PAD #19: E3 Wishlist

It was a fun E3, but it couldn't last forever.  Still, there were some games I would have liked to hear about that didn't seem to make a showing.  For one, I was hoping that this E3 is when Bethesda was going to announce what they've been working on since Skyrim released a few years back.  Most likely it'll be Fallout 4, but at the same time it could be the next Elderscrolls title or even a new IP; though that last one seems the least likely.  My hope was for a Fallout 4 announcement, though.  Anyone looking through my archive will see that I spent quite a bit of time talking about Fallout, and the kinds of mechanics that I felt would be interesting to see in the future games.

I also think another Metroid would have been nice.  Not that I was disappointed with what Nintendo had to show this year, but the last Metroid we've gotten was Other M, and I really don't want to be right when I predicted that it's disappointing reception would likely lead to a dry spell for the series.  It'd be nice to see some more Prime-styled games, and are we forgetting that Metroid used to be a 2D sidescroller, Nintendo?  I would love to see a full-scale, console release of a side-scrolling Metroid.  A 3DS release would be okay, too, but I want to see one that doesn't need to get downsized to accommodate the smaller screen.  Something with the same glory and splendor as Symphony of the Night, probably the last side-scrolling "Metroidvania" game to see a full console release, and none of the handheld-based games have come close to it in graphical prowess or in sound quality.  I think it's time we see a change to the notion that side-scrolling games need to be handheld.

Killing Floor 2 was announced a while ago, so it would have been nice to see a little more info about it at E3 since it'll be released (Early Access) this summer.  Though I suppose I can content myself with at least knowing it exists since I'm already planning to get it at launch.  Something from Blizzard would have been fun, possibly some info on the next D3 or Starcraft expansion.  Though I suppose they have their own convention these days (which I'm going to) where they tend to make these announcements.  So yeah, I think that's mostly my E3 wishlist for the year; Bethesda's current project, and something Metroid-related.  There's probably more, but there's nothing that comes to mind at any rate.

Thanks for joining me for today's PAD, and I'll see you tomorrow.  Until then, game well.

PAD #18: E3 Steam

So it looks like E3 is still chugging.  Or at the very least Nintendo is still showing-off some stuff on their Treehouse stream on YouTube.  Most interesting is a game I just heard about today, Codename: STEAM, being developed by Intelligent Systems (of Fire Emblem fame).  It stands for Strike Team Eliminating the Alien Menace, and it's about a team that was put together by Abraham Lincoln to defend Earth from invading aliens.  Let me reiterate that:  It's about a game about a steampunk squad.  Put together by Lincoln.  To fight aliens.  Developed by Intelligent Systems.  So it's about awesome, formed by awesome, to do awesome, being developed by awesome.  I am so on board with this!

The best part about Codename: STEAM (CNS?  CS?  I dunno) is that it plays rather differently from IS's usual fare.  For those not familiar with Intelligent Systems, WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU!?  *Ahem*  But also, they are known for two series.  The aforementioned Fire Emblem, and the Wars series (recently known as Advance Wars).  While the two games had a few unique mechanics to themselves, the gameplay itself was generally the same between the two games.  There's nothing wrong with that, though.  For fans of Turn-based Strategy games, there was enough variance between the two to enjoy them both.  Still, it's great seeing something new coming from them that has a completely different style of gameplay.

Codename: STEAM is still a turn-based strategy game (TBS), but instead of controlling squads of a dozen or more troops, you now only control 4 units.  It still uses the back-and-forth system of you moving all of your units, and then the enemy getting their turn (as opposed to Shining Force where anyone from either team might go next).  One new mechanic is something called "Overwatch" that both your and the enemy team can use.  Basically, if you leave action points (called "steam" in this game, natch) unspent, the character can react and attack during the other team's turn if an enemy comes into view.  It means that just rushing into battle can have its risks, since you don't know if an enemy might be waiting around the corner with an attack's-worth of Overwatch.  It works both ways though, and since Overwatch attacks take less steam to use, you can potentially do more damage during the enemy turn than during your own.

Each character naturally has their own specialty.  The team that was shown during the gameplay demo I watched had one demolition character with a grenade launcher, a soldier-type character with an assault rifle, a sniper character (guess what she uses), and a support character who can throw bait on the field to try and lure enemies out of cover (Edit2:  I found this video of the developers demonstrating the game in which they used another character with a gatling gun and a charge attack).  On top of that, each character has a special ability they can trigger.  The ones I saw during the demo was the support character being able to put a shield around himself for protection, and the sniper was able to charge-up her weapon to get increased range and damage.  In addition to that, you can equip each character with a secondary weapon or ability.  For example, the demolition guy had a sentry turret he could throw on the field, and the support character who is otherwise defenseless was given a support rifle so he can deal at least some damage.

Definitely a very interesting showing.  As a longtime fan of IS's games, I am really looking forward to this game after what I saw, and will probably pick it up on day one.  Though I guess that comes as little surprise with the way that I managed to fill an entire blog post with just that.  Thanks for joining me on today's PAD, and I'll see ya tomorrow.  Until then, game well.

Edit:  I keep seeing people saying that they hate the artstyle.  Personally, I rather like it.

Edit 2:  Added a couple of links, including info about another character.  So not surprisingly, you can pick from more than just the 4 characters in the demo I watched (which was part of the Treehouse stream, so I can't post a link to it yet). 

Edit 3:  Nintendo just uploaded a compilation video about Codename: STEAM that makes for a good over-all summary of the game.

PAD #17: E3 Leftovers

So another E3 has come and gone.  Still have a few things worth mentioning, though.  Firstly, I guess Nintendo decided to recycle Kirby's Epic Yarn with Yoshi.  The game looks okay, but I can't help but feel like a lot of the "neat" mechanics they showed-off in the trailer are mechanics that I already got my fill of in Epic Yarn (to the point where I'm pretty sure they're using a lot of the same sound effects).  Seems that if they didn't have any new ideas for the whole "yarn" mechanic, they should have held off for a while.  Still, the game could be interesting if the gameplay holds-up; though I doubt any Yoshi game will be able to hold a candle to Yoshi's Island.  I think the most impressive thing about the game is how the graphics look like actual cloth; as though the game was animated using stop motion.

So I guess there's going to be some dragon game on the 360?  Can't say I'm all that impressed, though.  Hopefully the game's advertising wreaks of "This is meant for kids", because that's honestly what the trailer felt like.  The way that the character had this playful (and annoying) whimsy about him while fighting, and how he puts his headset on while charging into a fight (ho damn guys, he's listening to his tunes, it's on now!)... the whole thing just feels like the kind of fantasy I might have had while I was eight.  Being meant for kids isn't necessarily a bad thing though, maybe I'm just annoyed that it's a game that I should be 100% pumped about, but can't really see myself getting into because of the blatantly-aimed-at-a-different-generation main character.  Though the worst thing about the game wasn't even in the game, but rather the poor guy who was forced to make the obvious "action on a whole new 'scale'" pun, meanwhile having to pretend that the Monster Hunter series doesn't exist so that the statement itself can be not a complete lie.

So I didn't notice back when I mentioned the game, but apparently Yager is going to have some involvement with Dead Island 2's development.  Hopefully they bring along some of their storytelling prowess to turn Dead Island into a game worth talking about.  Don't forget that these are the people who released a game who's gameplay would have left the game as forgettable, but then included a story that had such biting commentary on the very genre in which it was set that people couldn't NOT talk about it.  Still, they'd have Telltale's The Walking Dead to worry about; if they do try and release a zombie game with a deep story, the comparisons will be inevitable.  On that note, I looked them up and I guess they slipped a trailer passed me at some point during this E3.  It's a game called Dreadnought, and looks to be set in a sci-fi setting, possibly focused on piloting fighters, but it's hard to tell.  After Spec-Ops: The Line, though, this is a company to keep an eye on.  Will they continue to impress, or will The Line be their one moment of glory?

I think that'll do for E3 this year.  Though who knows, it might be all that anyone is talking about for a while, so I might have to talk about it again tomorrow for lack of anything else going on in the industry.  I guess we'll see tomorrow.  Until then, game well.

PAD #16: E3 Goodness

I said that I'd find some good stuff to talk about today, since I don't wanna just sit here and gripe about stuff I don't care about, and boy did Nintendo ever deliver.  I think the most interesting thing they had to show today was Splatoon.  It's basically an answer to the question of "How can we get the younger generation into shooters?"  It's a game of color vs color, and the objective is to splatter as much paint of your team's color on the board as possible before the time is up.  Of course you can splatter paint over your enemy team's paint, and getting hit with the enemy color will eventually kill you and force you to respawn back at base, so it isn't just a game of ignoring the enemy team to focus on splattering paint around.  It has another interesting mechanic in that you can sink into the paint for a form of fast travel, and to reload faster.  There's quite a bit that you can do with it.  A very interesting-looking game.

Xenoblade Chronicles X got a bit more info today.  Forget if I mentioned it yesterday, but there wasn't as much to talk about except for a brief gameplay trailer.  Today they talked a little more about the story.  Apparently Earth got caught in a battle between a couple of warring alien races, and the resulting battle left Earth ravaged, and humans fled on giant arc ships to get away from it.  Seems odd that the aliens would be fighting at Earth when it has nothing to do with either of them, but maybe that gets fleshed-out in the story.  On that, it's been revealed that, despite sharing the name, X is more of a spiritual successor than having any story relation.  Think System Shock -> Bioshock, I guess.  Similar themes and similar gameplay, but otherwise unrelated.  This game is a big part of why I want to get a Wii U eventually.  Pikmin 3 and Smash Bros being two other pieces to that puzzle.

Speaking of which, it was kinda fun watching the Smash Bros Invitational Tourney.  The energy from the crowd was awesome, kinda wish I could've been in there.  Never been to an E3, but it looks like it'd be a lot of fun just for that.  Unfortunately I had to leave for most of it, so I missed any actual info that they released.  I came back in time for them to be showing-off some new game mode, but since I missed the intro, I wasn't really sure what was going on.  Something about gaining stats?  I dunno.  Really looking forward to the game.  I'll definitely be getting the 3DS version when it comes out; Wii U version if I have one.

Last game that I wanna talk about is Mario Maker.  The entire thing is a level editor for 2D Mario.  The feature I watched had graphics from both the original game, and from the "New" series of games.  Maybe you can make levels in the Mario 3 or Mario World style, but I don't know for sure.  It'd certainly be nice, but even with just the two styles it's pretty interesting.  Probably the neatest thing was the idea of creating a level for another player to try and beat, then he adds to it to make it harder and passes it on.  Just the whole idea of passing it back and forth until someone is unable to beat the level is kind of an awesome idea.  Which is to say nothing of the endless wealth of levels you'll be able to get online (or at least I hope it'll have that feature).  Sure there'll be a lot of lemon stages, but there'll be plenty of great ones as well.

Probably be more E3 tomorrow.  Until then, game well.

PAD #15: E3 Lethargy

Almost forgot that E3 was coming up, and suddenly here it is.  Of course one of the first things I noticed was a Dead Island announcement.  Anyone picking through the archives on this blog would know that I have a bit of love for zombie games, and Dead Island is no exception.  It's a bit disappointing that there's going to be both a class and a level exclusive to the PS4, but hopefully that's going to be a timed thing.  Still, it's something that's becoming more common that I don't really care for.  I think a game should be the same from system to system.  If you want a game to be system-exclusive, then make it system exclusive.  I don't really like this practice developing content that's exclusive to another system, then charging me full price for the game anyway.

A new top-down Tomb Raider has been announced, and it still leaves the same funny taste in my mouth.  Similar to the first game like this, I just feel weird calling it "Tomb Raider".  Yeah okay, so these games are called "Lara Croft and the [Blank]", but it is what it is, and what it feels like is a completely different game where they just replaced the main character with Lara Croft and then called it a Tomb Raider game.  It does sorta beg the question, though, of why a character like Mario can be in just about any game and feel natural, where this Lara Croft series of games just don't feel like Tomb Raider titles despite being thematically similar.

And naturally, since the "first" one sold so well, they're putting-out a sequel to the Tomb Raider reboot from a few years back.  It has a completely laughable title, but I was willing to just ignore the game and move-on until Lara had to open her mouth.  She harps-on about some "destiny" crap, to the point where you look at the title and suddenly "Tomb Raider" isn't just the name of the franchise, but apparently it's what Lara is "meant to be"?  Like there's supposed to be a specific "Tomb Raider"?  I dunno, I'm not buying it.  Smacks of "We don't care about the series, but we gotta put together another one because the last one sold, so we'll just call it 'destiny' since that's certainly what it feels like to us."

Okay okay, that's enough complaining about E3.  I do like to try and keep positive, so tomorrow I'll dig-up some stuff that I'm actually looking forward to seeing (aside from Dead Island 2).  Until then, game well.