Hyphytek

Wed: Day 2

The day started with a preview of the new Gears of War 3, and the besides the blood thirsty gore expected out of the game, the best new feature by far was the franchise’s new Beast Mode.  For those that are familiar with GOW2, Beast mode is the complete reverse of Horde.  Now, you are the Locusts trying to penetrate a COG fortress, and success is only met by the complete destruction of the Seran base.

Final Fantasy XIV was a demo that was reserved specifically for the press, and we couldn’t wait to get our greedy paws all over it.  FF14 will be an online MMO similar to FF11, but with one different aspect… 3D.  Although they were careful to mention that the 3D game play is not yet confirmed, the demo we played was completely 3D as a “proof of concept”, and it was nothing short of spectacular.  In the artistic world of Final Fantasy, I would compare it to walking through a three dimensional world of Pandora from Avatar.  The colors and characters popped out flawlessly and only left us wanting more.  Although Sony’s version of 3D differs from Nintendo’s by the use of glasses, it was nice to be able to see a 3D world regardless of where I stood in relation to the screen.  The application was a little choppy at first, but it was just a beta, and after the kinks are worked out it will be very easy to see 3D technology force its way into the gaming world with the launch of the next generation of consoles.

Also on the agenda today were interviews with the development teams of the new Parasite Eve and Final Fantasy.  Unfortunately, our interview with Final Fantasy was pushed back until tomorrow, but all interviews will eventually be posted to the site.

And of course, there was the game that was not only one of the most anticipated by all of us, but also one of the most exclusive and hardest to get access to… Portal 2.  Valve’s booth was entirely closed off to the public eye, and even limited access was given to the Press.  However, the Hyphytek E3 team happened to be one of the chosen few.  We sat down for a semi-private screening of Portal 2 and recorded 15 minutes of the game due to be released in 2011.  The video will soon be posted in full, but for the time being… it was everything we hoped for.  Nothing changed, and everything changed.  GLaDOS is back and hilarious as ever, and her mazes have a few new surprises to get around.  It’s rather difficult to put in words, so you’ll see.

In the last day of E3, we’ll be focusing on Nintendo and Sony, and will hopefully beat the lines to test out the new Zelda.  Stay tuned for more great content.

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