E3 2013 Prediction Extravaganza!

E3 of 2013 is nearing, and there's lots of hype surrounding it every time. While it can be disappointing, this year we got a new console generation to see and the games it brings. Perhaps we'll be blown away, perhaps we will be left wanting, no one knows yet. I will post my own predictions here, agree or disagree if you wish. 

While Nintendo will pretty much be a no-show, Microsoft and Sony will both be bringing heavy artillery. Both companies will be talking about the next console generation, and how long everyone have waited for the next gen. While I do think most of us will be happy with games that most likely will be shown, with the never-to-be-pleased PC elitists being the exception, I do think people might not be very impressed with what they do with the consoles themselves.

Microsoft, to put it bluntly, fucked up with their "big" Xbox One reveal, so E3 for them will probably be lots and lots of damage control. They have promised more and better stuff for E3, but as Jim Sterling pointed out recently, they also thought the Xbox One event was worth showing us, so it's hard for them to guarantee that their E3 presentation will be worth anything as well. Sure, they could probably still turn it around, they still have a big user base, and they still dominate the American market. Only time will tell if the damage can be repaired and if they'll even bother for that matter.

If we look past the shitty details about Xbox One, being the name, issues with used games, online requirements, Kinect... Okay pretty many details there, but lets take a look at what really matters, the games. Will Microsoft deliver on that front? Well, they may deliver something, it's hard to tell really, they promise big things, yet little have been done to give us confidence to trust their promises. While they'll probably announce more games, like a new Halo, perhaps more Gears of War, maaaaybe some new IP's... I don't know if they'll actually show that much.

Worst case scenario is that they only mention a few games and just show a demo of next gen Call of Duty and call it a day. Honestly I don't think they care anymore for the core gamers even if they say they do, don't expect them to go big on exclusives or anything like that, better keep expectations low with Microsoft for now. However they are going to have to have really strong titles to get a good crowd of core gamers to go for Xbox One to make up for the online stuff, used games confusion and all that, if the games are good enough then there will be costumers.

So, Microsoft have a lot to make up for and then also push forward to become relevant again, what about Sony then? To be honest, they will probably do really good or really bad. That's the price of being on a roll for so long, they opened strong earlier this year and has gotten praise from developers ever since hyping it up more and more. With the Xbox One reveal making them look even better they really need to up the ante to keep this going on, how could it fail then? Well if they do announce that their console will also be making a fuss with used games, to have some forced online feature, simply put, don't have any huge drawbacks attached to Ps4.

Especially considering that Xbox One already has gotten a lot of shit for bad stuff that may just be rumors, it would be dumb to announce that they're doing it as well. What they need to do is be more user friendly, be more about just letting us play, win the people over by having the console that will be there for your gamer needs, not the console that needs your wallet and could care less if you end up happy about it or not. Sure, publishers might like added control, but I think they'd prefer actually selling their games before controlling every single purchase. Sony can dominate next gen, all they have to do is do what they're doing now while being less demanding than Microsoft.

I would like to think that Sony has learned from the Xbox One reveal, what not to do that is, and not have us worry about if our friends are going to be able to borrow a game of ours without paying any fees or something like it. Instead, they could just reassure everyone that they won't turn into dicks for next gen, show the actual console and even more importantly, the games! They've already announced some heavy hitters, they could go further and I'm hoping they will.

While they did actually show some gameplay at their Ps4 reveal, there's still more they can do to show off what the Ps4 is really capable off. I'm really thinking they will show off InFamous: Second Son more, being completely next gen exclusive they could really use it to show off what the hardware can do. I'm also hoping they got some surprising announcements, perhaps reviving some older franchises, perhaps a new The Getaway (personally, I still want another Syphon Filter game)? A bit too early to announce a new Naughty Dog game though, although I'd expect to hear about the next Naughty Dog game this year still.

What else... Well there's still the other big publishers like Ubisoft, EA and Activision to deal with, anyone getting exclusive deals with them could possibly get anyone an advantage. Although considering it's DLC deals I wouldn't put too much weight on such deals since it all boils down to who gets to give them money first. So far, Sony seems to be on real good terms with Ubisoft, Activision is clearly in the Microsoft camp, EA is harder to pin down since they want to get as much money as possible from everyone but if they were to be "bought" by anyone I'd say Microsoft would be in the better position to make such a deal.

There you have it folks, my thoughts, hopes and predictions about E3 2013. We will know what they're all up to by June 11-13 2013! If nothing else, E3 always seem to spawn amusing memes.

Xbox One, what is this huge retro-box?

Xbox is now more, just a box

I assume there's an explanation behind why it's called "Xbox One", however as someone who don't know the story I find it a bit silly. Sure, calling it Xbox 720 wouldn't have been much smarter, but this seems illogical, how is it Xbox One when it is in fact the third? To be fair though, naming their Xbox successor Xbox 360 didn't leave a lot of room for logical successor names unlike Ps3 to Ps4. 

The announcement event is going on as I write this, so I won't have all the info by the end, why not wait? Well gotta act while the iron's hot, a humble blogger got to take the time into consideration as well. So what has been revealed so far? Well some game announcements, the console was actually shown, and they've talked a bit about specs and what it can do. I have to be honest, so far, the only thing which caught my attention was the game from Remedy, perhaps MS will have something else but shooters next gen. 

Lets start with the box itself, while I was never a fan of the original design and them having neon green colors around it, it seems like they've abandoned all the character it had in favor of... Eh, I dunno to be honest. It looks like a VCR from my childhood, it made me a bit nostalgic actually, I wasn't alone in this. Seems big and not very practical, I assume you'll be seeing slim models popping up perhaps at E3 of 2014. Also, while one would think that at least it's consistent in being a box, the thing they've done in making one half matte black and the other glossy black still manage to make it look messy. 

There's other details like that it was confirmed false that the console would be always-online, which is good news. However, it joins Ps4 in being non-backwards compatible. I was under the impression that they talked about the specs at one point but I got lost since they started talking about other features available, all in all the event has felt a bit unfocused. One minor thing though, when an official representative says "the best controller in the world" I can't trust what they say anymore, perhaps it's just me but that's an opinion in my book. Go ahead, brag about what you do, but when they start making their view, their opinion into facts, I have to call time-out. It's up to us fans to bicker about which controller is the best controller in the world, the company itself should appear more objective and back up why their controller is good, not throw around statements like that, I dunno, seemed slightly off.

Now, the games, games are what makes a console. They've said something about how they plan to have 15 exclusives within the first year, that sounds good and all but lets remember that they might be pushing Kinect with some of them and not all of them might be big games or even that exclusive. Nothing suggests that core gamers will get many exclusive games to look forward to, perhaps Halo or Gears will appear. Who says that Remedy's Xbox One exclusive game will be that exclusive? Alan Wake was 360 exclusive until it appeared on PC, why buy the console if the exclusive games might be available to me anyway on a decent PC? This might be cynical speculation, but I'm assuming they will push several more casual Kinect titles and smaller perhaps indie games and have one or two bigger core games.

After reading this you might have picked up I'm not that thrilled, that's true, I am in the Ps4 camp. Although while I might not have jumped to the new Xbox regardless of what they've shown they've done little to impress me. Exclusive next gen CoD content? Please, they haven't showed much to make Xbox One look a lot better than Ps4. Announce that you won't have to pay to play online this time around, go big with some costumer loyalty program, do anything that will really make it shine. As it is now, they haven't used their opportunity to impress the gaming community, even Playstation fans, very well. 

Batman overly excited about DLC

Not even Batman can handle this "bonus"

Pre-order DLC allowing you to play as Deathstroke in Arkham Origins coming fall 2013 has recently been announced. While it's understandable that they want to offer something for those who pre-order the game and they did it with Catwoman in Arkham City, I can't help but wonder, isn't it a bit early, eh? (Drinking game: 1 shot for every time DLC is mentioned)

Day-one DLC, pre-order DLC, so much DLC... It's everyday business these days, many are sick of it, but since we like the games and the industry is putting tons of money into it DLC seem to be here to stay. However, could they at least actually show us the game before talking DLC? We barely know anything about this game, Arkham Origins, and yet they're showing it off, is this really good strategy? I know pre-order bonuses are supposed to be incentives for buying the game, but shouldn't the actual game be the biggest incentive?

They're really pushing DLC-practices in weird directions, Metro: Last Light which had a difficulty level as a pre-order bonus, that's bad, and now showing off bonus content before actually showing the game? Sure, it's likely been done before, but this is just silly. It feels like the industry is loosing touch with what gamers want, how to advertise games to us. We don't really care about pre-order bonus, right? What we care about is getting good games, guarantee us that and you will sell your games, when did that become so hard?

Bigger companies are so focused on making money that they forgot that they're dealing with actual people, not walking wallets that will continue to pay for whatever they do. They mask their games so they look better than it actually is, then milk as much as they can from those who were fooled into buying it with various DLC. Pre-order bonuses used to be more about retailers trying to get your attention, but now it's more like developers saying "sure, our game might not be that polished, but then again... Bonus character?"

While Arkham Origins might not be the first game to do pre-order bonuses, it's weird of them to announce it this early without showing the actual game. I can't help but to feel that not a lot of effort is in fact being put into it, which would be a shame since the Arkham games have so far been an excellent franchise. I read some what I think were rumors about how much is actually being put into this game, and I hope it's true, would be a shame to half-ass this game simply to cash in on the success of Arkham Asylum and City.

I suppose this post wasn't so much about Batman: Arkham Origins as it was the DLC-thingy they're doing and what it says about the industry today. DLC isn't what sells a game, it's the game that should sell the DLC, if the game is good, you will make money from it. Quality and actual substance is what should sell games, that's what you should be advertising at this point, not some extra character you get to play as if you order now...

Shooting the faceless in the face

We only do this to support our families! D:

The enemy in games and movies today are too often just faceless canon fodder for the hero to cut down without remorse. Isn't it time to push the limits of what our entertainment is? Sometimes it works, but lets not overdo it, eh?

I see how it was necessary in the past to have the enemy be a faceless goon, with perhaps a balaclava to hide any kind of identity or just have weird monsters coming at you. But you know, I think it's time to put a face to whoever you have to shoot in the face, let it have an impact. Of course I know that you can't be forced to get to know every single person you waste in a game about wasting hundreds of people but it could be a nice change of pace to take the Die Hard-way, not many bad guys all in all but all of them have had other stuff going on than being killed by the hero. Would it not work to have a game with fewer bad guys but instead make it a bigger deal when you have to take one down?

I don't mind all the time, many games work very well with just having faceless cannon-fodder. It just seems to me that far too often they do the Rambo-thing and just put a lot of "evil" Russians or terrorists between you and your ultimate goal, often killing the main evil Russian or terrorist. So, while I don't mean that games like that have to cease to exist, I would ask for some more mature stories where killing people isn't just something you have to do to proceed forward. It makes it weird when you're in a situation when you're like in a team and someone in that team dies, I always think that how is it that these psychopaths care about the death of one of their guys, often a guy who's not a very prominent part of the group, when they slaughter hundreds of people on a daily basis.

Seriously, every "evil agent" you kill is a part of a group, he has friends, family... I find it funny when there's a guy out for revenge for loosing his brother to some thug, and he goes through an army just for this one guy, an army of family member with their own brothers and sisters, shouldn't everyone of them have their shot at revenge as well? Ah, many would tell me to "lighten up", but then you're missing my point here. I've said I don't mind such games, killing virtual people is fun! But I'm big on stories, I'm a huge fan of MGS, LA Noire and Max Payne, games with really entertaining and at times touching stories. Sometimes the killing of anonymous people is a part of the story, like MGS, and LA Noire did actually try to do much more than killing random people, but is it too much to ask for something... More?

Of course, I also have to acknowledge that a game where everyone you kill have to "mean something", that every bullet is personal wouldn't fly over well with the dudebro-CoD-audience. But you know what, horror games could be successful even before they became shooters and you didn't kill everything that moved, why couldn't a game more heavy on story get away with it? Yes I know Heavy Rain might be what I'm looking for, haven't played that game yet actually, perhaps I should, but I kind of what my games to still feel like games, not quick-time-event segments. 

Would it be possible to humanize your enemies? I say yes, I think every kill can mean more than being a necessity to proceed through the level, one game that so far is looking to do this is The Last of Us. By showing enemies in a different light, being that they're survivors just trying to get by in their own way just as you, pretty much so since the protagonist Joel says at a time that he's been at both sides of ambushes. Even the "zombies" have some level of conscience at the early stages, when the fungus have just taken control the person still exist on the inside trying to fight it, trying not to mindlessly kill you, the player. I am impressed that someone even attempts to blurr the line, that not everyone you kill absolutely deserve it. No matter if Naughty Dog succeeds or not in such an endeavor, the thing is to show that you don't always have to be an American superman fighting the devil disguised as an middle-eastern terrorist.  

We love you! <3

Grand Theft Auto V, the ultimate game?

Things are looking good

Grand Theft Auto V is coming September 2013, are they going to blow us away with the ultimate sandbox experience or will it leave people disappointed? Lets examine this beast a bit closer... 

While I understand many were disappointed with Gta IV which according to many was stripped of many fun features while adding bad ones and overall was just plain boring. I for one disagree though, I loved Gta IV and I play through it every now and then to this day. Sure the smaller amount of weapons was bothering me at first, sure your cousin calling every 15 minutes were a bit annoying, and sure the game felt a bit empty after actually finishing the game, but it was still great IMO. The story was a lot more mature, the whole game was more realistic with a great new engine to back it up and lets not forget the innovative multiplayer that for once wasn't a mod.

Moving on, many complained about the new direction of the series, while others like myself didn't quite fall for the over the top wackyness that at times was going on in the previous installment, Gta San Andreas. That's right, I didn't love it, while it's undoubtedly a great classic, I liked Gta IV more with Vice City being my absolute favorite. Now, I don't think no one will actually have a problem with Gta V, so far it seems like a marriage made in heaven... The more mature and realistic direction is still prominent, yes, but this time around it will have tons of customization options, a big selection of weapons (including minigun, bitches) and three distinct characters to cater to our every need... Seriously, what more could you wish for?

I must say that the new three-protagonist-thingy Rockstar is doing this time around is actually quite brilliant, instead of giving us just one character that some would have liked and others would have hated there's three you can play as and on top of that customize to your specific taste. Before I knew about the three protagonists, I hoped for a traditional gangster to be the protagonist, they're the closest to what I would be if I would be a criminal, dresses like me, looks like me, and acts like me. Then there was those who wanted a "gangsta" type since it's Los Santos and that was one aspect that many liked in San Andreas, I wasn't a big fan but hey, now everyone can be happy! So that's Michael and Franklin, but that wasn't enough, no, then there's also Trevor.

Trevor is simply put, insane, the joker in an otherwise sorted deck of cards. Rockstar have themselves said that this guy is meant to be played by the player who only want to fuck around, the player who put story second to causing chaos, this guy is chaos. This just shows that Rockstar aims to make us happy with their biggest open world game to date, no matter what we want from a game they seem to want to provide it. Of course there's much more to this game than the varied protagonists.

Isn't this a sexy mofokka?

Of course, this blog would be too long for me to list them all... So I encourage you to visit http://www.gtav.net/ since they offer all the details you could possibly want. But let me give you a idea of what could be the most exciting, apart from added customization and so on... Heists which you can plan and decide how you want to tackle, you can buy houses and property again, a new skill system which gives each character an unique skill, Michael as an example can slow down times when in a gunfight (similar to "Bullet Time" in Max Payne) and the combat has overall been improved upon, it's more like Max Payne 3 so you will be able to run and gun this time around.

Point is, simply put, that I see no reason why no one wouldn't be excited for Gta V, seems like they're doing a good job to please everybody. I haven't heard a valid reason to why some people look at this game and say "meh", I would love to discuss the matter since I might be missing some flaws in it. Granted, they may be promising too much, I haven't been that hyped until the recent barrage of new info anyway, so perhaps it's not that far fetched to think that someone not in the loop isn't hyped. However, I'm still doing my part to spread the word about possibly the biggest game this generation, and perhaps even the next if it sees a next gen re-release? Who knows.