The SNES Classic Edition: Get Ready for Round Two

Nintendo Announces Super NES: Classic Edition

Even before the rumors began circulating about Nintendo following up their NES Classic with a 16 bit mini edition, I knew this would happen  I am not surprised that Nintendo was going to do the same limited run of mini SNESs.  At least Nintendo has made it clear that these will only be shipped until the end of year.  Due to the NES Classic last year, people know full well what to expect this year.  The race is on.

I've already shared my thoughts on the NES Classic.  I already told myself due to Nintendo's stubbornness, they aren't deserving of my money should they inevitably decide to make an SNES Classic.  Yet, here its.  But there's one thing that's making it very hard for me to resist this time around...

If you'll notice in the upper right corner of the box, you'll see the logo is Star Fox 2.  This is both a blessing and a curse to the system.  No gamer anywhere in the world (aside from those with extremely special connections) has played the sequel to one of the most memorable space shooters made, because Nintendo never released it.  They are giving people a chance to play it now, but so far, the SNES Classic is the only way to experience it, which means this drove up the demand for the system exponentially.  

Nintendo claims they're going to ship more units than they did with the NES Classic but I can guaran-damn-tee you that they won't ship enough. For one, the inclusion of the never-before-released Star Fox 2 just made every single person who owned an SNES in their childhood want one of these things now.  Some people passed on the NES Classic, because of various reasons such as having all these NES games on their phones, or owning them across different platforms via Virtual Console, which I'll get to in a bit.  But now, I'm guessing at least four to five times as many people will want this for that one game alone, and at 80 dollars, it's a fair price to pay for a never released SNES game, a sequel to one of the most amazing SNES games of all time at that. 

Then, we have the scalpers.  I fucking hate scalpers, and if you're reading this and have scalped before, I apologize in advance, but you're a douchebag.  Sure, it's just capitalism, but most capitalists are usually douchebags.  The idea of taking up units that other people genuinely want and flipping them around to sell at gouging prices is just a shitty thing to do, and Nintendo knows this.  They've known it for a long time, as evidenced with Amiibos and of course, the NES Classic.  And although shitty people as scalpers are, they're also smart so you know they're well award that the value of these things just shot through the rough.  Add the increased demand from people wanting this for themselves and the scalpers who want them for the money, yeah... Nintendo, there's no way in General Fuck's Hell you're going to ship anywhere CLOSE to enough units to make people happy.  These will be harder to find than the NES Classic.

Also, I'm wondering if Nintendo is going to bother to fix the short controller cord that was a problem with the NES Classic.  And, the main reason I didn't bother to seriously find one of those Classics was because it was a closed system.  It appears it's the same thing with the SNES.  Unlike the NES, it actually has less games.  But, oh wow, look at this catalogue!

• Contra III: The Alien Wars
• Donkey Kong Country
• EarthBound
• Final Fantasy III
• F-Zero
• Kirby Super Star
• Kirby's Dream Course
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
• Mega Man X
• Secret of Mana
• Star Fox
• Star Fox 2
• Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting
• Super Castlevania IV
• Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts
• Super Mario Kart
• Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
• Super Mario World
• Super Metroid
• Super Punch-Out
• Yoshi's Island

I own, have owned or have played pretty much all of these and these are some of the best, most iconic, classic and beloved titles on the SNES.  Any time you talk shop with an old school gamer and mention the SNES, these are most likely the first titles to be mentioned.  I actually wouldn't mind playing several of these again.  But... it's that Star Fox 2 one that I want it for the most.  If I ever decide to go hunting for the thing, it will because of that very game. 

And it irks me that with as many years that Star Fox 2 has been kept stored away, Nintendo decides to finally release it in a limited edition extremely collectible mini SNES.  I can only hope against hope that Nintendo released it through their Virtual Console... which still doesn't exist on the Switch!  This continues to irritate the fuck out of me, because I hate seeing Nintendo blow business opportunities! Again, they are my favorite company, so it only pisses me off more when they act stupid.  So, honestly, I'm not holding my breath to see Star Fox 2 released via Virtual Console.  Nintendo claims they're always listening to us, but most of the time, they just aren't.  Metroid Prime: Federation Force is a clear example of that.  Hell, have you played a Nintendo game online recently?

Do you want an SNES Classic?  I'm sure you do.  If you decide to try to get one, I'll wish you the best of luck, but while you're at it, buy some lottery tickets.  You'll most likely hit the lottery before you find one at retail price...

A Way Out Needs to Find a Way Out for Single Player Gamers

One of the games during this year's E3 that attracted my attention was A Way Out, an action game that tells the story of two brothers escaping from prison and staying one step ahead of the law.  I love games where the focus is on a strong narrative, but lead developer Josef Fares lost me when he said the game was co-op only, via local or online.  There's not even matchmaking for online co-op.  This was a bold move, but in my opinion, a bad one.

The fact that the focus on the game is co-op is commendable, but the exclusion of a single player mode is problematic.  You need to find someone to play with.  For most people who are quite social and have lots of friends, this may not be an issue, but for solitary and introverted people like myself, it does become an issue.  For starters, you need to find a friend who has free time to do something with you.  Good luck if all your friends are busy with school/family/careers. Then, that friend needs to be close by to visit, or have the same console you do if you want to play online.  If the latter is the case, that person will also need to be interested enough in the same game you are to buy it.  Lastly, both of you will need to continue to schedule future sessions in order to finish the game.  Also, real life can affect either player at the drop of a dime, meaning the game can abruptly be put off when all the unaffected player wants to do is finish the game.

But see, even if I had one or many friends that could fit this perfect scenario, I honestly wouldn't want to play a story driven game with them, because I don't like playing games with other people when I'm trying to enjoy the story.  Constant mic chat actually bothers me, because I tend to lose focus on what I'm doing.  During a cutscene, I'll miss a key line of dialogue, or during gameplay, I might miss something in the background because I have to not only pay attention to what I'm doing but also what my partner is doing as well.  I'd rather just not be FORCED to play a game co-op, so I won't play A Way Out at all.

It makes no sense for a game like A Way Out to be co-op only when there have been countless other action games that had co-op also have single player options with AI controlled characters.  Army of Two and Resident Evil 5 are just a couple of examples that come to mind.  Granted, the trade off is having to rely on an AI controlled character, and they're usually pretty brain dead, especially in Resident Evil 5, but single player games such as The Last of Us and Uncharted have proven that if you put forth the effort into programming decent AI, you can have partners that can carry their weight.  What Josef's decision to omit single player proves to me is that he's unwillingly to do the work required to make a decent AI controlled character, so he's championing the decision as "bringing back the couch co-op game!"  And I call bullshit on that.  Fuck you, Josef.  You ain't fooling me.

Then there's an issue that I encountered shortly before I decided to make this blog, which is actually the reason why I'm making this blog.  Online bullies will assume that you have no friends if you have a problem with this game being co-op only.  I was already told that by a few today.  That just isn't the case.  I don't have the right type of friends and the right moments to enjoy this game with, and even then, I would prefer to not play this kind of game with someone else.  I am really irritated with that kind of behavior from people online, but it's the Internet and I should just learn to accept it already.

I hope this game fails.  I hope it underperforms, because I want Josef Fares to realize that you don't cater to one group of gamers while completely omitting another group of gamers.  To me, this is like making a car that can only be driven when someone is sitting in the passenger seat.  No game on Earth that I can think of actually benefits from being co-op only, because again, there are games that have decent AI controlled partners.  I just wish those that criticize players like myself would have a bit of foresight and realize single player games are impacted by this choice and will cause the game to lose sales.  If Josef wants to patch in a single player option, then I'll bite, but until then, A Way Out is No Way for me.

Overall E3 2017 Thoughts

I thought I'd write up my thoughts regarding E3 just in case you didn't have the time or chance to read my individual conference impressions.  Now, I just want to preface that I haven't spent time delving into other areas of E3 so my thoughts are only based on what I saw from the conferences and from other people.  With that said, let's go.

At a glance, my ratings for the conferences:

EA: D
MS: B
Bethesda: C
Ubisoft: A-
Sony: B-
Nintendo: B-

I just want to say that my ratings reflect how I was feeling about them at the time.  I also don't like changing ratings that I give just because I see a better conference, which makes me go back and lower the previous conferences.  No, I stick by what I give them.  I wanted to get that out there in case some of you Nintendo diehards freak out over seeing MS with a slightly better score than Nintendo's.  That actually makes a good jump off point, so let me start with Microsoft.

It was pretty clear before MS even began that their show was going to focus on 4K enhanced games via the power of the Xbox One X.  You spend hundreds of millions of dollars on souping up an existing machine, yeah, you're gonna pretty much want to make that the focal point of your presentation  What disappoints me the most about the Xbox One X is that it is 100 percent unnecessary for me.  For starters, I don't have a 4K TV.  What makes it even less desirable is that there isn't a SINGLE game that's exclusive for the Xbox One X.

And speaking of Xbox One X... I've come to the assessment that Microsoft is now worse at naming consoles than Nintendo is.  It's like, Nintendo tricked MS into thinking how much fun they were having confusing the fuck out of their customers, and MS wanted in. It's like some perverted Tom Sawyer shit, only instead of whitewashing fences, it was console branding.

Most of MS's games were really pretty and to be honest, if I could justify spending a thousand bucks on a new TV and console, I probably would.  Forza 7 got my ears perked.  I haven't played a racing sim in a long time and that game ALMOST makes me want to spring for it.  But most of the other games just got a "cool" reaction for me.  There were two games that really attracted me, however, and they were Super Lucky's Tale and Ori: The Will of the Wisps.

Super Lucky's Tale speaks to that old school gamer inside me, the one who had a flu for two days and stayed home from school playing Super Mario 64 until I literally passed out.  It also has that Rare vibe going for it, which also makes me sad at the same time considering the state that Rare is in.  Ori, for anyone who played the first game, was reason enough that MS didn't get anything lower than a B.  Seriously, when it comes to indie games, Ori and the Blind Forest was one of the standouts.  It wasn't just a fantastically well produced game on a visual and audible level, but its gameplay was rock solid.  Seeing a sequel in the works really excited me.

So now, let me address what everyone's thinking.  Why didn't I give the best rating to Nintendo?  Well, I'm sorry.  No, they don't just get to win the whole fucking show because of an announcement everyone knew was already coming: Metroid Prime 4.  Sorry, but if you didn't know that was coming, you lack some serious foresight.  See last year, when Reggie was asked about Metroid Prime.  He no commented.  Everyone who no comments ends up confirming right there.  It was nice to see the game officially announced, though.  Now, Samus Returns for the 3DS, that was a pleasant surprise.  Apparently, it's a remake of Metroid II, which I never did play.

Even with all they showed of Super Mario Odyssey (and honestly, I didn't watch any gameplay because I decided I'm on a blackout), I still can't hand them the award for Best of Show.  It's not their fault; it's my fault.  My expectations are always incredibly high for them since they are my favorite company.  I knew, just KNEW, they wouldn't make me as excited as everyone else, because I feel the average Nintendo fan is too easy to please.  There was so much missing from their show.  No new F-Zero, no new Star Fox, Punch-Out, Wave Race, Pilotwings, etc.  And one HUGE omission.  No info on Virtual Console.  They'll be glad to sell you Mario for the 100th time at half price on Wii U and 3DS, though.... I get so mad at them, I almost want to say, "Fuck off Nintendo" and be done with them!  Man, they're lucky I didn't give them an F!  Seriously, I get pissed at them with all the potential they squander!  But... I digress.

It's weird.  It's really, really weird, that I've ended up giving the best rating to Ubisoft.  They always were such a pain to sit through the previous years, but they made a major change that finally made the show enjoyable.  No fucking Aisha Tyler.  It's not that I don't like Tyler; it's just that whenever they use a celebrity host, all the jokes just come off super cringey.  Same with Joel McHale.  I love both comedians, but HATE them during Ubisoft press conferences.

Now, Ubisoft made a genius move starting off the show with Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, with a special guest appearance by Shigeru Miyamoto.  That's how you get your audience going!  (Unlike Sony's, but well get into that in a bit).  Honestly, this game deserves to be highlighted, because quite frankly, this game shouldn't exist!  This is a WTF game.  Not only is it Rabbids invading the Mushroom Kingdom, it's a completely different kind of game for both franchises.  Ubisoft needs to be commended not only for even coming up with the game, but for also showcasing it at the very start of the show.

There were a couple of weaknesses in the show.  They're still using ridiculous dance numbers to show off their new Just Dance games, and personally I don't think those games have any business being shown off in their conferences anymore in this day and age. It took time away from games that deserved more time, such as Assassin's Creed: Origins.  It felt very odd to me that Ubisoft's flagship franchise, which took a year off, is only given seconds of actual gameplay... shown outside of the conference.  It should have been one of the highlights of their show.

Those two shortcomings aside, though, the rest of the games they showed off were pretty strong.  I'm not giving any of the "but they'll downgrade" complaints any credence, though, because I judge what I see when I see it, so if those games get downgraded, then I judge those games verily. Now, the reason why Ubisoft gets Best Showing of E3 is because of how they ended.  No other show (sorry, Nintendo and Nintendo fans) ended with me as excited and moved as Ubisoft's because of one game announcement: Beyond Good and Evil II.  Yeah, Metroid Prime 4's announcement was huge, but I already knew it was coming, and Nintendo showed NOTHING.  Metroid is also a long running franchise, and Beyond Good and Evil isn't. Beyond Good and Evil was released 14 years ago and is a much beloved game that fans were clamoring for a sequel.  Not saying fans weren't clamoring for a new Metroid, but there were already several games in the series.  Sorry, but no Metroid announcement will ever carry the same weight and impact as Beyond Good and Evil 2.

Let's move on to Sony's.  They would have slipped into C territory had it not been for one little announcement: Shadow of the Colossus.  I feel that was the second biggest announcement just SLIGHTLY behind Beyond Good and Evil 2, and only because I already own the game twice, and played it scores of times.  What has me excited about it this time is that it will TRULY look like how it was imagined to be.  The original was held back severely by the PS2's limitations, and the HD remaster with ICO was capped at 30 frames per second with barely upgraded textures.  As much as I loved it, I still felt it wasn't as beautiful as it could be.  Now, we'll have proper treatment and it should look as impressive, if not more impressive than The Last Guardian.  I cannot wait to play it again!

As for other games, the two I felt were the most disappointing were Days Gone and God of War.  The reason why I list Days Gone is that I felt its demo just wasn't really all that impressive.  It's things we've seen in plenty of other action games before, and in fact they had a better demo at last year's E3.  For a second, I mistook it as Last of Us 2.  It just doesn't stand out.

Now, for God of War, I probably triggered some Sony diehards, but honestly, God of War in its current form fails to capture my attention.  I mean, I'll still play it.  I played almost every other God of War with the exception of Ascension, but god damn, the game just looks... boring.  God of War to me as always been a non stop hack and slash romp where you set up ridiculous combos with crazy moves and the action. When there is action in this one, it isn't as flashy.  Knowing what I know of walking narration (I'm looking at you, The Last of Us), the pacing of this game is going to get ruined with all the walking narration of Kratos and his son.  Just the wrong style to put in a game like God of War.  And I'm not the only one that thinks this.  Take a look at all the memes going around.  People are calling it Dad of War, and I'm calling it Boat Pulling Simulator 2018.

I will say they ended on a high note.  Spider-Man (no longer called Homecoming) looks fantastic with the exception of excessive use of QTEs.  It's 2017.  We should be past that.  But, the combat looks great.  The web slinging looks fun.  The writing... I'm still not really convinced about, but I'm sure there will be great one liners that will make me laugh.  Come on, it's a Spider-Man game.  You can't really screw that up.  I also enjoyed the fact that out of all the games Sony showed, they spend the most time showing off Spider-Man's gameplay.

EA and Bethesda... what can I really say... Bethesda, you saved yourself from a D because your presentation was actually entertaining with Bethesdaland, and you made me scream with the Evil Within 2 announcement.  Also, I really appreciate you spending time to show off Doom, Fallout and Skyrim VR.  Most people don't like hearing about VR, but I actually really enjoy it.  I would love to play Skyrim in VR, but I already decided that I'll get it for the Switch because, Link gear, dude.  Come on...

But EA... EA... you get a D just for this guy.

Allegedly, the teleprompter dropped the ball, which caused Jesse to stumble, but this is why you don't use YouTubers.  They spend their time rehearsing what they want to stay in front of their cameras, and if they screw up, they edit it out.  If you're going to use a YouTuber, you need to use someone who can adapt.  Jesse clearly couldn't, and it reflected poorly on you as a company.  It made me keep thinking of this guy well after the rest of the conference moved on.  

You also made a grievous error announcing Star Wars Battlefront II's story mode but then NOT SHOWING IT.  Then you just went straight into the multiplayer.  I should have flunked you for that alone, but the only thing that kept you from an F was that I know Battlefront II will have a story mode, and Need for Speed Payback looks great, but I had to sit through that Wellins guy.

So that's pretty much it.  The one trend I did notice, though, was that just about every company trimmed all the fat from their conferences (and Nintendo went 100 percent lean).  There weren't any long drawn out talks with celebrities about game services, no 10 minute openings with company statistics, no comedian hosts trying too hard to be funny by telling stereotypical gamer jokes... to a room full of gamers.  But, they steamlined too much, I think, because what was missing in just about every conference were stage demos for just about every game that mattered; most games showed gameplay footage cut in between cinematics.  It simply made E3 feel less exciting as a whole.

E3 2017: Nintendo Spotlight Impressions

Nintendo starts off with a montage of people playing Switch games.  Looks like Rocket League is on switch!  I see Pokken Tournament.  Now, FIFA.  Now it's Splatoon 2.  Not much really shown, though.  So, I'm hoping there will be more.

Reggie Fils-Aime is here now, talking about "fun".  He's gone full on philosophical.

A trailer starts to play.  Monolithsoft, so this will be Xenoblade 2.  It shows two characters, one of them named Pyra, fighting together, heading towards some place called Elisium.  The other character's name is Rex.  Looks to be a huge world, More characters shown, dragons involved. Holiday 2017.  Yeah, I'll believe it when I see it.

The next trailer talks about needing heroes, and it's a new Kirby!  YES!  Man, I love Kirby games, and it looks like this will be a traditional Kirby now.  No more yarn or rainbow drawing gimmicks.  Wow, it's just called Kirby.  2018

Shinya Takahashi appears now.  He talks about how relieved he felt after seeing how well Switch is received.  He shares an announcement with Tsunekzau Ishihara from The Pokemon Company, so I'm guessing it's Pokemon related.  Pokken Tournament DX is coming, which we already knew.  Sounds like it has all the extra content from the Wii U game.  Gamefreak is making a new Pokemon game for the Switch.

Shinya returns to talk about how most games shown today will be available this year.

A new video plays, showing a teaser of... METROID PRIME 4!  FINALLY!  And the  music... I'm getting chills.  AND NOTHING ELSE IS SHOWN... Damn...

The next video shows what looks to be possible a new Paper Mario?  Or maybe it's a Paper Yoshi?  Although Yoshi is not made out of paper, but the environment is.  I already want it.  God, I love Nintendo's creative artistry!  So imaginative.  But oh the juxtaposition... it's just called Yoshi.  2018.  So, is this going to be a new trend now, to just throw a generic title name up?

Next trailer is shown from Team Ninja.  Looks like Fire Emblem?  Yep, it is.  Cutscenes look great.  So what kind of game will it be?  Sounds like a Dynasty Warriors type game.  Fire Emblem Warriors.  Fall 2017.

Ejia Aonuma appears to talk about Zelda DLC.  Actually, he's talking about Zelda items showing up in Skyrim for Switch.  Now, he talks about Zelda DLC.  I think I might get the DLC, because I actually miss playing Breath of the Wild.  The Trial of the Sword trial is being shown.  If I remember right, this is a long continuous battle against waves of enemies to unlock the true power of the Master Sword.  Something called Heroes Path Mode, new armor including that fucking Tingle suit... More Koroks I guess?  Master Mode.  The DLC Pack 1 will be called the Master Trials.  DLC Pack 2 will be called The Champion's Ballad.  Released June 30th and Holiday 2017 respectively.  Season Pass is 20 bucks.

Ejia comes out to talk about how the Champions will be released as Amiibos.  Great....

Reggie again. He talks about a new competition, a World Invitational for Splatoon 2.  Pokken invitational begins tomorrow.  Also, there's an Arms Open Invitational.  Sounds like Nintendo wants to be serious with eSports.

Another video plays.  This is Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle.  Yves Guillemot says, of course, that it's exclusive to Switch.  We already saw the gameplay from Ubisoft.  It looks great regardless.

The next video shows Rocket League.  I actually really wanted to play this game but never got around to it.  Now, Switch will be the platform that I play it on.  Also, there will be cross-platform play, so that's great.  And of course, there will be exclusive Nintendo items like Mario and Luigi hats.  It's coming out this holiday.

The next video shows a dinosaur.  This is most likely Monster Hunter XX.  No, it's actually Mario Odyssey, because that damn Mario hat popped up on top of the dinosaur's head!  Wow, talk about being trolled.  Wow, this game looks so damn good!  It's like a combination of every 3D Mario ever made.  It see a lot of Sunshine and Galaxy influences.  Of course, there's the living hat, which I'm sure will be a great character in its own right.  And there's airships!  Looks like, he can also ride a bullet buil.  Seems to be a lot of variety in power ups.  Teh human world is just really weird though.  10/27 is the release date!  Nice! Sooner than we thought!

Ok, so I do this every year.  I expect so many things from Nintendo, but always walk away disappointed.  I knew I wasn't going to get much with the Spotlight not even lasting 30 minutes, but I did get a couple of very pleasant surprises in terms of Kirby and Yoshi. I knew last year that a new Metroid Prime was coming when Reggie was asked about it and confirmed through no comment, so it was nice to see it officially confirmed today.  I hate that nothing at all was shown for it, though.  Must be a very, very long ways off.

Missing, however, was footage from Monster Hunter XX.  I really thought the last video was going to be just that, with the dinosaur, but it turned out to be Odyssey, which really looked damned good.  Still, I think it was a bit of a misstep not to show off MHXX considering they showed Monster Hunter in Sony's conference.  And speaking of missing, where's a new F-Zero? A new Wave Race? A new Pilotwings, a new Star Fox, Punch-Out, Pilotwings, etc.  Lots of franchises going to waste here.  Step it up Nintendo!

Overall rating: B-

E3 2017: Sony Press Conference

Sony stars with a video that looks like an advertisement, quite honestly.  Yep, it's an ad for Vue.  Wow, Sony... wow... Then, there's another video that follows. Another ad... are you fucking kidding  me?

Now, it truly begins.  There's some live music being played, and I am willing to bet dollars to donuts this is leading to God of War. Man... I'm getting bored.  I'm starting to dislike these build ups.  I do like the waterfall effects in the background though.  And here comes the trailer.  Clearly, this is God of War.  Oh, wait!  It's Uncharted!  Crap... there's no audio.  Uncharted: The Lost Legacy is the title.

We have a new video showing off a winter environment.  There's a monster chasing some people, then we see the character from Horizon.  I take it this is going to be an expansion.  It is, the Frozen Wilds.

Next up is a trailer from Bend Studio.  This has to be Days Gone.  Finally, the audio has kicked back in.  The guy's riding a bike, escaping from a wolf.  He fell off and is now being beaten.  He's fighting back and just knifed someone, then broke another's neck.  Graphics look pretty good so far.  He's inspecting a wrecked bike and now is running off down the mountain looking for someone named Manny.  He's making his way through hanging bodies, then gets attacked by one.  Now there's some stealth gameplay.  He's grabbed a bear trap. laying it down for later.  He threw a rock to attract attention.  Of course, the guy gets caught on the trap.  OH SHIT!  A flood of zombies down below. Zombies eating bodies everywhere.  He just blew up a gate, and of course, that's going to attract the zombies, and they ran straight for the enemies in the camp.  With the distraction set, the player's climbing to the top of a lookout, where he rescues Manny.  And now there's a bear.  A zombie bear wrapped in barbed wire, and it ends.  Yep, it's Days Gone.

Shawn Layden comes out on stage now. I'm not really enjoying this guy much.  He seems a bit stiff.  He's talking about Sony platforms, how they offer VR and 4K and yada yada.  He's listing some games like they're all supposed to be exclusive, but he mentioned REVII... Enough praise.  Move on.
A new video finally plays.  Oh look, another jungle game.  And this guy has a BIG sword..  There's fireflies everywhere for some reason.  They form symbols where he collects something from them.  Now there's monster encounters.  They look kind of like dinosaurs.  Scenery has changed to grass lands, there's a t-rex looking thing.  Apparently, the player can camo.  Now he's attacking it.  You know, I think this is a monster hunter game.  Indeed it is.  It looks pretty good.  Monster Hunter World is the title.  Early 2018.

A new trailer plays from Japan Studio.  Horses trotting.  OH MY GOD!  THIS IS... SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS!!!! I just screamed like a little girl!  Shadow of the Colossus for PS4!!!!!!  So buying it again!  *drools*

A new trailer unfolds from Capcom.  Some kind of Marvel cross Capcom game.  There's Chun Li, and I saw the Ghost and Ghouls guy.  Mega Man, Zero.  Something about a time stone.  Marvel vs Capcom Infinite.  Is this supposed to be a fighting game or what?  The cutscenes make it seem like something else.

Another video plays, looks like a war game taking place around World War 2?  Yep, this is the new Call of Duty.  At least it didn't start the show.  But, personally, I'm happy to see the franchise return to WWII.  I JUST might get this one, because I loved Call of Duty 2.  It looks fantastic.  Call of Duty WWII is the title.

A PSVR trailer now.  And this looks like Skyrim.  I still haven't played Skyrim, but my dollar is going to the Switch version.

Next is a video from Playful.  Another VR trailer showing a ship landing, elevator carrying it below the surface.  It's a sidescroller.. I like the look of the game.  There's giant robotic insect enemies, and then there's a giant robot that takes the player up.  The game is called Star Child.

Another VR video plays, showing what looks like a mental institution.  The Inpatient.

Now another video is showing of a VR game.  Looks likes it's fishing for FFXV.  Monster of the Deep: FFXV.

Next up is a video showing a war game.  Hopefully, this will use the Aim controller.  If so, I'm already sold.  Bravo Team is what it's called.

Next one shows a book, then some nature scenery, a lost ruin, some mouse creature with a green gauntlet.  There's a mask in the water, and there's this circle of the light that floats across the screen.  Moss is the title.

Looks like that's it for the VR titles.  Now there's the sounds of someone paddling a boat.  The video plays, showing someone doing just that.  Yep, here's God of War. There's the boy, there's Kratos ax, that he just threw away.  Now, he and the boy are talking to each other.  Now they're in a frozen land.  What's with the floaty camera, though?  That is annoying.  Now, there's some gameplay.  Classic hack and slashing, saw some climbing, a boss fight. I'm so concerned though that the walking narration of Kratos and the boy is going to interrupt the flow of the game too much.  The boy is revealed to be his son.  A giant monster just came out of the water.  Called the World Serpent.  It just spit out the axe he threw away earlier.   God of War with apparently no subtitle.  Early 2018.

Another video plays shows a man singing, then there's shots of a futuristic Detroit  Oh, I forgot about this game! I love David Cage games.  The characters are trying to rescue their people, they get the attention of law enforcement drones.  The gameplay has them ducking detection, climbing around, taking down the drones.  It looks pretty cool.  They just drove a vehicle through a store front.  Now, these "people" are androids, and there's going to be a revolution against the humans.  Oooh, the decision making scenarios look pretty intense.  Detroit: Become Human.  Loving it!

The next video up shows a game from Bungie which is obviously Destiny 2.  Don't care.  September 6th. And there will be Sony exclusive content.  Again, don't care.

NO!  The boring guy Shawn Layden comes out again.  At least he didn't talk much.  He lets another video play.  IT'S SPIDER-MAN!  Gameplay!  He's doing what a Spider-Man can!  Stealth take downs, flinging himself around to new vantage points, webbing up enemies.  Kinda reminds me of Batman in a way.  I'm loving the moves!  Seems like we got a Rocksteady influenced combat system.  Now we got a helicopter that's dropped a boss for Spidey to fight, who's handling himself well.  Didn't take long for him to knock him out.  Looks like we got a villain.  Martin Lee.  They just knocked a crane over on their way out, so Spidey has to save it.  And he's saving it... by QTEs... god dammit.  Here we go!  Web swinging!  It looks good so far!  Man, though, I am not a fan of these QTEs, though. Now, he's free running through a building and it's being blown up. Now he's fighting Lee on the helicopter.  He just caught the copter with his webs.  Ah, it's just called Spider-Man.  No Homecoming tie in apparently.

The show closes with another montage, and then goes back to Spider-Man real quick to show one little last surprise.  Miles Morales!  Ok... so, does that mean we have the first Miles Morales Spider-Man outside of the comic book, or was it just a cameo?  Only time will tell.

Ok, so... I'll be honest and say that I was expecting better from Sony.  I was expecting more gameplay shown for these games, and now that I think about it, that's kinda been the trend this year for all companies.  They've been glossing over a lot of their wares, just focusing on cinematics with the occasional gameplay footage cut in here and there, but Sony... you were meant to show more!  And your guy Shawn Layden, you got to get him out of here.  Replace him with someone a little more... lively.

Now, games that stand out?  I am interested in Days Gone, but what they showed I felt was not really having their best foot forward.  I felt it lacked the impression their demo had last year.  God of War still fails to excite me from what I've seen, but I'm sure I'll play it anyway.  The fact that Shadow of the Colossus is being remade for PS4... That right there got me most excited, like seriously, I screamed out loud.  It's one of my favorite games of all time, and might be the sole reason that I upgrade to 4K.  It was also nice to see Detroit: Become Human again, and it looks pretty good.  Also, Spider-Man was the right decision to close out the show.  I can't wait to play that game.

Then of course, there's the VR games they showed, of which The Inpatient has me wanting to know the most about.  Bravo Team looks fun, and if that game supports the Aim controller, it's an automatic purchase for me.  Farpoint was a lot of fun.  Now, I've heard people say they don't like Sony pushing VR in their faces, but I actually quite enjoy PSVR, so I'm glad I saw several games shown.

Overall rating: B-

E3 2017: Ubisoft Conference Impressions

Ubisoft's conference starts off with a trailer for the new Rabbids Mario game, Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle.  Heh, it's pretty cute and funny, as you would expect from the Rabbids.

Yves Guillemot comes out to talk about the game, and then introduces Shigeru Miyamoto to a standing ovation!  He's got something with him, a life-size replica of a weapon from the game.  He gave one to Yves.  Then, Yves gushes praise unto Nintendo.  There's a lot of banter between the two... and now I'm starting to roll my eyes.  Get on with it!

Xavier Manzanares comes out to HOPEFULLY show off the game.  Yes, showing some gameplay!  It looks like an adventure style RPG.  Hehe, there's a Rabbid dressed up as Peach, inspecting the crew.  There's one dressed up as Luigi.  There's some kind of thing that looks like a Roomba wearing Rabbid ears that's leading them.  They're running around Mushroom Kindom, and there's all sorts of classic Mario imagery.

Now, a battle is being set up.  It looks like it's tactical RPG style.  They can use cover which will also be destroyed.  Pipes can be used to reposition units.  It looks very interesting and fun.  There looks to be a lot of different weapons and combo opportunities.  I love seeing all the different Rabbid takes on Mario costumes and whatnot.

Xavier again.  There's a tag that advertises Rabbid figurines, most likely Amiibos. He leaves the stage and another video of the game plays.  This game is going to be so funny!  Haha, there's even a Donky Kong Rabbid.  August 29th is the release date!  SOLD!

Ashraf Ismail comes out to obviously introduce the new Assassin's Creed: Origins.  The backdrop on the stage is full of hieroglyphics.  A trailer rolls out showing dunes and pyramids and rivers.  There's wildlife that shows hippos and lions and cranes.  It shows slaves moving giant stonework.  Horse chases across the dunes.  Live gameplay is now being shown.  The assassin is riding horseback, lets his eagle fly to scan the area.  As I said in the MS conference, it just seems weird to see the eagle hovering.  More gameplay will be shown after the conference.

A new trailer begins to play. Looks like a street racing game, I bet you this is The Crew 2.  Because the first Crew was only online, I had no interest in it.  I'm willing to bet that will be the case with this new game.  The trailer, all pre-rendered, looks great, but shows no gameplay.  There's a mix of all sorts of different vehicles.  Race, street, airplanes, motorcycles, trucks, speedboats.  Yup, it's The Crew 2.  Better not be online-only again, or I'm not playing it.

Stephane Beley comes out to talk about the game, with a very heavy French accent.  I can barely understand him.  He lets another video play, showing in-game footage.  It does look very pretty.  It shows a lot of varying gameplay, varying scenery.  The boat racing looks great.  You can race from oceans to rivers.  There's also airplane racing over and through the city, which looks like San Francisco.  Not much else is told about the game, no story details and more importantly, if the game will be only online or not.

A new video begins to play, and it's South Park: The Fractured But Whole.  I am getting tired of waiting for this game!  This game looks so good, a must play for any South Park fan.  October 17th is the release date.

Another video plays, shows some people talking about a new project.  Some company called Spectrevision.  I spot Elijah Wood. Seems like this might be a virtual reality game?  Test subjects are wearing VR headsets.  The game is called Transference.  Spring 2018, no idea what to expect.

Yves again, to talk about a new surprise.  A video begins to play about pirates.  Everything is underwater.  Drowned bodies.  Then, we have pirate ships on open water, loaded with gold.  There's a female captain.  I'm getting a kind of Black Flags vibe from this.  Yves says this is "something truly unique"... but there's nothing unique about pirates, especially if you aren't going to show any gameplay in your trailer.  Skull and Bones is the title.  Yep... that's "unique"!

Justin Farren comes out to talk about the game.  Sounds like they're taking the naval combat gameplay from the Assassin's Creed games and building on it.  I can get behind that.  I loved the ship combat.  Sounds like they're focusing on multiplayer.  He's going to show gameplay from a mode called Loot Hunt, a five versus five PVP mode.  Yep, the gameplay is very reminiscent of the ship battles from the Assassin's Creed games.  I only pray that there's a solid single player mode.  It's coming Fall 2018.

So, we have some Daft Punk looking dancers coming out on stage dancing to Jamiroqui to promo the new Just Dance. Now some girl dancers some out dancing to some j-pop.  Then, there's someone in a panda suit dancing.  A singer comes out. Bebe Rexha, whoever that is.  You know, Ubisoft was actually doing pretty good so far up until this point...  Just Dance 2018 arrives this October.  Yay.

The next video shows off a South Park game coming to mobile. Looks like some kind of card game.  South Park: Phone Destroyer is the title.

A new video plays, set in space.  A ship arrives to a new planet.  There's a force called The Legion.  Oh it's a Switch game.  It showed some kind of toy or something being assembled on the Switch controller along with other controllers.  This looks interesting.  Starlink: Battle for Atlas I think was the title.

Matthew Rose comes out to talk about the game.  Sounds like this might be Skylander sci-fi edition, since there will be a focus on toys you attach to your controllers.  October this year, on Xbox One, PS4 and Switch.

Rebeka  Coutaz comes out to talk about Steep.  I have Steep, but never got around to playing it.  I have no idea what Rebeka is talking about.  Oh, she's leading up to an expansion, this December.  A video plays, showing winter athletes gearing up to take on Olympic events.  That's cool, tying in with 2018 Winter Olympics.  The expansion is called Road to the Olympics.

Yet another new video.  Right off the bat, it's recognizable as Farcry 5.  It shows a church, with the party singing Amazing Grace.  And... that's it.

Dan Hay comes out to talk about the game.  He talks about Hope County, Montana.  There's a religious cult that has cut off modern communications of the county.  A gameplay video begins to play, shows a player scouting the area with his revolver and a dog.  Such beautiful mountain scenery.  There's a sniper partner, the player assigned her to the water tower.  Now, he's going down street level, slowly sneaking up on the enemies.  Now he's running around shooting, just saw the dog take down an enemy, grab his gun and bring it to the player.  There's vehicles, cars and airplanes.  Even a farm machine like a combine.  Looks like a lot of fun!  I never played a Farcry game before, but I kinda want to play this one now.

A new video plays, looks to be in China.  But, there's talking animals.  Some monkey with a metal arm selling something to a pig.  Now, he's escaping from the pig.  He's got some kind of grappling hook, flying around a building, gets on a hoverbike driven by a human woman.  The scenery looks great.  They just hijacked a flying vehicle and blew up a much larger one.  I'm intrigued... what is this game? They arrive home.  A space map is shown, a ship takes off, goes into warp.  Title is Beyond Good and Evil 2!!!  OMG! OH MAH GOD!

Michel Ancel comes out, in tears, clearly moved by the reception of this game.  Gabrielle Shrager alongside him, starts to talk about them game.  Wow, it looks so good.  The design, the graphics, simply amazing.  The hype level is strong with this one!  You can register for something called The Space Monkey Program.  Now, the entire team comes up on the stage.  Yeah, there's a lot of emotional impact surrounding this game.  I have to be honest.. I'm a bit moved.  GREAT WAY TO END THE CONFERENCE!  I just wish I could  have seen a bit of gameplay.  It must still be a very long way off.

Unbelievable... I can't remember the time a conference left me with my jaw dropping so much since Sony showed The Last Guardian back in 2009 I believe...  *APPLAUDS*  My hat's off to you, Ubisoft.  You had an almost perfect showing!  I can't believe you actually started it off by showing Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle and having Miyamoto come on stage, and then ending with Beyond Good and Evil 2!  What a way to end a conference!  I mean, I'm still riding high from the emotions of everything!  Really, seeing Michel Ancel in tears, KNOWING how loved his first game was by the community, and then FINALLY being able to announce the sequel to the fans... It was just an amazing moment!

Ok, so, having to take a step back from that.... Let's talk about the rest of the showing.  First, I just want to thank GOD that Ubisoft did not go with Aisha Tyler to host the show again, or any comedian for that matter.  Almost all the filler was trimmed away, with the exception of a bit too much talk between Miyamoto and Guillemot and then a big misstep with another Just Dance number.  At least that was over quick.

As for the games themselves, I would have really appreciated more gameplay shown for some of them, especially with Assassin's Creed: Origins.  I thought it was rather peculiar that, with Assassin's Creed being absent last year, that hardly anything was shown of it during either MS or Ubisoft conference.  The game's coming out this year, so I was expecting at least a five minute demo from either side.  Maybe they'll show more at Sony's conference tonight?  Also, Skull and Bones looks great, but I'm worried that might turn out to be online only, along with The Crew 2.  I also liked how they had some mysterious games such as Transference.  I would love to learn what that game's about.
Overall rating: A-

E3 2017: Bethesda Conference Impressions

Bethesda starts their conference off with a video about the kids of Bethesda workers.  Cute! It's followed by a montage of Bethesda games.  Seems like nothing new in it.  I recognize Dishonored 2, Doom, Prey, etc.

Next is an intro done in the Fallout style.  Pete Hines of global marketing comes out.  He talks about their E3 experience calling it Bethesdaland, then about people playing the current video games.  Then he talks about virtual reality.  Two VR games will come out this year.  He shows off the first.

Looks like it's for the Oculus.  It's some kind of space game.  It actually looks like Doom.  Yes, this is Doom.  It's called Doom VFR.

Another trailer rolls and it is instantly recognizable as Fallout.  I can only imagine how awesome this would be in VR.  Fallout 4 VR is the title.

A Bethesdaland video plays to talk about stats for Elder Scrolls Online, and then leads to a player video about the Morrowind expansion.  I never tried Elder Scrolls Online because at the time, I was playing FFXIV and after I quit FFXIV a second time, I swore off MMORPGs so honestly, I'm not even interested in this.  Plus, I never got into Elder Scrolls III to begin with.

Another Bethesdaland video to talk about the mod community and how mods were brought to console players last year.  This is followed by another video, an animated one, introducing a new system called Creation Club, which is supposed to streamline and enhance features for the mod community.  It arrives Summer of this year.

Bethesdaland again, talks about Elder Scrolls Legends, a strategy card game. A video follows showing off gameplay.  Not really excited about it.

Once again, Bethesdaland.  It talks about Skyrim coming to the Nintendo Switch.  I really am hoping for a release date, because I think I want to play the game on this platform.  I never got around to it in the past.  And OMG THERE'S LINK GEAR!  SOLD! SOLD! SOLD!  It looks so awesome!  You can also get treasure chests with Amiibos.  No release date, though... Damn.

Bethesdaland is back, talking about what sounds like DLC for Dishonored 2.  A trailer follows, and although it's all cinematic, it looks awesome.  I enjoyed Dishonored 2, but I very rarely revisit games for DLC, but I might play this.  The title is called Death of the Outsider.

Wow... Bethesdaland... again... This is starting to lose its charm.  Now, it's talking about Quake Champions and eSports.  A video of eSports players follows with a gameplay video right after.  Wow, it's such a fast moving game!  There will be a Quake World Championship with a one million dollar prize.

Bethesdaland introducing another game. It looks like some kind of horror game.  The main character is called Sebastian, mentions some group called Morbius. It looks mysterious and interesting.  They aren't showing any gameplay, though, so I wonder what it's like.  OMG!  IT'S THE EVIL WITHIN 2!  I did not see that coming! Now they're showing gameplay, and wow... it looks so different.  October 13th is the release date.  CAN'T WAIT!

Bethesdaland closes the show with another video.  It's shot like an old television show.  A guy's in trouble, a girl blows a whistle for a dog to come help, but the dog's a giant machine.  Haha.  Liesel? I don't know what to make of this video.. Now it's jumping channels.  It moves to a cinematic game video where a cat's banging the TV remote, and now a guy is getting out of his bed, apparently injured.  It looks like his pregnant wife.  Then there's something happening in a city under fire.  There's a scene with some KKK people, now there's a Nazi... what is this... This Nazi is talking to you, calls you a fireman.  Asks for ID... then it jumps to another scene where they're fighting armored enemies. There's a futuristuc ship, jumps scenes again.  Sounds like everyone's in Nazi occupied America.  This trailer gets more and more interesting by the minute.  Lots of characters being shown. Now gameplay is being shown.  It's a first person shooter of some sort.  A gate says New Orleans.   Ah, the game is Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus.  It looks quite good, actually.

Pete Hines comes back out to end the show.  He says everything that's shown tonight will be out this year.

To be honest, I wasn't really expecting much from Bethesda's conference.  The shortest one so far at roughly 38 minutes, it really didn't have much to show.  Just about every announcement they had was for games that were already out.  I will say I'm excited about playing Doom and Fallout 4 in VR, but I've yet to play either game.  I was really excited to see The Evil Within 2, because I loved the first.  Wolfenstein II also looks fantastic, which is actually making me want to play the first game, which I never did.  I will say my biggest disappointment was no release date for Skyrim for Switch.  I really want to play it now.

Overall rating: C

E3 2017: MS Conference Impressions

MS's conference starts off with a montage showing a brief history of the Xbox legacy and its games.  Then a video plays which obviously is the official unveil for Xbox Scorpio.  Its all meant to supplement the buzz of 4K "Ultra HD" gaming, so there's depictions of popular games like Gears and Forza.  Finally, the images of Scorpio are shown, and it looks so boring.  Not too dissimilar to the old Xbox One.

Phil Spencer comes out on stage wearing an awesome Player (1) shirt.  I'm addicted to buying shirts, so I need to go find this shirt.  He talks about the history of Xbox a bit, and then announces the official name of Scorpio, which is the Xbox One X with a release date of November 7th.

An engineer comes out to talk about the power of Xbox to rattle off specs of power.  He also says it's 100 percent BC with Xbox One, along with enhanced performance for all Xbox One games.  Also, there's a technique called Super Sampling which is supposed to make games look even better on a 1080p TV, but... I still play on a 720p... Might be time to buy a new TV... It has a liquid cooled vapor chamber, which means this thing's going to generate a lot of heat. Oh, and wow, he says it's the smallest Xbox ever made.   That's a surprise.

The first game trailer is shown, showing some impressive environments.  Rocky mountains, deserts, and now, tarmac.  This is a driving game.  My first guess is Forza. So far, it looks pretty damn impressive, especially in the rain.  Seems like attention to physics and detail have even been paid to the raindrops as they travel up the windshield.  Yup, it's Forza 7.  Dan Greenawalt comes out to talk more about the game.  He talks about a world reveal of a new super car, making its first appearance at E3.  It sounds like a new Porsche.  It's the 2018 Porsche 911 GT2RS.  Pretty cool concept to debut a flagship car at a gaming convention.

A couple people come out to demonstrate the game.  God, it looks pretty.  I've never been much of a Forza person, but I kinda want to get an Xbox One X, a 4K TV and this game just to experience how pretty it actually is.  And holy shit, over 700 cars!?  Wow... The game releases October 3rd.

Phil Spencer again.  He says he'll debut 42 new games, 22 of which will be exclusive to the Xbox platforms.  He rolls out another trailer.

It looks like an apocalyptic world set in a freezing winter.  The game is first person, already looking stunning.  The player is wandering around a building, and then is attacked by a creature.  There's a lot of details in this game, and I just noticed the player's breath on the inside of their helmet, which temporarily shatters when hit.  They're topside now, looking out over a city.  A downed helicopter is shown, a map is brought up, and the player must be looking for some kind of reference point.  They pull out a crossbrow on guard for another attack.  He sniped a creature, recovered the bolt and reloaded.  A giant bear creature is now chasing him.  He's jumped to a zipline to get away from it, narrowly dodging being run over by a train, which he then boards.  Ah, it's a new Metro game called Exodus.  I got to be honest, that game looks great!

A new video plays, showing a temple, a sphinx and other Egyptian pieces, which I'm sure this is the new Assassin's Creed.  Yep, it is.  Hooded figures, mention of a brotherhood.  Assassin's Creed: Origins.  I'm so hyped!
Jean Guesdon of Ubisoft comes out to talk about it.  It sounds like because this game is 3000 years in the past, the gameplay is going to be completely reinvented.  Another video plays, showing the game running on in-game graphics in 4K.  Gameplay footage is now being shown.  Right off the bat, it's recognizable as an Assassin's Creed game.  Wandering people, layouts of buildings and trees.  The new main character has an eagle he uses to scan the area to look for his next target.  Climbing looks familiar.  Stealth maneuvering.  Ooh, he just shot a guard in midair.  It's so weird, though, seeing this eagle being used as a drone.  Having it hover to target guards just doesn't seem right.  Ubisoft took a year off Assassin's Creed, so this one had better be great!

Brendan Greene comes out to speak of Playerunknown's Battlegrounds.  I've heard of Playerunknown, but never experienced it.  A video plays for the game.  To be honest, I'm not really impressed by it.  Doesn't seem to be that graphically impressive.

Another video begins to play, showing an FPS that seems to have some primitive graphics.  Seems like a squad game, and they're fighting waves of enemies.  It's called Deep Rock: Galactic.  Doesn't look interesting at all to me.

Yet another video starts to play, and I think this one's for Days Gone. I almost forgot about this game. Nope, it's actually State of Decay 2.  And wow, there are zombies everywhere.  Kinda reminds me of a serious Dead Rising.  Seems like there will be some serious decision making in this game.  Some enemies look like they came right out Left 4 Dead.

New trailer plays. Shows a guy warming his hands, he hears a noise, grabs an ax, is ambushed, then a very annoying announcer comes out to start commentating on the game as gameplay is now being shown.  The Darwin Project. Doesn't look interesting at all to me.

Now, we have some Minecraft stuff, of which I really don't care about.  Never played Minecraft. Probably never will.  Phil Spencer comes out to talk about how he was blown away with Minecraft in 4K.  Does that franchise really benefit from 4K?  He introduces a new game.

Right off the bat, I recognize it as Dragonball.  And it is, a Dragonball fighting game.  It certainly looks pretty.  It has a team tagging system apparently.  Cool for Dragonball fans.

A trailer for another game begins to roll.  It looks like some kind of ancient war game with armies training in different settings.  Then the battles begin with lots of attacks going on.  Axe wielders, archers, mages.  Giant enemies.  This looks pretty interesting.  It's called Black Desert, and it's an MMORPG.  Oh well, off my radar.  I don't play those anymore.

Another trailer begins.  This looks to be in some kind of futuristic Asian city.  It's called The Last Night.  I really don't know what to expect from this one.

The next trailer begins and has a cartoon aesthetic.  A boy is running, scenery and outfits constantly changing, and he's playing a guitar.  Still running, scenery still changing and then it takes on some kind of psychedelic vibe. The Artful Escape is what it's called.  Could be interesting.

Yet another trailer. A dude with a cool set of armor is running around killing enemies, kinda reminds me of a lighter shade of Dark Souls.  It's called CodeVein.  Ok, that looks awesome.

Phil Spencer out again.  He's now about to show off Sea of Thieves.  If I remember right, this was announced last year, and it was multiplayer only, so I have no interest in it.  I have to be honest, it does look fun, but honestly, if it's multiplayer only, I just don't want to play it.  The thing I dislike about multiplayer only games is that become unplayable when time moves on and no one plays them anymore.

A new trailer rolls showing some kind of future game called Tacoma... and I know nothing about it.  More like a teaser.

Another trailer shows a cartoon fox chasing a butterfly. Then a flower pops up to attack him, but he defends himself, and then jumps into a book.  The world then shows gameplay and it looks like a platformer.  I am getting a weird a Mario vibe from it.  I almost thought it was a Rare game at first.  Super Lucky's Tale is what it's called.  It looks like a lot of fun, actually.  Reminiscent of 3D platformers of old.  November 7th is the release date.

Ooh, the next trailer is for a black and white game done in the old style cartoon films.  It's Cuphead!  I forgot all about it!  Oh man, it looks so pretty!  And 9/29 is the release date.

Next game shows Terry Crews with a futuristic gun.  This must be Crackdown 3 from the sound of it.  Yep, "Welcome to the agency!"  I loved Crackdown but was really disappointed in the second because it took place in the same city and was practically just a rehash.  This looks fun so far, full of bright colors exploding among dark settings.  Just, PLEASE be a major improvement over 2!

A montage begins playing.  I'm not going to bother typing up all the game names.  They're just moving too quickly.  I will say the variety of games that's being shown is very diverse.

Phil Spencer again, talking about a program called ID@Xbox to help bring more games to their platforms by working with many different teams.  He's going to introduce a new game now.

It's called Aurorall or something?  It looks like an adventure game, kind of like a cartoonish Dark Souls game.  It looks interesting.  Oh, the title is actually called Ashen.

A Square Enix trailer now unfolds.  Shows a girl smoking. There's a black bird, then it jumps around to show a concert, a car crash, some kind of gang confrontation.  The girl's named Rachel.  An anarchy sign.  Ahh, it's a new Life is Strange game.

The VP Michael Deplatter from Monolith Studios comes out, then footage of the new Shadow of War game is shown.  Man, it looks so pretty!.  Sadly, Xbox will not be the platform I'm getting it on.  Two orcs are fighting.  Obviously, the bigger orc won.  Now, the player is being shown, and Michael is talking about the new Nemesis system.  Now the player is battling more orcs and using all sorts of powers until he's able to take control of the orc.  Heh, there's some funny writing in this game as well.  Hopefully, the quality stays consistent.  Sounds like the game will be much larger than the first.  He dominated another orc and is now ready to assault a fortress and overthrow the overlord.  It looks pretty great.

Another trailer is shown, while also having a pianist playing music on a piano on stage.  This game kinda reminds me a little of Ori and the Blind Forest.  It has that beautiful aesthetic to it, full of wonderful nature.  Already, I want it.  I love those styles of games.  And now, there's an owl.  And here comes a little creature made of light to comfort its sadness.  Oh please be an an Ori sequel.  And it is!  The Will of the Wisps!  That right there is the highlight of the conference for me!  I can't wait for this!  Again, I LOVED Ori!

Spencer again, this time giving us stats of Xbox One's BC compatibility.  He announces that the Xbox One will now play original Xbox games.  Cool... but I don't really care about BC until it can play ALL the older games.  I know that's a large request, I'm aware of the hard work that goes into each one, but again, I just want to know that whatever old Xbox game that I own can be played on Xbox One.  Did... he just say that the updates for Xbox One X games will be free?  Well... I'm sure as hell expecting them to be free...

EA president comes out to talk about the new Bioware game they teased last night.  Yada yada... get on with it.  Jon Warner comes out to show off Anthem on the Xbox One X.  The player walks around a market place until they get to these armored suits, they get inside and then walk out of the hanger.  The exosuits are called Javelins.  OOOH they can fly!  Now, the game just keeps getting more beautiful.  Now there's a monster encounter, they choose to ignore it and fly off again, now they're in the water.  There's a skirmish with some creatures and they're off exploring again.  It sounds like this is a multiplayer game as well. I am loving the weapons.  I got to say, I am not loving the chatter.  It's disrupting the immersion.  Now, there's a big storm around a portal they jump into.  I think I'll keep an eye on this game.

The show closes with another montage.

So, EA's conference bored me to tears.  MS's conference I had trouble keeping up with.  So many games were being shown in rapid fire succession, one after the other.  Aside from EA's bit, the pacing of the conference was fantastic.  Nothing bloated or flashy or stuff like that.  Just games.  And to be honest, I think this is one one of MS's best showings in recent years.

I haven't played a racing game in a long time, and I'm actually in the mood for a good race, so I think it was coincidence that MS chose to lead off their conference by showing Forza 7.  Man, it just looks so beautiful.  It honestly has me thinking of buying a 4K TV and an Xbox One X to experience.  Speaking of XBOX, I just want to say that I don't like the name that well.  Xbox One X... X...box...One...X... Well if anything, that just cements the fact that MS has no plans of marketing this as Xbox One's successor, which I thought they would do with the Scorpio name.  Also, the system is being released on November 7th, at 500 dollars, and I wasn't surprised about the price.   Not sure yet if I'm going to get one....

Other games that stood out to me are CodeVein and Ashen because they remind me of Dark Souls. Then, there's Super Lucky's Tale, which I really want to play because I don't think I've played a 3D platformer on an Xbox platform since Conker.  And then, there's Ori: The Will of the Wisps. I cannot wait to play that game.  Most anticipated game in the conference!

Overall rating: B

E3 2017: EA Conference Impressions

I haven't been following all the E3 info that closely, so that would explain why I had no idea EA was doing their press conference on a Saturday!  It's not even E3 week!  Ah well, here we go.

EA starts it off with a montage of games and a lot of Star Wars can been it in it.  Next, they bring out a drumline with Madden branded drums, so I'm guessing they're introducing Madden 18.  A cinematic trailer shows what looks to be a story mode.  And the title for Madden 18 is revealed... with a subtitle! Madden 18: Long Shot.  Honestly... does anyone play Madden for a story?

Andrew Wilson CEO of EA comes out to talk about what to expect during their E3 presentations.  Then, they're talking about Battlefield 1, their experiences with the community, and then the upcoming content for Battlefield 1.  There are night and snow maps, so it looks like a lot of content is coming.  But I haven't really been into war FPSes in a long time.  It's hard for me to appreciate what this game is, because I just see it as another run around and shoot stuff game.

Patrick Soderlund comes out on the stage to talk more about Battlefield, but I'm starting to get bored at this point. Then, he's talking about FIFA, which soccer has never interested me, so I'm skipping this.

After I skipped that, I landed on something called Men in Blazers, and I guess this is more about FIFA, so back to skipping I go.

Some Youtuber named Jesse Wellens comes out to talk about the new Need for Speed: Payback, and he's stuttering like crazy.  I'm guessing something isn't right with the set up.  Or maybe he's just too nervous.  Someone from the actual team is brought on to talk about as well.  A trailer is played, and it actually looks pretty fun, kinda like a mission based Burnout.  I need to be honest, though, but it looks rough around the edges, and I'm not liking the acting at all.  Also, the constant gameplay interruption with the slow down to highlight crashes could be something that could really irritate after a while.  Still looks fun, though.

Then a guy comes out to talk more about making games.  He introduces a game called A Way Out.  It's a co-op game from the looks of it.  It shows two brothers escaping from the law, surviving together.  It looks fun, except there's a major problem.  The game is co-op only.  I'd rather the game just be a single player with an AI controlled partner.  Unfortunately, this just killed my interest in the game.  The problem with multiplayer only games is that you need to find someone who is available when you are who wants to play the same game you do.  Skipping the rest.

Same guy (I should really get his name) comes out again to talk about other EA assets.  He's boring me with all his talk about tech and Scorpio and stuff.  He finally shows off a teaser of a new IP from Bioware.  It's called Anthem, and it kind of reminds me of another Mass Effect.

Next, they're talking about NBA Live 18, but I'm not interested in basketball, so I'm skipping it.

Andrew Wilson returns.  He talks about the charities they work with, which is pretty honorable.  He also announced that EA and Origin Access services will be free for the next week as thanks for players participating in charity.  He then reveals Star Wars Battlefront II.  Heh, I love how it starts off with all these tweets about people asking if Battlefront II will have an offline storymode.  The answer better be yes!  :P

Stormtroopers march on stage along with an actress named Janina Gavankar, who talks about the story.  She says the story connects Return of the Jedi to the Force Awakens. What I hate though, is that instead of talking about the single player, they skip right over that and talk about the mulitplayer. I'm skipping.

Oh... and that was it...

Ok, well, thank god I wasn't watching it live, because I would have been bored a lot more during their sports sections.  That's the problem with EA presentations as not being a sports gamer.  There's a lot of sports game stuff you have to sit through.  Also, I'm very disappointed that A Way Out, a game that I got kind of excited for when I first saw it, was revealed to be co-op only.  Again, I hate multiplayer only games, because I don't like scheduling time to play with people.  I'm a single player gamer first and foremost and that was enough to take it off my radar. And I'm extremely disappointed that ALL the gameplay shown in Battlefront II was for the multiplayer, especially since they said Battlefront II has a story mode!  SHOW THAT!

There were only two things that I got excited about.  Need for Speed: Payback and Battlefront II.  I think Payback will be a lot of fun because I enjoyed Burnout, but I'm a bit apprehensive of how much interruption is going to plague the gameplay.  And of course, I'm excited about Battlefront II but no gameplay was shown for the single player, so that was a bummer.

Overall rating: D