E3 2015 Preview and Predictions

Let's face it. The only thing keeping this blog alive is my 2 annual posts: The E3 Preview and Predictions and the E3 Review and Response. So let's keep this blog barely going with my preview and predictions of E3 2015. We will start with the 1st party developers, and go in order of when they are presenting, then we'll go with 3rd party developers, once again, going in order of presentation.

1ST PARTY DEVELOPERS

MICROSOFT

A couple years ago, when Microsoft first revealed the Xbox One, Microsoft showed off its new console's capabilities, like 24/7 internet connection, needing Kinect, not needing discs, lacking backward compatibility, and the ability to recharge you for used game. The gaming world said to Microsoft, "We don't like those things." Microsoft replied, "Oh trust me, you'll love them." The gaming community replied, "Oh no we don't, we hate them," and then many hardcore games, including [previous] Xbox fan boys went over to PlayStation. Frantically, Microsoft said, "Just kidding!" and removed a lot of those so-called good "features." Even after Microsoft recanted from its previous ways, almost copying PlayStation, it was too late. Many of its fans had gone over to the other side. So at the last E3, Microsoft played it simple, reassuring the Xbox fanboys that they were still for the hardcore gamers, focusing on titles they knew were popular among hardcore gamers and keeping silent about casual games, like any Kinect games.

I expect to same the same for this year at E3. First and foremost, Xbox will focus on its first party franchises that had made the Xbox famous. Headlining them all will be Halo 5: Guardians. Following Halo 5: Guardians will be Forza Motorsport 6, Fable Legends the new Gears of War game. . Then, they will advertise "safe" 3rd party games that they know will showcase their loyalty to the hardcore games. Frontlining these games will be Call of Duty: Black Ops III. Others 3rd party games to showcase Xbox's loyalty to hardcore gamers might be Assassin's Creed: Syndicate, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and a sequel to Destiny. Personally, I hope Xbox will give RockBand 4 a chance to show off their latest game. Once again, I expect Kinect to barely be mentioned, if it is mentioned at all. Since Kinect is no longer their newest hardware peripheral, I suspect that Microsoft will try to pass off its tablet, the Surface, as its "handheld" gaming device. Expect to hear more about Smart Glass. I would also hope that the Xbox one will somehow have TV capabilities, too. Xbox One can already use the TV that you have. But with both competitors Sony and Google offering their own TV service, Microsoft needs to get with the times and offer the same. Will this be enough to win back the Xbox fanboys and the hardcore games alike? Time will tell.

SONY

For the past 2 years, Sony has won E3. From the look of things, the PlayStation 4 might win this console generation. Time after time, Sony has proven it is for hardcore and casual gamers alike, with both its PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation Vita. Sony has taken a clear lead against its competitors. This lead will allow Sony leniency to experiment. I expect to hear more about Project Morpheus. It doesn't need to be perfect, just enough to show Sony is willing to take the lead and advance the gaming industry. I also expect to hear more connectivity between the PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation Vita. Games have been embracing touch screen controllers with the WiiU, so I expect the same for PlayStation.

This lead in the console race will allow Sony to experiment with brand new games. I'm looking forward to see the new game ideas Sony has, like Drawn to Death, The Tomorrow Children and Until Dawn. I hope they utilize the capabilities of the PS4 to the fullest. Because of its lead in the console race, every 3rd party developers will want Sony to display its game. I would hope Sony would give failing Konami a hand, remember how faithful Konami was to Sony, and demonstrate Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Sony will have a wide array of games to chose to demonstrate its capabilities, but it will stick with that it knows best: its own games. Expect Uncharted 4: A Thief's End to headline the Sony presentation's of the PS4. It will continue to build onto an old franchise, yet introduce new ideas. Even if Sony wants to play that cautious, they have remastered versions of God of War III and Rachet and Clank. For the PS Vita, I would hope Sony would headline Tearaway Unfolded. The first Tearaway fully utilized the back touch panel. I can't wait to see how Tearaway Unfolded continues to fully utilize the full capabilities of the PS Vita. If Sony does what it knows best, which is stick to what the hardcore games like, expect it to win another E3 and come one step closer to sealing itself as the winner of the 8th generation console wars.

NINTENDO

Once again, Nintendo has chosen to not host a press conference, but to have an online show streaming a conference of sorts. It scares me because Konami withdrew from the conference for an online show before it dropped out altogether and now is now struggling to avoid bankruptcy. I fear Nintendo may face the same fate. Nintendo hasn't had much success since the turn of the console generation. To use the metaphor of a race, Nintendo thought it caught up its competitors, huffing and puffing, with the WiiU. Then the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 came out, giving Microsoft and Sony the lead again, while Nintendo is still catching its breath. The WiiU finally gave Nintendo 1080p graphics, but the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 had better 1080p graphics, with a fresher refresh rate. The WiiU finally gave Nintendo good online connectivity, but one again the Xbox One and PS4 had better online connectivity. Nintendo promised 3rd party developers would back it, only to have all the 3rd party developers back out.

With that in mind, expect Nintendo to barely hang on with its Nintendo fanboys by appealing to them. For the Mario side of the franchise, Mario Maker will headline the conference. Why bother to make a new Mario game when the Nintendo fanboys can make one themselves? For the Legend of Zelda series, expect a new Legend of Zelda game, which will be an open world exploration game. Of course, the big news will be the new Star Fox game, since we didn't have one with the Wii. I'm hoping it will remind us of the classic games, yet will still introduce new ideas that embrace the WiiU's capabilities. Maybe Nintendo will even surprise us with a new Metroid game. As for a reach out to hardcore games, Nintendo will try with Devil's Third. I hope it works for their sake. Without it, Nintendo might go the way of the Sega and turn into a 3rd party game developer.

THIRD PARTY DEVELOPERS

BETHESDA

Since Konami is no longer having a pre-E3 press conference, I got someone has to. Bethesda has taken up this role, hosting their first ever conference of the sort. For their first conference, Bethesda should play it safe. They should advertise franchises their fans would be familiar with. So we'll see Fallout 4 and the new Doom game. It won't be enough for them to just show another game in the series. They must prove they have advanced it for the lastest console generation. Also, expect some new games. Get excited for Battle Cry. The developers of the game have good experience, so I would expect gold from them. This could be a good step forward in making Bethesda the new favorite 3rd party developer among gamers.

ELECTRONIC ARTS

What do I expect for EA every year? Sequels to the previous year's game. Obviously, we'd expect that with the sports games. Expect to hear about the newest Madden game, with NFL players, and the newest FIFA game, with soccer players. But it's not just that, it's the regular EA games, too. Oh look, another Mirror's Edge game, another Need for Speed game, another Star Wars Battlefront game, another Plants vs. Zombies game. The problem with this strategy, especially for the EA Sports game, is that the technology of the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One allows games to be updated with these features without needing to make a new game. Soon this strategy will run EA bankrupt. So what EA has to do is convince its audience that it is really moving each franchise forward. These games must put the latest technology of the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and even possibly the WiiU to good use. Without it, EA might just end up taking the same route as Konami.

UBISOFT

Ubisoft has been my favorite 3rd party developers for the past few years. They have appealed to both casual gamers and hardcore gamers alike with the many game genres. The only drawback they have experienced is that their press conference has become very predictable. I can tell you what is going to happen. They will start out their press conference with Assassin's Creed Syndicate. They will go into full depth with this game, giving the audience a new trailer, gameplay from the beta, and maybe even a developer interview. In the middle, we'll hear about their new casual gamers, probably the next Just Dance title, or maybe a new Rayman or Raving Rabbids game. The presentation will end with the newest Tom Clancy installments:  Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege and Tom Clancy's The Division. While predictable, it means that Ubisoft has found something that works. So if it's not broke, why fix it? Keep doing what you're doing, Ubisoft, and you'll take home the 3rd party gold again.

SQUARE ENIX

With Konami dropping out of E3, E3 must have wanted to have someone to take Konami's place. I couldn't think of a better replacement than Square Enix. Square Enix is probably most famous for its Final Fantasy series, the fantasy that seems like it will never have a finale. So expect to hear the most about Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward. Square Enix also has been made famous by the Deus Ex series. So the second biggest game to hear about will be Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. These 2 games alone could put Square Enix on the map as one of the top 3 third party developers. Yet I'm excited to see what new ideas they create.

I'm not going into great detail about the PC Gaming Show because PC Gaming isn't my thing. I can only say I would expect Blizzard to showcase Heroes of the Storm. But the PC Gaming Show, on top of 4 third party developers giving presentations, shows that this E3 will be action packed. I can't wait until it all kicks off in 2 days! :)

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 2014 Preview and Predictions: First Party Developers

Last year at E3, Microsoft and Sony came up to the 8th generation of consoles with the XBox One and PlayStation 4 respectively. Now, a year later, the consumer population has gotten its hand on these consoles, but only have played a few games on them. This year, Microsoft and Sony, as well as Nintendo, have to reninforce what their consoles will do with their software. Software companies, like EA, Konami and Ubisoft, also have to learn to adapt to these new consoles. Let's first look at the first party developers, who have to both sell their consoles and their games. Let's go in alphabetical order.

FIRST PARTY DEVELOPERS  
MICROSOFT

Last E3, Microsoft screwed up royally. They mostly dispalyed their hardware. They displayed their hardware as a console that turned any HDTV into a Smart TV. They aimed to make they hardware accessible to all, not addressing the needs and wants of the hardcore gamer. Instead, it seemed like they did everything the hardcore gamer hated. They did not allow backward compatibility. They required Kinect. They even allowed developers to add an additional charge for used games. They said to their audience, "Trust me, you'll like it." And the audience replied, "No, we don't," and they booed and hissed. Then Sony introduced the PlayStation 4 and Sony said, "We will never do anything that XBox will make you do." And the audience applauded and cheered. Gamers favored the PlayStation 4 over the XBox One so much that by the end of the E3 week, XBox had to say, "Just kidding. We're just like PlayStation." But it was too late. Now the XBox One was a mere copycat of the PlayStation 4, and it would take them the rest of the year to shake that image off.

Microsoft isn't fully forgiven for that yet, and they won't be able to shake it off this year, so forgot them winning the E3 Olympics. Yet they have the oppurtunity to rebuild. They will have to play it safe. In order to play it safe, they have to pull a Nintendo. They will have to stick to the old 1st party franchises that they and their fanboys have depened on for years. Unfortunately, due to the disappointment of Gears of War: Judgment, the Gears of War franchises has been driven into the ground. But look for Halo 5: Guardians, Fable Legends, Forza Horizon 2 and Killer Instinct: Season 2. As for hardware, look for XBox talking about the hardware update that is the 2 most requested updates by fans, including replacing gamertags with real names. They need to hook their fanboys back to XBox. Once they hook the fanboys, they can then work on getting the hardcore gamers back. After that, they can once again try to appeal to the casual gamer fanbase.

NINTENDO

Nintendo got the head start on the console race 2 years ago with the WiiU. Nintendo promised this WiiU would appeal to you (U), the hardcore gamer, by giving it better graphics, better online play and better third party support. Last year at E3, Nintendo showed its audience it had held true to its word. HD games displayed its 1080p capacities. Online sports games demonstrated that Nintendo players could play online like they could on the other systems. With the exception of EA, most of the third party developers kep true to their word, producing Nintendo game. Furthermore, these games took ahold of WiiU and used its touch screen and cameras to its full use. This added a gameplay feature, so much they both PlayStaton and XBox copied with smart phone apps. Nintendo demonstrated it could compete in the console war, especially with the hardcore fans.

Last year, the 2 big games were Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros. Since Mario Kart 8 already came out, Nintendo will probably talk about its success. Then they will go into more anticipation of Super Smash Bros. They will focus on the game being true to fighting games and fighting gamers, such as the use of GameCube controllers and the new characters. I suspect they will introduce another casual Mario game, like a new Mario Party. Then they will introduce a new game from another old franchise. This will be Hyrule Warriors and whatever Legend of Zelda game they have planned. If they are smart, they will intoduce a game for the Metroid series, too. As for the 3DS, they will turn to Pokemon for Pokemon AlphaSapphire and Omega Ruby. These games are great because it brings back the nostolgia of the 3rd generation of Pokemon while updating it for the new hardware. Nintendo has the chance to take the lead in both the console war and the handheld war, and they need to grab that chance.

SONY

As said above, Sony took PlayStation to the E3 gold by simply saying that they weren't going to do the mistakes that XBox made. It's also given them the lead in the console war, in the sense they have sold the most consoles so far. As for the overall PlayStation 4, both hardware and software, they are losing. They need this E3 to present games that people will want to buy and games and will make those who don't own the console want to buy the console. Same goes for the PS Vita. As of right now, the Vita seems like an expensive 3DS. The Vita needs to make itself distinct. It can really do that with games that show off the hardware capabilities.

I expect Sony to take a different turn than Microsoft or Nintendo. Microsoft and Nintendo will stay focused on the familiar franchises. Sony, on the contrary, will focus on new games. The only new sequel I expect is Uncharted 4. All other games will be new. New, creative, original games might drag Nintendo and XBox fanbons away from their systems and to PlayStation. Prepare to hear a lot about the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita bundle. I believe this hints that PlayStation will have more games, if not all the games, will be using the the PS Vita as a PS4 controller, just like the WiiU has the WiiU Game Pad. This should be a good sign for Nintendo, for it will show Nintendo that other hardcore gaming systems still copy Nintendo.

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! :)

E3 2012 Review and Reponse

Alright, let's make the intro short and sweet. We'll do it the same as last year. We'll first review the 3 first-party developers (Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony) in order of their presentation. Then we'll review the 3 third-party developers (EA, Konami, Ubisoft) in order of their presenation. Each developer will receive a gold, silver or bronze rating in their category of first or third party developers.
FIRST-PARTY DEVELOPERS

Microsoft XBox 360

One of the predictions I made about the XBox 360 press conference is that it would appeal much to its XBox fanboys. Mark that down as my first correct prediction. The press conference opened with a cinematic opening to Halo 4, and then a super awesome gameplay demo. Before the conference hit the quarter-way mark of the conference, trailers of Gears of War: Judgment and Fable: The Journey were shown. But that's a problem. That's all was shown: trailers. These trailers said very little about each game, in both game play and story. Heck, it seemed like we learned more about Fable: The Journey in the last E3 than we did this year. But it doesn't stop with the XBox fanboys. Microsoft also appealed to the FPS fanboys such as Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Resident Evil 6 and, to top it all off for the grand finale, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. The problem with appealing to fanboys is that it's a very easy task. All you have to do is give them a new game from their favorite franchise and you're good. And that's exactly what Microsoft did. These games were just your typical shooters, whether they're from the first person point of view or the third person point of view. These games were simple sequels in the story, for they added nothing to it gameplay-wise. Although they said Resident Evil 6 is your "classic surrival horror," with hero being all gun-ho, it's more like just a horror game, or even just a TPS (third person shooter) with zombies in it. I'm not sure if this is what Microsoft was going for, but they selled themselves off as the perfect system for the shooter fanboy.

The second prediction I got right was the XBox interlinking with the Windows tablet. Microsoft calls it "Smart Glass." Smart Glass, however, was not how I really envisioned it. I envisioned it to be more an additive to games, even as a possible controller. While their showcase of Smart Glass did discuss possible game uses for a short while, it showed it more to be another way to browse through  XBox menus. I will admit, browsing on a tablet might be easier than using motion control or voice commands via Kinect, but it's still just another way to do what a controller can easily do.

Speaking of Kinect, Kinect did not come as strong as it usually did. Most of Kinect was limited to voice commands. The only Kinect on Madden 13 will be play calling. The only Kinect on Splinter Cell: Blacklist would be commanding teammates and operating menus. Along with other games, it left me asking, "Is this really Kinect? Why can't I just us the headset for voice commands?" It's true, I can hear and speak better with the headset than with Kinect. There was only 2 games that utilized the Kinect motion control, and one was an XBox Live Arcade. The one that was not was Dance Central 3. This surprised yet again. Harmonix takes its time making Rock Band games, and yet it makes sure to come out with an annual Dance Central game. If I had to take a guess, Microsoft pushes Harmonix to make a new XBox Kinect game. After all, the Dance Central series is the best selling Kinect game. Yet the presentation during the XBox press conference was lackluster. Nothing was mentioned about the gameplay, nothing was mentioned about the story. I really didn't know what Dance Central 3 was about. All we got was a performance from Usher.

Speaking of which, Microsoft gets the award for most celebrity endorsements. Usher endorsed Dance Central 3. Joe Montana endorsed Madden 13. But as many will say, the celebrity endorsements really do take away from the presentation. I already think cinematic trailers are bad enough, celebrity endorsement trailers are worse.

Microsoft XBox 360
+Positives+: Continuing to promote Kinect, Smart Glass intergrating tablets with XBox
-Negatives-: Kinect was reduced to voice commands, too much appeal to XBox fanboys, too much appeal to shooter fanboys with too many shooter games, trailers lackluster with more cinematics than gameplay, too much celebrity endorsement
~Top 3 Games~: Halo 4, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, Resident Evil 6
*Medal: Bronze*

Sony PlayStation

Well, I was wrong in my prediction that the PlayStation 4 would be announced. It wasn't even mentioned. Maybe the announcement that leaked a few weeks earlier was premature. But I wouldn't use that against PlayStation. Better to not give any details than give bad details or wrong details. What did hurt them was that they had a fairly new handheld, the PlayStation Vita, and mentioned it very little. The most it did mention was the connection between the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita. Just like I did predicted, the PlayStation Vita can be used as a PlayStation 3 controller. Added to that, a game started on PlayStation 3 can be continued on PlayStation Vita. Very handy. I we ould even suggest it could work like the Wii U. When someone else wants to use the TV, the game can be switched from the PS3 to the PS Vita. The big difference, and big advantage, is that the PS Vita can be used more than 30 feet away from the PS3!

Continuing our discussion of hardware, Move wasn't talked about too much, but moreso the Eye Toy used for the Move. The new hardware technology is Wonderbook. Using agumented reality technology, the Eye Toy can turn a reading book into an interactive game. It debuted with The Book of Spells, written by no other than the wizard expert J.K. Rowlings. While I was amazed at the technology, this does seem more like a kids game.

The software leaves me 50/50 with pros and cons, positives and negatives, good and bad. The good news was that Sony did bring fresh, new ideas to their video games, from start to end. The first game introduced in the press conference was Beyond: Two Souls, from the same studio that created Farenheit/Indigo Prophecy and Heavy Rain. We know this is brand new and not a sequel because the creator hates sequels. But Beyond: Two Souls is using the supernatural, and that did turn out to well for Indigo Prophecy. That has me being cautiously optomistic. The press conference ended with The Last of Us, a survival horror game. This survival horror game looks more legit than Resident Evil 6. On the flip side, the bad news was the rest of the games were simply sequels that drew in the PlayStation fanboys. There was God of War: Assension, a prequel in the God of War series that was just a gory as the sequels. There was Far Cry 3, a sequel to the Far Cry series, which was just as racist. The cross between the good news and bad news is PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. It was a new game, similar to Super Smash Bros., where the all-stars from PlayStation battle it out. The presentation was quite fun. Real gameplay footage was played. The game will be offered on both the PS3 and PS Vita, and one game can be interplayed on both. Also, two new characters were annouced: Drake from the Uncharted series and Big Daddy/Mr. Bubbles from Bioshock. Drake was obvious and good choice, but I'm uncomfortably uncertain about the Big Daddy. It's not just because Big Daddy is a third party developer game, but if you remember, you played as a Big Daddy in Bioshock 2, and that game wasn't as fun as it sounded. But the overall game looked and sounded good. I would want to play it.

Sony PlayStation
+Positives+: Brand new games,  good intergration between the PS3 and PS Vita, Wonderbook was a good use of augmented reality
-Negatives-: Too many sequels to old franchises, no new home console, too little coverage on the PS Vita, needed more Move motion control
~Top 3 Games~: Beyond: Two Souls, The Last of Us, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale
*Medal*: Silver

Nintendo

The Nintendo press conference was so big, it took up 3 conferences! There was a pre-conference, focusing on the WiiU's hardware specs, especially explaining the changes as seen on the patent. There was the regular press conference, focusing mainly on the Wii U software. Then there was the post-conference focusing solely on the 3DS because there was no room for the 3DS on the other conferences! Nintendo was able to fully justify all the changes it made with the WiiU controller in the pre-conference. The control-pads were better for handheld devices, while joysticks were better for home consoles. I was sold on all the changes, I believe the controller is now better that they made the changes.

I'm sold on the games, too. 23 games were presented during Nintendo's 2nd presentation (the regular one). 9 games were from 1st party developers. 2 games were from 2nd party developers. 13 games were from 3rd party developers. Yes, most games were from 3rd party developers. Nintedo showed that they could play with the big boys when it came for the 3rd party developer games. To me, it showed that the 3rd party developers were still on board with the WiiU. The leader of the 3rd party games was Batman: Arkham City. This game was not simply a re-release or a delayed release. While it was the same game, it added features that used the Wii U game pad. For example, the Bat vision would be viewable through the Wii U pad's screen. And it would have all the DLC installed on the disc. But still, I think I rather just play the "Game of the Year" version of the game than buy the Wii U version. Nintendo did show a trailer compiling other 3rd party games on the Wii U, like Dark Siders 2 and Assassin's Creed 3. Yet there was no gameplay shown, and very little cinematics. Although the 1st party games are the minority, they got the most attention. The first game was Pikimin 3, which can be played with either the Wii U pad or Wii Motion Plus. This is good because most people said that the Wii Motion Plus was easier to use playing Pikimin than the 2 joysticks on the Game Cube controller. More Wii U games need this option, just like PlayStation 3 lets players choose between Move and the sixaxis. Another game I liked was Scribblenauts Unlimited. Scribblenauts in the past has been a basic puzzle game, but Scribblenauts Unlimited turned Scribblenauts into a open-word sandbox exploring game with a story. There was also New Super Mario Bros. U, which last year was called "New Super Mario Bros. Mii."  But the 3D 480p Mario platformers are starting to seem repetitive, so there's nothing that sticks out to amazing to me. What I'm upset that I didn't see is was the new Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U. That was what was selling me on the new home console. Without it, I'm not really sold on the system. Actually, no game really sold me on the system, which made me want to say, "I need it now."

For their last presentation, the post-presentation, it was all about the 3DS, and the games it had. Nintendo keeps milking the return of the Mario platforming with New Super Mario Bros 2. It had me thinking of the Super Mario Bros. 2 for the NES as released in the U.S., but it's nothing like that. Still the game seemed like it was another sequel in the same franchise. At least they only did with the Mario franchise. And that's what I liked about the 3DS game presentation. There was a new Donkey Kong, Metroid, Zelda, Star Fox or Kirby. There were some repeats in old franchises, but it wasn't overdone franchises. A good example would be Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon. The Luigi's Mansion franchise hasn't been around too long, so it's too old or too overdone. I'm actually looking forward to it. Paper Mario: Sticker Star will give a new gameplay addition to the Paper Mario series that I like. Finally, last but not least, they briefly mentioned Pokemon Black 2 and White 2. It's for the Nintendo DS, but it will have advantages for the 3DS. This is just killing the Pokemon series for me, almost as bad as Pokemon Conquest. It's bad enough that they downgraded from precious stones to metals to colors, but now they are adding numbers?!

Altogether, Nintendo did everything they needed to do to prove the Wii U is legit. And they even were able to prove the 3DS was worth its price in the games they are making for it. It was interesting to see the 3rd party games that came out. There were T rated games, M rated games, but not all were shooters. See, you can have a good game without being a shooter!

Nintendo
+Positives+: 3 conferences to cover everything, covered both WiiU and 3DS, covered both hardware and software, WiiU has 3rd party backing, Wii U offers serious games for the hardcore gamer, Wii U offers old franchises for fanboys, hardware changes were justified
-Negatives-: Nothing sets the WiiU apart as better than the XBox 360 or PS3, no must-have game, too much Wii U and not enough 3DS
~Top 3 WiiU games~: Pikmin 3, Scribblenauts Unlimited, New Mario Bros. U
~Top 3 3DS games~:  Lugi's Mansion: Dark Moon, Paper Mario: Sticker Star, New Super Mario Bros. 2
*Medal*: Gold

Before I totally transist into the 3rd party developers, may I point out that I was correct in predicting that Nintendo would lead the way in two 2 screens/touch screen movement in the next generation of home consoles, and that Microsoft and Sony would follow? Microsoft and Sony thought they were in the right by not having motion controls like the Wii in 2007,  but when everyone was going for Wii over XBox360 and PS3, they realized they were in the wrong and they followed suit quickly with Kinect and Move respectively. This time around, Microsoft and Sony didn't wait at all. When they saw Nintendo was adding a second screen, a touch screen, they quickly found out a way to do the same. As much as hardcore gamers won't like to admit it, they need to admit it: Nintendo is the leader in home consoles. If a hardcore gamer can't admit that, he is no more than an XBox360 or a PS 3 fanboy.

Alright, let's move on to third-party developers and their games. 2 third-party developers had presentations during the E3 week: EA and Ubisoft. Konami wasn't invited to have one, so they once again held a "pre-E3 kickoff" so they could host their little own press conference. To make it an even 3, I will include Konami with EA and Ubisoft. Once again, each will be ranked with a gold, silver or bronze for how they went about their press conference.

Konami

Although I'm including Konami, and although Konami's press conference was the same length as EA's and Ubisoft's press conference, there's really not much to say about Konami. Why? Konami continued their bandwagon of sequels to old franchises. First up was the Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) 2013. This sequel wasn't as bad, as it was a yearly release of a sports game, and the game did make improvements in gameplay that made the game feel realistic. Another sequel was Metal Gear Solid Revengeance, a Metal Gear Solid game in honor of Metal Gear Solid's 25th anniversary. This does take a new spin on the series, where the main charachter is an old character that has never been played before. The preview for MGS Revengeance was meant to be the center of the press conference, as there was a cinematic trailer, a gameplay trailer, and even a comical trailer. The Castlevania series adds 2 games to it: Castlevania: Lord of Shadows 2 for the home consoles and Castlevania: Lord of Shadow - Mirror of Fate for the Nintendo 3DS. I never was a fan of sequels within sequels (like Final Fantasy XIII-2), and Lord of Shadows doesn't help it, and Lord of Shadows - Mirror of Fate makes it worse. But the worse than sequels, or sequels within sequels, are "collections" because they are really just re-releases of older games. This time, it's a Zone of the Enders Collection. HD graphics, a demo of MGS Revengeance and a season of anime isn't enough to make me want to buy this game.

The other problem with Konami's press conference is that what it didn't have. It only briefly mentioned the Fox Engine, but it didn't talk about it it all. Did you know there was going to be a sequel to Little King's Story?  It's on Konami's E3 display floor, but it wasn't mentioned at the press conference. Did you know another Silent game is coming out? After all the hype Konami gave the Silent franchise last year, between the Silent Hill Collection and Silent Hill Downpour (and even the movie!), Konami never mentioned it. Then again, maybe it's not worth mentioning. The PlayStation Vita game, which will be known as Silent Hill: Book of Memories, is called a survival horror game, but it looks more like a gung-ho horror game. Games weren't the only thing Konami was lacking. For example, Konami mentioned the Fox Engine, but barely spoke about it. Most importantly, Konami lacked a lot of dates for these games. We got things like "holiday 2012" or "early 2013." It wasn't the most reassuring.

Konami
+Positives+: Improvements in gameplay with sequels, approaching old games from new angles
-Negatives-: Only games were new sequels to old franchises, lack of details
~Top 3 Games~: Pro Evolution Soccer 2013, Metal Gear Solid Revengeance, Silent Hill: Book of Memories
*Medal*: Silver

Electronic Arts (EA)

Electronic Arts (EA) has always been neck and neck with Activision as the leader in third-party developers, so I expect a lot from EA. EA was a disappointment because they got onboard with appeasing their fanboys with sequels. They displayed 10 games, and all 10 games were sequels or some other kind of addition to the franchise. And the extensions were the worst. At least with a sequel, you have a fully brand new game, even if it's from an old franchise. But EA tried to get away with expansion packs and DLC. Instead of making a new Battlefield game, EA made 5 Battlefield 3 DLC packs. Instead of making a new Star Wars game, they just released more content on their Star Wars MMORPG. Come on, EA, I expect more from you. If you're just going back to your old franchises, at least make a brand new game, not just DLC or expansions.

What I did like about these presentations was that EA made sure their game trailers were not just cinematic, but also showed gameplay. At the same time, the gameplay did not show the full extend of the game. For example, EA failed to mention or demonstrate any Kinect use in their EA Sports games. EA also seemed more focused on social interaction with their games than actual gameplay. I play games to play games, not soically interact. Besides, from what I know and experience, most people don't care about your game progress posted on Facebook and Twitter.

And that's why I'm going to give Electronic Arts a worse rating than Konami. Both of them only gave game repeats, but EA tried to pass off DLC and expansions as new games, which is worse than passing of a Collection as a new game. While Konami's games were offering new gameplay ideas in their sequels, EA offered nothing new, or at least nothing the press conference showed.  Much was expected from EA, and little was given in return.


Electronic Arts (EA)
+Positive+: Gamplay in trailers.
-Negative-: More focus on DLC and expansion than new games, only repeat games of old franchises, sports games did not demonstrate Kinect capabilities, too much social networking
~Top 3 Games~: Madden 13, Medal of Honor: Warfighter, Dead Space 3
*Medal*: Bronze




Ubisoft

I really don't know why everyone hates on Ubisoft, so much they can't get the spot as the number 1 third-party developer because they truly deserve it. The first thing that I like about Ubisoft the most is that Ubisoft does not fear the new handware on the consoles, but tackles them dead on to advance video games as a media outlet. This year, Ubisoft dove head first into the new Wii U pad. Out of it, we got Zombi U, a legit, M-rated (can you believe an M-rated game for Nintendo?) game for the Wii U. It can easily rival any zombie game out there. Also, to continue bringing old franchises to the Wii U, there's Rayman Legends, where players can control characters from all sorts of controls. This is a game for everyone. In the past couple years, the newest technological hardware Ubisoft interacted with was the Kinect for XBox. Years later, Ubisoft has not given up on Kinect, but continues to with Just Dance 4. And let's not for Sony, nor forget handhelds. Ubisoft conquered the new PSVita with Assassin's Creed 3: Liberation, which fully utilizes the PSVita hardware, especially the amazing graphics. Ubisoft doesn't need to make their own console or handheld, for their games show their talent on their own.

What I also like about Ubisoft is how they go about their presentation. All the other press conferences are serious business. Ubisoft also always has fun, from the people playing games to the annoucers cracking jokes. The celebrity endorsements don't take away from the presentation, but add to the fun. In this press conference, Flo Rida was the introduction to Just Dance 4.
It's actually kind of hard for me to think about what I didn't like from the press conference. If I had to pick something, the only negative would be a little bias towards my favorite genre, the music game genre. Ubisoft said nothing about their guitar game Rocksmith. Indeed, Rocksmith did have an important annoucement. A new edition of Rocksmith will be soon released in the fall, adding bass. If you already have a copy of Rocksmith, the bass upgrade will be available for DLC. Ubisoft really should have announced this. Rocksmith is rivaling Rock Band's Pro Guitar among serious gamers. Soon it will also be rivaling it in Pro Bass.

Ubisoft
+Positives+: Entertaining press conference, new games with new ideas, takes on new hardware challenges, something for all ages and all types of gamers
-Negatives-: Lacks mentioning Rocksmith
~Top 3 Games~: Zombi U, Rayman Legends, Just Dance 4
*Medal*: Gold

What happened in the 7th generation of video games

Now that E3 is all done with, and since I only gave you 4 video game reviews, I would like to get back to reviewing video games. But right now you caught me in the middle of going through the Fable series (currently a triology, but that will change within a year), and once I go through the side quests and achievements that I want, I will be ready to give them a proper review. Until then, to hold you over, I'd like to discuss an observation I made while watching E3. I was watching E3 over the Internet through GameTrailers.com. On the side of the streamming video was a chat where viewers could input comments. As XBox was introducing Kinect games, and Play Station was introducing Move games I saw comments that said, "Kinect is ruining XBox" and "Move is ruining PlayStation." The easy way to dismiss these comments is that they from fanboys of the other consoles, just wanting to get the upper hand on the fanboys of other consoles. But I did see more generic comments on how there is too much focus, maybe even the term "dependancy," on motion control. People are complaining about the new use of motion controls, crying out to go back to the 2 analog stick, 4 shoulder buttons and 4 face button method. I believe they fail to see not only the technological advances , but also the advances in gaming itself. So I'm going to spend this blog justifying motion control as an important movement in video games. Where should we start? We could technically start all the way back to the 1st generation of consoles, but we'll keep it simple for those who do not know the whole history of video games. Let's start with the last generation, the 6th generation.

But before I go into that, we're going to need to define a definition, and then separate into to categories. The term is "gamer." The term "gamer" arose when when we realized the term "nerd" no longer worked. The stereotype that people who play a lot of video gamers were nerds was simply not always true. Someone could always play video games and not be a nerd, and someone could be a nerd and not play video games, or only play video games a little. So the term "gamer" arose to describe someone who played a lot of video games (besides, it has a more positive connotation than "nerd"). But still, the term is too broad. How do we differ the guy who can play any Halo game on the highest difficulty with all the skulls from the 3-year old kid who is playing Sesame Street and Disney Land on Kinect? How do we separate the Level 85 World of Warcraft player from the middle-aged woman who plays Solitaire and Hearts on her computer during her lunch break? How do we differentiate between the person who can play all instruments on expert for both Guitar Hero and Rock Band from the elderly man who is playing Wii Sports for the "exercise" class at his retirement home? So we categorize the term "gamer" into two categories with two news terms and two new definitions. You have your "casual gamers" and your "hardcore gamers" (which I've seen shortened to "core gamers"). Your casual gamers are your the kids playing Sesame Street and Disneyland, the middle-aged playing your basic computer games during lunch break, and your elderly playing fitness games, and many other such examples. Your casual gamers are the ones who are playing merely and purely for entertainment reasons. They are not into keeping track, earning achievements/trophies, or improving. Playing video games is more of a social thing, something you do when people get together. They play video games in the "spare time of their spare time," if there is such a thing. It's not a top prioroity, and they put other hobbies before it. On the other hand, you have your hardcore gamers, or your core gamers. While they still play for entertainment, they take a more serious approach to their entertainment. They do want to improve themselves, so they can play at the highest difficulty. So they do keep track of how well they are doing, and push themselves to do their best. So it is typical of them to be concerned about achievements or trophies. Video games are the first thing they do with free time, even making free time just for video games. Because they have played so much and push themselves to do better, they will be the ones who have the highest level character(s) in RPG games, they will be the sharp-shooters and snipers in FPS games, and they will be the ones who can play any instrument on expert when it comes to Rock Band and Guitar Hero. Now that we know these terms, everything else will make sense.

Now we can take our step back to the 6th generation. The 6th generation of video game consoles began with Sega taking the lead with the Sega Dreamcast. The Sega Dreamcast set the standard for the 6th generation, display graphics and gameplay that was new for the time. But the Dreamcast's glory would be short-lived. Sony's PlayStation 2 entered soon after and overshadowed the Dreamcast. That, and Microsoft entering the video game race with the XBox, not only killed the Dreamcast, but also brought to an end Sega's long run at being a first-party, console-making developer. Nintendo, seeing this, knew they would receive the same fate if they did not keep up. Behind in the scenes, they were working on a motion-control system, which we know today as the Wii, but at the time, it wasn't ready. The Nintendo 64 was outdated compared to the XBox and PlayStation 2, and wouldn't last much. So Nintendo released the GameCube, a system with a controller similar to the other systems, but different in everything from graphics to disc size. This system was merely meant to hold Nintendo over until the production of the Wii came to fruition. Although Nintendo did later on admit this, no one needed to say it because everyone knew it. Because of this, Nintendo lost many of its core gamers. All their core gamers went to either PlayStation 2 or XBox. The only hardcore gamers that remained were Nintendo fanboys, who clinged on the Nintendo franchises of old, like Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Donkey Kong and Kirby. Nintendo would not die out, but it would fall behind in the console race, with the XBox and PlayStation 2 neck and neck for the lead.

Then came the current generation of gaming, the 7th generation. Microsoft took the lead by quickly ditching its original XBox console with a short life and introducing the XBox 360 in November 2005. Sony would respond to their archrivals in exactly a year with the PlayStation 3. The PS3 rivaled the XBox in many ways, yet had some unique features of its. Still, neither system got a tight grip on the hardcore gamer base. Each fanboy just stuck to the same first party developer of their last system. Then a week after PS3 release, Nintendo joined in the 7th generation with their new system, the Wii. Unlike the PS3, the Wii did not concentrate on matching its rivals. One could tell because a lot of aspects of the new console, from graphics capabilities to hard drive capacity, lacked greatly from the PlayStation 3 and XBox 360. Instead, it took the industry in a whole new direction. They introduced the video game world to motion controls. And then the console race went from there.

So where did go from there? Well, Nintendo was ridiculed. A lot of people, from Microsoft and Sony, to the XBox and PlayStation fanboys, from the critics and to the hardcore gamers, pointed and laughed at the Wii. Even third party developers pointed and laughed, followed by them walking out, deciding not to make their third party games for the Wii. It would seem that the Wii would fall even further behind in the console wars, even maybe dying out like the Dreamcast. So it would seem. But that wasn't the case. You have to remember that video gaems have been called everything from entertainment to art, in the end, the video game industry is ultimately a business. And as true with all businesses, it comes down to the income and the profits, in short, the money. Within 2 years, the Wii would sell more than the PlayStation 3 and XBox 360 combined. When it came the numbers, both in consoles sold and income, Wii was the leader. There were a lot of reasons for this. Probably because the new technology the Wii offered wowed everyone. It's also possible it sold so well because it was the most affordable of the 3 consoles. But I believe the biggest reason was because Nintendo knew who its target market was: the casual gamer. Nintendo knew it became first party developer for the casual gamer. So it asked itself, "What could Nintendo do to reach more casual gamers, and even make people who aren't gamers casual gamers?" The result was the Wii, and it's all thanks to the Wii motion controls. Since the motion controls were new technology and a new way to game, everyone had to learn how to use them and adapt them, even the hardcore gamers. So this put everyone, even the hardcore gamers, on an equal level. And so Nintendo strengthened its casual gamer audience by turning new gamers to casual gamers. This led to the hardcore gamers to cling to an even stronger allegiance to the other consoles.

Let me best explain this by using a metaphor. Remember high school? Remember in high school there was the popular group, the cool kids, the in-crowd? Now with the title "popular," you would think that means that this group would be the biggest group. But that's not true. In fact, it was usually the smallest group, only containing about 1-2% of the your class's student body (maybe 5% if you had a small, private school). There might have been bigger groups of friends, but they weren't the popular ones. That was that small group of cool kids, the in-crowd. They were the ones who said what was cool or not. Even if the majority of students liked it, if the in-crowd shot it down, it was uncool. Even though the popular group was the minority, they had a voice like they were the majority. That's what happened with the 7th generation gaming consoles. The hardcore gamers, both the XBox 360 fanboys and PlayStation 3 fanboys, were the cool kids/in-group/popular group. Even though there were the less XBox 360 gamers and PS3 gamers, they got control of the third party developers and became the voice of power. And they harshly ridiculed and criticized the Wii. The casual gamers of the Wii, although the majority, were picked on and pushed around, as if they were a minority. And as the Wii casual gamers grew in number, and possible strength, the XBox360 and PS3 hardcore took a harder grip on the on their power, throwing more criticisms. Even the critics joined, hardly paying attention to the Wii.

This isn't the end, though. This is where it gets interesting. What happened next was jealousy. Wii got jealous of the XBox 360 and the PlayStation 3. Although leading in hardware sales and financial income, the Wii wanted to be like the XBox360 and PS3, being popular with the critics and third party developers. XBox and PlayStation got jealous of Wii. Although having the third party developers and critics standing behind them and supporting them with power, they wanted to be like the Wii, in numbers sold and income earned. Here's a better way to look at it. Wii became jealous of XBox and PlayStation because they had the hardcore gamers, and Nintendo wanted the hardcore gamers, too. PlayStation and XBox got jealous of Wii because it had the large audience that is the casual gamers, and they wanted the casual gamers, too.

At E3 in 2010, the big 3 first party developres went out to appease the others' audience. Nintendo went to appeal to the hardcore gamers, and XBox and PlayStation went to to appeal to the casual gamers. It wasn't pretty. Both XBox and PlayStation realized that it was Wii's motion controls that pulled it in the casual gamer audience, so both made their own motion control, both the hardware and the software. And where the one excelled the other one hurted, for XBox had good hardware, but bad software, and PlayStation had good software, but bad hardware. Let me explain. XBox's Kinect clearly was the best hardware. They made a sensor with cameras and a microphone, so there was no need for a controller. Clearly a technological advance for the modern day. The software, however, lacked. Most of their games seemed to be a form of a Wii game (for example, instead of "Wii Sports," there was "Kinect Sports"). All their Kinect games did reach to the casual gamer, but in return, they neglected their hardcore gamer for them. At E3 2009, XBox did introduce hardcore games for the hardcore gamer, but they were your standard controller, with no change. XBox had accidently created a dicotomy in their company. It was either casual gamers with Kinect, or hardcore gamers with a controller, but it could never be both. There was a clear, distinctive barrier between the casual gamers and the hardcore gamers of XBox, and the decider was either the controller or the Kinect. That's what I mean when I say XBox had the hardware, but not the software. PlayStation had the opposite problem. They knew how to naturally incorporate the new Move into the software they had. On the day it was released, you could get updates to many old games to include Move. Altogether, the smartest move (no put intended) PlayStation made was making motion control in their games optional. If you want to use motion control, go ahead, but if you like the classic PlayStation controller, stick with it. Yet the hardware lacked because, let's face it, the PlayStation Move controller is virtually the Wii's controllers except with more buttons and colorful bulb at the end. Heck, I have a habit of accidently calling the PlayStation Move Navigator a Nunchuck because they look and act so much the same. With the Wii clone games, you're pretty much playing an HD Wii. Will someone be willing to $100-200 more dollars to simply play Wii with HD graphics? Probably not. But maybe we're looking at this in hindsight. Maybe if we look at it in the bigger picture, as if it were only the first small steps forward, we'd get a better idea.

At E3 2010, Nintendo didn't do any better. They wanted to reach out to the hardcore gamers, but their idea of reaching out to hardcore gamers was just reaching out to the Nintendo fanboys, whether it be strengthened their relationship to the fanboys they still had, or winning back the old fanboys they lost during the GameCube and Wii fiasco. So what did we see? We saw another Mario games, another Donkey Kong game, another Zelda game, another Metroid game, another Kirby game, another Star Fox game, and they even reached far back as Kid Icarus for the 3DS. While this would technically somewhat count for the hardcore gamer, it is really the hardcore Nintendo fanboy gamer, which is a small fraction of hardcore gamers. What Nintendo needed to do was secure the third party developers on their side (and not just Activision). But I will say it again, look at the bigger picture, instead of the hindsight of back then. This may have been a small step in the big picture.

That's why I was so psyched and excited for E3 this year. All 3 first party developers were now making the big steps to what they wanted to achieve. This year at E3, XBox shrunk the gap between hardcore gamers on controller and casual gamers on Kinect. The best examples are Mass Effect 3, Forza 4 and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. All these games are labeled "Better with Kinect" because while they don't require Kinect, Kinect does enhance the playing experience. In Mass Effect 3, a player can choose dialogue by speaking it and a player can command his CPU allies with voice commands. In Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, weapon customization, both the creating and testing, can be done through Kinect. With Forza 4, a player still drives with a standard controller or a wheel controller, but he looks at his mirrors by turning his head, using Kinect. Maybe "Better with Kinect" is the way XBox needs to go, as PlayStation Move did. But hold on before I more onto PlayStation Move. There are games that do look promising that require Kinect. E3 showed us Dance Central 2, Kinect Star Wars, Ryse, Raving Rabbids: Alive and Kicking and Fable: The Journey. But if you look at XBox's website, there's more. Check out Rise of Nightmare and Gunstringer, both games that are Kinect-required, but look like some pretty good story, gameplay and graphics. Kinect definitely has a future, for games that both require Kinect and games that Kinect makes better. PlayStation also took a step forward by closing the gap between casual gamers and hardcore gamers with Move. With Move in their hardcore games, they are introducing more cinematic games to the casual gamer. At the same time, for the hardcore gamer, they keep their PlayStation Six-axis controller for the hardcore gamer who is not comfortable with the Move.

At E3 in 2010, Nintendo made the right step towards getting back the hardcore gamers with the Wii U. They knew they were missing the hardcore gamers, and they knew why they were missing them. First, hardcore gamers like good graphics. Nintendo's Wii U has 1080p graphic capabilities. Second, hardcore gamers like the standard controller. While at first glace we might all see the new Wii U controller as an iPad with buttons and knobs, it is virtually the same as XBox and PS's Six-axis controller, except it has a good-sized touch screen in the middle. Just like the XBox controller and PS Six-Axis, it has 2 analog sticks, 4 face buttons and 4 shoulder buttons. Third, hardcore gamers like third party games. Nintendo knew that there was too reasons the third party developers were not interested in Nintendo: the Wii lacked the graphic capabilities and the online abilities. As I said before, Nintendo's Wii U has 1080p graphics. They also did fix the online capabilites. Once all of that was said and done, Nintendo gladly showed us 10 big name third party developers behind the Wii U, and all these game developers already had game ideas. When the Wii U is released, I believe the hardcore gamers will cautiously and slowly return to Nintendo.

In conclusion, in the beginnning of the 7th generation of video games, Nintendo introduced motion control and introduced new people to gaming as casual gamers. In response, XBox and PlayStation strengthened their relationship with the hardcore gamers. A few years into the 7th generation, each console got jealous of the opposite side, wanting to expand their audience into the other gamer population. This produced XBox 360 Kinect, PlayStation 3 Move and Nintendo Wii U. While rocky at first, all 3 are learning to utilize their new technology to their audience. Kinect is not ruining XBox 360 and Move is not ruining PlayStation 3. Instead, it will improve their systems once utilized correctly. In fact, I would say that XBox 360 Kinect and PlayStation 3 Move is like a half generation, like the 7 1/2 generation. It's not a new system, but a hardware addition to the current system that brings it more up-to-date. Kinect and Move is the future of the XBox and PlayStation, respectively. In a CNN interview after E3, Sony told CNN they were committed to the PS3 to at least 2013-2014, and Microsoft said they were committed to XBox360 until 2015-2016. I think the introduction of Move and Kinect prove this. So hardcore gamers who complain about motion controls will learn to adapt with to the new controls, just like they learned to adapt to 4 analog sticks and 4 shoulder buttons. Heck, I believe if were in some alternative universe where touch screens, voice commands and motion controllers came before analog sticks and buttons, we'd hear the hardcore gamers complain, "Analog sticks and buttons are ruining gaming!" Besides, I seriously doubt these hardcore gamers will completely stop playing video games if it was all motion control. As for Nintendo's Wii U, we'll have to wait and see at E3 2012 if it is just half generation step into the 7 1/2 generation, or if it is a true next generation console for the 8th generation of gaming. That will also determine the fate of Nintendo. It will either bring back the hardcore gamer, or it will be forever branded the console of casual gamers.

Alright, back to reviews for "The Spoiler Review." As promised, we'll start the Fable series with, of course, the original Fable for the original XBox.