11th June 2013, 9:32 PM
Okay...so in the conferences, we saw a bunch of games. I put the DRM stuff in one thread, and Nintendo's in another, but how about one for games.
In the Microsoft conference, Quantum Break looks like it could be interesting. I hope it ends up on platforms other than X1 sometime (PC port!). Also I hope it doesn't take as long as Alan Wake. :p (7-8 year project, that was...) Killer Instinct... maybe, but probably not; that series was never my thing, I'm terrible at combos. It's interesting to see it finally return though. There were a few other interesting ones as well. The Insomniac game has a good art style, but the gameplay looks like it could be generic. Oh, there was also a very short Halo teaser. The reveal that it was Master Chief was well done, but it said nothing about the game (not that I care very much, not being someone who ever found the Halo games interesting). There was also Forza and Drive Club. I don't care about realistic racing games. There was one indie game which they said very little about (a dungeon crawler or something?). Could be decent, who knows. Oh, there was also Dead Rising 3. Looks like the kind of game I don't find interesting. Uh... I'm forgetting the rest. Oh, MS showed a few 360 games. None were memorable enough for me to remember them (mostly third party stuff I think?). I don't know if MS showed even one single game with a playable female character seen on screen. All guys, lots of shooting.
From EA, Dragon Age 3 was nice to see, though Fall 2014 is quite a ways off. I really, REALLY hope that it'll play more like Dragon Age 1, which is a great game, and not that actioney Dragon Age 2" thing... but there was no gameplay here, only CG/trailer stuff, so we don't know about that. I just hope they do the right thing... I'm just not entirely expecting it. Also, of course I'm looking forwards to Mirror's Edge 2. The first one was quite good, it's fantastic to see a sequel underway. The new Need for Speed could be okay too, though we'll see; it's not Criterion, so it could be not so great (theirs have been the best, of the recent NFS games). Otherwise, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare has a good art style, but I wouldn't actually play the game. Peggle 2... I didn't get hooked to the first one like some people did. Oh, and Titanfall (which was at both the MS and EA conferences)? Sorry, looks pretty uninteresting. I do not care much about multiplayer FPSes. Overall, EA had a much better presentation than last year. The fakeout at the beginning with PvZ was good stuff, and ending with Mirror's Edge 2 was great.
As for Ubisoft, their conference was entertaining as usual. They obviously go for the silly and kind of weird, and they nailed that again. As for the actual games though... eh. Assassin's Creed is that series that I've always thought that I SHOULD care about and play, because of how much I like history, but just never have. That remains true. Maybe I'll finally get myself to play some of them in the future, and see if I like it or not. The Crew does look fun, though. It looks like a simple, fun racing game, not that tediously boring sim stuff that's far too common these days. The huge world to drive in looks nice as well. Ubi's last driving game, Driver San Francisco, was fantastic, so hopefully this one will be just as good. Rayman Legends also looks great; though of course that's something we've seen before it was here again. Two new Trials games? Haven't played those before, so I don't know if I care. As for Watch Dogs and their new title, Tom Clancy's The Division, the former looks like it could be okay but I doubt very much I'd stick with it, and the latter looks like an uninteresting cover-based shooter/MMO thing. Both have somewhat similar near-future bad-case-scenario storylines.
And finally, Sony. As always Sony had a long, somewhat boring two hour conference (MS was 90 minutes, Nintendo's Direct 45 mins). It had some boring parts, including the part about TV. The Vita section was silly, they said how great the platform is... and then talked about very few games. Yeah, they'll be relying on that PS4 Remote Play thing a lot for games for the poor Vita, I think, though they should have talked more about first-party titles. As for the PS3, they showed Gran Turismo 6 (again, I don't care) and some third-party stuff. Then it was on to the PS4. Beyond: Two Souls... a cover-based shooter... from the Heavy Rain/Indigo Prophecy team? Really? Couldn't they do something more unique? At least it does have a good-sounding story and some unique elements, but .. cover-based shooting, really? Ah well. At least it has a female lead, which makes it a bit unique for the genre. Sony also showed the games they've shown before, that will be there for launch, including Knack (which looks fun) and the new Killzone (who cares). There was also a new, longer trailer for Infamous: Second Son. No gameplay though, all cutscene/CG. They also showed Destiny, Bungie's new game. It looks like a Halo reskin with some MMO elements. Nothing that interested me at all. Nice art design though, particularly outside. Sony also showed the first trailer for Kingdom Hearts 3, and the first one for Final Fantasy Versus XIII, or as it's now known Final Fantasy XV. Both games will also be on Xbox One, though, we now know; only the PS3/PS4 versions of Final Fantasy XIV -- yes, they're still coming -- are Sony-exclusive, for the three people who actually want to play that game. Still though, I guess it's good to know that Versus isn't complete vaporware, as The Last Guardian continues to be (Sony insists that it's still in development, but no news, nothing at all). It looks like an action-RPG, as it always has been. That Noctis guy is still the lead character. And yes, Sora's in Kingdom Hearts 3. How surprising. I think Sony had some more games as well, but that's what I remember offhand. Of course, they also had that hardcore MS-bashing used games section, which was broken up by some LONG applause periods after each statement of Sony's about how they're doing the same thing they did on PS3. They milked it, but it was deserved... no, MS, games should not be a "service". We should actually own things we have purchased.
In the Microsoft conference, Quantum Break looks like it could be interesting. I hope it ends up on platforms other than X1 sometime (PC port!). Also I hope it doesn't take as long as Alan Wake. :p (7-8 year project, that was...) Killer Instinct... maybe, but probably not; that series was never my thing, I'm terrible at combos. It's interesting to see it finally return though. There were a few other interesting ones as well. The Insomniac game has a good art style, but the gameplay looks like it could be generic. Oh, there was also a very short Halo teaser. The reveal that it was Master Chief was well done, but it said nothing about the game (not that I care very much, not being someone who ever found the Halo games interesting). There was also Forza and Drive Club. I don't care about realistic racing games. There was one indie game which they said very little about (a dungeon crawler or something?). Could be decent, who knows. Oh, there was also Dead Rising 3. Looks like the kind of game I don't find interesting. Uh... I'm forgetting the rest. Oh, MS showed a few 360 games. None were memorable enough for me to remember them (mostly third party stuff I think?). I don't know if MS showed even one single game with a playable female character seen on screen. All guys, lots of shooting.
From EA, Dragon Age 3 was nice to see, though Fall 2014 is quite a ways off. I really, REALLY hope that it'll play more like Dragon Age 1, which is a great game, and not that actioney Dragon Age 2" thing... but there was no gameplay here, only CG/trailer stuff, so we don't know about that. I just hope they do the right thing... I'm just not entirely expecting it. Also, of course I'm looking forwards to Mirror's Edge 2. The first one was quite good, it's fantastic to see a sequel underway. The new Need for Speed could be okay too, though we'll see; it's not Criterion, so it could be not so great (theirs have been the best, of the recent NFS games). Otherwise, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare has a good art style, but I wouldn't actually play the game. Peggle 2... I didn't get hooked to the first one like some people did. Oh, and Titanfall (which was at both the MS and EA conferences)? Sorry, looks pretty uninteresting. I do not care much about multiplayer FPSes. Overall, EA had a much better presentation than last year. The fakeout at the beginning with PvZ was good stuff, and ending with Mirror's Edge 2 was great.
As for Ubisoft, their conference was entertaining as usual. They obviously go for the silly and kind of weird, and they nailed that again. As for the actual games though... eh. Assassin's Creed is that series that I've always thought that I SHOULD care about and play, because of how much I like history, but just never have. That remains true. Maybe I'll finally get myself to play some of them in the future, and see if I like it or not. The Crew does look fun, though. It looks like a simple, fun racing game, not that tediously boring sim stuff that's far too common these days. The huge world to drive in looks nice as well. Ubi's last driving game, Driver San Francisco, was fantastic, so hopefully this one will be just as good. Rayman Legends also looks great; though of course that's something we've seen before it was here again. Two new Trials games? Haven't played those before, so I don't know if I care. As for Watch Dogs and their new title, Tom Clancy's The Division, the former looks like it could be okay but I doubt very much I'd stick with it, and the latter looks like an uninteresting cover-based shooter/MMO thing. Both have somewhat similar near-future bad-case-scenario storylines.
And finally, Sony. As always Sony had a long, somewhat boring two hour conference (MS was 90 minutes, Nintendo's Direct 45 mins). It had some boring parts, including the part about TV. The Vita section was silly, they said how great the platform is... and then talked about very few games. Yeah, they'll be relying on that PS4 Remote Play thing a lot for games for the poor Vita, I think, though they should have talked more about first-party titles. As for the PS3, they showed Gran Turismo 6 (again, I don't care) and some third-party stuff. Then it was on to the PS4. Beyond: Two Souls... a cover-based shooter... from the Heavy Rain/Indigo Prophecy team? Really? Couldn't they do something more unique? At least it does have a good-sounding story and some unique elements, but .. cover-based shooting, really? Ah well. At least it has a female lead, which makes it a bit unique for the genre. Sony also showed the games they've shown before, that will be there for launch, including Knack (which looks fun) and the new Killzone (who cares). There was also a new, longer trailer for Infamous: Second Son. No gameplay though, all cutscene/CG. They also showed Destiny, Bungie's new game. It looks like a Halo reskin with some MMO elements. Nothing that interested me at all. Nice art design though, particularly outside. Sony also showed the first trailer for Kingdom Hearts 3, and the first one for Final Fantasy Versus XIII, or as it's now known Final Fantasy XV. Both games will also be on Xbox One, though, we now know; only the PS3/PS4 versions of Final Fantasy XIV -- yes, they're still coming -- are Sony-exclusive, for the three people who actually want to play that game. Still though, I guess it's good to know that Versus isn't complete vaporware, as The Last Guardian continues to be (Sony insists that it's still in development, but no news, nothing at all). It looks like an action-RPG, as it always has been. That Noctis guy is still the lead character. And yes, Sora's in Kingdom Hearts 3. How surprising. I think Sony had some more games as well, but that's what I remember offhand. Of course, they also had that hardcore MS-bashing used games section, which was broken up by some LONG applause periods after each statement of Sony's about how they're doing the same thing they did on PS3. They milked it, but it was deserved... no, MS, games should not be a "service". We should actually own things we have purchased.