In other news, E3 has kicked off again, and to be honest my predictions for a rather lack lustre show have so far been proven right. Of course there was some nice games being shown off, but we are getting close to the end of the current consoles lives but only 1 of the next gen consoles being shown off (Wii U) we're left with the swan song from the other big players.
Xbox headed up the show with their live conference. Kicking off things with a Halo 4 live action cut scene followed by a game play demo, expanding a fair bit on there teaser trailer they showed last year, giving us some nice hints on who enemies Chief will be facing this time around.
Next up was a demo of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist. Now I've never played any Splinter Cell games in the past, any while the trailer looks good enough, I properly won't be in the future. However one thing I do like from this demo was using Kinect to issue voice command and distracting enemies.
EA showed off Fifa 13 and Madden NFL 13 as they do every year, and just like very year I went and made a cup of tea. I'm not a sports fan when it's real and I have zero interest in game versions.
Back on track, Fable: The Journey. A Kinect game. Not really sure what to make of this, still not seen it in action so how it handles is still the big question. As for Fable itself, the poorly implemented co-op game in the 2nd game tainted my enjoyment quite a bit.
A new Gears of War game popped up, this is another game that seems to pass me by. Never played the series so can't really comment on the trailer. It's that weird camera over the shoulder view that has put me off not sure why just don't like it.
Forza Horizon was next, and driving games for me are on the game level as sports games. I pretty much glazed over and got a snack from the kitchen.
Now here comes the boring part. Xbox yapping on about things like putting a browser in Xbox, new movie and music services in the Xbox dashboard. While I sure this info is nice enough I just feel far far to much time was devoted to this, when the millions of people that are watching E3 are watching it for the games. At some point Nike started talking about a fitness game. I was still a little switched off from the last segment so didn't pay to much attention. However if it's a well done game (and imo Kinect is the better motion control system for working out games) I might pick this up.
Again Xbox came out with silly filler info. Connecting all different Microsoft devices together. Which for someone like me is completely useless. All my devices are made by different companies and it is like this for a reason. This whole segment was meaningless to me.
Finally something decent. Tomb Raider. Last year they teased us with a pretty opening cutscene. This year they showed us a nice chunk of game play. It looks and feels a heck of a lot like Uncharted which I really enjoyed. This is one on my to play list.
Next up was Ascend: New Gods (a hack/slash type game, could be interesting so see what develops of that one). Loco Cycle: Just a teaser trailer which was a bit weird and Matter which both me and Adam thought was a portal game at first. No real info from any of them so hard to form a strong opinion on these three.
Resident Evil 6 up next. It looks good, very good. The Show game play featured a section with Leon but reports from the booths say that each character to play handles differently reflecting the game they were from (but control really well), even the various character inventory screens and HUD's are different. Kinda a nice touch.
Now they focused a little on Xbox Live games. Leading the way Wreckateer which looked pretty much to be an Angry Birds game using Kinect.
Now this next game shown was a bit of a wow moment. 1) because if some of those clips in this trailer are game play then this game will be how a TV cartoon based game should look. 2) because I just thought is this game really gonna be in my highlights of E3? Anyway South Park: The Stick of Truth.
Bonus points for Trey Parker and Matt Stone for taking the mickey out of Xbox for that whole connecting all your devices junk.
Harmonix followed with Dance Central 3. Usher pranced around on stage promoting it, but as far as the game goes its more of the same really. Not to say I dislike the game, far from it, I rather enjoy Dance Central. However at the end of the day I can only form an opinion of the game from the full list of songs included in the game.
Finally things were wrapped up with Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2. Yes it looked pretty, and action packed but, I just don't care any more about the series. For one reason and one reason only. The on line community. It is a drain to play with the so very vocal whiny kids that cry if you shoot them, rage quit the game if they are losing and pretty much just spam obscenities at anyone and everyone when not doing one of the first two. Sadly I wish I could say I just ran into a bad bunch of players but it's always the same and it's got to the point where the game is just not enjoyable so I'll be saving the money on the game (and the endless DLC they pump out during the year).
EA took the stage next showing off Dead Space 3 first. I'm hoping that Co-Op mode doesn't take too much a way from the feel of how the older DS play. The whole element of Issac losing his grasp on reality while being rather isolated was just as key to the game as necromorphs jumping out at you. I'm just worried having another character to bounce off of will take that a way from Issac and from what I've seen from the game play it looks like it's leaning more towards Lost Planet style (even though I enjoyed that game).
More Sports was up next so I excused myself for another cup of tea.
Sim City next starting off with Sim City Social.... a Facebook game... really? Nothing wrong with Facebook games, but is E3 really the place to be announcing them. Anyway they showed off the real thing next Sim City. Now I like Simulation Games, I find them after relaxing, so I guess I'll pick this one up sooner or later.
Next Battlefield 3, they talked a bit about Battlefield premium which if it is anything like Call of Duty Elite it's nothing I would be prepared to pay for.
Next up they talked about Star Wars: The Old Republic. They announced new playable races, flashpoints and quest lines. I played this for a couple of months when it launched, and while it wasn't perfect (no newly released MMORPG's are), it wasn't bad. I just think I've grown out of MMORPG's in general, and I just don't have the will to play them any more. In truth I much prefer Diablo style multi player RPG.
Medal of Honour was up next, I don't play this series so while the demo was playing I took the moment to make up our bed for the night since we're sleeping downstairs while we're working on our room. I came back to UFC game being talked about I was told I missed Fifa 13 segment (bonus).
Need For Speed: Most Wanted was shown, again driving games are a no no for me, but I know Adam sometimes dabbles in the Need for Speed series so he might be interested.
E3 wrapped up their show with Crysis 3, another series I haven't played ( FPS tend to give me a headache if I play them too long so I don't play too many of them, don't really think about it until E3 rolls around and so many FPS's get shown off).
The opened with Just Dance 4, and Flo Rida jumping around on stage. While I like Dance Central I've never played Just Dance. I'm not THAT into dance games (plus Just Dance always is marketed heavly as get your friends together and dance (cue my forever alone face).
Farcry 3 looks pretty, although I doubt we'll get this one, Farcry 2 was a game bought for us as a gift played a little then just got put on that "I'll finish that another time pile" and has remained there ever since.
Splinter Cell showed up again, but just as a cinematic this time.
Next up Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth. I'm a big comic nerd and while I would have loved to have heard more about Marvel Heroes, I'll settle with this for now. The commented this game would be on the Wii U which led on to some talk of games using the new system.
Rayman legends highlighted the Wii U controller. Looked interesting, but it didn't have be begging for a Wii U. Followed was something a lot less cartoonish and was a nice step for the Wii U platform
ZombiU the trailer reminds me a lot of Dead Island, (which I enjoyed), and was little nod to the Jubilee with God Save the Queen playing and the London setting.
The game everyone was expecting was next Assassin's Creed. The game play reflected the trailers that I'd seen so far so nothing major stood out with this one, since it focused on the usual AC fare or sneaking around with your hood up, tip toeing above people on branches, taking out the guard or two, a gorgeous cinematic and jumping off very high places.
There was a whole section on E-sports, I didn't really "get" this segment. It felt like filler, it looked like filler. The game they used in the demo, didn't even look that good. They show cased a few more Online games then moved on.
Now they showed something that caught my attention. First up was a teaser trailer. Info-graph style.
Then came the game itself. I really liked the look of this, felt like a real world Deus Ex melded with GTA very interesting. This game for me was definitely the winner of the day.
Tomorrow I'll review my highlights from Sony, Nintendo and other shows.
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