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The Top 7... E3 announcements you missed

We found the stories that fell through the cracks of this year's show

Words: Henry Gilbert, GamesRadar US

Ah, another E3 over. And what an E3 it was. It was a veritable clusterf*ck of news. Megatons were going off so often a casual reader couldn't possibly keep up. Hell, we here at GamesRadar barely could and it's our freaking jobs. So it can be forgiven with all the Natals, Metroids and Final Fantasy XIVs that some news that would have been a big deal any other week got missed. But GR has you covered with the 7 most important news items you probably weren't aware of.


1) You will be able to download real 360 games, but no new Xbox Originals


The Microsoft press conference was chock full of games and celebs, but there was so much going on that Microsoft had a post conference luncheon to cover the stuff that got cut from the show. And the biggest deal that could have even more impact than Project Natal on the market? The fact that, very soon, you will be able to download full 360 games to your system. The examples given were the original Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed and BioShock.


Above: If you haven't purchased Mass Effect by the time it's available to download, for shame 

Don't think crusty two year old games are a big deal? Think about it: this is a huge step towards original, full games like Mass Effect 2 and BioShock 2 being available for download on the same day. It might not make GameStop or Walmart happy, but the convenience of getting major AAA releases, not just bite-sized arcade games, whenever you want is a whole lot closer.

One unfortunate downside is that Microsoft will stop making any more Xbox Originals available. In several statements the company has made it official that after one final Xbox game, it's only committed to putting 360 classics available to download. Rats, looks like we'll never get to repurchase Blinx, what a shame.


2) Nintendo silently announces tons of games


Love it or hate it, the Nintendo press conference focused on a handful of important games, but they're a big company, so there's got to be more right? Well immediately following the end of their showing, for those who went to Nintendo's E3 page you got to see a ton of info on more than a half dozen games not seen at the press conference.

 Most strikingly, it had info on four new RPGs: Monado from Monolith Soft, Glory of Heracles, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorer of Sky and Fossil Fighters. Admittedly those are mostly aimed at the more informal RPGists, but what about the intriguing platformer/pinball mash-up Span Smasher? And lastly it announced Picross 3D, a whole new spin on the awesome and underrated puzzler. The most exciting news around the GR office was that not only is a new Professor Layton coming out, but it comes out in just two months. Looking at that list, it's odd they were left out considering Nintendo's desire to earn back hardcore cred.


3) The guy who wrote Apocalypse Now is making a game


John Milius is one of the heavyweights of cinema (at least he was in the 70s and 80s). His top credit is writing the cinema classic Apocalypse Now, but he was also involved in Dirty Harry, Conan the Barbarian and Clear and Present Danger. And now he’s entering gaming as a concept he created is being made into the game Homefront from Kaos Studios and THQ. The story sounds like Milius is ripping off his own film, Red Dawn, only replacing Soviets with North Koreans. You play as American soldiers out to free the USA from its evil occupiers, through violent and explosion filled FPS action. Not much else is known about it, but our interest is piqued.

 


 
51 Comments
Order Comments: Newest First | Oldest First
Cyberninja  - 5 months 28 days ago 
these look promising
Cyberninja  - 5 months 28 days ago 
and can somthing fix the comments this has only for a few mintues not a year
CuddlyBomber  - 5 months 28 days ago 
I can't wait to dawnload full xbox 360 games! That seems like a really big deal... i'm surprised Microsoft didn't make a bigger deal about it.
jamminontha1n2  - 5 months 28 days ago 
i don't really care very much about being able to download full 360 games. Firstly, i like having a shelf with all my games lined up in nice alphabetical order. Secondly, i only have the smaller of the two hard drives so they would have to really compress the games for them to fit on hard drives. Sorry for being a sour pus. I am looking forward to shadow complex and being michaelangelo in TMNT.
GoldenMe  - 5 months 28 days ago 
Slap the shamestick on me, cause I still haven't played Mass Efeect.
PinkLenny  - 5 months 28 days ago 
i agree with jamminotha1n2
i dont need to download my games to my xbox
my poor cds will get lonely
understudybass  - 5 months 28 days ago 
there seem to be comments from 11 months ago on a article posted today. Funny, that.
lovinmyps3  - 5 months 28 days ago 
I thought Apocalypse Now was based off a book called Heart of Darkness.
purpleshirt  - 5 months 28 days ago 
friggin sweet, this is just what I needed after like missing all of E3...
ReCAPTHA: R U A COMPUTER
ahahahahah no of course im not silly
crabbo  - 5 months 28 days ago 
I'm definitely happy to hear that pikmin 3 is still in the works. I'm also interested in the new Live feature that allows you to download full games.
Jacob816  - 5 months 28 days ago 
Dude, why does it go from 1 to 7? Usually the Top 7 is a countdown :S
MoodBubble  - 5 months 28 days ago 
I prefer to buy the games, then downloading it.
tonyjk78  - 5 months 28 days ago 
This is all very good news. Thanks for pulling this out of obscurity for us, man!
In all honesty, this article's content seems slightly skewed towards Xbox 360. I don't have a problem with this (being an owner of a 360 only, anyway), but is that just because Sony didn't have a post-conference, dregs meeting?
GRHenry  - 5 months 28 days ago 
@ tonyjk78

Yeah when I was collecting the news, I couldn't find much that Sony did outside the Press Conference, which is a good thing for them, they got their big news to the masses. The best I could find was stuff we covered in other articles, like Metal Gear Solid and FFVII on PSN, or really small titles like echochrono, which looks really cool, but is not as big as the other things on the list.

But, given the subject of this list, I wouldn't be surprised if there was some Sony news that went under my radar.
RebornKusabi  - 5 months 28 days ago 
I cannot possibly express my orgasmic excitement that Perfect Dark is being released on XBLA! Let me put it this way, I already own this game on the N64 and will be buying it AGAIN on launch day.

If it comes with online, then I will shit kittens!
Hurricrane  - 5 months 28 days ago 
damn, that means no one else will be able to experience the ecstasy that is Stubbs the Zombie

captcha: Stark Sawmills, obviously designing weapons and ARK Reactors were not enough
alexmdy  - 5 months 28 days ago 
I'm can't really be bothered with downloading 360 games, I tend to sell most of my games after I stop playing them, but unless they figure out some way to do it, like "trading in" 2 newer more popular games, 3 newer, less popular or older, more popular games, 4 older, less popular games or something like that then I doubt I will bother with it, unless I get a lower price by buying them off of XBL.

Also, I'd be willing to bet the last Xbox Original will be Halo 2.
Ban  - 5 months 28 days ago 
i think this summer might end up drought-free that's not good news for my wallet
Defguru7777  - 5 months 28 days ago 
Yay, Pikmin 3!!!

I'm also reluctant to download full 360 games. It'll be good for hard to find games (Tales of Vesperia), but it'd take up so much hard drive space, it's not worth it. Isn't GTA IV alone 6 gigs? And then the expansions are like 2.5 to 3 gigs. Freaking insane.
NeoKef  - 5 months 28 days ago 
Finally, something is done with achievements. All the crap my friends have given me about my gamerscore and why I get them is all going to be gone when my avatar shows up to parties on a boat!!!
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