Poetry in motion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/06/2010 (5869 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — For the first time in, well… ever, I wasn’t the biggest geek in the room.

The room in question was the sprawling Los Angeles Convention Center and the event was the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) which gathers 45,000 video game geeks from around the world to revel in the cutting-edge of virtual entertainment.

It’s four days of over-the-top hype, noisy razzle-dazzle and overwhelming spectacle.

The world’s best game developers do everything they legally can to entice journalists and industry types to get in a lather over their new titles and hardware.

The 2010 edition of E3 was all about motion and 3-D.

Microsoft kicked things off with the curtain-raising on Kinect, their controller-free gaming add-on for the Xbox console that involves a camera and a microphone that take the handheld controller out of the equation.

The camera actually scans your skeleton, importing your movements into the game in real time.

The microphone enables voice-control navigation, so you can tell your Xbox to play music or a movie without reaching for a remote. But Kinect is about getting you off of the couch and into the action.

I tried Kinect at the Konami booth playing Deca Sports 3 tennis.

It was freeing to mimic the movements of serving and returning the ball against my competitor — a senior programmer with Microsoft, by coincidence — using only my hands and body.

While it was tricky to learn the tolerances of the technology, once I got the hang of it, gameplay was very intuitive. To move my avatar around the court, all I had to do was lean one way or the other and pixel-John moved accordingly.

According to Amazon, the Kinect system will retail for US$149.99 and is due to hit the streets Nov. 4.

Sony formally rolled out their motion-control hardware at E3, called Sony Move.

It resembles the Wii motion controller from Nintendo, but has a distinctive golf-ball sized sphere on the end that lights up with certain colours depending on your status within the game.

Having played several titles on the Wii, I can say that the functionality with Sony Move is very similar. They boast true 3-D location technology with their Move system but I found little measurable difference from the Wii model.

In playing John Daly’s Pro Stroke Golf with Sony Move, I was able to accurately recreate my horrible slice and send several tee shots into the woods, or into the virtual parking lot.

I will say the "Move Button" is intuitive and the green-light indicator gives an easy visual cue that you are ready to swing.

Amazon indicates the Move controller on its own will retail for US$49.99 and is slated to go on sale Sept. 19. A Move starter kit with a controller, a camera and a sports game is listed at $99.99.

Speaking of Nintendo, the major announcement from their press event was the confirmation of the new handheld system called 3DS.

As you might have surmised, it’s a 3-D gaming system that you can fit in your backpack or purse.

What sets it apart from other 3-D gaming systems is the rotoscoped 3-D screen does not require special glasses.

The 3DS has two screens: the 3-D screen and a touchscreen. Images and gameplay on the 3-D screen are sensational. In fact it was hard to believe what I was seeing during the press event. Nintendo fanboys could actually be heard squealing with delight as the demo went on.

A surprise announcement? Kid Icarus for 3DS. Core DSers will drool over that title.

The 3DS also comes with a 3-D camera, so users can actually take 3-D photos. That’s just plain cool.

It is slated for a March 2011 release. There were no details on pricing at E3.

The Wii title that drew the most gasps at E3 was a new Zelda game, Skyward Sword. In fact, there was so much excitement on the convention floor for Zelda that the lineup was two hours long for a brief hands-on demo.

Sony also revved up the hype machine for 3-D gaming.

Leveraging their built-in Blu-ray DVD system with a downloadable 3-D software patch and existing Sony Bravia 3-D TVs, Sony showcased titles like WipEout HD, Super Stardust HD and MotorStorm: Pacific Rift.

For music gamers, the major news came from the MTV Games booth, home of Rock Band 3.

Once the new version of the popular franchise hits store shelves post-Halloween, wannabe musicians will have a real keyboard and a real Fender Stratocaster guitar to play.

Developers Harmonix have created a "Pro" mode for those looking to take their music performances from button-mashing to keyboard-striking and string-strumming.

Players will be able to learn gradually how to play all 83 songs from the disc as they are charted on a real six-string, and plug their Strat into an amp and replicate the song on their own.

So, the next time someone tells me to dump the plastic junk and play a real guitar, I can finally say, "You mean like this Fender Strat, you elitist know-it-all?"

john.white@freepress.mb.ca

TOP FIVE innovations at E3

 

5. Keyboards and real

guitars for Rock Band 3

4. 3-D titles for Sony PS3

3. Sony Move

2. Nintendo 3DS

1. Microsoft Kinect