Nintendo Conference
Day Two started off with even more hype than day one as now it was to be packed by many conferences from big names like Nintendo, Sony, UbiSoft and Capcom. But first it was Nintendo's turn for their Press Conference and they had some big surprises too, the show started at 9:04am PST. The Kodak Theater is awash in the warm glow of anticipation. With people wondering if Nintendo is going to gloat about its mainstream success as much as it did last year? It began with a quite similar feel to last year, with large screens showing people enjoying the Wii.

Cammie Dunaway is took center stage first; she apparently broke her wrist snowboarding. (That's no fun) She introduced pro snowboarder Shaun White; he's demoed a snowboarding title on the balance board. It's so coincidental that the game is also called Shaun White's Pro Snowboarding, the game will be out this fall for the Wii

Satoru Owata then takes the stage; he talked about his first E3 as Nintendo's president in 2003. (Wii haters can basically kiss his butt at this point). He mentioned how the company has changed the paradigm with casual games and bridge games. Like how internal teams that work on Mario and Zelda games are at work at new games. (That was… erm… cryptic).

Satoru Owata turned to the screen, which showed pictures of old people, women, children playing games. Games are no longer just a holiday item. “Nintendo wants to “break the psychological barrier” surrounding games”. Owata said “Nintendo is the pioneer in forming new paradigms” But enough of Satoru Owata I think its announcement time!

Katsuya Eguchi was shown onscreen, talking about Animal Crossing, the community aspect of the title, this game is called Animal Crossing: CityFolk, the shown video is demonstrating the game. It's set in a city with auction sites, a “happy room academy”, and a fashion designer, beauty salon. You can send letters with pictures to other players in the game via the Wii message board. There's also microphone support “Wiispeak” players can communicate in real-time within the game. Focus in the game is in creating your own world and communicating with each other.

But then Katsuya Eguchi left and Reggie entered the stage, It's Reggie time! Reggie talked about Animal Crossing and how pleased the company was with the massive sales (10 million for Wii, 20 million for DS, according to Figures in May). Reggie stated that by this holiday, the total number of DS worldwide sales is to exceed 100 million systems, and that total US software sales are up 29% from last year.

He also said, “there seems to be an unlimited number of people out there waiting to get into our game, when those June figure numbers are released on Thursday, we wont be surprised if the Wii is the best selling console in North America. Along with that 19 third party games have exceeded 400,000 copies in sales… and that was the bit about third party support”. Reggie claimed that the Wii is great for core, casual, and “new paradigms” in games.

Then 3 new games were highlighted, first up was a Star Wars: The Clone Wars trailer, which showed motion controlled lightsaber battles, Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party trailer, a party game, looks family friendly, showing kids playing it, giggling. The third game was Call of Duty: World at War, which also had a new trailer, this targeted more to the core gamer and it has a co-op mode.

Cammie Dunaway came back onstage to talk about portable games (and their success). In 2005, 30% of handheld game recipients were female which means that's gone up to almost half in the last year. Games like Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades and Spore are on their way for the DS - trailers and interviews were shown for the games. Guitar Hero will have song sharing between versions of the game, Spore Creatures interview - “hitting on core elements - layer creativity and sharing” has the creature creator at its center.

Pokemon Rangers was also announced and is due on November 10th of this year, then the big announcement of the show came with a: custom version of Grand Theft Auto - Chinatown Wars which is coming to the DS this fall! (Grand Theft Auto on DS – which is huge!)

Nintendo is testing the DS for PDA-like uses and connectivity features - example using the DS at a baseball park to order food, compete in trivia with other fans, using the DS as cookbook, software (Cooking Navi) coming this November in the US (European Date Unknown, Ah Well!)

Reggie returned to the stage to build on the idea of the DS as a new device, he demonstrated the Wii Remote's “Wii Motion Plus” advancement. He also announced Wii Sports Resort - Wii Motion plus remote will be packed in with the game – he showed off three of the new activities (Ooh). Another game was called Disc Dog, it's a Frisbee / Nintendogs looking minigame. Reggie is showing off a jet-skiing game, he looks pretty funny, game looks like an Wii-enhanced Waverace. Reggie went on to say that Wii Sports Resort launches globally next spring.

Now for the big announcements are Miyamoto came onstage, playing the sax on a Wii-mote. (They're jamming). Miyamoto said “I'd like to introduce you to Wii Music” the game has been in development for a long time, since the original Wii Sports and such. Great social experience, it'll be a different style of music game than the norm - they designed the game for everyone. No complex notes or charts to follow just use your body and press the buttons with relatively forgiving timing - looks very easy, newbie-friendly.”

He also said, “Over 50 different instruments will be available, including piano, violin, guitar, percussion instruments”. So he demonstrated the drums, using the Wii balance board - mode includes lessons - you can learn the drums in a few weeks.

Now Reggie and Cammie Dunaway returned to the stage - basically recapping. Snowboarding, Animal Crossing, Motion Plus, etc. Reggie said ”Nintendo simply brings more smiles to more faces.” Then Reggie just closed down the party. And that's it for the Nintendo Conference, it ended at 10:10am PST (WOW, One hour and ten minutes! That was pretty dull!).

Sony Conference
Just over an hour later it was Sony's turn for their Press Conference and this was expected to be the biggest and most highly anticipated conference of the three.

The show started at 11:36am PST with the symbols of the PlayStation brand, the X, O, Triangle and Square all over this place on over 100 monitors. The screens started playing clips of some of the most anticipated games that will be coming out this year, going through publisher by publisher.

First on the stage was Jack Tretton. Apparently the rehearsal took over 12 hours the day before—hopefully things run smoothly this time around. He said ““As great as 2008 has been [on the PS3], we have just began to scratch the surface. The seed for the PS brand came together 15 years ago this week to green light the original PlayStation.”

He went on to say “The original PlayStation was more vivid, more experiential. The PlayStation One introduced CD's to the mainstream market, PS2 brought along DVD's, and clearly PS3 has helped the fight for Blu-Ray. The original was the first video game system to move over 100 million units.”

For the next few minutes he waffled on about the power and potential of the PlayStation 3, but then he mentioned this ““Metal Gear Solid 4 is a REASON why you buy a PS3. Games like this and other exclusives (75 titles total) are why consumers buy the system.”

This made people take notice as everyone thought he was about to introduce a new game in the Metal Gear Series, but no he went on to talk how 2008 will be the year that begins to set things in motion for the decade and beyond.

At this point Jack Tretton welcomed Ted Price, president of Insomniac Games to the stage with a demo for Resistance 2 and it looks fantastic. Ted Price said, “In 1951 we lost Chicago, former inhabitants roam the streets hungry and no longer human. Aliens hover above the land across cities all around. Resistance 2 breaks new ground with single player, 8 player co-op, 60 player competitive ... the game truly scales.” Here is another clip from the Resistance 2 game trailer, showing a brand new level.

This demo showed off Nathan Hale in Chicago on a rooftop when a huge 300-foot Leviathan moves out from behind the buildings and heads towards Hale and his team. The evil Leviathan first destroys a plane and grabs Hale, at this point Nathan Hale shoots a rocket into its mouth and it releases him. Now all Hale must do is run and not be caught by the 300-foot monster but while doing so the Leviathan is destroying the building behind Hale so he can't stop moving (Talk about Epic!)

Jack Tretton then goes on to say that 130 new titles coming to PS2 in 2008, including: NCAA Football 2009, Tiger Woods 2009, Star Wars Force Unleashed, Singstar 2, Yakuza 2, Madden XX and more.

The next thing on the agenda was the PlayStation Network (PSN)—This generation's digital identity is extremely important to Sony. Starting this fall no matter where you log in you will have a single PSN network—from your PS3, computer, or other. The PSN will be getting more powerful over the next few months/years. While the PlayStation Store just got a facelift, it will continue to build and improve without any hidden fees. Last month there were 20 million downloads—180 million downloads since launch.

The PSN has been great for add-on content to Blu-Ray as well as original content. Ratchet Clank Future: Request for Booty is a lower cost game with all the action, suspense, mystery, and humor that you expect from the whole game. You can now pick things up with the Wrench, go through light and dark gameplay, basically it will be a fully-fledged game with PS3 graphics. It will be an exclusive for the PS3 for only $14.95 via the PSN.

The next game on the agenda was Gran Turismo 5: Prologue (OMG, WOW) this game offers worldwide programming, in game, through the PSN. It was announced that a new service called Gran Turismo TV (GTTV) will be hitting Pay Per View via the PSN. It will offer footage from racing events throughout the world, a tour of Ferrari's home ground, reviews of the newest cars and of course, the UK TV series Top Gear will be available too ... in SD and HD.

They also went on to talk about PlayStation Home and the PS Network Video Service, which will allow you to download content directly to your PS3. Sony Pictures, MGM, Lion's Gate, Warner, Disney, Paramount, Turner, Fox Pictures and TV will be offering content in SD and HD. TV shows will be $1.99 and Movies will be available for rental and purchase (rentals from $5.99 and purchase from $9.99). After you've downloaded the content on your PS3 you can then move it to your PSP and bring it around with you. You also can watch the content at multiple devices at once. And best of all the content and service will be available STARTING TONIGHT! (USA Only. Europe & Australia delayed till 2009).

Jack Tretton then mentioned the PSP he said that last year was the year of the PSP slim. He said “There have been 13 million total PSP units sold in North America. Last year's entertainment packs helped provide growth last year.” So this winter Sony will not only offer the Madden pack but at Ratchet and Clank pack with National Treasure UMD movie and a 1 GB duo card for $199. (Ooh Nice!)

Next up was a video slideshow on the big screen, first popped up a Sony PSP with the videos being shown on that PSP, the video started with Sony Computer Entertainment Presents and a Game Developed by Bend Studios. At this point everyone thought ah yes, a third Syphon Filter game for the PSP. So predictable, but no then it went into video and audio from Resistance: Fall of Man (PS3) and people started to think “Oh god no!” but yet again they were wrong, this was a new Resistance game called Resistance Retribution which is coming in Spring 2009.

Other PSP trailers shown included Star Wars Force Unleashed, Madden 09, LocoRoco 2, NBA 09 The Inside, Super Stardust Portable, Lego Batman The Video Game, Patapon 2, Buzz Master Quiz, Valkyria Chronicles, and more. Then Jack Tretton announced that the PSP has sold 35 million units worldwide.

It was then announced that an 80GB PS3 is the primary focus for Sony now. The 80GB will be $399.99 in the fall and it'll be called the “Core Pack.” (Europe gets this too)

Dominic Guay from Ubisoft showed off some Far Cry 2 game footage. Gavin Carter said he digs the PS3 as well, so he showed off some FallOut 3 footage in the background.

Then the big announcement of the show arrived with the announcement of God of War III for PS3, Infamous for PS3, and finally a massive action (online) game from Zipper Interactive called MAG.

MAG can have 256 players, 8 player squads (led by proven leaders), characters grow through three levels, and soldiers are fine-tuned, leading to an “intense and long lasting shooter experience for PS3” (That was awesome, I can't wait for that one). But no release date was mentioned as that ended the Sony Press Conference for 2008 and the show finished at 1:05pm PST.

UbiSoft Conference
The third press conference of the day started at 2:30pm PST for UbiSoft, it started with Ubisoff America's President, Laurent Detoc, sitting on the stage and playing with his Nintendo Wii. In addition to a couple big action games including Far Cry 2, Prince of Persia and I Am Alive, most of the games seem a bit more geared toward girl gamers, including a new “Ener-G” line.

But the first game up was Rayman: Raving Rabbids TV Party was demonstrated for the Wii. It also appeared to be balance board compatible. You'll be able to throw snowballs at each other. Expected release is November 2008 for the Wii & DS.

Next up was Brothers in Arms: Hells Highway, coming in September 2008 by Gearbox with rather impressive graphics. (I was very impressed with it), then Ubisoft said that they are working on some in-game voice recognition to boss around troops in various games like Tom Clancy's End War, which looks to be all (or primarily) voice controlled. (I can't wait for this one)

Far Cry 2 was shown next and it is set in 50 square miles of explorable Africa, it's coming Fall 2008 and Detoc calls it “First Person Shooter 2.0” (ugh, terrible language). Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Tony Key, announced the “Games for Girls” initiative with six games (all DS) specifically meant to lure in unsuspecting female teens. Look for more Petz games, tie-in Petz toys and “Ener-G” line of sports games. Other games include Imagine: Movie Star and Imagine: New York Fashion Designer. (Ugh, so dull)

Now Game producers Louie LaMarche, Phillippe Morin and Scott Mitchell showed off the Xbox 360 version of Shaun White Snowboarding. (This was dull, pathetic and very, very boring), then UbiSoft showed off trailers for two of it's biggest games these were Prince of Persia and I Am Alive (This is Jade Raymond's new game after Assassins Creed). The Ubisoft conference only lasted for around an hour and wasn't very entertaining, no other Tom Clancy games were announced, so don't expect a new Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell or Rainbow Six anytime soon.

Capcom Conference
Capcom officially ended the second day of press conferences for E3 2008, this started at 4:30pm PST, they went in a completely different direction. Rather than showing the audience some screenshots of their new title Flock or discussing the gameplay and the controversy surrounding Resident Evil 5, they instead decided to premier the mini trailer of Lost Planet: The Movie and talk about it.

After showing the CG trailer the company rolled out some of the people working on the film to discuss it which included, Avi Arad (producer of the first two Spider-Man films) and (the voice of Solid Snake himself, and writer/co-writer of the first two X-Men film) David Hayter.

Most of the conference ended up being a love-fest between the writers and the company about how great of an adventure the game was, which led to its eventual production into film. Not much surrounding the plot of Lost Planet was revealed, however, there was some information given about the film with an eventual release date.

It was mentioned that Lost Planet: The Movie has a tentative release date of the 2nd November 2009 and will be released through Warner Bros. It was also mentioned that Capcom wants to continue its venture into films riding the successes of Resident Evil and.... Street Fighter (What? Street Fighter movies were a flop!).

They said “Their aim was to not only turn the franchise into a film, but to work together to develop games with idea of converting them into movies.” Capcom finally announced that there would be more Lost Planets games, eventually. (No more details were announced) (That's bad, man).

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