Welcome everyone to the Zenspath.com 2010 San Diego Comic-Con coverage directly from sunny California!

Sadly we had to miss the Preview Night as well as not having a ticket for Saturday, but just the days we were there (Thursday / Friday / Sunday) have proven to be some exhausting and exciting events!  Everything from artist autographs, celebrity sightings/meetings, live game demos, actual hands on with a few of the games, and tons and TONS of free stuff.

We spent weeks planning out our schedules trying to reach as many panels as we could and to cover as much of the exhibit hall as possible.

None of that panned out.

We went downstairs into the main Exhibit hall and found ourselves being distracted by every little shiny object that we came across.  Amazed at one thing after another we passed from artist to artist for a few hours in order to get some choice signatures as well as some great custom sketches to add to the collection.

But will all of the commotion and distractions, I did find some time to go see about the games that were announced and/or playable on the floor.

The Big 3 (Microsoft / Nintendo / Sony) came with smaller booths than I had expected, while some of the third party companies (like Capcom) went all out.

Microsoft had a surprisingly small booth for such a large company especially when compared to events like E3.  I found out later though that booth size is determined not by money, but by years of attendance to the event at which Microsoft has only appeared a few years.

Games such as Gears 3 and Halo: Reach were playable but incredibly hard to get to.  Both games seemed popular with the crowd, with Gears 3 having the more interest it would seem, more than likely because Halo: Reach will be out in less than 2 months or so.  I found out after the event that Kinect was there, but was being shown outside of the convention center over inside the Hard Rock Hotel so we never had a chance to try it.

Nintendo was actually split up into two different booths between the main parts of the company. Metroid: Other M for the Wii and Dragon Quest IX for the DS were at the main booth with hands-on demos of both games as well as Comic-Con exclusive maps for Dragon Quest. The other booth was the Pokemon Company giving away Pokemon cards, hosting card games, as well as talking with attendees about current and future Pokemon titles.

At the main booth, I was given a chance to go hands on with a game I have been worried about as well as dying to try, Metroid: Other M.  And thankfully I have to say I was happily surprised.  The demo showed a beautiful CG opening that takes place at the very end of Super Metroid and then proceeds to what happened to Samus after that massive fight.

The game controls have you holding the Wii Remote sideways for normal game play, and then pointing at the screen for when you need to go into first person. Team Ninja brought their speedy and responsive control experience over from their previous games and have implemented them into this latest Metroid game.  The game play is in a 2D plane with automatic touches of 3D.  With a quick press of the A button, Samus will go into her traditional morph ball for getting through small areas as well as for using bombs.  When the controller is pointed at the screen, it very quickly changes to a first person mode where you can activate missiles as well as look around for hidden objects and paths.  There is a sort range auto target that helps with the 3D aspect some while fighting, but doesn’t do so much that you tend to rely on it as a crutch.

As the game is coming out in less than a month, I won’t go into great detail of the contents of the demo so we can all enjoy it as it comes out, but take my word for it…it’s worth getting and you have nothing to worry about in regards to the controls.

Also, thanks again for Nintendo’s Douglas Dorning for the great demo and interview.

Sony is the last of the big three that I saw, and they brought some pretty nice games to show off as well as bringing Playstation Move to bare on the floor.  Along with that and a few of it’s games, I got to see Little Big Planet 2 in action as well.  Playstation Move was impressive for the few minutes I got to see with their Wii-Sports type game, (Sport’s Champions).  The controls were quick and fairly precise, even with all of the other lights and distractions around it. I wish I could have spent more time there and gotten a chance to try it for myself, but with the lines…it wasn’t happening.

In regards to third party companies, Capcom and Namco came with the biggest announcements in the form of Street Fighter X Tekken (pronounced Street Fighter “Cross” Tekken).  The game will be letting the world champions take on the king of the iron fist crowd with all of the characters keeping their normal move sets.  Namco will be releasing their own version of the game titled Tekken X Street Fighter with no announcements or news given on how the two titles will be different to warrant a whole new game.  Both will be coming to the PS3 and Xbox360 in future with no solid release window given.

From Activision, two major announcements were made about Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions.  The first was that it’s fourth and final universe, Ultimate Spider-Man, was revealed.  The main difference between the Ultimate Universe version and the Traditional Universe isn’t just the art design and enemies…it’s the addition of the black symbiote suit so Spider-Man will have a whole new set of moves and abilities that the three previously announced universes will not. (Those being Amazing Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2099, and Spider-Man Noir).  The second announcement is that Neil Patrick Harris will be reprising his role as the voice of Spider-Man for this game.

Well, that’s enough updates for now.  The podcast should be recorded in the next few days as we ran into some issues while in California (like time and alcohol) that stopped us from being able to record on the schedule we had planned originally.  So keep an eye on the site, and please contact us via email, the forums, call us, or just hop online your favorite online game system and give us a shout.  We really want to hear from people and need help for contributors as well as just people to help grow this community.  I really want this to work as something people look forward to and openly get involved in for discussion of the hobbies we all enjoy and love.

So I’m off for now,

Zen a.k.a. Jeremy Powers

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