threevue

As you may already know, the E3 trade show is set to kick off this week, with tons of announcements and news to coincide with the event. Since it’s invitation-only nowadays (and we definitely didn’t get an invite) it will be our duty to scour the internets for valuable info and pass it along, with an accompaniment of unfounded and biased opinion to boot.

Big news items of the day:
Rock Band 2 to feature “no-fail mode”
The Who playing at Rock Band 2 party @ E3
Covenant playable in Halo Wars
Fable 2 will be about 12 hours long, Dead Space about 15-20
Left 4 Dead is a “fun party game” according to Joystiq

Mark:
Sorry I’m late, guys. I was up and inside of the internet all night looking for something moist and juicy to write about. There was a fair amount of news, but with the Big Three pressies already in the books, much of the news coming from the smaller devs are either something we knew already, or wholly “meh” worthy.

There were some interesting tidbits, though, like the Rock Band 2 “no fail” mode.” That will bridge the gap between the noobs and the pros. Also, the more I hear about games like Fable 2 and Left for Dead, the more I’m looking forward to playing them.

Russ:
Pretty slow news day, considering all the cool stuff that they have announced the past two days. I like the idea of a “no-fail” mode in Rock Band 2 - this coupled with the drum trainer mode already mentioned, I’ll be busy making a ridiculous racket soon. The glowing reviews of Left 4 Dead leave me quite excited.

I’m also relieved that Fable 2 is only 12 hours - that will give me more time to mess around with the sidequests. I just hope the sidequests are fun, and not repetitive and boring like in Mass Effect. I am also happy to hear that Dead Space will be at least 15 hours long - it took me 20+ hours to finish Resident Evil 4, and I really enjoyed how long it was, inching my way through that terrible mess.

Tyler:
Tyler was a little busy yesterday preparing for his trip to Santa Monica for the Joystiq meetup, and making these rad shirts. He’ll be back soon, though. He promises.

As you may already know, the E3 trade show is set to kick off this week, with tons of announcements and news to coincide with the event. Since it’s invitation-only nowadays (and we definitely didn’t get an invite) it will be our duty to scour the internets for valuable info and pass it along, with an accompaniment of unfounded and biased opinion to boot.

A ridiculous amount of info was released today. Here is what we thought was the best and most interesting.

Big news items of the day:
Xbox Live/Dashboard will have makeover, Miis Avatars
Install full Xbox 360 games on your hard drive
Browse and buy XBLM content from your computer
Netflix coming to Xbox 360, free for Netflix subscribers
Resident Evil 5 will have online co-op, releases March 13, 2009
Final Fantasy XIII coming to Xbox 360
Gears of War 2 coming November 7
Rock Band 2 will port your RB1 disc songs over for $5, all 85 tracks revealed
Fable II will have online co-op, releases in October
Portal sequel coming to XBLA this fall

Mark:
Sure, a lot of great news came out today, specifically from the the Microsoft press conference, but I want to talk about one juicy little nugget in particular: the revelation of online co-op in Resident Evil 5.

Can you imagine how rad this is going to be? Hordes of African multicultural zombos running at you, overwhelming your powerful-yet-extremely-slow shotgun, when just in the nick of time, Ashley your friend pops in and lays down a barrage of TMP rounds so heavy that it would make Mahmoud Ahmadinejad say, “Fine, take the oil, I didn’t want it anyway,” just in time to save your American ass. I’m sufficiently pumped.

Russ:
Wow, what a day. I really don’t think Sony or Nintendo will be able to top this. There are so many neat things that I am still learning about - for instance, you can set up 8-person Xbox Live “parties”, where you all can watch the same Netflix movie at once. Considering that my wife are soon moving far away from most of our friends, this makes keeping in touch a little easier and exciting. Hey, remember 10 years ago when you had to pay 10 cents a minute just to talk to someone in a different area code? Now we can sit down and watch a movie together in different states. Naked.

I hadn’t given Final Fantasy XIII a second thought until today, when I heard it’s coming to the Xbox 360. All of a sudden I really want to play it. Online co-op for Fable II and Resident Evil 5 is awesome. And just yesterday I posted about how I wanted to see a sequel to Portal. I hope the Avatars have achievement-based upgrades. For instance, if I get 1000/1000 in Dead Space I could then wear the main character’s mask. Also, the Rare-developed N64 game Banjo-Kazooie will be coming to XBLA - does this mean Goldeneye could/should/will be be ported over, too? Maybe to coincide with the new Bond game, although it’s being made by a different developer? Either way, I’m very excited about everything that’s coming - and the sooner the better.

Tyler:
WHY!?! I was all set to up and not care about the 360 Avatar scam, and now I’m intrigued. Actually the whole Dashboard update gets me excited. The thing that I’m most pumped about is the ability to install full games on the hard drive. Do Blockbuster an Gamestop know about this? Cuz, they are about to get hammered… Oh what’s that? You have to keep the disk in the tray? What the fuck is the point of taking up all that space on your hard drive? It’s quieter and slightet faster loading. BFD! You are such a cock tease Microsoft!

Galaga: Legions looks meh-worthy, but then again I said the same thing about Pacman-CE. And am I alone here in asking “who gives a shit about Uno?”

Bottom line…Portal: Still Alive. Thank you so much Valve.