Let’s get E3 week started right with the new trailer for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
The new trailer shows off the vast landscape the you will traverse as Geralt, the white-haired, stone-faced badass we have all come to love. It looks to be a showcase title for your new consoles.
Get ready to marvel at the beauty and then throw your controller in anger when you die from not stringing attacks together properly on February 24, 2015.
Mortal Kombat X was revealed only a few short days ago with a beautiful trailer (which you can see below) that shows how pretty fighting to the death can be. Now we already have the box art for the game which is not supposed to see release until sometime in 2015.
The cover features Scorpion because, Mortal Kombat.
I loved 2011’s Mortal Kombat and am more than ready for next-gen fatalities. Maybe some friendships too.
Last year’s E3 is but a distant memory. We now have shiny new consoles in front of us and now we are like an addict needing a hit. E3 is here to give us a fix, if only for a brief moment. Here are my predictions of what I think will happen as the unwashed masses descend on Los Angeles to play new games and bitch about how long we have to wait on them.
1. Unlike last year, Microsoft will win the press conference war.
Let’s not sugar-coat it, Microsoft got their ass handed to them last year. It was a beatdown of epic proportions. One that is still being seen today with the PS4 outselling the Xbox One by a good margin. Microsoft had an unpopular message (always online, Kinect must be plugged in, limits on lending games) and then to make matters worse they didn’t have their ducks in a row on the company’s message. One talking head would say one thing about always online then another would say something conflicting to that. It was as bad as bad could get. Then Sony shows up, announces the PS4 will play used games, not require an online connection AND be $100 cheaper. You could just see Sony with their arms wide open saying “we will take you in wounded gamer”.
This year will be different.
With no console announcements this year, Microsoft and Sony will have to focus on the games and just looking at games we know are in the pipeline, Microsoft has a lot more to offer than Sony. Microsoft will be showing off games like Halo 5, the unnamed Halo collection (Halo: The Master Chief Collection most say), Sunset Overdrive, Project Spark, Quantum Break, Fable Legends as well as rumored games Ryse: Son of Rome 2, Forza Horizon 2 and a possible early look at the next Gears of War.
That’s a damn lot of games.
Sony, on the other hand, has Drive Club, The Order: 1886 (which was just delayed to 2015) and…give me a sec.
Yes, Uncharted may be shown, but with all the problems at Naughty Dog over the past few months that is not a guarantee. What else could set our panties on fire? God of War? After the sales of God of War: Ascension is that really something that will help Sony? Guerrilla is working on a new IP that could cause some excitement.
See where I am going here? I am stretching to find Sony’s big moments. I hope they prove me wrong.
2. Super Smash Bros. Wii U will get a release date.
Expect a lot of gameplay shown and a heavy emphasis on the fighter since it will be Nintendo’s main selling point for the Wii U this fall.
3. We will see gameplay from both Assassin’s Creed: Unity and Assassin’s Creed: Comet.
And they will look nowhere near as fun as Assassin’s Creed IV.
4. A new Battlefield will be shown.
I cheated with this one. Battlefield: Hardline was already leaked. The part of this I am predicting is that it will be looked down on because of Battlefield 4’s complete lack of being able to work. Ever. The fact that Visceral, not DICE, is handling developing duties will not make gamers forget.
5. Sony will show off more of Project: Morpheus
Let’s hope it is more innovation than the next Move.
6. Zelda Wii U is shown in some way.
Whether it is pre-rendered video or gameplay, we will see a new Zelda. Don’t expect a release till late 2015 or 2016 though.
7. Same for Gears of War.
The new Gears of War will at most get a teaser trailer, but like Link, it won’t see release till 2016.
8. Microsoft will make Games with Gold mean something.
Playstation Plus is worth so much more than the $50 you pay. My PS3 and PS4 are loaded with so many games that I will never be able to finish them. Microsoft introduced Games with Gold last year and while they get a participation ribbon for trying, it has offered up paltry efforts compared to Plus.
This year should change things now that free games will be coming to the Xbox One. Rumors are that Ryse: Son of Rome (which I liked) will be one of the free offerings. With Microsoft making an effort to bring newer games to the 360, Games with Gold should take a step in the right direction.
That’s all I got so far. Give us some of your predictions for this year’s E3. I will be back after the show to see how my list did. I am going to say I get 5 out of 8.
Games!
Almost two years after its surprise reveal at E3 2012, Watch Dogs is finally ready for everyone to hack away to their hearts content. The game was originally planned for release in November 2013, but was delayed only a few weeks from release with no new release date given which, of course, made the internet throw around its theories of a broken game.
The delay was only six months and the impression of first reviews think it was a good thing. Let’s see if Ubisoft has a new franchise worth our time.
IGN– 8.4/10
“It can last a lot longer than 20 hours though, because Watch Dogs is extremely good at distracting attention away from the main story with a steady stream of side quests and minigames. I’m a big fan of the gang hideout missions, which really let you test your stealth skills as you take down well-guarded targets (though it’s kinda strange that they ask you to keep the gang leader alive but are cool with murdering everyone else).”
Game Informer– 8.5/10
“On the other hand, the on-foot action is entertaining from the get-go and only becomes more engaging as you unlock new abilities. Hacking items adds a meaningful dimension to combat, allowing you to effortlessly hop between camera feeds to get the layout of the environment, tag foes, and activate traps. The solid shooting mechanics make full-scale firefights enjoyable, but Watch Dogs’ combat really shines with a stealth-minded approach.”
Giant Bomb– 3/5
“The other thing that sets Watch Dogs apart from the typical open-world game is the way its online action is structured. While it still has the same boring online race mode that every open-world game seems to have these days (does anyone actually still want to engage in an open-world race in a game that wasn’t built for racing?), it also has a handful of cat-and-mouse-like modes where one player has to get close to another player to steal something from them. These online invasions pop up against your will, forcing you to deal with another player before you can proceed. The rewards for succeeding in this mode are minimal and they seem to always pop up when you’re trying to start another mission, making them feel like a hassle that’s preventing you from doing the thing you actually want to be doing.”
Polygon– 8/10
“In fact, despite its open-world trappings, Watch Dogs does the most with its inventive abilities and great mechanics when it has the most structure. Story missions frequently enable and even encourage a lengthy recon phase. Any new assignment always involved my search for a CCTV camera which would then spider outward like cracked glass as I went from camera to laptop to junction box and on and on, spying weakness, marking targets.”
Gamespot– 8/10
“Watch Dogs’ narrative may win no awards, but as an open-world playground, the game rightfully deserves to be mentioned with heavyweights like Grand Theft Auto and Saints Row. This playground isn’t just loaded with stuff to do, as most such games are; it’s loaded with lots of terrific stuff to do. I lost myself for an hour solving chess puzzles. Other times, I shot up aliens in several of Watch Dogs’ augmented reality games.”
Joystiq– 4/5
“To the game’s credit, the temptation to peek exists without formal judgement, and there are no good or evil points to earn in your approach. Your reputation as a terrorist determines how likely it is for someone to call the cops on you, especially if you’ve been driving on the sidewalk, but the game is happy to let you spy, stalk, or brutally intervene when criminal activity appears in a dank alley.”
We are in the middle of the Stanley Cup playoffs and EA has announced that NHL 15 will be the first game in the series to go next-gen when it is released this fall. The game will have a new broadcast team of Mike Emrick and Eddie Olczy and also feature an NBC Sports Game Day Presentation.
Like with past titles the cover athlete will be voted on by fans, but this year will be done differently. Voting will be done on Twitter on Twitter Vote Thursday’s where fans will use the hashtag #NHLCoverVote and then hashtagging their favorite players from the available players that are:
-Boston Bruins Patrice Bergeron #NHL15Bergeron
-San Jose Sharks Logan Couture #NHL15Couture
-Los Angeles Kings Drew Doughty #NHL15Doughty
-Colorado Avalanche Matt Duchene #NHL15Duchene
-Ottawa Senators Erik Karlsson #NHL15Karlsson
-Toronto Maple Leafs Phil Kessel #NHL15Kessel
-St. Louis Blues T.J. Oshie #NHL15Oshie
-Montreal Canadiens P.K. Subban #NHL15Subban
So shiny, so pretty.
Check out these new screenshots from Batman: Arkham Knight, Rocksteady’s final Batman game. Besides flying around Gotham and driving the Batmobile, it looks like you will be pummeling a group of rednecks who like to wear Confederate flags on their shirts.
Batman hates racists…or just the south.
Batman: Arkham Knight releases on October 14th.
Leading up to the release of The Elder Scrolls Online, Bethesda has put together a series of cinematic trailers that rival a lot of Hollywood films for production value and sheer amount of fantasy-epic awesomeness. The trailers follow a trio of warriors – one from each of the game’s “alliances” – as they get caught up in the greater events affecting Tamriel. The trailers are a blast to watch, and I’ve linked them below.
Pretty fantastic, right? As fans of The Elder scrolls know, the denizens of Tamriel spend most of their time trying to murder each other, at least when not dealing with fire mountains, Oblivion gates, and reincarnated dragons. The new MMO looks to capture that feeling of strife and struggle amidst grand events; this time around Molag Bal, “Daedric Prince of domination and enslavement,” is working to merge Oblivion with the physical world of Nirn.
I greatly enjoyed the trailers, and would gladly watch a full-length feature, or maybe a series of webisodes, about the “three champions” and their eventual fates. What these videos don’t do, however, is give a genuine representation of The Elder Scrolls Online; I played a few hours of the ESO beta, and can attest that the gameplay is, as expected, about as far from these scenes as the Summerset Isle from Solstheim. To be fair to Bethesda, they aren’t the first game company to do this, nor will they be the last; the most prominent of the bunch is probably Blizzard, whose cinematic wonders for World of Warcraft are a far cry from the point-and-click reality. Hell, at least Elder Scrolls games let you aim your shots!
The problem with a marketing campaign of this nature, however, is that it’s not 2004 anymore; people know what to expect from an MMO, and doubly so from an Elder Scrolls game. I’m not saying MMOs can’t have engaging action – Tera and Guild Wars 2 have certainly altered the landscape in that regard – but I doubt many people are expecting an Uncharted-style action / platforming sequence like we see that rogue pull off. Everyone who’s even a casual gamer has probably played Oblivion or Skyrim in the past decade, and knows that area-specific damage and destructible environments aren’t a part of the proceedings.
The other problem is that even if these trailers do reach people out-of-touch enough to buy an MMO and expect action like this, those people certainly aren’t going to keep paying the monthly subscription fee once the truth outs. Nearly everyone in the industry has already questioned how long parent company ZeniMax can keep the game going on a paid basis; I know that every last person I would play this game with, on PC or console, lost interest the second the fee was announced. Even a strong initial showing for a subscriber model can trail off, as microtransactions and tiered payment systems continue to dominate the industry.
BioWare is one of the leading role-playing developers in the industry right now, and the difference between brand recognition of Star Wars and Elder Scrolls is night and day. The Old Republic got off to what was considered a pretty good start, sales and subscriptions wise; yet it eventually succumbed to a free-to-play model, and still has trouble generating interest from players. I love Star Wars and BioWare; I could go sign up and start playing it right now, and yet it’s not going to happen.
I know that a lot of companies have money earmarked for marketing, but I really can’t help but wonder if the time and funds put into these trailers is going to pay out in the end. The Elder Scrolls Online is currently an unknown quantity, for sure; MMOs are difficult to review, and the early months don’t necessarily reflect how the game will perform over time. If it didn’t have a fee, I’d probably be getting it when it launches for the One; as it stands, I just hope Bethesda doesn’t waste any more time before getting to Fallout 4.
Phil Spencer, the master of the t-shirt/sportscoat combo and voted “Guy You Would Like To Punch In The Face Because Of How He Looks, Even Though He Is Probably A Cool Guy”, has been named the head of the Xbox division of Microsoft.
In all honesty, Phil has a good rapport with the gaming community and is easy to listen to at Microsoft events, so this is a good decision for Microsoft. Maybe Microsoft’s events will be a little easier to watch than the business-heavy style of Don Mattrick.
Here is a statement by Spencer on what to expect under his thumb…errr regime…ummm lead.
“Games and gamers have always been at the core of Xbox and the core of my work—and gaming will be our core as we take Xbox forward,” said Spencer.
“This past year has been a growth experience both for me and for the entire Xbox team. We’ve taken feedback, made our products better and renewed our focus on what is most important, our customer. Our mission is to build a world-class team, work hard to meet the high expectations of a passionate fan base, create the best games and entertainment and drive technical innovation. As we continue forward, this renewed focus and mission will be a foundational part of how I lead the Xbox program.
“You will hear much more as we head into E3, but we are at the beginning of an incredible new chapter for Xbox and I can’t wait for the days and years ahead. This is going to be fun.”
Arkham Knight is not just the title of Rocksteady’s final Batman game, it is also the name of a new villain created just for the game itself.
New screenshots have been released that give a better look at Arkham Knight as well as Batman in his new armor.
Batman: Arkham Knight releases on October 14th for Xbox One and PS4. Sorry current-gen. Catch up or get left behind.
Alien: Isolation is very high up on my list of games to play in 2014 and for good reason. It sets you in a giant space station with little to no weapons and one smart xenomorph, then tells you to survive.
The Creative Assembly is developing Alien: Isolation as a survival game set firmly in the world of Ridley Scott’s Alien film. You play as Amanda Ripley, daughter of Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen, as she tries to find out what happens to her mother.
The video shows how the makers are wanting the game to be about the terror. The alien is not on a set course of searching for you, but rather an A.I. that will do its own thing. This means no two playthroughs will be alike. Hiding in the same spot won’t always work because the alien will always be taking new paths and adapting to the sights and sounds you leave behind.
After the disaster that was Aliens: Colonial Marines (which we gave a 4.5 in our review), Alien: Isolation is shaping up to be the balm for that burn left by Gearbox.
