E3

[naturally]

so, e3's going on for the next 3 days and some cool video games are usually announced so i figured why not make a thread.

anyway, graphics don't usually impress me but this was

Watch Dogs - Game Demo Video [UK]

and the south park game looks pretty amazing. looks exactly like the show and plays like paper mario.

South Park : The Stick of Truth Trailer (E3 2012)


it's barely even started yet but some of the stuff they're announcing/showing seems pretty promising. i'm mostly excited for nintendo's announcements.

[sev]

didn't watch microsoft but heard it was crappy
EA unearthed a bunch of boring standard modern day shooters and racing games
ubisoft actually surprised us and came out with a wii zombie game, a new pretty rayman, a new assassins creed that, while not particularly interesting to me at this point, looked very nice, and then closed it all off with that cool watch dog game, which i thought was basically the perfect ending for ubi
sony opened with BEYOND from the creators of heavy rain which is basically ellen paige: the game. it looked odd but interesting. then they started talking about what is essentially sony smash bros which didn't look too bad. i don't like it as much as brawl from what i saw. then sony whipped out more info on the new assassin's creed with a BADASS series of pirate ship vs pirate ship battles that looked extremely fun and dynamic. by this point i'm thinking holy shit, it's only half over it can only get better from here THIS E3 IS A TRUE CRESCENDO and then it revealed this female assassin's creed spinoff and that was cool. then suddenly, they spent just about a half hour explaining this extremely boring harry potter motion control "interactive book". it was so painful, just over 20 minutes of unfit white people failing to use the poorly designed ps3 motion controls. i crossed my fingers that they'd follow it with gaben or kojima to redeem the sony panel but all they revealed were fairly lukewarm god of war and the new uncharted the last of us, which really ended the show on a weak note.

for a while it looked like sony was going to be the tough act to follow and that nintendo was going to have to pull out some sick tricks to keep up, but it was really ubisoft that made shit happen today, even during the sony panel arguably the best thing (assassin's creed fucking PIRATE SHIP BATTLE) was just an extension of what they showed during ubisoft. i'm not super in love with the wii u's new motion setup, feels really gimmicky, but it's all about the games. all we can hope for is that they actually come out with some good games.

[naturally]

yeah the microsoft one was terrible. all you need to know is: kinect usher dance kinect sports. although trey parker and matt stone showed up for like a minute and that was cool.

i forgot about this game though.

The Last of Us E3 2012 Gameplay

despite ubisoft pretty much taking the show so far, i think the last of us was the only game i saw and went "i am going to buy this". also i've always wanted to play heavy rain because of the concept but i think this new beyond game looks way cooler. also dat ellen page. movie stars in games is weirding me out a bit.

soon enough we'll see what nintendo dishes out, but i think they'll do fine. especially with the 3rd party support they're getting now.

[Blordow]

whoa watch dogs looks pretty sweet, hope it lives up to the trailer/demo hype.

other than that, nintendo will blow out e3 again with the wii U, etc.

[ExistingViolation]

the more I see of the Wii U, the less appealing it looks like. I kept waiting for the wii to amaze me but it still remains pretty gimicky and not very well exicuted. Much like the DS and the 3DS.  Im still waiting for Nintendo to Wow me.

[psi43]

the more I see of the Wii U, the less appealing it looks like. I kept waiting for the wii to amaze me but it still remains pretty gimicky and not very well exicuted. Much like the DS and the 3DS.  Im still waiting for Nintendo to Wow me.

you're somewhat missing the picture of what nintendo tried to do with those consoles. Instead of having a static gaming environment (mouse/keyboard or controller) they wanted to do something different to change the direction of gaming with an emphasis on motion controlls, which i really welcome since that's a really cool way to go. I also dislike the wii and dislike some broken-controlls DS games, but all in all I appreciate what they're doing.

That being said, it was also a pretty good market strategy, which i based one of my papers for business class on.

also the south park game looks fucking amazing.

[sev]

a wrap up i typed out for a friend whos stream was bugging

pikmin 2. looking very pretty. 4 different leaders, none of them are olimar. very cute opening with pikmins everywhere and miyamoto being one happy dude
reggie comes on stage and starts describing twitter bullshit
says more developer shit like "THE WII U WILL CONNECT YOU TO YOUR FRIENDS WITH A GAME-BASED EXPERIENCE" (why do developers say shit like this)
wii u hardware will support 2 separate gamepads
wii u gamepad has touch screen capability, 4 buttons (abxy), the home button two analog sticks and a d-pad, as well as two trigger buttons and two shoulder buttons. additionally, it's got rumble, a built-in camera and microphone, a headphone jack, volume control, and stereo speakers. lookin sleek (don't drop it on a hardwood floor)
introducing miiverse, a big juxtaposition of mii's of people you've met before and your gaming friends. depending on how many people actually buy the wii u, this may or may not be an enjoyable feature. you can screenshot your games and draw people pictures here, and do cute mii things or whatever
mario game time. you can play as luigi or toads in the new co-op, "BOOST MODE", you can hatch baby yoshis for some reason  as well. mario's looking very pretty.
THIRD PARTY GAMES
harley quinn starts talking, introduces ARKHAM CITY for the wii. batman and catwoman all kindsa playable. wii u gamepad lets you do pretty cool things, surprisingly pretty un-gimmicky.
so far performance is going pretty well, everything nice and steady
Jeremiah Slackza introduces the new SCRIBBLENAUTS, Scribblenauts Unlimited. looks really cute, lots of new words, really editable creatures and machines
Tank! Tank! Tank!, Mass Effect 3, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Trine 2: Director's Cut, Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge, Aliens Colonial Marines, Darksiders all confirmed
Reggie actually says "my body is ready". i can not be more proud right now. at this point wii u is sold for me and i am emptying out all of my bank accounts in anticipation of paying it
more wii fit information. it's interesting how they manage to make this add-on look almost fun
karaoke game. they stop talking about wii u here
new 2d super mario for 3ds
PAPER MARIO: STICKER STAR, also looking good
Luigi's mansion for 3ds
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate, Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion and Kingdom Hearts 3d: Dream Drop Distance also confirmed
some lego looking game. huh
ubisoft man comes on stage to thank reggie for being a bro, and proceeds to introduce just dance 4 (barf), more info on zombiU, confirmed that you can snipe and hack doors with the second screen. rabbids land, assassin's creed 3, and a bunch of the other new stuff revealed in the ubisoft panel before. ubisoft is basically like the calculating mastermind sneaking into nintendo and sony's panels
new game NINTENDO LAND, which is seemingly a handful of arcade style games set in a big 3d theme park filled with lots of new games. katsuya eguchi and jonathan yeckley get on stage and introduce some of the associated titles, including luigi's ghost mansion, the new animal crossing, donkey kong's crash course, some ninja castle game and a few others

overall so many games, but not really a lot of display on any of them, the one that got the most screentime being luigi's ghost mansion. they ended it with NINTENDO LAND, which looked pretty but was kinda flat. i think the Wii U honestly needed a hard hitter, or more footage on all of the individual games they showed off. still definitely the best panel so far, but not enough to pay for the likely mammoth price of the new console

OVERALL for me
Microsoft D
EA C
Ubisoft B+
Sony C
Nintendo A-

[cipher]

I feel like I'm one of the only one's who actually watched the microsoft one. To be honest, I found it to be fairly solid, I guess spare that dance part. They just didn't take any risks, same with Sony. The games were cool and all that, but there was nothing mind blowing. The general trend this e3 seems to be all about the games anyways, spare wii U there seems to be a very limited emphasis on hardware. I have a lot of other things to say, but most of them have been covered already, but here's some food for thought:

Obviously, last year the Wii U was announced, along with it its special tablet controller device. This year two things of a similar nature were announced by Sony and Microsoft. For Microsoft, we have their Smart Glass system. To briefly summarize, its an app for basically any smartphone and most tablets that lets your device sync up with your console for both entertainment and gameplay uses. For Sony, they announced how you'll be able to use your Vita in sync with some of your ps3 games. It's kind of interesting how these showed up after the Wii U announcement.

What's kind of funny about it all is that to me at least, it seems like both these alternatives are almost better (as far as what we know) than what wii U offers. Mainly what I mean that is the Wii U tablet is going to be pricy, and the smart phones and/or tablets are things most people already own, while getting a Vita has tons of other uses. I'm not hating on the Wii U in any way, I just find it interesting. No way to really know until these have all been released, we lack data at the moment. Opinions? If any?

On a side note, did anyone notice how amazing the way the NPCs acted in both the last of us and watch dogs trailer? Seemed incredibly realistic for a game

[sev]

all i can say is that i'm glad ubisoft didn't do Mr. Caffeine for 10 Minutes

[cipher]

Ubisoft was trying a bit too hard to be funny, but overall this year's awkward level as a whole was way down from the past few years

[raymond]

The Last of Us E3 2012 Gameplay

despite ubisoft pretty much taking the show so far, i think the last of us was the only game i saw and went "i am going to buy this". also i've always wanted to play heavy rain because of the concept but i think this new beyond game looks way cooler. also dat ellen page. movie stars in games is weirding me out a bit.

soon enough we'll see what nintendo dishes out, but i think they'll do fine. especially with the 3rd party support they're getting now.

I'm pretty excited for those two as well, I just don't know how the last of us is going to actually play when you don't know what you're doing.  It all seemed to flow nicely during that playthrough, and the dynamic help from the girl was also cool, but I dunno man

[shmeckelbutt]

ANIMAL CROSSING AND PIKMIN 3~~

the last of us looks pretty cool though considering i adore the uncharted series

[rtil]

when you watch these trailers for games like last of us and watch dog, just remember that everything you're watching is scripted. don't think your gameplay experience is going to be anything as epic and cinematic as what you're watching in a marketing ploy. i mean sure the games might end up being fun but they'll be nothing like the bait.

[naturally]

of course not but i assumed that was sort of implied, (happens every e3) especially with watchdogs. the part at the intersection seemed a little too out there but either way the game still looks interesting. same goes for the last of us at the part where he runs out of ammo. makes you wonder what would've happened in other situations. naughtydog usually knows what they're doing so i'm not really worried about them, but i think watchdogs just created a lot of hype around a demo that they're not going to be able to live up to in terms of the game playing out organically.

and pikmin 3 looks great.

[ZennyPLUS]

I really wasn't feeling it at this E3. Pikmin 3 is really all I was looking foward to. Too many violent games in the same colored environments. No thanks.

[rtil]

sim city 5 fuck ya

[Flash]

last of us looks like uncharted with a more interesting setting. i hope the actual gameplay isn't the same (if they give you very few bullets like in the trailer it would be pretty cool!), because the graphics certainly are (1:30).

watch dogs looks interesting to watch, but boring to play. it surprised me in the trailer that it turned into just another shooter, there's no way they can build up a lot of tension from these people you're hunting when they give you a gun, a lot of cover and regenerating health.

saw the trailer for rayman last night; looks awesome. also, it's rayman.

and naturally, harry potter magical pretend book pink ball wand adventures looks like goty material.

[ZennyPLUS]

last of us looks like uncharted with a more interesting setting. i hope the actual gameplay isn't the same (if they give you very few bullets like in the trailer it would be pretty cool!), because the graphics certainly are (1:30).

watch dogs looks interesting to watch, but boring to play. it surprised me in the trailer that it turned into just another shooter, there's no way they can build up a lot of tension from these people you're hunting when they give you a gun, a lot of cover and regenerating health.

saw the trailer for rayman last night; looks awesome. also, it's rayman.

and naturally, harry potter magical pretend book pink ball wand adventures looks like goty material.

Yeah, wtf is up with regenerating health? I thought these AAA budget games tend to push the "realism" in gaming. Regenerationg health? I wish they had that back when I was playing Ninja Gaiden on the NES.

[Flash]

the thing with regenerating health is that it allows the designers to put enemies at some very hidden places; in games like CoD or battlefield you'll always be taking shots from little dots very far away from you, because that's what a warzone is like.
so having a health bar that doesn't regenerate would make things extremely frustrating - after all, cod's level design goes like this: make a big map, have lots of debris, and sprinkle foreigners randomly across it for you to track down and kill. at first, it was nice. now, it's formulaic and lazy. but it sells!

[rtil]

there are some things about reality that would not make a game fun. developers tend to leave those things out of games. but regenerating health isn't really one of them.. it all depends on the style of gameplay