Microsoft Presser Review

'SHUT THE FUCK UP ABOUT KINECT.' That seemed to be the general consensus on Twitter and in my brain. The usage of the voice command in Mass Effect 3 during combat looked awesome. The Fable on-rails shooter looked like putrid ass.

This is yet another gaming gimmick out of control. It was the Wii for a while, and now it's the Kinect.

The Ghost Recon usage was insane, and totally inappropriately applauded.

That being said, Gears of War 3 looked great, as did Forza 4.

Gears showed a level taking place on a giant boat, and co-op partners made use of a mech suit. One person wore it while firing away, while the other player was actually able to use the mech suit as cover. Very, very cool.

Forza Motorsport 4 has a nice graphical overhaul, but little needs to be said about this game. We know it's going to be great, and those of us with good taste will buy it.

Mass Effect 3 looked AMAZING and the usage of voice-command was great in combat and not so much in dialogue. I'm going to hate the parts that they've geared even more toward generic people, but I'm going to love the game. I just hope the voice command for combat makes it into the PC version.

We got the obligatory Halo and CoD stuff, but peppered in between that was the above good stuff.

There was also a bunch of blah blah blah about watching TV on the 360 and talking at your XBox and whatever, but I suddenly found staring out the window very interesting then.

Sadly, the last third of the show was once again Kudo's Gaming For Babies Seminar. Kudo used to be a symbol of innovation, but now he just signals to me that it's time for me to quit paying attention.

Overall, Microsoft showed more core games than I was expecting, but the forcing of Kinect into everything was very disappointing.

Make me happy, EA!

-Blaine

Games to Watch

Here are the games on which I'm keeping tabs this E3 ... QUICKLY!

Aliens: Colonial Marines
I really thought this game was dead. It had gone dead quiet for ... a year? Two? I can't remember now. Anyway, this franchise + Gearbox Software + Sega sounds AWESOME. This is going to be a title that could really surprise some people at this year's show.

Battlefield 3
I've recently discovered that the Battlefield series has been doing the 'military shooter' thing better than anyone for a long time. Intense action + non-retard story + smooth PC-based gameplay = HAWT.

BioShock Infinite
It's a Ken Levine game.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution
The devs on this are saying all the right things, showing all the right assets, and displaying some real soul and originality, but because this is tied to a beloved franchise, I'm nervous about it.


The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Because the fifth time is the charm, yes? There is no logical reason for this series never clicking with me, so I will try, try again!

Final Fantasy XIII-2
I love numeric and Tactics-based Final Fantasy titles more than I should, but word on the street is that this title is actually going to play a lot closer to classic Final Fantasy than its predecessor. I'm curious to see whose stage this shows up on during the console pressers.

Forza Motorsport 4
I suck at all racing games, but really enjoy the sim racers anyway. Turn 10 does it better than anyone else right now, so I love Forza right now.

Gears of War 3
Time to finish the fight. The Gears of War series has been the best third-person action series of this generation, and I'm looking forward to suiting back up. Big dudes, big guns, big action, and big story that doesn't take itself too seriously. Sounds fucking great.


Madden NFL 12
Why the fuck not?

Mass Effect 3
Remember when Mass Effect was that space RPG that we were getting instead of KotOR 3? How it was not that big a deal to anyone but us hardcore RPG fans? And then Mass Effect 2 came out and told us all to get our shit and get the fuck out because it wanted to be with shooter fans now. I'm curious to see how much shit I'm going to have to put up with to love Mass Effect 3.

Metro: Last Light
I REALLY need to go back and finish the first one. I know most of you are terrified of these eastern European games, but you knuckleheads are missing out. Eastern Europe is the '90s Seattle' of this generation of gaming. If you don't believe me, then go play The Witcher, STALKER, or Metro 2033 then go to the card shop and get an 'I'm sorry I'm such a xenophobic fucking homer' card.

NCAA Football 2012
The best football game every year gets better every year.

Neverwinter
A great setting for an MMO. Too bad Atari sold its developer. I want to know what the status is on this now. This could be a cash cow if it appeals to all those jilted Bioware fans that Bioware doesn't want anymore.

Rage
John Carmack. BOW.


Silent Hill: Book of Memories
This is actually being internally developed at Konami, which is interesting. It's the first one since the non-Silent Hill Silent Hill 4 to be developed by Konami. That bodes well for this title.


Silent Hill: Downpour
This series has really come off the rails since Toyama-san stopped working on it, but something about this one ... looks right. If they realize that 70% of the original trilogy's success was the sound design, this could be great.

Soul Calibur V
I've always had a soft spot for this series. That hasn't changed. It seems free of the pretension that dominates Street Fighter, Tekken, and all those douche-attracting fighters. PLEASE let this have the character-builder ...

SSX
Thank the Maker that EA dropped the CoD-serious take on this series that we were threatened with at that fake gaming awards show. We're back to crazy snowboarding on a mountain, and that suits me just fine.

Star Wars: The Old Republic
MMOs generally have the highest 'suck' factor in terms of what percent of them are utterly terrible. SWtOR, having been tied to the excellent KotOR series, looks to be a fun money-printing press for EA. I don't like the art style, but I like everything else I've seen about the game. I'm hoping to see a release date. I think it's at least a full year out.

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
The first game was near-perfect, the second game's single-player was too long, but still great, and the multiplayer was surprisingly solid. Both narratives were rock-solid. The third game is going to be awesome.


Uncharted: Golden Abyss
And thus starts the spin-offs. It was inevitable, I suppose. Since Uncharted 3 is in development, this has been farmed out to either a 'B' team or another dev. I'm excited about, don't get me wrong, but I just wanted to make some things clear right up front. Maybe it would be better to delay this until the 'A' team can work on it? That never happens with handheld spin-offs, but ... one could hope.

Warhammer 40k: Dark Millenium Online
I love everything about Warhammer 40k, so I'm curious about this.


Warhammer 40k: Space Marine
This falls outside of Relic's comfort zone, which is strategy games, but I trust them when it comes to quality. They also know this IP inside and out. It looks Gears-esque, which bodes well, and this has the potential to be a really fun take on the IP. I look forward to seeing more.

And that's it. I can't wait to see what other games surprise us, but this is a good place to start.

What did I leave off?

-Blaine

This Week in Gaming 2011/5/13

PHEEEW. Hell of a work week, I tell you what ...

... that doesn't mean I didn't spend some quality time with Brink, because I did.

Brink is a further iteration on the amazing and awesome Enemy Territory concept that was refined in both Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Quake Wars. Played properly, every character is a real player, and a tug-of-war style campaign is played out over many matches. On PC, on a good server, it makes for wicked fun, especially with some buddies.

Alas, all my friends, whether they be from cyberspace or meatspace, are all pussies, and don't play PC games, so I just have to imagine how cool it would be to play this game with them.

'But ... but ... Blaine, why don't you play the PS360 version of it?'
 - I don't want to play the ugly, low-res version of the game
 - I don't want the crippled, limited controls
 - Console gamers that I don't know are like others peoples' children; they all suck huge balls and are annoying and mean and 14
 - I only buy digital products whenever possible (games, books, movies/TV, music, etc)
 - I want to be able to pick my server and evaluate the ping

So let's review all that:
 - on PC, I get the better-looking, better-controlling version of the game with infinitely more control over the multiplayer experience.
 - on console, it is altogether a worse exerience

And, this is a terrible game in which to not have hot keys. Of course this game sucks on consoles!

Anyway, it's a great game on PC, so quit jacking around with your little brother's PS360, and man up to the big boy table with Brink on PC.

I've also been playing quite a bit of Fallout 3. I have no idea why. I am still trying to love this game, and it is growing on me, now that I'm somewhat over the horror of the VATS system (this was accomplished by just flipping the game to 'easy.')

Even on 'easy,' this game isn't easy (cue that 14-year old telling me that I suck and that I'm gay or something), but it is strangely compelling, despite the combat, despite the lack of depth in dialogue and characters, and despite the game's continued bugginess.

I dig the world, even if it is crazy intimidating. I think I'll stick with it, at least until ...

Next Week
Man, this week is going to be great. Not only is the Witcher 2 finally dropping, but  L.A. Noire is out, as well (sadly, only on consoles.)

I gushed last week about both games, but I really can't convey enough how great the Witcher was. If you've ever wanted to be treated as an adult by a game, the Witcher is for you.

My only gripe about L.A. Noire is that PSN is still fucking down. I'd get the 360 version, but the visuals are even worse and it's on three fucking discs, since MS went with a nearly 20-year old optical format as its main retail storage medium.

The reason that PSN being down is a problem is because I'm getting preorder DLC with the game ... except I won't be able to retrieve any of said DLC ... or the inevitable 0day patch that every game gets now.

I'll also be snagging DiRT 3 on PC the following week, to which I'm looking forward.

Down the road, I'm really looking forward to E3. I'll be taking that week off, of course, and am pumped to see what the Big Three have in store, as well as a real look at Mass Effect 3 and Star Wars: the Old Republic.

What's on your radar, game-wise? What are you looking forward to at E3?

Lemme know!

-Blaine

Untitled Gaming & E3

First, we must absolutely indulge in an old tradition:








I never, ever get tired of that. God, I used to love G4TV.

Anyway, so we'll be doing some E3 podcasting and some E3 blogging. We're recording on Saturday, and will have it out a bit earlier than usual, due to some crazy scheduling, and then throughout the week I'm going to blog a bit each day, and I'll try to bug Tony into doing the same. Additionally, you can follow Tony and myself (Blaine) on Twitter, for our fairly-live reactions to each of the pressers and announcements. Somehow, some way, we're going to do a post-E3 podcast. I don't know how, but maybe we can do something cool and different with the wrap-up podcast.

It seems, more and more, like this is the year that a) console makers are justifying the lack of new & more powerful hardware by introducing various waggling methods, b) waggling methods might really catch fire and replace what we know and love as 'fun games,' and c) that my cynicism might take a real punch to the nuts because Bioware & Squenidos team up into a Voltron of gaming awesome and introducing a waggling method for menu-navigation and win my love forever.

So, yeah, it's going to be an interesting year for me, because I have my expectations way lowered. While I'd love to see something about Dragon Age 2 & Mass Effect 3, I'm expecting Bioware to throw all their weight behind establishing Star Wars: the Old Republic as the WoW-killer that EA needs. Now, this isn't a bad thing, but it's something I already know exists ... in the distant future. A release date and pricing scheme would be nice.

Additionally, Nintendo is going to show the 3DS with a handful of awful kids' games, and I'll do what I do with their handhelds every time and wait until they start releasing either original interactive stories or Final Fantasy ports in the system's second or third year.

The PSP2 has the chance to be great IF IF IF there's a second analog control. If there's not, it's going to be a hard sell and Sony should fire every fucking moron that was involved in that decision.

Natal & PlayStation Move also have a chance to be very cool IF IF IF the software is there. They need to demonstrate this technology as something so immersive and accurate that it is truly a better gaming experience than the controller or mouse/keyboard combo. The lack of force feedback is a real problem, though, just like on Wii.

Which leads me to what E3 should always be about, which is the GAMES. I don't think there's anything coming out the rest of this year that I'm really, really excited about, which is a very strange feeling for me. Dragon Age 2, Gears of War 3, Final Fantasy XIV, Star Wars: the Old Republic, Guild Wars 2, and maybe Mass Effect 3 are all next year. I am curious to see if Obsidian can take the Fallout 3 formula and make it NOT painful to talk or fight in the game, with their Fallout: New Vegas.

So, we'll see. I'm pumped for E3, but it's a very tempered, curious 'pumped.'

What about you? How are you feeling going into E3? What's got you pumped? What are totally negative about? Are there going to be any surprises this year? If so, WHAT?

As always, thanks for reading, and expect to see a LOT here over the next week!

-Blaine