This episode features This episode features Tom, Tyson, Rebecca, and Scott
Tom and special guest Scott talk about all things E3!
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Sony really stepped it up from last year and I enjoyed the show that is E3 (despite the ‘Uncharted’ flub at the end.) In the age of never-ending sequels, remakes and reboots, Sony hit hard on its “best on PlayStation” theme. I mean, I would have liked to see a good bit more first party titles instead of “first on playstation” ones, but I can’t be mad at the fact Shenmue 3 and FF7 remake are even existing. My favorite of the show (outside of ‘Rachet And Clank’ obviously) has to be Horizon. Loved the environment and gameplay so far. My only gripe would be that most of the games shown are probably 1-2 years away, and for the most part Sony is coasting on third party games when my favorite games on their systems are usually first party.
And about the whole backwards compatibility issue, they need to address that. Microsoft surprised everyone at E3 2015 by announcing the Xbox One will be backwards compatible with Xbox 360 games. Sadly, it looks like Sony is not following suit. Seriously? I’m still rocking a PS3 and well, I have a TON of games that I need to finish on there. Every next gen console should be backward compatible with the last, period.
I have an honest question. How can people say backwards compatibility is a bad thing? It’s not a bad thing, it’s a great thing, it’s a great thing that ALL systems should have at launch, and it’s now a pointless thing that’s appearing nearly two years into the life of consoles. Where was it when the PS4 dropped in 2013? I mean, there are plenty of games on the PS4 now, so BC is a nice but ultimately pointless irrelevant feature and not something to get excited about as if it’s a game changer, which it seems to me some people are doing. Edit: For example, the PS4 just launched a media player that plays files the PS3 couldn’t (MKV) which is a HUGE plus and another feature that should have been there at launch. However, I don’t see it as “OMG, PS4 now has a media player, it just won this generation!” type of touchstone.
A solid portfolio of exclusives and big name titles, the PlayStation maker hit the mark this year. Uncharted 4, Ratchet & Clank, Street Fighter V, Until Dawn, Firewatch, No Man’s Sky, MLB The Show will all be out before next E3. Horizon, The Last Guardian, World of Final Fantasy are scheduled for 2016, so a few months after the next E3 at most. Dreams has no release date (probably will be given at PGW) but seeing as it’s been worked on for two years now and they’re showing it off at two conferences in a row, the release date is probably also 2016. FF7R, Shenmue III are the only exclusives (timed/console) shown off that are gonna be a ways off.
Maybe I don’t need to throw down the cash money for the current gen just yet. More often than not, releases are subject to around a year’s worth of marketing. From alleged leaks to teasers to gameplay reveals, the marketing machine that operates behind a major video game release is as intricate and complex as the game itself. And from the initial trailer till the moment you play the game for the first time (and even post-release to fix bugs), developers slog trying to turn hype into reality. And…More often than not, though, the final product pales in comparison to the pre-release noise.
-Dagobot
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Square Enix has launched their E3 hype video and it’s full of excitement for anyone that’s a fan of ‘Chrono Trigger’ – one of the greatest RPGs of all time and a game changer in the way games began to tell stories in the early 90’s.
Featuring the Chrono Trigger Remix theme and hints at “rewinding time,” this trailer is all you need to get pumped this Monday!
We’ll be back with the official announcement once it’s revealed. I’m honestly hoping for a new game in the “Chrono” series, but I’d still be very happy with an updated version, possibly for my 3DS?
After an action-packed demonstration of the new Doom, which we have been waiting for, eternally. (Still don’t have a beta yet!). Bethesda Softworks released the below trailer to show off the action. Described as “Bruce Lee on a skateboard with a shotgun”. This looks like a throwback to the original Doom titles, less horror, more shooting.
At the end of their E3 Showcase, Bethesda dropped the bomb we’ve all been waiting for. Since they’ve been working on the game since immediately after Fallout 3, it is exciting to see the game hitting this year. It may get delayed as games often due, but if all goes well, we’ll see the new Fallout before the end of the year! In case you haven’t seen the trailer, check it out below.
After yesterdays leak not much was left for surprise in the “Dishonored 2” announcement. The main surprise in store, is that the protagonist of the new title will be Corvo Attano, or Emily Kaldwin. Trailer below!
During their open microphone tests on the Bethesda Twitch Channel. While the mics were open you can overhear some people discussing the presentation. Thanks to YouTube user Necxfarious for posting the audio. The person with the French accent is Raph Colantonio, president of Arkane Lyons. The conversation is between Harvey Smith and Ralph Colantonio discussing the upcoming presentation which is leading to speculation that the announcement must be about “Dishonored 2”. You can listen to the audio below. What else does Bethesda have up their sleeves for their first ever E3 Presser?
Tom, Lance, Steve and Arthur chat pre E3 Hype, what’s coming, what they hope for. It wouldn’t be a complete show, if they didn’t discuss the Steam Summer Sale as well.
Bandai Namco is hitting the free-to-play space with this 2v2, 3D battle arena title, Rise of Incarnates. According to a press release from Bandai Namco, the team behind Incarnates includes people from the Tekken, SoulCalibur, and Gundam Extreme VS games.
It’s a frenetic experience in an open 3D battleground. Your core abilities include both melee and ranged attacks, shields, and Dissidia-style dashing, leaping, and flying. If you enjoyed the Dissidia fighting style, you probably want to keep an eye on this one. The freedom of movement seems to be both Incarnates’ biggest strength and biggest weakness. It’s a unique combat experience, which opens a number of interesting strategies, but it’s also quite disorienting at times.
Even though this is a PC game, it’s clearly meant to be played with a controller, so if you decide to check out the alpha (details at end of article), you’re going to want an X360 controller for your PC.
Story-wise, don’t expect anything much more interesting than the SoulCalibur franchise — it is a fighting game, after all, so we have to set our narrative expectations accordingly. Basically, the world has gone to hell in a wastebasket with meteorites falling from the sky and freak weather incidents. At the same time, a number of individuals, known as Incarnates, have become fused with “daimons” granting them extraordinary powers — there’s kind of an X-Men thing going on with these people. The daimons are manifestations of mythological beings from around the world. The four currently-announced incarnates are fused with The Grim Reaper, Ares, Mephistophales, and Lilith.
Each character feels significantly different in play style, and each has a number of different attacks available at any given moment. These skills have a sort of ammo-like system, with the ability to use each replenishing over time. Additionally, there are special abilities which charge up when you deal damage. Jedrek Tyler can turn into a demonic monster, something like a Devil May Cry devil trigger form, while Dr. Gasper Watteau can summon hordes of zombies out of the ground to overwhelm his enemies.
It’s still early in its cycle — Incarnates just had its first alpha at the end of last month — but it seems like an interesting new take on the fighting game. It will be interesting to see how it plays out. There’s a good chance that Bandai Namco is hoping for Incarnates to become a staple of the eSports fighting game world, and it certainly has a shot.
If you want to try it out yourself, you can sign up for the alpha or watch the trailer at the Rise of Incarnates website
This is the new real-time combat MMO from Russian developers The Allods Team, responsible for a popular Russian MMORPG called Allods Online — Allods is part of the Mail.ru Group, whose subsidiary, My.com, will be publishing the game. The well-known Obsidian Entertainment (Fallout: New Vegas, Neverwinter Nights 2, Knights of the Old Republic II) is also working closely with the Allods Team on the project. Obsidian will be primarily responsible for localization, with a bit of content development, and what sounds like a sort of consultancy role.
The biggest thing Skyforge has going for it is its unique class system, allowing you to switch classes at any time depending on the needs of your party. The team decided to avoid the traditional levels-and-classes schema in favor of something more flexible. They want to avoid a problematic and un-fun system that forces you to slog through the same content over and over because you want to try a different class than the one you originally chose. Eric DeMilt, Development Director of Culturalization for Skyforge at Obsidian, put it this way, “In most MMO’s, you make a critical choice when you have the least knowledge.” There will still be class-specific advancement, but more on that later.
Skyforge places you in the role of an immortal, vying to become a god. In the game universe, the greatest of the gods on your planet has gone missing, causing a power struggle between the lesser gods as they vie for the vacant position. As you rise through the ranks from immortal to champion to god, you will fend off the armies of invading gods from other planets, and fight to gain power and faith from mortals. The worship or adoration of the mortals will be called “Greatness,” and will be some kind of character resource, but there are no real details on that mechanic yet.
It’s a game with an interesting blend of sci-fi and fantasy, featuring both advanced weaponry and swords, both space ships and mythology-inspired monsters. There’s definitely a fantasy-tech aesthetic similar to recent Final Fantasy titles. The environment we fought through was pretty, though a little drab and generic. But there’s plenty of media showcasing very beautiful environments, and very cool looking beasties, so it may have just been a poor choice of quest for such early demo exposure.
The goal is to ship 10 playable character classes with the final game. During E3, there were about five to choose from, including gunslingers, sword-wielding bruisers, and casters of various types. The combat played out very much like a console beat-em-up in the one mission we got our hands on. There were only two of us for the demo, so it’s hard to say how readable the combat may become with a large group, because your special attacks are very flashy, throwing lots of particle effects around — especially the Cryomancer, whose specialty is crowd control and freezing enemies solid. When your special gauge fills up, you have access to an extra-flashy finishing move.
The “Ascension Atlus” is your character advancement system. It is very reminiscent of Final Fantasy X‘s Sphere Grid in many ways. As mentioned previously, unlike most games, you are not perma-locked into your class, but there are class-specific advancement sections on the Ascension Atlus. So you are entirely able to create a single-class character if you so desire. There are also general advancement sections, which give you the option to boost your core stats instead of, say, learning a new skill for Cryomancer.
All Skyforge players will be together on a single server, so you won’t need to worry about getting on the same one as your buddy if you pick up the game. It will feature your MMORPG staples: solo or group PvE, with PvP as well. There is no stated release date or window yet.
Oh and don’t forget (this one’s for you, Lucas): When someone asks you if you’re a god…