Tokyo Game Show

Since Microsoft unveiled its motion-control technology Project Natal, hardcore gamers have been a bit dubious of it, because the idea of playing a core game without a controller is something wholly new to them. But as the newly appointed corporate vice president of Microsoft Game Studios Phil Spencer told X-Play’s Morgan Webb during Tokyo Game Show, Microsoft has no intention of overlooking the needs of core gamers.

“We’re not trying to exclude the controller from the gaming experience. We think there are opportunities for hybrid experiences, where somebody uses the controller and they use motion control or voice control, as well as completely controller-free gaming,” said Spencer.

To hear more about Project Natal as well as what Microsoft has planned for Xbox Live going forward, be sure to check out the full interview below.

One of the more controversial games shown at Tokyo Game Show this year -- well, in this case, before Tokyo Game Show -- was Dante's Inferno. Electronic Arts and Visceral Games unveiled the "lust" stage, which his full of well…boobies, as Morgan Webb points out in an interview with Dante's Inferno executive producer Jonathan Knight. Here's how Knight puts it:

"There are a lot of boobies. Everybody's naked in Hell, that's how it's always been. I don't know why, but you go in, the clothes are off and that's just how it is."

One of the surprises out of Tokyo Game Show this year was just how well Namco Bandai was able to port Tekken 6 onto the PSP. Considering how impressive Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny was, however, maybe we should have seen this one coming. X-Play's Morgan Webb chatted with Namco Bandai manager Katsuhiro Harada about Tekken 6 at TGS, including whether people should be picking the PSP version up by itself or in addition to the console version.

"Of course, purchasing the PSP version only is an option. However, we really want the fans to take a look at what we've done, how much we've been actually able to port of Tekken 6 onto the PSP. To actually check it out on the PSP is something that I think they'll be really surprised at what we were been able to achieve. So we really would like them to purchase both copies, so having both would be a good option, I think."

After years of wondering what it'd be like to visit Japan, G4 finally gave me the opportunity to visit the country responsible for so many of my video game memories. Tokyo Game Show 2009 has come and gone. When we landed at Narita Airport, a week seemed like an eternity. How would I adjust to the time? Where's the nearest McDonalds? How do I ask where the bathroom is? The week flew by and four helpings of curry later -- an amount I do not recommend if you want to like curry by the time you leave -- I'd returned to the United States and knew exactly where the nearest McDonalds was.

But as Tokyo Game Show dominated the rest of my time, I didn't have a chance to update all of you with another behind-the-scenes look at the G4 crew's adventures abroad. I haven't forgotten! (By the way, these galleries leave out the show floor of the eccentric Tokyo Game Show for a reason -- if you want to see those, check out the several other photo galleries from last week.)

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Tokyo Game Show is a wrap for 2009, and that's music to the ears of our Tokyo Team who just returned to the office in a sleepy funk. Not that it wasn't fun, mind you, it was just completely exhausting for pretty much everyone involved. Hopefully you've been with us for the last week or so and have been keeping up with our long list of previews, trailers, demo videos, interviews, and photo galleries.

And if you haven't, well...here's our long list! (Read after the break for written previews, news stories, and photo galleries.)

Pre-Show Activities

• Kaz Hirai Keynote Liveblog
• Sony Computer Entertainment Japan Press Conference Liveblog
• EA Tokyo Showcase Report
• Patrick vs. Tokyo, Round 1 | Round 2 | Final Round
• iNiS' Keiichi Yano Interview: Music Games and Project Natal
• G4's Tokyo Arcade Adventure

Videos

• G4tv.com's Feedback: The Tokyo Game Show Episode
• Alan Wake Developer Interview
• Assassin’s Creed II Trailer
• Assassin's Creed II Developer Interview
• Avatar: The Game Trailer
• Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Trailer
• Crackdown 2 Gameplay Demo
• Crackdown 2 Developer Interview
• Dead Rising 2 Weapons and Multiplayer Trailer
• Dead Space Extraction Developer Montage
• Dead Space Extraction Trailer
• Dragon Age: Origins Zevran Trailer
• FIFA 10 Kazuya Makita Interview
• Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Crystal Bearers Trailer
• Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Crystal Bearers Demo Walkthrough
• Final Fantasy XI: Shantotto Ascension Trailer
• Final Fantasy XIII Gameplay Footage
• Final Fantasy XIII Demo Walkthrough
• Forza Motorsport 3 TGS 2009 Interview
• Gran Turismo 5 Gameplay Footage
• Lost Planet 2 Jun Takeuchi Interview
• Lost Planet 2 Trailer
• Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker Trailer
• Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker Demo's First 13 Minutes
• No More Heroes 2 New Character and Mini-games Trailer
• No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle Suda51 Interview
• PixelJunk Shooter Trailer
• Quantum Theory Trailer
• Scribblenauts Developer Diary
• Sengoku Basara Samurai Heroes
• Splinter Cell: Conviction "Numbers" Trailer
• Super Monkey Ball Step and Roll Trailer
• Tekken 6 PSP Gameplay Footage
• The Last Guardian Extended Trailer
• Toy Soldiers Trailer
• Trinity: Souls Of Zill O'll Trailer
• Tsumuji Executive Producer Interview
• Warriors: Legends of Troy Debut Trailer
• White Knight Chronicles Trailer
• Winning Eleven 2010 Trailer
• Yakuza 4 Trailer

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Forza Motorsport 3, Turn 10’s latest installment in its Xbox 360 exclusive racing franchise, faced off against some might stiff competition at this year’s Tokyo Game Show, given that both Gran Turismo 5 and Gran Turismo PSP were on display at the event. However, from the look of it, the game managed to attract a solid amount of attention, and, given my time with the newly released demo, deservedly so.

We caught up with Turn 10 lead producer Brian Lockhart to talk about what’s new for Forza this year. One such feature is auto-braking, which Lockhart explains thusly:

“If you have auto-braking turned on, it’ll control the speed of the car into the turn; all you have to do is steer. So for someone who’s kind of getting their fee wet, and wants to see how you get around a track, that’s an assist you can turn on, and really ease your transition into a sim racing game.”

Watch the full interview below to find out more about what racing fans can expect from Forza Motorsport 3:

One of the earliest hits for the Xbox 360, Lost Planet, is moving closer and closer to the release of its ambitious sequel, Lost Planet 2. Though producer Jun Takeuchi wouldn't budge on a release date more specific than winter at Tokyo Game Show last week, he did tell us about the lessons learned from developing Resident Evil 5's co-op experience.

"I guess the biggest thing that we learned from our experience on Resident Evil 5 in terms of our online co-op was not to confine the player with too many rules, to create a space in which they were able to make their own experiences and make their own type of fun when they're playing through the game. So, certainly, we've tried to do that in Lost Planet 2, to not have too many things that you have to do, so just to give the freedom space to the players and allow them to do what they want to do in the game."

For even more on Lost Planet 2, check out our hands-on co-op preview from TGS.

Welcome to "Morning Hangover" -- an excellent way to start your day with the crew at TheFeed...no matter what you're recovering from. Every morning you'll hear musings from two of TheFeed's editors and have the chance to share your thoughts on what's going on in the gaming world. So buckle up, throw a Pokeball at the new week, and keep reading!

Jake Gaskill: Rockstar Games’ music-making title Beaterator comes out today, and I really hope it gets the attention it deserves. I previewed the “game” a few weeks back, and I was blown away by the sheer amount of technological wizardry Rockstar managed to cram into the PSP title. Beaterator is literally a music studio that fits in your hands. Now, many people might write it off or simply overlook it because it’s primarily a music maker rather than a music simulator (i.e. Guitar Hero, Rock Band, etc.), but that would be a huge mistake because the creative potential is just staggering. Mark my words, people will be producing whole albums with Beaterator within a few months, and they will have done it with a portable gaming device. Am I the only one who thinks that’s amazing? I hope not. Our review will be up later today, so be sure to check back then to find out more.

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"One, two, Maxwell's coming for you.
Three, four, better lock your door.
Five, six, grab a DS stylus.
Seven, eight, better stay up late.
Nine, ten, never sleep again."

I don't know what it is about international travel, but the disconcerting mental drift between awake and sleep inspires some incredibly lucid dreams. It happened in Japan, but I can't recall them. Last night, the phenomenon prompted Scribblenauts to invade my mind. The details of what happened are a little sketchy, but the payoff managed to stick in my mind and I felt obligated to share it.

Dream Patrick was experiencing Bill Murray's repetitive cycle in Groundhog Day…except that I was trying to fight off two robbers invading my home. I kept failing to keep them from making it in the door. Suddenly, though, someone told me that if you attach green beans to the attackers (I have no idea why this suddenly turned into a video game, just roll with it), it will slow them down.

...yeah, I don't know, either. Anyway.

The dream's perspective suddenly warps to a DS screen, as I input the phrase "green beans" into a Scribblenauts dictionary, the items appear and I drag the summoned items over the thieves. It might have been 2D. Maybe. Don't hold me to that detail. In any case, what's important: it worked! Their movement was slowed enough to give me time to do…something. I have no idea what happened next.

Hopefully, I saved the day.

Microsoft has rolled out a number of demos showing how Project Natal can work with existing Xbox 360 games -- Burnout Paradise, Beautiful Katamari -- but the company dashed hopes of Project Natal-enabling patches once the hardware is released. Kudo Tsunoda, otherwise known as the man who demo'd Project Natal at E3, told Destructoid this would be difficult.

According to Tsunoda, it's required substantial coding efforts on Microsoft's part to reengineer these games for Project Natal. A simple patch (as patches have size limits) would not likely be enough for games to suddenly start incorporating Project Natal controls. Already released Xbox 360 games with Project Natal support aren't out of the question, but it's more likely those will come in the form of outright re-releases, rather than downloadable updates.

Maybe there won't be a bunch of patches for existing Xbox 360 games, but is there any reason Microsoft and third-party publishers couldn't release some of the better retrofits as downloable demos included with Project Natal or through Xbox Live? You can have that idea for free, Microsoft.

Source

Welcome to "Morning Hangover" -- an excellent way to start your day with the crew at TheFeed...no matter what you're recovering from. Every morning you'll hear musings from two of TheFeed's editors and have the chance to share your thoughts on what's going on in the gaming world. So buckle up, throw a Pokeball at the new week, and keep reading!

Read More »

What We Know: Gran Turismo 5 has been in development for what seems like an eternity, and eons after its demo version - Gran Turismo 5: Prologue – was released, it seems like Polyphony Digital is finally getting the game together for a March 2010 release in North America, Japan, and Europe.

What’s New At TGS: The new build of Gran Turismo 5 showed off a new course – Tokyo R249 – a track that’s actually built in the same neighborhood as Sony Computer Entertainment Japan. While the physics model seems to have been updated since we played the game at GamesCom, the promised damage modeling doesn’t seem much improved. The gameplay is still solid, and actually, while I usually think racing games are more difficult to play with a wheel, I loved it even more with the wheel when I got my hands on it at Polyphony Digital. Granted, it also helped to play with the wheel inside a slick racing rig, as well.

see our photos from the Polyphony Digital studio tour

However, the big news is that we finally have game details. Gran Turismo 5 will feature 900 cars, 20 locations, 70 variations of tracks, a new physics model, and promised damage that will affect not only the physical appearance of the cars and affect performance, but for race cars, parts will see physical damage, and also get completely torn off the vehicle. Lose a fender or door, and it will lay in the track – damaging other cars that run into it. It’s about time Polyphony!

Gran Turismo 5 will also support many of the modes seen in Prologue including arcade and online modes, a beefed up Gran Turismo TV, as well as the ability to export recorded video to both YouTube and your PSP. Series creator Kazunori Yamauchi says that there will be even more features in the game revealed later, including PlayStation Eye camera support. Sweet!

What We Want To See: The game finally come out! There were rumors that Gran Turismo 5 might make it out before the end of the year, but sadly that won’t be the case as Polyphony confirmed that the game will make it out in March 2010. Better late than never, right? 
 

I just posted Morgan's interview in the story below this one, so now that you're done watching that, here's our two-part Crackdown 2 demo with Mr. Cope. Click the jump for the second part!

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I wanted to fill this post with "WANT WANT WANT" pasted about a hundred times, but the bosses wouldn't go for it. So here's something a little more descriptive: X-Play's Morgan Webb sat down with James Cope from Ruffian Games to talk about Crackdown 2 (WANT WANT WANT). Topics in the interview include the direction they're taking with the sequel, the most important elements they want to keep from the first game, some potentially favorite weapons, and how co-op play is going to work.

It's one of those games that seems like it's been in development forever, but believe it or not, Alan Wake will be here before we know it. As a huge X-Files fan, Remedy's Pacific Northwest mystery is high on my most-anticipated list. Our TGS crew caught up with Remedy's Managing Director Matais Myllyrinne for an update on the game. Elements inspired by Hitchcock? Yes, please.