So this is the post I meant to make about...a week ago? Two weeks? When was E3? Yeah, that'd be week before last. Of course, more has happened in the world of video games since then, so if I were to write my post-E3 thoughts as originally intended it'd be pretty dated. More so than this post will be regardless.
I only intended on watching Nintendo's broadcast Tuesday morning, but I found myself watching part of Microsoft's press conference, too. Honestly, there wasn't much there that interested me, even if you subtract that black cloud of XBox One DRM hanging over the whole thing. (Of course, that feature has since been removed, to the rejoicing of literally every gamer in the world. Literally.) Ryse: Son of Rome was touted as a graphically amazing bloodbath of a game that puts you in the sandals of a Roman soldier, but whose gameplay was demonstrated to be roughly equivalent to pausing and un-pausing a DVD. Killer Instinct was a nice surprise...until you found out that it isn't being developed by Rare.
Of what I saw, the most interesting thing at Microsoft's conference was Metal Gear Solid V, and that'll available on the PS4 and PS3, too. Of note, though: the MGSV trailer (which was awesome) highlighted several new gameplay features. We saw Big Boss sneaking, diving out of the way of enemies, and using new moves that he's never had before; we saw how time progresses in-game as it does in real life; and we were promised a huge, completely open world to explore. So, two takeaways: first, games are about playing, not waiting for the game to tell you which button to press so you can see a canned decapitation sequence; and secondly, that gameplay should be shown in your trailer. I don't care how good Quantum Break's graphics are; no one gets excited over a new game because of its cutscenes.
Sony had a conference, too, which I didn't watch, but it apparently they did the opposite of everything Microsoft did, which made for a pretty good conference.
Something I've realized: the more consoles become like PCs, and the more 3rd-party games go to the PC, the less reason there is to even own a game console. The only real reason is for the (usually first-party) exclusives. Sony has few first-party games worth caring about, and Microsoft has few in general, so, in my opinion, the ideal game setup going forward is a solid PC backed by a Wii U.
I was naturally looking forward to Nintendo's conference, so...what did I think of it? Well, it was kind of underwhelming, honestly. But let's cut them some slack. The main reason it didn't excite the way it could have was because most of the games that were revealed had already been announced back in February--we just didn't have any gameplay footage or release dates. And now that we do, I can say that the upcoming first-party lineup looks great. Mario Kart 8 may be the best Mario Kart in ages (if it turns out as good as it looks); Super Mario 3D World looks thoroughly fun, if not revolutionary; X looks like Xenoblade Chronicles on steroids; and everything Retro touches turns to gold, so Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze will undoubtedly be one of the top games this holiday. So, Nintendo's conference: good--maybe great--but not amazing.
So that does it for this, the first blog entry in a long time. Will it be the last? Stay tuned...!
