E3 2011 Speculation
Gamermatchup.com
E3 2011 Speculation:
It’s that time of the year again boys and girls! The video
game dry spell will be upon us before we know it, and to usher that in; the
Electronic Entertainment Expo! Before developers take their annual bear naps,
they dump the coolest things of the year on us, in the vain hopes to hold us
over until the holiday season. Before the convention, speculation has to run
rampant in every media outlet that isn’t hiding under a rock. Since we are a
fledgling media outlet (in addition to providing a few other services you
cannot find anywhere else) and are indeed, not hiding under a rock, we have
done a fair bit of speculation as well.
Every year the big three consoles give something incredible
to those lucky enough to be invited to their press conferences. Last year,
Microsoft sent everyone home with a new XBOX 360 S, Nintendo let its attendants
carry home a beautiful woman, each with a shiny new 3DS at their hip, and Sony
left its conference goers with a vague sense of confusion and despair, err
brand new PlayStation Move controllers…
This year should be more of the same; two giving away
amazing goodies and presenting awesome conferences, and one still leaving us
with confusion and despair. But which one will it be?!?
Playstation Vita or Sony’s Ponies?
The Playstation Network has been plagued by Anonymous
recently. This ‘unhackable’ network was indeed, hacked…more than once. So while
the rumors of a ‘PS3 in your pocket’ are still present, and may very well make
an appearance, this will be overshadowed by two things. The amount of spin Sony
PR has to accomplish, followed closely by the gift Sony will be giving each and
every person attending it’s press conference; a brand new pony!! This has yet
to be confirmed or denied by anybody at Sony, but it could happen, provided
Anonymous doesn’t hack the attendant list and dole Sony ponies out as they see
fit. I do expect to see a great number of details about this fabled hand-held
system, the least of which being a silly name or potentially a price point. The
name currently floating around the interwebz is the Playstation Vita. This
either means ‘life’…or the academic version of a resume, I’ll leave that
distinction up to you.
As for games on the Playstation 3 or Vita, we’ll see another
Uncharted most likely and potentially No More Heroes HD. Apparently Nathan
Drake is a lot more successful than I would have guessed. Maybe a protagonist
who raids tombs doesn’t need a hat and a whip, or even a nice well-rounded set
of morals to be successful, just a never-ending supply of one liners and
smartassed disposition.
Part of me wants to see Kratos brutalize more deities in God
of War 4, but who else is really left to dismember? Maybe Kratos will jump
mythologies and start sending Norse deities to Ragnarok early. Maybe he’ll also
jump systems so those of us with a network that HASN’T been hacked can abuse
gods.
Stream/Project Café/Wii2/Dolphin/Untitled Nintendo Console –OR- E3 2011: Year of the plumber?
We all suspect that Nintendo will win E3 this year. They
have leaked a successor to the Wii in the weeks leading up to the conference,
which is the same move they played before releasing the Wii. This way, the
absurd name they choose, whatever it will be, won’t overshadow the announcement
of a new console. In addition to Wii2, Nintendo should also feature quite a few
games for the 3DS, as well as the other two consoles they are playing with. I
could be alone on this, but I want another good StarFox game too. If they
haven’t yet, all of the heavy hitters (Mario, Samus, Link, DK, etc.) will slowly
be making their way to this magical little machine; and what better place to
show that off than E3 2011? While they may be weakest in third party support
and games, that should change with the announcement of the new console.
Hopefully we’ll get quite a few specs as well as some launch titles. We’ll also
find out who will be singing the swan song for the Wii; will Link get a
reprise, will Luigi sing it out this time, or will something come out of left
field to blow us all away?
For a more in-depth look at Nintendo this year, feel free to
check out my article featuring Nintendo.
No Unicorns for Microsoft
Not much is known, or even expected out of Microsoft this
year. The rumor is they will provide us with confusion and despair this year,
and Gears 3. They don’t have a console to announce, and don’t have any new tech
ready, or do they??
No. I wouldn’t bet on it.
Most likely we’ll see a plethora of kinect games, some of
which will be tailored more towards hard core gamers who may feel put out by
full motion control. There may even be a horror title in the works that will
utilize the kinect, should be interesting. I suspect we’ll see, much to my own
personal dismay, another Halo title, which will probably be more like Spiderman
3 or X Men Origins: Wolverine than Halo Reach or even Halo Wars. Who is ready
for an emo Master Chief? I know I am. It would be nice to see a couple less absurdly popular Xbox exclusive IPs
return, like Alan Wake’s wild ride through product placement, paid for by
Verizon, or Too Human part two (of three hopefully). Shockingly enough, also
expect more information on Gears 3, as that is the biggest thing Microsoft has
going for it currently, especially after the epic inception the beta got. There
is every chance in the world that Microsoft will surprise, and Peter Molyneux
will gallop onto the stage on a unicorn to release the newest, most amazing
game, with the promise of more boobs than you can shake a metaphorical stick
at. A short time later, however, you’ll realize you’ve been cheated out of this
massive amount of boobs and given the same flawed structure as before…with a
dog.
There are sometimes more exciting things going on than the
Big 3, or at least things to supplement the Big 3 announcements. There are a
few gimmes we all know are coming. Assassins Creed 3, COD Modern Warfare 3,
another EA sports title that hasn’t changed too much from its predecessor,
Bioshock Infinite all make this obvious list. Another one I would bet on is
another Metal Gear Solid, because Snake’s adventure in a retirement home sounds
enticing to everyone. I’d like seeing a few more in addition to these
blockbusters; a sequel to Borderlands, Half Life2: Ep 3, and maybe a couple
decent movie tie-in games, maybe. I’m also still pulling for another Too Human
and StarFox.
This is all just speculation at this point. Will it change
to fact or fiction once E3 actually arrives? Stick with us for all your up to
the minute floor reporting and find out just how right I was about Sony giving
away a pony with each admission. We’ll have quite a bit of coverage, featuring
silly and sometimes informative tweets, anecdotal facebook updates and first
looks at everything I can get my nerdy hands on and enough pictures to gag a
full grown elephant. Don’t worry, we’ll have a section dedicated to everyone
dressed up at E3 (*read booth babes and dudes who think they are Kratos). We
are looking forward to being your source for E3 coverage and wild speculation!
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