capcom’s shot up on stage with a presentation of Resident Evil 5. Jun Takechi was the taking us through the demo. The game played well and at the announcement of Co-op with a second player the crowd seemed to enjoy it. The demo seemed to go on a bit long and Jun gives the hurry-up.

Peter Molyneux of Lionhead takes the stage with the eagerly anticipated Fable II gameplay we have been waiting for. He teases at the fact that the story is going to be fantastic, and with Fable’s first story this one seems to be able to live up to the hype. The Xbox Live Co-op is shown off with a: Stop-Click-Play mechanic which involves players stopping at purple orbs, Inviting their friends and letting their friends jump right into the world with them, It is a very seamless experience. Family life is shown to us with a Wife and son as an example “Your son will actually grow up as the game continues”, Drinking with friends at the pub is also flaunted (hopefully its more exciting than in GTA IV).

The roar of chainsaws and split locusts could only mean one thing as Gears Of War 2 was demoed by Cliffy B. He is running through a mission (In co-op) whom the object is to get to the bottom of a sink hole and wipe out the locusts. The game appears to be running very smoothly in comparison to RE5 which seemed to have a few frame rate issues. They then continue to see huge enemy which they must both take down and ‘ride’ through the town which is where the demo concluded.

Our attention is then taken to Don giving us states on the Xbox 360 sales around the world in comparison to other consoles. This is where the bold comment “Xbox 360 will sell more consoles worldwide this generation than Playstation 3”. Still no new news on a video marketplace for Australia sadly. The avatar system and new dashboard are revealed which are very ‘Wiish” in comparison to the old blades system. The new dashboard seems to be a mix between the PS3 dash and cover-flow option on ITunes. Hopefully it will be refined a bit more in the future before it hits consoles around the world. Casual games seem to be the focus of this part of the conference with the announcements of

- Xbox Live Primetime

- 1 vs. 100

- Deal Or No Deal

- Lips (Singstar competition)

- Your in the movies (Eye toy/Blue screen fun)

Trailers for Viva Piñata: Trouble In Paradise and Banjo Kazooie are shown, VP:TP looks to be more of the same thing from the first installment, Hopefully there are some new features to keep the idea fresh. The original Nintendo 64 version of Banjo Kazooie will be released on XBL arcade.

The music games are now the centre of attention for millions of gamers around the world. It is obvious that MS sees this as opportunity to get the most out of Guitar Hero World Tour and Rockband 2 (which the original is not released in Australia yet)

Square Enix is the final company to take the stage with trailers for Infinite Discovery, The Last Remnant and Star Ocean- The last hope. There was one final surprise for the crowd and millions watching at home, This was the announcement of Final Fantasy XIII finally coming to Xbox 360.

Release dates:

Dash update- ???

Fallout 3- October 2008

Fable 2- October 2008

Resident Evil 5 - 13th, March 2009

Gears Of War 2- November 7^th 2008

Geometry Wars 2- Next month

The Last Remnant- November 20^th 2008

Rockband- November 2008 (Australia)

All in all there were no major surprises that Microsoft bought to the table apart from Final Fantasy XIII. It was a little disappointing there was no trailer for the upcoming Bungie game which will have no Master Chief or the rumored motion controller. However the lineup of games that were shown is one of the strongest that Microsoft has had for quite sometime.

Sources:

Gamespot

PALGN

Major Nelson

Gamertag Radio

Twitter

TiVo is a No Go

It’s no surprise to tech savvy Australians that we Aussies are not always ‘invited to the party’. For years and years Australia has been constantly left out and ignored when major releases for games and technology are sent out to the rest of the world, In particular the United States.

Channel 7 just had a story on about the ‘nifty new gadget’ that’s going to save our TV’s…apparently. TiVo was hailed as something that was amazing and unheard of. What non tech savvy Australians don’t know is that TiVo has been around in the U.S and Europe for almost nine years. Australian TiVo’s won’t be able to even access some of the standard features such as

- Not recording commercials

- Hard drive Capacity to record all shows. (Still under decision)

U.S TiVo’s can record two shows simultaneously with out ad-breaks to a 160 GB internal hardrive, I see no reason for Aussies to go out and buy a higher priced TiVo than its U.S counterparts,

"I think economies of scale mean it will probably be a little bit higher here,” TiVo also has an ongoing subscription fee to its service says a Dobbie representative.

Australia needs to step up its game in the world of technology. The game industry is expanding and Australia has little to nothing to do with it. A new ratings system and more money would stop the ridiculous censoring and banning of games. More community events such as the Water Balloon event which was held in Sydney a few years ago need to be held if Australia wants to rectify its self from the ‘ban everything’ name it has fallen under.

Below is a list I have compiled which shows the staggering of games and consoles in Australia compared to the U.S and other parts of the world.

Super Smash Bros Brawl.

- June 26 Australia

- June 27 Europe

- March 9 United States

- January 31 Japan

Xbox 360 released three months after the U.S

Rock Band

- U.S 20^th November 2007

- AUS December 1^st 2008

And as early as the Nintendo 64

- U.S March 1^st 1997

- AUS September 1^st 1997

Sources:

http://tivo.com.au/

www.wikipedia.org