Hey, it’s me again. Graev. I know there hasn’t been a post in a while so I’m back to fill in. Hopefully things will return to normal soon so don’t abandon us yet! It may look like I’m bailing water but rest assured I am merely in charge of liquid repatriation.
I spent what feels like all day watching E3 coverage which is something that I don’t entirely enjoy but feel anxious about and compelled to do. From what I’ve seen from the four conferences today is not a lot to be excited about. Most everything that I’m truly interested in is either not coming out this year or wasn’t covered at all. I’m going to go into more detail about what I’m so dissatisfied with and I’ll try and mention anything good if I can think of it.
“Exclusively debuts first” and “Exclusive content” and Multiplatform Games.
This year there was a lot lot of this BS through out both the Microsoft and Sony conferences. Both brands covered a lot of multiplat titles and it all became a giant pissing match over exclusivity. Who gets the BETA first seems to be a big deal to these people. I really don’t understand why but whatever. My biggest gripe is all of this exclusive content nonsense because in the end it really only hurts the players who should be able to play the game on whatever system they want. Largely so far it seems like this E3 has mostly been about multiplatform games, especially since it seems like nothing truly exclusive is coming out anytime soon for either system.
CGI trailers and Scripted gameplay
I don’t know about anybody else but I’m getting really fed up with seeing both of these things. I stopped being impressed by CGI trailers many years ago since they really translate into nothing. It feels like we’ve also started to see a lot more scripted gameplay and “concept” footage that I really don’t appreciate since they pretty much never actually turn out how they show it. Take the Rainbow Six video for example. Sure it looked cool but it also looked incredibly fake and scripted. It makes me wonder whether that was actually happening or if it was all created to merely look like people were playing a game. This is the same kind of stuff that happened with Watch Dogs and look how that turned out.
EA Conference
I love how they started off with the Battlefront video which basically turned out to be nothing more than “We’re working on the game.” Honestly that felt like a kick to the nuts and a complete waste of time. I don’t care if you want to go crawling around the forest trying to recreate the “feeling” from the movies. Let me know when you have some actual gameplay footage. I was also very surprised that they didn’t mention any other Star Wars games in development.
The Battlefield Hardline footage did look pretty cool but, again, it’s all scripted to appear way cooler than it actually plays out. Still, I am very interested in the cops and robbers style gameplay and I’m glad to see grappling hooks and ziplines make a comeback. I think the last time we had those was in the special forces expansion for Battlefield 2 or something.
BioWare stuff was also pretty underwhelming. They lightly mentioned that they are working on more Mass Effect stuff and a new IP but they didn’t show much of anything. I don’t have very high hopes for Dragon Age Inquisition after Dragon Age 2 was a huge letdown and broken promise. Maybe I’m the only one but I didn’t find the gameplay footage to be that impressive, especially when held up against something like Witcher 3.
There was a whole lot of “early footage” and “we’re working on” stuff. Star Wars, Mirror’s Edge, etc. Middle fingers for everyone!
Xbox Conference
There were some cool exclusive titles revealed like the Platinum Game’s Scalebound. Sunset Overdrive also appears to be very interesting in a “zombie killing meets Tony Hawk” kind of way. Crackdown coming back is also pretty cool but I was pretty let down by Fable Legends. The gameplay looked fairly “meh” and the villain portion was very disappointing to see. I was hoping for something a pit more complex than what they showed us. My biggest takeaway from this conference was the giant middle finger they held up to Conker fans with his throwaway inclusion into Project Spark, which did actually look pretty cool with it’s new galactic stuff.
UBI Conference
UBI shows always seem to be incredibly awkward and borderline awful. This didn’t really stray that far from the traditional formula. The entire atmosphere of the conference felt very odd. There was a very weird vibe and it seemed like a bunch of 12 year old’s trying to act grown-up by showing how edgy they can be and how much they can swear.
Anyway, The Division and FarCry4 looked pretty interesting. I already mentioned my thoughts on Rainbow Six. The fitness and dancing stuff went on entirely too long though. Assassin’s Cred Unity looked like it will probably be a good game but honestly I’m burnt out on them. Keen will probably go crazy for it. Also again, my takeaway was the giant middle finger they gave us with nothing on Beyond Good & Evil 2. Keep up the good work, Ubi.
Sony Conference
This one started out pretty good. I think they showed Destiny first and that was nice. It felt like it fell apart in the middle. There was a lot of talking and a lot of showing of stuff I felt like I had already seen. Plus they had some really awkward guy making cringe-worthy jokes while reading out of their fake mailbag. There was a cool moment where they announced a remastering of Grim Fandango so I have to give them credit for that. Lots of “EXCLUSIVE DEBUTS & CONTENT” and “LOOKS BEST ON.” I was pretty surprised that the Project Morpheus stuff wasn’t touched on more. It was very brief and they didn’t really seem to talk about it or what it can do.
Towards the end things got a little better with the Batman Footage, which was probably the highlight of their conference for me. No Man’s Sky also looked really cool but I have to wonder what it does that something like Star Citizen wont do better. And surprisingly (to nobody) they ended by teasing Uncharted 4. I do like the Uncharted games and I’m sure that it will probably be a good game… Still, I’m getting a little sick of them after playing 3 and a Vita title already.
Interestingly enough, my takeaway again was the giant middle finger they held up by basically abandoning the Vita into little more than a PS4 add-on.
Wrapping up…
So yeah, not a great E3 for me so far. SOME interesting stuff but mostly a lot of nonsense. Hopefully Nintendo will show some awesome things tomorrow. People are already talking about who “won E3” and that kind of fanboy nonsense that pops up every unfortunate year. Do you want to know who I think won? The third-party companies with their fat exclusivity checks. The players lose this one.
NOTE: My editor is currently M.I.A. so kudos if you read it all the way here through every typo and grammar mistake.
I felt cheated a few years back when I took the time to watch the Playstation conference and just about everything in it was previously announced. These events aren’t for us, they’re for non-gaming media. If anything worth my time happens, some outlet I actually read will report it.
So all in all it was just going around listing to stuff that you mostly already knew Well i guess thats conferencing for you and trade shows. But yes as GA said its mostly hype and the various game sights get to speed a hectic week dong stuff and posting like crazy on the websites. 🙂
Only thing i would like to know is who bought the Microsoft flight simulator franchise apparently its someone thats has deep pockets that isnt linked to the flight simulator this is from AVSIM
“We can also tell you that the licensee is not one that we would have thought to have been a logical candidate in terms of direct knowledge of the product, leading us to conclude that this licensee had the deepest pockets”
Apparently its going to be announced somewhere at E3.
I don’t normally play the typical manshoots, so it was really surprising that the only game that blew me away yesterday was the Battlefield Hardline demo. Yeah scripted as hell, but good lord I suddenly need to play Payday: Michael Bay edition.
To give you an idea of how weird that is for me, my favorite game shown besides that was Ori and the Blind Forest.
I’m interested in Bloodbourne since it’s FROM Software but I want to see gameplay not just movies. Besides FROM and Atlus the only thing I was hoping was for DLNA and PS2 Classic support for PS4 and Vita.
Was there not anything on Shadows of Mordor yesterday? I’m pretty excited for that one, or at least for the AI system they’re supposedly trying to build.
So far there has not been to much for me to be excited about. I like that we are getting a new Uncharted and Tomb Raider eventually. Both are games that will give me many hours of enjoyment.
I am right there with you on the CGI trailers… absolutely hate them. Remember those ‘amazing’ Star Wars: The Old Republic trailers that people were going ape shit over… just hype pure and simple. I also share your skepticism about Dragon Age Inquisition. I am a big fan of old school group based RPGs and this game looks to be following the same path as Mass Effect and becoming a more single player focused action game with light RPG elements. Of course I could be wrong but since 90% of the footage they have shown so far has been fly over CGI video it is hard to tell… but every shot of action seems to be a third person perspective combat sequence.
Finally, that exclusive content shit is just infuriating. Just make a good god damn game and let people buy it on their system of choice. Parsing out content, even if it is just cosmetic, between various consoles and vendors that sell your games is just petty. If anything it does not entice me to buy a game at one specific place over another… it merely encourages me to wait for the 6 month later edition that includes all the ‘exclusive’ content.
I feel like I might be the only person that thought DA2 was a vast improvement over the impenetrably boring slog that was DA Origins. So I’m in the weird position of hoping that the community didn’t scare Bioware into abandoning everything they improved with DA2.
Shutter,
you mean like the endlessly repeated 5 different questing locations, or the reuse of the city? How about the way nearly every fight was essentially the same fight, with the same 3 types of mobs reskinned (something Mass Effect is guilty of as well, but able to overcome by interesting set piece design)? I think DA2 did some things decently enough. But DA needs to be an RPG first, action adventure second. There was far too much lazy development going on with DA2.
@Shutter Out of curiosity what platform did you play DA Origins on? As someone that spent countless hours playing the old D&D gold box series of RPGs and Baldur’s Gate I absolutely loved the way DA played but several of my friends that were console only gamers did not enjoy it. Consequently they enjoyed DA2 much more while my feelings were the opposite.
“Middle fingers for everyone!”
Hahahahaha, I actually did laugh out loud when I read that. You rock, sir.
“I wasn’t born with enough middle fingers.” – Mother Teresa of Calcutta
I know how you feel. I wonder who these CGI non-gameplay trailers are meant to appeal to? When I see them I actually get angry as I can envision a bunch of suits in marketing purposefully creating misinformation working under the inherent assumption viewers are easily fooled; after which I wonder how much better the game might have been if these funds were actually spent on development of the game.
Over the years of big hype marketing practices I automatically judge AAA publisher’s publicity attempts with an adversarial attitude assuming everything is disinformation until supported by critical post-release reviews.
Utilizing the same shortsighted marketing practices they repeatedly adopt a game-to-game attitude and fail to realize their reputations degrade with each failed promise, or perhaps each project team is so focused on their own immediate profitability that they lose sight of the company’s long term financial sustainability?
I have seen my behavior towards companies such as SOE and EA dramatically shift from pre-release purchasing to post-release review-driven spending, again based upon well founded skepticism of the quality of the products they advertise.
Supposedly there’s a Wii StarFox announcement coming tomorrow which would be awesome.
Just watched the presentation and nothing about StarFox although Zelda looked quite awesome.
@nukethesitefromorbit I played them both on PC
@Gali I agree that DA should be an RPG first. My thing is, all the problems you just described (repetitive fights, reuse of areas) feels like the problems with it as an action adventure. The big advantages of DA2 for me were the streamlining of Origins’ crappy combat system (I’m sorry, but Origins combat resource system was AWFUL) which got the fights I didn’t care about in the first place out of the way faster, and the massively improved main character (this is somewhat personal taste, I know some people hated that Hawke wasn’t a blank slate to write upon, I loathed that the Warden was a blank cypher who was the least present character in his own game).
At the end of the day, I couldn’t bring myself to finish even half of DA:O, but I blew through DA2, repetitive locations and all.
I was blown away by a lot of the stuff on show. Perhaps I’m just easily pleased 😀