Before I start, I have a couple of updates about my Summer task of clearing my backlog of games:
- Beat Rayman Origins about a week ago. Finished the hidden world, Night of the Livid Dead – boy was that a giant pain in the ass, and finished all time trials. I still need to complete a couple of medallions to get the platinum.
- I restarted Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia the other day and beat it the same day. I got stuck in Dracula’s Castle on the boss Blackmore three years ago. This time I actually did side quests to get better equipment. Challenging game, but fairly short.
- I restarted Advance Wars: Dual Strike yesterday. I got stuck in it quite a few years back; however, I’ve blown past the point all in day. The game is extremely challenging. I played a single mission for about 5 hours today. I’m currently on Mission 20.
- Still haven’t played more than 2 hours of Xenoblade. I’m a little hesitant to start another 70 hour RPG.
E3 this year wasn’t as great as many expected it to be. For the most part the conferences were a bore, and the games shown during them were the standard sequels, games that were already announced, or uninspired military shooter. The whole affair left me with a strange feeling. I was left almost almost uninterested in video games after the first day of conferences. I realized that watching a corporation talk during a business conference for an hour and a half is neither fun nor exciting. I can catch up with all the game news after the conference in 10 minutes by looking up trailers online of the games announced; this is what I did with Nintendo because I slept through there conference. This way I can just skip the tedium of business spiel and horrible looking games and get right to the gold. Anyway although the conferences were a little bit of a let down there were some games that were on the show floor that looked absolutely amazing. I have a bit of a long list of what I liked, but I will give you the top 10 games that got me most interestedand some honorable mentions.
Top 10 Games at e3
10. Amazing Spider-Man
What is this? A movie based title on a top 10 list? Blasphemy! Hear me out though. This is different. It actually looks good. It’s back to the open world setting. The camera is set closer to Spider-Man giving you a more cinematic feeling of swinging through New York. While swinging through the air, the player can pause at any time in a mode called “Web Rush”, giving them the opportunity to pre-select a route to bounce off buildings, flag poles, street lights, and land on a car with pinpoint accuracy. The combat is like an improved Batman Arkham Asylum system where you can use acrobatic flair and the environment at a wide array. You can take up Peter Parker’s camera and do a little photography work on the side. The game is set after the movie and tells an original story. The only real draw back I see is that some of the enemies are robots which is weird. But surprisingly, I found myself really wanting to get back to the city and swing around as Spider-Man. Did I mention you could play as Stan Lee too?
9. Pikmin 3
Pikmin 3 might be higher on my anticipation list if I was interested in buying a Wii-U at this point in time; however, I am not too interested. I have no need for another console at this point. I want to have a large amount of Nintendo games on the thing before I commit a price drop depending on how much the Wii-U costs will also factor into pruchasing. That being said Pikmin 3 does deserve recognition. It is the first HD game Nintendo has done, and it looks gorgeous. You can play with the wii mote for precise aiming of pikmin, and it’s a great launch title.
8. Paper Mario: Sticker Star
I suppose I should give the 3DS some recognition. I literally haven’t touched mine since December which is sad. I prefer playing games on my DS lite, but I am excited for an upcoming slew of games which at the top is Paper Mario. It’s going back to it’s RPG roots, and I cannot wait to get my hands on it. I do have some concerns with the battle system, but I will be glad to finally get something to play in my 3DS.
7. Beyond: Two Souls
Quantic Dream is back after the stellar Heavy Rain with a new cinematic experience that gives the player real choices which leads to a multitude of different scenarios. Each scene can lead to something different, and my story most likely isn’t the same story that you played through. I think Heavy Rain had about 24 different endings if I’m not mistaken — eat your heart Mass Effect fans. Quantic Dream has hired Ellen Page as the leading women in this new supernatural thriller as she copes with being tied to an invisible force that has been with her throughout her life. The player gets to experience 15 years of Jodie’s life, and even gets to take control the entity attached to Jodie.
6. Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch
Why is Ni No Kuni so low on this list? Well I didn’t actually see anything new at e3; however, I like to praise this game every chance I get. Because it looks absolutely gorgeous. If you have a PS3, if you like RPGS, even if you don’t like RPGs, YOU NEED THIS GAME. It’s made by Level-5 & Studio Ghibli. Level-5 are the producers of Dark Cloud, Dragon Quest VIII & IX, and Professor Layton. Studio Ghibli is the wonderful animation studio who brought you the movies: Princess Mononokae, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, and My Neighbor Totoro (among many other titles). They’re teaming up to make this beautiful action RPG where you control a little boy and his familiars (in the vein of pokemon). Just watch a live demo or two.
5. Tomb Raider
I’ve never actually played Tomb Raider. The series just wasn’t necessarily interested in the canon; however, next year’s reboot looks absolutely stunning. The game looks intense. How so? Well Lara gets impaled by a metal rebar in one cutscene, kills a deer for food in another, Stabs a man through the bottom of his jaw, and then Parachutes through a forest while getting smacked branches and blown by wind. That’s just a tiny preview of what is in store for this poor girl. I like Lara’s new design; it’s definitely more realistic. She looks grimy, and is in survivor mode. I’m also digging the action sequences.
4. The Last of Us
I think survival games were the highlight of e3 this year. This one has you surviving a post-Apocalyptic world where a fungus has caused people to turn to zombies. The zombie part has been down-played quite a bit since the original trailer; however, gameplay footage was finally shown at e3. It has the Naughty Dog cinematic flair of this generation, and it also has some crafting elements and inventory managing that looks neat. It looks beautiful to boot.
3. Far Cry 3
Another thing I like in games is that vibrant tropical island setting. Far Cry 3 has this. Exploring a giant tropical island with an amazing cast of crazies looked good last year. This year it looked even better. Hey look I just blew up a tiger with a grenade.
2. Dishonored
Did you ever want to be a fish? you should play Dishonored. A supernatural Steam-Punk world that has you assassinating with extreme variety. You can use stealth by leaping, and teleporting from pillar to pillar on the outside of a mansion, or you can literally jump into the body of a fish and swim through a drain into a bath room full of women, and then teleport to the rafters to avoid detection. Or you can go the action route, shooting, sword fighting, and using a plethora like summoning rats which you can then project your self into to escape. Watch some of the game play they showed and you’ll see why this looks so amazing.
1. Assassin’s Creed III
I’ve never played an Assassin’s Creed game for more than 5 minutes at a friend’s house, yet this is my number one game. The trailers didn’t excite me for this game when it was first announced. All I saw was an overly patriotic Assassin’s Creed game. Even when Connor’s, the protagonist, village was raped and pillaged by American colonists and he says he doesn’t stand for the liberty they fight for and is neutral in the war. Every game play footage Ubisoft shows has Connor launching an all out assault on the British. It just seems weird that they haven’t shown him to be neutral in any sense other them him saying he is.
I just nitpicked for a paragraph about why I disliked Assassin’s Creed III. Why did I pick it for my number one best game of e3? Because you can be a pirate. It’s as simple as that. I saw that amazing footage at Sony’s press conference, and I was sold. Also the gameplay on the land looks good. I’m surprised the parkour gameplay looked extremely fast and fluid. But mostly you can be a pirate.
Honorable Mentions
Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2
Darksiders 2
DmC
God of War: Ascension
Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance
Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon
New Super Mario Bros 2
New Super Mario Bros U
Project P-100
Rayman Legends
South Park: The Stick of Destiny
Sly: Thieves in Time
Watch_Dogs
The Crap Bucket: Games I wasn’t impressed with
Call of Duty Black Ops 2
Why? It’s just another Call of Duty game. I cannot believe this is how Microsoft ended there Conference. It bored me to death.
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow — Mirror of Fate
Why? I was excited at first. I liked Lords of Shadows for the PS3, but when I saw the game play videos for it. My excitement quickly turned to, meh.
Dead Space 3
Why? They turned it into a Lost Planet/Gears of War hybrid. It doesn’t have that claustrophobic, dark, dank, atmosphere. I kinda knew the direction this series was headed in after Dead Space 2.
Halo 4
Why? The game looked pretty, but the gameplay looked very boring. It seemed that 343 had to sacrifice the openess of Halo to make it look so good. The gameplay showed at the conference made me think that you will be walking in a straight line the entire campaign. Also I wasn’t a big fan on the enemy design. A lot of people said it looked more like Metroid Prime. Yeah I suppose it did, but a much more linearized version of it.
Resident Evil 6
Why? Did you see that gameplay trailer they showed? What the hell was that? Leon flopping on his back to shoot zombies, running faster then the speed of explosions, flying a copter through quick time events. My eyes were so assaulted. It looked terrible. Maybe the game has some redeeming feature, but at the moment I do not want.
Splinter Cell: Blacklist
Why? It just looked like another contrived military shooter that has you calling in air stikes, and facing off against a machine gun that is mounted on the back of a pick-up truck.
So those are my impressions of e3. Sorry for such a long post. It took a long time to decide if I should actually type this list up. Just consider yourself lucky I didn’t decide to write anything about the honorable mention list which has some really amazing games that I plan to get, but not games that impressed me as much as my top 10.
The press conferences were indeed lackluster this year, but there were a handful of titles that interest me (some of them them being mentioned on your respected lists). Of all the games presented last week, Watch Dogs was the one that impressed me the most, being my favorite game of E3 2012.
As far as the Wii U goes, it’s still too early for me to decide given whether I’ll even consider purchasing a next-generation console. At least the 3DS (among others) will keep me company for the time being.
I will probably still pick up Mirror of Fate no matter what the reviews say, so long as they don’t say the game is abysmal or unplayable.
I’m glad to see Far Cry 3 so high on your list. If I choose to pick it up eventually for like, $30 or so, I may have a compadre for MP?
In general, I really need to stop walking into E3′s thinking that my tracking list won’t get too much larger. Granted, many of the games I’m now interested in probably won’t be coming out until next year, but 4-7 new games for the list in two days is pretty ridiculous. Prior to last week, I had only four games on the radar for the whole rest of the year (Theatrhythm, NSMB2, R&C Collection, AC3).
I want to thank you for reminding me of Ni No Kuni. Every time I consider packing away my PS3 due to lack of use, a game shows up that gives me one more reason to keep it plugged in. The style that they’re using is beautiful and I’ve loved Level 5′s previous titles (especially Dark Cloud and Dark Cloud 2).
Far Cry 3 has me on the fence (but in a good way). Yes it’s a shooter, but it’s not a Call of Duty or Halo or Medal of Honor – it’s a game where you’re asked to bust in and kick some a-double-s. Those are the shooters that I like; unconventional ones like L4D or Half-Life, or games that ask the player to use their heads more than a place to put their headsets.
I’m curious as to why you listed Watch_Dogs in your honorable mentions list. There was by-the-numbers third-person gameplay but the presentation and the dialogue is what wowed me.
I want to see more of Watch_Dogs. It does look really good, but I want to see more of those really good mechanics. I was excited for it because it had some cool ideas, but I want to see it more fleshed out in some demos before I place it above games that I’m extremely looking forward to.
I wasn’t really impressed by anything, sadly.