E3 2012 - The Good

This time around, I'd like to take a look at a few of the good things that I saw at E3 this year. I would first like to describe what it is that makes something from E3 good. E3 stands for Electronic Entertainment Expo, so ultimately the mission here is to be entertaining and electronic. Since everything there is electronic, I am looking at only what I can see as entertaining.

I will be posting the videos of the mentioned games so that you, can see what I've seen for yourself.

As an aside, comment below if you saw something at E3 that caught your eye but I didn't mention it, as I may not have seen it and would love to check it out.

Beyond: Two Souls (PS3 Exclusive)

I love how we have finally reached the point in our gaming technology that we cast real actors in our games. This particular piece of art is 'starring' Atlantic Canada's very own Ellen Page is coming to us from Quantic Dream, who most will know for bringing us the gem, Heavy Rain. As of right now, we don't know much about how it will play but it seems like it is aiming for the emotional attachment that is rare these days in cinema and gaming alike. David Cage the game director says that it will be more action oriented, so that should prove to be pretty interesting. Be sure to check out the video, in which David Cage puts his money where his mouth is as to how much better a full body performance capture is than a face only performance capture, ala L.A. Noire. 





Watch_Dogs (PS3/Xbox360/Windows)

If you ask anyone what the biggest surprise was of E3, this was it. Seriously, none of us had heard of it before, and for that alone, I have to give Ubisoft some massive credit. Ubisoft has done very well at making hugely accessible games that still maintain a high level of intelligence, and this seems to be no exception from Ubisoft Montreal. Check out the attached trailer to see what looks like it could be a clever sci fi masterpiece.





The Last of Us (PS3 Exclusive)

Now, where the previous two titles that were mentioned weren't really discussed before the show, we all knew that this game was gonna show up at Sony's press conference. We saw the haunting visuals of a post apocalyptic world with plants overgrown across the city streets and buildings, and we saw the main characters Joel and Ellie struggling to survive in this brutal world. Not to mention the horrific zombie like plant infected people who seem eager to eat your brains, this seems like it is potentially the reinvention of the true survival horror game, and with Naughty Dog, the makers of Uncharted, behind it, I know it is in great hands!




Assassin's Creed III (PS3/Xbox360/Wii U)

Every place that you looked at E3, people were talking about he juggernaut that is Assassin's Creed III. This game is huge and it's pretty cool to see a small series grow into such a big deal so fast. After Ubisoft wasted our time with Assassin's Creed Brotherhood and Revelations, it's back on track with, what looks to be one of the most fun games ever. I pre-ordered it months ago...duh.





Gears of War Judgement (Xbox360 Exclusive)

During the 15 or so minutes that Microsoft talked about actual games this year, they quickly mentioned Gears of War Judgement, a prequel to the excellent trilogy, except this time, you play as my personal favorite of the cast, Baird (the blonde guy who always seems miserable and makes a lot of wisecracks...it's like looking in a mirror). They gave us no gameplay really, but at very least, I know it's gonna be a fun game and it's gonna be our chance to finally see what's up with Baird, who has always felt like the only undeveloped character of the main 4 characters of Gears.




God of War: Ascension (PS3 Exclusive)

Up until now, Sony only talked about it's unwanted multiplayer features for the game. Here, they still didn't bother talking about the story, which is to me, a huge selling point of the series. What they did show us, however, was that this is another God of War game, with excellent combat and gigantic monsters at all turns. God of War may not change much in it's gameplay or setting, but what it does change in, is the new faces and monsters you see and just the sheer moments of unbelievable awesomeness.




Halo 4 (Xbox360 Exclusive)

For those who know me, you're wondering why I'm mentioning Halo 4, and to be honest, it's just because it looks like some stuff is finally different in this newest outing. Mind you, it's not different in a gameplay way (which I've always felt has been the only good thing about Halo), but it actually seems like it may be mixing it up a bit with the enemies and the weapons. I liked the first Halo, hated the second and thought the third was not too bad. Either way, the preview for the game was a high point, based on it having a greatly different feeling to it than any other Halo game (though it sorta felt like Metroid Prime).




Crysis 3 (PS3/Windows/Xbox360)

This one is another no brainer, and is also one of the worst kept secrets, leading in to E3. With Crysis, I've found that all you need to know is that it looks beautiful, it takes you to the most beautiful places possible and it is a smooth FPS like no other. As of right now I'm working on Crysis 2, but the first one on PSN or XBLA is something everyone should download and enjoy. Near the end the game really takes you on a wild ride, and this looks like a great end to the whole series.



Tomb Raider (PS3/Windows/Xbox360)

I find it to be pretty hilarious that everyone accused Uncharted of being a Tomb Raider knock off when it first came out, strictly because it was about a treasure hunter who went to ruins and had to solve some puzzles. The only difference was that Uncharted did so much more than that, and now Tomb Raider is taking some cues from the evolution of Uncharted. Please, don't misunderstand me though. I'm not saying Tomb Raider is copying Uncharted. What I'm saying is that Tomb Raider observed the great changes that Uncharted made to the formula and made them it's own. The result is what looks like one of the best games at E3 this year. Instead of the funny one liners you may expect from Nathan Drake, you get a girl who is fighting for her survival at all costs, and she's really taking a beating. Tomb Raider is the game that the Lara Croft series needs... hopefully, it will make me forget about Tomb Raider: Underworld.




South Park: The Stick of Truth (PS3/Xbox360)

A South Park styled JRPG that is actually developed with Matt Stone and Trey Parker... it's brilliant and it looks like so much fun. They even went so far as to make it look terrible, on purpose as South Park would. The idea is that you create yourself and join the South Park gang to save the town from a great evil force. It looks funny as hell and at least equally as fun. I can't wait for this PSN/XBLA title.



...and the best thing at E3 this year was....

Sony CEO Jack Tretton

Don't judge me...he's just so darn adorable!

Keep in mind there were several other games that I am pretty interested in. Many of which more so than the titles listed above, but I didn't see them have much of a presence in the press conferences so I didn't add them. Other ones to look out for are Metal Gear Rising, Darksiders II, Resident Evil 6 and many others.

Overall: E3 this year was pretty underwhelming, but the high points were very high. As I criticized it for beforehand, the big game companies have seriously gotta stop announcing everything 2 weeks before the show. As you may have noticed from my list, all of my selections for the best of E3 were games and none of them had anything to do with stupid gimmicks or dancers or Usher. Games are why we watch E3, and it breaks my heart to see that Nintendo is again coasting on nostalgia and not trying anything new. Still a part of me wants to see that Zelda game with a silent Link and HD graphics with orchestral music and a full voice cast for everyone else. I still love the Nintendo characters to a certain degree (minus Mario, who has really worn out his welcome for me at this point) and want to see them doing something exciting for a change.

E3 2012 - The Bad

E3 has been something of a mixed bag this year. Overall, my complaints going in have proven to be accurate with every one of the big three announcing or "leaking" their announcements before the show, which basically takes away the whole excitement factor. Where Sony and Microsoft are concerned, it seems like they basically are waiting for this year to be over so they can get to their next console announcements, and with Nintendo, they are up to their usual tricks in announcing the same Mario games over and over again and knowing that people will mindlessly buy it.  I want to take this in more of a point form direction as there is a lot to cover, so let's get to it.

Note: I decided to split this into two parts as there is a lot of ground to cover.

Iwata-San standing in front of a sign that can be translated to say "Give us your money bitches!"

Wii U - This was the biggest story of E3 going in and I'm sure many would maintain that it still is. Unfortunately, the message that Nintendo sent to me was that I could play mini game collections and newer versions of old Mario games. They pretty much ignored their 3DS market (which at this point is their bread and butter) to the point where the guy who quickly squeezed in a few 3DS announcements (of more Mario games) even was complaining about how little time he was given. The 3DS did end up with a separate video conference later on, but I honestly didn't care. When they announced the Wii U, they described it as "the wii for you...that's why we've decided to call it The Wii U." This excited the audience at last years E3, as they were actual gamers and Nintendo insisted this time it would be bringing the core gaming experience that we have been begging for. Unfortunately, this only means that you will get to play games that came out on PS3/X360 a year or so before. They even went as far as to brag about Batman Arkham City coming to the Wii U at launch. I'll pass, as I've already played through it with a better controller last year some time. As far as new game announcements go, it was pretty slim, though the new Rayman Legends game looks kinda neat, it probably would be just as fun on the iPad.

Nintendoland - I have no intention of bagging on Nintendo for this whole write up, but I need to mention Nintendo's big E3 swan song, Nintendoland. Nintendo proudly proclaims it to be "the only mini game collection that includes Nintendo characters". After that, we get an extremely long demo where a japanese guy explains to us how it works. The game (Luigi's Ghost Mansion) was basically a 4 player Luigi's Mansion mixed with Pac Man, yet somehow this took at least 10 minutes to explain. Ultimately, this presentation and the entire Nintendo presentation as a whole looked pretty awful and insultingly unambitious. Nintendo is basically saying "we know you'll buy it, so we aren't gonna try". Sadly, Nintendo fanboys have been obliging this pretty seriously on various message boards too.

Wonderbook - Remember last year's E3 showing of Disney Kinect Adventures from Microsoft? That was seriously painful, and I am attaching the link to that video here so that you can go see it, if you haven't. It's a great example of a video game company missing the mark, and showing the wrong audience something relatively fascinating. This year, Sony clearly decided that it could be way more groan inducing than Microsoft with something called Wonderbook. Sony's conference was going really great, until they decided to dedicate 20 minutes of their 90 minute time slot to Wonderbook. I kid you not, this was the longest presentation Sony did. Basically, it's an augmented reality book that you can used with the Playstation Move and PS Eye. You open it and wave your move around and it apparently adds up to being fun. The presentation was so bad that it moved past Disney Kinect Adventure's laughable presentation and into straight up agony. This may be interesting enough for children who like Harry Potter (as that's how they advertised it), but after 20 minutes, my friend fell asleep, my girlfriend who loves Harry Potter got so bored she walked off, and I seriously considered playing my Vita until it was over. Speaking of which....

Sony pretty much ignoring the Vita - Sony clearly thinks pretty highly of their new handheld, and why shouldn't they? It's a great system. It's the handheld that I myself have always wanted and I can say I've had some really special gaming experiences with it, sitting outside in the sun. Sadly, the sales do not reflect this, as people claim their are no games for it. I have 5 physical games right now and will be buying Gravity Rush in a few days, when it releases. For a console that has been out for barely 3 months, that is pretty good. Sadly, Sony seems oblivious to it's serious sales problems and instead of dropping the price or doing much of anything at all to help out this great machine, they said we'll be able to play Playstation 1 games soon on it (which was already announced), and that a special Assassin's Creed 3 spin off will be coming to the Vita with a white Vita bundle on the day that Assassin's Creed 3 comes out (Assassin's Creed 3: Liberation). Hell yeah. They also told us that their smash bros. rip off game Playstation All-Star Battle Royal (rolls right off the tongue) will be on Vita too. Ultimately, that was not enough. They could have even talked about already announced games if they had the time to.... I'm looking at you Wonderbook.

Aisha Tyler & Tobuscus - Every year, Ubisoft hires someone to be obnoxious while hosting their panel and every year everyone complains about it. This year they hired two people and it actually did work out to be double annoying. Whenever Aisha wasn't talking about her girl wood, Tobuscus (as he apparently goes by on youtube) just acts obnoxious and expects people to laugh afterwards. The whole act fell flat. Perhaps it's time we just go with Ubisoft's french-Canadian management team as the hosts, as I would honestly enjoy that more. As an aside, Ubisoft's games were some of the best shown (but I'll get to that on E3 2012 - The Best).

Usher - Usher came out and performed a song for Dance Central 3 at Microsoft's show. I'm not really sure who this was for.

Pretty much EA's entire conference - It wasn't offensive at all, it was just boring. Tons of sports games that are barely any different than last years. None of EA's partener's were there. The new Medal of Honor looks pretty cool, and the new Sim City looks pretty fun too, but I really didn't care until the very final announcement. Crysis 3, which almost made up for all of the boring Madden talk... almost.