So I’m writing this entry from a beach house in California. I’ve spent today watching E3 footage with good friends, and dining on good food and drink. When I return home tomorrow, I will finish arranging my art show display and drive down to the Origins Game Fair.
I feel like a little boy at Christmas.
Microsoft
The games look good. Metal Gear looks amazing, though I wonder why it is that Big Boss gets all of the best games Why does Solid Snake suck so bad?. Ryse reminds me of 300: March to Glory on the PSP, but with better graphics. Killer Instinct got my attention quickly; I loved playing Glacius in the old game, and I think online play will bring a lot to the game. Sunset Overdrive is probably the game I am most interested in playing, based on the trailer. It looks like GTA meets Team Fortress 2 (the scout) + Mirror’s Edge. That’s a gaming gumbo that I can’t pass up. Minecraft, particularly a Minecraft with a bigger world, sounds fantastic. I would love it if we could consolodate our minecraft worlds from the XBox360 onto a single world in the XBoxOne.
Regarding the XBoxOne: I like that they are going a different direction with a few things. Replacing Microsoft points with dollars is a great idea, and the ability to have an audience chat with your game is simply fantastic. It reminds me a lot of the viewer mode in OnLive. The price point of $500 was disappointing, but the most disappointing thing was that nobody addressed the points made recently about the continuous online check-in. As someone who served in the military, I can appreciate the frustration that sailors and soldiers might have when they are in the field, and can’t connect their console to anything. Bad move, Microsoft.
EA
Starting with the Dubstep. Bwwwwaaaaaawwwwwwwwwww!
Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare is insanity, splashed with interesting gameplay and a heavy helping of personality. 4-player co-op sounds awesome. Dragon Age inquisition looks like Game of Thrones meets Diablo III. Mirror’s Edge 2 looks boring, and Battlefield 4 looks…like…every other FPS ever created?
Regarding the sports games: UFC looks great, and reminds me of the old PrideFC game ont he PS2. Madden 2014 looked good, but I don’t think we were looking at gameplay footage. The most notable thing about the whole sports game portion of the presentation was that everyone got up to get more pizza when they showed FIFA 2014.
UbiSoft
Splinter Cell Blacklist was hard to assess, as they spent way too much time showing the audience perspective in the video. Rayman Legends looks cute, and the jumping between worlds reminds me a lot of Kingdom Hearts. The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot was probably the game that interested me the most. The fact that it lets you play both sides of the tower defense/dungeon crawl was really neat.
Assassin’s Creed Black Flag looks like the latest and greated version of SeaDogs; I don’t see how they moved from Italy to the US revolution to the West Indies, but it’s a game, and I can suspend my disbelief.
Oh yeah, and Rabbids Invasion looks hilarious.
Sony
We were a little annoyed by the way Sony started 20 minutes late, and jumped straight intoa montage, but we all shut up once they started.
I think it’s pretty obvious that Sony stole the show at this year’s E3. With their announcement that they expect to Launch 300 titles this year for the PS3, including the Last of Us, Puppeteer, Rain, Batman Arkham Origins, and GTA 5, I was blown away.
When they got to the PS4 information, they moved from an amazing presentation to a straight-up trolling session. Key points include:
- A price point of $399, $100 less than the XBoxOn.
- No restrictions on used games. “If you buy a PS4 game, you have the right to trade it, sell it, lend it to a friend, or keep it forever.
- You don’t have to be connected online; no check-in is required.
- Live access to Ustream, Netflix, HuluPlus, etc.
- Plus members will get a new title every month.
If you don’t think they were trolling, take a look at this video:
Regarding the games, the ones that interested me the most were The Order 1886 (fighting werewolves in Steampunk London?!), Knack, The Witness, Kingdom Hearts III, and Fallen.
The thing that I would be most excited to see is how the PS+ membership’s free games works with the PS4. For example, I currently don’t have a PS Vita, but I have several Vita games saved for free on my PS3 because of the PS+ membership. When the time comes for me to get a Vita, I will have 10-15 games on day one. If Sony does the same thing with the PS4, I am sold on the system.
Nintendo
Nintendo’s presentation didn’t impress me much, though I didn’t expect it to. Nintendo hasn’t had a particularly good showing since the release of the Wii years ago, but they’ve continued to produce good content.
The disappointing thing is that Nintendo had the potential to steal the show with the WiiU. If they had simply announced that they were going to release the top 20 DS games in HD on the WiiU, they would have owned E3. Could you imagine an HD Remix of Professor Layton, Chrono Trigger, Picross, or Drawn to Life hitting the WiiU? Good Gravy!
That said, I still love Nintendo, and hope they do well.
E3 was a great time, and I spend the great time with great friends. I’m likely going to wait a while for the new consoles, and the PS4 will be probably be the first.