Xbox 360 Exclusive Trailers I Missed From E3 June 30, 2011

Well, to continue with the series I got going on, here’s a smattering of some of the most noteworthy Xbox 360 exclusive games which released trailers during E3 which I was not able to upload or link while I was in Los Angeles.

Let’s get the big one out of the way first, this is Halo 4.

For a teaser, the fact that it’s pre-rendered doesn’t really bother me at all, and even though it was pre-rendered, you can tell just where they’re going with for this story.  They’re continuing to tell the story of SPARTAN-117, the Master Chief, and just what happened to him and Cortana following the cliffhanger events of Halo 3.

The tidbits I’ve heard about this game so far is that this will be the start of a new Halo Trilogy (yes that means there’s going to be a Halo 5 and Halo 6).  Also, there was a reference to just what was going on between Cortana and the Master Chief while he was in stasis if you watched the Halo Legends video.  The segments that detailed the history of the Halo Universe were told from Cortana’s perspective while the Chief was frozen, and she was starting to show signs of rampancy, which is common among AIs which have gone past their seven year life span.  Don’t know if they’re going to go deeper into that factor in the final game, but it is something to think about.  It’s coming in Holiday 2012.

And since we’re in a Halo mood, how about this Halo Anniversary Edition trailer?

People have been mulling for a few months now that this game would be coming and that has all been confirmed with this E3 reveal.  The game will have all the geometry  and features of the original Halo game, retweaked with the technology that powered the Halo Reach engine.  You will be able to swap back and forth between the original look of the game, as well as the newer updated look.

I’m just glad that they’re finally bringing this game in some form to a widescreen format, which is something I’ve been demanding from the Microsoft developers to do to the original game for some time now (if you remember my video about widescreen problems with older games on a modern HDTV, Halo 1 was a game I featured).  The game will also have updated multiplayer maps, full Xbox Live support, as well as co-op through Xbox Live.

This is coming in November.

I know a lot of people were kind of hoping that I’d include a Gears of War 3 trailer in here, but I already posted that trailer up when it came out, and I also wrote an entire preview of the game while I was in Los Angeles, so no reason to retouch it, although if you are new to the site and did miss it, feel free to check those out.

Cross Platform Trailers I Missed From E3 June 28, 2011

Now you guys know I traveled to E3 this year and got to see a lot of what was being shown over the course of the three day show.  The problem was my ability to modify and control the site remotely was extremely limited, and I tried my best to update it as much as I could while there and while operating alone, but one thing I was not able to do was to post up the E3 trailers released during the show.  I already took a look at the top games that will be Playstation 3 exclusives, now I wanted to show you some of my favorite trailers for games that will be cross platform.

First up, we have the E3 2011 trailer for Saints Row: The Third.  The only previous trailer released for this game was comprised of one single nut shot, this is…a step up, stylistically.

Although it is entirely prerendered with no actual gameplay, the trailer serves more to set the stage for the look and feel of the game instead of show you how it’s going to play.  Since this is only the second trailer released for the game, and the game isn’t going to be out until November, I’m going to let it slide this time.

The style looks fantastic.  You can see some of the new Saints in the game, and some of the new gangs they’ll be quarrelling with in the game.  You also see just what the Saints have become since the second game, wheras they had to build themselves up from nothing in the previous two games, this game looks like they’re on top of the world already and other gangs want a piece of that.  Also, who is flying those jets at the end of the trailer is not explained.  Could be Ultor, could be another gang, or could be government.

Next up, a game which I got to see demoed at E3 and had a pretty positive experience with.  Batman: Arkham City, the sequel to Batman: Arkham Asylum.

You’ve heard it here, and I got to see it, I can confirm this game will have playable Catwoman levels, but more than that, she will be playable in the main story, wheras in the PS3 version of Batman: Arkham Asylum, the Joker was playable, it was only in challenge modes.  In the game, you will be able to swap out characters during gameplay, simply by finding a few kitties hanging out on a rooftop you’ll be able to select if you want to play as her while the in the campaign (and they show a switch happen in the trailer).

You can see here how she controls differently than Batman, with her own move setlist.  She also has one unique gameplay mechanic Batman does not, which is the ability to climb across ceilings (I guess her kitty claws keep her up there), which is perfect for being stealthy.

Not pictured in the trailer but something I can gurantee is in the game is the inclusion of the Penguin.  His voice actor sounded recognisable, but I don’t know for sure who it is.  I also think Two-Face looks great, kind of a mixture of his depiction in The Dark Knight and the comics, and for a guy half disfigured he looks great.

I do plan to look at some Xbox 360 exclusive trailers soon.  More multiplatform game trailers may be checked out as well.

Video Games Declared Free Speech by US Supreme Court June 27, 2011

I may be a gaming journalist, but I’m a gamer first, I’ve been a gamer all of my life, and as a gamer I have to say that today is the proudest day I’ve ever had as a gamer, and in the United States, gamers everywhere have a good reason to celebrate.

We, as gamers, have had to endure so much for the past twenty years.  Angry ignorant parents, politicians who simply just want easy votes, and a media who was more than happy to endorse either of what those groups say as law.

For years, individual states, fed by these false prophets, have tried and tried to regulate what we love and restrict access to what everyone agrees is fantasy entertainment simply to make themselves look better to a public who would listen to them, even though these restrictions were clearly illegal since they were a clear violation of the highest laws of the land.  Every time these states were sued by various organizations, and in many cases these organizations were endorsed by other organizations which had nothing to do with gaming at all, but were champions of free speech.  Every state law was struck down, and it cost each state which passed these laws thousands of dollars in taxpayer money to cover legal expenses of fighting them.

But you couldn’t tell any of that to Yee of California or it’s Governor.  They were going to take their illegal law as far as they possibly could, to the highest court of the land, which, while it must protect the Constitution of the United States, has the ability to interpret it however they want and vote by majority decision.

Before he died, George Carlin did an interview about when he championed free speech decades earlier, and while his act about the “Seven Dirty Words” was clearly protected by the first amendment and won on a lower level, the Supreme Court didn’t agree and banned the use of the curse words on radio and broadcast television.  In the years since the decision has been made, the banned words have not been changed, and those policies are still in place.  Thankfully it hasn’t been updated to censor the use of those words online, which is one of many reasons I’m happy to be working in this new media outlet.

The cases were laid out months earlier.  Both sides were questioned heavily by the judges, and as I read the transcripts of the legal banter between the judges and the lawyers involved, I could get the sense that the judges actually knew what they were talking about.  They asked clear cut questions like, “Would you censor Grimm’s Fairy Tales?”  They also knew that their own staff played these games that these lawyers argued were bad (like Mortal Kombat) and I believe having known the people that played video games were just that, people, saw no connection between violent behavior and violent video games that the lawyers were arguing.

Well today, the decision was reached.  The California law was struck down by the highest court.  More than that, it sets a CLEAR legal precedent that laws like it are not acceptable in any other state that might have been interested in drafting it (or re-drafting it).

The best part about this is that this was NOT a partisan issue at all.  Both parties from the left and the right had people who both agreed and disagreed with the law.  One of the original proponents of tough government restrictions on video games was Senator Lieberman of CT (formerly D, now I) and one of the major opponents of this particular bill was conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh, who argued that this was just another form of government restriction, and those were unacceptable to him in every way.  The proponents of the bill in California included Leland Yee (D) and The Govenator (R).

So grab your games, gamers, and you enjoy them.  Enjoy them.  We’ve earned that right.

UPDATE:  Apparently losing on every single level has not humbled Leland Yee and he has continued to express his disappointment about this decision to the media.  Since he has been quoted in almost every media outlet already, I have decided not to reprint his quote here, and instead print my own counterquote that I encourage all media outlets who have been quoting Yee to please place right next to it, and I offer this for no charge at all.

The quote was spoken yesterday by my father.  My father is not a gamer, nor has he played a video game since the original NES version of Tetris was released.  When I told him about the court’s decision, he had these words for Yee.

I’m sure your parents worked very hard to get you all the freedom and opportunities that this country has provided you, and you have spent your entire career trying to take those rights and freedoms away from everyone else.

-Maniac’s Dad