Its been a fairly big couple of weeks for video games and technology (E3 has been running all this week, June 13th - 15th) and in the Magic The Gathering world with a whole week of announcements.
Well start with MTG. On Monday, Mark Rosewater kicked off announcement week and put out an article called Metamorphosis 2.0, where he outlined the new set release structure coming into effect in 2018. He also talked about a few other things that Wizards Of The Coast will be reworking in the near future, so lets dive straight in.
Blocks are no long blocks:
Magic went through a Block shift a couple of years ago, changing from a three set per block paradigm to a two set per block paradigm. It's changing again, this time, essentially, to a one set per block paradigm, or more accurately speaking, no blocks at all. Starting with "Soup", which Maro assured us will be getting a real name soon, Fall, Winter and Spring release sets will become stand alone large sets and be drafted alone. The reason for this is to allow more space to travel to more, different worlds, which isn't to say that you wont ever see the same world in succession. Sometimes visiting new worlds in the Multiverse is interesting and fun, like Kaladesh or Ravnica, and sometimes it can be, for lack of a better term, boring, like Theros. The plan is to spend as much time as needed on each world to tell the necessary story, so some worlds might only be shown in one set and some might span over multiple sets. When it comes to the mechanics of the sets, some may overlap a little but mainly to keep the feel of that world, other mechanics will be unique to give that set its own independent feel.
CORE SETS!:
Core sets, that loved creature of old, are making a return. The Core set will make up the fourth set of the year, fitting in in the summer, and is being redesigned to better accommodate newer players and make the transition from supplementary products like The Deckbuilders Toolkit or Planeswalker Decks much smoother. They will be half new cards and half reprints, like the modern Core sets before, pushing more towards resonance, an understanding and recognition of fantasy from pop culture, so that it's appealing to people outside of the mainstream MTG communities while still being exciting, and above all useful to veteran players.
Too much Gatewatch:
The Gatewatch, consisting of Jace, Gideon, Nissa, Chandra and Liliana, have been the main protagonists of the Magic story throughout the recent sets. Obviously the Planeswalkers are usually a big talking point in any set, but as time has gone on, seeing a Gideon in almost every set for the past year has started taking its toll. The plan is to pull back on how often the Gatewatch make an appearance, what that means is that from Hour Of Devastation there will be less Gatewatch Planeswalker cards per set/block, maybe in some cases none, but they are still the protagonists of the main Magic story line.
Masterpieces Revamp:
The Masterpiece series has been with us since Battle For Zendikar, with the Expeditions, and have appeared in every set since. Turns out that if you offer the chance to find foil, alternate art, alternate border cards in every set, it kinda loses something along the way. Zendikar had Expeditions, which made a lot of sense as the big mechanic and the overall theme both focused on Lands, so having the opportunity to get a foil, alt art Dual Land made sense. Kaladesh had Inventions which again, in an Artifact themed block, made a lot of sense. It starts to fall down when we get to the Amonkhet Invocations, which were missing something. The flavour theme, The Gods, wasn't as focused as Zendikar's Lands or Kaladesh's Artifacts and thus felt a bit random in a card choice perspective. As this is the case, the Masterpiece series won't be seen as much, they will still make an appearance in Hour of Devastation but starting with Ixalan block, they will be taking a back seat which is not to say they wont be seen again, but will be selected for sets that can offer a robust theme to center around.
R&D&P&D:
Magic R&D (Research and Development) recently decided to form a new group, Play Design. As a group, Play Design will focus a lot more on the environment and state of play. This group will be concentrating on how to make tournament play much healthier and creating an environment where, hopefully, things like less Standard banning occur. Speaking of which...
Marvel at the power:
Today, Aaron Forsyth pulled the trigger on the Banned and Restricted announcement. Everyone knew it was coming and everyone had speculations on what, if anything, would get banned. Turned out the majority were right and as of June 19th Aetherworks Marvel will no longer be Standard playable. AF went on to explain their decision, saying that AetherWorks Marvel decks, that have been the largest part of the Standard Metagame since the release of Amonkhet, aren't fundamentally broken decks in a traditional sense, though having access to a turn four Ulamog, The Ceaseless Hunger is virtually game over and having games end that quick just isn't fun. Magic is about back and forth and a battle of wits and when you have games that end just because, it can start turning people off playing competitively. He goes on to talk about how this doesn't destroy the Temur archetype and hopefully Marvel players will be able to transition easily to a more midrange version of the deck by taking out the combo pieces that were kind of forced into the build to begin with. Nobody likes to see anything get banned, especially Wizards Of The Coast, and with so many cards being banned over the last year it is looking a bit odd from a play testing perspective. But have faith, this isn't the best situation to be in but its much better and healthier than having a Standard format that gets solved right from the start and having to deal with that for another year, it pretty much turns into coin flip magic, especially when you see that Marvel mirrors tend to be 50-50 match-ups most of the time. I believe that this is the right move for WotC to make and, with the addition of the Play Design team, I see things like this being averted in the future.
Magic went through a Block shift a couple of years ago, changing from a three set per block paradigm to a two set per block paradigm. It's changing again, this time, essentially, to a one set per block paradigm, or more accurately speaking, no blocks at all. Starting with "Soup", which Maro assured us will be getting a real name soon, Fall, Winter and Spring release sets will become stand alone large sets and be drafted alone. The reason for this is to allow more space to travel to more, different worlds, which isn't to say that you wont ever see the same world in succession. Sometimes visiting new worlds in the Multiverse is interesting and fun, like Kaladesh or Ravnica, and sometimes it can be, for lack of a better term, boring, like Theros. The plan is to spend as much time as needed on each world to tell the necessary story, so some worlds might only be shown in one set and some might span over multiple sets. When it comes to the mechanics of the sets, some may overlap a little but mainly to keep the feel of that world, other mechanics will be unique to give that set its own independent feel.
CORE SETS!:
Core sets, that loved creature of old, are making a return. The Core set will make up the fourth set of the year, fitting in in the summer, and is being redesigned to better accommodate newer players and make the transition from supplementary products like The Deckbuilders Toolkit or Planeswalker Decks much smoother. They will be half new cards and half reprints, like the modern Core sets before, pushing more towards resonance, an understanding and recognition of fantasy from pop culture, so that it's appealing to people outside of the mainstream MTG communities while still being exciting, and above all useful to veteran players.
Too much Gatewatch:
The Gatewatch, consisting of Jace, Gideon, Nissa, Chandra and Liliana, have been the main protagonists of the Magic story throughout the recent sets. Obviously the Planeswalkers are usually a big talking point in any set, but as time has gone on, seeing a Gideon in almost every set for the past year has started taking its toll. The plan is to pull back on how often the Gatewatch make an appearance, what that means is that from Hour Of Devastation there will be less Gatewatch Planeswalker cards per set/block, maybe in some cases none, but they are still the protagonists of the main Magic story line.
Masterpieces Revamp:
The Masterpiece series has been with us since Battle For Zendikar, with the Expeditions, and have appeared in every set since. Turns out that if you offer the chance to find foil, alternate art, alternate border cards in every set, it kinda loses something along the way. Zendikar had Expeditions, which made a lot of sense as the big mechanic and the overall theme both focused on Lands, so having the opportunity to get a foil, alt art Dual Land made sense. Kaladesh had Inventions which again, in an Artifact themed block, made a lot of sense. It starts to fall down when we get to the Amonkhet Invocations, which were missing something. The flavour theme, The Gods, wasn't as focused as Zendikar's Lands or Kaladesh's Artifacts and thus felt a bit random in a card choice perspective. As this is the case, the Masterpiece series won't be seen as much, they will still make an appearance in Hour of Devastation but starting with Ixalan block, they will be taking a back seat which is not to say they wont be seen again, but will be selected for sets that can offer a robust theme to center around.
R&D&P&D:
Magic R&D (Research and Development) recently decided to form a new group, Play Design. As a group, Play Design will focus a lot more on the environment and state of play. This group will be concentrating on how to make tournament play much healthier and creating an environment where, hopefully, things like less Standard banning occur. Speaking of which...
Marvel at the power:
Today, Aaron Forsyth pulled the trigger on the Banned and Restricted announcement. Everyone knew it was coming and everyone had speculations on what, if anything, would get banned. Turned out the majority were right and as of June 19th Aetherworks Marvel will no longer be Standard playable. AF went on to explain their decision, saying that AetherWorks Marvel decks, that have been the largest part of the Standard Metagame since the release of Amonkhet, aren't fundamentally broken decks in a traditional sense, though having access to a turn four Ulamog, The Ceaseless Hunger is virtually game over and having games end that quick just isn't fun. Magic is about back and forth and a battle of wits and when you have games that end just because, it can start turning people off playing competitively. He goes on to talk about how this doesn't destroy the Temur archetype and hopefully Marvel players will be able to transition easily to a more midrange version of the deck by taking out the combo pieces that were kind of forced into the build to begin with. Nobody likes to see anything get banned, especially Wizards Of The Coast, and with so many cards being banned over the last year it is looking a bit odd from a play testing perspective. But have faith, this isn't the best situation to be in but its much better and healthier than having a Standard format that gets solved right from the start and having to deal with that for another year, it pretty much turns into coin flip magic, especially when you see that Marvel mirrors tend to be 50-50 match-ups most of the time. I believe that this is the right move for WotC to make and, with the addition of the Play Design team, I see things like this being averted in the future.
Onto the E3 announcements. Bare in mind that E3 started on the 10th of June with talks and presentations, but officially opened on the 13th, so there may still be some exciting stuff to come out of Los Angeles.
Sony is a good starting place I think. The one thing known of Sony going into this years E3 is that they didn't really have any new tech to push, VR aside. What they did have were quite a few games to show off:
God Of War is making a comeback with a reboot sequel thing, only this time its Norse gods instead of Greek gods. Obviously at this point the Greek thing has been run into the ground from God Of War's perspective, though moving the Norse mythology might sound cool in theory, seeing as Norse gods are so weird and wonderful and that may lead to some great screenshots, game-play and writing, but I fear that ultimately, it will just be a re-skin as a lot of the gods in both mythologies overlap considerably. Kratos isn't walking this familiar, god slaying path alone this time either as once again, his son is along for the ride as NPC support and what looks like playable character, but probably only for certain sections. As everything does nowadays, God Of War looks incredible and to be fair, the premise is interesting, but with a vague 2018 release, we're going to be waiting a little while for it.
Spider man has reared his head again in what looks like a brilliant game-play trailer full with quick time events, wall running, web slinging and of course, quipy one liners. With what was seen in the game-play trailer though, this Spider man looks like another Arkham Asylum, which isn't bad as Arkham Asylum was a fantastic game, but when you're sneaking around on top of the girders, picking off unaware guards, it does start to feel very Arkham Asylum-y. The web slinging aspect does look pretty cool though. I can only hope this is the game that gets Marvel into the gaming circle like Arkham Asylum did for DC.
Another Call Of Duty game has come to be. You know what Battlefield did when they went back to World War 1? Well I guess Call Of Duty thought it was their turn to go back to basic with the franchise and took a shot at World War 2. I wonder if anyone has told them that they already did World War 2, but I guess don't fix what ain't broke huh? Other than that there isn't much to say, its a Call Of Duty game, guns go bang, mans go dead, lather, rinse, repeat.
Monster Hunter was a game from way back that started life on the PlayStation 2. It's massive in Japan, and has had many iterations including an Anime and book, and has a big cult following in the west. The game lets you role play as a hunter living, surviving and of course hunting in a fantasy world. It wouldn't be an RPG without resource management and trivial quests and don't worry, its got you covered on that front. The appeal of the Monster hunter games, and which is very much the focus of the Monster Hunter World trailer, is that everything is that everything is pretty keen on eating your small insignificant arse. It does a great job of showing just how threatening these monsters can be; from the smaller, more wily and nimble lizard looking things, to a giant firebreathing, tree-jumping dinosaur raptor thing. On top of making sure you don't become dinner, you spend most of your free time foraging or in a village, maintaining your equipment and looking for quests. Monster Hunter World looks very pretty and, as I said, does a great job of making things not only look, but feel big, almost...colossal in a way.
That was stretched but oh well, Shadow Of The Colossus is back! One of my favourite games of all time and in my opinion one of the best "open world" games ever, if you can call it that, there wasn't much to do in the world though. Nothing much has been said or seen about SotC but I'm sure it wont disappoint. From the view of the trailer not much has changed really, graphical upgrade, smoother movement which is all good and well, hopefully the game-play is still the shining gem that it once was.
Uncharted is just the franchise that keeps on giving. Starting back in 2007 it seemed silly to think a Tomb Raider knock off could produce so much content but, even though much of it was incredibly repetitive and some unnecessary or even non-canon, it has. This time around it seems like Nathan Drake has gotten lazy and decided to take a holiday, lesser in comparison to all those other holidays he's been on in which his carry-on home usually contained some sort of priceless artifact. This time around Chloe Frazer (from Uncharted 2) and Nadine Ross (from Uncharted 4) are the protagonists of The Lost Legacy, taking place in a region of war torn India in pursuit of the Tusk of Ganesha. I'm sure it will be an amazing looking game but vary little from the mechanics of all the other Uncharted games.
Horizon is getting DLC in the form of The Frozen Wilds which looks like a mech-ice age, pretty sweet. Not having played much Horizon Zero Dawn I'm not going to get into what could and couldn't be mechanics wise, but I will say that an environment like that could produce some great screen shots.
Onto the new IP's from Sony now:
I was intrigued by a cutesy, new VR adventure game called Moss. You follow a tiny little mouse traversing, almost Zelda like, through a wonderfully designed fantasy world, encountering dangers along the way to discover...well the trailer didn't really get that far but from what I could gather from reading more into Moss, you're trying to solve the mystery of an ancient magical stone. Another Zelda comparison I found is that Quill, or mousey protagonist, is aided along the way by a Navi-esc floating blue ball which is the player character, kind of, able to move platforms and hit switches for our mouse friend to progress. It seems that Moss will be more puzzle solving than action which is fine by me and I will definitely be keeping an eye on this game as it is set to release soon in holiday 2017.
Detroit: Become Human looked very promising, but the problem with these games, by which I mean David Cage games: Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls and probably most notably Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy, is that they all promise diverting paths and "different actions mean different outcomes" yet mostly follow a fairly linear path no matter what you choose. Yes there are some exceptions to this but it is difficult to make a game with different pathways and not have them overlap a little, even if it is just to make the developers workload lighter. Detroit: Become Human is an action-adventure set in a futuristic society where androids have become commercially available to the public, kinda like I-Robot. But some gain sentience and proceed to learn more about their world, others decide to take revenge on that makers and revolt. The game centers around several characters, all androids themselves, as the story branches out to reveal the intricacies of this future for both better or worse. It looks good, with the studios almost trademark realistic facial capturing, and hopefully will do well on release.
Lastly, probably the game that made the biggest splash at the Sony event, Day's Gone. This zombie-survival game looks fantastic, in the trailer we see one character tactfully use the environment, in this case a horde of ravenous zombies, to take out the guards in an outpost to save an ally. It looks like an open world game but does look like it plays fairly linearly, so the aesthetic may be the downfall. I would rather have my games play well than look nice, obviously scenery is great but there have been some games in the past that have fallen into the trap of looking very nice but playing like stock, overused, cliche crap. Hopefully Day's gone wont fall into this hole and the game-play looks refined and familiar, even if the premise of zombie apocalypse isn't.
God Of War is making a comeback with a reboot sequel thing, only this time its Norse gods instead of Greek gods. Obviously at this point the Greek thing has been run into the ground from God Of War's perspective, though moving the Norse mythology might sound cool in theory, seeing as Norse gods are so weird and wonderful and that may lead to some great screenshots, game-play and writing, but I fear that ultimately, it will just be a re-skin as a lot of the gods in both mythologies overlap considerably. Kratos isn't walking this familiar, god slaying path alone this time either as once again, his son is along for the ride as NPC support and what looks like playable character, but probably only for certain sections. As everything does nowadays, God Of War looks incredible and to be fair, the premise is interesting, but with a vague 2018 release, we're going to be waiting a little while for it.
Spider man has reared his head again in what looks like a brilliant game-play trailer full with quick time events, wall running, web slinging and of course, quipy one liners. With what was seen in the game-play trailer though, this Spider man looks like another Arkham Asylum, which isn't bad as Arkham Asylum was a fantastic game, but when you're sneaking around on top of the girders, picking off unaware guards, it does start to feel very Arkham Asylum-y. The web slinging aspect does look pretty cool though. I can only hope this is the game that gets Marvel into the gaming circle like Arkham Asylum did for DC.
Another Call Of Duty game has come to be. You know what Battlefield did when they went back to World War 1? Well I guess Call Of Duty thought it was their turn to go back to basic with the franchise and took a shot at World War 2. I wonder if anyone has told them that they already did World War 2, but I guess don't fix what ain't broke huh? Other than that there isn't much to say, its a Call Of Duty game, guns go bang, mans go dead, lather, rinse, repeat.
Monster Hunter was a game from way back that started life on the PlayStation 2. It's massive in Japan, and has had many iterations including an Anime and book, and has a big cult following in the west. The game lets you role play as a hunter living, surviving and of course hunting in a fantasy world. It wouldn't be an RPG without resource management and trivial quests and don't worry, its got you covered on that front. The appeal of the Monster hunter games, and which is very much the focus of the Monster Hunter World trailer, is that everything is that everything is pretty keen on eating your small insignificant arse. It does a great job of showing just how threatening these monsters can be; from the smaller, more wily and nimble lizard looking things, to a giant firebreathing, tree-jumping dinosaur raptor thing. On top of making sure you don't become dinner, you spend most of your free time foraging or in a village, maintaining your equipment and looking for quests. Monster Hunter World looks very pretty and, as I said, does a great job of making things not only look, but feel big, almost...colossal in a way.
That was stretched but oh well, Shadow Of The Colossus is back! One of my favourite games of all time and in my opinion one of the best "open world" games ever, if you can call it that, there wasn't much to do in the world though. Nothing much has been said or seen about SotC but I'm sure it wont disappoint. From the view of the trailer not much has changed really, graphical upgrade, smoother movement which is all good and well, hopefully the game-play is still the shining gem that it once was.
Uncharted is just the franchise that keeps on giving. Starting back in 2007 it seemed silly to think a Tomb Raider knock off could produce so much content but, even though much of it was incredibly repetitive and some unnecessary or even non-canon, it has. This time around it seems like Nathan Drake has gotten lazy and decided to take a holiday, lesser in comparison to all those other holidays he's been on in which his carry-on home usually contained some sort of priceless artifact. This time around Chloe Frazer (from Uncharted 2) and Nadine Ross (from Uncharted 4) are the protagonists of The Lost Legacy, taking place in a region of war torn India in pursuit of the Tusk of Ganesha. I'm sure it will be an amazing looking game but vary little from the mechanics of all the other Uncharted games.
Horizon is getting DLC in the form of The Frozen Wilds which looks like a mech-ice age, pretty sweet. Not having played much Horizon Zero Dawn I'm not going to get into what could and couldn't be mechanics wise, but I will say that an environment like that could produce some great screen shots.
Onto the new IP's from Sony now:
I was intrigued by a cutesy, new VR adventure game called Moss. You follow a tiny little mouse traversing, almost Zelda like, through a wonderfully designed fantasy world, encountering dangers along the way to discover...well the trailer didn't really get that far but from what I could gather from reading more into Moss, you're trying to solve the mystery of an ancient magical stone. Another Zelda comparison I found is that Quill, or mousey protagonist, is aided along the way by a Navi-esc floating blue ball which is the player character, kind of, able to move platforms and hit switches for our mouse friend to progress. It seems that Moss will be more puzzle solving than action which is fine by me and I will definitely be keeping an eye on this game as it is set to release soon in holiday 2017.
Detroit: Become Human looked very promising, but the problem with these games, by which I mean David Cage games: Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls and probably most notably Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy, is that they all promise diverting paths and "different actions mean different outcomes" yet mostly follow a fairly linear path no matter what you choose. Yes there are some exceptions to this but it is difficult to make a game with different pathways and not have them overlap a little, even if it is just to make the developers workload lighter. Detroit: Become Human is an action-adventure set in a futuristic society where androids have become commercially available to the public, kinda like I-Robot. But some gain sentience and proceed to learn more about their world, others decide to take revenge on that makers and revolt. The game centers around several characters, all androids themselves, as the story branches out to reveal the intricacies of this future for both better or worse. It looks good, with the studios almost trademark realistic facial capturing, and hopefully will do well on release.
Lastly, probably the game that made the biggest splash at the Sony event, Day's Gone. This zombie-survival game looks fantastic, in the trailer we see one character tactfully use the environment, in this case a horde of ravenous zombies, to take out the guards in an outpost to save an ally. It looks like an open world game but does look like it plays fairly linearly, so the aesthetic may be the downfall. I would rather have my games play well than look nice, obviously scenery is great but there have been some games in the past that have fallen into the trap of looking very nice but playing like stock, overused, cliche crap. Hopefully Day's gone wont fall into this hole and the game-play looks refined and familiar, even if the premise of zombie apocalypse isn't.
PC games had a good showing this year with
Ooblets: Think Pokemon by way of Farmville smothered in cute, and I mean absolutely dripping in it. You manage your farm, train your little malformed creatures, go off into the world to explore and grow your Ooblet army.
Total Warhammer 2: An RTS game set in a fantasy universe now offers new races and a much more detailed story driven campaign in it's second installment.
Tunic: In this isometric hack'n'slasher you play a fox on his journey through very cute environments. Honestly, I think that's all you need to say, I will for sure play this and I'm sure many of you out there will as well. There is just something about Tunic that endears me to it and it feels familiar at the same time.
BattleTech: The team behind BattleTech have also worked on MechCommander and MechAssault, so something tells me we're in good hands with these guys. They've turned their eyes to the classic Table-Top game and designed a turn based strategy game in which you battle it out in Mechs. The selling point here is that you can target specific points on your opponenet's Mech to disable and remove weapons and slow them down. You can then take the removed parts from other Mechs and use them on your own Mech after the battle. This is an interesting mechanic as it diverts from the normal model of gaining experience to upgrade, instead opting to reward for not just your overall performance but really zero-ing in on each particular fight with opposing Mechs and rewarding you with an array of possible weapons and upgrades to apply to your Mech.
The Last Night: This 2D pixel-art platformer is one of the games I have seen this year that I would term "An experience". Its part platformer and part adventure game of old, with real-time puzzles and branching dialogue. What is intriguing about the NPC's in The Last Night is that they remember what you said and, in a way, how you said it. For example; If you cut off a dialogue box half way through, the NPC will remember that and act differently toward you next time. With neon everywhere and set back-lit to the mountainous cities lights, I love the look of this game and I'm sure it will be a very popular release along the same lines of Limbo or Inside.
Echo Arena/Lone Echo: This Oculus Rift VR game offers the opportunity to play Frisbee in zero-g. First off, I'm a bit worried about how it will make you feel. Floating around in a zero-g environment will trying to find either the Frisbee or the goal seems like it could be a bit disorienting and may result in some motion sickness. Secondly, it looks pretty cool. Having an actual competitive VR game is pretty exciting and there are talks that it will serve as the focus for Intel's new e Sports league. Also shown, right at the end of the Echo Arena trailer was the Lone Echo trailer in which we see characters repairing shuttle when there's an explosion and they have to rush inside the shuttle or get sucked out into space. Not much to go on but again, looks pretty sweet.
Grift Lands: This cartoon style, sci-fi RPG feels like a nice return to formula. You travel across a galaxy, fighting, stealing and befriending along the way. You build your team up Final Fantasy style and embark further on your quests. I like the style, I like the idea, I'm not a big fan of turn based combat though. I know RPG's and turn based combat are old buddies, but fights lose something for me when you're waiting for your opponent to come up and slap you before you can go and slap them back, rather than slice them up with your giant sword.
Y-Lands: Another cutesy looking game modeled in a sort of stylized polygonal art, Y-Lands simulates an almost castaway-esc experience where you have to search for materials, craft and survive. It's like Minecraft but with more of an adventuring narrative focus by the looks of it.
Age Of Empire: Definitive Edition: A 4K remastering of AoE from 1997, a graphical upgrade, music and score upgrade, Xbox Live support, this RTS has been buffed to perfection and is ready to shine.
LawBreakers: Cliff Bleszinski. Some of you might know that name, that's because he is the creator of the Gears Of War series of games. From that same mind comes LawBreakers, an arena style shooter that, if the trailer is anything to believe, will be an enthralling, bombastic, absolutely insane shooter experience. With what looks like many different characters and lots of different set ups for weapons and abilities, I'm sure this will be a massive hit and will almost certainly hit the e Sports crowd.
Ooblets: Think Pokemon by way of Farmville smothered in cute, and I mean absolutely dripping in it. You manage your farm, train your little malformed creatures, go off into the world to explore and grow your Ooblet army.
Total Warhammer 2: An RTS game set in a fantasy universe now offers new races and a much more detailed story driven campaign in it's second installment.
Tunic: In this isometric hack'n'slasher you play a fox on his journey through very cute environments. Honestly, I think that's all you need to say, I will for sure play this and I'm sure many of you out there will as well. There is just something about Tunic that endears me to it and it feels familiar at the same time.
BattleTech: The team behind BattleTech have also worked on MechCommander and MechAssault, so something tells me we're in good hands with these guys. They've turned their eyes to the classic Table-Top game and designed a turn based strategy game in which you battle it out in Mechs. The selling point here is that you can target specific points on your opponenet's Mech to disable and remove weapons and slow them down. You can then take the removed parts from other Mechs and use them on your own Mech after the battle. This is an interesting mechanic as it diverts from the normal model of gaining experience to upgrade, instead opting to reward for not just your overall performance but really zero-ing in on each particular fight with opposing Mechs and rewarding you with an array of possible weapons and upgrades to apply to your Mech.
The Last Night: This 2D pixel-art platformer is one of the games I have seen this year that I would term "An experience". Its part platformer and part adventure game of old, with real-time puzzles and branching dialogue. What is intriguing about the NPC's in The Last Night is that they remember what you said and, in a way, how you said it. For example; If you cut off a dialogue box half way through, the NPC will remember that and act differently toward you next time. With neon everywhere and set back-lit to the mountainous cities lights, I love the look of this game and I'm sure it will be a very popular release along the same lines of Limbo or Inside.
Echo Arena/Lone Echo: This Oculus Rift VR game offers the opportunity to play Frisbee in zero-g. First off, I'm a bit worried about how it will make you feel. Floating around in a zero-g environment will trying to find either the Frisbee or the goal seems like it could be a bit disorienting and may result in some motion sickness. Secondly, it looks pretty cool. Having an actual competitive VR game is pretty exciting and there are talks that it will serve as the focus for Intel's new e Sports league. Also shown, right at the end of the Echo Arena trailer was the Lone Echo trailer in which we see characters repairing shuttle when there's an explosion and they have to rush inside the shuttle or get sucked out into space. Not much to go on but again, looks pretty sweet.
Grift Lands: This cartoon style, sci-fi RPG feels like a nice return to formula. You travel across a galaxy, fighting, stealing and befriending along the way. You build your team up Final Fantasy style and embark further on your quests. I like the style, I like the idea, I'm not a big fan of turn based combat though. I know RPG's and turn based combat are old buddies, but fights lose something for me when you're waiting for your opponent to come up and slap you before you can go and slap them back, rather than slice them up with your giant sword.
Y-Lands: Another cutesy looking game modeled in a sort of stylized polygonal art, Y-Lands simulates an almost castaway-esc experience where you have to search for materials, craft and survive. It's like Minecraft but with more of an adventuring narrative focus by the looks of it.
Age Of Empire: Definitive Edition: A 4K remastering of AoE from 1997, a graphical upgrade, music and score upgrade, Xbox Live support, this RTS has been buffed to perfection and is ready to shine.
LawBreakers: Cliff Bleszinski. Some of you might know that name, that's because he is the creator of the Gears Of War series of games. From that same mind comes LawBreakers, an arena style shooter that, if the trailer is anything to believe, will be an enthralling, bombastic, absolutely insane shooter experience. With what looks like many different characters and lots of different set ups for weapons and abilities, I'm sure this will be a massive hit and will almost certainly hit the e Sports crowd.
Good old Ubisoft, you can always count on them to keep it all safe and familiar. Out of the five major announcements from them, four of them are iterations of already existing properties, well start with them and then move on to the IP they had to offer later.
Far Cry 5: I have seen four trailers for Far Cry 5 and they don't show much. All four had ominous shots over a forest, a wheat field, a river and over a church with a ringing bell and out of those four trailers, really only one thing happened, a guy got shot in the back. I did see a body floating down a river but that was it. I do kind of like the trailers but I do find it annoying that Ubisoft get away with doing these "minimalist" trailers because they know that people will buy their game no matter what, and only because its a recognized franchise. I would like to see more and even though more will come, in a two minute trailer of Moss at the Sony event I saw a lot more than in four minute and a half Far Cry 5 trailers. All this weirdness taking place in a quaint place like Montana does add to the weirdness or the whole situation but its still not enough info in my opinion.
Beyond Good and Evil 2: Finally, it's back. Beyond Good And Evil is an Xbox game way back from 2003 and it become a cult classic, for it's mix of design, challenge, witty writing and interesting characters. Beyond Good And Evil 2 seems to be set before the original but other than that not much has been outlined. From the cocky, sweary monkey in the trailer though, I did gather that maybe the rating has been knocked up a notch. It may not resemble the original all that much, but as long as the story and the characters are still first class then it will keep the old BgaE charm for me.
Assassin's Creed Origins: Assassin's Creed is going way, way back to ancient Egypt, supposedly where the Assassin's group was formed in the shadows. The trailer showed off some very familiar stealth mechanics and beautiful environments, but that is Ubisoft's bread and butter. Other than that, it's another Assassin's Creed game but it does offer the opportunity to parkour around a very lush, vivid, well designed environments.
Mario+Rabbids Kingdom Battle: I don't get this. Smashing together an age old property in Mario, and one that was never really sure what it was doing in Rabbids. First they started off with Rayman and then they went solo with their own games, but seriously pairing them with Mario just seems desperate. On top of that the game is a turn based tactical role-playing game. Its almost like Nintendo and Ubisoft threw darts at some ideas one day and came up with this mess, who asked for this? So you battle your way through this mixed up land where the Rabbids have taken the form of popular Mario characters and have to defeat the bad Rabbids. You do this by selecting members of your party to tactically advance on your opponents and eventually attack. I cant see there being much more to this as it feels a bit thin as it is, but with the Mario name on it I'm sure it will see its way into some Switch consoles, even if its because it will probably become bundled with it.
The new IP coming out of Ubisoft was Skull and Bones, a third-person, multiplayer, action-adventure game where players play pirates sailing on the Indian Sea. You can play solo or with up to five other players to create a crew to adventure, pillage and steal with. It seems to have created a fairly details pirate experience and has a few interesting mechanics such as wind positioning aiding you in battle and being able to commandeer ships to add to you fleet. The ability to board and enter combat with other ships might just seem like your average MMO-RPG fight, but each player will be operating differently, one might be sailing the ship if you are in pursuit of another ship, some might be manning the cannons and some might be getting ready to board. I could see Skull and Bones being a big MMO-RPG with engaging game-play.
Far Cry 5: I have seen four trailers for Far Cry 5 and they don't show much. All four had ominous shots over a forest, a wheat field, a river and over a church with a ringing bell and out of those four trailers, really only one thing happened, a guy got shot in the back. I did see a body floating down a river but that was it. I do kind of like the trailers but I do find it annoying that Ubisoft get away with doing these "minimalist" trailers because they know that people will buy their game no matter what, and only because its a recognized franchise. I would like to see more and even though more will come, in a two minute trailer of Moss at the Sony event I saw a lot more than in four minute and a half Far Cry 5 trailers. All this weirdness taking place in a quaint place like Montana does add to the weirdness or the whole situation but its still not enough info in my opinion.
Beyond Good and Evil 2: Finally, it's back. Beyond Good And Evil is an Xbox game way back from 2003 and it become a cult classic, for it's mix of design, challenge, witty writing and interesting characters. Beyond Good And Evil 2 seems to be set before the original but other than that not much has been outlined. From the cocky, sweary monkey in the trailer though, I did gather that maybe the rating has been knocked up a notch. It may not resemble the original all that much, but as long as the story and the characters are still first class then it will keep the old BgaE charm for me.
Assassin's Creed Origins: Assassin's Creed is going way, way back to ancient Egypt, supposedly where the Assassin's group was formed in the shadows. The trailer showed off some very familiar stealth mechanics and beautiful environments, but that is Ubisoft's bread and butter. Other than that, it's another Assassin's Creed game but it does offer the opportunity to parkour around a very lush, vivid, well designed environments.
Mario+Rabbids Kingdom Battle: I don't get this. Smashing together an age old property in Mario, and one that was never really sure what it was doing in Rabbids. First they started off with Rayman and then they went solo with their own games, but seriously pairing them with Mario just seems desperate. On top of that the game is a turn based tactical role-playing game. Its almost like Nintendo and Ubisoft threw darts at some ideas one day and came up with this mess, who asked for this? So you battle your way through this mixed up land where the Rabbids have taken the form of popular Mario characters and have to defeat the bad Rabbids. You do this by selecting members of your party to tactically advance on your opponents and eventually attack. I cant see there being much more to this as it feels a bit thin as it is, but with the Mario name on it I'm sure it will see its way into some Switch consoles, even if its because it will probably become bundled with it.
The new IP coming out of Ubisoft was Skull and Bones, a third-person, multiplayer, action-adventure game where players play pirates sailing on the Indian Sea. You can play solo or with up to five other players to create a crew to adventure, pillage and steal with. It seems to have created a fairly details pirate experience and has a few interesting mechanics such as wind positioning aiding you in battle and being able to commandeer ships to add to you fleet. The ability to board and enter combat with other ships might just seem like your average MMO-RPG fight, but each player will be operating differently, one might be sailing the ship if you are in pursuit of another ship, some might be manning the cannons and some might be getting ready to board. I could see Skull and Bones being a big MMO-RPG with engaging game-play.
Nintendo now and with the rant I went on about Mario and Rabbids teaming up, I think its just best if I make this quick.
Yoshi has a new game coming to the Switch some time in 2018. The main mechanic of Yoshi (That's the name of the game, maybe a little confusing in conversation.) is that every stage has two side, so you will start on one and move along like any Nintendo platformer and then you'll be able to switch the stage around to reveal more coins, collectables and secrets. A fine premise that is very reminiscent of similar mechanics from Mario 64, Sunshine and Galaxy. I like the idea and its obviously cutesy and nice to look at, but Yoshi has never been the biggest Mario character so I'm not sure if this will get the best reception.
More cuteness now with a new Kirby game coming to the Switch called Kirby. Seriously, this whole naming thing is going to get confusing soon. Kirby, the game not the character, looks like a call back to Kirby's Dreamland from back on the Gameboy. In this Nintendo Action-RPG, you play as Kirby in Kirby, Kirby then adventures through the typical twee, colourful Kirby landscape, platforming, floating and inhaling along the way. The mechanic of this Kirby is that you can befriend NPC's along the way to team up and adventure with. It's a great idea and can help players through particularly tough areas that may be too much solo. Its cute, non-threatening and I'm sure will sell a bunch on the Switch around Christmas.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 has been announced. It will be a sequel to Xenoblade Chronicles, but will feature a new protagonist and a completely different story, so it could have been called anything for all the good it did for the franchise. Its a fantasy JRPG that is full of kindness and friendship and love and all that crap. Pretty much same old same old.
Fire Emblem Warriors is a new game in the Fire Emblem series. In this hack'n'slash game, the player takes control of different Fire Emblem hero's from the games past as they venture through the Fire Emblem world. I don't think it will differ from previous Fire Emblem games of late, but as a last point, the trailer really rams the whole friendship, working together, have faith and hope thing down your throat, may not be a problem for most players but I can see it rubbing some people up the wrong way.
A new Metroid is coming to the 3DS. Metroid Samus Returns looks like another game this year that is going back to what worked by taking inspiration from the Metroids of old on the GameBoy, Metroid 2 specifically. The trailer showed off a nice mix of game-play and cinematics but ultimately, this looks like a good old classic Metroid game. Obviously coming from such a source as the GameBoy the animation and mechanics have been refined for the modern day, smoother targeting, no more pixel perfect jumps, etc. Set for a September 15th release, we wont be waiting long to play Metroid Samus Returns.
There was a new Pokemon RPG kind of announced for the Switch. There is very little known about it or seen about it but apparently it's happening and all we can do is sit and wait. In other Pokemon related news though, Pokken Tournament DX is coming in the fall of this year. It's like the new Pokemon Stadium where players will be able to battle it out, one on one, on a Switch to see who has the best Pokemon. It's mainly a remastering of the fighting game that came out on the Wii but I'm sure it will play a lot better on the Switch where both players will be able each use one half of the Joy-Con controller.
Last but by no means least, Super Mario Odyssey. A logical jump from Galaxy 2 and this time its "open world", so Mario gets to run around a hub city searching for collectables and secrets before deciding to head off in your spaceship to battle Bowser and save the Princess. It seems pretty formulaic when you think about it, but Mario is good at what he does and who knows, this could be the game that redeems him in the eyes of many. Probably not though as for all the good Odyssey might do the franchise, Mario and the Rabbids I'm sure will take away from it, I really need to get over that.
Phil Spencer looked like he had a whale of a time at this years E3. Xbox had a load of games to talk about, show off and have people collectively "ooh" and "ah" over like a well executed fireworks display.
Yoshi has a new game coming to the Switch some time in 2018. The main mechanic of Yoshi (That's the name of the game, maybe a little confusing in conversation.) is that every stage has two side, so you will start on one and move along like any Nintendo platformer and then you'll be able to switch the stage around to reveal more coins, collectables and secrets. A fine premise that is very reminiscent of similar mechanics from Mario 64, Sunshine and Galaxy. I like the idea and its obviously cutesy and nice to look at, but Yoshi has never been the biggest Mario character so I'm not sure if this will get the best reception.
More cuteness now with a new Kirby game coming to the Switch called Kirby. Seriously, this whole naming thing is going to get confusing soon. Kirby, the game not the character, looks like a call back to Kirby's Dreamland from back on the Gameboy. In this Nintendo Action-RPG, you play as Kirby in Kirby, Kirby then adventures through the typical twee, colourful Kirby landscape, platforming, floating and inhaling along the way. The mechanic of this Kirby is that you can befriend NPC's along the way to team up and adventure with. It's a great idea and can help players through particularly tough areas that may be too much solo. Its cute, non-threatening and I'm sure will sell a bunch on the Switch around Christmas.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 has been announced. It will be a sequel to Xenoblade Chronicles, but will feature a new protagonist and a completely different story, so it could have been called anything for all the good it did for the franchise. Its a fantasy JRPG that is full of kindness and friendship and love and all that crap. Pretty much same old same old.
Fire Emblem Warriors is a new game in the Fire Emblem series. In this hack'n'slash game, the player takes control of different Fire Emblem hero's from the games past as they venture through the Fire Emblem world. I don't think it will differ from previous Fire Emblem games of late, but as a last point, the trailer really rams the whole friendship, working together, have faith and hope thing down your throat, may not be a problem for most players but I can see it rubbing some people up the wrong way.
A new Metroid is coming to the 3DS. Metroid Samus Returns looks like another game this year that is going back to what worked by taking inspiration from the Metroids of old on the GameBoy, Metroid 2 specifically. The trailer showed off a nice mix of game-play and cinematics but ultimately, this looks like a good old classic Metroid game. Obviously coming from such a source as the GameBoy the animation and mechanics have been refined for the modern day, smoother targeting, no more pixel perfect jumps, etc. Set for a September 15th release, we wont be waiting long to play Metroid Samus Returns.
There was a new Pokemon RPG kind of announced for the Switch. There is very little known about it or seen about it but apparently it's happening and all we can do is sit and wait. In other Pokemon related news though, Pokken Tournament DX is coming in the fall of this year. It's like the new Pokemon Stadium where players will be able to battle it out, one on one, on a Switch to see who has the best Pokemon. It's mainly a remastering of the fighting game that came out on the Wii but I'm sure it will play a lot better on the Switch where both players will be able each use one half of the Joy-Con controller.
Last but by no means least, Super Mario Odyssey. A logical jump from Galaxy 2 and this time its "open world", so Mario gets to run around a hub city searching for collectables and secrets before deciding to head off in your spaceship to battle Bowser and save the Princess. It seems pretty formulaic when you think about it, but Mario is good at what he does and who knows, this could be the game that redeems him in the eyes of many. Probably not though as for all the good Odyssey might do the franchise, Mario and the Rabbids I'm sure will take away from it, I really need to get over that.
Phil Spencer looked like he had a whale of a time at this years E3. Xbox had a load of games to talk about, show off and have people collectively "ooh" and "ah" over like a well executed fireworks display.
Xbox
Shadow Of War, the second installment in the Middle Earth series that began with Shadow Of Mordor which was an absolutely fantastic game, has a release date of October 10th this year. Shadow Of War looks very similar to Shadow Of Mordor in style and feel, which I think will aid it immensely. The main change this time around is that wherein Shadow Of Mordor you chose specific Orcs to turn and fight on your side when waging into battle, in Shadow Of War instead you turn entire Orc armies to fight with you against the forces of Sauron. The trailer showed off a couple of the mechanics along with a very funny, well written Orc that you convert to bolstered your army. I loved Shadow Of Mordor and I'm hoping Shadow Of War is going to be more of the same with more fantastic writing and story driven game-play, and hopefully the Nemesis system will be a bit more refined this time around.
Metro is a franchise that started life on the Xbox 360 back in 2010. Three years later it gained a sequel released on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 and went on to Redux versions of both the first two games in 2014. Now, three years after the remastered versions of the original game and its sequel, we're being treated to a brand new Metro game, Metro Exodus. Metro has always been about life after an apocalypse, where people held up in the underground train system to survive, occasionally venturing out to find food or better living quarters. The source material for Metro, Metro 2033 outlines this in a very detail manner, and even though there have been many books and now a couple of games, and even a board game, all produced by different authors and artists, the Metro Universe tends to follow the same themes of post-apocalyptic survival and the human condition. Metro Exodus's trailer seemed to have those two themes down, firstly making you trudge through an abandoned and dilapidated underground train system in the cold, unforgiving, darkness while fighting off mutated dogs and trying to make your escape back to the surface. Once that is done you find yourself staring out over a once beautiful but now destroyed landscape, when all of a sudden you're on the run from some sort of giant mutated bear having to use all your wits to keep your life. I liked the game-play trailer but it did seem a bit choreographed for me, its not that bad, but it does beg the question "If they put this much effort into this section of the game, does that mean the rest of the game takes a hit for it?"
Ori and the Will of the Wisps is the surprise sequel to Ori and the Blind Forest, a Metroid-Vania platforming game that is both saccharin sweet and pretty challenging. Not much was shown about Ori and the Will of the Wisps but I'm sure its expected to be much of the same in regards to game-play. The trailer was very sad and aimed to tug at the heart strings a bit giving off the feeling that something had died and the realization of a definitive end really coming across, hopefully this time it wont be Deus-ex Machina'd back to life rendering the whole journey kinda redundant.
State of Decay 2 is here. I don't really know what I can say about this as the trailer didn't really give much new information away, except this time its coop multiplayer. It kind of felt like Left 4 Dead as four characters made their way through fields and around small villages on the run from zombies. The main focus of SoD2 seems to be working together as a unit to survive, making sure you all have enough weapons, food, and mainly a place to live. As a coop zombie game it looks really good and I can see it being a massive hit with the Xbox community.
We were treated to a trailer for Crackdown 3 starring none other than Terry Crews as your commanding officer. It's been some time since a Crackdown game has been released, seven years to be exact, but Crackdown 3 is coming this year. It looks like not much has changed, you're still a super soldier jumping around the city on a search for glowing orbs to power yourself up. But if that's the case then I'm on board, whats wrong with some cathartic destruction clad in neon? I cant wait.
Forza 7 was definitely the big push at the Xbox event. Showing off a fantastic mix of game-play and pre-rendered footage all in 4K really let you see how far the franchise has come along the years. The game looks beautiful and super realistic in aesthetic, and feel supposedly, but that's the only selling point. Forza 7 will have a massive range of cards, over 700 and an exclusive partnership with Porsche to really show off some excellently designed cars. It may seem like the Forzas of old but I for one and looking forward to play this new installment with a much more defined focus on the cars and the racing experience.
Xbox had a couple of new IP's to showcase this year, starting with:
Sea Of Thieves showed off a fantastic game-play trailer that let us see just how the mechanics of plundering and pirating on the high seas work. You can build you crew, take your ship out on the choppy waves in search of islands and treasure. In this multiplayer pirate 'em up you will be attacked by other pirates as well as skeletons looking to hold on to their treasure and thus need to work as a team to make sure you make it out of those dark caves and shipwrecks. Sea Of Thieves looks like a lot of fun and could be very engrossing, although it is fighting against Skull and Bones in the same design space. Set for an early 2018 release date, there is a bit of time to wait for this piratey experience to hits the shelves.
Cuphead made an appearance with a short and sweet trailer showing the main character in different stages throughout the game and, by the looks of it, fighting off bosses left right and center. This run and gun Disney-esc game has branching level paths and gives you infinite lives for you to just keep battling away until you succeed or dramatically give up, throwing your controller at a wall. It feels like an old school arcade game, except that it doesn't badger you for coins every ten minutes just so you can continue, instead opting to ramp up the difficulty. This is almost certainly going to be a cult hit and with a release date of September 29th we wont be waiting long to play it.
The biggest IP Xbox had to offer this year was Anthem. Brought to us by Bioware, the same guys that did the Mass Effect games, it seems that they are willing to let Mass Effect sleep for a bit while they focus on this new Sci-fi MMORPG, so not a million miles away from what they know, but at least this may hit harder than MA: Andromeda did. You are a freelancer living in a post-apocalyptic community that has built cities and walls and began to thrive. This community also has built augmented suits of armour that allow for abilities like gliding and life support not to mention weapons. As freelancers, you and other members of this community head out into the wastelands to find loot, battle monsters and uncover secrets of the world. This looks amazing, I love the design of the characters and the environments and almost everything else is enticing enough to keep my eyes on this new IP.
Finally, probably the biggest announcement Xbox had this year, Project Scorpio has a name! It's going to be called the Xbox One X and the intention of this new console is to unify the Xbox One Family. The Xbox One X is said to be the most powerful console ever, with a 40% increase in processing power, 6 Tera flops, 326gb/s of memory bandwidth, an advanced liquid cooling system and centrifugal fan and a 4K UHD Blu-ray optical disc drive, I can see why. The One X is also bringing cross platform play to the table. Supposedly players playing on a One X will be able to play with players playing on the Windows 10 platform, allowing for a nice mix of play styles between players and more variety of places to play.
The Xbox One X is set to release November 7th this year and at a price point of $499 (or about £400) but yet to have any bundle details. I would love to say that I will be picking one up but I think I will be waiting a little bit on pulling the trigger as that price is little high right off the bat. But I will certainly be keeping my eye on the One X and I'm sure that it will be a massive hit over Christmas this year.
So that concludes out look at some recent announcements. Obviously E3 is still running for a couple more days so keep checking for new trailers, news and updates, but until next time I hope you've enjoyed our look through the main points from E3 and maybe even rejoiced in the banning of Aetherworks Marvel like I have.
See you guys soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment