Now that E3 is over and I’ve had some time away from the annual gaming blitz that it is, I’ve been trying to take some time and play try out some games I missed over the years. Since signing up for the PC version of Game Pass, I’ve had access to some particular titles that I’ve wanted to try, but never got around to. It’s weird though, because I can’t seem to play games for more than like 45 minutes at a time these days without feeling the urge to go take a walk or something. With that being said, here are some genuine, super duper early impressions of some of the stuff I’ve tried thus far.
VAMPYR
I’ve had my eye on this one for a while, and it might be the only game on this list I actually stick with in any real way. Vampyr is a choice driven, action RPG by the people behind the Life Is Strange series. So like, choices seem to matter. From what little I’ve dabbled in, the combat is serviceable but simple so far, but the stuff that’s been hinted at as far as story mechanics are very exciting.
Since you’re a vampire in this game, you can just start going to town on just about everyone you meet. Different NPCs have different qualities of blood that have XP numbers attached to them. So the drunk guy in the bar had pretty poor blood which wouldn’t help me out that much, but the guy renting the room upstairs had some crazy alluring blood.
I assume that as you play on, whomever you choose to… drain, will result in something happening in the world. Allusions to quest lines vanishing and the way people react to you were hinted at, and that’s all very exciting to me. They also do this thing where blood acts like mana, allowing you to do special vampire attacks when you have it. So you can be the good guy and not feast on the townsfolk or enemies, but I guess you wont be doing some cool blood spells at anyone because of it. Seems pretty rad honestly.
WEST OF LOATHING
What a weird game this is. It’s this stick figure styled, adventure game with turn based RPG combat. It’s got some cheeky writing in it, but I constantly feel like I’m not doing the right thing. For instance, at the beginning you can choose one follower, so I chose the lady with a gun. And good thing I did, because she does way more damage than I could ever hope to. She’s one-shotting fools left and right, while I’m gently scratching the backs of my enemies.
I’m having trouble articulating exactly what this game is, because it’s this weird amalgam of different games and mechanics. The closest analog I can come up with is Paper Mario, and that’s me being generous. Despite how much I want a new Paper Mario game, West of Loathing just isn’t filling that void for me.
West of Loathing lives and dies by its sense of humor. If you’re not onboard with it’s snarky tone and stick figure aesthetic, nothing else in the game will end up winning you over.
RIVERBOND
It took me way longer than it should have for me to remember what game this was, because it turns out I actually wrote about it over a year ago. I liked the way it looked back then, and I still like it now. What I’m not enjoying so much is how repetitive and lifeless the gameplay is. Like I mentioned, I’m only an hour into this game at most, but all I’ve really had to do in Riverbond is skirt around enemies while hitting the attack button, and moving on. There are occasions where you’ll want to pull out your gun and press the attack button until a thing dies, but it really doesn’t matter what you do as long as you don’t die.
I hate to rag on this game, but it was just such a disappointment from the jump. It isn’t a bad game by any stretch, just a forgettable one.
CRACKDOWN 3
I have some pretty fond memories around Crackdown and considerably less that are tied to Crackdown 2, but this entry in the franchise is mostly confounding. I think I’m enjoying Crackdown 3 despite how flawed it is.
From top to bottom, there are glaring issues in Crackdown 3 that are absolutely infuriating. For instance, Crackdown 3 utilizes the basest concept of a “combat puzzle” by encouraging you to use different weapon types against certain enemy types. Fire and poison work great on people, but not as effective on robots. You get the deal. That’s a neat thing in concept, but it’s all kind of undermined by the fact that when I hit the button to change weapons, and the game just doesn’t do it, that’s bad. I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve died because the game demanded that my character, in this superhero game about moving around and being badass, stand still in order to swap weapons.
And it isn’t exclusive to weapon swapping either. Sometimes you’ll try to climb a ledge or pull yourself up onto a flat surface, and the game just wont. Certain objects in the game will downright deny you the ability to climb, especially troubling when it’s the only surface in the ocean that isn’t covered in enemies.
Another wonderful thing Crackdown 3 does is recycle. Yes, it’s good for the environment, but when you literally are liberating the same exact outposts just in different locations, it gets really old really fast.
But despite how apparent its flaws are, Crackdown 3 is still just fun to play. It’s satisfying to throw a car at a mech. It’s satisfying to lob the lifeless husk of an enemy at a few of their surviving compatriots. It’s fun, mindless action and mayhem that in anything more than small doses, could be extremely frustrating and boring.
I still have some games installed that I need to get around to trying, but I feel like I should finish a game before I move on. It’s been quite a while since I’ve actually beaten a game. That’s incredibly weird to me.
Following up on the last post about lesser known games, here’s another! These aren’t main stage kind of games, rather, smaller and often weirder offerings. Here we go.
ANCESTORS: THE HUMANKIND ODYSSEY
I love this idea. The concept of playing as a creature and watching them evolve based on my actions and decisions, is pretty cool. From what was said at E3, it seems like this isn’t the only creature at your disposal, and you’ll experience large changes in the creatures physiology as you progress. Hopefully the world also adapts in line with the things you do. For instance, if my group of creatures just hang around an area for generations, eating up all the food and hunting the wildlife, I’d like to see that area becomes less populated by your potential prey. But we’ll see how it comes together when it releases on August 27th.
CONTROL
Control is the interesting case of a game that sounded fairly interesting when it was first revealed, and as I’ve heard more about it, has gotten more and more alluring. What seemed like a blend between Psi-Ops and Alan Wake, apparently also has some branching dialogue options, which is very exciting to me, as well as hearing the moment to moment action holds up. Control has the potential to be one of the biggest games coming out this year, I just hope it delivers.
MANEATER
Now here’s a game I can get behind. We’ve all known for a while that humanity is garbage and needs to be taken down a peg. What better way to do that than by being an everything-eating-shark? People? Chomped. Boats? Chomped. Things on the land? Probably also gonna get chomped. I’ve been very eager to get my hands on Maneater when it comes out later this year.
MOVING OUT
Now if anyone has paid any attention to this site in the past, you’ll know that wacky physics and seemingly mundane tasks are home runs for me. Moving Out seems to be nailing both of those things. It also has some for of cooperative gameplay, which while exciting, I hope doesn’t steal the spotlight from whatever single player offerings might be available. I’d love to have just as much of a good time alone, as I would destroying the possibility of getting a security deposit back, with a friend. It should be out sometime this year.
PLASTICITY
So fun fact, Plasticity is actually out and playable right now. As I’m writing this, it’s downloading on Steam. It looks like the kind of emotional, atmospheric, puzzle-platformer with a message, that I love so much. Shades of Inside and Limbo are on display here, and that’s enough for me to give it a shot. Also, it’s free, so that’s a big plus.
SLOPPY FORGERIES
Creating art, meaningful art, is hard. Sloppy Forgeries is a game about taking art, and doing it as fast and accurately as you can in order to prove to your friends that you’re a better artist than them. It’s the kind of game that will be fun to play about 3 times before your friends figure out who the most artistic among them is, and never play again. Sign me up.
TOO MANY COOKS
I don’t know how many of you remember the incredibly fun phone game from a few years ago called Spaceteam, but the short pitch on it was that every person had different buttons and dials on their device and had to coordinate with the others to avoid catastrophe. This seems like the same concept, but with cooking. The way these games usually resolve is by someone getting a text message and missing a task, resulting in everyone yelling at them.
SPEAKING SIMULATOR
If you need a paragraph about why I’m so intrigued by this ridiculous game, then I haven’t properly introduced myself. I’m Ari, and weird games are always welcome in my dojo.
There you go, the second installment of some smaller games I heard about from E3 this year. I think this might be it for E3 coverage out of us. That is, unless something crazy is announced, but for the time being, thanks for rockin’ with us.
Not every game makes it onto one of the main stages during E3, it turns out that there are a lot of video games out there. But these games deserve their acknowledgements in some way, so here are some games that are worth checking out for one reason or another.
POLICE STORIES
Considering there hasn’t been a proper SWAT game in a while, I’ve had to look to smaller developers to scratch the very specific itch that represents tactical infiltration/shooting. I’m hoping that Police Stories can fill that void for me. The promise of co-op is fun, and while normally I’m not a fan of run-based games with procedurally generated levels, this seems like one of the few games where the latter feature could work well. Procedurally generated levels with random enemy placement makes sense for a game where you have to react to new situations all the time. Police Stories is set to release on September 19th of this year.
BLOODROOTS
When you look at the trailer, it can be hard to tell exactly what is going on in Bloodroots, but after playing the demo it all became pretty clear.In Bloodroots, you’re basically this speed demon of a man, who zips across these combat arenas picking up every weapon they can find, and chaining together attacks against the enemies stationed in the area. It’s a combat puzzle in the same way that Hotline Miami was. You’ll die over and over, but you’ll also learn enemy placements and habits. Luckily, you can pick up basically anything to use as a weapon, from axes, to ladders and even a rubber duck. It was very fun and satisfying, and you can try the demo out for yourselves, if you want to know what you’re in for before it releases this summer.
RAWMEN
There is no universe in which I see Rawmen catching on in a significant way, but, I wish it would. Look at this game, it’s got everything! Splatoon inspired combat, large man running around in the nude hurling hot stew at each other, character customization, various traversal options, and a Harry Belafonte song in the trailer. It’s the perfect game? Discuss.
FREEDOM FINGER
So this one is weird because I actually don’t know that I’ll ever play it. I’m mostly highlighting Freedom Finger for the style it has. It’s got this Adult Swim style to it which I kind of adore, a surprising amount of big name voice actors starring in it, and an awesome soundtrack. I don’t know how much I’ll enjoy the attitude it’s got, but one the basis of style alone, I’m into it.
SKATEBIRD
I’ve wanted Skate 4 for a very long time now, but I gotta say, Skatebird looks charming as hell. What a novel idea this is, not just because of the fact that it’s little birds riding around on finger skateboards, but because of the gameplay implications it could have. The ability to get a little more height on a jump to nail a trick or make it over a gap seems like it could add a decent bit variety to the skateboarding genre.
SUMMER CATCHERS
I like me some pixel art, and I like me some good chip-tunes. I also very much like it when I can watch a game trailer like 4 times and not know what the hell is going on. But that’s Summer Catchers, a game about — something. What really catches my eye is the fact that this looks like a game about a road trip which I think is a subject matter I’d enjoy seeing more of. Also the variety in the mini-games they displayed, it looked like some decent ways to break up whatever you’re doing normally in the game. I don’t know, Summer Catchers looks neat, and I will definitely be checking it out whenever it releases.
There are tons of different services out there that provide what essentially is, “The Netflix of Games.” With EA’s Origin Access, the upcoming Google Stadia, the recently announced Ubisoft+, Discord’s Nitro offerings and so on and so forth. But let me tell you about what might be the best and most exciting one of all, Xbox Game Pass — specifically, the one for PC.
A few days ago at their E3 conference, Microsoft unveiled their $15 a month Game Pass bundle that includes both Xbox and PC Game Passes, plus an Xbox Live subscription. A few years earlier, they announced their play anywhere initiative, which said that all first party games will be playable on Xbox and PC. Now that both of these announcements have come and gone, and the Xbox Game Pass PC version (what a name) is available for only $5 a month, it leaves little reason for me to ever own another Xbox again.
But that isn’t the point here. What is the point is how good the offerings are on the Game Pass PC. I won’t go through the entire list here, but there are some bangers on here.
ASTRONEER
I really enjoyed Astroneer when it was in early access. Since it released, I shamefully haven’t tried it out, but I recommend anyone who is looking for a chill space, survival game, immediately check out Astroneer.
GEARS OF WAR 4/ULTIMATE EDITION
With the sequel only a few months away, now’s a great time to revisit the incredibly fun yet forgettable, Gears of War 4. Admittedly, I never finished it, but, now I have an avenue to do so should I ever want to.
Also, the remaster of the first Gears of War is on the service too. Just saying.
ORI & THE BLIND FOREST
The incredibly fun and challenging platformer, Ori & The Blind Forest is available too, which is good considering the sequel isn’t too far away and will also be on Game Pass. Also, this game will make you feel things. So watch out.
PREY
Prey was always one of those games that I wanted to try but never got around to. With shades of Bioshock and System Shock poking through, the game offered what many critics considered a fun, yet occasionally terrifying game with a great story.
SHENMUE I&II
I won’t attempt to defend Shenmue as a franchise, but it did have some pretty impressive stuff in it for the time. The clockwork world, quick time events, the densely populated areas where you can interact with everyone. All of it was ahead of it’s time and deserves that praise. Was it fun to play though? Not really. But you can experience the infamous hunt for sailors for yourself in preparation for the impending sequel.
STATE OF DECAY 2
While State of Decay 2 wasn’t the game for me, I acknowledge that for a lot of people, the zombie survival/management sim that released, was. It’s a game full of bold ideas, all of which circle around the concept of base building, and personnel management. Also there’s zombies everywhere.
VAMPYR
I really wanted to try out Vampyr for a while now. If I remember correctly, you’re a doctor who has been turned into a vampire, and has to investigate something? I don’t remember. What I do remember though is that you talk to a bunch of citizens, and shoot werewolves a bunch. It’s an action RPG in a setting we just don’t get enough of.
WOLFENSTEIN II
I think we as a people need to once again embrace the idea that eradicating Nazis is cool and not taboo. What better way to remind yourself of that fact, than by playing a game where you go around an alternate history version of America where they lost WW2 and the filthy Nazis took over? Oh, I should mention that you’re killing them with guns and bombs and stuff in order to free America from the Nazi menace. It’s fun and patriotic.
Now you might be thinking to yourself, “eh, none of those games did it for me,” and I get that. But there might be something on the list that might sway you. And look, I’m not doing this cause I want to advertise the service or anything, this was all spurred on because I genuinely enjoy the service. That, and the upcoming titles look great. Let’s take a look, shall we?
HALO INFINITE
Look man, I was gonna play this game one way or another, and knowing that I don’t need to buy a new console to enjoy it is all the better. When Halo Infinite launches next year, I’ll be there.
HALO THE MASTER CHIEF COLLECTION
What’s that you say? You don’t need Game Pass till the next Halo launches? But what about The Master Chief Collection then? Yeah buddy, you’re gonna get access to that entire package when it begins to roll out in a few months. Hot damn.
AGE OF EMPIRES I, II & III DEFINITIVE EDITIONS
In the past, I’ve heard people go nuts for this franchise. I’m actually curious to see what all the fuss is about. Considering the last actual RTS game I played was Rise of Nations, I’m curious if this will scratch a similar itch.
MICROSOFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR
Shut up, I think it looks cool and fun. I wanna fly some sick-ass planes and do it in a world powered by Google Maps. I want to fly a plane over my house and go somewhere nicer, so I pretend I’m leaving here. Shut up.
That isn’t all of the upcoming games, that list has a few more on it. But more interestingly is what games they don’t have announced, that they’ll add to the service. Only a few days ago, critically acclaimed new releases like Void Bastards and The Outer Wilds were added to the list, so you never know what new game is going to make the cut.
Out of all of the available services, Xbox Game Pass PC has the best selection of games that I want to play on it. Also, I think it’s the cheapest of the offerings at only $4.99 a month. I’m enjoying Game Pass, and I just wanted to sing it’s praises a bit as we become more and more over encumbered with similar services.
Final Fantasy. Yeah, I get it it, a lot of people are jazzed about that remake coming next March, but how about that Avengers project huh? I’m definitely not writing this before the actual presentation, inevitably setting myself up for disappointment or anything. But yeah, this is probably going to be the shortest of the E3 write-ups I do, unless Square Enix brings the heat in other, non-Final Fantasy forms.
Let’s take a look!
FINAL FANTASY 7 REMAKE
A lot of people are really into this game, like, to a scary degree. I never fell in love with Final Fantasy 7, or any JRPG in general, but I’d be lying if I wasn’t interested in trying this version out. FF7 is one of the weird blank spots in my gaming history, and while most of the fans have made talking about it insufferable, I’d still like to try this game out in some aspect.
It looks like they changed the combat up for this remake, leaning into real time combat much more while also allowing for a sort of Dragon Age styled tactical mode where time slows to a halt, allowing you to pick from a list of advanced attacks.
If I could play this game like a more traditional action game, I think I’d be more willing to try it out. But I don’t know that this is what fans of Final Fantasy 7 are looking for as far as this remake. Or maybe they’ll eat it up without any issues. Doubtful, but maybe fans will be cool about this for once.
The remake is slated to come out early next year, March 3rd, 2020.
A BUNCH OF ANIME GAMES
We got a bunch of trailers for other JRPG remasters and ports, alongside Dragon Quest Builders 2 and a remaster of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. Some of the stuff shown looked cool, but nothing that really did much of anything for me.
CIRCUIT SUPERSTARS
A top down, R.C. Pro Am style game with a layer of tuning and strategy was shown off, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little bit interested. Since the Burnout series… burnt out, I haven’t really been playing much of any racing games, but this one looks like something I’d check out.
DYING LIGHT 2
Shout out to Dying Light for using a Metric song in their trailer, it makes me want this game even more. Unfortunately, the trailer didn’t do much in the way of new footage, but it did come with a nebulous, spring 2020 release date.
OUTRIDERS
A new shooter from People Can Fly, they didn’t show off too much of Outriders, but from what little I did see, it looks like a third person shooter where you’ll create a character, all with this weird, post-apocalyptic yet demonic looking aesthetic. A lot of weird demonic looking beasts were shown off, but not much else. They’ll say more about this winter.
MARVEL’S THE AVENGERS
In what might be the most confusing and nebulous announcement of all of E3, Marvel’s The Avengers, specifically the presentation about out was one of the most confounding things I’ve ever seen. They aren’t following the MCU, rather, building their own version of the Avengers canon to work with.
The story has the Avengers fucking up and getting outlawed and fighting back from that, I suppose. People in the crowd kept shouting at this point.
After a while of saying absolutely nothing, they got around to announcing playable characters, Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor and Black Widow. Take that Hawkeye.
Then we cut to a weird sit down with the voice actors behind the 5 playable characters which was an… interesting choice. I wish they would’ve talked about this in maybe a developer diary video that wasn’t on an E3 stage, but whatever. I would’ve genuinely preferred seeing more gameplay, we got some more cut scenes which is better than nothing.
After a short cut scene, we got more people walking out on stage and talking about the game. No pay to win and no loot boxes were listed as talking points, which means cosmetics are definitely in the mix.
Notably absent was any gameplay. I have no idea how the game works or plays or anything. It was this weird feeling of them hiding the gameplay from us or something, I don’t think that’s the case, but that was the vibe they put off.
Oddly enough, they’re showing off actual gameplay at their booth, but felt the need to not show anything about that on their stage. I just wish they didn’t withhold so much information about the game, and felt the need to be more coy about it.
Whatever Marvel’s The Avengers ends up being, is out on May 15th, 2020.
And that’s that. A conference filled with a bunch of games that weren’t for me, and the ones that did pique my interest, were oddly vague. This show felt like a real love letter to fans of Square games from the past, with a bunch of remasters and remakes being announced. Good on them, now please tell me more about Marvel’s The Avengers.
One thing you can always count on from a Ubisoft E3 conference, is it’s gonna be weird, people are gonna be dancing, and they’re going to continue to act like their games are apolitical. So here we go, let’s take a look at the stuff Ubisoft brought to the stage that I considered worth writing about.
Keep in mind, a lot of this conference was about updating the games they have out at the moment, and considering I don’t really live in any of those ecosystems, don’t expect to see much of that in the feature below.
ODE TO A SOUNDTRACK THAT NO ONE REMEMBERS
Opening the show was something called the Assassin’s Creed Symphony, playing a lovely medley of of what I assume is music from the Assassin’s Creed games. A weird choice considering this year we’re not supposed to get a new entry in the franchise, and also, I don’t know that any of the music is particularly memorable. It’s good music for sure, but not something I could ever recall if you asked me to.
But the reality of it was that this was some hype for the Assassin’s Creed Symphony tour that’s coming up. That’s neat.
WATCH DOGS LEGION
I love the aesthetic that Watch Dogs Legion is hitting upon here, this slightly futuristic, post-Brexit London, where extremists and gangs rein supreme. Things are kicking off in a major way here though, with so many different gameplay elements being highlighted. Particularly the part where they went from playing as a street thug, died, and then started playing as an old lady. She’s a hacking old lady who used a freaking drone that’s just jumping on people’s faces. Then she pulled out a gun an iced some fools.
The whole pitch here is that you can play as anyone in the city. You recruit new resistance members based on their stats and abilities. Some people were better hackers, fighters, drivers, etc. It actually seems like an awesome idea that probably took a long time to make work well.
Slightly disappointing was the amount of gun-play in the game. I was hoping to see more focus on using your hacking powers and hand to hand combat than just shooting fools. Like, sure, in games shooting stuff is fun, but I was hoping that with the gun laws in London, that would be more apparent in the game.
Also, I’m very unclear of how an actual story will weave together when anyone can be a main character. Either that isn’t the case, or the story is going to feel so nebulous and vague that it feels disjointed.
After the gameplay demo, the director of the game reiterated the fact that anyone can be recruited and played as. I’m assuming that there are going to be pretty influential NPCs that will kind of shepherd whatever the player character is forward. At some point, player voices and backstories will have to be reused, right? It’s gotta be something where, there are like 5 different kind of old ladies in the world with their own voices and animations, and it reused over and over. Or not, who knows.
It’s out next March.
MYTHIC QUEST
It’s a show from the creators of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia about a game studio that made the biggest MMO in the world. Here’s hoping that at least an entire season or two focuses on unionization in the games industry.
20 bucks says that if this show goes well, someone will actually make this fake MMO game into a reality.
The show looks like it could be okay, but boy howdy it’s got one hell of a mountain to climb. It’s coming to Apple Plus, a service that I’ve only just heard of, right now.
BRAWLHALLA
The free to play Super Smash Bros game is getting some Adventure Time characters in it. I like both of these properties and it’s nice to see that they’re still supporting this game with new content. I gotta say, I don’t know if the show is still going or if it’s relevant at all these days, but it seems to be a cool content infusion for a game I forgot existed.
GHOST RECON BREAKPOINT
I didn’t hate Ghost Recon Wildlands, it was just a very repetitive game that I didn’t have people to play with. Jon Bernthal is in the game as the lead villain which he seems to pull off very well. After a CG trailer of Mr. Bernthal being angry and hyping up his army, he walked out on stage with an adorable pit bull who looked very scared of being there. I have no idea why he was out there, but I’m very happy he was.
Then we cut to a trailer of people shooting other people in the woods and doing some military hand signals at each other. I’d play this game only to get more of Mr. Bernthal’s acting. My only hope is that this time around, they put in a button that allows me to snap to cover instead of that auto-cover nonsense.
And here’s something for the hardest of the hardcore Ghost Recon fans, an exclusive streaming and content portal just for fans of the games. It was weird, but probably something the fans will really appreciate and hopefully actually use.
Yet again, there’s another Terminator crossover in this game, cause of course. It comes out on October 4th.
ELITE SQUAD
Uh, they’re making a Tom Clancy themed mobile game. It’s some tactical shooting game called Elite Squad. They put Sam Fisher in it which is the meanest thing they could’ve done quite frankly. This is what they do with one of their most recognizable characters – put him in a mobile game instead of his own title.
JUST DANCE 2020
They’re doing it! The big elaborate dancing sequence where a person in a panda bear costume comes out and dances with a bunch of other brightly dressed dancers. It was just as weird and uncomfortable as it always was. Thank goodness for Ubisoft.
Also, I guess they’re putting another one of these games out this year. Whatever.
RAINBOW SIX QUARANTINE
How do you feel about a spooky scary Rainbow Six game where you and two other players take on some monsters or something? Claiming this to be the Rainbow Six Siege of PVE games, it’s a big claim that I bet could work well. It’s weird though, cause Rainbow Six was always about some tactical, military realism, and this very much seems like a departure from that.
Hopefully it works out well for them.
UPLAY +
You know what this is. It’s another game subscription service you can pay into to play all the latest releases along with a catalog of classic games. The service is coming to Stadia, allowing you to utilize this service anywhere in theory. The price is in line with other services like this, at $14.99 a month, it seemed almost inevitable that this would happen.
ROLLER CHAMPIONS
“A skill-based, team PVP sports game.” That’s what they said about the game. With no real details, they came out and just dropped this trailer for a game without any real information, then said that you can download a demo for the game today. So that’s cool. Then, almost as if they had messed up and announced the demo too early, they showed off a gameplay trailer, which also didn’t tell me anything about this game.
It looks like a mesh of NFL Street and a roller derby. I’ll try the demo though. Why the hell not?
GODS & MONSTERS
The last trailer of the conference was for a game that I guess exists that had absolutely no information about it. It was colorful and made it seem like it would be a more lighthearted adventure game in the vein of Assassin’s Creed. They said it’s a game that heavily focuses on mythology. So who knows what that means.
And it just ended. For a Ubisoft conference, it felt kind of lifeless and straightforward. Also, where the hell is Splinter Cell? It’s getting to the point where they keep putting Sam Fisher into their games, without providing players any modern context for who the character is. The last Splinter Cell was in 2013 and was on the Xbox 360. We’re rapidly approaching the point where we’ve had a generation without a game in the franchise, but the lead character has shown up several times.
What I’m saying is that it’s a crime that there isn’t another Splinter Cell game, and I’m upset. But Watch Dogs Legion looked cool. The rest of the conference was a little muted for my taste. It felt like they’re playing it safe until the next generation of consoles come out.
Devolver Digital is a weird as hell company that publishes some pretty amazing games. I usually don’t enjoy their conferences cause they try way too hard to be funny, but I’m not here for that, just their games.
FALL GUYS
I have no idea what this game is about, but it looks like it could be a neat little party game. Historically, party games suck, but maybe this one will be the exception to the rule.
DEVOLVER BOOTLEG
So for a price, you can go to Steam, to buy this bootleg launcher that plays bootleg versions of Devolver games. It’s actually kind of a novel concept. It allows you to play knockoffs of games like Enter the Gungeon, Hotline Miami and others. This is very much my kind of game, and I can’t wait to play these raggedy versions of the games I know.
CARRION
Consider this, you’re a nightmare tentacle monster tasked with consuming everything in your path. It’s bloody and gory and looks super satisfying. Also it’s out next year on PC and console.
ENTER THE GUNGEON: HOUSE OF THE GUNDEAD
They’re making a literal light-gun game for arcades based on Enter the Gungeon. That actually looks like a neat idea. I wonder how many arcades will pick it up though, cause I doubt the name recognition around Enter the Gungeon is that high. But whatever, it’s a great idea that I hope pays off for them.
THE MESSENGER: PICNIC PANIC
There’s a new, free expansion for The Messenger coming out on July 11th that looks like the perfect excuse to get back into that game I enjoyed so much from last year. It’s a tropical spin on what might have been one of the coolest side scrolling action games of last year. And hey, free is the exact right price for it.
MY FRIEND PEDRO
I’ve been so excited for My Friend Pedro to come out, and on June 20th it finally is. It’s a side scrolling shooter based entirely around the concept of bullet time and being an unbelievably efficient killing machine. Things like riding skateboards and shooting dual uzis, or throwing a frying pan in the air to ricochet bullets off of it into dude’s brains are just some of the cool features of My Friend Pedro.
As always, it only lasted a few minutes, but managed to deliver one or two interesting things. For instance, The Messenger expansion looks awesome and Carrion seems like an extremely cool game. Otherwise, I just can’t reiterate how much I hate their sense of humor that they pump into their conferences. This time it ended with a Terminator themed thing that is just tedious.
Microsoft took the stage at this year’s E3 with what might be the most exciting and interesting lineup of games, hardware and services. With so many of their initiatives coming to a head, between streaming services, announced games from purchased studios, possibly new hardware reveals, and the fact that their main competition isn’t attending the show, Microsoft has nowhere to go but up.
Preamble aside, this is what they brought to the biggest stage in gaming this year that caught my eye.
THE OUTER WORLDS
They opened the show with some new footage from The Outer Worlds, the Obsidian, Fallout style first-person RPG. Personally, I’m not a big fan of the Bethesda style game, but the setting and scope of the game itself was a very attractive prospect.
The sci-fi trappings of this first person action RPG looks right up my alley aesthetically, and the gun play looks like it didn’t suck, which would be a nice change from every Fallout game. Also, I watched the player just shoot a quest giver in the chest, so this game looks like a blast. It comes out October 25th of this year.
BLEEDING EDGE
Next up was Ninja Theory’s, Bleeding Edge. It’s a 4v4 melee focused competitive multiplayer game. It looks like a blend of Borderlands, Overwatch and For Honor. There wasn’t much in the way of details, except that it has attitude. Gnarly.
ORI AND THE WILL OF THE WISPS
The sequel to the very good Ori and the Blind Forest was once again, shown off, boasting it’s signature beautiful art style and tight platforming. In this short trailer, there wasn’t much in the way of information, but if it follows in the footsteps of it’s predecessor while iterating on some of the more irritating aspects of the game, then this could be a homerun. It’s out February 11th of 2020.
MINECRAFT DUNGEONS
Next we were onto that Minecraft game that’s a dungeon crawler, apltly named Minecraft Dungeons. It’s a 4 player coop dungeron crawler that looks neat. I think the art style works with the isometric camera, and I gotta hand it to them, it’s a fairly cool concept that works well within the world of Minecraft. It’s due out next spring.
STAR WARS JEDI: FALLEN ORDER
We got to see more of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, but there wasn’t much in the way of new footage. Instead, it looked as if it was made from the full demo they showed yesterday at EA Play, chopping it down into a more bite sized and exciting package. There were flashes of new footage, but nothing that really expanded on what was shown at EA Play. It releases November 11th of this year.
BLAIR WITCH
They showed off this spooky trailer with a dude running into a shack in the woods, where he was definitely going to die. There was also an adorable dog that traveled with him, that I’m sure is going to die, which makes this game an instant pass and also it gets 0/5 stars for even putting that idea in my head. That’s the official review for a game that comes out on August 30th.
CYBERPUNK 2077
The very anticipated Cyberpunk 2077 made an appearance in the form of what I assume is a cut scene in the game, it’s hard to know for sure though. There were lots of half robot people with guns, a self driving car, a robo-fist-fight between two men, lots of bleeping out of the bad words, a woman who can hack with her mind, and KEANU REEVES. And then Keanu Reeves, not content with blowing the minds of everyone for just being in the game, walked out on stage.
He was charming and wonderful and is precious and I love him. The crowd was eating it up, and so was he. Then he gave us the release date by striking an emphatic pose while pointing to the big screen that flashed to some more gameplay, quickly followed by an April 16th, 2020 release date.
I am very excited about Cyberpunk 2077 as a fairly recent convert to the camp of CD Projekt Red, and as you can probably guess, the grimy sci-fi aesthetic is definitely my jam.
BATTLETOADS
Hell yeah baby, the Battletoads are back and they look like a Disney Afternoon cartoon. It’s a 3 person co-op brawler that has no release date. Hopefully, it’ll be as good as I remember Castle Crashers being. Realistically, it’ll be the best Battletoads game, but that isn’t saying much.
ID@XBOX MONTAGE/GAME PASS
A bunch of games were announced and highlighted in this ID@XBOX game montage. A lot of the stuff looked really cool and up my alley. I plan on investigating some of these games more in-depth at some point, but for now, just enjoy the trailer.
The montage was followed with the news that the games in the montage were all going to launch day and date on Xbox Game Pass.
They also announced that the entire Master Chief Collection is coming to game pass on PC, along with the news that the PC game pass launched today, and they’re bundling both Game Passes and Xbox Live Gold for $14.99. Which honestly, is a pretty great deal.
MICROSOFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR
Powered by Google Maps, there was a lot of pomp and circumstance around this iteration of Flight Simulator, and honestly, it looks absolutely solid and something that I could definitely see myself dumping an obscene amount of time into.
I’ve never been a big, “plane guy,” but I am definitely a, “seemingly mundane simulator game guy,” and this speaks to me in that regard.
THEY BOUGHT DOUBLEFINE PRODUCTIONS/PSYCONAUTS 2
With the announcement that Microsoft had purchased Double Fine, they celebrated their union by showing us a new trailer for Psychonauts 2. The game itself looks just as phenomenal as I’d hope, and seems like it’s striking the right tone while boasting a fairly interesting story for the follow up to one of my personal favorite games.
Psychonauts is easily one of my favorite games based on it’s tight gameplay, and great humor. Hopefully, almost 15 years later, the sequel can illicit similar feelings.
DRAGON BALL Z KAKAROT
HELL YEAH SON, THEY SHOWED OFF THAT GOKU GAME. It looks dope as hell, and it would be the ten thousandth time I’ve experienced the first 100 episodes of that show. I know nothing about the game, how it plays, how progression works, how many sagas are represented in it, but I’m definitely getting this game.
12 MINUTES
Anapurna came to show a game that revolves around a time loop and an emotional and gut wrenching story. It looks like you’re reliving the same time loop over and over in an attempt to get it right and not watch your wife die. It’s being billed as an “interactive thriller,” which means I’ll probably really like it and confuse my friends by talking about it so much. Or, it’ll suck. Who knows? It’s coming soon apparently.
GEARS OF WAR 5
So they started off this Gears of War 5 trailer with some slight body horror stuff that was very uncomfortable to look at, and I’m not sure if Bound By Blood is the subtitle or just a catchphrase about the game, but whatever. After that profoundly disturbing sequence, it was clear that this presentation wasn’t about the story mode.
Instead, they blasted off some fireworks for a while and then zoomed in under the stage to show off a multiplayer mode that has you and your team plant a bomb in an enemy base and then escape from said base. It sure seemed like a lot of production and effort to go into just to show off a new mode, but whatever. Also, there were wrestlers under the stage who were gonna play the mode on Mixer, so that was bizarre.
Then there was a hip hop remix of Crazy Train that featured Lil’ Jon, I think? There was also a character who pulled out an electric knife and stabbed a bunch of fools which looked cool, but since it’s a CG trailer, who knows how it’ll actually play? From said electro-knife lady, I assume that this mode is a class-based affair, and one person is the gun-man, and there’s lady-knife, and probably bomb-dude or something. But that could be just me projecting.
It’s a three player focused co-op mode that looks interesting, but didn’t seem worth all the effort they put into showing it off. It all felt disjointed and weird and also if you preorder you can play as a Terminator. So never mind about the disjointed thing, this entire sequence was never “jointed” to begin with.
It releases on September 10th this year and can be played a few days early by buying the expensive edition or playing via Game Pass.
ELITE CONTROLLER II
They announced a new Elite Controller with more features, dongles, Bluetooth, a rechargeable battery and charging dock. It all seemed like smart innovations and needed redesigns, but will probably also be expensive as hell.
I really want an Elite Controller, but cannot justify paying $150 for a controller, no matter how good it is.
DYING LIGHT 2
A new trailer for the very exciting Dying Light 2 was shown off, focusing on choices and “remembering who you are” and other ethical quandaries. I saw a zombie climb the player like a ladder, so that’s uncool and definitely not welcome.
I liked Dying Light a whole bunch, but I felt like I lacked any agency and also hated the weapon durability system, although, to be fair, it wasn’t as egregious as it could’ve been. Still, I hate that mechanic in games, but for Dying Light 2, I can make an exception.
Also it’s out next year.
FORZA HORIZON 4
They rolled out a sports car made of Lego pieces to promote Forza Horizon 4 and their upcoming crossover with the toy manufacturer. Yes, Lego. Everything was Lego, people, cars, animals, fences, and other stuff were all made of those delightful little bricks. Not since Forza Horizon partnered with Hot Wheels, have I been more curious about playing a Forza game. It looks like a lot of fun and will be available on June 13th.
GEARS POP!
Bad. All of this is bad. It’s a mobile game in the vein of Clash Royale and looks terrible. Seriously, it looks gross, and appears to be little more than an attempt to suck money out of people. Also, Funko Pop figures are ugly and terrible.
PHANTASY STAR ONLINE 2
For a long time, a lot of people have been clamoring for this MMO to finally get localized and get a proper western release. I have no reverence for Phantasy Star Online or the MMO genre in general, so this doesn’t seem like anything I’d be interested in. It comes out next year and is exclusively coming to Xbox.
BORDERLANDS 3
I’ve made my thoughts on Borderlands as a series clear, and this trailer didn’t do much to change them. It looks exactly like what you’d expect from a sequel to Borderlands 2, which I guess is what people want. But in an age where games like Destiny and The Division exist, I’m curious to see how Borderlands 3 does against other loot shooters. I just wish they would have tried to do some more interesting things as opposed to just doubling down on what’s worked in the past.
They also released a new piece of DLC for Borderlands 2 to link the stories of the two games, which I’m pretty sure is free.
It comes out September 13th of this year.
GEORGE R.R. DARK SOULS (ELDEN RING)
With no gameplay and just an ambiguous as hell CG trailer, it sure felt like something both From Software and Georgie boy would make.
I don’t have any love for either From Software or the throne man himself, Mr. R.R. Martin, and this detail-packed trailer did nothing to sway those feelings.
STREAMING
They were extremely brief and vague when it came to their streaming initiative, Project X-Cloud, but it sounds like it’s launching this year, and you can even use your Xbox One as a sort of home streaming device, allowing you to stream to other devices on the same WiFi connection.
NEW CONSOLE
There was a lot of hype and boasting about the technology and connectivity around the next Xbox console to kick of this next segment. Focusing in on the more tech heavy bullet points like the processor in the console, ray tracing support, SSD inclusion, backwards compatibility and so on and so forth. No real visual element aside from various studio heads talking about how powerful this technology is.
The way they’re positioning this next console seems to be a direct response to how the Xbox One was lambasted upon reveal. Instead of superfluous features, they chose to focus on performance, and how it’s for games and gamers. Nothing about TV or movies which, while it almost definitely will support other forms of entertainment, won’t be a focus at all.
Releasing holiday of 2020, we didn’t get a name aside from the code name, Project Scarlet.
HALO INFINITE
Announced as a Project Scarlet launch title, we were treated to what I assume is a cut-scene from the game Halo Infinite. All I can surmise from this trailer is that, once again, things are bad, and Master Chief got saved by someone so that he can save everyone else. Also he misses he digital, blue, cyber-girlfriend who lived in his head for a while until she went bonkers.
And just like that, you now know the entire plot to all of Halo.
Then everything ended. It all just stopped. And not one mention of Fable at all! Sure we got Keanu Reeves, but I really, really wanted the Fable rumors to bear fruit. It’s all exciting stuff, but doesn’t solve the issue of big releases this year. They’ve got Gears coming this year, but not much else.
It really felt like the entire Xbox brand is just going to lay low for a while, restructuring it’s offerings and services, so that they can come back next winter to release an incredibly, fully featured console.
But next year, it seems like Microsoft is gonna hit consumers hard and make sure people feel good about the brand by the time the next console drops.
Despite the fact that E3 technically doesn’t start for a few more days, we’re here to kick off the whole shebang with EA and their series of live streams. The beginning of this year for EA was met with promise and praise thanks to surprise hit, Apex Legends. Soon after though, their tent pole release Anthem, belly flopped onto the scene and continues to be a tumultuous game.
With that said though, this is some of the more interesting things that EA brought to the table this E3.
STAR WARS JEDI: FALLEN ORDER
EA kicked off the show with arguably, the most anticipated EA game this year, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Boasting 15 “uncut” minutes of gameplay footage. From the jump, I they showed off some wall running to meet up with Forrest Whitaker, presumably playing his Rouge One character. Some cool touches were things like seeing the character use his lightsaber and a light source in a dark area along with using force powers to clear platforming paths for yourself.
A lot of the combat encounters early in the demo looked like they were crafted specifically for presentation purposes, cause a lot of the basic storm troopers just kinda stood there, waiting to get stabbed.
Eventually though, a tougher enemy showed up, and there was this brief one-on-one moment that looked like something out of Dark Souls, which seems like a great way to represent and experience the gravitas of a lightsaber duel.
There was a lot of wall climbing and running, and frequent use of a time slowing power that I wasn’t aware Jedi had, but it looked cool.
Another neat thing was seeing the storm troopers face off against local wildlife. It doesn’t seem like something that will happen organically, but it was nice to know that these guys aren’t just solely waiting around for you to kill them.
There was a “high ground” joke made in the demo, so that was fun.
It seems to be implementing aspects from a lot of beloved Star Wars games, notably Force Unleashed and what little people saw of 1313. One of the cooler bits I saw was a storm trooper fired a laser bullet, the player slowed time, pulled the trooper closer to him, and put him in front of the bullet he fired moments ago.
What I didn’t get from the footage was a sense of scale in the game. The level they showed off seemed fairly linear, without much deviation from the critical path. I genuinely hope that isn’t the case and there’s something similar to how God of War handled it’s world.
The combat looked very interesting to me as well, also bringing up comparisons to God of War. Everything seemed deliberate and calculated, and the post reveal interview revealed that everything we saw was done on the fly. The example they used was when the player pulled an enemy close to them and drove his lightsaber through them, that wasn’t a canned animation, but rather the result of button inputs.
One of the more interesting aspects here is that there isn’t much in the way of variation of the story. Star Wars games typically lean into the light and dark dichotomy, but in Fallen Order, you’re playing a tailored story. That isn’t a negative or positive thing, I just find it interesting that a Star Wars game is foregoing that weird expectation this time around.
The game looks extremely satisfying to play. I hate to keep drumming up this comparison, but it looks like they took God of War 2018, and injected it with Star Wars. The game is set to release on November 15th, and I for one, am eager to get my hands on it.
APEX LEGENDS
People really like Apex Legends. In theory, I do too. But it just never got its hooks in me. So who better than I to talk about what they’ve announced for Apex Legends than myself?
They started by announcing a new event called, The Legendary Hunt which I guess is a ranked mode for those who want to be even more competitive in this battle royale game.
They also seem to be finally leaning into the cosmetic angles of a free to play game, by showing off what I assume are new skins.
Then they pivoted into their season 2 plans. It launches July 2nd and is called Battlecharge. Touting a new legend, a map event, a mode, a new battle pass and some balance tweaks.
For all the hype of a new weapon, it looks like an SMG that shoots lasers. I think it’s from Titanfall 2, but I can’t be sure. It seems to be very powerful and the interviewer seemed very excited for it, as is his job.
The battle pass is undergoing a lot of changes, making leveling easier and streamlining its usage. There’s also a competitive season ranked mode, in the vein of Overwatch ranked mode coming.
There’s some additional skins, but to honest, they all kind of looked lame. With the exception of the gun with a rhino head on the front of it.
And then they revealed a new character named Wattson. She’s apparently very smart and French, so that’s cool. She looks to be a defensive oriented character, capable of putting up laser fences and turrets. She looks like a tougher character to play because her powers are so interconnected to herself and her teammates.
Then they started saying some stuff that I couldn’t understand cause I don’t play Apex Legends. It’s hard for me to be excited for or properly report on what this stuff is about, cause I’m just not a huge fan of Apex Legends.
BATTLEFIELD V
In an attempt to drum up some hype for their fledgling release from last year, EA marched out a half hour of Battlefield V news. Once again, I’m not a huge fan of Battlefield these days, but here we go anyway.
They announced a new map that unsurprisingly looks beautiful and chaotic as hell and should be out sometime in July. Shortly after, they showed a sizzle reel of some other, equally pretty and chaotic maps that are due out in July.
It’s always really interesting to me that in these demos, they never show off the true gameplay loop of Battlefield. There’s always a lot of people mowing each other down in mid to close range combat, but in reality, the experience is more of you spawning in, and then immediately getting sniped.
This entire section of the presentation felt similar to the apology tour they did last year with Star Wars: Battlefront II. Not that they were apologizing, but they hammered the point home that they were responding to community feedback in crafting the new maps and modes.
It’s nice to see that EA isn’t straight up abandoning Battlefield V despite it under performing for them, but rather, supporting the community they have. It seems like a course correction in the public image issues EA has had for a while, where they appear to drop any unsuccessful game instead of supporting it. It’s a smart move, and I hope it’s indicative of a more permanent change as opposed to a temporary solution.
Anyway, this wasn’t what I’d call a super exciting portion of the presentation. It felt like they took a map pack announcement trailer, and spread it out over a half hour.
FIFA 20
Man, I don’t know. They’re doing some FIFA Street style mode which seems like it could be fun, but I really am not the target audience on this one. I mean, I enjoyed the “street” series of games they once made, but it isn’t enough to make me buy a FIFA game.
Also, I should mention, for the first half of the time slot for this presentation, they just talked about the concept of street football (soccer) instead of actually showing any gameplay. I get it, I do. There’s a massive cultural relevance for this product and mode, but it really felt like they didn’t have much in the way of additional announcements for the upcoming FIFA.
At this point I started to zone out and stare into the background of the shots. There were a lot of people with umbrella hats on, and I’m so thankful for that. They must’ve been selling them nearby, and even if they were free, they were too expensive. Also, a lot of people waving in the background and generally being a nuisance.
ANTHEM
Anthem showed up for a cool 3 minutes. Basically a short apology tour, saying things like “we’re responding to the community” and such. It was just standard stuff about how they’re fixing things and working hard.
MADDEN NFL 20
Welcome to football town folks, they have more umbrella hats here. This year in football town, there’s a career mode for your created player, new playbooks, challenges for ultimate team stuff, and something called “X-Factor abilities” which seem to be superstar specific buffs that you can unlock in-game by completing player specific challenges.
I think I went to the restroom while this segment was going on. I don’t know, it’s a shiny new Madden that I’m sure people will love.
THE SIMS 4
Rounding out the 3 hour event was The Sims 4. They started with an expansion pack called Island Living, which looks like exactly what you think it would be. Lots of beaches, jet-skis, sandcastles, and coral reefs. Cleaning up beach garbage and beach parties were also in the mix, as well as a mermaid.
You can have dolphin buddies, which seems pretty rad. And I’m pretty sure they just implied that mermaids and dolphins fuck. So thanks for that disturbing visual, EA.
Oh good, they decided to play a video from a YouTube content creator. An influencer if you will. But this person did announce that The Sims 4 was including gender neutral and LGBTQ pride items to the game, which is very cool.
And then they announced a magic themed pack that’s coming later in the year. So, Harry Potter fans, get pumped.
EA Play is a weird thing. It’s like EA is trying to do both the established E3 event thing, and the streaming to consumers thing. It isn’t a bad way to do a conference or event, but when there was so little to announce, it just felt lifeless.
I will say that I thought every host they had on the show, teetered between enthusiastic, and supremely annoying, but hey, that’s their job. Aside from that, the biggest news has to be at the very end when a man in an umbrella hat, holding a camera and an anime body pillow stood in the background and waved at the camera. Great job everyone.
Puzzles are hard. Or at least they can be. This is story of one particular puzzle that I made for my players that absolutely flummoxed them for way longer than it should have. It’s this experience that has led me to make sure that my puzzles going forward, are no harder than those children’s toys where you put the right shape in the right hole.
The party was on the trail of a werewolf that had been terrorizing the outskirts of the city, wreaking havoc on local farms as well as businesses in the city by destroying their shipments.
The party had some leads which led them to a local police force that was able to give them some information on a mostly uncharted area of the wilderness. With this information, the party headed to a clearing that led to the entrance of a collapsed mine. Above the mine was a large flat piece of land that they surmised might have an entrance to the cave below.
This is where things got tricky. See, there was a small cottage up there, something they were very hesitant to investigate. Inside of the cottage were a few things. In front of them was a series of 5 large levers jutting out from the wall, all in the bottom position. There was also, and I quote “a tall dresser, a bed, a coat rack, and a long coffee table in the room, but no sign of any life.” The “puzzle” as it were, was that from left to right, the position of the levers corresponded to the height of items in the room.
It took these fools 30 minutes to figure this out. One of my players basically checked out during it, admitting defeat to my very complex word games. It was astounding to me. Once they figured it out, the door locked and the floor opened up. They were now in the mine and ready to continue their pursuit of the werewolf.
What I came away with, is that even the simplest puzzle, can flabbergast anyone. So much for my next brilliant puzzle idea where one person tells the truth and the other always lies.
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/16191717/mahomes_cover.png)
The Bonus World 