QuickJump QuickPeek Special Edition – The games of E3 2009

Games announced

Activision didn’t promise on this one, but they are likely to get quizzed on the possibility of a GTA-MMO. But even if the subject isn’t brought up at the expo, the publisher already has a very formidable roster as it is. They could make a killing over there even if they stuck to that list. Also note that Wolfenstein is the only one with an actual date up there, so it would be helpful too if we got release info.

Since Atlus refused to reveal their full E3 lineup until June 2nd, we’re left to play guessing games as to what they’re bringing. For certain, there’s gonna be something for the US version of Demon’s Souls, and it’s very likely that the newly-announced Trauma Center, Hospital may get some more details as well.

Possible lineup:

• Class of Heroes (PSP) – June 9
• Demon’s Souls (PS3)
• Devil Survivor (DS) – June 23
• Hospital (Wii)
• Knights in the Nightmare (DS) – June 2
• Steambot Chronicles Battle Tournament (PSP) – June 30

One of the sure spectacles on the Bethesda booth would be the new Splash Damage creation, Brink. For Fallout 3, there may be some more info on DLC for the PS3 version this time around, and Pete Hines may reveal some more info on the future of the franchise. Bethesda may also feature their newly-acquired Wet (PS3, Xbox 360) after having rescued the title from publisher limbo.

Games announced

It was too early in May when Capcom’s E3 lineup was announced, leaving two mystery titles in the shadows. The first one didn’t survive the secrecy for too long and was confirmed to be Tatsunoko vs. Capcom with a US release. Little by little, the second Capcom mystery title gets some more hints and a few Tweets. We know it’s not Devil May Cry 5, but we still don’t know what it is. Maybe they’ll leave that for the actual expo proper?

Games announced:

• Overlord II (360, PS3, PC)
• Overlord: Dark Legend (Wii)
• Overlord: Minions (DS)
• DiRT 2 (360, PS3, PC, Wii, Nintendo DS, PSP)
• Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising (360, PS3, PC)

Games announced:

• Monster Mayhem: Build and Battle (Wii, DS)
• My Virtual Tutor (DS)
• Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection (Xbox 360, PS3)
• Pinball Hall of Fame: The Gottlieb Collection (Wii)
• Real Heroes: Firefighters (Wii)
• World Championship Athletics (Wii)

Games announced:

When you’re a publisher the size of Electronic Arts, you’re bound to pack your bags full and fly to E3 like you’re moving there for good. EA, is bringing a hefty roster to E3 that spans across multiple genres and platforms. It’s a long list, so you might want to take a look and check if some from your watch list are there.

Games announced:

• Batman: Arkham Asylum (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
• Just Cause 2 (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
• Mimi Ninjas (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, DS)

Unlike EA, Eidos will sport a quiet booth, with the exception of the very crisp Batman: Arkham Asylum. The expo will see the Free Flow and Invisible Predator challenge maps and we would most likely get some more info on the game apart from the stuff we’ve seen in the vids and screenshots. It’d be interesting to see if the Squeenix acquisition has made its mark on the publisher, or if the Japanese giant will leave its European stronghold, at least for now.

No lineup for this developer, but the focus of their booth at the expo will be the closed-door presentations of the Unreal Engine 3 and all its features. We’ve covered a few details and screens, but more is sure to come once the Epic Games guys bring their stuff out at their E3 presentations.

Games announced:

• Jakers! Let’s Explore – (Wii, PC)
• Moomin: The Mysterious Howling – (DS, PC)

We have a winner! Flying to Los Angeles carrying only two games is Graffiti Entertainment, making them the lightest traveler on our list. Both titles still have a pending rating but they’re a definite E for Everyone with their family-friendly content.

The highlight for High Voltage Software this year probably won’t be The Conduit because that one’s showing up at Sega’s booth. Instead, we’ll be watching out for its two new projects, one of which, is the Coliseum carnage of Gladiator A.D. They released the first video earlier this week, but it’s nothing too snazzy at the moment. Perhaps by E3, they’ll have a much better presentation for the rare Wii bloodfest.

Games announced:

• Muramasa: The Demon Blade (Wii)
• Nostalgia (DS)
• The King of FIghters XII (PS3, Xbox 360)

No lineup press release for Ignition Entertainment, at least not recently. As it is, their list stands as the ones mentioned above, but that was way early this month to be final…or isn’t it? Either way, King of Fighters XII is definitely their booth’s centerpiece for the expo, and fans will definitely be keeping an eye out for the back-to-basics gameplay as well as for Mai Shiranui.

Games announced

I’m personally more intrigued with Warriors: Legends of Troy. If indeed this is gonna be a Trojan War Dynasty Warriors game, then I’d love to try and do some damage with Hector. I’m not even expecting big innovations for the game, just a few would be good enough as long as it keeps true to the Dynasty Warriors slaughtering frenzy.

All eyes will be on Konami at E3, largely because of that @#$%^ Kojima Productions teaser site and its aggravating chain of countdowns. Hopefully by E3, Kojima and his band of Snake-wranglers are gonna tell us what those characters mean, who that beat-up looking guy is, and how their consciences could handle doing all that to us. That would a good start to their “revolutionary announcements.”

As for their other games, expect Silent Hill: Shattered Memories for the Wii, and Zephyr: Rise of the Elementals for the PS3, Xbox360, and the Wii.

Games announced:

• A Boy and his Blob (Wii)
• Flip’s Twisted World (Wii)
• Go Play City Sports (Wii)
• Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Ultimatum 2010 (Wii)
• My Hero Firefighter (DS)
• Our House: Party (Wii)

No Babysitting Mama? I was kinda curious about that one since Majesco filed the trademark. Oh well. There’s A Boy and His Blob anyway, that ought to be good too.

Ah, yes. Microsoft. They’ve got a lot to cover in E3 in a couple of days so they must be smothered in work right now. For starters, there might be some clarification on the Halo: Reach rumors that started floating around recently. There’s also the big Lionhead Studios announcement from Peter Molyneux to look forward to, with his “insanely simple” and yet “ridiculously ambitious” comments earlier. Either would qualify for the announcement of the AAA exclusive that they promised.

Now things are gonna get juicier. With the announcement of the Zune Marketplace for XBL, it might not be a far-fetched idea to expect the ZuneX to be confirmed in E3. If the rumors are true, then we might be saying hello to a new handheld very soon.

Speaking of new hardware, the rumored magic wand controller and Xbox motion-sensor should also be brought to the table. Whether the two are linked remains to be seen, but if the Xbox motion-sensor is hands-free like the rumored specs say, then we might be looking at two separate controllers for the Xbox 360.

As for a few new games, Tomonobu Itagaki has a lot of friends at Microsoft, so expect him and the rest of his new crew to make their presentation at the Microsoft booth.

Aaron Greenberg himself revealed that previous attempts to guess their E3 news is far from what they’re actually bringing. Coming up with answers for all of these is big, but will it be as big as greenberg promised?

If there’s one thing that MTV Games will be hyping up this year, it’s gonna be Beatles: Rock Band (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii). George Harrison’s son Dhani says that the E3 exhibit will “blow our minds,” but then again, he already said the same in an interview back at the Spike VGA. Whatever the case, it’s about The Beatles, and it should still be worth a look.

Games announced

With only four titles coming to E3 this year and the absence of their other notable titles such as Tales of VS, the Namco Bandai booth is gonna be more Namco than Bandai, with eyes watching Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion and Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny. Those expecting to see some Dragon Ball may have to settle for interview confirmations or minor announcements because the publisher didn’t take any of the ones they’ve announced.

With Nintendo big brass Satoru Iwata, Reggie Fils-Aime, and Cammie Dunaway in attendance, Nintendo is sure to whip out some major announcements in the expo. While they don’t have hardware rumors to quash like Microsoft and Sony, the king of the casual games market does have a new confirmed controller coming up, which is the Wii MotionPlus.

With the sizable number of games to hit the Wii before the end of the fiscal year, Nintendo may confirm which titles will have MotionPlus support. And when it comes support for the new controller, expect Wii Sports Resort to make an appearance.

To some extent, Nintendo has kept quiet about their E3 plans. Macquarie Research analysis says that Nintendo should have a Mario or Zelda game announcement at the expo, and according to Japan’s Nikkei newspaper, a new Mario game might be on its way. Looks like we’ll really have to see what they do in E3.

And on a completely off-topic note, we won’t be seeing a Nadal-Federer match on the French Open with a surprising Nadal loss to Robin Soderling earlier. This means that the Grand Slam Tennis trailer “prediction” can only be half-fulfilled at best.

Games announced

With the kick-ass Bayonetta trailer coming in the nick of time, the tide may have turned for Sega and the rest of its E3 2009 lineup. High Voltage’s The Conduit sounds promising, but the developer is gonna be busy with its two new projects in its own booth. As it is, Sega’s got a pretty respectable lineup for the expo.

Games announced:

• Fat Princess (PS3)
• God of War III (PS3)
• Heavy Rain (PS3)
• Infamous (PS3)
• Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier (PS2, PSP)
• MAG (PS3)
• MotorStorm: Arctic Edge (PS2, PSP)
• Pain! Sore Spots (PS3)
• PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe (PSP)
• PixelJunk Shooter (PS3)
• Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time (PS3)
• SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 3 (PSP)
• Singstar: Queen (PS2, PS3)
• Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3)
• White Knight Chronicles (PS3)
• DC Universe Online (PC, PS3)
• Free Realms (PC)
• Kung Fu Hustle (PC)
• Legends of Norrath (PC)
• PoxNora (PC)
• The Agency (PC, PS3)

Combining the forces of SCEA, SCEE, and Sony Online Entertainment comes Sony with a monster lineup that’s sure to draw a big crowd. Titan Studios is gonna be carrying Fat Princess into the LA Convention Center so something tells me they might serve cake to some of the attendees.

New details about God of War III just rolled in, and expect the exhibit to reveal more footages as well as motion-control details. For MAG, hold on to your seats because SCEE and Zipper Interactive have confirmed that the massive action shooter will be playable at E3. It’s also possible to see more of the eight-player multiplayer mode of MotorStorm: Arctic Edge, and the four-player co-op for Fireteam Bravo 3.

Don’t leave the Internet-loving world this week because there’s gonna be a lot of heat in the expo.

Games announced:

Tecmo may not be the biggest booth in the convention but it would be interesting to see the Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 demo that Team Ninja promised for their E3 exhibit. Now that the core group of Tomonobu Itagaki packed up and left, it’d be interesting how the rebuilt Team Ninja handled the franchise.

No press release from THQ yet, but it’s not that hard to peg which titles they’re taking to E3. First is their newly-announced FPS, Homefront. Waiting to be unveiled is the new Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, a new action RPG. It’s also possible for THQ to take attendees around the octagon in UFC 2009 Undisputed as well.

Games announced:

• Assassin’s Creed 2
• Rabbids Go Home
• Red Steel 2

Games announced:

• Arc Rise Fantasia (Wii)
• Flower, Sun, and Rain (DS)
• FRAGILE: Farewell Ruins of the Moon (Wii)
• Half-Minute Hero (PSP)
• JU-ON: The Grudge (Wii)
• Little King’s Story (Wii)
• Lunar: Silver Star Harmony (PSP)
• Ragnarok Online (DS)
• Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga (Wii)