There isn't a pop-culture franchise better suited for video games than the Harry Potter epic. It has magic, combat and a vast imaginary world to explore. It has appealing heroes, dastardly villains and awesome monsters. It even has its own sport, Quidditch, which should be a blast to play in virtual space.
So far, though, the Electronic Arts-published games that have accompanied each of the Potter movies have been disappointingly earthbound. That's partly because they've been so tightly restricted to the plotlines of the films; game designers are never at their best when they're just trying to duplicate another medium.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — With a new 3-D gadget, motion controllers and a buffet of never-before-seen gaming goodness, this week's Electronic Entertainment Expo was a feast for the eyes — and hands — of 45,600 folks from the video game industry. Here are the trends that emerged from the 2010 show.
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POETRY IN MOTION
By the end of the year, every major console is slated to have some from of gesture recognition. The PlayStation Move system, which employs a wand-shaped controller and camera to precisely detect players' movements, will give the PlayStation 3 the ability to be more like Nintendo's Wii — except with high-definition graphics and a more mature library of games.
Microsoft is further pushing (and bending, twisting and jumping over) the envelope with the Xbox 360's controller-free Kinect system. The gizmo detects gamers' bodies, including their skeletal systems, to do such things as teach choreography in "Dance Central," administer workouts in "Your Shape: Fitness Evolved" and deploy adorable virtual pets in "Kinectimals."
LOS ANGELES: You won't need special glasses to play games in 3-D on Nintendo's newest handheld device, but don't expect the technology to hit big-screen TVs anytime soon.
The 3DS, as the Japanese video game maker's upcoming gadget is called, uses a technology that's specially suited to a handheld device. It's a "parallax barrier" LCD screen, whose pixels are aligned so your left and right eyes see different portions of the image.
It's as if two sets of thin blinds were laid over the screen so each eye sees its own version. Combined in the brain, the two versions become a 3-D image, explained Satoru Iwata, president and CEO of Nintendo Co.
LOS ANGELES: Sony is moving forward with its 3-D and motion-control gaming plans.
The game maker announced Tuesday that 20 3-D games would be released for its PlayStation 3 console by March 2011 while 40 games that utilize PlayStation Move, the console's new motion-control system, would be out in time for the holiday season. Unlike Microsoft's Xbox 360 or Nintendo's Wii, the PS3 has been updated with software to display 3-D games.
"What PlayStation did for Blu-ray, we're now ready to do for 3-D," said Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Kazuo Hirai during Sony's Electronic Entertainment Expo press conference. "It's that experience in content that will define 3-D."
Among the unveiled 3-D games, which would require a 3-D television and 3-D glasses to be experienced in full stereoscopic 3-D, were "Motor Storm: Apocalypse," "Gran Turismo 5," "Crysis 2," "Tron Evolution," "Shaun White Skateboarding," "Mortal Kombat," "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier," "The Sly Collection" and "NBA 2K11."
The first-person shooter "Killzone 3" was shown for the first time to the E3 crowd at the Shrine Auditorium in 3-D. Other games that were debuted included first-person puzzler "Portal 2," a new edition of the car-combat franchise "Twisted Metal" and "Sorcery," an action-adventure title that transforms the lollipop-shaped Move controller into a magical wand.
Sony also revealed the Move controller will be available Sept. 19 in the U.S. for $49.99. The Move's navigation controller will be sold separately for $29.99. Sony will also sell bundles of the controller, camera and the new action sports title "Sports Champions" for $99.99. The controller, camera, console and "Sports Champions" would cost $399.99.
I haven't picked up the new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 map pack yet. Mostly because it's $15 and also because I can't put down Red Dead Redemption.
The preview Activision put out also didn't appeal to me all that much. However, this awesome Swedish guy from Machinima may be convincing me otherwise. Check out his gameplay video featuring the five new maps:
Sixty-five years after the end of World War II, the conflict seems to have lost its attraction for video game developers.
Storied video game franchises like Medal of Honor, Battlefield and Brothers in Arms seem to have either died off or turned to modern settings after producing more than 20 games set in the battles of World War II's six years.
The last Battlefield game had a modern setting, so does the next Medal of Honor title. And after four successful World War II-based games, it looks like Call of Duty is giving up all together on that era.
That's right, the rhythm game genre chugs along. Out of Sept. 20 on Playstation 3, Wii and Xbox 360 is Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock.
The disc will feature 90 songs, the most-ever for the stale franchise. Even better, the game will feature an original penned by Dave Mustaine of Megadeth. As you can see, my excitement can hardly be contained.
Thus far, 35 tracks have been revealed. They're after the jump. Here's a trailer for the game. Rock on? Whatever.
Last year featured Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Tony Hawk and Stephen Spielberg. This year there will be Cirque du Soleil and perhaps others.
Each year in the days leading up to E3's international gathering of video game makers and publishers in Los Angeles, Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo host press briefings to lay out the year's upcoming games. But over the past two years Microsoft has transformed its Xbox 360 themed event into a spectacle, a video game variety show that at times entertains more than it informs.
Aaron Greenberg, executive producer of Microsoft's annual E3 media briefing, said that leading up to last year's show, Microsoft did a lot of thinking about how to redesign its approach to the show.
