If you are an avid listener of our podcast or frequent visitor our site you know that the ESH crew is not in LA covering E3 on the ground this year. We are there in spirit though, and I am more than happy to share what I have surmised from the day one coverage of the media bru ha ha.

We kick off with Microsoft. From the land of online community comes the announcement of "Experience," the new online community framework that will be put into place on the XBox360 platform. Taking the hint from how successful the xbox.com community has been, "Experience" leans towards giving the user base a similar digital entertainment hub to that of MS counterpart/major competitor Sony with it's "Home" application. Through "Experience" users will have avatars that they create that can interact with each other over the internet, have access to an even broader base of electronic media entertainment [including the newly announced partner Netflix] and more.

On hand were the pre-requisite hype game trailers for both Gears of War 2 and Fable 2 [both of which make have many of us in the gaming community salivating at the mere thought of them] upcoming titles. I will have a gallery collection of my favorite E3 released trailers up later on this week. The XBox camp was also proud to announce that the new Final Fantasy XIII title will launch simultaneously on the XBox360 platform as well as the PS3 platform. A huge win for MS in the fight to end PS3 exclusivity dominance over the Final Fantasy franchise. [Try saying that three times fast.]

All in all MS tried to come out swinging at this event, making it known that that they are not afraid to jump into the brawl to be the best home entertainment system and not just gaming console. It's hard to not notice the trend towards a path of total digital media delivery package that the next gen systems seem to be moving toward. It is a road that competitors Sony and [to a degree] Nintendo have been marketing towards for well over a year now, but it still awaits to be seen if it is the predominant market for success here in the US.

We will just have to see what day two brings us tomorrow evening.

Finish What You Start...

Yeah... if I hadn't seen the press release myself, I would have thought this was a late April Fools day joke. It's not. Midway is going to release Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe in the fall.

Well, they plan to release it in the fall. I can't tell much from the trailer, but that is definitely SubZero fighting Batman. From the release:

"When a cataclysmic force merges conquerors from two universes, conflict is inevitable. Kombat forces friends to fight, worlds to collide, and unlikely alliances to be forged. In order to save all they know, the heroes and villains of Mortal Kombat must wage war against the combined might of the DC Universe."

Um, okay? The release then goes on to say,

"...Scorpion, Sub Zero and the warriors from Midway's billion-dollar fighting franchise face off against Batman, Superman and other iconic and powerful DC Super Heroes, featuring signature attacks for both sides and a unique and intertwining storyline, written as a collaboration between the Mortal Kombat creative team and top comic scribes Jimmy Palmiotti (Painkiller Jane, Marvel Nights, Jonah Hex, 21 Down) and Justin Gray"

Um, okay again?

I don't know about this one. The last Mortal Kombattitle left a bad taste in my mouth, so I don't know how I feel about this cross over. I should be crazy excited as I am a MASSIVE DC Comic fan, but my opinion is shaky on this one. You take a look at the trailer and tell me what you think.

Finish What You Start...

I am one exhausted NinJa. I figured I'd post this up for you guys, just in case you don't have time to peruse any other website [on the planet] other than ESH.

Now, I've made no bones about the fact that I did not like Soul Calibur Legends, but let me tell you a bit about my day yesterday

NamcoSo, I was hangin out with the folks from All Games Interactive [who I still think are some of the most passionate and just plainly put "cool" people to kick it with] when they mention they are heading over to the Namco event at 4pm. Me, I didn't even know that Namco Bandai was even having an event, so I asked if they wouldn't mind if I tagged along. Cool ass peeps they are, they say the more the merrier... so off we go.

I [of course] get in, and lo and behold we are bearing witness to a preview of the Soul Calibur 4 game. Not only a trailer demo, but some hordeurves, drinks, and playable early demo that was, for lack of better vocabulary: pretty promising. By that I mean that while the visual looked beautiful [again, for an early build] it wasn't extremely polished. While the character detail has been kicked up quite a few notches, it didn't exactly scream next gen. BioShock visual has some one ups on this demo, but after playing through that damned SC Legends, this build held with it the promise of a better tomorrow.

The fight system has been revised to just the face buttons of your controller: PS3 or XB360. The demos we played were XB360 systems. No bumper or trigger pulling here folks, just straight up Virtual Fighter style guard, punch, kick, grab. As a self proclaimed brawler fanatic, I gotta say I'm feeling better about the overall direction that SC is heading in.

Then you add the fact that Vader will be on the PS3 and Yoda on the XB360 as unlockables and I am nearly FREAKIN' sold on it people. I'm going to try to contain my inner fan-girl until I get to play with more than three characters but as I said before, pretty promising.

Don't believe me? Peep the vid!

p.s. If ESH is the only website you use than I less than three you majorly

Finish What You Start...