Eurogamer TV: The Best of E3
Top vids you might have missed.
Well, that's it for another year. We've had our moments of shock, awe, and the occasional cringe. But unless you spent all of last week sat in your pants and hitting F5 (it's in our contracts, alas), chances are you might not have caught up with the flurry of new video teasers and trailers unleashed during the LA showcase.
So, we've done the hard work for you and picked out the very best videos released this E3 for both the biggest games and the biggest surprises.
Sony
A solid if unspectacular showing from Team PlayStation in its conference - updated showings of big guns like Killzone 2 and LittleBigPlanet impressed, while first glimpses of God of War 3 and inFamous did enough to keep us salivating. Even if we are getting bored of just hearing about Home now. Here's our selection of the most impressive PS3-exclusive vids:
- Resistance 2 - Entirely expected but still looking awesome, let's hope Insomniac's shooter impresses us a bit more than the original.
- LittleBigPlanet - We had Tom gushing about Media Molecule's unique platform/social mashup over in LA this week. What's not to love?
- inFamous - Sucker Punch's post-apocalyptic action-adventure wowed in the conference.
- Killzone 2 - Continues to generate huge interest. Here's hoping it's at least better than the mediocre original.
- MAG - Short for Massive Action Game, and promises to deliver just that in 2009 with support for 256 players among its unique promises.
- God of War 3 - Precious little shown beyond this tasty teaser, but that doesn't make us any less excited by the return of gaming's angriest anti-hero.
Microsoft
The consensus view is that the Xbox conference easily outperformed the far more banal offerings from Sony and Nintendo. And despite the Mii-too element of much of Microsoft's strategy, from avatars to Lips, there's no question the Final Fantasy XIII for 360 was the megaton moment of E3 2008. Here's the best 360-exclusive videos from the show:
- Halo Wars - After the laughably clumsy handling of the Halo-unveiling-that-never-was, this was the only E3 glimpse for fans of Bungie's universe.
- Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts - Huge expectations for the return of Rare's platforming duo, and on this evidence it's heading in an interesting direction.
- Fable 2 - Backed by the typical ambitious claims of Molyneux, we'll know soon enough whether Lionhead has pulled it off.
- Lips - Four years late, Microsoft finally gets its arse into gear with an answer to the massive SingStar series. You can warble over your own music.
- Gears of War 2 - Speaks for itself, really. In a very low voice.
Nintendo
Ooh, the controversy. The forums have been swimming in hate at the House of Mario's apparent snubbing of its loyal fanbase in pursuit of the casual coin. Still, whether or not you cringed at the on-stage demo - and whether or not you consider it a 'game' - we were happy to sing to the tune of Wii Music. Our pick of the Wii-exclusives:
- Wii Music - Some of you may scoff and sneer, but you're likely to be drowned out by the sounds of millions of virtual saxophones.
- Animal Crossing: City Folk - The one we were waiting for finally got its big splash and... really doesn't look that different from previous versions. The voice chat sounds cool, though.
- MadWorld - Amazingly violent action from SEGA. Now if only they'd shown this instead of pretending to throw frisbees.
- Kirby Super Star Ultra - If you remember the 1992 Game Boy original as fondly as we do, the music in the video of this DS update will make you tingle all over.
- Fatal Frame IV: The Mask of The Lunar Eclipse - The supernatural thriller series' Wii debut looks mightily impressive to us.
Best of the rest
Partisan platform politics aside, some of the best titles on show this week are sharing the love across multiple formats. We'll leave you to argue which one they'll be best on:
- Spore (PC, DS) - Big Will's latest epic creation is almost upon us.
- I Am Alive (PS3, 360) - AKA What Jade Raymond Did Next. Impressive teaser for this disaster-based survival adventure.
- Far Cry 2 (PC, PS3, 360) - Ubisoft has a crack at following up Crytek's superb PC island shooter. Featuring a game world that's "bigger than Oblivion".
- Street Fighter IV (Arcade, PC, PS3, 360) - Want, want, want. The World Warriors are fighting back, with incredible visual flair.
- Resident Evil 5 (PS3, 360) - Yes, we're still waiting, but as long as the evidence looks like thus, we suppose we can sit tight a little longer.
- Dark Void (PS3, 360) - Gears of War crossed with The Rocketeer, you say? Capcom's action title could be something of a dark horse.
- Quantum of Solace: The Video Game (DS, PC, PS2, PS3, Wii, 360) - Having wrestled the licence out of the hands of bitter rival EA, Activision takes its first shot at Bond.
- Dead Space (PC, PS3, 360) - EA's forthcoming deep-space horror title is already giving us the willies. And not in the good way.
- Ghostbusters (DS, PC, PS2, PS3, Wii, X360) - Written by and starring the original cast, there's much to look forward to here. And it had better be good: nothing less than a generation's memories are on the line.
- Final Fantasy XIII (PS3, 360) - Now coming to 360. Fancy that.
- Fallout 3 (PC, PS3, 360) - Bethesda's action RPG hits the spot - has post-apocalypse ever looked this good?
- Mirror's Edge (PC, PS3, 360) - DICE is ripping up the first-person rulebook for its all-new sci-fi adventure.
- Prince of Persia (PC, PS3, 360) - Back after a brief hiatus and full of bright ideas, the Prince will be accompanied on his latest quest by the multi-talented Elika.
The Eurogamer TV Show Specials
And if that's not enough to have your eyes come over all Total Recall, meaty EGTV specials, packed with exclusive footage and behind-the-scenes insight, as well as the standard unnecessary cleavage close-ups, are now showing:
- The Eurogamer TV Show: Ubisoft Montreal Special - Prince of Persia, Far Cry 2 and Shaun White Snowboarding are all given a thorough probing with lashings of brand new footage, while EGTV goes in search of a certain Jade Raymond...
- The Eurogamer TV Show: MotorStorm 2 Special (PS3) - Evolution Studios is readying its sequel to the fantastic off-road racer, and just ahead of E3 Eurogamer TV popped up to glamorous Runcorn to fiddle under the bonnet.
- The Eurogamer TV Show: UFC 2009 in Vegas (PS3, 360) - Who says what goes in Vegas stays in Vegas? With the first UFC game in a while on the way from THQ, we take an in-depth look at the first reveal and current light heavyweight champ Forrest Griffin tells us all about his bent penis. Really.