Occupational thoughts

Distilled to the basics for you:

•  PSP Go! – This was arround for pretty much ages and Sony were only confirming what everyone else knew already. It’s basically a PSP with slide-out joysticks.
• Super Mario Galaxy 2| Mario versus Donkey Kong: Minis March Again| Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story| Super Mario Bros Wii. STOP MAKING MARIO GAMES ALREADY.
• Joy Ride on Xbox LIVE Arcade  - an arcade racer a bit like trackmania except that it’s family friendly, has support for Xbox avatars, all cartooney. Lots of other ones nobody cares about like Crackdown 2 and a new Metroid game.
• Wii Vitality sensor. Whatever that is, I’m glad not to be using it, sounds gross. There’s alos Wii Fit Plus which is equally lame.
• DSi can automatically upload photos to Facebook – but since the DSi already has the Opera browser installed on it I assume this is just for lazy people who can’t be bothered to open a broswer, log in, select an album, select photos, you get the general idea.
• Sony released Wiimote for the playstation which looks like a ball on a stick. It was rumoured and the ball-on-stick design had already been leaked. Everyone acted surprised though because everyone knows the PS3 controller has Sixaxis or Dualshock (I don’t have a PS3 but why couldn’t a controller just have both? Or maybe it does. I’m confused).
• The people who made Ico and Shadow of the Colossus are making another game called the Last Guardian.
• Ubisoft’s Real-Time Strategy game: Ruse will be using the Microsoft Surface.
• Splash Damage are making a new game called ‘Brink’ with Bethesda. First impressions confirm that it looks a bit like a dark and more grimy version of Mirror’s Edge.
• Halo 3: Orbital-Drop-Shock-Trooper will feature a firefight mode. A bit like the Horde mode in Gears of War 2. Or like Left4Dead.
• Speaking of which: Left4Dead 2 has gameplay footage in the sunlight and it looks pretty much unchanged, possibly less scary.
• Final Fantasy 14 Online – How a game can have 14 sequels amazes me.

Looking back at the first day of E3 I’ll write a little summary for you guys who were absent on the Moon:

• Project Natal – Microsoft’s answer to the WiiMote.
• Metal Gear Rising – Another Metal Gear game except this time there’s a twist: It’s coming out on the Xbox!
• Facebook, Twitter and Last.FM get integrated into the New Xbox Experience. Unfortunately they couldn’t just go the whole way and give us an internet browser.
• Ubisoft announces No More Heroes 2, another Rayman game (although now it’s all about the rabbbits), release date for Assasin’s Creed 2 (November 17th), Splinter Cell Conviction is a reality.
• Left4Dead 2 is announced. Still no word on Half-Life 2: Episode 3.
• Crysis 2 is going to be released on consoles. Probably not the Wii.
• Halo 3: Orbital-Drop-Shock-Trooper has a really cool multiplayer mode, various details, trailer and images released. Supposed collector’s edition controller (remember the Halo 3 Xbox?). Master Chief won’t make an appearance because he’s set to resurface in the new… wait for it… Halo: Reach which is to be released as soon as he gets out of the escape pod he was encased in at the end of Halo 3 (2010).
• Various Music game collections announced, those worthy of note are Rock Band Beatles and DJ Hero.
• Full download of Xbox 360 games (a bit like Steam).