E3 Retrospective, Part 2: 2006-2015 - It's a Pixel THING - Ep.#56

Let's take a journey through time and watch the 2nd Part of Pixel THING's E3 retrospective. In this one I'll be covering years from 2006 to 2015.

On last week’s episode of It's a Pixel THING:

• A silhouette on a window of a shaking cabin;

• Summer arrived in style;

• The War of the Worlds meets the Terminator;

• And a guy shoots this dude for riding is skate.

2006

Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and the Nintendo Wii were the most coveted items of 2006’s E3.

By that time, Microsoft’s console was the only one that was already available in stores and its main weapon were the exclusives Fable 2, Halo 3 and Peter Moore’s announcement that Grand Theft Auto IV would have exclusive future episodic content through Xbox Live. Obviously, those were later also available for PlayStation 3 and Windows PCs.

However, all the attention was towards the Nintendo Wii. Huge lines, with up to four hours of wait time, formed just to try out this revolutionary console. Even Steven Spielberg wanted to test this motion sensitive controller that the Wii is best known for! It was, without any doubt, the center of all game related things at E3 that year. Wii Sports, a Wii adapted version of Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3; these were Nintendo’s highlights. They’ve also announced the Nintendo’s DS Lite availability in US territory, never mentioning Wii’s price. This was reserved for later in the year, closer to its launch.

Microsoft’s press conference was all about games and, also, featured Bill Gates’ announcement of the Live Anywhere service that would bring closer together their 7^th generation console and PCs via the upcoming Windows Vista operating system.

As for Sony, they’ve announced PS3 prices and revealed the SixAxis motion sensing controller that was later dropped off and swapped by the version 3 of the good old DualShock with vibration capabilities.

Besides all games mentioned before, there were others that also deserve some recognition: God of War II, Guitar Hero 2, Assassin’s Creed, Crysis, Battlefield 2142, Gears of War, Red Steel, Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin and Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters.

July of 2006 was also stage for two awfully sad announcements by the ESA, the Entertainment Software Association: the transformation of the Electronic Entertainment Expo into an invite-only event, to reduce crowd; and the banishing of booth babes.

2007

So, 2007’s E3 moved to Santa Monica and was consequently labeled as Media and Business Summit, dedicated to a restrict group of journalists. In consequence, after the 60 thousand visitors of the past year, 2007’s E3 had only 10 thousand people walking through these corridors during those 3 days.

Events and press conferences took place in various hotels in Santa Monica, rather than at a specific central location, and small independent developers were hampered and stifled by the big boys. This fact was highly criticized by Maxis’ co-founder Will Wright.

Spite these changes and controversy, E3 was stage of a few good video game announcements by Sony and Microsoft: MotorStorm, that would come bundled with a new 80 GB PS3, Halo 3 and Halo Wars, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, Fallout 3, Silent Hill: Origins, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Bioshock, Gran Turismo 5, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Resident Evil 5 and Soul Calibur IV, to name a few.

On the Nintendo side, there were some peripheral announcements for the Wii: the Wii Wheel bundled with the brand new Mario Kart Wii, the Wii Balance Board and the Wii Zapper. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption were also demoed and deserve being mentioned.

2008

Second year of the new E3 format that only had around 5000 attendees, 50% less than 2007’s event.

Again in LA, and apart from all that criticism, an exclusive Nintendo DS Grand Theft Auto game was announced – Chinatown Wars – that is still considered the best title for that handheld! It was later also available for the Sony PSP and other portable devices, such as Apple’s iPhone and iPad, and Android based smartphones and tablets.

Nintendo also announced the Wii Speak and the Wii MotionPlus expansion device, for more accurate movement. Also a Wii Music demo was presented, along with some other goodies: Animal Crossing: City Folk, The Conduit and Wii Sports Resort.

Besides announcements of big updates for Xbox Life and for the PlayStation Network, news from Microsoft and Sony were basically in the form of sequels for their greatest franchises: Resistance 2, Fallout 3, Fable 2, Ratchet & Clank (future): Quest for Booty, Gears of War 2, Resident Evil 5, Saints Row 2, Final Fantasy XIII and a tiny sneak peek of God of War III.

2009

The old E3 is back! (Booth babes)

And, with it, awesome game announcements: Assassin’s Creed 2, Forza MotorSports 3, Gran Turismo and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker for the PSP, teaser trailers for Crysis 2 and Halo: Reach, Super Mario Galaxy 2 and New Super Mario Bros Wii, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Heavy Rain, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, The Beatles: Rock Band, with the presence of Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr themselves on the stage of Microsoft’s press conference, and Red Dead Redemption.

It was also the year for unveilings of motion sensor controllers: Project Natal from Microsoft and Sony’s PlayStation Move. Sony also revealed their new PSP Go handheld.

This year, UbiSoft and Electronic Arts had also press conferences of their own and was the first time we’ve had a glimpse to The Last Guardian, the spiritual sequel to Shadow of the Colossus.

Now… where were we? (booth babes)

2010

Two days before the beginning of the actual 2010’s E3 event, Microsoft’s press conference convinced the audience with its presentation of the Kinect, formerly known as Project Natal, and various demos were presented live on stage: Dance Central, Kinectimals, Your Shape: Fitness Evolved and Kinect Star Wars. If that wasn’t enough, a new slimmer version of the Xbox 360 was also unveiled and the upcoming Gears of War 3 was announced.

Nintendo centered its conference on the new 3DS system and the re-release of classic titles like Donkey Kong, not forgetting the usual announcement of a new Zelda game: Skyward Sword for the Wii, but, due to wireless interferences, some technical issues occurred.

After Gabe Newell’s statement that it was “a waste of time” to develop games for the PlayStation 3, he made an appearance at Sony’s press conference to announce that PS3’s Portal 2 was the best console version! Another awesome moment was Kevin Butler’s inspiring message to all gamers (video)…

There was also time for Konami’s disastrous presentation. I’m not gonna comment this. It’s so freaking stupid!

Let’s just forget that this happened and watch some highlights of a few of the most important video games present: Mafia 2, God of War: Ghost of Sparta, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Test Drive Unlimited 2, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, Fallout: New Vegas, MotorStorm: Apocalypse, Deus Ex: Human Revolution and the reboot of Twisted Metal. As you can see, reboots and remakes came a long way.

2011

Another year for portable systems from Nintendo and Sony, leaving Microsoft a step back and completely loosing that year’s E3. But, spite weak Kinect demonstrations, the brand unveiled Halo 4, Forza 4 and the final release date for Gears of War 3.

Sony’s brand new handheld, the Vita, was announced and a partnership with AT&T was received with laughs by the journalists present at the brand’s press conference. However, this was probably the most impressive piece of technology present at E3 that year.

As for Nintendo’s Wii U, it was the first 8^th generation console to be announced. It was also Nintendo’s very first high-definition system that features this unique gamepad with an embedded touchscreen that can, in supported games, be used independently of the main display. Aside from a bunch of Wii U demonstrations and the celebration of the 25^th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda (trailer of Skyward Sword), the 3DS also had their own spotlights: Super Mario 3D Land, Mario Kart 7 and Star Fox 64 3D.

This was a year of other big video game announcements: remember Duke Nukem Forever? It was finally released later that year! Battlefield 3, Mass Effect 3, Batman: Arkham City, (The Elder Scrolls V) Skyrim, the reboot of Tomb Raider, BioShock Infinite and Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception.

2012

This was a quiet year. People were expecting major console announcements from Sony and from Microsoft. Nintendo, on the other hand, completely lost the opportunity to really stand out and only showed a slightly improved version of their U console, with some tweaks to its controller and main unit. However, three titles did impress the crowd: New Super Mario Bros. U, Pikmin 3 and Rayman Legends.

So, the main attractions were the games! And, the one that made people’s eyes pop out was Watch Dogs, with its unique style of gameplay in this beautifully designed open world environment.

Besides Ubisoft’s innovative game, other amazing products were revealed: Beyond: Two Souls, Resident Evil 6, Forza Horizon, The Last of Us, Dance Central 3 – with a special demonstration by Usher (Microsoft Press Conference) –, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, Assassin’s Creed 3, Crysis 3, God of War: Ascension, Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch and Far Cry 3.

2013

Finally, the 8^th generation arrived in great style.. at least, for Sony!

2013’s E3 was one the most anticipated ever. But Microsoft’s recent announcement of DRM implementation and always-online requirement for its new XBOX One console automatically opened the doors to Sony’s PlayStation 4 ascent to victory, not mentioning Xbox One’s 499 dollars starting price against PS4’s 399.

Nintendo also had a bland E3 with few attractive moments. A new Pokémon (X and Y) for the 3DS and, for the Wii U, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD, Bayonetta 2, Super Smash Bros., Super Mario 3D World and Mario Kart 8.

Nonetheless, Microsoft should be proud of their own Xbox One launch titles presented: Dead Rising 3, Ryse: Son of Rome, a brand new Halo (5) game and the reboot of Killer Instinct as a free-to-play title that has all game modes available but only one playable character. Its presentation, however, was stained by an unfortunate comment made during the on-stage demonstration.

Konami also celebrated its 40^th birthday and showed off some titles like, for instance, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.

Other amazing video games were announced: Need for Speed: Rivals, Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag, Trials Fusion, Battlefield 4, Wolfenstein: The New Order, Infamous: Second Son, Titanfall, The Crew, The Order: 1868, The Division, Gran Turismo 6, The Wolf Among Us, the remake of Rise of the Triad and the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto 5.

2014

Last year’s E3 was one of those that I really enjoy watching. So many games displayed, so many game announcements and so many promises from the main players.

Gamers were amazed by the quantity, but, mainly, by the quality of the titles that were showcased. Microsoft and Sony pulled off interesting press conferences with pretty solid announcements and video game unveilings. As for Nintendo and just like in last year’s E3, they’ve opted for a pre-recorded presentation of their novelties and made also some interesting announcements like: Hyrule Warriors, Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, Xenoblade Chronicles X, the next Legend of Zelda for Wii U, Mario Party 10 and Star Fox Wii U, not mentioning this fever called Amiibo.

So, I’m just gonna point out a few titles from a huge list of awesome games that were announced and others that had a playable version available at the show floor: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Batman: Arkham Knight, Assassin’s Creed: Unity, Destiny, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege, Bloodborne, The Evil Within, Elite Dangerous, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor, Driveclub, Halo 5: Guardians, Mortal Kombat 10, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, The Sims 4, Far Cry 4 and Alien: Isolation.

Also a trailer for GTA V was shown, announcing that a polished version of the game would later be available for PS4, Xbox One and PC.

Grand Theft Auto 5 was initially launched in September of 2013 and sold, ‘til 6 of june of 2015, for all platforms altogether, more than 52 million copies. What a feat!

2015

And we’ve reached 2015. And what a show it was, starting right off with Oculus VR hosting a pre-E3 press conference unveiling the Rift’s final version and showing off all its power through some on-stage demonstrations.

Bethesda also hosted its very first E3 press conference and ended up blowing everyone away with this DOOM trailer and the official announcement of the release date of Fallout 4.

But two of the biggest highlights of the show were Microsoft’s announcement of Xbox One backward compatibility and Microsoft HoloLens that was also nicely received by Minecraft fans, in which I’m not included. My thing is more towards this nice Rare compilation of old gems from the past (Rare Replay).

Then the Electronic Arts conference came along and I simply had to grab my nuts from the ground after this mind-blowing demo of Battlefront. Apart from this, I just can’t quite remember what really happened in EA’s conference... I remember Pelé being there trying to say something to the audience, and… that’s pretty much it!

I really hope that Electronic Arts had learned something from this year’s Ubisoft presentation. That was one hell of a press conference, with awesome and confident hosting from Miss Aisha Tyler that took us all through this journey of awesome titles: For Honor, (Tom Clancy’s) Ghost Recon Wildlands and Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, besides others.

Now, as for Sony, it just set the whole place on fire: The Last Guardian haven’t died spite all the difficulties that the development team had while working on it for the PS3. It seems that Gabe Newell’s previous statement, back in 2010, was real! Then, the place completely exploded when Shenmue 3 was announced! And that wasn’t the end of it: Final Fantasy 7 HD Remake was unveiled! Looks like Sony had been listening to fans! And, to conclude this astonishing press conference, a rolling demo of Uncharted 4 was revealed. What a ride!

Oh! I almost forgot about Nintendo! What can I say about that pre-recorded video? Hummm… it was bad. Nintendo was completely unrecognizable this year. Practically passed unnoticed ‘cause Sony’s press conference was still in everyone’s minds! That was probably the biggest problem for Nintendo, from where I’m standing.

Moving on, other titles must be, as well, highlighted: Forza 6, Dark Souls 3, The Division, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Gears of War 4, Need for Speed, Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2, The Crew: Wild Run, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Battlefield Hardline, Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst, Mass Effect: Andromeda and King’s Quest.

And this wraps up my 20-year Retrospective of E3.

  

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E3 Retrospective, Part 1: 1995-2005 - It's a Pixel THING - Ep.#55

Let's take a journey through time and watch the announcements and birth of many of today's greatest video games and systems since the very first year of the Electronic Entertainment Expo.

This is Part 1 of 2 of Pixel THING's E3 retrospective.

Since its 1995 debut, there have been many awkward and surprising moments. In this two part video I’ll be pointing out some of those and, as well, the biggest and awesome game announcements that eventually saw the light of day.. and others that didn’t!

Prior to E3, video game novelties were presented at other trade shows like CES and ECTS in some dark and obscure spaces within the fair itself and, to get to those, we had most likely to walk past all the porn vendors.

1995

The 16 bit Era had already faded out and 1995’s E3 was when players were struck by the announcement that the Sega Saturn was, at that precise moment, available in stores and not only by fall of that year.

Then, Sony’s press conference came along and the announcement that the Sony Playstation would be available in September in North America and Europe for just 299 dollars, a full 100 dollars cheaper than Sega’s brand new machine and would have more than 50 games by the end of the year.

Nintendo unveiled its Virtual Boy that turned out being a huge commercial flop, and also announced the Ultra 64 as their next console to be launched in the summer of 1996.

SNK’s home system would be the Neo Geo CD; 3DO showed off their M2 console that was never released; and Atari Jaguar VR was announced, complete with Virtual Reality headset unit and controller, and, also, the Jaguar CD add-on.

As for the games, the main stars were: Sega’s Vectorman; Sony’s Battle Arena Toshinden, Ridge Racer and Twisted Metal; and Williams’ Mortal Kombat 3.

1996

1996 was a year where many of the greatest gaming franchises ever were born: Resident Evil, Tomb Raider and Crash Bandicoot.

But Nintendo was the main attraction of the fair mainly because of all the hype behind their new home console. The Nintendo 64 was revealed to the public and, as well, the new Mario 64 that is considered one of the best video games ever made. The brand also unveiled its Game Boy Pocket.

Besides all this Nintendo hype, there were other great announcements that year. A trailer of Final Fantasy VII for the PlayStation was showed, Virtual Fighter 3 by Sega and, also from Sega, an internet browser for the Saturn was revealed that turned out to be another commercial failure.

Sony did it again in 1996: dropped PlayStation’s price to 199 dollars. One day after Sony’s announcement, Sega followed with a similar Saturn price drop.

A few more games also needs some recognition: Pilotwings 64 and Wave Race 64, obviously from Nintendo; and Nights into Dreams and Sonic X-treme (canceled) for the Saturn.

1997

E3 had a huge exponential growth that a new bigger place, with the size of 35 football fields, was announced for the 1997 event, and, gladly, that was a year without the traditional new systems and consoles overdose. So, 1997 was a year exclusively for games, about fifteen hundred to be more precise, and mostly for the PlayStation!

The PC gained an extra boost for games with a new Pentium II processor, and Half-Life and Unreal were the main attractions for that platform, followed by other great first person shooters like Sin, Daikatana, Quake II, Star Wars Jedi Knight Dark Forces II and Prey (only released in 2006).

On the console’s panorama, Metal Gear Solid was revealed for the PlayStation, but probably the main star of the show was 007 GoldenEye, for the Nintendo 64. Besides having this huge attraction, the Nintendo 64 also had on display one of the worst video games ever released: Superman.

It was also the year for 3DFX. Practically every single PC game on display was “powered by 3DFX” and that made me instinctively buy one of those “magical” boards for my PC in the summer of ‘97!

Other titles were, as well, showed off: Tomb Raider II, the very first Grand Theft Auto, Fallout, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Banjo-Kazooie, F-Zero 64 (later renamed to F-Zero X), Final Fantasy VII, Oddworld, Resident Evil 2, Star Fox 64 and Time Crisis, but the most iconic, for its consequent delays, was Duke Nukem Forever.

  

1998

Another year dedicated to the most important stuff: games! It was the year for the very first Gran Turismo, Pokémon series had its debut, Silent Hill and Final Fantasy 8 were presented for the PlayStation and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the Nintendo 64 was probably the main player of the fair.

The highly anticipated Half-Life had a near final version displayed and a Duke Nukem Forever first video was shown. As you all know, the game was only released more than a decade later.

Also in 1998, and surrounded by mist, Sega and Microsoft revealed for the press, and for the press only, its 128 bit marvel named Dreamcast. So, the Saturn was, at this point, pronounced dead.

Besides all these goodies, other great titles were announced that year: Diablo II, Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit, Tomb Raider III, Heart of Darkness, Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, Age of Empires II, Tekken 3, Perfect Dark and Homeworld.

1999

Back in LA, 1999’s E3 was, once again, the stage for new console announcements, but the only one, and the very first 6^th generation console available, and just released in Japan, was brought by Sega: the Dreamcast.

Gamers were blown away by its graphical quality and American players could only get their hands on one of those by September 9^th (9/9/99). In Europe, the Dreamcast would only be available later that year, in October the 14^th.

Nintendo also announced its next generation console: the Dolphin, later renamed GameCube, and Sony unveiled what would be the next PlayStation with a dedicated spot showing off some graphics demonstrations of what was coming. A Neo Geo handheld was also presented to the public, the Pocket Color, but revealed as a commercial failure.

1999 wasn’t just about the next generation of consoles. There were also some pretty good games announced: Donkey Kong 64, Soul Calibur, Unreal Tournament, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, Crash Team Racing, Dino Crisis, Ape Escape and System Shock 2.

2000

Spite Sega’s Dreamcast having the hottest booth and the most generous offer in terms of video game titles available for testing, the year was for the PlayStation 2 with Sony promising a 299 dollars price tag and about 51 games for Christmas.

From Microsoft came the announcement of their own video game system: the Xbox. Also, a 3^rd person PC game named Halo: Combat Evolved was revealed.

As for Nintendo, it continued to give support for its Nintendo 64 gaming console and showed a few more details for the upcoming next gen GameCube. Also a new portable was unveiled, the Game Boy Advance.

But the title that really stood out from the crowd was this nine minute trailer from Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. This tiny sneak peak presented on the show was just mind boggling and left everyone drooling!

A few more titles presented on the fair deserve being mentioned: Marvel vs Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes and Seaman for Dreamcast, Conker’s Bad Fur Day for Nintendo 64, Max Payne and Rune for PC. Also, the Unreal Engine 2 was revealed that would bring new tools for PC gaming development.

There were also protests outside the show because of the Columbine High School shootings. The boys who committed the crime were known Doom enthusiasts.

2001

2001 was the year that everyone were looking forward for more info about Metal Gear Solid 2. However, there was this little gem that no one seemed to have noticed: Grand Theft Auto 3.

There was also two other PlayStation 2 titles that grabbed a chunk of the audience’s attention: Devil May Cry and Gran Turismo 3.

But 2001 was a year that everyone was eager for a new Nintendo home system. Everybody wanted to talk about hardware. That year, besides Nintendo’s GameCube and the Game Boy Advance, there was also this amazing novelty: Microsoft’s own gaming console, the Xbox. With it came three great franchises: Medal of Honor Allied Assault, Halo Combat Evolved and Project Gotham Racing.

As for Nintendo, at its press conference, Miyamoto carried the wavebird wireless controller and told the audience that he could play games from halfway across the auditorium. The crowd went nuts! He also brought a few titles to demonstrate the power of his newest console, like Luigi’s Mansion, Pikmin and Super Mario Sunshine.

This was also the year where the PC was seen as a dying gaming platform by developers, and when Sega pulled the plug on their console development and started focusing on software for other console manufacturers. From this moment on, Sega became a third-party software publisher.

2002

2002 was the year of DOOM 3 (trailer). PC gaming wasn’t dead, after all! No one had ever seen these kind of graphics on a video game! This one was a much slower-paced game, nearly like a survival-horror type of thing! Really scary stuff!

This was, once again, an E3 filled with games, gladly, and online gaming was making its first steps. Microsoft took advantage by launching the Xbox Live service, along with Splinter Cell, Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance and the exclusives Unreal Championship, Dead or Alive: Xtreme Beach Volleyball and Halo 2 (trailer).

For 2002 Nintendo had on display Metroid Prime and The Legend of Zelda The Wind Waker that grabbed the crowd’s attention.

But other multiplatform titles were also applauded: Red Faction 2, Time Splitters 2 and Turok Evolution.

Military games were becoming hugely popular in video gaming, and Ubisoft stunned the audience with its Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield. But no one expected that even the United States Army would ever get a game of their own! So, in 2002, the Army unveiled a new recruitment tool called America’s Army that gamers could download and play for free.

Also, from Electronic Arts, came Battlefield 1942 that stunned everyone who tried it and became another huge success for the PC also as an online gaming platform.

2002 was also a year of some promising announcements: Tecmo’s Ninja Gaiden exclusively for Xbox and the release of Grand Theft Auto Vice City firstly for the PlayStation 2, followed by the PC and, only a full year later for the Xbox. As for Sega, now a third-party developer, announced Shinobi as a PS2 exclusive and Panzer Dragoon Orta exclusively for the Xbox.

Sony also announced the EyeToy camera, an adapter for online gaming and a brand new exclusive Contra game: Shattered Soldier; besides other titles from awesome franchises: Colin McRae Rally 3, Ratchet & Clank and Red Dead Revolver being, this last one, the older brother of the amazing 2009 Red Dead Redemption.

2003

Once again, PC games were the main stars of the show: The Sims 2, the very beginning of the Call of Duty franchise and the amazing Half Life 2 that had the most incredible physics engine the world had ever seen.

But Half Life 2 was just one of the many big sequels revealed that year. Microsoft’s press conference ended blowing the audience with a Halo 2 movie; and people attending Sony’s event went completely wild with a trailer of Gran Turismo 4.

But, even so, people were asking for Doom 3 and no one seemed to have an answer to that question.

Apart from that, Ubisoft resurrected the Prince of Persia franchise, with an incredible new look and storytelling, Tecmo’s exclusive Xbox game Ninja Gaiden was also on display and Sony left everyone speechless with its announcement of a brand new handheld system: the PSP. When I say “everyone” I really mean everyone! Even Nintendo that didn’t saw it coming!

Nokia also entered the game with its N-Gage, but their press conference went incredibly wrong. I believe that it was the worst press conference to this date! Everything just didn’t work well or didn’t work at all! This was probably the only scene that saved the show (photo of babe with 299).

Another down side came from Blizzard that was planning to release StarCarft: Ghost, but it was eventually, and unfortunately, canceled.

Other significant future releases were showcased: Stalker, FarCry, Guild Wars and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.

  

2004

2004 was the year when everyone was already focusing towards the 7^th generation of consoles. However two handhelds were featured on that year’s E3: Sony’s PSP and Nintendo’s DS. Everyone was just intrigued about the DS and its Dual Screen display and the presence of Miyamoto himself tried to convince the crowd.

Sony, on the other hand, announced that was already working on the PlayStation 3, driving the audience completely insane and Microsoft’s Halo 2 was also grabbing huge attention.

During this 4 day show, one question regarding the launch date of Doom 3, Half Life 2 and Gran Turismo 4 remained unanswered.

However, the title that got the most incredible reaction from the public was The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for the GameCube. That background music just reminded me of the 1982 movie Conan, the Barbarian starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Other titles were also applauded by the public: Metal Gear Solid 3, God of War, the announcement of a brand new Grand Theft Auto game - San Andreas -, F.E.A.R., the rise of the Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) genre with World of Warcraft and The Sims 2.

2005

By this time, Doom 3, Half Life 2 and Gran Turismo 4 were released! YEYY!!!! And, obviously, major commercial successes. To this present date, Doom 3 sold more than 3.5 million copies, Gran Turismo 4 11.73 million and Half Life 2 more than 12 million copies.

The 2005 E3 was the first ever to be televised and was packed with fans eager to know more about the upcoming next generation consoles that would be revealed soon. So, that year, was all about the hardware with Microsoft demonstrating their Xbox 360, with Alan Wake being the title to get the biggest hype from the crowd, and Sony showing some pre-rendered 1080p videos of future titles leaving everyone impressed but, at the same time, suspicious (Motorstorm?).

Probably the biggest surprise came, once again, from Nintendo with its presentation of the so called Revolution console, later re-named Wii. Its controllers, however, remained in secrecy ‘til the end of that same year. If that wasn’t enough, Nintendo also unveiled a new handheld: the Game Boy Micro.

Spite all this hardware mayhem, a few good software titles were presented that also got some attention: Battlefield 2, Call of Duty 2, Age of Empires 3, Unreal Tournament 2007, Star Wars: Empire at War, Quake 4, Hitman: Blood Money, Company of Heroes, Civilization 4, The Witcher and The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, that made Ivan Cordeiro spend all is money building a brand new PC just to run it.. Poorly!

Stay tuned for part 2 of Pixel THING’s E3 retrospective.

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My Wishes for Next Year's E3 - It's a Pixel THING - Ep.#54

Remakes and reboots are so fashionable these days, aren’t they? So, here's a couple of remakes or reboots or both that I would really like to see and play in the future!


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Kung Fury: Street Rage [2015, Windows / iOS / Android] Review - It's a Pixel THING - Ep.#53

Ten days after its worldwide released on youtube, Kung Fury has already more than thirteen million views!

Crowd funded through kickstarter, the movie tells, in 30 minutes, the story of a renegade cop who travels back in time to kill, no more nor less, Hitler! So, expect a lot of Nazis, Vikings and… wait for it… Dinosaurs!!!

Backed by more than seventeen thousand fans, this kickstarter campaign was launched in December of 2013 and gathered more than six hundred and thirty thousand dollars, three times more than its initial goal! An HD download and physical copy on blu-ray and DVD was shipped to backers of the project in November of 2014 and, now, 6 months later, everyone have the possibility to watch this amazing, hilarious and cheesy movie from writer, director and actor David Sandberg. Yes, David is the main star of this freaking cool movie!

Right after the movie’s première in Cannes and on youtube, was also made available on Steam the PC adaptation of the film, just like it would happen in late eighties and early nineties, except there was no steam or other type of online store back then!

Developed by Hello There, Kung Fury: Street Rage is a beat-em-up video game that features superb stereo music, amazing true color graphics and hordes of Nazis to beat!

That’s all we have to do, beat the crap out of all enemies that appear on screen by pressing the left and right buttons, or arrows on the keyboard, and try to get the highest score possible!

The best of all is that, visually, it’s simply amazing and gorgeous to look at! It feels like we’ve just travelled back in time and in an arcade saloon trying out this new game that has just arrived! Awesome stuff!

With tons of beat-em-up video game references “a la” Streets of Rage and even to the He-Man animated series, it features, also, a digital presence of the rock’n’roll “king” of the eighties David Hasselhoff with a Knight Rider twist. So, both movie and video game should be experienced by all nostalgic fan of this type of thing. Better saying, Kung Fury should be seen and played by everyone! This is what kickstarter is all about, funding projects that people really want to see, play, feel and touch! Not some pointless stuff that only guys with a tie around their necks think that will bring big money to their mighty corporations, deviate some to their own pockets and later be arrested for doing so!

Please, tell all your friends about this epic eighties adventure. Let’s make Kung Fury the video with more visualizations on youtube surpassing PSY with its Gangnam Style! The links to both movie and game are below.

And there are even iOS and Android versions of the game that plays, looks and sounds exactly the same as the one shown in this episode! And those portable versions are completely free!!

Do yourselves a favor and grab the game and the soundtrack! It’s really amazing and takes you right back to the eighties!

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Watch the movie here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS5P_LAqiVg

- Get the amazing soundtrack from: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/kung-fury-original-motion/id999155960

Get the video game from:
- Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/373180/
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kung-fury-game/id987523910?mt=8
- Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=se.hellothere.kungfurygame

This video also features music from:
Andrea Milana - The First Samurai - Echoes RMX (Commodore Amiga)