E3 is here...

So since E3 is here I'm going to start posting like a mad man. When I see it I'll try and cue you in to it. Today I'm going to briefly touch on two things. As always I'll give you the reach update and then I'll let you know what happened in the main press conferences for each major consol developer. Throughout the day today I'll try and come back later and add a second post about the main goings on with the PC.

Adding this as well, it's a live studio demo reel from 1up. As each game gets added you can come back and see your favorite stuff. http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3179905

A word of apology first. As I'm hurrying to keep up with all the news and what not between all the things I'm doing these posts will be ugly, contain errors and will probably not feature any pictures or videos at first. Eventually I'll catch up with everything and throw down a highlight video or two.

Halo Reach -
So there are a number of videos going out there and I'm sure if we combed through all of them we could find tons of cool stuff. For now here's the short list of features that we now know to exist.

They showed a campaign video which included these features:
Four Player Co-op
Elite Armor Lock (it's red)
Advanced Ai, including Jackals making a phalanx
Space Battles

Wait what space battles you say. Are we doing a space walk or do you mean rogue squadron behind the cockpit stuff. I'm talking about the latter, and so far rumor has it that it's available in as a separate multiplayer mode as well.

Another video is floating around as well that confirms firefight mode:
Firefight confirmed (fully customizable, think custom games x10) <-- create your own skulls...
New Armor Ability, Bubble-shield/regen sort of thing called the drop shield
Brutes confirmed in firefight, possibility for more new weapons
New targeting lazer with hammer of dawn like capabilities, think orbital strike. Possibly calls in a Mac round or two.
Some sort of artillery strike was also seen, will need more to know what it was.
Custom game like customization for firefight which can be seen in the list on the following page which also contains the video.

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3179906

Moving right along:

So the conferences were for the most part unimpressive. In fact this year the winner of best conference was undoubtedly nintendo. Here's a brief rundown of each consols press conference.

Sony:

So to be completely honest all bias aside Sony had the worst show. Their line up of games was predictable, their psp showing was absolutely garbage and they had only 2 new announcements. Twisted metal 2 looks okay which was really announced prior to the show accidentally but I'll give them that as a new announcement. Their second announcement was that Portal 2 was coming to the PS3, this is interesting enough but it isn't going to be a simultaneous release. They relied heavily on their new 3d tech which seemed rather dull although obviously it needs to be experienced in person. The other thing they relied heavily on was the move which seemed to me to be wii motion plus and nothing more. Honestly I own a wii and the waggle controls are fun but they aren't anything special. I don't really see a reason to go this way which brings me to the next press conference.

Microsoft: While their press conference was rather lack luster as well they did have a few great announcements. Gears 3, Halo Reach and several other heavy hitters were there in full force. In addition to the usual triple A titles we got to see a new quieter 360 that would be out that very day and natal now named Kinect. The later of these looked very promising, offering a new experience in which your entire body becomes your controller. This seems to be a new and fresh way to look at motion sensitive controls. I'm very excited to see what developers do with it.

Nintendo: Honestly the best showing here. Finally we got to see a large line-up of hard core nintendo games that fans want to see. I'll make a quick list and allow you guys to see them on your own. A new side scrolling Donkey Kong Country and a new Kirby game. A remastered Goldeneye remake that aside from the Wii graphics looks like a Call of Duty style triple A shooter. A new legend of Zelda featuring Wii Motion plus controls. Metroid Prime M, made by team ninja. A new kid icarus game on the 3ds, a Mario Sports game (volleyball, basketball, hockey, and dodgeball) and tons more. It's games like these and the full line up of 3DS titles as well as the announcement of no glasses 3d that made their press conference without a doubt the best.

Forge Contest - Tower of Power

As promised, it's time for a forge contest. I know you are all burnt on games in general at this point so lets take a chance to become the creators of one instead for a bit. Now this isn't anything near to what real devs do but they've given us tools so that we can manufacture our own fun and it's about time that we do. For those of you who are afraid to get in and get your hands dirty send me an email. I know you guys have ideas, I'm sure we have all sat up at night unable to sleep thinking about some stupid game type or another. Maybe even imagining a new version of tremors or how you would like to see one flag play out on your favorite map. Perhaps you might wonder what it'd be like to play Valhalla without snipers and lasers?

Enter forge contest number one...

Tower of Power

Your task is to create or recreate a version of Tower of Power. I have the gametype and will post it to my file share some time this week but I urge you all to try out your own game variants and push it as far as you would like.

I'm going to give everyone two to two and a half weeks. You may build it however you like. It can be done in the sky box or on any level you deem fit. I strongly urge you boot up Halo 2 and check out Ascension and check out the tower and give some thoughts not to the geometry but to what made tower of power fun. It might have been the single path up to the top or it could have been something completely different, you be the judge.

If you fear the land of forge comment below or send me a message I'll get back to you as soon as possible with some tips or a time for us to meet to discuss your idea and help get it in motion. It shouldn't be about your skill in forge but the concept and feel of what you create. I'm more than willing to help you set up your idea and get it working nicely. When all is said and done we will play all the maps and game variants that have been created and then work on tweaking them for a future custom game night.

I'll keep you posted; until then happy forging.

Two Updates in One

So once again I've waited quite a while to post but as summer kicks into full swing I'll start posting a lot more. Fortunately I've been able to talk to you guys in person but for those of you who have missed some of it I'll update you briefly and then I'll tell you about the future.

Update 1: Reaching for the perfect game
When making a game like Halo balance is everything. With Reach we all enjoyed the new tweaks and changes to create a more competitive game and while some changes were welcome others made the game less fun. Let's all be honest for a moment when we look at grenades. As fun as it was to kill someone with them it was not fun to die suddenly to a grenade that you just couldn't escape. Nor was it fun to be on the receiving end of nade spam. It always seemed to hit you no matter how far you were. If you were in the same room as a grenade you were taking damage regardless. It's things like these that they have already adjusted. I'm going to make a list and update it as I go but hopefully I'll have covered everything. Each of these are confirmed changes that have already gone into Bungie's internal builds. That being said, each change is also subject to change as balance is always in flux.

Base Player Traits
Run Speed - Slightly Increased
Jump Height - Slightly Increased as well...
Elite Shield Regen - Longer timer, Increased from 3 Seconds to 4.
Melee - Slowed down to match exact speed of Halo 3.*(See Below)

Armor Abilities
Armor Lock - Meleeing a locked opponent no longer removes shields, stun still in place.
Invisibility - No longer jams a teammate's radar. This was a bug.

Weapons
Pistol - Firing Rate slightly decreased, .1 seconds.
Assault Rifle - Damage slightly increased
DMR - Clip size increased to 15, means 3 full kills with no misses
Needle Rifle - Clip size increased, 3 full kills with no misses
Sniper Rifle - Auto Aim slight increase, exact words (Sniper is now more idiot proof)
Plasma Launcher - Tracking slightly decreased, Speed slightly decreased, Lock on time slightly increased, Firing time slightly increased
Grenades - Damage slightly decreased, Radius slightly decreased, (couple this with the movement speed and jump changes and they are not nearly as volatile)

Vehicles
Closer to Halo 3's design
No more spontaneous combustion after damage cap reached (aka. GTA car explosions)

Misc
Stockpiles moved on powerhouse for a more fair experience
Flag position moved on sword base one flag to glass room
Flag position in Powerhouse 1 Flag now above cubby between Power House 2 and Pro Pipe 3. Ensures that the flag is easier to get out and defending becomes more exciting allowing play throughout the map.
All game type changes are things that can be altered later...
Forge was finally officially confirmed in exact words. How it works is still unknown...

*I know it's going to be questioned when we get to the actual game so allow me to explain what was wrong with melee and why it will be perceived as faster than Halo 3 despite the fact that it is exactly the same. So first and foremost there was a bug causing melee's to contest despite insanely long gaps between their melee and yours. This would cause people to die far too often despite getting the jump on someone. Part 2 is they decreased the melee speed to be more in line with Halo 3. While the animation displays at 25 frames and it seems that you can melee once again at that time you can press the button to cause an interrupt which would begin your second melee at exactly 30 frames which is the time that it would take exactly in Halo 3. Thus making it seem faster but in actuality you are hitting at the same rate. More on this later I'm sure...

Update 2: E3

With E3 Coming up I'd like to know what games you guys are looking forward to seeing more of most. I've compiled a list of 10 things so if you come up with anything like what I've got please put it down in the comments below. This is a great chance to share what you are looking forward to. If you want a list of games and things that you may see hit up 1up.com, gametrailers, or ign. They all have their own top 10, top 50 and so on.

My top 10: (in no particular order)

1. Diablo 3
2. Halo Reach Campaign
3. Fallout New Vegas
4. Everquest Next,*
5. Call of Duty Black Ops
6. Star Wars Old Republic
7. Project Natal
8. Wii HD?
9. Surprise Announcement from Valve
10. Crysis 2


*Whatever SOE has in mind for the next EQ although likely we'll just see their spy mmo and their free realms styled star wars MMO.