QuickJump QuickPeek 56: Of E3 craziness, the FFXIII console-jumping stunt, and when polar bears migrate to Mars
Everyone had a blast out of E3? Maybe, maybe not. We know a lot of you guys have a lot of things in your mind right now (like maybe FF13 jumping to the 360 as well?). It was a week of highs and lows for everyone, but nonetheless, it’s still a crazy celebration for gaming in general. And before any more of hell breaks loose (if it hasn’t already in E3), let’s recap what we know so far, eh? Send in the clowns! Uh, Warriors, I mean.
Time to wake up and smell the beans! It was all about E3 last week, and even though the press conferences from the major parties only happened from Monday to Wednesday, the rest of the week was filled with other E3 (and equally so, out-of-E3) news and updates.
With all of the big (and equally so, not-so-big) announcements revealed at this year’s E3 event, you can’t help but think of where we’re all going. Well, it pays to keep up and make sure you know everything there is to know. So, while it’s all fresh in our minds, let’s have the Warriors recap all the news for us from last week!
And who won E3? Was it Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo? Well… Personally, If I’d hazard a guess, all of them seem to be winners (oh, what a cop-out answer, ha!), but! If the question becomes who “stole the show” (in the sense that their announcement was what everyone’s been buzzing about)… well… I guess it’s pretty easy to find a solid answer for that.
Across the board, there’s also some huge buzzing going on outside of E3 circles: the NPD Group has finally revealed the results for sales in US. The Nintendo DS and Wii claim the top two spots, while the PS3 and PSP follow soon after, with the XBox 360 trailing behind. On the software side of the figures, Solid Snake is king with MGS4 on top.
And time for QuickJump QuickPeek 56!
New firmware update! Another rather skimpy one, but if you use the visualizer on the PSP, FW 4.05 might come in handy. But what’s new from E3? Hey! Look at that! A new PSP Entertainment Pack for 200 bucks! Huzzah!
Another big announcement: Resistance for the PSP! With Resistance 2 coming out for the PS3, Resistance: Retribution seems to be for the Resistance series what Killzone: Liberation did for the Killzone series – a spin-off that’s technically part of the numeric series. Think Chains of Olympus for the God of War series, a game that outlines a sidestory of the main plot.
And oh, what’s this? Sony’s starting to consider some expansion options regarding two things: 1) PSP memory, and 2) a native PSP Store accessible by the PSP (and not the PC).
There’s also some considerable development on the homebrew-side of things. I couldn’t put it any better way than how Charles D. said it: “It’s always nice to hear from the more senior homebrew developers who’ve seen the early birth pangs of the community. At the very least, this proves that the PSP homebrew scene is still alive and kicking.”
We got updates from Dark AleX: he released USB Version Fake, which allows you to bypass the FW version check on the PSN downloader. Hellcat’s released an update on the Pandora Installer, and veteran dev Raphael is back with an update for the tried-and-tested, and very much useful JoySens app that allows you to tweak your PSP’s analog stick.
Link: The PSP Weekend Warrior: the E3 buzz, PlayStation Store updates, and the Duke on your portable
Link: The PSP Homebrew Weekend Warrior: return of the veteran devs, DaX’s USB Version Fake, Pandora revision, and more
Final Fantasy XIII. No longer PS3-exclusive. Yeah, I guess that pretty much says it all… Or not. On the Sony-side of things though. The cloud’s silver lining comes in the form of the PSN video downloads. It’s finally gone live!
Games? You want games? Where do we start? A God of War 3 teaser trailer, LittleBigPlanet beta info, PlayStation Home dev walkthroughs, a Ratchet & Clank Future sequel, Killzone 2 footage… Take your pick!
Link: The PS3 Weekend Warrior: The E3 and NPD week extravaganza
Final Fantasy XIII! Also for the Xbox 360! Bet you didn’t see that coming… or not? While the PS3 crowd may not like it, investors pretty much welcomed the idea: stock shares of Square Enix rose after the announcement!
But third-party announcements aside, Microsoft had a field day at E3 as well. The biggest reveal they had would probably be the new Dashboard update: collectively it’s called the Xbox Live Experience which includes avatars, a revamped GUI, community channels, and a whole lot more.
Bungie was strangely absent in the event though, but other games were still there to give us some loving: Resident Evil 5, Fable 2, Star Ocean: The Last Hope, Portal: Still Alive, Hydrophobia, MK vs DC, Prince of Persia, Wolfenstein… man, the list is endless! Oh, and FF13 too, of course!
Link: The Xbox 360 Weekend Warrior: All things E3 and beyond
Final Fantasy XIII. Also for the Wii! …Ha, we kid, we kid! What with Square Enix’s shocking announcement, we couldn’t help but think anything’s pretty much possible now… But moving on…
No Twilight Princess sequel was shown in E3 [insert collective sigh here], however, development for a new Zelda title on the Wii was confirmed by Shigeru Miyamoto. Other big things coming our way are Animal Crossing: City Folk (and its accompanying new peripheral, the Wii Speak), Wii Sports Resort, Wii Music, Pikmin, and.. gasp! Dead Rising!
The Wiibrew front also laid bare a lot of big updates: shooting straight on top of the list is the the first-ever custom firmware for the Wii, and following that up is some surprising news from Bushing, who says he found a way to run ISOs to run on unmodified Wii units. Whoa. Pick up that jaw from the floor now…
Link: The Wii Weekend Warrior: the biggest news from E3 and more
Link: The Wiibrew Weekend Warrior: first Wii custom firmware, new exploit, new Homebrew Channel, lots more
Final Fantasy XIII. Also for the DS! …Psych! Haha, no, no, there’s no room for that. But! Equally surprising though is an announcement of a Grand Theft Auto title for the DS! Along with new Mario, Zelda, and Pokemon games too!
Link: The DS Weekend Warrior: of hijacking bicycles in Grand Theft Auto and more E3 shockers
What’s up for PC users during E3 week? Sims 3 was finally revealed in the event, along with that, some Spore footage, Crysis Warhead, Dragon Age: Origins, and of course, some Diablo 3 updates on the side.
Link: The PC Weekend Warrior: great games coming our way, and even more SecuROM woes
MMORPG players get a treat when E3 brought to us MK vs DC… err, DC Universe Online, I mean. There’s also the confirmation of a Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic MMORPG. Finally!
Both World of Warcraft and Age of Conan get new patches, but what’s more is that there’s some big things looming ahead for both communities. Wrath of the Lich King is confirmed to have achievements, and Age of Conan will be getting an expansion!
Link: The MMORPG Weekend Warrior: Batarangs and lightsabres at E3, and Flagship’s scuttled crew
Link: The World of Warcraft Weekend Warrior: Early frozen delights and game patch 2.4.3
Link: The Age of Conan Weekend Warrior: new content, huge patch, cheaper mounts
Being on top of the food chain has its blindspots. Now, it’s time we really look at the effects of human activity. And who knows, we just might cause our own extinction. Guess we can always migrate to Mars, huh?
Link: The Science Weekend Warrior: vertigo on top of the food chain
Woot for Apple in their successful launch of the 3G iPhone! How successful, you ask? Get this: one million units sold in three days! But what’s this? iPhone 3G already jailbroken, fancy that!
Link: The Apple Weekend Warrior: iPhone 3G’s successful launch, Apple’s success story, firmware 2.0 jailbreak imminent
Comment of the Week: Tried and tested
Oooh, what a week for comments! We’re probably up to here now with comments that share the same sentiments of Square Enix committing something short of an Epic Fail – yes, we get it already! talk about something else! – but we decided to take a look at something a bit more general…
At this day and age, it seems as if nothing’s original any more. You look at a game or some other medium and compare it to something else (“Man, Hydrophobia looks so much like BioShock. What the hell.” Or. “Guh. Not another Harry Potter clone. What’s up with authors nowadays?”).
But are people really ripping off other people’s work? In E3, when Microsoft revealed the avatars they had lined up for the Xbox Live Experience, a lot of people called foul and said it was like the big MS was playing copycat to Nintendo’s Mii avatars.
Here’s what Arm73 has to say – though it may be Xbox 360- or Nintendo-specific, it could also be applied to a lot of other works in other industries like movies, books, or TV shows*:
Link: E3 2008: Microsoft not “holding its breath” on Home, not ripping Miis off
* Speaking of TV shows… (sorry, I just had to…) Anyone catch the Avatar finale this weekend? Maaaan, let’s see if other producers can copy top off Avatar!