So E3 starts today, and an easy thing to do is to give my thoughts on what's coming out of it. So today I will give brief thoughts and impressions about Microsoft's and EA's conferences, and tomorrow I will do Ubisoft, Sony and Nintendo. I will divide everything up into categories based generally on what I think of them, and then go into (slightly) more detail. Let's go then!
Microsoft
Awesome!
Metal Gear Solid 5
Well the day started off with seeing MGS5, which I assume will be out for XB1 and PS4. It looked really nice. However, while I am interested in the world of MGS and the story and characters seem really interesting, I am TERRIBLE at playing it. So I don't know if I will pick this one up. But what I saw looked really neat, great graphics, and the characters looked neat. A sniper in a bikini (ok!), a guy(?) that looked like psycho mantis, I'll take that. And we only heard one line from Kiefer as Snake, but it sounded okay to me. This one is looking cool, unsurprisingly.
Killer Instinct
Well this WAS a surprise. Unfortunately my stream cut out for the trailer, but I saw some of it when they did the awkward battle with the producer and community manager. I actually have never played a Killer Instinct game, but I am a fighting game fan, and am aware of KI's great legacy. Interestingly it seems to be an XB1 exclusive. Will definitely be keeping an eye on this one.
D4
This might be an XB1 exclusive? I think so, but not 100% sure. Anyway, coming from the developer of cult hit Deadly Premonition, we didn't really actually see much of this game. But the art style looked really, really nice to me, so I'll have to see more but for now I'm intrigued.
Partnership With Twitch
Well I don't stream currently, but I've always thought it might be fun, my laptop just can't handle it. So I dunno if I ever will stream, but having the option on XB1 might be cool. Also a nice slap in the face to Sony, who partnered with Ustream (lolololol).
Crimson Dragon
XB1 exclusive about flying around on dragons fighting bigger dragons. Sign me up, man. The graphics oddly looked a bit dated, but I think this title may have been in development for quite a long time. Anyway, the enemies looked awesome, so I will be keeping a close eye on this.
Halo
Well, it's Halo. I like Halo. I think my raw notes will suffice for this one.
- ooh cloth physics
- MASTER CHIEF
- AW SNAP HUGE ROBOT THINGY
- CORTANA'S CHIP?
- bonnie ross fk yeah
- 60 fps halo - take that cod
- they didn't say it was 5 - interesting!
Titanfall
So here we have Respawn's first game, coming to XB1, PC, and...360? Weird. Anyway, we see a game that has jetpacks, freerunning, and mechs. That definitely throws a bit of a curveball into the military shooter formula, which is nice for me. I thought that it looks quite Halo- and Destiny-like, interestingly. I was a bit worried when they started showing gameplay, as it looked quite CoD-like, but I guess that should be expected. Once they started using the jetpacks and freerunning, though, I started to get more into it.
The mechs are actually called Titans, and we hear one of the characters say 'Titanfall', which is when one of the Titans gets dropped down onto the field. Being inside a mech looks REALLY cool, reminiscent of the Metroid Prime games. That's a very good thing, if you're lost to that reference. Also cool - the Titans seem to have telekinetic powers, catching bullets and missiles and shooting them back at the enemy. You can stomp on guys too - I feel that's pretty key. Then at the end, the guy's Titan was destroyed, but he managed to eject up into the air. But then, he landed on an enemy Titan, and proceeded to rip something off it, and shoot it until it exploded. Badass. This is one I'm definitely excited about now.
Pretty Cool
New 360 Stuff
Surprisingly, they announced some new stuff for the 360. Including a new model...which is REALLY weird to me seeing as how the XB1 is coming later this year. Whatever, though. Also, Xbox Live Gold members will be getting two free games per month! That's neat. The first two games are...Assassin's Creed..2...and Halo...3... Um. Yeah. Maybe I'll be holding off on that Gold subscription for a bit. But there will also be new games coming out for 360 in the next year, which is nice since I own one.
World of Tanks
Tank game. You drive a tank around and shoot other tanks. Looks pretty cool. And it's free to play...with a Gold subscription! Oh. Ahh...MS, so close.
Dark Souls 2
Well I haven't played Dark Souls yet, even though I own it. But I have seen a fair bit of gameplay from it, and I love the world and the art style, so more Dark Souls is good in my book.
Forza 5
Well I'm not really a racing game fan, but there was some cool stuff in this presentation. They actually had a McLaren P1 there, about which they said only two exist in the entire world. Neat! Then there was cloud processing stuff, which sounds kind a neat I guess. It takes a look at how you play, then gives you a 'Drivatar' which mimics your playstyle. Then it goes around and plays as you in other peoples' games. That's kind of cool, honestly. And it looks really good, but you can still definitely tell it's a game. I guess we'll have to wait for another generation to hope for photorealistic graphics, eh?
Quantum Break
This game looks intriguing to me, but I'm not sure about it. They promise interplay between the game and a TV show of the same name, but...I'll believe that will work when I see it. The game itself looked neat, with the characters running around in frozen time and changing stuff. We still haven't seen much, though, and I'll have to see more to decide whether I'm on board. I'll keep my eye on it, though.
Upload Studio
With this thing you can record your gameplay and share it with your friends. I've never really felt the need to do that, but I guess it might be cool.
Extra Features
They announced a few new features for XB1 which were all pretty good. No cap on friends, no more MS points (woo!), and being able to share your Xbox Live Gold account with anyone in your house. That's pretty nice! Would've been happier if they'd done away with Gold or done something like the Playstation Network did, but oh well.
Dead Rising 3
This is another one where I haven't played either of the first two games, but it looked pretty cool. The graphics looked great, and there were a LOT of zombies on the screen at one time. You can pick up anything as a weapon, combine weapons, and drive around. You can also use Smartglass to do stuff like call in air strikes from a tablet or other device but...that seems kinda meh to me. Overall it looks cool, but I'm not seeing much new besides the updated graphics.
The Witcher 3
I'm pretty much in the exact same boat with this game - haven't played the first two games, but this one looks pretty cool. Nice graphics, probably cool open world and story.
Below
So this is a new game coming from Toronto studio Capybara Games, so that's really neat. They didn't show much, other than saying it's a roguelike game. Your character seemed really small in the footage they showed, which put me off a little bit. But we'll have to see where it goes, definitely sounds like it could be cool. Might be XB1 exclusive.
Black Tusk Studio Game
Another one where they didn't show much. We just saw a really pretty city with pretty fireworks. Then they showed some characters with weapons, and we saw some cyberpunky elements. Cyberpunk is okay with me, folks. Keeping an eye on this one.
Meh
Max: The Curse of Brotherhood
Well this looks like a platformer with somewhat charming graphics. But just didn't grab me at all, definitely didn't see anything new or exciting here.
Ryse
Announced alongside the Kinect, it strangely never came out. Now it's coming out for XB1, and looking...very meh. It looks pretty nice, but uses quicktime events HEAVILY. Not a fan of that at all. The combat just looks bleh and it looks really scripted. No thanks.
Sunset Overdrive
Had a bit of a unique art style, but I was not a fan at all. The weapons they showed looked somewhat interesting, but they didn't show any gameplay, so it's hard to tell. Overall just felt meh to me.
Minecraft XB1
Raw notes:
- ok? bigger worlds? whatev
Project Spark
Guuuh. Games for making games. Just not convinced by these. It looks pretty nice, but just seems like something you'd play with for half and hour and get bored of it. I dunno man...just not feeling this kind of thing.
Smartglass Stuff
So if you're not aware Smartglass is a thing that lets you connect to and interact with console games from a device. It sounds kinda cool I guess, but it all just seems kind of superfluous to me. And I don't have a device that uses it, so...definitely a meh for me. I can see how others would like it, though.
Battlefield 4
Military shooter. I am not a fan of military shooters. Raw notes:
- snore
- looks nice, what else is new
- still with the bobbing gun huh
Launch
Launching November 2013 (ok cool) at 500 bucks. Yikes.
So overall I think MS did pretty well. Just talked about games! And had more cool and pretty cool stuff than not, so that's good. Highlights were Halo and Titanfall for me I think.
EA
Awesome!
Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare
A real surprise, this one! Coming to XB1 and 360 only, too. Weird! The first dude that came up and spoke was super awkward, but the next guy had a Grass Effect shirt, so that was fine. Anyway, the trailer was pretty cute, and the gameplay looked funny and fun. It's like a 3rd person shooter with tower defense elements. Pleasant surprise!
Titanfall
Nothing really new from the MS conference, except that they possibly hinted that it will be multiplayer only. Not pumped about that...but the game still looks really awesome.
Mirror's Edge 2
Ohhhh yesssssss. Finally. What we saw looked very similar to the first game, but I'm okay with that. I am a bit worried, though, actually...because all they really showed was a rendered cutscene of Faith getting her tattoos, and...combat. Combat was something I wished they'd not even PUT in the first game. But...I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. I have to...
Pretty Cool
Peggle 2
Just an announcement, no footage, or trailer, or anything. But, it's Peggle, so...cool.
Dragon Age Inquisition
I was actually going to put this in the Awesome! section, so you can think of it as being in between the two. The only reason I didn't put it up there is because I haven't finished 1 nor played 2, and I heard 2 wasn't so great. But this intrigued me enough to make me think that I should finish the first and get the second on sale, so...that's worth something, I think.
Madden 25
First, Madden 25? Weird name, maybe it's the 25th one? Huh. Anyway, I'm not actually a Madden fan, but this new game kind of impressed me. The graphics and animations looked really amazing, and were all in-game. The new AI of the linemen sounds really neat. And then they announced Adrian Peterson as the cover athlete and...ehhhhhhh. Still though, I dunno if this game will get me into Madden, but it looks cool.
EA Sports UFC
Kind of in the same boat as Madden for this one. Never played a UFC game, but this one looks pretty cool. The features seemed neat, though we didn't see them in the game specifically. The footage we did see looked nice though, and the animations looked a lot less awkward than in UFC games from this generation. Also, Bruce Buffer announced the speakers for this game, and Dana White told a hilarious story. Overall I enjoyed the presentation.
Meh
Star Wars Battlefront
Never really gotten into the Star Wars games, not played Battlefront or KoToR or anything like that. And they didn't do much to convince me here - they showed a snowy environment (Hoth, I guess), an A-Wing (?), and an AT-AT. That's it. Will have to see, I guess.
Need for Speed Rivals
Oh look, it's cops vs racers...again. The new feature - it's all online, but so what? You can call in helicopters with Smartglass...yawn. I have to give it credit for looking really nice, but it's still doing game-y stuff like having a helicopter fly down low, through trees. Uh yeah, no. Also they talked about a stupid movie? Bah.
NBA Live 14
I like my raw notes for this one.
- slam poetry - digging it but its not about the game dumb dumbs
- awkward 'interview' with a pro
- physicsy ball...show it plz
- up to the hour roster and stats..ok
- no in-game footage
FIFA 14
Like my raw notes for this one too.
- couldnt care less
- DRAKE LOL
- well he's actually speaking pretty well I guess
- alive stadiums - thinking back to NHL 99 that's cool I guess
- other stuff meh
Battlefield 4
Well EA, if you were trying to convince me, you failed miserably. They started off by coining a new term 'levolution'. I now hate all of you. Then they talked about Commander Mode, using a tablet (or you can do it on the console, but why), where you get a bird's eye view of the battlefield and can give orders and intel. Woo? Also, are all the bullets in this game tracers? Just notice this stuff when they are always trying to make games more realistic. They showed a 64-person multiplayer mode, which had some neat stuff to it, but in the end it's just another military shooter. Oh, and at the end, they had a girl soldier! Who says "you'll back me up, right?" LOL. Gee I just WONDER if she'll die in the campaign!
So that's it for EA. PvZ and Mirror's Edge were cool, Dragon Age was alright. Otherwise pretty meh for me. Ah well, it's EA, right? I guess I should start building my homemade bomb to blow them up with when they screw up Mirror's Edge 2.**
Tune in tomorrow for thoughts on Ubisoft (ugh), Sony, and Nintendo.
**I will not actually do that. Though they will screw up Mirror's Edge 2.
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