Video game news and reaction

[TheTSKoala]

HOLY CRAP! 
VIRTUA FIGHTER 5: FINAL EVOLUTION is finally stateside! 
$15 USD PSN!
brb, selling kidneys!

Woah!  I just bought a Kidney for $15US + S/H on Ebay...

[Bill Whitmore]

No love for the E3 XCOM trailer?

Honestly, right now I am hating that video.  I was waiting in line for about an hour to see the E3 theater demo presentation for XCOM, and guess what was playing on loop while we were waiting in line?  Yea, 60 minutes watching it on less than a 2 minute cycle?

Now the demo was freakin' awesome.  Where the videos available to date show mostly gear and abilities from the beginning of the game, they highlighted a few end game items.

(click to show/hide)

The video opens with the aliens reeking havoc on a rookie squad.  There are things like chrysalids overwhelming their position and  a sectoid commander mind controlling soldiers and making them eat their own grenades.  So they call in the big guns.

In the video this consists of 3 soldiers:
   The first is a sniper equipped with armor that allows him to hover, keeping him out of reach of the chrysalids.  He has a perk that allows him to take a second shot when he scores a critical hit which allows him to drop 2 chrysalids.
   The second is in a stealth armor which also allows her to move incredibly fast.  Practically invisible, she uses a grappling hook to pull herself up next to an alien on the roof and unload a shotgun into the thing.
   The last is a Psyker, capable of mind controlling aliens and making THEM eat THEIR own grenades.  As an added easter egg, the psyker was modeled after Sid Meier, which led to the quip that the man who created civilization was now tasked with saving it.

The game play actually looks really good and a lot of fun and I am definitely looking forward to October.  *sigh*  Take my damn money, 2k Games, what little I may still have.

[Crafty_Pat]

This is from their website posted the first week of May:  "We are also going to hold off on showing BioShock Infinite at the big events of the summer, like E3 and GamesCom."

Boo! Still, glad they're taking the time to get it right.

[Crafty_Pat]

this one kinda snuck up on the gaming world.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/06/04/e3-2012-ubisoft-reveals-ctos

Wow. If the full game even approaches the flexibility, immersion, and detail in those trailers, sign me up!

Totally agree.  No news and then an announcement consisting of 3 pretty amazing gameplay vids (that look pretty damn close to release).  Far as I'm concerned it's pretty close to game of the show.

The Halo 4 live action trailer is very nice though.

EDIT: Also, like 5 minutes of Halo 4 gameplay.  Not sure what their reasoning for the Elites being part of the covenant again is, but hopefully it's one that makes sense.  Still, that's a very nice looking shooter right there.

Here's a look at some of the game's interface (via Waypoint).

Halo 4 is getting some coop multiplayer.  Looks pretty neat, but it's described as weekly episodes, so I hope it's not a "do it this week or miss out" type thing.

With any luck that means "released weekly" and the content will be available for much longer, or possibly forever if it's driven by micro-transactions.

No love for the E3 XCOM trailer?

Saw it yesterday, too busy geeking out over it to post anything coherent.
TAKE ALL THE MONEYS FIRAXIS, AND GIVE US ALL THE GAME NOOOOOW!!1!11  

No kidding. X-COM's one of a very few titles I'm definitely pre-ordering this year.

[Crafty_Pat]

So many trailers from E3...

Beyond: Two Souls: This just screams Firestarter to me (note: this is not a bad thing). but the thing that really impresses me about this one is the ambitious story approach, as bolded in this bit from the press release...

"Creators of Heavy Rain, Quantic Dream has announced the release of a new game called Beyond: Two Souls. Academy Award nominee Ellen Page, famous for her role as a pregnant teenager in Juno and the architect student in Inception, voices a woman named Jodie Holmes who appears to have a psychic connection to an entity named Ivan.  Hunted for her power, the game follows fifteen years of her life in which the gamers actions and decisions will influence the course of her history. The trailer promises a game that would be more action orientated than their past titles, yet still carry the developers incredible story telling. This is definitively a game worth watching out for. The current release date is scheduled for February 2013 and it will be exclusive to PS3."

...and here's a vid of the Quantic Dreams presentation.

Last of Us Gameplay: That is incredibly fluid, and reveals that the game's a lot more violent than I originally expected (not inherently a bad thing, and so long as the violence maintains this level of detail, interaction, and realism, I'm down). Also, it's nice to see more games introducing consistently involved sidekicks (you may remember that Bioshock: Infinite has a similar set-up).

God of War: Ascension: Look, a screaming club! Also, that elephant champion is fantastic - very similar to a species I created years ago for a now-defunct video game project.

Transformers: Fall of Cybertron: Continuing High Moon's strategic use of eclectic music against epic cinematics. Love that final reveal!

Elder Scrolls Online: Stylish but sadly rather barren. I suspect they're not deep enough into development to show much polished work off yet. So it goes...

Far Cry 3 Gameplay Demo (NSFW): I'm really gonna have to congratulate my buddy Loosh on a job well done with this. He and his cohorts did a great job with the design.

Assassin's Creed 3: Delivering exactly what's been promised.

Fable: The Journey: Notable mainly for finally doing something I've been expecting since the Wii hit - using motion controls to have a player simulate various motions required to cast different spells.

Ascend: New Gods: Not sure what to make of this one. It looks like a cross between an RTS gladiator game and God of War.

Lost Planet 3

Looks like E3 was a lot more interesting than the TV upfronts this year. Many of the games I'm most interested in don't have release dates yet but that's okay - it just means there's more to look forward to.

[Bill Whitmore]

I had a chance to review the Wii U today and I my overall view was mixed.

Given the length of time since we have seen any new consoles, I am interesting in seeing a new console release succeed, but I am not sure the Wii U has enough to offer to make it worth me buying.

One of the selling points of the Wii U is a mini, handheld screen that can be used as an extra display for whatever game you are playing.  This sounds all well and good, but I am not sure developers are really using the capability correctly.

The good: Competitive multiplayer games.
   I had a chance to check out one that pitted a ghost vs some ghost hunters.  The ghost hunters used the standard TV to search the house.  They had to find batteries to power their flashlights which would in turn reveal the ghost.  The ghost was trying to catch the hunters and was invisible unless caught in the flashlight.  The ghost player used the hand held display to move about which allowed for Fog of War amongst players on the same console.

The bad: Playing a game on a handheld when you have a perfectly good TV in front of you
   Another game had me worried.  It was a platform puzzle game.  The TV showed a zoomed out view of the whole level.  The handheld device had a much more zoomed in view of the map which focused on your location on the level.  The demo showed only a single player playing and I had to wonder, why would I want to play a game where I spend most of the time staring at the tiny handheld screen when I had a 50" TV in front of me that I was basically ignoring?


The main draw to me would be as a party game platform, but I do not have that many people over at my house often enough to use it that way.  Add to that my platform of choice is the PC where Fog of War during a game is a non-existent problem and it leaves the Wii U as something that may be worth keeping an eye on but not something I am personally interesting in getting any time soon.

[foproy]

i like what Microsoft is doing with the smart glass stuff, since it uses a cell phone or tablet and seems to be only as an add on to a game and not a necessity. Another thing Microsoft is doing right is with the core kinect games they seem to be using the kinect as a secondary device mainly for the voice chat support. I think that is the main mistake the big n makes with these systems is they require you to use a wonky device as the controller.

[Krensky]

Having done some checking, it seems the CD Project Red's Cyberpunk game is more 2020 than 203X (that's a good thing for those unfamiliar) and MaxMike is apparently directly involved and was actually on stage for the announcement, rather than some random white guy.

[VisualStatic]

Having done some checking, it seems the CD Project Red's Cyberpunk game is more 2020 than 203X (that's a good thing for those unfamiliar) and MaxMike is apparently directly involved and was actually on stage for the announcement, rather than some random white guy.

Here is the CD Projekt RED Summer Conference Video.  The link takes you to the section of the video where the announcement starts.
CD Projekt RED Cyberpunk announcement

[foproy]

a good article on watch dogs, looks ambitious.
http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/06/07/e3-2012-why-watch-dogs-is-my-game-of-the-show

[RusVal]

Just watched the live twitch.tv feed of XCOM.  Showed off Interception, the "time passing" mechanic, some mid-game tech (lasers and carapace armor), and crashed UFO entrance.

To start with, if there was one thing that I was disappointed with (probably 'cause I was too hyped from the rest of the game) was the Interception.

It is a java animation of a fighter shooting at a UFO.  And not one of those good ones either, just a picture of the fighter bobbing up and down, a few "Plasma" lines, the UFO blinks red, and then a "You are winner" shot down message (more or less).
I dunno, they did say that it was a peripheral mechanic, but I expected something a bit more professional looking.  Maybe something like UFO: Extraterrestrials, where you watched little mini-fighters fly at each other on the Geoscape.  Ah well... 

Fortunately, the rest showed why I am still looking forward to the game.  For one thing, I found the soundtrack very fitting during the battle on the riverside.
I also liked some of the designs for the human tech showcased (the two laser rifles look very "near future", and the Gatling laser was sweeeet), though I kind of rolled my eyes at the classic "Sci-fi breast plate" of the female's armor.

Also, for those wondering, you do enter the UFO in the classic way.  Through a door.
Just in case an intrepid Commander was wondering what to do with that rookie they had taken along for the mission.   

[Bill Whitmore]

Also, for those wondering, you do enter the UFO in the classic way.  Through a door.
Just in case an intrepid Commander was wondering what to do with that rookie they had taken along for the mission.   

Rookies with a bushel of primed grenades waiting for if/when he falls!

[Mister Andersen]

Hi, Neal Stephenson here. My career as an author of science and historical fiction has turned me into a swordsmanship geek. As such, I'm dissatisfied with how swordfighting is portrayed in existing video games. These could be so much more fun than they are. Time for a revolution.

[foproy]

the more i see and read about dishonored the more i want to play it. the below article has a bit of story involved in it, but i do not know how much of a spoiler it is. but consider yourselves warned.
http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/06/12/why-dishonored-was-my-game-of-e3-2012

[Sletchman]

Microsoft seem to be attempting to suck the wind out of the Wii U's sails.

For those who don't want to read the article:  The new "SmartGlass" thing means that every mobile device - not just Windows powered ones either, even 3rd party ones (iOS and Android being the obvious ones) - will be able to have the full portable functionality for the games.  The stuff they showed off included Halo 4 having a map on a Windows Tablet and Windows Phones being used as remote controls.

Probably not quite as userfriendly as the Wii U - you'll need to put your tablet somewhere you can glance at easily instead of just holding it.  I'm gonna call it now though - by NeXt-Box (because XBox 720 sounds kinda stupid) we will have an optional controller with a ~6" touch screen built into it.