E3 Review and Reaction

Now that E3 is over, let's take a look at what happens and what this means for gaming. Since I only previewed and predicted for the first party developers, let's keep this review and reaction to the system presentations. I will look at the positives and negatives of each presentation, then I wil award each a medal for their performance. To be dramatic, I'll start with bronze and end with gold.

NINTENDO

First, let me start with the disappointment that Nintendo decided not to make a presentation at E3, but rather chose to do a "digital event," the Nintendo equivilent of a podcast. I would understand if none of the major Nintendo leaders could make it, but that was not the case, for Miyamoto and Fils-Aime was there (Iwata could not make it due to health complications). Just think about how Konami does not have E3 press conferences, and how that reflects on their poor games. It's easy to get that same thought about Nintendo. On the same note, I'm disappointed on the length of Nintendo's digital event. Microsoft spent 90 minutes on XBox, which is about average to present a system. Sony spent 120 minutes on PlayStation, which did seem a little long, but can be excused because they had so much to present. Nintendo spent a mere 45 minutes on both the WiiU and 3DS. If the length of the presentation reflected how much they were working on, it would feel like Nintendo is doing half the work the other companies are doing. There was so much to talk about, but they spent so little talking about it. I will talk about this more later.

The digital event begins with a warning: content rated M. I'm thinking to myself, "Woah, Nintendo is starting off with a game rated M? That's so not like Nintendo. This is going to be awesome!" But it wasn't for a game. It was a short skit provided by Robot Chicken. I appreciated the laugh it gave me. I also appreciated that Nintendo allowed it to make fun of itself. But it did take out time to present game, which as I already said, was lacking, and I will say it again later.

When Nintendo got to presenting games, the first one was, of course, Super Smash Bros. I liked the humorous sketch of Iwata and Fils-Aime fighting to announce Miis as Super Smash Bros fighters, although I will admit that it seems like the Miis will be another version of Captain Falcon (Brawler), Link (swordsman) and Samus (shooter). I'm still kind of iffy about the Amiibo. At first, it seemed like a copycat of Skylanders and Disney Infinite, which to me feels like a cheap way to nickel and dime people. But the more I heard of its capabilities, the more I was convinced. The Amiibo give the Super Smash Bros. character RPG abilities and elements. This means that if two people chose Fox, for example, it would not be an equal matchup, as it would be picking the same computer chosen player, the characters might have different strengths and weaknesses. This would make fights a whole lot more interesting. If successful, I hope the WiiU can incoporate this into more games.

Next two more games were announced. First, Nintendo announced Yoshi's Wooly World with an interview and a trailer. Yoshi's Wooly World is pretty much a gameplay sequel of Kirby's Epic Yarn. Shortly after, Nintendo announced Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, a game where Toad becomes Indiana Jones and hunts for treasure. Now even Toad has his own game. Watching both games, I found myself constantly saying, "That's cute" or "That's adorable." That's what these games were: cute and adorable. Perfect for kids and fanboys, but not for hardcore gamers.

I accurately did predict a new Zelda game, but it wasn't exactly what I was thinking. First, Nintendo announced Hyrule Warriors. This game viritually took Dynasty Warriors and put Legend of Zelda characters in it. Therefore, both Dynasty Warriors fans and Legend of Zelda fans will love this game. Then Nintendo got to real the Legend of Zelda game. We got to see Hyrule in 1080p, and it was beautiful. Miyamoto plans to embrace this beautiful landscape by making the most open world Legend of Zelda game yet. That's all we got. We didn't even get the game's name; it was referred to as "Legend of Zelda for WiiU." Later on, we were even told the name character may not even be Link. That's it. It's better than nothing, but I would have loved to hear more. They definitely better share more next year.

As for 3rd party development, we heard about Bayonetta 2, and that was it. Not even in the EA or Ubisoft conference was Nintendo really mentioned. Later on, Ubisoft admitted that they were only making Just Dance 2015 and Watchdogs for WiiU, and that was it for the year. Not even a Raymond game. As I said before, Nintendo needs to show 3rd party support if it wants to compete in this 8th generation console war. First, EA withdrew and now Ubisoft. If Nintendo looses Bayonetta, they are in trouble. They would have to continue on focusing on Nintendo fanboys by rebooting old franchises again. As for Bayonetta, it's nice that Nintendo will package the 2 Bayonetta games together, but since the first one came out on the Wii, and the WiiU has backward compatibility with the Wii, it's really unncessary.

Other games Nintendo showed off at its digital event were Mario Maker, Pokemon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire and Splatoon. Mario Maker looks fun to both create and play, even though unofficial mods like it have been on PCs for years. Pokemon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire kind of scares me. What I really want is my 3rd generation of Pokemon updated to most recent handheld, but it feels like Nintendo is adding too much with things like mega evolutions. Splatoon was an interesting take on a shooter game. Most importantly, it's child friendly, which is what Nintendo always shoots for (no pun intended). The show ended with announcing a new Super Smash charachter and plans for future games. That was it.

The worst part of this press conference is what didn't happen. Throughout the week, Nintendo announced more new games. Not that this was a problem; I see what they were doing. The problem was that they were some the best games, and they did not announce them at their key presentation. Some of these games were Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright, Mario Party 10 and Kirby and the Rainbow Curse. Did you know about these 3 games? You probably wouldn't unless you watched the whole thing. The sad part is these are possibly the best 3 games of the week, and Nintendo kept them hidden unless you watched every instance. Furthermore, Nintendo had a demo of a generic 1080p Star Fox game for the WiiU on the E3 showcase room. The only way the gamer would know about this either playing it at the expo or hearing a reporter report on it. A Star Fox for the WiiU was the most anticipated game. There definitely should have been more coverage of it.

All Nintendo had to do show they were keeping their promise that the first made with the WiiU: good graphics, good online play and good 3rd party development. The only thing seen was the good graphics, thanks to the future Legend of Zelda WiiU game. Online capabilites were left silent. Nintendo focused more on multiplayer on the same console than on different consoles online. What was really lacking was the 3rd party development. Not only did Nintendo not show off any 3rd party games, neither EA nor Ubisoft showed off the Nintendo WiiU. This digital event would not want anyone who does not have a WiiU to want to get a WiiU. Heck, it might even make someone who has WiiU regret they choose this system for their 8th generation console. It leaves them to ponder if they want to buy a new console or become a Nintendo fanboy.

+Positives+: Robot Chicken clips were funny, future plans of new Legend of Zelda game and Star Fox game for WiiU, good graphics displayed
-Negatives-: Best games weren't announced until afterward, no 3rd party backing, silent on online capibilites, short presentation, too many cute games
~Top 3 games~: Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright (3DS), Mario Party 10 (WiiU), Kirby and the Rainbow Curse (WiiU).
*Medal*: Bronze

Microsoft

Microsoft did exactly what I predicted. XBox did what Nintendo usually does: stick to their first party games. During the Microsoft press conference, we heard the most about Halo: Master Chief Collection, Halo 5: Guardians, Fable Legends and Forza Horizon 2. Even if they weren't faimilar franchises, Microsoft spent a lot of time on new first party games, like Sunset Overdrive, Below and Quantam Break. This demonstrates that XBox can continue making good games on their own. The 3rd party game Microsoft did present were the ones they knew had a huge fanbase on their system, like Call of Duty: Advance Warfare and Assassin's Creed: Unity. All these games looked legit. Sunset Overdrive felt like Duke Nukem meeting Left 4 Dead. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare looked so real, I had to take a second look to see if it was really a video game or a movie. Fable Legends made it clear that it abandoned the Kinect gameplay used in Fable: The Journey for going to back to the more true gameplay to the series. The most impressive had to be the Halo: Master Chief Collection. It has the 4 original, mainline games (this makes sense why Spartan Assualt was the Free Game with Gold on Xbox One. Halo 2 got the full update to XBox One graphics, but players can still play on the original graphics too if they want to go old school. For the lover of gamescore achievement points, a player can get 1000 points for each game, meaning they can earn a total of 4000 points. All these games, especially Halo: Master Chief Collection, showed that XBox knew its fanbase.

This did not mean Microsoft's press conference was perfect. It was far from it. The big one was the lack of Kinect. Only two games were announced for Kinect: Fantasia: Music Evolved and Dance Central Spotlight. And I emphasize that they were merely annouced. Neither gameplay nor a cinematic trailer was shown. Furthermore, neither the EA press conference nor the Ubisoft press conference really talked about Kinect either. All of this, combined with the "new" XBox system without Kinect, tells me that Kinect is on its way out the door. On another note, something I did not like was there was too much emphasis on co-op play. It seemed like XBox mentioned it with every game. Clearly XBox doesn't know its fanbase well enough to know XBox gamers don't have friends and therefore prefer single player :-P

Microsoft didn't do well enough to make up from all those years of mistakes to climb back to the top, but they did enough to not finish on the bottom and begin their climb back to the top.

+Positives+: Stuck to old first party franchises, introduced new first party games, stuck to third party franchises they knew were popular
-Negative-: Too much co-op play, not enough Kinect
~Top 3 games~: Halo: Master Chief Collection, Fable Legends, Forza Horizon 2.
*Medal*: Silver

Sony

Sony begin announcing a new color for the PlayStation: glacier white. I think I prefer the black color instead. That wasn't Sony's only new hardware introduced. You would think Sony would talk about Project Morpheus, but they did not, for they had not made more movements forward on it. That was a smart move on their part. They talked more about the PlayStation 4 camera, and how it has helped the improve the gameplay experience, although not requiring it, make a cheap shot at XBox One one more time. Then Sony moved on to more hardware improvements. Sony announced that anyone who has a Sony TV will have access to the PlayStation digital game library. PlayStation also announced a device that will allow a player to play PlayStation 4 on other TVs in the house. Most people weren't expecting hardware announcements years after the new consoles came out, but Sony shocked everyone by announcing so much hardware. The only thing they did not talk about was the PS4 and PS Vita bundle, which I would have loved to hear on how those two worked together. The other hardware left out was Move. Sony should have mentioned how good the new PlayStation camera was that it does not need Move.

What good would all this hardware be without software. Sony did a good job displaying the full line up of video games they had available. PlayStation gave equal time between 1st party games and 3rd party games, showing that PlayStation was dedicated to both their franchises and other franchises. Sony also demonstrated it targeted both hardcore gamers and casual gamers, without sacrificing one for the other. What better demonstration was demonstrating everything from Little Big Planet 3 to Uncharted 4: A Thief's End. If all these 1st party and 3rd party games weren't enough, Sony announced plans to make digital downloads of old PlayStation games from previous generations' consoles, as well as opening up a huge library for indie game developers to upload their games for download. Unlike Nintendo, Sony made its fans proud to own a PlayStation 4. But the best part is that the online digital libary is also available for PlayStation 3. Unlike XBox, Sony demonstrated that it was still loyal to the PlayStation 3 and those who haven't updated from a PS3 to a PS4. This alone should be clear why Sony won this E3.

+Positives+: New hardware, balance between 1st party and 3rd party development, huge game library, still loyal to the PS3
-Negatives-: Lack of Move, no mention of PS4/PSVita bundle, little time on PS Vita games
~Top 3 Games~: Little Big Planet 3, Uncharted 4: A Thiefs End, Grand Theft Auto V.
*Medal*: Gold

E3 2013: Preview & Predictions

I know I keep saying I want to reboot this blog, and I know I keep putting it off. But I am consistant with my E3 reviews, so I'm going to give another E3 Preview and make some predictions along the way. While I loving watching E3 every year, I have to say this year there is slightly less thrill. What makes that so shocking is that this year 2 new consoles are being introduced this year. I can't say I'm too pleased with the next generation systems. They either seem to be copying a system, or some kind of gimmick, with nothing original. But enough about that. Let's look at the 3 next generation systems as they will be the headliners for each each hardware company's press conference. Let's go in order of console annoucement.

Nintendo WiiU: The Nintendo WiiU was the first on the scene, announced on E3 2011 and released in 2012. It finally got up to 1080p graphics. It finally had a controller with buttons that a hardcore gamer would appreciate. It finally had a bigger hard drive. It finally had 3rd party developers supporting it. It finally had online capabilities.  Finally, it seemed like it caught up to its rivals the XBox360 and PS3. But the question would be, "Would it fall behind when Microsoft and Sony caught up?" I don't think it has. Nintendo has put a touchscreen on its controller, and Microsoft and Sony followed with their own touchscreen/touchpad. Nintendo tied Microsoft and Sony with graphics, but neither Microsoft nor Sony really advanced their systems any further. The big advantage Nintedo gave itself was giving the WiiU backwards compability with Wii games. There is none for the GameCube games, but Nintendo made up with that by promising Game Cube games on the Virtual Console. Speaking of Viritual Console, all the Wiiware games and Virtual Consoles can be transferred from Wii to WiiU. Speaking of transferring, your data can be transferred from Wii to WiiU. Both backward compatibility and data transfer are unique to to the WiiU, and it could be what sets the WiiU apart...and above. The games will help set up the WiiU to be the number one system. The top 5 games will be the Super Smash Bros for the WiiU, Mario Kart for the WiiU, the new Super Mario Bros. game, the new Pikmin game, and the Legend of Zelda reboots. These might seem like a cheesy tatic, a ploy to reel in the Nintendo fanboys, but it will work. It will keep Nintendo alive for another year, and it might even put Nintendo up top for 2013.

Sony PlayStation 4: The PlayStation 4 was announced in February 2013, although many people suspected it coming even sooner than that. Naturally, it was named the Play Station 4, or PS4, because it was the fourth line after the PS1, PS2 and PS3. With a lack of a creative, original name comes lack of a creative, original hardware. The PlayStation 4 controller has a touchpad in the middle of its controller, like the WiiU has touchscreen. The PS4 will be getting a smartphone app, just like Microsoft has Smart Glass for its XBox. The new Play Station interface looks much like the XBox 360 dashboard. Its new graphics are only slightly better than the last system. So far nothing original. The PlayStation 4 has no backwards compatability with any PS1, PS2 or PS3, but Play Station is trying to fix the problem with backwards compatibility by putting its old games library on the PlayStation Network to download. This will hopefully solves future backward compatability problems, as when a new system comes out, the downloaded games will simply transfer. If there is any backwards compatability (I use that term loosely), it's the motion controls. The Move controllers used on the PS3 will work on the PS4. So there's no need for PlayStation fans to buy new motion controllers for their motion control gaming. The PS4 has solved a lot of problems that the PS3 had. Blu-Ray might have given amazing graphics, but it was always slow to load. Not only has Sony given the PlayStation 4 a faster Blu-Ray player, it allows for the game to load. While the PlayStation 4 has its faults in comparison to other gaming systems of this generation, it has greatly improved to truly indeed be the best PlayStation so far. How's Sony going to convice its fans of this? It has to focus on  the games unique to the PlayStation 4. Unlike Nintendo, Sony doesn't have to rely on its all its old franchises like SlyCooper or God of War, but it does have to focus on other unique games and makes these games look so good that it will look worth buying a PS4 for these games alone. Such games are Infamous: Second Son, Killzone: Shadow Fall and Driveclub. Watch for the PlayStation 4 press conference to focus on those games.

Microsoft XBox One: Microsoft was the last to step on the stage, introducing the XBox One on May 21, 2013, as a teaser to E3. It's odd to think that Microsoft named their 3rd XBox "One," but they did so to make it their all-in-ONE entertainment system. Surely Microsoft still seems jealous that Nintendo can reach use a broad range of people, so Microsoft focuses on a broad range of people to use their system. Already, just like Nintendo, XBox incorporates smart phones and tablets for a touch screen, like the WiiU's game pad already built in. Microsoft was pretty impressed on how the WiiU has TV controls built into the WiiU, so Microsoft decided to up that by putting TV into the XBox, allowing to stream through the XBox. You can even control the TV with your voice. Like the Wii has motion sensing, XBox One has kept the Kinect. This Kinect sensor is truly a 2.0 update. Whereas the first Kinect sensor could only read 2 bodies at one, the new Kinect sensor can read up to 6 people. The second Kinect sensor can also read people better close up and far away. The camera is so good, it can see players in the dark. The camera is so good, it can detect heart rate. XBox One is banking on the Kinect... almost too much. The XBox is banking on Kinect so much that the Kinect sensor is required for the system to work. This upset a lot of XBox fans, who prefer using the controller over Kinect. XBox flaunts its online capabilities with XBox Live, which probably the most popular online gaming server. It allows players to record their gameplay and share it on social media websites. Once again, XBox One might be depending on their online aspect too much. The XBox One is required to be online at least once a day for the system to work properly. If anyone does not have internet access, this might be a problem for them. But the biggest problem that XBox One has created for itself is no backwards compatability for XBox or XBox360 games. They don't even have plans to upload these old games onto the Live Arcade, like PlayStation is doing. The best they are doing is making some of their first XBox One games their last XBox360 games to give the XBox360 a final farewell. While the hardware features are pretty cool, as a gamer, there's nothing that makes me want to buy this. To buy this, I feel the XBox One will turn my plain old TV into a smart TV, but that's about it. To get me to buy this system, XBox One is going to give me games I want to buy. I expect XBox can do this with Forza Motorsport 5, Quantam Break and Ryse. Look out for those games.

Let the 8th round of console wars begin! :)