FFXIOnline.com 2006 E3 SquareEnix news report

[WishMaster3K]

Re: The Next-Gen War Continues!

Thanks for the update Pai Pai. That'll be 7pm EST, so I'll work myself stupid till I forget about it, only to receive awsometacular news when I get home.

[Pai Pai Master]

Re: The Next-Gen War Continues!

Gamespot is currently running an article on an upcoming writeup in Time Magazine.

According to the article, a Time writer has confirmed that The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess uses the "Wiimote" for things such as swordplay, archery, and fishing. The Gamespot article doesn't go into detail (that was probably left for the actual Time article), but does confirm that he was allowed to play the game using the Wii's motion-sensoring remote controller to do things such as these in the upcoming Gamecube title.

The article also confirms a new Wario Ware title for Wii, and mentions some of the very random things that the controller is used for, from swatting flies to cooking, to doing squat-thrusts, to doing the hula dance.

Nintendo's Wii-heavy press conference at E3 is being held on the first day of the event, Tuesday at 9:30 AM PDT. Square Enix's conference is being held tomorrow at 1 PM PDT. Microsoft's is Tuesday at 1 PM PDT. Konami's is Tuesday at 4 PM PDT. Gamespot will be covering all of these live.

[Pai Pai Master]

Re: The Next-Gen War Continues! (Next-Gen/E3 News? Post it here!)

Square Enix's E3 Press Conference began 13 minutes ago, as of this sentence.

Gamespot is currently running live updates to its press conference blog. Check it out here.

I'll post the major points here for easier discussion.


-FINAL FANTASY XII has been confirmed for an October North American release. (Fixed. Thanks Macht!)

-Something called Dirge of Cerberus: Lost Episodes is coming to mobile phones.

-This year's FFXII E3 trailer is in full English. According to the blogger, the voice acting is well-done. "...it's all appropriately haughty, in line with the tone of the story."

-More trailers following FFXII. Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth and Treasures of Aht Urhgan, as well as FINAL FANTASY for mobile phones.

-New trailer for FINAL FANTASY III (DS). Dirge of Cerberus: Lost Episodes is in "full-3D."

-New trailers for Children of Mana (DS) and Dawn of Mana (PS2). Dawn takes place 10 years before Children of Mana. Dawn of Mana trailer is "more CGI than gameplay..." Also new trailers for FINAL FANTASY V Advance and FINAL FANTASY VI Advance. Both ports "promised to have new surprises."

-New trailer for the recently announced Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime (DS). It's the first Dragon Quest spinoff that's making it to the US. FINAL FANTASY VII: Dirge of Cerberus is out on August 22nd. "New feature included" for DoC. Perhaps a non-PlayOnline online mode? Shinji Hashimoto is discussing the success of the Compilation of FINAL FANTASY VII project. Could this be it...?

-Over 10 minutes later and they're still showing trailers of Compilation of FINAL FANTASY VII. Whatever could they be making us wait for?

-New trailer for Crisis Core: FINAL FANTASY VIIi. One of the first PSP games announced and we still haven't seen any gameplay! FMV trailer reveals Zack as the main star, with "a ton of Sephiroth in here."

-Big one! Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Hall of Mirrors announced as a launch title for the Nintendo Wii!

-Another for Nintendo! Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates is officially coming to the Nintendo DS. WiFi multiplayer for up to 4 players. No confirmation of support for Nintendo WiFi Connection.

-And yet another! FINAL FANTASY Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers for Nintendo Wii. Graphics are apparently very good for a Wii title. No major details on the game are available yet.

-FINAL FANTASY XIII revealed for PlayStation 3. "Sword-and-gun-wielding heroine who looks like Yuna, flipping her way around a high-tech, futuristic world." Motomu Toriyama is director. (Designer for FINAL FANTASY X and X-2. Writer for Bahamut Lagoon.) Mobile-phone spinoff in the works. FINAL FANTASY AGITO XIII.

-Another new PS3 game! What the heck is it?! FINAL FANTASY VERSUS XIII, directed by Tetsuya Nomura and developed by the Kingdom Hearts team! The game will feature "extreme action elements." "Bonding" will be a major theme of the game.

-Youchi Wada is emphasizing synergy between products once again. FINAL FANTASY XIII originally began as a project for PS2 (developed by the FFX team), but was moved over to PS3 after they found themselves very satisfied with the results of the FFVII PS3 Tech Demo. "Apparently the game will run on the "White Engine" and will feature the most technologically advanced civilization ever featured in a Final Fantasy. The storyline will center on 'those who resist the world.' Yeah, okay."

-End of the conference. Gamespot will be posting screenshots of the FFXIII stuff, but I have to go to work. If someone else could relay them to this thread, it would be appreciated.



THE PLAYSTATION 3 DETAILS

I'll get straight to it.

The PlayStation 3 is launching on November 11th in Japan. It follows in North America, Europe and Australia on November 17th.

Sit down for this one.

Sony is offering two separate SKUs for the PS3.

$499 - 20GB HDD SKU

$599 - 60GB HDD SKU

And...well...stay seated.

The PS3 controller has been redesigned. It now looks just like a dual shock, but has a built-in motion sensor. Yeah. We know, that sounds mighty familiar.

Discuss.

[Caspian]

Re: The Next-Gen War Continues! (Next-Gen/E3 News? Post it here!)

Have they announced a date and price yet for ps3? Or its that expected later this week?
Thanks for all the info so far Pai.

[Taskmage]

Re: The Next-Gen War Continues! (Next-Gen/E3 News? Post it here!)

They announced pricing at the press conference earlier this evening. Don't remember them off the top of my head; let's see if I can dig them up.

Double Post Edited:
Hmm. Seems I can't. But they quoted multiple prices based on hard drive size (there may have been another factor). I think the high end was $499.

[WishMaster3K]

Re: The Next-Gen War Continues! (Next-Gen/E3 News? Post it here!)

500 for 20gb and 600 for 60gb. Knowing myself >.>, I'm gonna spring for the 60gb, simply because I know I'll get more mileage out of it.

Sony makes me happy inside. I'll talk more about it after class. I'm 10mins late cause of this post and now thie reply ._.

[Pai Pai Master]

Re: The Next-Gen War Continues! (Next-Gen/E3 News? Post it here!)

It's very expensive and Sony's definitely at a disadvantage with a price point $200 higher than their most expensive competition.

Like Kutaragi said and we all dreaded, it definitely sets itself out of the reach of a lot of casual gamers, but also like he said, I think that if people really want the PS3 (which they will), they'll work those extra hours to get it.

And hey, this super-expensive thing has to have its advantages, right? I mean, no 10-year old Halo kids, eh? I know I wouldn't buy my kid a $600 game console. I'd make him pay for that crap himself.

Less than 3 hours until Nintendo's press conference!

[kuu]

Re: The Next-Gen War Continues! (Next-Gen/E3 News? Post it here!)

Pricing sounds normal enough. It is expensive we knew beforehand, and putting it $100 over 360 is close enough they figured.

Depending on how the let you customize your system, such as upgrading HDD, 20gig version might be better option, as we know it's a prem for HDD in the computer world.

It's good they learned from M$'s mistake and have HDD built in to package, I figure the 20gig will be popular so trying to buy the 60gig version might actually have a better chance against zombies*cough* I mean campers.

The "white engine" is interesting. It's basics is an idea which is benificial to the PS3 and future gen in general.

The idea is a share code system, that is robust enough that it can scale from RPG to action game. To speed up development and large projects.

This could not really be done in PS2 and like because the lack of CPU and GPU make it that, it must be optimized one way or another.

But PS3 might be possible. An AI is and AI, like a zoom out/pause makes it look RPG, but zoom in makes it look FPS.

Of course it'll never be optimize, but most games aren't optimized in the 1st two yrs of a system anyway.

A very PC world thinking, where everyone steals, hacks on, buys middleware and engines as much as possible.

If SE can churn out 3-5 games within the a yr of the launch of the PS3 via white engine, then many people will be happy zelots.

Heck, if they can make FFXI online next gen with the white engine (depending on how robust it is) it would be a field day.

Having more power to play with is always good.

I like the new(old PS3) controller. It does what it does without rocking the boat. It's standard business, match it, but no gamble idea, isn't very creative, but It doesn't make developers/consumers be afraid of it.

Like most earily PS2 games, dual shock was an option but not a requirement. The stick in those days, and still some games today, simply mimicked the pad. And I liked that, I didn't like the stick and still don't like it to this day for certain games.

Same with motion sense. I don't want to look like a the warhawk demo guy. I'll get wrist pain faster then the trip to the doctors. (not to mention look totall stupid) I can't/won't do that for 5hrs.

Most likely the delovelopers or rather the beta testers will prove that, and it will become purely optional like rumble. *earily shudder at Wii game play after looking at warhawk*

Maybe it'll become popular, or fun and useful, but it will have to be through trail and error, to get the kinks out, and not for every game, just like dual shock.

Well Sony bitchslapped 80% of the naysayers. Sites traditionally pro M$ like Ars for instances made quotes like "1% chance, of price, date, any playable demo, etc"

Well there shows how good their cystal ball is.

[Pai Pai Master]

Re: The Next-Gen War Continues! (Next-Gen/E3 News? Post it here!)

According to Sony, the Warhawk demo featured an extremely lowered sensitivity setting for the motion control. They said it was done because, apparently, the Warhawk devteam wasn't informed of the tilt-control addition until last weekend, and rushed to get it in and were still getting used to playing it.

You can change the sensitivity of the motion control in the final version, and will likely not have to look like an idiot like that. Either way, it definitely looks fun. I'm not mad at Sony one bit for borrowing a little bit from Nintendo's innovation. (Which they obviously did, you can't argue that). It's always worked that way, Nintendo innovates and the rest learn from it. However, it kinda leaves Microsoft out in the dark...I wonder if they'll upgrade their controllers?

After checking out some of these trailers, I can say I'm definitely impressed. While a couple of them fall a little short, a lot of these early-build playable games live up to the hype and surpass nearly all of the 360's launch titles, which is to be expected from a $200-more console. Metal Gear Solid 4 and FINAL FANTASY XIII look spectacular in action of course, but games like Resistance: Fall of Man, Heavenly Sword and definitely WarHawk really shine.

Surprisingly, the $499 console isn't just 40GB-less HDD space. It lacks HDMI output completely, as well as built-in WiFi, or support for Memory Stick, SD and CompactFlash. It seems pretty nuts, as that could mean no "true-HD" or PSP-connectivity for the $499 PS3.

[WishMaster3K]

Re: The Next-Gen War Continues! (Next-Gen/E3 News? Post it here!)

Firstly:

Consumers who purchase the 20GB version of the PlayStation 3 will find themselves with less options than those who buy the 60GB model when it comes to data storage and Wi-Fi functionality.

According to Sony's latest spec sheet, the 20GB PS3 will not feature inputs for memory sticks, SD or compact flash cards. Nor will it offer any Wi-Fi options or any HDMI output.

The 60GB PS3 will come with a single HDMI port - and not two, as the prototype shown at last year's E3 suggested. The prototype also featured three Ethernet ports and six USB ports, but the console unveiled yesterday has just one Ethernet and four USB ports.

The 20GB model will retail for EURO 100 less than the 60GB version, at EURO 499. The PlayStation 3 is set to go on sale in Japan on November 11th, with US and European launches to follow on November 17th.

Secondly:

Gamespot's Inside E3 blog points out that Sony didn't steal their motion-sensing PS3 controller from Nintendo-they stole it from Microsoft and Logitech:

They didn't steal from Nintendo. They actually stole from Microsoft (and Logitech). The picture you're looking at here [follow link to see pic] is a picture I took of gyroscopic, motion sensing controllers that Logitech and Microsoft manufactured for the PC in 1999. Yes, 1999 as in more than seven years ago.

...I just wanted to point out that this idea was soooo 20th century, and immediately flamed out on the PC because they were honestly more of a novelty than they were practical.

Of course, that would imply Nintendo stole their novel and impractical- exscuse me-innovative idea as well.

[kuu]

Re: The Next-Gen War Continues! (Next-Gen/E3 News? Post it here!)

According to Sony, the Warhawk demo featured an extremely lowered sensitivity setting for the motion control. They said it was done because, apparently, the Warhawk devteam wasn't informed of the tilt-control addition until last weekend, and rushed to get it in and were still getting used to playing it.

You can change the sensitivity of the motion control in the final version, and will likely not have to look like an idiot like that. Either way, it definitely looks fun. I'm not mad at Sony one bit for borrowing a little bit from Nintendo's innovation. (Which they obviously did, you can't argue that). It's always worked that way, Nintendo innovates and the rest learn from it. However, it kinda leaves Microsoft out in the dark...I wonder if they'll upgrade their controllers?

After checking out some of these trailers, I can say I'm definitely impressed. While a couple of them fall a little short, a lot of these early-build playable games live up to the hype and surpass nearly all of the 360's launch titles, which is to be expected from a $200-more console. Metal Gear Solid 4 and FINAL FANTASY XIII look spectacular in action of course, but games like Resistance: Fall of Man, Heavenly Sword and definitely WarHawk really shine.

Surprisingly, the $499 console isn't just 40GB-less HDD space. It lacks HDMI output completely, as well as built-in WiFi, or support for Memory Stick, SD and CompactFlash. It seems pretty nuts, as that could mean no "true-HD" or PSP-connectivity for the $499 PS3.

New controls take a few games and iterations to get kinks out, I don't expect them to get it right within weeks. Reason I stated the dual shock. ANd sometimes some options get left in the shadows to die a slow death(or to get resurected by a less reown innovator) Can you say touch sensitive buttons, dual shock actually has that.

It would be hard to take out HDMI output completely, it's like making 2 different boards. It could be that it's lacks the cable ala 360, or it could be that sony did stick with dual HDMI, and lock off one for lower end..still far fetched.

Wifi...hmmm would make sense, but then it might be upgradable.

Again memory stick and SD, etc will require a whole new board, not sure it's worth it to get $100 shaved. Production alone would off set it. Possible though, depending on where how they did it.

There is a whole other alternative they can slash with $100 except for those, and less costly. Like wire vs wireless controller 360 version.

Maybe just more rumors again. Lots of unconfirm stuff and shakedowns. People are trying to hack through the prss release reports etc.

edit: Though not that bad as component is pretty much the same, HDMI is just more secure both in data, and in interference.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: The Next-Gen War Continues! (Next-Gen/E3 News? Post it here!)

I understand why Sony went with the HD packed in after the PS2 HDD fiasco. But it sure is a gamble too because it only allows a certain demographic to be able to afford to buy it. No wireless controller packed in though?? That really disappointed me. Since I'll be spending 600 for a system, a wireless controller would have helped the blow a bit. I was a bit underwhelmed by that press conference though. I was hoping for a bit more but then again I have nothing to compare it too yet so maybe compared to Nintendo's and MS's it will be the top dog.

[kuu]

Re: The Next-Gen War Continues! (Next-Gen/E3 News? Post it here!)

I understand why Sony went with the HD packed in after the PS2 HDD fiasco. But it sure is a gamble too because it only allows a certain demographic to be able to afford to buy it. No wireless controller packed in though?? That really disappointed me. Since I'll be spending 600 for a system, a wireless controller would have helped the blow a bit. I was a bit underwhelmed by that press conference though. I was hoping for a bit more but then again I have nothing to compare it too yet so maybe compared to Nintendo's and MS's it will be the top dog.

Better then the 360 no HDD fiasco. Call it Hind Sight. There is almost no game fully playable without a HDD in 360...and that sony was deathly afraid of. Every developers at least will use HDD in PS3, even in the least possible way like GT-HD

I hadn't heard if there was a wired version of ps3 controller? Where did you hear that? The only imput is bluetooth...which would make it hard for a wired control...(usb?)

Which sucks is that rumble is taken out now for all models, but it kinda made sense with motion sensor(and a lawsuit). At least it's not like 3rd party ban for 360. (they can always add it back in if enough 3rd party take over the market for rumble).

I can use a cheaper controller down the line.

HDMI heh the upshot of this is that no one will use ICI now. The function which limits resolution to 680p without a secure HDMI signal(for pirates and copies).

No studio will use ICI knowing that they'll piss off 70% of HDTV owners AND PS3 people(bulk of early blue-ray buyers).

The games are alright, but I personally am starting to warm up to the eyetoy. OMG I always wanted to Yugioh my way through a card game. Heck you know Yugioh is going to jump on that right next to Magic the gathering, and all the others.

And it can be Online Only orginal innovate thing of the whole conference. Lets D-D-Dual!

I'm slapping my 600+ on it, ffxiii usually seals the deal for me. Nice reinvented gunblade.

My 360 has yet to turn up a decent RPG.

It's going to sell big in Japan... no doubt. VF5+ffxiii+(now eye-toy) doing a Yugi-oh is every kids dream.

[WishMaster3K]

Re: The Next-Gen War Continues! (Next-Gen/E3 News? Post it here!)

TO DO ME DA!!!!!!!

I was thinking of Dual Masters, actually. But YGO brings back HS memories ._.

Double Post Edited:
omg, I love Sony. And I love Hideo.

I'd love Hideo Brokeback Style.

FF13 and MGS4 stole my cake.

I want my cake back.

I'm buying a PS3.

[WishMaster3K]

Re: The Next-Gen War Continues! (Next-Gen/E3 News? Post it here!)

Just wanted to add that the RevMote and the DS3 have very different fundamental differences.

Rev mote requires a pointing action, and probably senses itself in relation to the objects on screen. DS3 does not require that. So I can imagine the PS3 being better for things like Flying and racing games, probably influencing a new explosion in those dwindling genres, while the Revo will be other games: Games like shooting games, fishing, or other interactive games.

Also, I thought it was interesting that Phil was able to make the duck move, indicating that the DS3 would be able to utilize motion in a more external sense. I can see this being applicible to sports games, particularly Tony Hawk line of games where jumping and maybe tricks are used. Unlike the RevMote, the DS3 doesnt need to be pointed at the screen.

In addition, the same, old-school style of control is there, so nothing is lost. The RevMote and the DS3 are very different pieces of hardware.

*I think I'll post this somewhere where the more biased gamers are yelling out for copy-catting*