My first day at E3 was essentially all about getting my feet wet.  I didn’t line up to play games so much as I explored the premises and got a good idea what was around.  It’s been a pretty lively event, and one that only got busier as the day wore on.  But one thing I did manage to take a stab at, the one thing I was prepared to do when I knew I was going to E3, was trying out Nintendo’s 3DS.

The 3DS was shown off in red, teal, black, purple, and orange colors, and they all had a metallic finish, which surprised me a little. Holding the device in my hand, the 3DS felt pretty much like my DS Lite, though perhaps a bit “sturdier”. I wish I had brought my DS Lite to compare, though.

The 3DS is built pretty much like the previous DS entries. The start and select buttons are now beneath the bottom screen, and there is a home button between them. The volume control is on the left side of the device, and on the right side, by the top screen, is a slider to control the depth of the 3D effect. The headphone jack is on the bottom, directly centered. I didn’t notice any other card input other than the one at the top, so I imagine 3DS game carts are roughly the same shape as DS game carts.

To get right to the thing I’m sure everyone is wanting to know about, the 3D effect the system accomplishes is neat, but it wasn’t mind-blowing, and at times it was even a little annoying. I should mention I’m someone who hasn’t “gotten along” with 3D in the past, and watching 3D movies tends to give me a headache.

While it’s definitely nice not to have to use glasses, in some of the demos it seemed like my eyes had a hard time finding what to focus on, and after playing a few, I did feel like I was getting a slight headache. Even one of the Nintendo representatives admitted to feeling a little cross-eyed when she used it.

Overall, the effect wasn’t that great. It definitely added a sense of depth to the visual, but I didn’t really feel like things were flying off the screen at me. But it seemed about as good as most 3D movies I’ve seen (I consider the best to be Terminator 2 3D at Universal Studios, incidentally). One other thing, though. You have to look at the screen dead on for the effect to work. If you deviate too much to an angle, things will just get blurred as the stereoscopic image becomes undone.

The first demonstration I tried was basically a selection of “tests” meant to get the user used to the 3D effect. It was very Nintendo. The first thing it shows you is two strawberries, one in 3D and a flat one, and you have to pick which you think is the 3D strawberry. After that, you can pick one of four more tests. The one I tried showed three mine carts set on tracks that interwove between each other, and you had to pick the one that would get to the diamond at the end. My partner also did tests for finding which hole a ball was in, and counting how many children moving around on the screen were in 3D.

Next, I saw a trailer for a CG animated movie called Legend of the Guardians. Again here, the 3D was a quaint attraction, but I didn’t feel like it was flying out at me. I will note, however, that the movie quality seemed very sharp, and while I don’t know what the specific screen resolution is, I’d hazard to say the movie seemed like it was HD. While I know it was a movie being played directly off of a cartridge, and I also know movies on smaller screens tend to look sharper, I’d say if streaming content on the 3DS could look as good as this trailer did, it’d be a pretty big feature.

After the trailer, a Nintendo rep let my partner and I try out the 3DS’s 3D photo capability. She admitted it worked best when the object you focused in was about 1-2 meters away. After you take a picture, you can “focus” it using a slider on the touch screen, which lets you set the best manageable 3D effect. I held my arms out in my picture, and my friend held up his camera, and you could definitely get a sense of the depth.

Next, I watched a trailer for Resident Evil Revelations, which was rendered in real time. This was the only demo I played that let you use the analog stick on the 3DS; a new feature. All it did, though, was slightly change the orientation of the cinema playing, as if you were looking around. The A and B buttons let me zoom in and out, and X let me pause the movie.

The analog stick feels very solid; way better than the one that’s been on the PSP models before. However, as a personal preference I wish it weren’t on top of the D-pad, as I prefer the D-pad to be directly horizontal to the other major buttons. This was the first demo where I noticed the 3D effect was starting to bother my eyes a little.

After that, I watched a demo for Paper Mario. Given the simple visuals, this game actually looked the best to me in 3D, and had nice features like Mario peeling away parts of the BG and walking back into the coves it revealed.

Then I watched a trailer for the new Kid Icarus game, though I wasn’t completely sure if it was a movie or being rendered in real time. This was another demonstration where the 3D effect started bothering me, and in some segments, like the Sin and Punishment-esque shooter parts, I had a tough time keeping my eyes trained on Pit. But I will say that this game and others before looked stunning. In a lot of cases, I turned off the 3D to see how the demos looked, and they were pretty much just as good. The visuals in Kid Icarus easily looked on par with a Wii game.

The last demo I tried was for Nintendogs + Cats. This was the only real interactive demo I tried. I could change costume items on the puppy, as well as select different toys for it to fetch and bring back. The toys were thrown by sliding them across the touch screen. It was a quaint little game, and while I’ve never played Nintendogs before, playing this made me miss my dogs back at home.

I do think I’ll go one more round with the 3DS if I get a chance. There were a lot of demos shown off, but your time in the demo area was limited, and unfortunately there weren’t any good indicators showing which demos were where.

Overall, the 3DS stands out to me as the next evolution of the DS, rather than being a new system (such as how the Virtual Boy was an entirely different beast than the Game Boy). I imagine this is why Nintendo stuck with the 3DS name.

I’ll reiterate, the 3D is a nice gimmick, but it didn’t wow me. But as someone who personally doesn’t care much about 3D either, this fact doesn’t bother me a lot. Since the 3D effect can be a little wearing on the eyes, I’m glad Nintendo had the good sense of letting you tone it down or turn it off entirely. It may seem counter-intuitive to be able to turn it off, but it’s good in making sure the 3D doesn’t get in the way of enjoying the game.

The 3DS still seems to have all the great features of the DS before it, and some new ones like better visuals and the analog stick. With the amount of content already in the works, I’d say Nintendo’s 3DS is going to be a pretty big contender.

Photographs taken by Cheston Tang

I finished God of War III a couple of days ago and I have been trying to come to grips with the game. In many ways, it is the best in the series and in others it is the tiniest bit of a letdown.

If you were expecting a revolution in terms of gameplay you’ll be disappointed. You still don’t have control of the camera, you’ll still be doing quick time events, and you’ll still be abusing the Square, Square, Triangle combo.

Even with all that God of War III stands tall as an amazing game and a climactic conclusion to Kratos’ tale of revenge.

If there is one thing that distinguishes the GOW games, it is the sense of scale. Enemies that would be the final boss in most games are mini-bosses in GOW. Take the opening level of God of War II for example. You are doing battle with the Colossus of Rhodes. Think you versus an animated (and pissed off) Statue of Liberty to appreciate the scale of this battle.

God of War III takes these fights to almost ludicrous proportions. You are often fighting 30+ enemies on the back of a Titan that is scaling a mountain. You are fully in control, battling away during the kind of moments that other games relegate to cut-scenes. These awesome battle dwarf everything else on the market. The game is worth playing if only to witness the first unbelievable boss fight.

If you are an HDTV Guy, you need this game. This is the kind of game you throw in to show off your crazy awesome home theater. There is nothing else out there that can come close to the spectacle GOW III unleashes on your eyes. The game is just unbelievably gorgeous. The Kratos character model is particularly impressive. You can see the scars from his battles. GOW III and Uncharted 2 are neck-in-neck when it comes to the best looking games on the PS3.

"Yes, that is Kratos between his fingers"

However, the game is not without its flaws. The double jump-glide move is almost completely broken. I cannot tell you the number of times that I plummeted to my death when the controls failed me on a jump. I found ways around it, but it was a major annoyance. I did not have this problem at all in the other games. It might seem like a small gripe, but you do a lot of jumping and when it is broken it is annoying. It seems strange that the jumping is so broken, because the rest of the game is so polished.

I was also let down by the story. Without giving anything away. The story wasn’t bad, just more convoluted than it needed to be. Your ultimate objective is completely clear, but your methods of accomplishing it are confusing. Part of the problem is the backtracking. You’ll see a few of the same areas several times.  Also, there is a point in the story where Kratos goes from “I don’t care about anything but revenge” to out of nowhere, “I care.” It felt out of place with everything that had come before and didn’t feel natural at all.

Getting back to the good stuff; The combat is even more brutal than ever. You’ll be ripping people in half and snapping necks right out of the gate. If you thought Kratos was a bad man before, just wait until you see the way he finishes off some of his enemies. These cringe inducing moments are on the verge of being too much. Remember that scene in GOW II where he repeatedly slammed the door on the guys head? There are at least five of those kind of moments in GOW III, where the violence is taken to the next level.

"Fighting monsters on the back of a Titan"

The controls are just as fluid as ever. A rookie can pick up the controller and just by mashing on the buttons will pull off amazing moves. A savvy veteran will string these amazing moves together with strategic dodging and parrying to create a flowing dance of death. You can get through the game on easy, tearing through your enemies and feeling like the baddest dude around, or you can study up and take on the harder difficulties where you have to dodge and use your blocks.

The maximum number of onscreen enemies has been increased from 15 to 50, which is even more impressive when you look up from the 50 guys you’re busy eviscerating and realize that your are riding on the back of a titan.

For me though, the best addition to the combat is the weapons. In previous entries in the series, every weapon besides the chains sucked. In GOW3 the other weapons that you acquire are not only useful, they are actually fun and you can switch between them on the fly. For the first time I found myself relying on weapons other than the one you start out with.

Unlike other games in the series, magic is now tied to which weapon you are using. So the Claws of Hades give you a different attack than the Nemesis Whip. Figuring out how to best take advantage of each weapons strengths and corresponding magic is vital to success.

You can also use items for the first time in the series. Their use is governed by a bar that automatically refills. For the most part the items are really only useful in predetermined sections, but I did end up using the bow a lot. Having a ranged attack that could keep a combo multiplier going came in handy on more than one occasion.

All in all it was a grand finale to one of the best series in gaming. God of War III flirts with perfection, but falls just short with a failed double-jump. However, if you own a PS3 I highly recommend giving this one a whirl.

With the massive success of the movie Avatar, television manufacturers are convinced the world is ready for some sweet 3D action in your living room. LG, Sony, Toshiba, Panasonic, and Samsung are all gearing up some form of 3D displays. ESPN is going to broadcast the first 3D sports network. Forget HD. The world seems on the verge of a 3D TV revolution.

What does this mean for gaming?

Remember the excitement when you first played Rad Racer on the NES and you put on the 3D glasses. Even though it didn’t really work all that well, you were still awestruck at the possibilities. The idea of 3D gaming has long seemed like the promised land for gamers; that one step closer to the dream of the holodeck.

At first glance, the possibilities seem very intriguing. Imagine playing an FPS where bullets and shrapnel are literally flying at your face or imagine walking through a forest in an RPG and seeing leaves and bugs flying around your head. How much cooler will the wrecks in Burnout look when the debris and sparks are flying at your face? These minor things can go a long way when it comes to immersing you in the game.

My fear is that developers will use this technology like an early 80′s horror movie. “Look! The rake is coming right at my face! Oh no!” Tricks like this get very old, very fast (that is unless you want to play Rake Dodging Simulator 2011). If you have ever watched a bad 3D movie, you know the kind of moments I am talking about; the moments in the movie where the director force feeds the audience 3D  instead of letting the story just flow. However, if game developers can get over the desire to create artificial moments and utilize the effects properly, 3D will push gaming to a new level.

How practical is the technology?

At this point, no one has quite figured out how to make 3D work for more than one person without everyone having to wear the dorky 3D glasses. No one looks cool in the 3D glasses. Arthur Fonzarelli could wear a pair of 3D glasses while riding his motorcycle over a pit filled with lava sharks and he wouldn’t look cool. There are prototype sets that work for one person if he/she is sitting in the exact right spot in front of the television. Neither of these feel like the best solution, both feel like serious compromises for the viewing experience. The glasses can cause headaches and migraines. And sitting by yourself in one particular spot doesn’t seem like the future, it seems like time out.

The sets themselves are still very expensive. At the moment, the cheapest 3D television I could find would set you back about $9,000. In scientific terms, that’s a lot of scratch. Technophiles will jump on board quickly, but I can’t imagine mainstream America shelling out big bucks for the units. And without a large enough audience, content producers will be hesitant to create exciting content. Without any content for it, your huge expensive 3D TV becomes a gigantic paperweight.

Gaming companies will most likely hold off on creating 3D content until there are more households with 3D sets. Making games is already expensive and risky. A couple of companies will probably produce content and make a killing, but for the vast majority of companies there won’t be a large enough market for some time. The future looks to be in three dimensions, but for now we just have to wait.

After the rough year electronics manufacturers have had, it is easy to understand why they are pushing the next big thing. Unfortunately, at this point the technology simply isn’t there.