Remember to comment on the site, the forums, email us at Podcast@Zenspath.com, or give us a call at (510)-Zencast [510-936-2278].

If you want to write and have your articles published here be they reviews, editorials, news reports, on-site coverage, or just a rant here and then….please email me at Zen@Zenspath.com and we can see what can be done. We also are looking for more people that would like to work on the Zenspath Podcast for both the audio part, as well as future video productions that we can do.

I’m having a hell of a time trying to do this alone and want to see this site grow into something we can all enjoy and work with as a community of gamers and geeks that can discuss the topics we want and enjoy a podcast that I have the pleasure of creating for everyone to enjoy.

So please drop me a line in whatever way is best for you and I promise to get back with you asap to discuss what we can do to make this happen.

And for those of you already helping me in your own ways…thank you for everything.  I couldn’t have made it this far without you.

Zen aka Jeremy Powers

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

This episode we talk a little about the lost episode and make a run through E3 to cover some of what we missed.  We also talk about Sony’s little TV-MA to the masses snaffu.  Remember to comment on the site, the forums, email us at Podcast@Zenspath.com, or give us a call at (510)-Zencast [510-936-2278].

We wander into some of our E3 predictions, talk about odd games involving dolls, as well as many other subjects…so get to listening and enjoy!

Crater Face from Skyler Page on Vimeo.

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Zen aka Jeremy Powers

http://www.capcom.co.jp/ghosttrick/trial.html

So it’s at this idea that I call BS.

When the PS3 was originally announced and launched, it came in 2 flavors: 60GB (CECHA01 with wireless) and 20GB (CECHB01 without wireless). Both of these models included the “Emotion Engine” and other components from the PS2 built into it for true hardware backwards compatibility with most of the existing PS2 library. Basically it meant that the PS2 was inside the PS3.

Later down the line Sony released the 80GB (CECHE01) model with a small change…some of the PS2 hardware was removed and replaced with “software” compatibility. This still allowed for most PS2 games to be playable, but there were a few titles that wouldn’t run without the missing components.

After the 80GB model, Sony announced the first price drop and the upcoming release of the 40GB (CECHG01) PS3. This model was the first to remove all PS2 components as well as the software compatibility with the PS2 as well. From here we had a few more systems come out all the way up to the 120GB (CECH-2101A) and 250GB (CECH-2101B) models. The first 40GB model was still shaped like the original mold, but had removed the memory card readers as well as 2 of the 4 original USB ports that were located on the front of the system. The second version of the 40GB (CECHH01) was the first in the “slim” line of Playstation 3′s that Sony has continued to release.

Now after this line was started, Sony themselves stated that backwards compatibility would not be coming back, as they wanted the PS2 and PS3 markets to stay seperated for the growth of the new system.

Now, even thought I said earlier that backwards compatibility HAS NOT come back on the PS3 in any way, there were a few updates that could lead to this being a confusing issue. The first of which is the update that came out for the older model PS3′s (20, 60, and first model 80GB) that allows the PS3 to play PS2 games that required use of the Hard Drive attachment on the original model PS2 (Final Fantasy XI being the main one). Everybody could download this optional feature, but it would only really work or change anything on the original models.

The second bit of confusion is the release of the God of War Collection for PS3. This collection contains God of War and God of War II, both of which were originally only on the PS2. But these games were not simply “ported” over and running on some new software compatibility…they are in fact redone to run on PS3 code exclusively as a native PS3 game. Now nothing stops developers from doing this to other PS2 games that they have in their libraries, but it doesn’t count as true backwards compatibility (otherwise we could say the PS2 and Xbox were playing original NES games via the Mega Man collections).

And the last bit of confusion I could find is the one instance of “partial backwards compatibility” that exists in the Sing Star series for the Playstation 2 and 3. The latest edition of the series that was released last year for the Playstation 3 allowed you to insert any copy of the PS2 editions of Sing Star and have them recognized and used for the new game…but this was only limited to the game reading the music tracks and playing them. The game itself (menus, graphics, etc.) are never used. So basically it’s just reading music from a DVD for the sake of gameplay much like Lips can let you sing to music from an iPod or Zune.

So there you have it and I finally have that off of my chest. I just got tired of hearing this being touted around to people, even by employees of some gamestores to customers looking to buy the PS3 because they themselves believed the rumors. Feel free to point them to this page, directly from Sony on the matter of their systems, if they keep it up:

Zen aka Jeremy Powers