The Full List of PlayStation Classic Games Have Been Released: It's Not Bad. At All.

So we got some news today.  The full list of 20 games that will be on the PlayStation Classic have been announced.  They are:

• Battle Arena Toshinden
• Cool Boarders 2
• Destruction Derby
• Final Fantasy VII
• Grand Theft Auto
• Intelligent Qube
• Jumping Flash
• Metal Gear Solid
• Mr Driller
• Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee
• Rayman
• Resident Evil Director’s Cut
• Revelations: Persona
• Ridge Racer Type 4
• Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo
• Syphon Filter
• Tekken 3
• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six
• Twisted Metal
• Wild Arms

And some people are already up in arms calling the list absolute garbage.  Garbage? Really?  It includes Final Fantasy VII and Metal Gear.  Garbage? Syphon Filter and Oddworld are garbage?  Twisted Metal and Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo are garbage? RE:DC and IQ garbage?  Yeah, this list is complete garbage.  Ok....

Well, sure, maybe it's disappointing.  I'd have loved to see Silent Hill and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.  Obviously, Castlevania wouldn't have been included since they just rereleased it on PS4. I'd have wanted Twisted Metal 2 over Twisted Metal and I would have loved another Final Fantasy on there.  Lots of people are complaining about the lack of Crash and Spyro and those omissions are rather large but I'm sure the fact that Crash and Spyro trilogies just being released has something to do with it. 

But with that said, the lack of certain great games in no way diminishes the greatness of other included games.  Sure, Twisted Metal 2 would have been nice, but the first Twisted Metal is still a classic.  Grand Theft Auto I'm sure has aged terribly, but when you talk about a game that has spawned one of the most popular franchises on earth, you can't get more classic than the first GTA.  Same with RE.  I'd love to have RE2 over that, but the first RE is still very much a classic.  

We even have one of the best puzzlers I ever played on here: Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo.  I never played the PS version.  I only had the GBA version, so it will be nice to experience the original with better graphics.  And still on puzzlers, we have Intelligent Qube!  I've always wanted to play this one, but never got around to it, and now I can!

We have a couple of great RPGs on here.  Obviously, there's Final Fantasy VII, and when you consider the historic impact this game had on not only the genre and for the platform, but for the industry as well, you can't name a bigger classic title than Final Fantasy VII.  Wild Arms is also a really solid RPG, and one of the best RPGs that was published by Sony.  

You want another game that defines classic?  Metal Gear Solid.  If Final Fantasy VII was the definition of classic in the RPG genre, Metal Gear Solid would be the definition of classic for action games.  In fact, one could even say it gave birth to a new sub genre: stealth action.  It was clearly inspiration for another franchise we known as Splinter Cell not to mention Syphon Filter, which is also on this list.  In my personal opinion, I felt Syphon Filter was a better game and it was one of those games I unfortunately got rid of, so I'm looking forward to having it again.  

Battle Arena Toshinden is one of those games that I'm not that confident in defending, though.  As a launch title, it was a lot of fun but I'm sure it won't be that great to go back to.  That would be one of the games I'd gladly replace for something else but in keeping with Sony's "classic" theme, it would be as it was a launch title.  At least we have Tekken 3, though, which in my opinion is the best of the first three.  

The lack of Gran Turismo is a big one, though.  Gran Turismo is one of Sony's biggest franchises and to not at least see the first title on there is a bit puzzling.  But I learned that part of it has to do with vehicle and music licensing and that's part and parcel to why some games weren't able to make the list.  I'm sure whomever was compiling this list tried their best, but there was too much red tape involved in procuring all the licensing involved and that's what we need to keep focused on when we don't find certain favorites in our classic consoles.  We do have a racer, though, with Ridge Racer Type 4.  I never played it, but I heard that it's one of the best in the series.  We also have another driving game in the way of Destruction Derby and me personally, I'm glad to see it on there.  It was one of the first PS games that I had and it was actually a lot of fun.  I even remember taking my PS over to my friend's house and we hooked up two TVs to have our own screens.  So much fun!

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, Cool Boarders 2, Mr. Driller and Revelations: Persona are the only games that I've had no experience with (haven't played RRT4, but I'm very familiar with the series).  I doubt I'll try Rainbow Six because that kind of shooter doesn't interest me.  With that said, the first game of a popular series is always a classic, so it fits.  Cool Boarders 2 sounds fun, so I might try that.  I never played Mr. Driller but hey, it's another puzzles, so that's always welcome.  I've also never played a Persona game, so Revelations might be my first.  

Just out of curiosity, I want to see what the Metacritic scores are and then average them just to see an  overall quality rating.  Now, I know some people say not to put stock in Metacritic, but it is a good resource to get a general idea of a game's reception.  So here goes:

• Battle Arena Toshinden - 69
• Cool Boarders 2 - 65 (not listed on Metacritic, so I'm using GS's score of 6.5)
• Destruction Derby - 68 (again, no Metacritic so I'm using GS's score of 6.8)
• Final Fantasy VII - 92
• Grand Theft Auto - 80 (GS score)
• Intelligent Qube - 66 (GS score)
• Jumping Flash - 75 (IGN score)
• Metal Gear Solid - 94
• Mr Driller - 61 (GS score)
• Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee - 85
• Rayman - 74 (GS score)
• Resident Evil Director’s Cut - 91
• Revelations: Persona - 78
• Ridge Racer Type 4 - 88
• Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo - 83
• Syphon Filter - 90
• Tekken 3 - 96
• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six - 80 (GS score)
• Twisted Metal - 70 (IGN score)
• Wild Arms - 86 (GS score)

So we're looking at 80 rounded up.  As you can see, this was hard to do because some of the games were so old, they didn't have Metacrtic scores.  I wasn't going to look up scores from multiple sources just to get an average for one game because I don't have the time, which is why I went with GS or IGN's scores.  What would be interesting to see is being able to do this for the NES and SNES Classic games as well to see how the collections stack up, but if I couldn't find some PS games on Metacritic, I'm sure there would be several more NES and SNES games I wouldn't be able to find.  

So an 80 average isn't bad at all.  It's certainly not epic like a true classic collection should be.  I'm also sure that we all have our own personal substitutions that would make the average score higher.  I'd definitely have swapped out Battle Arena Toshinden with Soul Calibur and I'd have replaced Cool Boarders 2 with Tony Hawk.  Definitely Twisted Metal 2 over the first.  Silent Hill for Mr Driller and RE2 over RE1.  Tomb Raider for Jumping Flash and FFVIII for Rainbow Six.  But, I'm defeating the purpose of this blog by making a list of substitutions.  The point of this blog is to focus on what the PlayStation Classic has, not what it's missing.  

For me personally, there's plenty of good games here to justify the 100 dollars.  Because the NES and SNES Classics were 60 and 80 respectively, it makes 100 seem to be too much, but people forget is these aren't 8-bit and 16-bit games.  They're 32-bit games.  They took more money to make and are also more substantial and longer in length.  100 dollars seem just right for me, although I really did wish Sony included Dual Shock support.  I understand they wanted to keep with the "Classic" theme, so they wanted to release the PlayStation Classic in its launch day iteration, but that may have been the move that shot themselves in the foot as many games that I'm hearing people complain are missing are ones that need Dual Shock support like Ape Escape.  Well, good luck trying to emulate those without having a controller you can use to play them... 

Anyway, I'm happy with what's here.  Sure, I'd be happier if some of the games were replaced with better ones but I'm certainly not going to sneeze at Metal Gear Solid, Syphon Filter, FFVII, Resident Evil, Wild Arms, RRT4, Twisted Metal, Tekken 3, Super Puzzles Fighter II Turbo, Intelligent Qube, Oddworld, Destruction Derby, Grand Theft Auto...well, you get the point. 

The Closing of Telltale Reinforces Why I Hate Episodic Games

The Walking Dead - The Final Season has been removed from digital storefronts. 

Although the title of this blog says that I hate episodic games, I guess I should say that I hate the episodic format.  I actually really enjoyed the Walking Dead games, although I only played the first two seasons. I never got around to playing the others, but if I did and was further invested in the series, I may never get a chance to experience how it all ends.  The closing of Telltale brings to light some problems with the video game industry. 

Telltale was not the first company to make games in episodic format.  Wikipedia actually sites the first episodic game as far back as 1979, but it wasn't really a popular thing.  The first big game that I remember adopting episodic format was Sonic the Hedgehog 4, which is why I never bothered with the game.  I didn't like the idea almost immediately, because I hated to think that I could only play chunks of a game at one time and have to wait for the rest of the game to be made. 

Hitman was one of the largest franchises that I remember adopting episodic format, which I thought was strange, because it was usually smaller games and Telltale style games that were made this way.  To take a AAA franchise and chop it up like that really confused me until I realized that it provided an opportunity for the publisher to make more money.  Why spend years and millions of dollars making one game when you could split it up and start telling the first part of it right away, dragging the carrot in front of your audience until the next chapter arrives. 

Then several years ago, Square-Enix announced that the upcoming Final Fantasy VII remake would be released in episodes, and that raised a lot of red flags with people.  No one wanted to play just the first episode of the Final Fantasy VII remake only to have to wait again for the second part and yet again for the final part. Yet, SE said it wouldn't just be small pieces of content like most episodic games; they would be full games.  Still, the idea did not sit well with a lot gamers.  Last I checked, however, rumors are pointing to a 2023 release to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the franchise, and this should provide SE with enough time to release the game as one complete title. 

So, the problem with episodic games is that if you become invested in a title from the onset, you're at the mercy of the developer/publisher to release the remaining chapters.  Most companies usually are committed to the project to see it through to completion, but as we saw with Telltale, that didn't happen.  There's been a history of issues within the company that eventually led to the closure of the studio and now whether or not people will see the conclusion of The Walking Dead - The Final Season is unknown. 

Their closing also illustrates the problem of the Season Pass.  Season Passes are promises that publishers sell you for more content.  Just like the episodic format, you're under their mercy but with the season pass, they've got you're money outright.  The season pass was already being sold for The Final Season but now gamers are out 20 bucks.  They'll more than likely get their refunds but almost not likely at all to get the rest of the game they paid for.

This isn't how gaming should be.  You shouldn't have to play just a part of a game and then wait for the next part to come out.  You shouldn't have to pay for a full game that isn't complete and then hope the studio doesn't go under, leaving the game you were invested in unfinished and having to go through the hassle of getting your money back.  You should have the peace of mind in knowing that when you buy a game, you have the entire game to play through at your leisure.  Your dollars and your patience should not be toyed with. 

What does that say about us as consumers, though?  Can we really not wait until a game is completed to play it?  Are we so eager to throw our money at companies that we don't even care about having a finished product delivered to us?  Hell, look at early access games.  We are PAYING companies to test THEIR games!  We are PAYING for unfinished products!  We need to readjust the way we look at games like these, because we shouldn't ever have this happen to us again.

It Has Begun Yet Again: Sony PlayStation Classic

So that happened... With the success of the NES and SNES Classic, it was only inevitable that Sony would follow with a mini version of their own console.  After all, Sony has just as much of a legacy as Nintendo does when it comes to old school games. 

What we know so far:

• It will release Monday, December 3rd of this year
• It will contain 20 games, including Final Fantasy VII, Jumping Flash, Wild Arms, Tekken 3 and Ridge Racer Type 4.  The rest have yet to be be announced
• It will come with two original controllers, not Dual Shock controllers
• It will come with HDMI and a USB cable for power supply.  
• USB A/C adapter sold separately
• It will retail for 100 dollars US

Will we see a repeat of the feeding frenzy that ensued with the NES and SNES Classic? Well for starters, it hasn't been that bad yet.  I checked Best Buy almost 12 hours after the news was announced and was able to pre-order one.  GameStop was also still selling them last I checked yesterday and at the current time of this writing, they're the only ones with pre-orders still available. 

Had this been a Nintendo mini system, this would have not been a case.  You wouldn't be able to go to any site two days after the announcement and find them still available.  We all know the pre-order fiasco for the SNES Classic was even worse than the NES one, selling out in mere minutes after pre-orders went live, and that was with Nintendo having more stock of the SNES versus the NES.

There's several reasons why the PlayStation Classic hasn't sold out yet.  One, the news is still fresh.  Sony started selling them almost immediately after it was announced versus Nintendo making the announcement for their mini consoles months before.  Everyone was primed to immediately bombard store sites the moment sales went live. Two, it could be that Sony has made a far more considerable amount than Nintendo did and they simply haven't run out yet.  Three, it could just be that the nostalgia isn't as strong as Nintendo's.  Lastly, the price factor and the lack of a fully announced library is what's holding some people off for now.  

I expect GameStop will soon sell out of their allotments very soon, and then the rest of the people will have to resort to camping out at store fronts overnight or early in the morning, but I have a much better feeling that they'll be a lot easier to find than the NES and SNES Classics.  Still, that hasn't stopped some PlayStation Classics from already being sold on eBay.  One went for 360 dollars!

That's nuts.  People are already scalping them, which isn't surprising, but they're still available in a couple of places (or were depending on when you read this)!  This is scalping culture.  This is how we're conditioned now.  We automatically assume that they're already sold out, we don't even bother to try to see if they're still being sold.  We have no problem spending hundreds of dollars on something provided we have the peace of mind in knowing that we'll get one.  This has to stop.  We as consumers should have the right to know that if we want to buy something from a company, that company should have that product to sell to us.  We shouldn't have to pay an arm and a leg via a middle man who can make two to three times the profit just to get one.  So hopefully, Sony, you keep these well stocked so the scalpers don't benefit. 

Now, let's talk about the known games so far. 

I kind of feel like this is Square's Mario or Skyrim. It's been released on everything.  Of course this would be one of the titles included on the PlayStation Classic.  After all, it's the defining game of PlayStation's era.  It broke a ton of records and also, it was the one Nintendo game that got away.  Had it not been for Nintendo's stubbornness, The Final Fantasy franchise may very well still have been exclusive to Nintendo.  There's a lot of history to this title that some people don't realize.  

With all that said, though, I'm not sure I'll be investing the time to play this again.  FFVII is no NES game.  It's long.  My backlog is also rather long, and I can't even keep up with most current games today.  Hell, I still have yet to beat Octopath Traveler.  I really would love to play this again, because I just loved everything about it.  The battle system, the variety of mini games, the music.  Honestly, though, by the time I'm ready to play this game again, the full remake will have been released. 

This was an odd selection to be honest.  It's one of the first games I got for my PlayStation, but I don't really remember having that much fun with it.  It was one of the first games that I remember moving in full 3-D, however, and jumping really high up and seeing the world below did give me a sense of vertigo.  I'm actually kind of interested in seeing just how well this game did or didn't age (most likely the latter) and I also know without dual analogue support, it's going to be rough....

This was one of the games I owned.  It would be nice to have it again, because I really enjoyed it. It was a role playing game that also had a bit of a western theme to it.  I really don't remember much else about it since it was so long ago.  I just remember really enjoying the combat system and equipment, finding better "Arms" and having a decent story.  Just like FFVII, though, I need to find some time to replay it.  RPGs are just so long!

This was when the Tekken franchise really started to get good.  I loved playing Tekken because it was such a fast paced and hard hitting fighter.  It makes me wonder, though, if they'll put any other Tekken on it as it was one of the more standout fighting franchises on the system.   

This one I'm looking forward to because I never played it.  I played a lot of Ridge Racer games, but only the first one on PlayStation.  The rest were V and after.  Just like Jumping Flash, though, this should be pretty interesting to play without analogue support.  I wonder what the announcer will sound like, though... "Riiiiiidge Racerrrrrr!"

So, what will be the remaining 15 titles? Here's just some I'd like to see:

• Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
• Wild 9
• Metal Gear Solid
• Final Fantasy VIII (just because it got left out of every single version of the rereleases)
• Ape Escape
• Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee 
• Parasite 1 and 2
• Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit
• Tomb Raider 1 and 2
• Mortal Kombat Trilogy
• Crash Team Racing
• Resident Evil 1 and 2
• Gran Turismo 1 and 2
• Parappa the Rapper
• Suikoden 1 and 2
• Chrono Cross
• Silent Hill
• WipEout
• Einhander
• Twisted Metal 1 and 2
• Intelligent Cube
• Soul Blade
• Dino Crisis 1 and 2
• Syphon Filter
• Driver
• Spider-Man
• Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo

Wow, that list grew long and fast.  I'm sure there'd be a lot more games that I'd want on it.  Honestly, I wish there'd be more than 20 but even then, 20 games would give you a lot of quality time with it. I just hope that the next 15 they announce are great ones. 

With One Game, Nintendo Has Sold Me On Nintendo Switch Online

Nope, not Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.  Nope, not Pokemon.  This.

I know I've already brought this up a couple times, but Super Dodge Ball is my all time favorite NES game.  Yes, it even ranks higher than Super Mario Bros. 3.  I don't think I've ever played a Nintendo game more than I have with this one.  I played it after school every day for at least a year.  When it came out on Wii U's eShop, I bought it day one.  I crushed all my friends at it, so sadly, I spent most of my time just playing by myself.

Ever since the Switch was announced, I was waiting and hoping that this title would be included when they brought over the Virtual Console.... but the VC never happened.  I knew that Nintendo was bringing over a select few titles for their Nintendo Switch Online service, but I never expected that this would be one of them!  I read an article today about all the games that were planned to release for the service so far, and there it was!  Super Dodge Ball!

I said a while back that's all it would take. I can imagine Super Dodge Ball being the PERFECT game to play on the go, find a person and pass a controller to.  I can't find any confirmation of whether or not the game will be playable online but if so, that's even better.  I could actually go online and try to find someone who's as good as I.  I hate saying that I wasn't going to buy into the service, and then caving, but everyone has that one game that sells them on a service.  The one game that they NEED on their platform.  This one just so happens to be it. 

Oh yeah, and then there's this one as well.

This was another game I played a lot as a kid.  Being able to play this again on the Switch would be awesome and if it's online, even better. 

Now, I'm just hoping that Nintendo dedicates themselves to regularly updating their library with new titles, because I'm sure there will be other games I want to play on it.  It's still no substitution for a true Virtual Console that allowed you play old games from so many other systems that weren't even Nintendo's, but who know what Nintendo has in the future.

Also, with the announcement of Animal Crossing for Switch, this would be the only Switch game that would force to me finally buy into Nintendo's service.  Online play is an essential component of Animal Crossing games because of being able to go to your family and friends' towns and interact and I simply cannot imagine playing an Animal Crossing game without them.  Smash, Mario Kart, Splatoon... I can take them or leave them, but Animal Crossing would simply be a must. 

I guess it was inevitable.  As much as I told myself I wouldn't be buying into this, Nintendo found a way to get me.  And, I have to say 20 dollars a year really isn't that bad, 35 if you want to go for a family plan.  It certainly is far more affordable than PSN or XBL, which I refuse to pay for anymore. So as it stands now, I believe there will be enough there for me to get my money's worth.

Oh, and thanks Nintendo for STILL not announcing a new F-Zero!

No Virtual Console Still Bothers Me

Yeah, you know, I really wish I could?  I really, really wish I could... But I can't.  The lack of a proper Virtual Console (not to be confused with whatever classic games Nintendo decides to bring over with their Nintendo Switch Online "service") still really bothers me.  I want to play Super Dodge Ball on the Switch.  I want to take it to work with me, stare at somebody on my break and then challenge them to a game of dodge ball by passing them a controller.

Ever since the movie Rampage came out, I've been in the mood to play Rampage again.  Again, I would love to pass the controller next to someone and have them join in.  And then eat them when they turn back into a human.  Lord knows if we'll ever see Rampage brought to Nintendo's online service.

But, I'd really just not like to wonder anymore about whether or not a particular NES game (or SNES game or any game for that matter) will show up on this online service.  I want access to an entire catalogue of classic games, because I want to give Nintendo my money.  Apparently, they don't want me to give them my money.  I am literally the Fry in this meme here.

"Just buy a Classic NES or SNES and hack it."

Well, there is that.  I did buy an SNES Classic last year and an NES Classic this year and although my general status on hacking is that I'm against it, every day that there's no Virtual Console brings me a little closer towards wanting to do it.  Jim Sterling actually did a video on the morality of downloading Nintendo ROMs and I have to say... he's really not wrong.

For starters, many old NES games aren't available at all outside of emulation.  Sure, Nintendo has resold the Marios and Zeldas, Metroid, Ice Climbers, Balloon Fight, etc. several times over, but there are still hundreds that just never get to see the light of day anymore.  They had an opportunity to fix this with the NES Classic by allowing it to connect to the internet and download from their eShop.  They also could have crammed it with more games than just 30 (and far more than 21 on the SNES Classic) considering it has enough storage to hold the entire NES catalogue (which is why it's possible to even hack the things). 

NES and SNES games are also generally regarded as being too expensive with today's pricing.  Usually 5 dollars for an NES game and 8 dollars for an SNES game, it really does add up if you want to buy these games all over again.  With that said, I really don't have qualms with paying 5 here and 8 there for games that I REALLY want to play again, and the sting of having to pay those prices on the Switch is alleviated just from the basic fact that I can take them with me wherever I go.  That's the main problem why hacking Classic consoles and downloading free games on it isn't as appealing as having the option to buy the games on the Switch, and I really wish Nintendo would wake up and realize this. 

Right now, Nintendo is going after large emulation sites and scaring others off, such as emuparadise.com.  But what they don't seem to get is that Nintendo is the reason why most of these emulation sites exist.  One of the best ways to fight crime is to stop criminalizing what you're fighting.  It's why the state of Colorado earned 1.5 BILLION dollars from the sales of weed in 2017. Sure, you could buy weed cheaper from dealers, but what people found out is once you stopped making it illegal to buy, people bought more of it more often and at higher prices.  Legality entices customers.

It won't stop piracy in general, because people just love free shit.  But I'm willing to bet that if Nintendo made their legacy games readily purchasable on the Switch (which has the makings for the largest eShop platform of any Nintendo system), they'll see a lot less of it.  Nintendo has every right to protect their games,  but what I always love to say is that just because its their right, it doesn't make it right. Nintendo has definitely rubbed some people the wrong way with their practices and policies, and they're also hurting themselves in the process.

Again, Nintendo needs the Virtual Console.  The enhanced games released on Nintendo Switch Online just isn't a good trade off.  It's the most frustrating thing in the world to have to watch Nintendo build up their online catalogue of games again for the FOURTH time.  Let us have our damn games and you can have our damn money!

By the way, I'm not buying into Nintendo Switch Online until I get my Virtual Console.  That, or if they add Super Dodge Ball with online play.

A Not-So-Yellow Brick Road: The Flaws of Octopath Traveler

If you have a Switch and enjoy RPGs, then there's a high probability that you're currently enjoying Octopath Traveler.  In fact, there's a good likelihood that any of your Switch friends are also playing it.  It's been one of the most anticipated non-Nintendo published Switch games since the system's announcement almost two years ago and it's finally here.  So far, everyone that I've personally talked to absolutely loves the game and for good reason.  It has a fantastic art style and terrific gameplay... yet I've rarely heard anything outside of praise being said about it.  Well, I'm going to take a moment to talk about some things that I feel detract from the game.

To start, the biggest flaw in the game is capping your party to four members.  I feel the game's combat could have been that much richer and encounters much more engaging with a full entourage of eight people.  I can understand the design choice behind it being that maybe the developers felt eight people would be too many to manage, but any hardcore RPG fan would immediately hark back to the days when we had games like Suikoden giving us at least six.

Then, there's having to manage them outside of combat.  Whenever you enter a village, you'll have to swap out characters in order to use their path actions.  If you don't know what these are, they are abilities that allow you to interact with townsfolk in different ways.  You can glean information from them to find hidden items and get discounts at inns and shops (speaking of shops, you can only see what equipment can by used by members currently in your party, so you'll need to be swapping out your reserves if you want to see what works for them).  You can steal and purchase items.  You can challenge townsfolk to battle and recruit people to be summoned into battle.  If you want to do a thorough pass through the town using all your path actions, you'll have to swap at least one person out at the bar and then visit everyone again.  It's a bit inconvenient.

You'll also come across shrines that allow you to bestow a secondary job to your characters so they can use the abilities of someone else along with their primary skills.  The upside to this is that it allows you to become considerably stronger because you also get a stat boost.  The downside to this is that you can't make use of path actions related to these jobs meaning you still need to swap people out at bars to use those actions and talents.  This means if you find a particular situation that requires the skill of someone you don't have, say, a locked chest that only Therion can open, you have to go back to town and make changes at the bar then head back out.  It's more inconvenience.

Experience points also are not earned by people not in your party, so you'll need to rotate people in and out regularly if you want everyone to be around the same level.  If you're like me, then that means you won't keep the best people in your party at the expense of keeping others underleveled, so you'll have to endure some less fun fights that'll last a bit longer.  What makes matters worse is that whomever you chose to start the game with is stuck as the leader, so you can't just swap out people four for four; the leader will always be pulling ahead in experience points.  It can be a boon, though, as your higher leveled leader can carry your underleveled party members.

But it's not just managing the eight characters that's a problem.  It's the very nature of their positions in the game.  Octopath Traveler is a game that has eight people supposedly traveling together across the world, yet it never feels like you're all traveling together.  Since you're only allowed four in the group, you always have to leave four people behind and this breaks the immersion for me.  I know I'm supposed to surrender myself to video game logic, but I have a very hard time that while four people are traveling the road to one town, the other four left behind have taken some completely different road and arrived at the same town before you did.

This impacts the story as well.  There's no actual writing behind the characters' interactions with each other aside from a quick intro and occasional exchanges of banter.  Instead of a cohesive unit of adventurers sharing each other's stories, it instead feels like a disjointed telling of eight individual stories with only a few characters at a time along for the ride.  The individual stories themselves are interesting and well told, but nothing's bringing them all together.  There's no common goal or nemesis to rally against.  To be fair, I'm just now getting to everyone's second chapters so this might change later in the game, but I haven't really heard much from other people to suggest that it will.

Now that I got that out of the way, the other problems I've had with the game seem much more minor, even nitpicky, but I'll mention them anyway.  One problem I have with games is when they give you side quests you're entirely unprepared for early in the game.  I get that you can always come back to them, but I'm not one to make mental notes to return to towns to finish side quests I couldn't do earlier.  I'm of the mindset that if you're there and you can accept the quest, you should be able to do it.  There are instances in this game where you're sent to areas of a level far higher than you're currently at.  For instance, when I finished Ophilia's first chapter, one such side quest took me to a cave that was level 25.  Ophilia's level at the time? 10.

So yeah, let's not do anymore of that.

I guess the only other complaints I have about the game can just be chalked up to preference.  I know this game's appealing to RPG fans' sense of nostalgia, but I feel that in this day and age, RPGs shouldn't have random encounters anymore.  It's a relic of the past that should stay dead, even when making an old-school style of game.  It really is quite frustrating to be interrupted during your dungeon crawling with random encounters when all you want to do is check just that LITTLE bit of dungeon off to the right of the screen only to find out there's nothing there.  Then, as you're coming back, BOOM! Another random encounter.  It's also frustrating when you're being interrupted by these encounters by low level monsters you can flick away with your finger.  Cyrus does have a support skill that lowers the encounter rate, but then again... 

"This means if you find a particular situation that requires the skill of someone you don't have... you have to go back to town and make changes at the bar then head back out."

And while it's never been much of a problem for me as save points are always close by, I'd just like to see the abolishing of save points in games entirely.  I really would love to be able to save my game at any point just on the offhand that the game crashes (and several Switch games have crashed on me before).  Also, some items you can steal with Therion have a very low success rate so that means I go to a save point, save, try to steal, fail, exit to title, continue and try again over and over and over again.  Even with save points in every part of the towns, it's still a bit frustrating to have to walk over to the person I want to steal from a million times.  I guess games like Oblivion and Skyrim have spoiled me.  But seriously, save anywhere should be a standard and there's no excuse not to have it.

It does seem like I've gone on some time with negatives about the game, but they're hardly incidental to the overall enjoyment that I'm experiencing.  I really do love the battle system and the graphic style is unique and the artwork is just wonderful.  I just wanted to get this out there, though, because I honestly feel that Octopath could have been that much better if these issues were resolved.  I really would have loved a full party of eight first and foremost. but who knows?  Maybe more people like myself spoke out and Square might make another without any kinds of limits and restrictions.  Here's hoping.

Grinding for Gear Really Grinds My Gears

So I just quit a game for the second time (yeah, I have a hard time quitting addictive games), but this game wasn't even a real game.  It was one of those mobile RPGs called Darkness Rises.  It had just enough action and story to be considered a game, but it was all a veil to hide the fact that it was just another gacha game to sucker people into spending real money for virtual items. 

I actually enjoyed it for what it was and what helped was that it had an Auto-Play feature that basically played itself.  I'd start the mission, the character would go off on its own until finished.  I'd reap the rewards and start again.  But once I neared the level cap of 60, I got extremely tired of it and then I realized there's nothing left to do in the game but continue to grind for gear.  You leveled up you gear by enhancing it with other gear.  This lead to a nonstop grind and around level 60, it became harder to gain anything worth of note. 

Characters are rated by power levels, which is a general value of the sum of their characteristics.  I've been playing the game pretty much nonstop for a little more than a month, and by the time I quit, my strongest character's power level was around 1,200,000.  The last time I checked the strongest character in the game, their power level was around 3,800,000.  We all know how that person got to be so strong. A fool and his money are soon departed. Fortunately, I can report with pride that I didn't spend a single dime on that game. Even if I was the kind of person to spend money on mobile games, the prices in this particular one was insulting.  You can buy ten gear chests for 3,000 gems and to buy 3,000 gems I believe was somewhere around 40 dollars.  FORTY DOLLARS for 10 pieces of gear!  INSANE!  Of course, you're constantly being bombarded with adds to buy their gems.  Honestly, I'm surprised I put up with it as long as I did.

But it's not just mobile games that employ these tactics.  MMORPRGs, MOBAs, battle royales, and of course the one game that blew up this controversy was Battlefront II.  All of these types of games have one game mechanic in common that keep people playing, and paying: loot boxes.  Most of the time, you get gear that doesn't even enhance you that much.  But it's seeing an incremental gain in your character's stats that keep you wanting to play.  You see that stat number go up, and you just want to keep pushing that number higher and higher.   But how high does that number have to be for you to get tired of the game and move on to something else? Are you already tired of the game but just want to see how much further you can raise that number?  Is your worth in life tired to a virtual representation of yourself?

The constant feedback loop of spending time/paying money to see a bit of a reward is dangerous.  Games that employ these tactics prey on gamers with addictive personalities and might actually create addictive personalities in people who never had problems with video games before.  I had a major problem with Final Fantasy XIV for a couple of years, because I was always trying to improve my character.  I wanted my character to be as strong as he could because I felt inadequate if I went into a dungeon and I wasn't as well equipped as everyone else in the group.  It took me several times to quit until I thought I finally had it beat, but of course, I got pulled in one last time. 

This time, however, I had a different frame of mind.  I no longer played it for grinding purposes.  I only did the bare minimal to keep current with story-based content.  End game content, where the real grind was, no longer interested me.  Now, I only play for about 30-60 minutes every night just to gain a level on a job and slowly build my character back up to where I had it before.  Being able to manage my play time helped me enjoy the game again.  I can't imagine spending every moment of my free time running the same dungeons and the same raids over and over again for that one little glimmer of hope of me not only getting a drop, but getting a drop I need.  That time is far better spent for me playing games that have genuine substance, or doing something else entirely like reading a book. 

Games that have you grind and grind for the best gear are cancerous if you ask me.  They chain gamers to the same game and prevent them from being able to enjoy other games.  It closes down their minds and not only that but influences the industry so more companies make similar games.  Just look at PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and Fortnite. Look at how many companies want to make battle royale games now.  Hell, even the upcoming Black Ops 4 will have battle royale at the expense of single player.  It seems all these kids want to do these days is to grind for better gear for their avatars.  And what, ultimately, are they getting out of it?

E3 2018: Nintendo Press Conference Impressions

Nintendo began the show with a trailer for a fantastic looking mech game. It featured beautiful graphics that looked like they were cell-shaded.  The battles featured huge weapons and giant enemies. The game is called Daemon X Machina and it will be released in 2019.

The next trailer is for a game set in the year 3564 in country of Coeia.  Everything's Japanese, subtitled in English. I caught something about a Titan and the destruction of Aegis.  When they finally started showing the game, it's an open world RPG and then I recognize it to be Xenoblade Chronicles 2. It's the DLC Torna Golden Country and it will be available in September.

Reggie Fils-Aime appears and talks about the Pokemon games Let's Go Pikachu and Evie that were announced a couple weeks ago. They can now interact with Pokemon Go so what you catch in Go you can transfer to the Switch Pokemons.  There's also the toy Pokemon Plus that will have an exclusive Pokemon (don't remember which one) and will let you move Pokemon around with it.. Nov. 16.

The next video shows people coming together to play something. Then they reveal the game and it's SUPER MARIO PARTY! It shows one of the new mini games involving two Switches being placed together to form a larger map.  That's pretty cool. All the other mini games look like fun, too.  It releases on October 5th.

A trailer begins to play showing a map of a world followed by some anime cutscenes. The game is revealed to be Fire Emblem: The Three Houses. The gameplay seems to be a mix of turn based combat and real time action. It looks like it could be the biggest Fire Emblem yet. It releases in the Spring of 2019.

The next trailer was for Fortnite and it announced that it's available to download today for free.

Reggie appears again with some fluff talk. He shows off some quick trailers for Overcooked 2.  It looks to be greatly improved over the first and it will release August 7th. The next trailer he showed was for Killer Queen Black. It's an arcade style multiplayer game, but it didn't really grab me.  It will be available later this year. The next trailer was for a game called Hollow Knight and is available today. The game's a side scrolling platformer and it looks like the kind of platform that I really enjoy.  I might have to check it out.

A quick teaser for Octopath Traveler (and I'm upset that I didn't get anymore from this game either, thanks to nothing really being shown at SE) announces its release date for July 13th with a new demo available on June 14th.

A rapid fire video began playing showing off a lot of games.  What I caught was Starlink, Arena of Valor, a Minecraft expansion, Sushi Striker, the Donkey Kong expansion for Mario+Rabbids, Pixark, Just dance 2019, DragonBall Fighter Z, the Splatoon 2 expansion, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker,  Crash In-Sane Trilogy, Ninjala,  Paladins,  Dark Souls. SNK Heroines, Monster Hunters Generations, The World Ends With You, Megaman 11, and Mario Tennis Aces.  To be honest, I grow tired of these montages because I feel like there should be time dedicated to talk about the games they're showing. 

Masahiro Sakurai appears to talk about the new Super Smash Bros. game titled Ultimate. He started off by showing the fighter roster video. I actually was trying hard to list all the characters that were appearing, but he really could have save everyone a lot of time by just saying that every single Smash fighter from the franchise will be here. Yes, every one of them. *begins deleting a huge block of text* Your roster will start small, just like the first Smash game. There will also be eight player battles.

Next, he talks about how fighters have changed. Mario will have his Odyssey suits. Link will be the Breath of the Wild variant.  Ike has two costumes and both versions are independently voice acted. There will be a female Pikachu  with a heart-shaped tail. Fox will be based on Star Fox Zero. Ryu will now always face his opponent when on-one-on. Samus can now charge in mid-air. Marth has a faster Dancing Blade and is now fully voiced in English. Snake has returned with his Shadow Moses Island stage. King Dedede's Final Smash is a cage fight. Zelda's design is from a Link Between Worlds. Sonic's Super Sonic Final Smash is now more chaotic. Pac-Man got a speed boost. Pokemon Trainer now has a female variant. Captain Falcon's Big Blue stage returns. Cloud will show his limit gauge. There will be eight versions of villagers. Mr. Game and Watch looks more like the original version. Wolf is based on Star Fox Zero. Kirby has a copy ability for every fighter. Shulk has easier access to Arts. Ganondorf's design is from Ocarina of Time. There Mii types have more tweaking for different styles. Zero Suit Samus's power suit fires a laser for Final Smash. Olimar's helmet now cracks when he takes damage. Bayonetta has both 1 and 2 costumes. Wario's Wario-Man Final Smash will be completely different. Donkey Kong will be more expressive. Wii Fit Trainer has a new face. Mega Man's stage now has all the hazards from both the Wii U and 3DS stages.  R.O.B. has a gauge to show hovering energy.  I then lost connection so I don't know how much else I missed.  When I got it back, I saw that the Squid Sisters are an assist trophy for the Inklings. Assist trophies are used to call in help. Bomberman will be one of over 50 trophies in the game.

The next video showed off all the stages, so many I couldn't keep up. I did see a tower level from Breath of the Wild, though.  I'm basically assuming that if there was a stage in any Smash game, it would be in this game.  Of course, all older stages have been graphically improved. 

The next segment talked about techniques.  Directional air dodges have been improved. Dodging too much leaves you vulnerable, something about a perfect shield... and then I began zoning out.  The next segment after that revealed that Super Smash Brothers Ultimate will be compatible with the GC controller. All Smash amiibo will also be compatible, even if characters are from different series.

The Super Smash Bros. Ultimate segment ends with a trailer showing Samus, Mario and Megaman walking down a catwalk in a giant facility. Something begins attacking them and then we see Ridley from the Metroid games.  Ridley has been revealed to be the new character for Ultimate.

And.... that's all...

*takes glasses off and begins to pinch bridge of nose, then tosses glasses aside*

Your typical complacent fanboy that laps up any bone Nintendo throws their way will have called Nintendo the winner of E3 just because of the overwhelming amount of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate information they bombarded everyone with.  For me, though, that's exactly why they lost (to the big 3, not in general).  This wasn't an E3 press conference.  This was a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Nintendo Direct with a few other games shown off on the side.  It's bad form. Again, great if you really love Smash and don't care for much else, but for me, really bad form.

"Cool, we got a lot of Smash info!"  Where's my fucking F-Zero?  "But, we got Smash info!" Where's my fucking WaveRace? "But Smash.." WHERE'S MY FUCKING PAPER MARIO?! WHERE'S ALL THE OTHER GAMES?! Where was the new Yoshi they showed off last year? Oh, cool, we got Overcooked 2 coming.  How about showing off more of the WarioWare game they teased? Oh cool, more ports of old indie games.  Any more news about the new Metroid?  Nope, just another video of already confirmed games that are coming out this year. Supposedly, there's some article that explains why Nintendo has been so reserved.  Basically, they could have have shown off more but decided not to because they wanted to focus on this year's launch window. So translated, "We have nothing ready to show off anytime soon."  Microsoft has been showing Crackdown 3 at every E3 since 2014 and you couldn't share a shred of information about Metroid Prime 4, a game you teased LAST year? If you weren't ready to show anything off, you shouldn't have even teased us with it last year!

Do I sound salty? Hell yeah, I am.  And I admit, I'm being unfair.  They did start the show off with a new mech game that looks pretty damned good. It reminds me of Zone of the Enders.  There was the Super Mario Party reveal.  We finally got a closer look at the new Fire Emblem game, and a montage video that shows plenty of other games coming out this year.  So, why am I so bothered so much by an in-depth look at the new Smash Bros. game that took up almost half of the show?  Because I view that game as waste. I was expecting a brand new Super Smash Bros. game but instead, I got an amalgam of all the other games.  I'm sure there's going to be new characters.  We did get Ridley, after all. But I'm getting tired of rehashing.

We got a brand new Zelda and Mario last year, so why can't I just be happy with those two?  I HATE that fucking rationale.  That's apologist attitude that's kept Nintendo complacent for decades and I refuse to give Nintendo free passes for this shit anymore. I should have been this upset over Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, but the thought of playing MK8 on the go was so appealing, I forgave them but truthfully, we should have had Mario Kart 9 by now.  I get that the Wii U didn't sell, so Nintendo is recouping by bringing port after port to the Switch, but enough. Fuck Tropical Freeze. Should have been a new Donkey Kong.  Fuck Captain Toad.  Should have been a sequel. Fuck Pokken Tournament DX.  Should have been a Pokken 2. Fuck all the Wii U ports.  Should have been new games.  Fuck Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Should have been a brand new Super Smash.  And where the fuck is Story?  If there's no Story Mode, I'm canceling my pre-order.

I'm angry with Nintendo, but do you know why I don't get angry with the other companies?  I get disappointed with them, sure, and am disappointed with both MS and Sony to some degree over their shows.  But when I'm disappointed in Nintendo, I become angry.  I love them more than any other company.  I see greatness in them at times and we've seen just how well they can do with last year's Breath of the Wild and Odyssey, so I EXPECT that level of commitment from them. At all times. You ALWAYS expect more from people you love the most and when you don't get it from them, you get disappointed enough to become angry. Cool, you gave us over 20 minutes of Smash info, but that should have been its own Direct.  We needed - I - needed more from you.  I need you to commit MUCH harder to the Switch than you are now.  Fuck this drip feed that everyone dangling their tongues out for is so happy with.  I'M NOT!  Open the floodgates, Nintendo. MS and Sony dropped the ball this year and still did better than you. 

Overall rating: D

E3 2018: Sony Press Conference Impressions

Shawn Layden started the show off.  First thing I noticed, their venue is small!  They can't be hosting the show from this tent, could they?  He seemed a bit nervous when speaking, and then he talked about mixing up the presentation a bit.  Never a good sign. So, presentations appear to be coming from other places.

Shawn invites Gustavo Santorea on stage. He's playing a banjo and I'm guessing this is a prelude to Last of Us 2. Yes, after the banjo was over, the trailer for Last of Us 2 plays. It starts off with Ellie at a party and an Asian character named Jesse walks over to her and talks to her.  Ellie is pulled away by another woman, Deena. She starts slow dancing with Ellie.  This is a very interesting trailer to lead off with....and they kiss. Then it fades into a scene with Ellie slitting a guy's throat, so obviously the previous scene was a flash back.  What a weird transition.  Now we're in full on game mode. Ellie moving stealthily through bushes, which look unbelievable.  Everything looks unbelievable.  There's a woman hanging from a tree. Ellie comes across another hanging and the victim is being stabbed. The group is four deep. They get alerted by a noise and start to investigate.  Ellie moved to a parking garage and begins to take them down with a bow and arrow. She tried to sneak up on another, but got seen by someone else and now combat broke out and it went south so she's running.  She's now hiding in the grass, then crawls under a truck. She shot someone poking under the truck, then got pulled out by another. She shot and killed him then just keeps running and killing while she goes. Now she's holding one as a human shield. She runs into a building and takes cover behind a counter. She crafted an explosive arrow and took out two guys. Now there's more melee combat and she just executed someone with a machete. One thing I noticed is that all the animations and reactions are incredibly lifelike.  For instance, one of the enemies who fell, you actually see the arrows fall out of her quiver as she falls.

Sid Shuman and Ryan Clements talking during an intermission. They talk about things of which I'm not really paying attention to, but I did here New Game+ confirmed for God of War. They also rattled off some Call of Duty news that I don't care about. They then wasted time revising last year's E3.  What is going on with this format?  They are wasting so much time with this intermission.

A new video plays.  It looks like Destiny and it is.  It's the announcement for their forsaken Expansion that releases on September 4. 

Intermission again. "Why keep people waiting?" Exactly.... 

There's another music intro.  Someone is playing some kind of flute with footage of a field blowing in the wind. The video finally plays.  There's the flute music. A samurai appears with his horse.  There's some text that says "Mongol Invasion - Day 9" that flashes.  The samurai is now walking through the land and it's breathtaking. The new land is called Otsuna Grassland. He calls his horse Nobu and rides into the forest, then hops of his horse and runs.  He comes across some bandits as they kill someone.  He chops of one of their arms. The sword combat is awesome and looks pretty authentic to actual samurai swordplay. He impales one on the ground and twists the sword. An enemy almost snuck up on the player, but then he got shot in the back by a woman. They're moving together now. This looks like the Assassin's Creed in Japan game we always wanted. Now he's sneaking on the rooftop, does a surprise drop down and starts killing everyone.  He killed someone as they were blowing a horn for reinforcements. He wanted to save someone, but the person got shot by the woman, Mosoku. I don't really understand what's happening here, but then they go into a stand off with his partner. Now they're dueling. Enemies are coming and setting the landscape ablaze with fire arrows.They stop fighting.  The title is revealed to be Ghost of Tsushima.  I'm really impressed by this game! 

A new video plays showing a banana with a guitar. I don't get it. I thought they were going to show a game, but I guess they didn't.  

Another video starts to play showing a woman with a gun.  There's a futuristic setting and the imagery kinda reminds me of Inception. It looks really interesting. Control is the title and then Remedy logo follows.  It comes out in 2019.

Next is a video of player sneaking around in a storeroom. There's some commotion going on, and then a shelve falls on you.  It's revealed to be a rat. Then you see an officer being eaten by a zombie. The zombie then gets shot. We then see Leon and immediately, I recognize it as Resident Evil 2 Remake!  It looks amazing! It releases January 25th. I'm so getting it! 

There's another weird music video short.

A video by Squanch Games shows some weird trippy game called Trover Saves the Universe. I'm guessing it's being made by the Rick and Morty creator. It's also going to be a VR game.

A new video for Kingdom Hearts 3 is being shown. At least it's a different trailer this time. It shows off Pirates of the Caribbean theme with of course Jack Sparrow. Gameplay is also being shown but my feed started going blurry, so I can't make out what is going on. They also show more Monsters Inc. footage. The rest is a mix of footage from the other trailer.  At the end, there's an announcement that there will be a package containing 1.5 Remix, 2.5 Remix and 3 all in one package. 

Another stupid music short. 

What the fuck... the next video shows a baby getting ready to come out of a woman.  It can only be Death Stranding.... Finally, more of this game is being shown! Norman Reedus's character is named Sam and is wearing a spacesuit.  The environment looks beautiful. He's got some kind of transport droid following him.  One shot shows him carrying a dead body on his back. The music is very melancholy and thematic. This is going to be a very atmospheric game.  There's lots of changes of scenery.  Seems like it will be a game of isolation. I am most intrigued by this game. Oooh, and there's an invisible creature sneaking up to him, leaving hand prints in the mud. He's got a woman next to him.  There's something about monsters who eat him that causes a "void out".  I guess he he's able to come back, but as he comes back it affects the environment somehow? He's doing something weird with this strobing equipment and now he can see them, but there's this baby in a pod he's carrying.  He's moving away from the building he was in and he's using the strobe to scan for these weird enemies. What a fucking game....

The next game has a samurai and it's revealed to be Team Ninja game. A samurai fights some demons, loses to them and then transforms. The game is Nioh 2.

The next video is SPIDER-MAN! He's taking a helicopter ride around a super max prison called The Raft.  We see Elektro blast the helicopter and it crashes into the prison where Spider-Man saves the pilot.  Elektro frees everyone. Combat ensues and it's impossible not to compare to Batman Arkham games.  Here's rhino and scorpion. Now he's swinging around the outside of the prison chasing Elektro. Next we see Vulture.  I'm guessing we'll be dealing with the Sinister Six at some point. Now he's back on track chasing Elektro. There's vertical running segments. Now he's on the rooftop with Rhino, Vulture and Scorpion. Then another villain, Mr. Negative, who I don't know who he is, joins them and Spidey gets stung by the Scorpion. He gets beaten up pretty bad. As he tries to crawl away he says, "I don't believe it... you?" and it ends.  What a tease!

Next there's a trailer montage of games and that's a wrap... I can't believe it was over already.

Wow... first off, the format was a mess.  Shawn was talking about how we'd be learning stories behind these games, which is why they wanted to do a different style of presentation, but it's almost like midway through the show, they gave up on it and just went back to showing videos.  The first intermission break really hurt them, because I almost closed out to do other things.  I'm glad I stuck around, though.  

There wasn't much of a bombardment of games in comparison to Microsoft's conference, but what was shown was EPIC.  Not just little one minute videos.  Some long, meaty videos.  Starting it of with The Last of Us 2 was a great choice and wow, what a video!  Of course, they had to get everyone talking with the Ellie and Deena kiss, but the gameplay that followed was intense.  Nothing really revolutionary, but just really well done.  I can't wait to play this game and experience the tension myself.  Ghosts of Tsushima  was another game that gripped my attention.  Absolutely stunning game. I just couldn't help but think this is the Assassin's Creed game set in Japan that I always wanted.  

Then, there was the Resident Evil 2 remake video and that game looks fantastic!  RE2 was my favorite Resident Evil of all time, and I can't wait to play it with modern day graphics!  I have to say, Death Stranding is probably going to down as one of the most unique and memorable games I'll ever play.  It's just so atmospheric that it's haunting.  Really looking forward to learning more about this game.  And lastly, Spider-Man!  What a great piece of gameplay footage!  This looks to be the most amazing (pun) Spider-Man ever made and seeing almost all the Sinister Six in the game really makes me believe that's what we'll be up against.  I've been waiting a very long time to fight the Sinister Six in a Spider-Man game.  I can't wait to start web slinging again!

There's just one glaring omission from their conference and that's no Days Gone.  I guess they didn't want to show it off again at a third E3, but really... It's one of their bigger games.  Surely, they could have shown something else from it.  Makes me wonder...

Overall rating: B

E3 2018: Ubisoft Press Conference Impressions

Kim Wigend and Justin Levy (whoever they are) started off the show and made a promise saying it was going to be more exciting than a keychain, which was a reference to the keychain used to tease the new Assassin's Creed. Then, a whole bunch of game logos began flying.

The first video began to play and of course, it was for Just Dance. It involved a bunch of parade characters in colorful costumes dancing around the E3 venue.  The new Just Dance will be Just Dance 2019. Why does Ubisoft always lead off with Just Dance?

The next trailer began with a skull icon.  It showed a beautiful space setting and it looked like the rings of Saturn. There's a ship cruising through the ice. Then I got the feeling that this has to be Beyond Good and Evil 2. There was an old woman communicating with pig, and that's when it confirmed.  The pig she was talking to was Peyj. There's the monkey character. Then everything got interrupted as ice storm began to zoom across the ring threatening the ship and then a giant enemy ship emerges. The video ends with a girl holding a katana who looks like Jade.  Gabriel Schragerand Guillame Brunier come on stage to talk about the game.  They confirmed it was Jade and they reveal new characters. We also learn the game is a prequel and there will be a demo behind closed doors. They played a video of pre-alpha gameplay footage taking place in Ganesha City.  They confirmed that you can play solo or with co-op and promises seamless transition between ground and air movement. There will be what's called a Space Monkey Program that's an open invitation to promote creativity. Joseph-Gordon Leavitt, actor and co-founder of Hit Record came out on stage to talk about how it will all work.  Basically, everyone who cares about the game can submit music and visual assets to help create the game.  Not sure how I feel about that...

Next up is Rainbow 6 Seige. Justin Krueger, community developer, took the stage to talk about community achievements. He said there are now 35 million players for Siege. He also talked about eSports and a documentary following a handful of players called Another Mindset and showed off a trailer for it.

A dude riding a motorcycle wearing an Evil Knievil outfit with Trials on the back made his way to the stage.  As he got onto it, he tripped and fell and broke something on stage. As he got up, he apologized for the mess and made a few jokes. This guy is actually kinda funny.  He introduced his game Trials Rising.  A trailer players and it looks like multiplayer will be at the forefront. Looks like a lot of fun. Brad Hill aka Professor FatShady (guessing a community manager) comes out to talk about how he made a YouTube channel called University of Trials to help Trials players. He also said Ubisoft asked him to help create the tutorial content. He announced there will be a closed beta happening later this year. The release date will be February 19th on PS4, Xbox, PC and Switch.  I might actually check it out on Switch. There was a hilarious closing video showing riders crashing in numerous ways.

Division 2 was the next game to follow. Julian Gerighty took the stage to talk about the game. A beautiful cinematic began playing showing a girl running through the post-apocalyptic city. The camera panned out of the gated city to show how violent life is like on the outside. The trailer ended with a team finding a help note as they move towards the city.  I believe I heard Julian say there will be a story based campaign. If by single-player campaign, then that's worth it or me to look into. Washington DC will be the setting and there will be new progression paths for specializations and skills. He announced eight player raids.  He also said that Year One will have three DLC episodes, all free, and that's actually pretty exciting. Another trailer plays with more cinematics.  It shows off what kind of weapons you'll be using and enemies you'll be fighting. March 15th is the release date. You can register for the beta coming soon.

Rabbid ears poke out from the Ubisoft logo and it's clear that this will have something to do with Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle. Xavier Manzanares comes out to talk and introduces a band called Critical Hit who begins to play while a trailer shows Rabbids interacting with Donkey Kong. Looks like it will be expansion for Mario + Rabbids called Donkey Kong Adventure. It will release June 26th.

The ext trailer begins with "Piracy is Dead". This has to be the Skull & Bones pirates game they showed last year. Of course, there's more cinematics but it looks great regardless though. Justin Farren , creative director, takes the stage to talk about the game. It takes place in the Indian Ocean. There's a new mechanic called Fortunes. There's a fortune teller that you talk to before you start a mission and depending on your fortune, it will greatly affect the environment and encounters. It's  one shared world with player encounters. A new video plays showing off the gameplay with the fortune that says there will be high winds.  You can load out your ship dependent on which fortune you get. The video has the player chasing down a convoy, but there's a fort in the way. You can actually disguise yourself as a merchant ship and sneak past the fort. After you rob the convoy, you attract the attention of a Portugese warship.  It's too dangerous alone, so you can invite people to help you. It comes out next year. I have to admit, it looks incredible.

The next trailer is for a game called Transference.  This was teased last year. Elijah Wood takes stage. Aside from being a well-known actor, he's also the co-founder Spectrevision. Benoit Richer of Ubisoft Montreal joins him. They say it will be a VR game but will also be for traditional platforms. It's a puzzle game about swapping consciousnesses and it looks like it will be a mix of in-game graphics and FMV. It also looks like it will be a spooky game. It releases Fall 2018.

A new trailer shows  of an alien world. Then there's a team of starship fighters taking off from their home ship. More worlds are shown and there's mention of Atlas, which must be a star system. Oh, this was that interactive toy game that was revealed last year called Starlink: Battle for Atlas. Laruent Malville comes to talk about it the game and then shows off another video. Fox McCloud is revealed to be in the game along with his R-wing. Yves Guillemot comes out to talk about the game next and introduces Shigeru Miyamoto. Guillemot gives Miyamoto a gift of the prototype R-Wing. This really shows the relationship that Ubisoft has with Nintendo. The game will release October 16th (if I recall correctly on all platforms and of course, the Switch version will have Fox McCloud as an exclusive.

The next trailer is for For Honor.  Roman Campos-Oriola came out to talk about the game.  Another trailer plays and it shows time freeze before a knight takes off its helmet. It's revealed to be a woman and she begins walking through the time-frozen chaos. The trailer is for a new expansion called Marching Fire and it will take place in China.  It will have single-player content. Another trailer plays to show off a new mode called Breach and it will release October 16.

The next game is Crew 2 and Delphine Dosset comes on stage to talk about it. Crew 2 releases on June 29. An open beta will start June 21st. A trailer plays showing off airplanes, boats and cars. There looks to be motorcycles as well as a formula 1 car.

The next trailer is the Assassin's Creed Odyssey reveal. The game takes place in the Spartan era of 431 Greece. Jonathan Dumont, creative director, comes to talk about the game. The focus of the story is around the battle between Sparta and Athens. He talks about how the game has evolved into a true RPG.  You can now chose one of two characters, Alexios or Kassandra, and you'll be playing as the one you chose for the entire game. There will also be dialogue branches that could affect the outcome of the game.  A gameplay trailer follows starting on a boat and has the player playing as Kassandra. Horse riding returns and as she rides, she comes across a mercenary. The combat looks to be same as Origins and the skill tree system seems similar as well.  She takes a quest to help people that tkaes her to a battle-ridden beach. As she moves through the chaos, she ends up fighting with a boss. After the boss, the video comes to an end with the eagle perching on Kassandra's arm, so it looks like the eagle mechanic will probably return. There was also a tease of minotaur.

The show closed with everyone returning to the stage with the Just Dance parade music playing. Guillemot then says goodbye.

I will say this. Even though I find Ubisoft to be cringey at times, I can at least admit they know how to have fun with their conferences.  After a run of nearly flat and monotone shows, Ubisoft mixes it up and has things like dance numbers and game developers riding motorcycles through crowds and wrecking props on stage.  It's honestly quite refreshing and I applaud them for that. 

As for the games, there wasn't anything really new or surprising accept for the Donkey Kong DLC for Mario + Rabbids.  What I loved about their presentation is that what they showed off they didn't do flyovers on.  They had people come out to talk about their games and many of them had at least a couple different trailers to show off.  This made the conference feel meaty, like it had substance.  It was very well thought out, not just a packed can of tuna, like SE's was.  The only thing that prevents me from giving an A to them was no gameplay footage shown at all for Beyond Good and Evil 2.  I felt like that game needed to be shown off better.

Overall rating: B

E3 2018: SE Press Conference Impressions

SE starts their conference off with a trailer for Shadow of the Tomb Raider.  It showed Lara and Jona in a plane that's crashing, breaking apart in the air. Daniel Chaeyer-Bisson, game director, talks about the game a little bit.  The central theme is preventing a Mayan apocalypse and the game takes place in a jungle. I saw Lara shooting some hallucinatory arrow into a guard that caused him to shoot his teammates.  There's also a new rope takedown that involved her swinging from a tree and strangling the guard with the rope. There will be crafting molotov cocktails and it looks like there will be a bigger focus on stealth combat. I did notice that the sound is fantastic.  Lots of ambient jungle noises. There's going to be new grappling moves and we'll see the return of underwater swimming and exploration. I'm excited for that as well as apprehensive, because underwater levels in Tomb Riader games always made me nervous.  The HUB will be the largest yet and will include a hidden city. There will also be more tombs and they'll be deadlier.

Next up is a trailer for FFXIV: Stormblood for the Under the Moonlight patch 4.3. It turns out to be for a Monster Hunter World crossover event coming out in Summer 2018. I never cared for crossover events because they always disrupt the immersion of the universe.  

There was another trailer for Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit. This one focused on how the kid making his costume and using his imaginary powers.  Two developers come out to talk about the game, but didn't really say much, just how it's loosely connected to the Life is Strange universe.  Again, free to download on June 26th. 

The next trailer looked to be for the next Dragon Quest game. It contained a lot of flashy action and beautiful cell-shaded style graphics.  Indeed, it was for Dragons Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age.  Moment of confession: I never played a Dragon Quest game... 

A new trailer began playing and started off symbols forming and a timeline spanning across multiple ages. It ended with a knight striking his enemy but the enemy countered and then knight ended updying. Babylon's Fall is the title and the PlatinumGames logo followed.  That perked up my ears.

The next trailer was a quick one, an announcement for Nier Automata for Xbox One on June 26th.

Then we had a quick trailer for Octopath Traveler for the Switch. It showed off some beautiful handrawn images.  I played the demo, and I'm really looking forward to it, but I'm really disappointed that they didn't bother to spend much time talking about this particular title. 

Finally, we have the trailer for Just Cause 4, and it looks FANTASTIC!  We see the return of Rico Rodriguez and it takes place in South America in a nation called Solis.  I noticed a Mayan temple. The new villain is Gabriella, leader of the Black Hand.  There's going to be extreme weather such as tornadoes, lightning, sand storms and blizzards. The jetpack and glide suit will return. There's going to be new vehicles such as bulldozers and wrecking balls, microjets and jet skis. Handling has also been overhauled.  The grapple will now be fully customizable with more tethers and new air lifters. Enemies will now be more intelligent with more unique abilities. The game will also run on a completely new Apex engine and will be released on December 4th. 

Then we have a mysterious trailer being shown where a bunch of breaking glass begins to forming a a silhouette of a figure. Then there was some live action film showing the figure wearing a hood as he walked into an ally and came across some thugs.  They threatened him, but then the figure motions he can't hear.  Then, it goes into actual gameplay and shows the figure fighting them.  But then I wonder, did what I just see earlier actually live action, or really amazing pre-rendered graphics.  SE is known for that after all.  The Quiet Man is revealed to be the title and more will come in August.  I have to admit, I'm pretty intrigued by this one. 

The conference concludes with the same trailer for Kingdom Hearts III that was shown at the MS conference. 

I kind of wonder why SE even bothered with a conference at all.  The run time was exactly 30 minutes and it felt more like a Nintendo Direct, but a lot more impersonal. There was no presenter, no stage presence or demos.  Just trailer after trailer with an occasional video or two from developers.  Starting it out with Tomb Raider was a good call, but honestly, what was actually shown in the video wasn't that groundbreaking.  The quick trailer they showed at the end of their segment showed off a lot more interesting stuff, but was glossed over so quickly.  They should have done a much better job showcasing one of their biggest games of the year.

I'm actually really ticked off that they had such a short trailer for Octopath Traveler.  That's my most anticipated game this year from their camp. I get that it comes out next month, but they could have spent a couple minutes on their game, especially since it's a Switch exclusive.  They'll probably show more at Nintendo's show, but then again, it's THEIR game in THEIR show. They didn't even bother to show an alternate version of the Kingdom Hearts III trailer they showed at the MS conference.  I don't really care about the franchise, but I know a lot of people tuned into this show precisely for more information about this game.  The only thing that kept me giving this show an F is Just Cause 4.  They did go into more detail about the game and it got my hype needle ticking past the meter, but I would REALLY have loved a stage demo.  

Overall Rating: D-

E3 2018: Bethesda Press Conference Impressions

Bethesda's conference began with a video talking about developer diversity. I saw a clip of two of them playing ping pong wearing VR headsets.  I'd love to do that! I wonder if that's actually a thing. Unfortunately, the GameSpot stream froze so I had to switch to YouTube. Not sure if I missed anything.

Pete Hines came on stage to talk, but it was basically fluff.  "You love to play our games and we love to make them for you!" Etc., etc. He did make a joke about Wal-Mart Canada and how they were really good at not keeping secretes. That got a good laugh.

Rage 2 was now officially being shown, but before that, some singer named Andrew W. K., a headbanger,  came out on stage trying to pump up the audience. He kept asking "Are you ready to rage?"  Then, the God of Unholy Cringe rose from the sulfur and brimstone laden crust and this horrible music began playing by Andrew and his band. I don't think I could ever get my five minutes of my life back after that...

Tim Willits  and Magnus Nedfors of Avalanche had the displeasure of following that bad.  I already hated them for being so close to that band's performance, and their bad jokes  and awkwardness failed to dissipate my ... RAAAAAAGE!  One such joke was, "We delivered.... big time." and kept pointing to Magnus, who is really tall, and kept pointing waiting on the big laugh that would never come.  God awful cringe.  They said they collaborated with id to make the game.  Finally they shut up and rolled a trailer. It showed an asteroid killing 80 percent of Earth's population. Mutants spawned and took over. Then gameplay was being shown. It promised that everything that is seen can be driven, and it showed off some really beautiful scenery.  There's some car combat, and then FPS combat.  There looked to be a lot of fun toys to use in combat, and the game seems to have a great sense of humor. The world looks massive.  The player boarded this giant space ship and got a new power that sent enemies flying back.  It ended with the player fighting a giant enemy.  I think I want this game.  It'll come out in Spring 2019.

Christian Van Hoose, community manager for Elder Scrolls Legends, took the stage.  It's a card game that I care nothing about. He announces the game will come to Switch, PS4 and Xbox. Cool.

Matt Firor of Zenamax Studios came out next to talk about Elder Scrolls Online and rattled off some numbers. 11 million players. 1 million came from last year alone. He said the new DLC will be called Wolf Hunter and it will revolve around Werewolves.  There will be another one coming out later that I didn't catch the name of, and that one will see the return to Black Marsh. Van Hoose's segment ends with footage showing the Summerset expansion for Elder Scrolls Online.

The next trailer shows a hellish world, and it's almost instantly identifiable as the next Doom game. It is, and it's called Doom Eternal. Marty Stratton and Hugo Martin came out to talk about the game, then announced that its official debut will be at Quakecon in August.

The Quake icon was shown and Joshua Boyle, community manager for Quake Champions came on stage. Never had any interest in the game.

Next, the Prey logo was shown.  Arkane people came out to talk about the game and announced a free update tonight. There will be three new modes: New Game+, Story Mode and Survival. A Prey DLC called Mooncrash is announced and it will be randomly generated. They continue to talk more about the game and unfortunately make some bad jokes. They announce another new mode called Typhon Hunter, which is a competitive mode that allows players to disguise themselves as every day objects. 

The Wolfenstein logo soon follows. Jerk Gustafsoon and Jens Matthies come out to talk about Wolfenstein II.  The announce June 29th is when the game will come to the Nintendo Switch, but that's not new information. There's a new Wolfenstein game, not sure if DLC or standalone, called Youngblood that takes place in 1980s Paris and focuses on BJ's (the main character?) twin daughters.  Since there are twins, there will also be co-op experience, but you can play solo. A trailer is shown but no gameplay, though.  Just cinematic. 

Pete Hines comes out again to talk about more VR games.  They will include Prey in the forms of Typhen Hunter and a new single player experience. Wolfenstein will also be inVR in the form of Cyberpilot. He then introduced Todd Howard out on stage.

First thing I noticed about Howard is thatt f you close your eyes, he sounds just like David Spade. He's also a pretty good speaker, so when he cracks jokes, I don't mind. He talks about how he visited E3 since the very first one, then making a joke about how everyone wants to know which platform Skryim is headed toward next. A skit then plays showing Keegan-Michael Key playing Skyrim on Alexa in the form of a text-based adventure.  They then announced Skyrim on Etch a Sketch, pagers, and Samsung smart refrigerators.  Oh, that was awesome!  I loved how they embraced that joke and ran with it!

Finally, Howard gets serious and begins to talk about Fallout 4.  The trailer that was shown at the MS conference plays.  We learn that Fallout 76 was named 76 because the year is 2076 and America is celebrating is tercentennial.  The game looks very beautiful. There'll be actual WV folklore to find and read. Each character you come across is a real person because it's all online. You can still play solo, but there will be multiplayer.  A series of informational videos play begin to play. They're a mixture of the animated propaganda shorts Fallout is known for and gameplay footage. The second one shows of the building mechanic similar to the one in Fallout 4, but it's now mobile so you can move your house wherever you want. Another video shows a new feature: nuke sites. You have to find bits and pieces of launch codes and once you have the entire code, you can nuke an entire site completely changing its landscape and then go loot it.

Sounds like Bethesda has really invested in the game's longevity.  Servers were built specifically for the game.  There's a beta coming called B.E.T.A.: Break-it Early Test Application. There's that Fallout sense of humor again! The collector's edition has been announced and comes with a glow in the dark map, figures you can put on the map, and a T-51 Power Armor Helmet, which is wearable and has voice modulator functionality.  11/14/18 is the release date.  The three year anniversary of Fallout Shelter is coming.  Since I began playing the game again, I was hoping for new content, but instead they announced that it's coming to PS4 and Nintendo Switch. I don't think this is the right kind of game to be playing on a console. 

A new mobile game called Elder Scrolls Blades was announced, and I almost was ready to expect it to be Skyrim, but it's something completely new.  It's built from the ground up for the new generation of phones and has what looks like a clunky touchscreen gameplay interface. It doesn't look all that exciting quite honestly. There will be three modes:  Abyss, Arena and Town.  Abyss will be roguelike, Arena will be multiplayer combat and Town is where the story content is. Plus, there will be town building. You can also visit your friends' towns. They say they'll bring it to every device and system,  even virtual reality. All versions will have cross-platform play. It will release this fall for free, starting on Apple and Android.

Todd Howard closes out the show with a few more announcements.  There will be a new next generation single player game, a completely new franchise. The teaser plays to reveal the name: Starfield. One last teaser plays, this one officially announcing Elder Scrolls VI.

I don't really know how I want to score this one.  The god awful Andrew W.K. introduction for Rage 2 was a horrible way to start the show and I think that really hurt the mood.  The developers trying to tell jokes didn't really make things much better.  There was also too much time spent on things that didn't interest me like Elder Scrolls Legends and Quake Champions and all the Prey DLC. I did really enjoy what I saw from Rage 2 and Fallout 4, though. 

Overall rating: C-