So we have another day of solid World Cup action behind us and another of the big contenders made their first showing today. At the same time we had the first day of E3 and a few interesting announcements from both EA and Ubisoft. So there's a lot going on right now in the world and I've got a bit to talk about. Plus I tried to get a job giving food to sick people which is hardly as selfless as it sounds. So a quick recap of the day's events before I bugger off to bed.
The first match of the day was Denmark vs Netherlands in a match that I will freely admit I entirely missed the first half. I stayed up far too late last night in order to wake up at 7 to catch this game. Netherlands are always contenders and this year they have a convincing team so I would've expected to have missed something important in the first half. That proved not to be the case and as soon as I started watching the second half upon waking up I was able to catch the own goal that put Denmark down. These second tier European teams are doing really poor this tournament, except of course Slovenia, and show that just being European isn't enough to do good anymore. The powerful Dutch were able to add another one before the final whistle. According to the commentary team I didn't miss much and all the action happened later on.
The next match of the day was one that I was looking forward to since it involved my favorite Asian nation, Japan. They took on Cameroon in a match that everybody, including myself, believed they stood no chance for a result. Amazingly the Japanese were able to pull a goal ahead thanks to Hasebe and they hung on thanks to some solid defending. Cameroon were the latest African flop in this tournament as they simply crashed against the Japanese. They got some shots but just never turned up the heat on Japan. Thankfully the Asians seem to have worked past their pre-tournament losses and are ready to perform. Being able to take down Cameroon should put them in a good mind for matches against Denmark, which they can win, and Netherlands, which they can't. I'm looking forward to more of the Blue Samurai!
The final game of the day was the defending champions, Cheataly, and South American scrappers Paraguay. The unheralded Paraguay team were major underdogs in this match simply because of the Italian pedigree. The idea of pedigree being enough to win was shattered when Paraguay put a goal in the net and holding their lead going into half time. The Italians were stunned, as they thought they would be awarded the win simply for being Italian. Believe me they really are so delusional. I want no team to lose more than Italy and it looked like I was going to get my wish until nearly the end of the game. Italy pulled back the goal they gave away earlier and brought the score to 1-1. This would be the final score as neither team could do any more. Maybe the Italians got confused and thought they had the one goal and had to defend it even though it was a draw. Fucking Italians...
Alright now moving on to E3. I don't want to spend too much time talking about this today as I didn't see too much special, but a few big points deserve some attention. G4 had some pretty limited coverage today, just showing the big presentations from EA and Ubisoft. Those companies did have a few big games to show off but there wasn't any coverage from the floor of E3 for some reason. I really wanted to see more of the less well known companies and games instead of just the big companies showing games we already know about. That said I did see some stuff I really liked. Assassin's Creed Brotherhood was perhaps my highlight so far. The creator was there to demo the opening (presumably) of the game in which the Borgia family assault Monteregginioni and level the city I spent so much time and money building up. What I thought was a non-interactive video turned out to be gameplay! It was beautiful to watch the chaos of a city collapsing under your feet, buildings falling on your head. It comes out in October and believe me I'll be picking the up these new adventures of Ezio.
Star Ward The Old Republic was shown off by EA. Well it sort of was shown. They had a video that was clearly an FMV (is FMV an archaic term?) and not gameplay. Granted it was a brilliant video, but it didn't do anything to give us any more information about the game. Not that I care because I don't play MMOs. This one has my interest because the games it bases it's lore on were so good. I just want to see more. Fable III was a game I already wanted but after seeing the trailer I am anticipating it all the more. Disappointment may have been the biggest issue with the first two games but I'm going into the third game with far lower expectations and should be satisfied.
Microsoft Kinect, don't care. Not for me. I'm not into motion controls.
That's all for today.
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