May 8, 2006 - E3 has officially kicked off here in Los Angeles California, as both Activision and Square Enix have already begun to show off the next step in our great industry's life. It's been an interesting morning thus far, as we've seen some promising games, great announcements and tons of potential for great showroom floor action. While the Staples Center and LA Convention Center won't be open until Wednesday, IGN has already had a chance to kick-start this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo.
 
 
 
On the Wii side, we've been busy since early this morning, as Wii editor Mark Bozon and freelancer Dan Iverson hit up Activision for Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam, while Matt Casamassina checks out the somewhat mysterious line-up over at Square Enix. Activision held their presentation at the Marriott hotel here in LA just blocks from the convention center, and had a ton of great titles to check out. Top on our list, of course, was the latest Tony Hawk for Wii.
 
 
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Tony Hak heads to Wii!  
 
 
Bozon's Impressions:
 
Mark Bozon: IGN Wii Editor  
   
While we've been given a few short glimpses of Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam over the last few weeks, we haven't really been at liberty to talk about the title as much as we'd like. Now that the conference has finished, we're free to speak our mind. To kick things off, Activision has built the latest Nintendo Tony Hawk game from the ground up, going back to the drawing board to deliver a different style of gameplay for Wii users. You may already have seen our first interview with Activision designers, but there's of course more to come.  
 
For those that haven't had a chance to check it out, Downhill Jam essentially takes the Tony Hawk universe, and combines it with the style of SSX or 1080 Snowboarding while still keeping the feel of a traditional Hawk game in tact. Players use the Wiimote in what is known as the "classic" pose, holding it like a traditional NES controller. The A button is used to jump, B is used to pull off tricks, and the trigger underweight the D-Pad is for doing grabs. Aside from that, the character control is handled entirely by motion control.
 
Style:
In fact, while the game's control is obviously quite different from anything we've seen thus far in the Hawk series, it seemed to work. The presentation had a player controlling the game on-stage, and we had a chance to watch him shred down a few different environments. For starters, the look of Tony Hawk is about the quality of a GameCube game, but it seems to be running in 480p, so that's at least a start for the Wii hardware. As we mentioned in previous articles, the power of the Wii is around double that of the original Cube hardware, so we can expect to see a steady increase in quality as the titles are given more time during development.  
 
Downhill Jam, however, is noticeably weaker in the graphics department than first generation 360 games. This is to be expected due to the hardware, but that doesn't mean Downhill Jam didn't have a great style. The game is amazingly fast, and seemed to run on about 60fps, with drops at times to about 40 or 50. In addition, there were some new blending techniques used on the character models, and things like hair animation was noticeably stronger than previous Cube titles we've seen. In fact, speed blur and action effects look great, and draw distances in levels seems to be higher as well.
 
New Info:
You've heard our impressions, and some of you may have seen some media by now. Aside from the look, however, there's a ton to talk about with Downhill Jam that's all new information. First off, Downhill Jam will use eight characters, feature eight different locations (such as Machu Picchu, San Francisco and Rio de Janeiro) and total more than 90 different events. These events range from anything to checkpoint races, time attacks and trick events. In addition, the gap system from previous Tony Hawk games are still included, so players will have their hands full if they are going for 100% completion.  
 
The look of the actual levels has had a bit of a facelift as well, as there are more on-screen models, bigger events going on around the skaters, and completely over-the-top level design. It is obvious the focus for Downhill Jam was put on speed and big air, and we were convinced they hit their mark. Players were shown launching out of windows, weaving between traffic, sliding around huge turns a la the "Lords of Dogtown" skaters, grinding on nearly everything and jumping traffic and monorails.  
 
In addition to the environments, IGN received a few new facts about the gameplay and story progression. During main races, characters will have the ability to gain tokens called "victory points." These points can then be used to upgrade your character by purchasing new gear and skateboards that will up their stats. This gear can be switched at any time, so players who need that extra speed boost on Machu Pichu can easily tweak their character based on the equipment they've unlocked. Not a bad little system. In fact, since all the levels are free-form, allowing players to take tons of different routes at an attempt for first place, racers can tweak their character based on their play style. If grinding along the highroad is your cup-o-tea, simply grab the grinding board. Like to bomb the hill? Take the quicker boards that up the racer's ability for speed boosts. It's simple and it seems to work. The victory point system, teamed with the ability to race multiplayer adds a ton of promise to the title.
 
 
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Dan's Impressions:  
 
Dan Iverson: IGN TV, Nintendo E3 Team  
   
At 10:30 this morning we were treated to a pre-E3 presentation by Activision. Anxious to show off their games before the actual event, Activision brought in what would more than likely be their big hitters for the next year. Included on that list were the next-generation version of Spider-Man, a new Marvel RPG called Marvel Legends, their only Wii exclusive title Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam, the next World Series of Poker game, The Movies new expansion pack called Stunts and Effects, the new and improved Tony Hawk game Project B, and Id Software's Enemy Territory: Quake Wars.
 
Even though all of the titles were impressive, and personally I cannot wait to get my hands on all of them, it was Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam that I was there to see. In case you have missed the previews, Downhill Jam is a downhill skateboarding game that uses the Wii's motion sensors to make you feel more a part of the game then any other installment of Tony Hawk's Skateboarding. When watching the demonstration I was very impressed with the use of the controller, even though I was under-whelmed with the game's graphical quality.
 
As part of the immersion into the world of Tony Hawk we get to travel to exotic locals and grind our way down and across the vast levels that have been created. In their live demo, we watched as they played in San Francisco, Rio de Janeiro, and Machu Picchu with three different skaters. The diversity of the levels was nice, and it seemed that there was plenty to do to keep you busy. As mentioned by Toys For Bob (the developer of this ambitious title), there will be 8 locations and over 90 events for your virtual skater to thrash.
 
As with all the new Nintendo Wii titles, we are all excited to see how the controls are used for the games. In Downhill Jam's case, it looked to make good use of the Wii control with motion sensitivity. In order to play the game you tilt the controller on its side and use it like any other Nintendo title, but the game makes use of the motion sensors by having so that when you tilt it to the sides it will have your virtual counterpart weave like your motion. Another function added to the control is a speed boost that is used when you shake the controller. I personally am a big fan of the controls as it seems simple and intuitive enough that it won't stress you out trying to learn how to play the game.
 
There are a lot of features that I did not touch on such as taking specific runs to advance certain attributes of your character, or the Skate Precision mode where you have a time limit to go from gate to gate down the levels, but all will be answered when we roll out all our information at E3.

Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles - The Crystal Bearers
 
   
Comme annoncé dans les news précédentes, Square-Enix adaptera bien sa franchise Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles sur DS et sur Wii !
 
C'est au second que nous nous interesseront cette fois. Tout comme sur DS, on a très peu d'informations, si ce n'est le titre du jeu : Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles - The Crystal Bearers.
Un trailer en pré-calculé à été montré lors de la conférence, on espere le voir d'ici peu de temps !
 
[UPDATE] Voici les premières images extraites de la séquence cinématographique
 

 

Dans cette news de début de journée, nous vous informions que le contrôleur serait capable d’émettre des sons, et bien rajoutons à cela qu’un micro y est également intégré ! Celui-ci vous permettra ainsi de communiquer avec d’autres joueurs, mais aussi, comme sur DS, avec la machine (reconnaisse vocale).
 
EGM rapporte aussi que la Wii aurait la possibilité de rester connectée en permanence au Nintendo Wi-fi Connection, pour qu’ainsi vos amis puissent vous joindre à tout moment pour vous proposer de jouer ! Même la télé éteinte, le contrôleur émet une sonnerie pour vous avertir qu’une personne cherche à vous joindre…
 
Intéressant tout ça, non !? Hmmm… vous disiez…Revolution ? Wii… ^_^