E3 2015 - Squad Thoughts

[Beige]

You know what to do in here.

[Alex Connolly]

This VR shit better be a flash in the pan. It's for college kids and people who live alone.

EDIT: I should clarify. I don't find this stuff as particularly user-friendly to those with families unless the hardware costs go down considerably, and they the act of putting something on your head far less Lawnmower Man. Microsoft's Holovisor 3000? I can get behind that, on account of it not being a head-mounted sensory deprivation tank. Other stuff? It's the kind of cyberpunk future that feels exclusively for a market that I'm slipping out of. Boo hoo, right? Boo hoo.

Should be some other interesting stuff surfacing after the press events. Curious to see what the PC conference offers up.

[A.I Impaired]

Of course Microsoft isn't going off quietly into the night. Sincerity goes a long way. They are throwing out some tantalizing things that actually matter. Interested to see what comes out of Sony. Will their position get to their heads? What will they say on Backwards Compatibility?

Recore? Great original IP imo. Also, Rare's pirate game. Microsoft HoloLens though.... new Kinect? Or the doorway to a new world of gaming?

Its a hard time, and an awesome time, to be a gamer. I dont have unlimited budget or time, so I guess the curse is feeling like im going to miss out on something awesome.

Fallout 4. Looks like the polished Fallout 3 I always wanted.

[RedSwirl]

I am down like a clown for Ghost Recon Wildlands.

Will be back later.

[A.I Impaired]

Damn sony. God damn.

80 dollar games in Canada.... This is going to ruin me.

[Beige]

Initial thoughts:

Overall:

Oh look, the AAA space got the memo about female protagonists. To my great surprise women suddenly equal or outright outnumber the men when it comes to new single player IPs (Tomb Raider, Recore, Horizon, Mirror's Edge) and most other AAA IPs like The Division, Assassin's Creed, CoD, Halo and Gears (?!) are going co-ed now. Ashen and indie stuff too. Let the wailing and gnashing of teeth from the GG crowd begin.

Where are all my open world maps with little objective markers? Last E3 it was nothing but.

MS:
Quantum Break = the new Last Guardian.

Halo was boring and zzzz as all getout. Can't believe they opened with this.

Indie showcase looks incredibly strong, though I think most of these are coming to PC ultimately. Cuphead, Ashen (Dark Souls meets Journey?).... Blind Girl game.

Backwards compatibility is huge. HUUUGE. Glad I didn't sell my library of X360 games yet.

Strangely unexcited about Dark Souls 3. Once you go Bloodborne...

Early Access on consoles... Nooooooooooooo...

Recore looks worth watching for sure. SO this is what the Metroid Prime guys are up to.

Rare's pirate game makes me really wish I had 4 friends who own XBONEs. Currently my crew would be a party of one.

Hololens definitely impressed. That Minecraft demo sure was something.

I think Tomb Raider may have out-Uncharted Uncharted.

Do people still care about Gears of War? I just found myself wanting to play a horror game set in this world.

Sony:
Last Guardian is real now... but I wonder whether it'll be as amazing in 2105 as it was when it was announced? Was watching the demo and thinking perhaps a console generation hasn't been kind to the original pitch. Still a definite lock in.

Cavewoman vs Mecha-Dinosaurs looks fantastic. The Apocolypse is our new Zombies --This speaks volumes about the cultural zeitgeist. I was watching as I saw the earth stripped of mankind and reclaimed by nature (agian) and wondered how many people in their heart of hearts want Nyx to come down and purge the world right now

Well everbody got their Final Fantasy VII remake. Concrats all you people who were younger than me when the PS1 came out. I can't find it in me to either love or hate this... I wonder, will you love emo Sephiroth and a meandering nonsensical story as much as a grown-up?

Dreams. Dreeeeams? What is even happening?

Shenmue WTF. We just refreshed kickstarter and watched the dollars climb. Funded when we woke up, no surprise. I've never played a Shenmue game - have no idea what is behind the franchises' weird populatiry. Enlightem me?

Call Of Zzzzz: Black Oppzzzzzz. How can you even have "black ops" in a Hideo Kojima battlefracas. Also: Titanfall, Destiny, Battlefield, Call of Duty and Gears are all **exactly** the same game now.

Batman looks good.

Next-gen Unchharted sure looks like Uncharted! Dat 30 second idling Nate Drake meme.

Otheres:
Mass Effect Andromeda - I like Johnny Cash and I get that you're going in a new direction.... but that song was the worst possible choice to unveil a new franchise.

The Division continues to look strangely compelling for a multiplayer game about guns.

Kind of want a Pip-Boy on my arm, I won't lie.

[RedSwirl]

For some reason I still like Bethesda's conference the most. Sony won in terms of hype, but I think Bethesda has it in terms of real gameplay content even though that's only based on three games.

Horizon is the kind of post-apocalyptic thing I've wanted to see for a while. I'm tired of the kind of world The Division shows where humans start shooting each other five minutes after everything goes to shit. I think the real reason that kind of apocalypse is popular right now is because it evaporates the social contract and let's people do whatever they want. The western world is pretty damn peaceful right now, the social structure is strong and well-developed to the point where it actually feels stagnating and slightly suffocating for some people. There's a certain freedom in knowing things can't get 101% fucked.

Horizon on the other hand is about something different. Not only is it the "Life After People" kind of apocalypse where we see nature reclaim the earth, but it mostly seems to be about how humanity has regrown and repaired itself in the centuries afterwards. I've always wanted to see stuff like that, but isn't steeped in 50's futurism like Fallout. People probably look at it like how medieval Europe rebuilt on the ruins of Rome. People like asking "what kind of civilization would rebuild on top of the ruins of America?" Also nice to see Native American-ish culture reclaiming the landscape.

[Alex Connolly]

Horizon just makes me wish we'd get an Amtrak Wars game. The asymmetry between the plainsfolk, the Iron Masters and the Federation just begs for a big overland action-RPG, rolling aboard the Lady from Louisiana, soaring in the Skyhawks, churning upriver on the steamers or wading through the purple grass of a post-post apocalyptic world.

Why are the dinosaurs and Eocene beasts robotic again?

Mark, Shenmue is very much in your wheelhouse. Red probably has some detailed spiel on hand about it, but you wouldn't have Yakuza if you didn't have Ryo and his quest. Less grit, less noble rogue, a pure hero born of Suzuki and company's sentimental affinity with a 1980s Japan. Stonewash jeans, arcades, vending machines, the clean heroics of a young fellow coming to terms with tragedy and mystery. Lots of crazy idiosyncratic meat on the bone. I wish we were getting HD reduxes of the original two games to go along with the third -- maybe we are, I haven't checked -- because this is meant to be a sprawling epic and there's a joy being up to speed on Ryo's origin in Dobouita and his subsequent journey to Hong Kong.

You'd dig it, that's for sure.

[RedSwirl]

Shenmue WTF. We just refreshed kickstarter and watched the dollars climb. Funded when we woke up, no surprise. I've never played a Shenmue game - have no idea what is behind the franchises' weird populatiry. Enlightem me?

Okay. You know how Elder Scrolls, Fallout 3, Ultima Underworld, Arx Fatalis, or whatever immersive first person RPG you played tried to create a world that looked and felt like it was a real, functioning place? Like with developed characters following daily schedules and all working together in a system that serves to create a really thick illusion of a living and breathing world that moves on its own independent of the player's position? Imagine that, applied to an adventure game set in 1986 Japan. That's a decent approximation of Shenmue.

That kind of game just hadn't been done on a console in 2000. I felt like I lived in that game the week it came out. There's a part in the first game where you actually have a job you have to get up and go to every morning at 7am because you're trying to investigate a gang. And you actually have to do that job. Like, you actually have to load crates with a forklift for a few minutes per in-game day.

It's an adventure game, but the story is about martial arts. There are events where you have to beat up people in a system that's basically an offshoot of Virtua Fighter. Every once in a while you do something for an old guy and he'll teach you a move. You can even choose to spend in-game time doing your kata which improves your combos.

[A.I Impaired]

Yeah, shenmue was interesting. At times it did feel like a real life simulator, which was weird. It's only fantastical in short bursts, then you are plopped back into the charming mundane reality the world creates. There is something quite serene about the games world and characters. It's actually a game to chill out with I feel. Loaf around, ask silly questions, practice martial arts skills. It's funny how the game sets up a purpose for urgency, but it is really a slow methodical progression toward a resolution. The main character, despite his woes, seems completely chill.