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-