Geekshow

GeekiN #114

This week is E3 and while we do a little bit of related discussion in this episode, look for a closer look at the E3 presentations from Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo in this week’s two GeekiN Extras to be released on Wednesday and Thursday. For now, we have lots of movie and TV discussion to tide you over.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

E3 2009: Must See Videos You May Have Missed

A ton of great trailers and preview videos for big releases have been shown at E3 this year. There have been so many videos posted online that some games can get lost in the shuffle. While seeing footage from big games like Modern Warfare 2 and God of War 3 is certainly a good thing, this article is for those videos you probably missed among the explosion of new content released this week.

E3 2009: Nintendo Conference Impressions

Last year, Nintendo’s press conference was less than stellar. Did they improve things this year? Read on to find out what Nintendo brought to the table.

E3 2009: Microsoft Conference Impressions

The Electronic Entertainment Expo is here, and Microsoft was hoping their conference would kick E3 off with a bang. Did they succeed? Read on for my impressions of the first of the conferences from the “Big Three” companies, including several videos from the show.

Clarifications on Xbox 360 New Xbox Experience

Microsoft tossed out a lot of information during E3. We covered much of it during the week. But now with the actual event over, we are starting to see some of their community members come out and give a more detailed description of some of the features they have announced.

One of the biggest problems with the show was that Microsoft seemed as if they wanted to rush through all their announcements because they had so many. As a result, a lot of the news didn’t get the time it needed in order to be understood by gamers.

Major Nelson runs a podcast over on his website where he often talks about the 360, his job at Microsoft, etc. Well, yesterday he put up an episode where he could just go over everything, go into more details where need be, etc. Give it a listen if you have time and you are interested. If you don’t have time but are interested, I’ll try to sum up some of the details. So keep reading.

GeekiN Episode #78 – GeekiNput: E3 Discussion

Alright, I have to apologize up front. The evil podcast faeries came along and stole 2 hours of this episode from my computer. I went into the living room, and came back to an 11 minute episode. I don’t know what happened. One minute it was there, the next it was not.

So, what you are about to hear is the live version of the show. For the most part, it is decent quality. There are some sections where it has bad echos though. My apologies. Again, I have no idea what happened to the good version. If the echoing gets too bad, it fixes itself after a little bit. Hope you enjoy!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Sony Conference Details

Sony’s conference is coming up. They are the last of the major three hardware developers that will be making a presentation. Will they take Microsoft’s approach of a packed conference, or follow Nintendo with their stats filled fluff fest? I’m imaging given their focus last year, they will continue to reveal a lot on the games they have coming up soon. Any big surprises? Any shots fired at Microsoft’s big reveals yesterday? Guess will see. When the show starts, "Read More" to follow my live updates.

Nintendo Conference Details

Following on the heels of yesterday’s Microsoft  conference, it’s time for Nintendo to step up to the plate. In my opinion, Nintendo needs a good show. I considered last year to be a flop with only Wii Fit and Mario Kart as their major announcement. But more importantly, I feel that Microsoft threw down the gauntlet yesterday when they announced their Avatars (Creepily similar to Miis). Either way, I will be covering the event live. I’ll type everything as it happens here, in case you can’t or don’t want to watch. Then I’ll try to post some actual articles about what happens. Though with the Sony event coming up following the Nintendo conference, it may be a bit later.

Microsoft E3 Conference Details

The Microsoft E3 conference went down today. A list of big events during the conference:

Fallout 3: Exclusive DLC for Xbox 360 (In addition to PC)

Resident Evil 5: Online Co-op is included. Friday, March 13th 2009 release date

Fable 2: Release date October 2008. Online Co-op confirmed.

Gears of War 2: Ride a Brumak, 5-player co-op streaming enemy mode online, but story-mode apparently only 2 players. Release date November 7th

Xbox Dashboard Face Lift: Completely re-designed dashboard. Mii-like avatars. 8-player party system used to play games, chat, share photos, and share netflix (!) movies. Lots of clothing and accessory options. Apparently partially designed by Rare. Release date: Fall 2008

XBL Arcade/Primetime: 1 vs. 100 (Avatars, win real prizes, blah blah), Geometry Wars 2, Galaga Legions, Portal: Still Alive (Exclusive to Xbox 360. New Challenge mode, same single player game), South Park (Nothing really shown. Just that it was a South Park game), Uno Rush, Original Banjo Kazooie, Original Star Ocean, Primetime = Game shows like 1 vs 100

Netflix: Exclusive to Xbox 360. Netflix subscribers will get the option of streaming movies to their Xbox 360 for no additional fee. May be shared with people in your Live Party (See Xbox Dashboard Face Lift). Doubles the number of Xbox Live content pieces available.

Scene-It Box Office Smash: Sequel to succesful Scene-It game for 360. This time with Online play and downloadable content to expand the game with. The way it should have been done to begin with. Uses Avatars.

You’re in the Movies: Weird Xbox Vision Camera game. Act out scenes based on the mini-game’s criteria. Ala – Swat at bugs as they appear on your screen. Then when you and your friends get through a game, it takes those recorded scenes and makes them into a cheesy B-movie that had nothing to do with your mini-games. Hillarity ensues.

Banjo Kazooie/Viva Pinata: Showed a couple trailers. Still looks nice. Viva Pinata allows you to scan cards to bring in new Pinatas via the Xbox Vision camera.

Guitar Hero World Tour: REM track pack exclusive to the 360. Eagles is exclusive to Guitar Hero. Metallica is releasing some of their new songs on GHWT and GH3.

Lips: Microsoft’s answer to Playstation’s Singstar. Looks like mostly pop/hip hop. Duffy performed live, and didn’t seem to be able to follow her own song in the game. Mics pulsate with light, and are motion sensitive for bonus points when you dance. Also, you can hook up your MP3 players to sing along to "any song in your collection".

Rock Band 2: In addition to the previously announced backwards compatible DLC for RB2, the songs from the original game’s disc will ALSO be backwards compatible. So you can copy the game’s songs to your hard drive, and play them from there. Also, the official track list is out now. And apparently there will be a 20-song pack available for download for free at the game release. Supposedly songs that wouldn’t fit on the game. 104 or so songs total. Also, AC/DC is exclusive to Rock Band.

Last Remnant: Dated for November 20th, worldwide.

Final Fantasy XIII: Coming to Xbox 360 (In America only, perhaps) on the game’s release date. This is in addition to the PS3, not instead of.

Sorry if I missed anything. A /LOT/ happened today.

Read More for live updates.

Xbox 360 Dashboard Re-launch this Fall

Microsoft announced today at their E3 conference that they will be COMPLETELY re-launching the Xbox 360 dashboard this fall. The dashboard appears to be the love child between the three current generation dashboards. Going for a more simplistic style akin to the PS3 XMB setup, mixing in an Avatar system similar to Nintendo’s Miis, and adding the typical Microsoft flare to everything. DLC clothes, a Party system that allows players to share pictures, movies, and join into games together. I’m still not sold on the new look, but this announcement has extreme beef to it. Stay tuned for some images.

*EDIT* Keep Reading for new images!

Posted in Video Game News
By Saberj

A Small Change in Plans

I’m not too sure how I over-looked this. However, I somehow got it in my head that E3 was taking place this coming weekend. As a result, the next call-in show was scheduled for this coming Monday in order to take advantage of that. However, as it turns out, E3 has a bizarre schedule this year, with the festivities beginning on Monday, and lasting through Thursday.

A majority of the week’s events will happen on Monday and Tuesday, as the biggest surprises of the convention generally happen amongst the formal stage presentations (And even then, the majority of the news will likely come from the console makers’ shows).

As such, in order to allow for a majority of the news from the show to take place before we record (You know, so we can actually discuss it), we are going to have to hold off on the E3 Discussion episode. We apoligize to anyone that would’ve been available on the original day, but will now miss the show. However, it’s just about the only way of doing it properly.

The E3 Discussion episode of GeekiNput will take place on Wednesday, July 16th at 8pm EST/5pm PST. The remaining GeekiNput shows will not be effected by this change of schedule, and will continue to record on Mondays.

We hope everyone understands and can still make it.