PlayStation/Sony E3 2014: Initial Thoughts

So, so far everyone I've spoken to is creaming their pants over the Playstation conference. I on the other hand, was rather underwhelmed. Maybe it's because over the years I've learned to cut through the bullshit. I'm not a Sony fanboy, but I'm not an Xbox fanboy either. I'm more inclined to like the Playstation for nostalgia reasons, some of my favourite games are on it's original incarnation like Final Fantasy VII, Resident Evil and Metal Gear Solid. But this conference to me dragged like crazy. Let's dive into it.

Destiny opened the conference before anyone even stepped out on stage. We finally got some solid glimpses of story with what I think was a Peter Dinklage narration. The story seems to be about a thing called the "traveller", sounds like some kind of planet that comes into our star system enhancing our lives ten fold, giving us triple life span, new technology all this awesome stuff. But like a yin-yang, it had an evil counterpart that arrived and screwed everything and everyone up. The story sounds solid and for some reason reminds me of Mass Effect's story of finding the Prothean beacon, then eventually encountering the Reapers. I like the sound of it - that being said, I hope the gameplay can match up. Right now all I'm seeing in the gameplay is basically a more realistic Borderlands, which don't get me wrong is great, but a lot of the fun of that game is it's quirkiness which doesn't exist here. Maybe it's just I'm a little FPS'd out, which when we get to Far Cry 4 you'll hear me moan more about.

There's a new White PS4, looks shiny. Might be what I get.

The Order 1886 had a creepy old school Resident Evil vibe to it, in fact it stole shot for shot one sequence right out of it. It looks nice but I can't help that I've seen a lot of this before. Something doesn't feel right about this game, there's not really much explanation of story or what exactly the game will be about other than this short 2-3 minute clip of gameplay. It's got no context, is this what all the game is like, I don't know the previous trailer was all CG.

Entwined looked pretty, it's a new art-house game. New style of gameplay that's not bang bang, guns. I like it. But it's just not something that had me excited either.

Infamous: Second Son DLC called Infamous: First Light. CG trailer nothing to write home about. It is a DLC right, I'm not confused, because the title indicates it's a new game but I didn't get that impression from what they were tailing about. I'm not going crazy right... right!? RIGHT!??!?!?!?!

Little Big Planet 3 was announced however, and to many I'm sure they were very excited. I watched and maybe this is what non-Nintendo fans think when they watch a new Mario game. It looked the same as the last two. I never got into it, I tried, I just couldn't Nice that it's backwards compatible with it's predecessors and has true co-op platforming, unlike NSMB.U which basically was how many times can I throw my brother off a cliff like the asshole I am... I hate you Takis... Anyway, the point is., LBP3 didn't seem like anything was particularly new. Nothing I saw made me want to rush out and buy it today as the previous two didn't either.

Bloodbourne was announced next and it was a dark violent horror game. That's about all I got... which kinda sums up a lot of this conference.

Finally we get to Far Cry 4 and this is the point where I just realised, I'm all FPS'd out. I can't do any more first person games right now. The first half of the gameplay showed this mountain scaling, we got more a sense of gameplay, it looked cool. The leap in the winged suit looked cool and gave a sense of scale. This will probably have to be one I try before I buy, or play on the show floor as nothing here really hit me as amazing... that was until they announced that a second player on PSN can join your game like they were in your living room and they don't even have to own the bloody game! Incredible! This is probably using their Gakai streaming service somehow as it's exclusive to PlayStation.

Some kind of Zombie Game, I don't know the trailer was funny but my feed cut out for a minute and when it started up I just saw more Battlefield Hardline, which while fun and all, we've seen it a billion times now.

This is where for me the lull began, where they took an hour off and showed some indies and stuff, a lot of stuff that kinda baffled me too. Starting with the Magicka 2 trailer was funny but didn't show much gameplay, looks good though. Looks the same as Magicka, I hope they can do something new and interesting with it. I've always been a fan of games like this and Bastion, something about top down just reminds me of old school games like Zelda: Link the Past that I really like.

Okay, so the next one was Grim Fandango HD Remaster. Everyone jumped out of their seat and screamed like schoolgirls over this one. I have heard of the game but honestly have never played it so the nostalgia factor wasn't there for me. I'm sure it'll be fun and maybe if they'd shown some gameplay or something I could have gotten on board - but again that's the problem here, nothing is being shown, they're just being announced and anything that is being shown is being shown for older fans of the series not to bring in new ones like me.

Lots of indies in a montaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaage by Devolver. Looks a lot of fun. It was quickly followed by Suda 51 and something dark and depressing and David Lynch-ian...

The developers of Journey's next game is called Giant Squid. And much like their previous game is impossible to describe if you don't play it. You're swimming... I think... I don't get it.

Now is the game that set the VGX on fire. No Man's Sky, now I'll be honest, it is a seriously impressive feat with all the tiny team and the press this is getting. So great to them. It's beautiful looking game... but... what IS IT? Is it an RPG, is it exploration, I have no idea what the purpose of this game is. Am I just that set in my ways. I don't know, no-one seems to be able to give me a concrete answer. What is this game, someone please tell me in the comments below because I'm completely lost.

Project Morpheus their VR headset was talked about and will be at the booth. I'll have more there soon. YouTube is coming to PS4, so instant YouTube upload like you can do with Mario Kart 8 on Wii U but on all PS4 titles via the share function. That is going to be a copyright claims clusterfuck indeed but a nice feature. Nothing new in particular. Then they talked about Free to Play games for about ten minutes... moving on....

Playstation Now, a service I'm very intrigued by and have been saying for years Nintendo should do this with the Virtual Console. The cool thing was select Sony TV's will get a special streaming service. I happen to have an old Sony smart television, so that's cool, even if I already own a PS3 it will be on. The PS4 gets it first via Beta on July 31st before it comes to Vita and PS3. They'd previously mentioned phones and tablets, but no mention of it here.

A few days ago Mortal Kombat X was announced. The trailer looked really cool, integrating what looked like solid gameplay with cinematics. The final gameplay footage has none of the cinematics. It's basically a prettier version of 2011's game with maybe some extra gore... which is getting stale. It's like Sonic's speed, it's fun for a while but there's a reason MK nearly went under until this reboot, you can't base a thing soley around one gimmick. MKX seems to be just a visual upgrade to the excellent MK9. Which I guess is fine, maybe my hopes were too high.

Then cut off the games again to go back to Netflix style original series, one called "Powers" based on the comic book series of the same name about a two homicide detectives who investigate crimes involving people with superpowers. And we got a trailer for a Rachet & Clank movie that will be on PS4 too.

Incoming slew of remasters, Last of Us and Grand Theft Auto V remastered for PS4; both look pretty much identical to their PS3 counterparts but will be on PS4. GTA 5 gets a save transfer from PS3 and Xbox 360, which is nifty. I'll probably get these with my PS4 just because I never got them for PS3 and now there should be better versions coming.

Then we finally got into the real games with a trailer for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, which looks excellent the cinematics look beautiful but it didn't give us anything other than a story and some cool CG sequences. We got no gameplay (although that's what the $40 Ground Zeroes was for...... .... ... FAIL) and we got no story, just basically a music video with a depressing song. I guess nothing more needs to be said about this game other than "GET IT OUT NOW!" they didn't even set a release date so I guess it'll be a 2015 release, maybe we'll even see it again at E3 again. 

Finally the star of the evening... Batman: Arkham Knight - it gave us story, it gave us excellent gameplay and the world of this game looks enormous. It's huge... big enough for the Batmobile and big enough to truly explore. Comparing this and Arkham City, which is one of my favourite games of all time, this is clearly a step up gameplay-wise. Let's hope with the help of that creepy as all hell Scarcrow appearance that the story can match up too, that was a hell of a game to play and I hope this helps go out on a high note and makes me forget the Kevin Conroy-less Origins... Blasphemy!

Finally it ended on Uncharted 4 reveal, which everyone is going batshit over... I know you like the series guys but... it was  CG trailer, it didn't show anything. Oh what do I know, I'll probably do the same if they just show some Zelda artwork tomorrow.

Overall this conference dragged for me. It was a lot of cool flashy announcements, but not as cool and flashy as last year, maybe that set my expectations too high. My major problem with this is it wasn't really a Sony conference. Also even though I knew it wouldn't be there the lack of Final Fantasy XV really pissed me off - it's clear Sony paid them last year to show a trailer for a game everyone wanted just to get them hyped for the PS4 because this game is clearly no-where near ready. Overall that sums it all up, it was all flash no substance, the only major game that had me hyped was Batman: Arkham Knight. Hopefully it can live up to it. The conference felt like a slew of "fan favourites" - meaning no-one who's not a fan like Grim Fandango knows what the hell is going on, and "games that have been announced and we know so much about already so let's not waste time, here's  a short trailer". 

FINAL SCORE

6/10

Above Average

Xbox E3 2014: Initial Thoughts

Okay, so it's E3 time again, let's dive right into it with MICROSOFT'S XBOX.

It seems that this year Microsoft focused really on games, they've got their console, they've got it all ready, all games, no kinect nonsense, just a focus on (primarily) third party developers bringing their stuff to the Xbox One. In many ways this seems to be the most succinct conference. No handhelds, no new tech, nothing but games - and it's nice to see something like that. I don't have an Xbox One, can they convince me to get one?

Starts out with Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, yeah, that's fine and good and all. But once again just very generic, I really think at this point Call of Duty needs a break. It's an obvious statement but even if Advanced Warfare turns out to be as awesome and groundbreakings as the original Modern Warfare was, I can't see myself buying it because it looks the same as Ghosts, Black Ops 2, Modern Warfare 3, it's just so generic feeling and I think the slowly dropping sales figures are pointing to franchise fatigue too. I'm not a CoD hater or anything, I like the series, but I don't want to see it become Guitar Hero, annual releases creating fatigue and eventual abandonment by the IP holders Activision.

On the other hand, Sunset Overdrive looks freakin' awesome. Lots and lots fun, really crazy stuff, a lot of bat-shit fun. And it's colourful, I love that, I love that it's bright and colourful and doesn't rely on a dark grim story to hide the fact that the gameplay sucks. In fact, here's an awesome game that doesn't seem to stick to any conventions whatsoever. It's just a lot of fun, with crazy shit going on. I'm excited, and it's an Xbox exclusive, so that's certainly a notch towards me wanting my first Xbox.

Dragon Age: Inquisition was up next, not much seen here really just a fairly generic fantasy trailer but it does look very beautiful. I'm sure more will be see at EA's conference later.

There's new DLC for Dead Rising that mocks the living hell out of Capcom. It looks hilarious using Capcom's huge amount of IPs to their advantage in this downloadable content release. Interesting of note, there's a great deal of awesome Mega Man music being used here for nostalgia sakes, except... where was anything else to do with Mega Man. No costumes for him, no cool weapons or something. I can't tell if this was intentional to parody their whole Dead Rising, Super, Hyper Turbo Ex Alpha theme, the fact that Capcom continually claims to love Megaman but does everything to avoid him at all costs. Hmmmm....

The next game on stage was Fable Legends, honestly, it doesn't look half bad. I'd be willing to buy it... if it were a new IP. The fact that this has the Fable label to leaves me very nervous, they've just gotten worse and worse throughout the years. Even one of the actors from my show Cody Griffis was in one of their commercials for their Fable Kinect game. Let's see how this one pans out before I invest any money in it.

Project Spark on the other hand, looks incredible as ever. I wanted this game last year, I want this game this year. This is one game that really does influence me to get an Xbox One. The Conker thing was nice, but no new game? That's not very nice of them, feels like a bit of a slap in the face. Well, Conker never felt  right to me on Xbox anyway, Xbox has always had the more dark-gritty games, so them having Conker just felt in the background. The original Rare game on Nintendo 64 was great because he fit in with all the cute cuddly Nintendo characters, but had this hilarious foul mouthed and aggressive edge, which made it a fun parody of characters like Kirby, Yoshi and even Mario.

Now the HALO stuff:

The Halo 5 trailer looked good but otherwise generic unfortunately. Didn't see any gameplay, which seemed to be a recurring thing, even Project Spark showed off only CG trailer, which as we know from last year, gameplay DOES exist... interesting. Anyway, they also showed of the Halo Master Chief Collection, which is another notch on the the "buy Xbox" belt for me. I always wanted to get into Halo but couldn't because I never played the original and just had no reason to. But four games in one, with a fifth coming, I'm down for that. Especially the original Halo 2 multiplayer which from what I hear was amazing. When I get some more money together this collection could be part of what seals a deal for an Xbox One purchase for me. 

That being said there was no price drop announced, and I'd really need that to justify an Xbox for me. I think at least $299 or $350 with Kinect for me. What astounds me the most is that we've actually reached a time where the original Xbox is now nostalgic. Where "with the flick of a button" as they say, you can switch to the original graphics of Halo 2. I mean, I get Playstation nostalgia, they've had three consoles now and the original had some of the best exclusives in gaming history. But when did Xbox nostalgia happen? Am I really getting that old that ten years can't be nostalgic to me anymore? I WANT TO PLAY THE ZX SPECTRUM AGAIN!!!

Finally, they also showed off a little from Halo: Nightfall, a digital series, which I'm looking forward to as a fellow Digital series producer. It's being done by Ridley Scott, which is excellent but is this the series that was being produced by Steven Spielberg they announced last year, I can't tell. When they say Digital Series to they mean like My Life as a Video Game style or House of Cards style, because it could be either. It wasn't very clear, especially as Microsoft loves to namedrop and we heard nothing about Spielberg in this.

Overall I'll say this, Phil Spencer seems way more genuine than his predecessors when talking on stage. Less jargon, less bullcrap.

Inside was a new indie game that look fascinating. I really like the look of it. Made by the people who made Limbo, it should be a hell of a lot of fun and a beautifully made game.

And here we go The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt  - right into it, no bullshit. We're here to show this and they do. This looks excellent, I'm actually very excited about this. It looks beautiful it looks huge and it looks polished within an inch of it's life. Now I've not played the original or The Witcher 2, which was the more popular one - kinda like Street Fighter II. I'm curious readers, can I play 2 without playing one, or will I be able to play 3 without playing 2. I've played BioWare games backwards and just couldn't do it. I went from Mass Effect, the original, to Knights of the Old Republic and it drove me insane, the lack of voiced hero, the slow gameplay it just felt sloooow. I hope that doesn't happen with Witcher 3, that it's so good it outclasses it's predecessors to the point that they become unplayable.

Towards the end we got a big indie reel, which didn't show off much but we did get The Division, which as last year looks great, once again they didn't show off much more than they did last year, in fact we got more last year because we got a CG intro. Looks great, looks fun, but I'm holding my breath after the whole Watch_Dogs, delay, "not console graphics", Wii U delayed for months extra, more gun-centric additions, too GTA-like fiascos that dimmed the hype of that game.

Platinum Games announced their new next gen game Scalebound, which while just a CG trailer like a lot here, looked awesome. Big beasts with original designs on a Monster Hunter-esque scale except with a modern day hero who (for some reason wearing Beat by Dre) and this dude, in addition to listening to some shitty dubstep, can adapt to a monster and take on their scales as armour, which looks AWESOME. Their games have always been these fast-paced crazy games from Metal Gear Rising to Bayonetta to Wonderful 101. It's fast paced awesome action. This looks no different, I'm looking forward to seeing gameplay.

The final thing I cared about was Crackdown, which supposedly is a returning IP... but I don't remember it personally. To me it looks like a Metropolitan Borderlands, that same cool art style and that same crazy action and fun.

So overall that was the Xbox Press Conference. It was fun, better than they've had in years honestly. They focused on third party games this time around and hopefully it should pay off. A lot of it felt like exclusives and I'll be able to tell more tomorrow when I hit the show floor if these can pay off. There didn't appear to be anything spectacular, like mind-blowing shit your pants jump up and down. But there were a lot of new IPs, which is a VERY good thing, if they can continue this momentum to the show floor this will be a great E3 for Microsoft.

FINAL SCORE: 8/10

Sony E3 Press Conference

Sony... Sony, Sony, Sony. My hats off to you guys, because there has not been a body slam like that since this one here. Only this one ends with Sony marching out triumphant and Microsoft walking away in tears. I literally cannot see a way back for Microsoft at this point, this launch period at the very least, they don't stand a chance in hell. Okay so onto the conference. This was possibly the best E3 in history, I know it's early to call this as Nintendo are going to have their hour-long Direct in less than nine hours and they're going to hopefully be bringing a lot to the table but not one of the conferences has been disappointing and this one was not the icing on the cake nor the cherry on top of the icing, or the cherry on top of the icing on top of the sundae of awesome. This was a whole extra cake added on and being told it tastes just as good but is completely sugar free and gives you superpowers. It really hit hard bringing out their strongest for what has turned out to be possibly the most epic E3 ever putting doubters like myself in their place.

Starting from the beginning, Jack Tretton stuts out on stage and essentially says "We know you've all been waiting for the PS4... so we're going to talk about the Vita". My instant reaction being "Give it a rest, the Vita is dead dude...". He starts talking about it, stats, PR bullshit, what have you. Now he's on about the PS3, yeah, yeah, get to it. Shows a bit of The Last of Us, the new game by Naughty Dog which is getting rave reviews at the moment.  Then a new game called Pupeteer takes the stage, looking interesting. Another game called Rain is shown, seems very stylistic, don't know anything really about it though. Beyond Two Souls goes out there, looks like an interesting mesh of Movie and Game starring Ellen Page. Gran Turismo 6 is unveiled, congratulations, you've successfully made the same game for about ten years now. They go on about "tessellation of polygons". I was getting a bit bored at this point to be honest. A bit more went on, we saw another CG trailer for Batman: Arkham Origins and a little bit of Grand Theft Auto V. These are all great games but nothing Sony should be bragging about too much, we knew they were coming and they were dragging time here. Well, from what I can tell, that was intentionally so.

Here begins the PlayStation 4. Starting out with finally showing the design, a somewhat unremarkable black box, or trapehzoid, nothing special. But the Sony Entertainment Network is expanding to include more movies, more music, and an Exclusive Sony Network of TV and Film on PSN Tailored specifically to gamers, whether this is like a Sony Netflix or their old shows and movies streaming for PSN+ customers, I'm not entirely sure. They're also bringing Redbox Instant, Live Events Viewer (A god send for me as I have no cable) and Flixster to PS3, Vita and PS4.

Onto some games; Killzone: Shadow Fall, we saw this at the February conference in New York. It was a somewhat unremarkable Sci-Fi First Person Shooter, as we expected. Nothing new, but it's a launch title none-the-less. Then there is DriveClub, a game free to PSN+ users on launch date, once again nothing new, same old. Next up is inFamous: Second Son, the spin-off title that actually looks pretty damn good if you ask me and something I hope that can be made to be a lot of fun. The trailer looked pretty slick, with the lip syncing almost perfect a rarity in video games because often mouths with move a bit, but it feels like a voice over, this felt like the voices were coming from their mouths, their lips truly moved. A New Steampunk game, called The Order: 1886, set in Victorian London, kinda looks like a cross between Dishonoured and what I assume is Arthurian Lore as they had a guy called Gallahad, and a quote from L'Morte De Arthur at the start, could be an interesting take to see some kind of Arthurian Legend revival in a Steampunk based setting. Knack seemed interesting a kind of action fun quirky game. Interesting visuals, a launch title. The Dark Sorcerer looks very nice, thought it was another cheesy generic dark western fantasy game turns out to be...well I have no idea, there was a green screen and a film crew involved and a bit of comedy.

Then they went onto the independent titles, right now Steam and Nintendo lead the way with indies, but Sony seems to be set to give them all a run for their money with the ability to self-publish content. Transistor, from the creators of Bastion looks pretty slick similar gameplay different setting and style, very nice looking. Don't Starve was another indie game shown off, didn't quite catch a lot of this as my stream kept failing on me. Mercenary Kings kind of a retro shooter along the lines of classic games like Metal Slug, from the creators of the Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World game. Young Horses, Rays, a Western Game, a space sim called Galaxy and a game I can't remember the name of because I was too busy laughing at Sony's ability to poke fun of their own bad meme by saying it's based on fact but does not contain any "Giant Enemy Crabs".

Then onto their blockbuster titles coming to PS4. Diablo III, without the always online requirement, and new Sony based items from games like Uncharted as special exclusives. And then what came next was like nothing we'd ever expected....



FINAL FANTASY Versus XIII... or should I say FINAL FANTASY XV. A Sony Exclusive taking the elements that were once a part of the fabled Versus game stuck in a hellish development cycle now put into Final Fantasy XV, a game that had gameplay that looked incredible, seemed to play smoothly and was visually stunning. For a Final Fantasy fan like myself, this was the killer blow to Microsoft, that was enough to make me get a PS4 over and Xbox but they didnt' stop there... Kingdom Hearts III. A game we've been waiting for since the days of the PS2. It's like Square Enix essentially have turned around and said "We're done f-ing around with mobile games, spin-offs and crap like that. We are bringing the big guns to the forefront!" Not to mention that Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, which was being warmly received by this point after all the good news, was console exclusive to Sony. A Final Fantasy double and Kingdom Hearts III really has put them on the map. Let's hope they can deliver. After that they showed a little more of Watch_Dogs, which looks great as ever, some more of Assassin's Creed IV: The Black Flag. The Elder Scrolls: Online coming to PS3 with an exclusive first run beta of the game.

Then came the actual killer blow: in what almost seemed like a mockery of Microsoft, Sony tells us it will back the player, play used games, everything that is normal for us now, will continue and given recent fears it's great to see they've listened and totally gotten it right. They even released this hilarious commercial about how the PS4 shares used games and deliver a damaging blow to Microsoft. With Jack Tretton back on stage now gleaming ear-to-ear. What came next was well, to put it in Mortal Kombat terms, a "Fatality". The price point of the PS4 is... $399. That's one hundred dollars LESS than the XBox One and it includes all the exclusives mentioned, plus all the third party titles like Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. This killer blow to Microsoft has left them in the dust. Come Holiday Season 2013, there will be one winner and it's the PlayStation 4. They've also made Microsoft look so bad now that they might be forced to drop the anti-used games policy or good news for Nintendo fans like myself, it's likely many people will go for the Wii U also.

Final Thoughts: This conference was masterfully performed and has made me realise just how much I'm going to miss the crowd at tomorrow's Nintendo Direct. It's been an epic day at E3 and Sony has taken top prize delivering the best E3 Press Conference in recent memory if for no other reason than it has proved gamers still have a say.

Rating: 10/10 - PERFECT

Ubisoft E3 Press Conference

Ubisoft, last year's "winner" by popular vote of E3 mostly due to the epic bursting onto the scene like the kool-aid man of Watch_Dogs, hit back again today with the same brand of somewhat awkwardness and simply quality titles we've seen in the past. This year there was no specific focus on the Wii U as their focus shifted more toward Next Generation consoles. And unlike most games we've seen so far, there was definitely a concerted effort to not only make things look next generation; but play that way too. While I've been critical of Xbox One's "semi-perma online" console, I don't have a problem with online games - so long as it's stated that way. Games that are specifically multiplayer online games have been around for a decade and a half, longer even. But bringing that online always aspect to a game that doesn't need it for the gameplay like say, Sim City, which had a few online elements plugged in but was a single player game. Online is practically everywhere now so Ubisoft are pushing this with their new games "The Crew" and "Tom Clancy's The Division". They also showed off some other games like Rabbid's Interactive TV Series and of course Assassin's Creed IV: The Black Flag.

The Crew in particular sparked my interest, being something that seemed to be brand new for a driving game. I've seen racing games, like Gran Turismo. I've seen open world driving games like Need for Speed: Underground. But this is something new; this is something that is open world, racing, online and wholly new -- at least from my perspective. The Crew looks to be something interesting, something new and fascinating. I'm looking forward to testing this game out and seeing how exactly it will go down for someone like me who hasn't really enjoyed a racing game outside of Mario Kart since Gran Turismo 2 just because of the bog standard that they all seem to be to me.. When I bought Need for Speed: Underground 2, I expected it to be essentially the racing game version of The Fast and The Furious, well The Crew seems to be very much that with a bit of the newer films thrown in for extra action. You can cross roads, bridges, off-road it looks pretty awesome to be honest and I'm quite excited.

Then there was the odd one, the Rabbids Interactive TV Series. I'm not quite sure what was going on there... people were screaming at the television to break a glass over a Rabbid, they were bouncing around. Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of an interactive TV series, it sounds fascinating the idea of a game TV series as such. So often games right now are more like interactive movies, big epics. Then there's games like Back to the Future and The Walking Dead both by Telltale which are episodic in nature. I'm not quite sure what this Rabbids thing was, and if it were anything other than the most annoying creatures in media history, I'm sure I'd be invested in this.

Tom Clancy's "The Division" was a hefty introduction, it looks like an awesome online game that uses multiple interfaces from consoles to tablets in one world. Here's hoping the game is also cross platform online too. The game is basically a third person shooter set in a post-disaster New York by the looks of things. The trailer was very vague only really setting up the backstory for a society that is a House of Cards waiting to fall and well... does so after an epidemic breaks out. Ubisoft seem to have a pretty solid Online Third Person Shooter RPG on their hands here. I'm interested to see where they go with this in terms of actual plot and story rather than just the setting they showed here.

There was of course Assassin's Creed IV, which was a CG trailer this time around, not much to comment on that other than, well it's probably going to be a fun game, there's already been a lot of news on that. Much like Watch_Dogs, which as a game just looks to be phenomenal and really strong.  We'll see how that all pans out, I want to play this game now. Maybe if there's some time after all the editing I'll be doing at E3 over the next few days, perhaps I'll get a chance. But the game looks freaking awesome and a very interesting look at how technology is evolving and integrating into our society in our daily lives in ways we often forget when we're screaming "damn computers" or "stupid piece-o-shit iPhone!"

Finally, Rayman Legends,  a game that looks to be fantastic... a little frustrated as it should be out by now on Wii U and owning one just makes me angry that it's no longer an exclusive to that console and I can't even imagine how it's not going to be anymore given what I've played on the Legends demo for Wii U. The trailer looked pretty bad though, at least visually. But we cannot forget the #NagasakiFart, the South Park RPG, South Park: The Stick of Truth, a game that has been in development for a while, switched from THQ to Ubisoft, but still looks to be epic, not shying away to bring in more gamers, this is a South Park game make no mistake about it and I can't wait to see how it plays and pans out in the end because it looks seriously great.

Final Thoughts: Overall a very solid conference, new IP's, old favourites, new ideas, real next gen stuff and not just the boring "oh yeah we've got better graphics" stuff we've seen so far, this is real next generation gameplay and ideas from The Crew's online open world racing/driving game to the weirdness of the Rabbid's fascinating idea of an interactive TV series. Hopefully it pans out but this was an incredibly good conference.

Rating: 9/10 - EXCELLENT

E.A. E3 Press Conference

Now for a quick rundown on Electronic Arts's Press Conference and my opinions on it. The start made me laugh, they opened with a rundown of what's to come then said "A franchise loved by millions" will be on stage next. Suddenly we get what appears to be the static, drums and lens flares of Battlefield 4... followed by; "BRAAAAINS!" Yep, that's right, it's Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare, the game that actually might convince me to buy a Used Xbox 360 (yep, that's right Microsoft, suck it, I'm getting a whole used console now). It looks to be a lot of hilarious fun and it's coming to both Xbox 360 and One, take a guess where I'll be putting my money. After this however things take a bit of a dip then rise, dip then rise for an interesting EA Press Conference.

Star Wars: Battlefront, let's put that out there. Whatever they're doing with this game, it looks to be exciting and it got the nerd community all riled up even if it was just a basic 5 second CG trailer followed by a logo. That was a rise, what followed was the announcement of Need for Speed: Rivals. A game that looks pretty solid, but it's really gotten to the point now that not much new in the way of racing games can be offered, a problem faced by Nintendo with their own comedic racing franchise, Mario Kart. The cloud-based opponent A.I. from Forza looks interesting their "Drivitar" as they called it. Yeah, that's going to be an E3 meme for years to come alongside "My Body is Ready", "Giant Enemy Crab" and of course "Non-Specific Action Figure"... man that last one was weird. I'd call Need for Speed a dip, but it was actually alright, it's just they didn't announce anything actually new for it and spent an awful lot of time on it.

This semi-mistake was followed by showing off Dragon Age III: Inquisition, a game they seem to be taking their time with now, due to be released about three and a half years after it's predecessor Dragon Age II, the game is going open world, with you having your ability to influence the world to save it or destroy it. Oh and there's actual dragons this time. So basically it sounds like a better version of Skyrim. The lore in Dragon Age always appealed to me more than in Elder Scrolls, especially the Quinari, they're pretty awesome. I also love the way Dragon Age mirrors their world to ours in the middle ages but in a more fantasy setting. This was followed up by about twenty minutes of sports games. Don't get me wrong, I like sports, hell I love football, I am an ardent Tottenham Hotspur fan, often waking up at 4am to watch games over here in L.A. that are airing at sane hours back in London. But EA Sports took to center stage for so damn long with a weird lyrical intro with a basketball, lots of talk about dribbling and while I'm sure it's all nice and I've played Fifa quite a bit, though I still suck bad, they spent so damn long on it. Especially right after they spent no more than three and a half minutes on what could be BioWare's masterpiece. Perhaps like Battlefront EA just didn't have much to show off of the game. It was a CG trailer once again afterall. Interesting that they've kept the more stylised art style.

There was also a bit more on Battlefield 4, doesn't seem all that different to Battlefield 3 but still looks like a solid game and given how fed up I'm getting with Call of Duty, seems like the game I'm going to try out next as an FPS, along side their new I.P. Titanfall, which looks pretty mecha-badass too. The visuals of BF4 and it's sound are once again absolutely superb I should add. Though aside from "Commander Mode" returning from their previous entries, I didn't' see much new stuff about Battlefield 4, afterall the game is due out soon, so how much more can they say?

Final Thoughts: Overall EA had a fairly good conference, it wasn't much in the way for more hardcore gamers. Nerds like myself were a little disappointed we didn't see more but there's certainly a lot to look forward to and either way, there's always... GARDEN WARFARE.

Conference Rating: 7/10 - GOOD

Microsoft E3 Press Conference

Microsoft's E3 Press Conference went down pretty much as expected. They threw games out there, lots of games. Everything they didn't' show at the XBOX One reveal was shown. They showed a lot of games that were new like RYSE: Son of Rome and Titanfall as well as old favourite like Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, a game we all knew was headed to XBox after Rising became the first Metal Gear game to crossover to Microsoft and become cross-platform. Then you've got the surprise announcements, like Killer Instinct returning this time to Xbox, which for Nintendo fanboys like myself serves as a bitter reminder of the fact that Nintendo has lost so much third party support. That being said even if it's not the same Rare that was at Nintendo, it's nice to see them reviving an old favourite once again, I look forward to smashing some skulls as Glacius. Or maybe I don't because the price point rolled around. $499...

And this is for a console that essentially bans used games and puts the power with the game publishers rather than the gamers themselves. The 24 online check in requirement and other DRM issues were not addressed at all in the conference, probably to their benefit or else they'd probably cause all kinds of issues. To be honest, had they just ditched the disc drive system, they might have avoided a lot of this hassle for themselves because that's essentially what they're doing, but discs are still around and I literally can't remember the last PC game I bought that had a disc, it's all steam or formerly Direct2Drive for me.

Now speaking as a person who before the reveal, wanted so badly to be excited for the next XBox and for their E3 presentation. I am not an XBox guy, I have never owned a Microsoft games console but I'm a PC user all the way, even a somewhat defender of Windows 8. I'd hoped the Xbox One would blow me away, and honestly, between the extortionate price point and the ban on used games, I feel I can't justify the purchase of their new console. I don't think I ever can unless they sort these issues out. The Microsoft Press Conference was solid for gamers, until you look behind the scenes a little more and realise that for all these great games, there are the huge flaws and issues in the Xbox One.

Perhaps for many Xbox Gamers, they don't care too much about that, they'd like to play the new Halo game that was announced, with no number or subtitle, we'll see how that goes down. But it's looking like the console will have a solid line up but it's a line up that for the most part, Sony will be able to compete with, match or even out do, we'll find out more soon enough.

Final Thoughts: A Solid Presentation of Games and Exclusives, but the $499 Price Point and the DRM issue still lurks over the Xbox One.

Conference Rating: 8/10 - GREAT***

*** Note the conference was great itself, but not enough to override what they'd said in the past, which at least they got out of the way early.

Pre-E3 Expo Thoughts

Just a short update this weekend. This week I will be at E3 Expo 2013, I'll get to see all the awesome new stuff Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft put out there, as well as see what else is in store. Will there be a new Zelda? A New Final Fantasy? Will Call of Duty: Dog Warfare be any good, or just yet another cash-in sequel by Activision and Infinity Ward. And perhaps most importantly, does the Xbox One actually play video games?

I'll be doing a three-day analysis at the end of each day, try and give you some impressions of what I get to play. Bearing in mind I am working at E3 this year for gaming website Screwattack.com, for whom I'll be editing many of their videos in the media room. However I'll try and give my best impressions, specifically relating to the major conferences, we have Sony and Microsoft dishing them out and Nintendo with their hour long Nintendo Direct trying to bring the conference less in a bombastic approach and a more... well direct one.

How will E3 go down this year, no idea. Everything seems pretty level this year, Sony and Microsoft have their new consoles coming up, Sony appearing to be in the lead here. They've shown off more games, though people seem to forget how bad their conference was in face of how disastrous the XBox Reveal was. Microsoft have be all about the games this year, tell us what is going to make someone like myself a person who has never owned an Xbox console before, buy one. What exclusives are you bringing to the table? The DRM thing is a real crap, so maybe they might sort something out there, but it's growing increasingly concerning that they won't be changing that any time soon and we'll all have to pay full price for used games, which frankly is BULLSHIT.

Sony on the other hand have shown off a few games, however they haven't shown off any heavy hitters really just the usual Sony stuff that we expect from them. When I saw the PS4... the presentation that is, I really hope they actually show the goddamn console this time, I was quite disappointed that all they showed off were games that had minute graphical enhancements and there was nothing new about the PS4. They've spoken about using the Vita in a similar way to the Wii U, but for someone to do that would cost them somewhere in excess nearly $1000 in all likely-hood. One thing they should emphasises is a worldwide price cut for the Vita and a massive push for cross-platform play. I love the idea that you can play one game on your PS3/PS4 then go play it on your Vita when you leave your house. The only problem is that you have to buy full copies of each. They've changed that for a couple of games but really they need to make it across all games, buy one copy get the other digitally free. Or buy the game digitally and you get the game on both handheld and home console.

Nintendo have to show off their big guns on the software side, with a very rough start to the Wii U, as an old-school fanboy I'm hoping they can pull something out of the hat. We're expecting Smash Bros, Mario, Zelda and hopefully a few surprises along the way. I'd hate to see their direct show off stuff we already knew was coming. I'd like to see some Mario Kart going on and perhaps most important for me, I want to see what Monolith Soft is working on, everyone keeps talking about Retro Studios... yeah, yeah Metroid Prime was a good game and DKC Returns was great too. But Xenoblade Chronicles was probably the best game on the Wii, and now Monolith Soft are bringing that kind of awesome RPG to the Wii U. What's coming up, I have no idea. But I'm very excited, let's just hope they don't flop like last year's conference, which started out so well and then completely lost steam by Nintendoland, which ironically has turned out to be one hell of a game.

How will things go down, it seems all companies need to focus on their games, with Nintendo probably a step behind because despite their one year jump on the others, they've not done much with it. Let's see how things go down, I'll see you guys and gals on Tuesday.