Must Buys:

Brutal Legend (Rocktober 13) – If you don’t like Tim Schafer games, you don’t like fun.

Uncharted 2 (10/13) – Despite a bit of craziness at the end and wonky gunplay, the first Uncharted was a ton of fun.  The sequel looks to be bigger, better, and just as entertaining.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (11/10) – I’m not the biggest shooter fan, but unless this game completely falls on its face, it’s a must buy.  CoD4 was brilliant, and I’ve seen nothing to convince me the second entry won’t follow suite.

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (12/7) – It’s a new Zelda game, I really don’t think any additional justification is necessary.

Inriguing

Alpha Protocol (10/27) – I like the work Obsidian has done in the past, and everytime I see press for this game, I like it a little more.  I’ll be keeping a close eye on it up until its release.

Assassin’s Creed 2 (11/17) – The original Assassin’s Creed got a bit repetitive after the first few assassinations.  With more variety though, the sequel could be a good game.  This one bears watching.

Borderlands (10/20) – I’m not the biggest shooter fan, but I like the RPG and loot aspects.  I’ll probably be basing my decision off of the early reviews.

Dragon Age Origins (11/17) – Bioware has a great history with fantasy RPGs, and the group dynamic component looks very interesting.

Forza 3 (10/27) – Since Gran Turismo 5 is not coming any time soon, Forza is a probable for me this year.  Sim racers tend to have long legs with me, and Forza should keep me busy for 6 months or so.

GTAIV: The Ballad of Gay Tony (10/29) – I had fun with the previous DLC episode, so I’m really considering giving the new one a shot as well.  I thought for DLC the price to content ratio was worthwhile.

Halo 3: ODST (9/22) – I’m not calling it a must buy, but I’ll end up with it.  It looks to be a little light on content, and I already have access to the multiplayer via Halo 3.  But the co-op campaign in Halo 3 was a ton of fun, and with friends this campaign could be as well.

Left 4 Dead 2 (11/17) – Now I to date have not played the original Left 4 Dead, but I’m strongly considering it.  Firearms, zombies, co-op, what’s not to love?  With the right friends on board, it sounds like a great time to me.

Right After I Harvest My Money Tree

DJ Hero (10/27) – This game looks like it could be fun, but I would need to try something like that before I drop $120 on “another rhythm game”.

Fairytale Fights (10/27) – I played this game at PAX and really enjoyed it, but I thought it looked like a $15-$20 downloadable game.  Methinks they may have overreached at full retail.

Tony Hawk: Ride (11/17) – Because nothing says happy holidays like taking a $120 header into your coffee table.  Seriously though, another one that could be fun, but I’d need hands on before I drop that kind of cash.

Not With Someone Else’s Money

Band Hero (11/3) – Just what we needed, another derivative rhythm game.  As if Guitar Hero 5, DJ Hero, and the single band Guitar Hero games weren’t enough.  Way to whore out the franchise.  I’m too angry to keep thinking about this.

Guitar Hero: Van Halen (12/22) – $#@!@!$#@!$#@!$#@!  In the name of all things right and holy, WHY?

Feel free to agree, disagree, or point out anything I might have missed in the comments.  But remember, it’s the holiday release season, and you all have homework to do.

After finishing the final piece of Fallout 3 DLC recently, my saved game clocks in at well over sixty-five hours.  Now that I have entered the world of corporate wage slavery, that is a very rare occurrence.  Much of this playtime was due to the additional content Bethesda released on the Xbox360 and PC over the past 8 months.  While most of this additional content does not take place within the Capital Wasteland, it is easily accessible to characters at any stage of the main story line, and provides some unique experiences that enrich the game universe.  I’ll evaluate each piece of content by itself, while assigning an overall grade for the entire run of DLC as well.  Each individual piece of DLC will be evaluated based on its storyline, the new equipment it contains, and game play.  As per my usual schtick, each content pack will start out with a grade of ‘C’.

Operation: Anchorage

Operation: Anchorage was the first piece of DLC for Fallout 3, and released on January 27, 2009.  This content pack allowed the lone wanderer to take part in a virtual reality simulation of the historical battle to liberate Alaska from  the Chinese.  Due to the constraints of this simulation, none of the player’s wasteland equipment or items can be accessed, and in simulation replacements must be utilized.  Operation: Anchorage added more depth to the Fallout 3 universe by allowing the player to experience this past event that is referenced in the main storyline of the game.  For that addition, I’ll raise its grade to a ‘B+’.  The new equipment added in Operation: Anchorage is a lot of fun and generally useful both inside the simulation and in the wasteland afterwards.  I’ll raise the grade again to a ‘B’ on the strength of the equipment contributions.  The game play element is where this particular content suffers.  While the story is interesting, the actual game play is very linear, which is a striking contradiction against the generally open nature of the content that came before it.  The pack introduces some additional artificial difficulty as well at the beginning by stripping the player of their equipment and forcing them to use what is provided, which may or may not play to the strengths developed up to that point.  There is also a collection quest that involves looking for “intelligence cases” that is totally arbitrary, but doesn’t take away from the overall game play.  Finally, there is an interesting strategy element in the middle portion of the content where the player is able to choose a squad of allies from a variety of unit types to assist in certain objectives.  I really liked this unique touch, but overall I thought the gameplay was the weak link for this particular add-on.  Due to this factor, I’m reducing the grade to a ‘C+’.  Operation: Anchorage was a good first effort as a DLC package, but left plenty of room for improvement.

The Pitt

The Pitt was Bethesda’s second DLC addition to Fallout 3, and released on March 24, 2009.  However, the content was broken on release date, and wasn’t playable for everyone until April 2.  For this gaffe, I’m reducing the initial grade to a ‘D+’.  This content pack focused on an area that wasn’t part of the capital wasteland, what remains of the former city of Pittsburgh.  The wanderer journeys to The Pitt to search for a cure for radiation, and potentially to help free the slaves living in The Pitt.  The story potential of another post apocolyptic city was immense, unfotunately, the story line within the Pitt really didn’t deliver.  Compared to the story lines in the original content of the game, the Pitt’s story was underdeveloped and abrupt.  The characters had little to no depth, and the only real “choice” to be made was a binary one that didn’t make much sense in my opinion.  I’m lowering the grade to a ‘D’.  Additional weapons and armor are added to the game in this expansion, however, unlike Operation: Anchorage, the new equipment isn’t of much use once the wanderer returns to the Capital Wasteland.  I won’t lower the grade based on the equipment, but I can’t raise it much, so I’ll give it at a ‘D+’.  Finally, outside of the different location, the game play within the Pitt content differed very little from Operation: Anchorage.  It was a bit less absolutely linear, however, it still involved losing all of your gear, combat, and an optional collection quest.  There was a choice to make, but I felt it was pretty ambiguous in a confusing way.  Overall, I’ll take away from the grade just a bit, and we’ll leave the Pitt with a grade of ‘D’.

Broken Steel

Broken Steel released on May 5, 2009 in a different context from the previous two pieces of DLC.  Where the first two sets of additional content served as single serving adventrues, Broken Steel continued the main storyline of Fallout 3.  The plot focused on the management of project purity after the final confrontation of the original content as well as the continuing conflict with the Enclave.  However, the transition to this new content remains as clumsy and awkward as the original ending to the game.  While that transition left a lot to be desired, Broken Steel also raised the level cap on the player character from twenty to thirty, and added considerably more gameplay than either Operation: Anchorage or The Pitt.  Additional side quests were added that restored some of the open world feel I came to enjoy during my original playthough of Fallout 3, and once the transition passed, the additions to the main quest felt consistent with the game play before the “end”.  I’ll raise the grade to a ‘B’ based on the story content.  The new equipment felt like a continutation from the main content as well, which was a definite difference from the first two sets of DLC.  I continued to use some of that equipment even after finishing Broken Steel as well, so I’ll raise the grade to a ‘B+’.  As I alluded to a bit earlier, the gameplay really felt like an authentic continuation of the main game (after the horrible transition) and returned an open feel to the game.  For the first time, I was able to use the equpiment I had acquired so far in an entire DLC package, which was a welcome change of pace.  Since Broken Steel played like Fallout 3, I’ll grade it just like I would have graded Fallout 3, with an ‘A’.

Point Lookout

Point Lookout was released on June 23, 2009.  Both Point Lookout and the final DLC package, Mothership Zeta, were revealed after the release of Broken Steel.  Originally, only the first three DLC packages were announced.  The story in Point Lookout focuses on an area near the Capital Wasteland along the coast where the bombs didn’t actually fall, but the world has more or less abandoned.  The story in Point Lookout is completely seperate from the main story of Fallout 3, but it examines an area destoyed by neglect rather than bombs.  It is an interesting and completely original subplot for Fallout 3, and on its strength I’ll raise the grade to a ‘B’.  The items to be found in this locale are very appropriate for a backwater area seperated from the rest of the world, and are decidedly low-tech as a result.  While they may not have a ton of use in other areas of the game, they help set the scene for this DLC very well.  It’s not the largest contribution, but enough to raise the grade to a ‘B+’.  The game play in this content is fairly unique.  While the mechanics don’t change from the rest of the game, the feel and the ambiance is much different.  Point Lookout plays a bit like a survival horror game, with “zombified” locals and constructed set pieces.  While this DLC was excellently constructed, it doesn’t quite contain the depth of content we saw in Broken Steel.  It is however very strong, and I’ll give it a final grade of ‘A-’.

Mothership Zeta

Mothership Zeta is the final DLC package announced for Fallout 3, and was released on August 3, 2009.  This package of DLC focuses on aliens, which are reference in the main game of Fallout 3.  The entire DLC package takes place on an alien mothership, which follows a very retro science fiction aesthetic that is very consistent with the Fallout universe.  The story element in this particular pack is vague at best, but involves people abducted from Earth throughout its history trying to escape from the mothership.  I’m calling the narrative decidedly average, and will leave the grade at ‘C’.  The setting of this content may be its strongest point, and the items and equipment found on the mothership have a great science fiction element to them.  I’m not sure how useful they would be in other areas of the game (being as this was the last content I played), but they seem like they could be useful.  I’ll raise the grade slightly to a ‘C+’.  Finally, this content plays fairly linearly.  The player can choose in which order to tackle certain sections of the mothership, but that order has no real effect of the plot.  There is not a lot of exploration to be done, which I think contradicts the feel of Fallout a bit.  Mothership Zeta felt a lot like playing the first two content packs again, but with a much better setting.  This pack was good but not great, and it gets a final grade of ‘B-’.

Overall

Overall, I thought Fallout 3 did a great job with DLC.  Bethesda certainly released more additional content than we have seen for most games so far.  I thought that the amount of content and the fiarly regular interval at which they released it really helped keep their game hold momentum and keep people engaged over the nine months since its release.  That’s a very long cycle these days, and allowed people who really bought in to the Fallout universe to stay engaged in it if they choose.  I spent a total of $110 on this game, but at almost seventy hours of entertainment, I certianly don’t feel short changed.  The content itself was also very interesting, rather than making packages of equpiment or additional characters available as add-on content, Fallout added entire experiences and story arcs.  While this has been done by other games to an extent, I thought Fallout set a new standard in terms of the variety of and number of stories they added to the game.  Another aspect I thought was intelligently done was the consistent cost.  The packs were certainly not all on the same level in terms of the depth of content added, I thought on average the cost was appropriate.  The content wasn’t all aces, as I’ve said in the earlier sections, but for me the good outweighed the bad by a significant margin.  I’m giving Fallout 3’s catalog of DLC a final grade of ‘B+’.  Hopefully other developers keep some of the aspects of these content packages in mind for future games.

Admin note:  This will close out Dan’s E3 2009 grading.  He has been a champ this week grading these conferences in text form.

Welcome to the home stretch of these week’s output at Grading the Games.  After this, I promise to take the rest of the week off, and spare you my ranting for a while.  But before that, I must address the Sony E3 press conference.  In order to give you an authentic feel, go do something else for 10 or 15 minutes, then come back to see if this column has started.

Opening Montage
I know I eviscerated Nintendo for it’s use of montages in my previous piece, but I liked Sony’s opening montage.  I have one simple reason for this, it was comprised entirely of game footage.  Games are the reason people watch and attend these press events.  Take notes Nintendo, there will be a quiz at Tokyo Game Show.  The montage featured tons of great looking game footage, and didn’t linger too long on anyone one game.  It was a solid way to get everyone primed for the start of the event.  ‘B’.

Stage Presence
Jack Tretton came out to start the press conference for Sony, and was immediately more comfortable on stage than any of his counterparts from the Nintendo event just hours ago.  He walked out and immediately made a couple of legitimately funny jokes about the PSP Go leaks.  Then he told us Playstation platforms were getting 364 games this year and 35 exclusives for PS3.  Congratulation, you know have my attention Jack.  This was a vast improvement over a couple hours ago, ‘B’.

Uncharted 2
Holy crap, this game is beautiful.  The live game play demo looked fantastically fun.  There was lots of platforming and some Gears of War-esque cover combat.  In addition to the demo, a multiplayer beta was set for release at midnight following the press conference, so people can get their feet wet in that aspect of it already.  This was a great selection as a lead in game, and really captured the audience’s attention.  I give it an ‘A’.

MAG
After Uncharted, Sony brought out developers to show game play of the generically titled Massive Action Game.  We were shown a live game play demo of a 256 player battle, focused around a particular squad of 8 players.  The game appears to be generally squad based, with every possible character, including support characters, being controlled by a human player.  The demo also gave the impression that this game is highly focused on finite objectives, in this case destroying a bunker and anti-aircraft weapon.  It looks potentially interesting, but I think I would need some hands-on time with it to really get a feel for how it would work.  Hopefully we’ll see a beta at some point in the future, but the game is releasing this fall, so I’m not sure there is time.  On the strength of an interesting concept and logistically challenging demo, I’ll award a ‘B’.

PSP Go
Kaz Hurai was invited out on stage to reveal the worst kept secret in the industry, the PSP Go.  The new device has a tiny form factor when closed, appearing slightly larger than an iPhone.  It will feature 16 GB of internal flash memory, and no UMD drive.  Kaz talked about a few new features in the Sense Me technology for dynamic music selection and additional video partners for the PSN store.  He also revealed that the cost of PSP development tools will be dropping, which is encouraging in terms of the software we may see in the future.  Kaz revealed that PSP Go will release on October 1 of this year, for $249.  And this is where he lost me.  I was ready to march out and buy one of these things right until the price point was revealed.  This handheld is now more expensive than a PS2 or an Xbox360, and as expensive as a Wii.  When you also consider that the PSP Go puts more potential revenue in Sony’s hands due to the money they won’t lose to retail markups (after all, the games won’t get any cheaper just because you download them), it really is a bit offensive that they want to charge consumers significantly more to increase Sony’s cut.I was ready to grade this fairly well, but the price point killed the momentum.  I give it a ‘C’.

Gran Turismo: PSP
Sony then had the head of Gran Turismo out on stage to reveal Gran Turismo: PSP.  A brief trailer was shown, and you would never have guessed this was a portable title.  Apparently this game is running at 60 frames per second on a PSP.  That’s a pretty intensive portable game.  This title will also be released alongside the PSP Go on October 1.  This looks pretty impressive, I’ll go with a ‘B+’.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
After his turn on stage at the Microsoft conference yesterday, Hideo Kojima was right back on stage at Sony’s press event to discuss another new game, Peace Walker.  This is a PSP title that represents a true sequel to the story of MGS 3, set 10 years later.  Apparently it will be a true canon story, rather than a spin off story.  A very entertaining trailer ran, featuring some of the trademark MGS trappings that we all expect to see.  Another good looking software title for PSP, I grade this out as a ‘B’.

PSP Software Montage
Apparently there are a ton of games forthcoming for the PSP.  It looks like Sony has finally decided to support their portable platform in the way they always seem to be talking about.  We also heard about a new Resident Evil title for PSP, to be released next year.  The future looks bright for PSP software, ‘B+’.

PSN
There was a brief discussion of the games available on the PSN following the PSP segment.  50 additional PSOne classics are coming to the PSN, which is well overdue.  In fact, they announced the release of Final Fantasy VII for PSN that very evening, which drew applause.  There was also a video of Home, which would be exciting if I had logged into Home more than once.  But I like the increased PSOne classics presence, so I’ll give out a ‘C+’.

Agent
After the PSP segment of the show, Jack brought us back to PS3 content.  He announced a new PS3 exclusive title, Agent from Rockstar North, the developers of the GTA games.  We didn’t get a trailer or demo of any sort, but we did learn that it is an espionage type game set in the 1970s.  It should be interesting to keep an eye on the news regarding this title, but there was precious little info, so I’ll give it a ‘B-’.

Assassin’s Creed 2
Sony used their press conference as an opportunity to debut a game play demonstration of the multiplatform title Assassin’s Creed 2 from Ubisoft.  This holiday 2009 titles looked stunning during the game play demo showed on stage.  The demo included a Davinci inspired glider for navigation through the city, and the use of smoke bombs as an escape mechanic.  It looks like an entertaining title, and Sony managed to have a major 3rd party game appear in their press event as opposed to Microsoft’s.  ‘B+’.

Final Fantasy
The Final Fantasy segment of the presentation did not quite go as I had anticipated.  A new localized trailer for FFXIII played, and looked as stunning as usual.  The real surprise was afterwards, when FFXIV was revealed immediately after with a trailer of it’s on.  At the end of the trailer it was revealed that XIV will be an online MMO in the vein of FFXI.  This game is scheduled to arrive in 2010.  Given the surprise announcement of a new Final Fantasy exclusive, I’ll grade this portion a ‘B+’.

Playstation Motion Controller
Not to be out waggled by the other two platform holders, Sony also introduced it’s own motion controller.  Interestingly, it seems to be a blend of the Nintendo and Microsoft systems, using a camera to track the motion of a wand like device.  The mapping shown was one-to-one motion tracking, and a variety of tech demo type applications were demonstrated.  As I said about Microsoft’s Natal, the effectiveness of this control scheme will depend entirely on the software support made for it.  Unlike Natal, it does have a release window of spring 2010.  Overall, I was a less impressed that I was with the Natal demos, so I’ll give it a ‘B-’.

Play, Create, Share
Sony has started to push games of the Little Big Planet ilk as the “Play, Create, Share” genre.  They did discuss continuing support for Little Big Planet here, with the upcoming PSP title and additional licensed content coming to the PS3 version.  Also revealed in this segment was the upcoming PS3 exclusive Mod Nation Racers, which essentially looks to be the love child of Little Big Planet and Mario Kart.  It looks as thought it could be an interesting downloadable title, but no information about it’s release was offered, save for a 2010 release date.  The live demo looked quite fun, and the track editor looked pretty intuitive.  I’ll be curious to see how the release is handled for this title, but I’ll give this press conference segment a ‘B’.

The Last Guardian
The latest game from the creators of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, The Last Guardian had a trailer debut during the press conference.  The trailer featured a giant cat/bird type animal companion for a small boy, and seemed to feature cooperative platforming.  Very little information was revealed, but we were treated to a first official view of a gorgeous looking platformer from a team that has already delivered two fantastic PS2 titles.  A dearth on information costs them a bit, ‘B’.

Gran Turismo 5
Despite discussing Gran Turismo PSP earlier in the press conference, Sony saved the Gran Turismo 5 trailer until close to the end.  Unsurprisingly, the trailer is a graphical powerhouse, but other than that, we didn’t see anything really new.  We also didn’t get any release information, which is a bit disappointing, as we haven’t had a proper GT game in five years.  For teasing me but not delivering anything concrete, I’m giving it a ‘C’.  It is still a new Gran Turismo, after all.

God of War 3
And finally, Sony finished up it’s press conference with the megaton, God of War 3.  We were treated to a game play demonstration, and in a familiar theme, this game is gorgeous.  The combat looks as satisfying as previous entries in the franchise, and it looks to be fantastically brutal.  Unfortunately, we will not be playing this game until March of 2010, but the other God of War titles have also released in March, so it isn’t all that shocking.  This is the crown jewel of the PS3 lineup, and may very well be a system seller in March.  I would have liked to see more of a titan than just one in the background, but that’s a nitpick.  I can’t give this anything but an ‘A’.

Overall
There was definitely both good and bad in Sony’s press event.  On one hand, we saw a lot of games, many of which look great, but we didn’t get a much information about several of them.  The motion controller component seems a bit unnecessary for what is generally a “hardcore” console, but everyone seems to want one these days, so I was hardly surprised.  The PSP Go segment took my excitement and beat it to death on the floor with that price point, but the PSP software lineup looks fantastic.  In general, it was more up than down, but the disappointments were definitely there.  Where was Heavy Rain?  One would think a big PS3 exclusive title like that would be prime press conference fodder.  And there was no talk of a price drop, which doesn’t particularly bother me as a PS3 owner, but will bother those who would like one and software developers alike.  All in all, it comes to down to games, and Sony showed off some big ones.  The final tally comes out to a ‘B+’ in my book.

That’s all for this week, try to keep yourselves out of detention.

New Super Mario Brothers Wii
Nintendo debuted a new 2D Mario Brothers game at their press conference, with the notable addition of an interesting multiplayer mechanic.  It’s the classic 2D platforming everyone, hardcore gamers included, can love, with up to three other players simultaneously.  The live gameplay demo looked like a lot of fun, and I get the feeling the game also works as a single player experience.  It’s Mario, it’s 2D, and it’s part multiplayer or coop.  Nothing in there not to love as far as I’m concerned.  I have no qualms with the holiday 2009 release date either.  ‘A-’

Cammie
I won’t lie, Cammie has a history of not being my favorite E3 press conference participant.  This year didn’t help her cause much.  While she did drop the ultra peppy persona she had last year, she certainly isn’t a person I want to associate with Nintendo.  Also, she dressed like a giant marshmallow for the press conference today.  If she had accessorized properly, she could have resembled a wiimote.  Either that, or she borrowed some of MC Hammer’s pants.  Good thing they cut out the parachuting portion of her enterance.  Finally, she managed to come in last out of the four players during the New Super Mario Brothers live demo, so I wasn’t wowed by her gaming prowess either.  Sorry Cammie, but it’s a ‘D’ for you.

Wii Fit Plus
We were also introduced to Wii Fit Plus at the Nintendo event, because apparently last year’s game apallingly failed to stem the American obesity crisis.  If you saw Wii Fit, add a few more mini games, and you’ve basically got Wii Fit Plus.  I’ve docked points for lack of originality, but I will award points for making both a bundle and the software only available.  At least Nintendo is attempting a considerate cash grab when they release it this fall.  Still, I was generally unimpressed, so I award it a ‘C-’.

Wii Motion Plus
Well, it’s been a while since this controller add on was announced for the Wii.  And to show off the technology we saw … another Wii Sports Resort demo.  Apparently the game starts with a ski diving introduction to help teach people how to use the new control scheme.  Cammy’s wardrobe suddenly made more sense, apparently no one told her only the Miis wre participating.  Bill and Reggie demonstrated the archery and 3 point contest minigames.  It looks a lot like the original Wii Sports, except with new minigames.  I’m sure it will sell by the truckloads when it is released on July 26, but my excitement will really depend on the still unannounced pricepoint.  Some third party titles were also discussed as Wii Motion Plus titles; such as Tiger Woods 10, Grand Slam Tennis, Virtua Tennis, and Red Steel 2.  Red Steel 2 can only be played with Wii Motion Plus, and will come bundled with the add on in order to give it any chance of selling.  Overall, we didn’t really see anything too new or revolutionary from Wii Motion Plus, so I’ll give it a ‘C’.

Ad-libbing
Bill and Reggie seemed to go off script for a bit during their Wii Sports Resort demo.  Let’s just say they should stick with their day jobs.  If their attempted “banter” wasn’t ad-libbed, they need to fire their writers, ASAP.  Show me the games gentlemen, leave the comedy to professionals, or you’ll end up with an ‘F’.

RPGs
After his demo and brief stand-up career, Reggie spoke about some upcoming RPG titles on Nintendo platfroms.  He talked briefly about the Wii exclusive Final Fantasy Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers, and showed a brief trailer.  We were then treated to a trailer for Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days on DS, which will be releasing on 29/9 in a battle of improper fractions (that’s 9/29 for our North American readers).  Neither of these games were new announcements.  Reggie then announced two new DS RPGs, Mario and Luigi, Bowser’s Inside Story, and Golden Sun DS.  The spiritual successor to the Mario RPG series will release this fall, while no date was listed for Golden Sun DS.  This segment gets and up and down grade.  On one hand, we heard about two games we already knew about, but on the other hand we learned about two new titles, including one that revitalises an old Nintendo franchise.  After considering everything, I give this segment a ‘C+’.

DS Game Soup
Cammie snuck back out onstage during the montage transition, apparently having escaped the backstage s’more cookout unscathed.  She returned to announce three new DS games for a variety of audiences.  Revealed were Womens Murder Club, Games of Passion, which appears to be an Ace Attorney type game based on the prose styling of James Patterson; COP: The Recruit, a driving action game; and Style Savvy, a game for 12 year old girls featuring shopping and runway walkoffs that would but Hansel to shame.  While these were all new games, I was bored to tears by this point, and only sort of half paying attention.  As a result, Nintendo’s grade will drop here a bit, I’ll give them a ‘C’.

DSi
After yet another montage and the obligatory sales stats, we arrived at the segment for Nintendo’s newest forced upgrade attempt in the handheld space, DSi.  Some new software was announced for the DSiware downloadable service; Flip Note Studio is a simple movie editor, Mario vs Donky Kong: Minis March Again is a puzzler, and Wario Ware DIY is a microgame creator.  The ability to upload pictures from the DSi cameras to facebook was also announced, making the DSi less useful for social networking than the average cell phone.  The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks was shown again, but there was no new information available for consumption.  All in all, a few interesting DSiware utilities were revelaed, but that’s not enough to push the grade past a ‘C+’.

Wii Vitality Sensor
I’ll keep this brief.  Iwata made an appearance on stage to reveal yet another Wii acessory, the Wii Vitality Sensor.  Iwata offered no demonstration or potential applications of this yawn inspiring peripheral beyond the fact it might help people to relax.  He accomplished exactly the opposite in his presentation, by causing me to bang my head repeatedly on my desk.  If this were 2002, and it were an accessory for Eternal Darkness, maybe I’d bite.  For actually raising my stress level, I’m giving this silly piece of plastic an ‘F’.

Super Mario Galaxy 2
After the ringing in my ears from the previous revelation stopped, I noticed Cammie “Too legit to quit” Dunaway returned to the stage.  This time, I ended up being a-ok with that fact, because she came out to announce a new 3D Mario game.  A trailer ran, featuring scenes that included Yoshi.  The screen revealed this new title to be Super Mario Galaxy 2, which woke up even the hardcore gamers in the room.  The trailer looked great, although no release date was hinted at.  For revealing a game people actually wanted, I’ll give out an ‘A-’.

3rd Party Titles
Reggie then returned to the stage to jump up and down and scream, “Look guys, 3rd parties actually develop games for Wii!  Really we swear!  Look, we brought some!”  Unfortunately, none of the games he was talking about were new reveals.  The Conduit, Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, and Dead Space: Extraction are all previously announced games.  They all seemed to look graphically solid for Wii titles, but there was really no news here.  For showing us nothing new, I’ll give a ‘D’.

Metroid: Other M
And then, just for fun, Reggie dropped a bomb on the audience, announcing Metroid: Operation M.  This new title is a collaboration between the big ‘N’ and Tecmo’s Team Ninja, of Ninja Gaiden fame.  The trailer that played looked fantastic, and featured what appeared to be a voiced Samus Aran.  It was revealed that the game would release sometime in 2010.  That one moment captured the attention of everyone, and showed that Nintendo might actually care slightly about it’s hardcore fans out there that grew up on franchises like Metroid.  This seems to hold a lot of promise, and was a complete surprise as an announcement.  For being a genuinely surprising and exciting moment, I’ll give it an ‘A’.

Overall
Nintendo offered a very up and down press conference this year, which I suppose is an improvement from it’s mostly flat “Look at how great we are” event of last year.  While there were some obvious duds such as the Wii Vitality Sensor and long stretches where the audience appeared to be asleep, there were also several instances of genuine excitement and surprise.  Still, Nintendo was definitely found wanting in comparison to the Microsoft event from the day before, which featured games, games, and more games until they announcement of Natal, which essentially out Wiis the Wii.  The two new Mario titles and Metriod: Other M were clearly the highlites for the gamers of my ilk, and they saved this event from being a repeat of last year’s disaster.  I’m grading this one out just above average, because despite the lack of continually great news, several titles were announced for the hardcore gamer audience, which is much better than last year’s showing.  Overall, I’m giving Nintendo a ‘C+’, but there is certainly still room for improvement.

Maybe Nintendo will raise it’s game next year, if they can scramble out their money pool long enough to do a press conference.

Sigh.

Admin Note:  If you fine folks haven’t noticed yet we have added a new writer to our gang.  Dan will be grading games and other items in the gaming industry.  I wonder if he’ll be assigning homework to industry professionals…..

This week on Grading the Games, I will be looking at the crown jewels of E3, the platform holder press conferences.  Games will be revealed, charts will be used to brag, and we may hear the greatest hyperbole in the history of the universe.  In an effort to cover the massive amount of material in each of these press events, I will deviate from our normal formula a bit, and grade individual sections of the press events on their own, before compiling a final grade for the event as a whole.

We begin with Microsoft, about whom much was rumored, but very little was known heading into the press conference.  In a semi-chronological and partially serious fashion, I give you my grades for Microsoft.

The Beatles:Rock Band
This game looks, well, a lot like Rock Band.  Which is good.  It seems to play a lot like Rock Band, which is also good.  The 10 songs revealed, of the 45 in the game are songs I would like to play, so we’re still positive so far.  Abbey Road will be available as DLC shortly after launch, which should sell to every Beatles fan with a credit card.  I had nothing negative to say about this section, until Yoko Ono hit the stage with Olivia Harrison.  I then cursed for 30 seconds straight without breathing, until Ringo Star and Paul McCartney hit the stage, which was really neat.  Until they started talking.  Hey Ringo, no one cares about the way your character walks.  All in all, I love Rock Band, and I love the Beatles.  This section gets high marks, but loses half a letter grade for Yoko Ono being anywhere near it.  ‘A-’

Tony Hawk Ride
Tony came out on stage to hawk his new game and hover board peripheral after the Beatles finished up.  (Ed: A cheap pun, I would be embarrassed, if I could still feel shame.)  At $120, I’m not sure the game will justify the price point, but the footage they showed of professional skateboards playing the game made it look appealing.  It looks like it could be a really fun game to play, but the price point makes it a high risk proposition.  ‘B-’

Modern Warfare 2
I am not necessarily a huge shooter fan.  I like a good shooter, but I probably play one or two shooters a year.  I will not miss this game.  Both a trailer and actual game play were shown.  Both looked stunning, although the trailer was not new footage.  The game play included an ice climbing segment that looked very fun and different.  A “stealth” segment was shown, which included a weapon with a flip out radar screen for finding enemies.  The live demo also included a firefight, which appeared just as engaging as the original.  And who can pass on snowmobile riding?  That’s right people, you can get your Eskimo drive-by on this November.  A can’t miss title and a great live demo, ‘A’.

Final Fantasy XIII
Squeenix sent a couple of representatives out to talk about Final Fantasy XIII … during the Microsoft press conference?  As if they hadn’t already battered Sony enough, now they have really cuddled up to Microsoft.  They showed the same demo we’ve seen before, but now it’s on Xbox.  Yawn.  Still, I hadn’t seen the Odin summon before, and that looked fantastic.  The release date is still a vague Spring 2010, but the fact that Microsoft had Squeenix involved in their press event again at Sony’s expense scores them points.  Overall, a ‘B’ for the FFXIII showing.

Shadow Complex
A 2.5D side scrolling action game from Epic.  It will be an XBLA release this summer, looks to be a very cool downloadable game.  The number batted around was 10 hours of game play.  It seems interesting, I’ll give it a ‘B’.

Joy Ride
A kart racing game featuring avatars.  It was going to get a ‘C-’ for being very generic, until they announced that it is free to download, with microtransactions afterwards.  Being free elevates the grade to a ‘C+’.

Crackdown 2
Crackdown 2 offered only a trailer, but I got goosebumps as soon as I heard the agility orb sound effect to start the trailer.  Very little shown beyond a trailer but I’ll let this title trade of off its predecessor’s reputation a bit.  Not offering any indication of a release date certainly didn’t help its cause.  ‘B-’

Left For Dead 2
Valve announced Left For Dead 2 as a Xbox/360 exclusive.  Left For Dead is not even a year old yet, and still gets plenty of play online.  I feel like this sequel might be too soon.  Also, we only saw a trailer, no actual game play.  For these reasons, I give it a ‘B’.

Splinter Cell: Conviction
The latest entry in Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell series looks like a fantastic third person action game.  The in game demo only served to make it more appealing.  This was hardly a surprise, but looks to be big title for the “Novembermas” season in the fall.  For delivering a nice trailer and in game demo, I award this title a ‘B+’.  After realizing that Sam’s mullet didn’t appear in presentation, I’m raising the grade to an ‘A-’.

Forza Motorsport 3
In one of the worst kept secrets in video games, Forza 3 was finally announced during the press conference.  After an introduction featuring an actual Audi R8 on stage, which certainly will increase the grade for this title.  After examining the CG trailer and game play of the title, my excitement only increased.  With an October 2009 release date, this simulation racer will be here very shortly.  Turn 10 has done nothing to discourage me from being excited about this tile, I give it a ‘B+’.

Halo 3:ODST and Halo: Reach
This title featured a live game play demo, and looked, rather unsurprisingly, like Halo 3.  The presentation remains essentially the same as Halo 3, with some changes to the HUD, night vision, and the return of the Halo sniper pistol.  It was an acceptable showing, good enough for a ‘B-’, before Bungie announced a prequel to the Halo trilogy, Halo Reach, for release in the fall of 2010.  Announcing a secret game with no details gives the Halo segment grade a bump up to a ‘B’.

Alan Wake
At long last, Alan Wake returned to the limelight.  The Xbox exclusive had an extensive showing in the press conference, featuring an extended live demo.  The presentation was fantastic, and the game is certainly visually stunning.  The lighting effects in the demo were among the best I’ve ever seen, which is good given a light based mechanic used in the game play.  This game needed to make some positive momentum for itself, and it managed to do that in a big way.  Unfortunately, it still won’t be releasing until a vague “Spring 2010″, which will drop it’s grade a bit.  However, the live demo scores a large number of points in this column, and Alan Wake gets an ‘A-’.

Last.fm
Xbox Live will be adding last.fm integration to bring a music component into the service.  This is a strong move toward multimedia feature completeness, and last.fm is a fairly widely used service.  This wasn’t a spectacular or surprising move, but it is definitely welcome.  I give the addition  a ‘B’.

Zune Marketplace
The new video marketplace on Xbox Live will feature 1080p HD video and streaming technology rather than downloads.  I like the 1080p upgrade, but I’m unsure if the 1080p streaming will be as instant as Microsoft seems to think.  Still, it’s a nice incremental upgrade, ‘B-’.

Facebook
For those of you looking for reasons to never get off the couch again, Microsoft is here to help.  Facebook integration is coming to Xbox Live, with a vengeance.  The interface looked pretty slick, and it’s yet another feature Microsoft can lord over Sony.  ‘B’.

Twitter
I have many of the same feelings on this that I had on the new Facebook integration.  Except that I actually like Twitter, and use it much more often.  Thus, the grade is a smidge higher, ‘B+’.

Metal Gear Solid: Rising
Oh man, I knew there was trouble when I heard the Metal Gear “discovered” sound effect.  Then Kojima was out on stage … at a Microsoft event?  Sony must literally just be banging their collective heads off a wall somewhere.  Kojima announced that his next Metal Gear title will be coming to Xbox 360, and it will feature Raided rather than Solid Snake.  No real tangible details beyond those, but Microsoft has stolen yet another exclusive franchise away from Sony.  They score major points for that, ‘A-’.

Project Natal
This is an extremely difficult thing to grade, and may be worthy of it’s own Grading the Games at some point in the future.  I will try to keep it brief at this point.  It is a very interesting UI concept, and I believe it will ultimately live or die with its software.  That said, the software demos that were shown onstage were very well done.  It can perform motion detection, facial recognition, and voice recognition.  It has the potential to really shake some things up, but there were no words on a potential release.  All in all, Natal had a great tech demo and has a lot of potential.  Time will tell, but for a press conference debut, it was well done.  I will grade out some specifics of the Natal presentation below, but overall, I’m giving it an ‘A-’.

Kudo Tsunoda’s Sunglasses
Those things made him like a guy who says “Bro” or “Bra” a lot and wears pink polos to bars with his collar popped.  Also, the press conference was inside.  ‘F-’

The “Elephant”
Two people made an elephant shape in front of the camera to import into “Paint Party”.  It looked like a game we used to call, “Hey, whose hand is that, and what the heck is it doing there?”  I’m taking away points for being a little sketchy, but awarding it points for unintentional comedy.  ‘C+’.

Peter Molyneaux’s Hyperbole
‘A++’ or ‘F–’, I can’t decide which.  But let me tell you, it was either the greatest, or worst, hyperbole I’d ever experienced.

Milo
Peter Molyneaux’s interactive “friend” demo was very interesting.  It was an amazing piece of tech, and appeared to be as truly interactive as any simulated person I’ve ever seen.  The Natal appears to give him vision and other senses I hadn’t seen represented before.  That said, this may very well be the precursor to Skynet.  If too many people play anything like this at once, Xbox Live may become self-aware and destroy us all.  Of course, given the amount of people that will now never go outside again, we may not need Skynet’s, I mean Xbox Live’s, help.  Milo has earned himself a ‘B+’.

Overall
Microsoft certainly had a packed press conference.  They led off with huge multiplatorm games like The Beatles:Rock Band, Modern Warfare 2, and Final Fantasy XIII.  The might as well have just brought out a PS3 and a sledgehammer to open their press conference.  They then proceeded to show off tons of exclusives in two new Halo games, Crackdown 2, Left For Dead 2, and Alan Wake.  Not all of these are coming this year, which makes the lineup a bit less impressive, but it’s still substantial.  They ended the event with stealing another franchise previously exclusive to Sony by having Kojima and Metal Gear Solid on stage, and debuting the most interesting UI device for a console since the Wii was debuted.  They did very little wrong, besides Yoko Ono being in the building, and Kudo’s sunglasses.  I was interested for the entire two hours, and left eagerly awaiting many of the things I saw.  In total, Microsoft started off E3 right, I give the event an ‘A-’.

Look for my grades of the Nintendo and Sony press events in short order.

Student 1: Microsoft

Microsoft was the last platform holder to make a part of its back catalog available for download on the Xbox360.  Xbox Originals titles are available for download via Xbox Live Marketplace.  Let’s start from ‘C’, and see how it grades out.

Pricing: Xbox Originals conform to a flat rate pricing model of $15 US, or 1200 Microsoft spacebucks.  For last generation Xbox titles, that’s not an awful price point.  For some of those games, $15 might be a stretch, but for others it doesn’t seem too bad.  On the annoyance factor, you can’t buy a block of 1200 spacebucks, you have to buy 1000 or 2000.  This means you can’t just buy an Xbox Originals game, you either have to buy extra points, or have some laying around.  To sum up, flat rate pricing is worth raising the grade up to a ‘B’.  The price point is a bit higher than it could be, and the annoyance of not being able to buy 1200 spacebucks combine to drop the grade to a ‘B-’.

Selection: There are currently 31 games available for Microsoft’s back catalog service; however, two of them are exclusive to Japan.  While this is a fairly low number compared to the other two platforms, the service didn’t debut until December of 2007.  There is a nice variety of titles both in terms of genres and publishers as well.  Surprisingly, less than a quarter of the titles available are from Microsoft Game Studios.  Also, some games that weren’t necessarily huge sellers at retail are available.  The solid variety raises the cumulative grade to a ‘B+’, but the relatively low number of titles available drop it back to a ‘B’.

Quality of Titles: While there are some forgettable titles on Xbox Originals, there are some real gems, both Xbox exclusive and multiplatform.  Fable, Halo: Combat Evolved, and and Ninja Gaiden Black are great titles, but non-exclusive classics such as GTA: San Andreas, and the Max Payne games are also available.  Also, lesser known games such as Indigo Prophecy, Jade Empire, and the chronically under-appreciated Psychonauts are available.  For having some all around great titles, Xbox Originals gets bumped up to a ‘B’.  Then, for including the Tim Schafer gem Psychonauts, they get a ‘B+’.  The world needs more Tim Schafer.

Extra Credit: Microsoft has a pretty solid back catalog service.  More titles could certainly be released (they’re releasing between one and two per month, on average) Also, the price point could possibly drop a bit, maybe to 1000 spacebucks or $12.50, which happens to be an amount you can purchase exactly on Xbox Live Marketplace.

Student 2: Sony

Sony started it’s PSOne Classics back catalog service on December 4, 2007 in the US, just after the release of the PS3.  The PSOne classics are part of the broader PlayStation Network.  Once again, Sony starts out with a grade of ‘C’.

Pricing: PSOne Classics have a general price point of $5.99.  However, certain “premium” titles may be priced at $9.99.  The $5.99 price point is good, especially as these games are now from two console generations ago.  The “premium” pricing is a smart business proposition, but very annoying to consumers.  Sony gains half a letter grade for a quality price point, but loses it again for their “premium” pricing scheme.  At this point, their grade remains a ‘C’.

Selection: This is where a major division exists between what is available for North American and Japanese gamers.  There are 36 titles available on this service to North American gamers, a bit pitiful when you consider Microsoft has essentially the same number of titles available, with games a generation newer, in one less year.  The Japanese service, however, boasts 246 PSOne games.  Even considering that many of these titles are Japanese only, that’s a difference of over 200 titles.  Sorry Sony, but these grades are made in America.  They’re down to a ‘D+’.

Quality of Titles: This may sound a bit redundant after the last aspect.  There are solid titles available in North America, including; Castlevania:Symphony of the Night, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, Twisted Metal 2, and Wipeout.  However, the Japanese store offers all of these titles, and adds to it with classics such as Resident Evil 1-3, Dead or Alive, Metal Gear Solid, and Final Fantasy VII.  Now Sony, I know these games came out in the US as well, so it’s not as though they would need to be localized.  Rumor has it that Metal Gear Solid and Resident Evil are on their way, but they’re not out yet, so no dice.  Down goes Sony, all the way to a ‘D’.

Extra Credit: Sony desperately needs to improve their back catalog distribution.  They have two previous generations of home consoles to draw from, and are barely drawing from one in North America.  They do better in Japan, but other regions suffer.  Also, their entire PS2 library has been ignored.  I understand they still sell these consoles, but since most of the PS3 units sold don’t include backwards compatibility, that would seem to be a logical next step.  If Microsoft can manage to have “last generation” games available, so can Sony.  Like most of Sony’s offerings since the PS3, this one is substandard.

Student 3: Nintendo

Nintendo provides offerings for a variety on consoles, some not Nintendo products, on its Virtual Console service.  The current consoles offerings are the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Super Nintendo, the Nintendo 64, Sega Master System, Sega Genesis, Turbografx-16, Neo Geo, Commodore 64 (North America), and the MSX (Japan).  For the final time, it’s time to reset to ‘C’.

Pricing: Nintendo provides standard pricing for each individual console available on its service, with a few exceptions for certain titles.  The prices are listed in Wii points, where 100 Wii points = $1.  There does not appear to be an obvious pattern to why some titles are more than the standard pricing.  However, the pricing tiers seem generally reasonable, from 500 points for NES, Sega Master System, and Commodore 64 titles, to 1000 points for Nintendo 64 titles.  Nintendo’s grade rises to a ‘B’ for generally reasonable pricing tiers and the ability to spend exactly the cost of individual games, but falls to a ‘B-’ for the strange pricing exceptions.

Selection: Nintendo has the most impressive selection of titles available due to the large number of consoles it draws upon (including consoles not made by Nintendo).  There are also a fair number of titles available for most of the individual systems, although with these impressive back catalogs, more are certainly possible if Nintendo chooses to release them.  While there are a larger number of titles available in Japan than in North America, this is mostly due to a large number of Japanese-only games developed for Nintendo and Sega platforms.  The vast and varied selection earns Nintendo a jump to a ‘B+’.

Quality of Titles: There are some absolute gaming classics available on the virtual console.  From the Zelda games to Mario, Sonic, and some pretty strong third party offerings, the amount of gaming history represented on this service is impressive.  This service has games that defined the youth of a few generations of gamers available for download.  There are a few exceptions that would be great to see, but more games are forthcoming, and hopefully the gaps will be filled in.  For the amazing breadth of titles and historical significance, Nintendo’s grade jumps up to an ‘A’.

Extra Credit: There’s not much for Nintendo to do, besides continue to release more games.  Some more of the classic RPGs would be welcome (Final Fantasy, Earthbound, etc), and some are rumored to be on the way.  Oh, and please, Nintendo, please ditch the strange pricing exceptions.  Other than that, the Virtual Console is great, provided you have a classic controller around to work with.

Grades are in, class dismissed.