E3 comes to a close and team GAMbIT finishes things of in a very relaxed manner. E3 was a lot less jammed packed this year thanks in part to some big publishers doing other things, but in the end this was a good things as lines were smaller and press could see more games. Being able to see more game means that so many smaller titles get for time and have the opportunity to shine. Check out of “BEST OF E3” awards tomorrow to see some fun and interesting titles. We finally got around to seeing the big AAA titles and have some thoughts.
Mafia III
Mafia 3 looked fantastic and 2K knew this. They had the most intricate booth on the floor that had recreated a chunk of New Orléans, complete with people tossing beads from the rafters, live music all day, free booze and fortune tellers. It was a fun experience, but the game itself really holds some promise. The open-world game takes place in 1968 and stars our main character back from Vietnam. During this turbulent time our hero, Lincoln comes home and begins to take control after a huge betrayal.
Sure, it is fairly stock, but the setting really makes this one really special. I’m so sick of open-word games copying New York and Los Angeles, so seeing New Orléans is a treat. The music is also fantastic and the game look absolutely huge with a lot to explore. While we saw a lot of gameplay we can’t show it to you, because reason, but it looks really good and has the potential to build a strong narrative. Mafia 3 won a bunch of awards, but it’s against our policy to name a game a winner if we can’t actually play it. Still, this is one on our “Must Watch” list and I’ll be getting it when it drops.
The Elder Scrolls Legends
Bethesda had a lot to show and a lot to not show cough Quake cough, but we did get some time with their card game Elder Scrolls Legends. I am no fan of the card game market that feels like it’s only there to cash in on Hearthstone. I understand GWENT because that was an actual card game already, but this is something all new. It feels much like Hearthstone, but uses some sort of lane mechanic that mixes things up.
It also changes things by allowing any card in play to attack the other players avatar directly. This really fucks things up on a mental level and requires new strategy that is at the very least refreshing. It’s still early and we got out butts kicked by the AI, but it was a good bit of fun. Hell, we even signed up for the Beta (you can too) just to see it through.
#ElderScrollsLegends at #E3 #E32016
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The King of Fighters XIV
Everyone’s favorite fighters are burning to fight once again in The King of Fighters XIV. There were only a couple of monitors set up to play the game sop you can imagine the line of fans waiting to take a stab at the game. The game is fully 3D and while not the first game in 3D, I do believe it’s the first 3D game in the core series.
I’m sure I’ll be corrected in the comments if it isn’t. The action is fast as fluid and everything looks really smooth. Still, there is something lost in this transition in 3D, but it still looks good. It’s just a shame that the only major 2D fighter has finally left the past behind.
Troll And I
Maximum Games had a little booth showing off some interesting titles that seemed to originate from across the pond. This is why I love E3, or at least this smaller E3, because small publishers and devs get the change to show off really cool things. Troll And I is one such game that did some really cool things. You control two characters, a pre-teen Nathan Drake guy with dreadlocks, and a huge lumbering Troll. It’s starts out all fun and games until these Dark Crystal like goblins come around and you kill them in gruesome ways.
Puzzles require some serious thinking and getting the two characters to work together. Even more fun is that the game supports couch co-op so two people can play at once. The devs even said the world will become more populated with things so that both players will always be doing something when the separate. There is a lot here to get excited about, so be sure to stick around for more as news on the game comes through.
#Troll at #MaximumGames booth at #E32016 #E3
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Call of Duty Infinite Warfare
What the fuck happened to Call of Duty? The new CoD was shown behind closed doors and was the first time that I nearly fell asleep during the presentation. Seriously, I actually nodded off as nothing was happening on the screen. The game is set in the far future so any connection to it is automatically gone.
The fancy gameplay had the team onscreen killing a bunch of lifeless of robots through city streets until a future F-22 Raptor lands in front of you, you jump in the cockpit and blast off into space, then things turn into Star Wars and space shooting. I will say that some of the weapons were neat, but nothing particular new, even for a far future game.
It made no sense and was a god-damn nightmare. The video was previews by Infinity Ward people saying this is the game they always wanted to make. Well, someone should have told them that’s not what fans what. In fact this is why (and I can’t back this up) that I think Activision bundled in the Call of Duty Remaster and made it locked into the collectors editions.
Behind closed doors #CallOfDuty #InfiniteWarfare #CoD #E32016 #E3
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Days Gone
This one was a surprise as it looked a lot like another survival game. I was wrong, as always, and instead the game tasks you with surviving a post apocalyptic world that has just fallen to some sort of infection/disease. Yes, it’s zombies. Yes. it’s really played out. Still, the game has you taking on mission as a bounty hunter in a open-world and looks to ignore the zombies in the narrative.
That’s not to say the zombies aren’t a threat as these are straight out of World War Z. They work in huge packs and bodies can pile up creating barriers of dead (deader?) zombies. It’s like all the fun scenes from World War Z in video game form. It looks like a blast and starts, both in voice and model, Jedi Starkiller.
We actually ran into him a number of times on the floor running around excited about everything. Cool, cool dude, but I always forget his name (Sam Witwer). I like to think that this game is the story of a Starkiller clone that got free and landed on this earth-like planet.
God of War 4
Another games with a wall of awards that you can’t play… God of War 4 looks gorgeous and they did a gameplay playthrough of the first mission of the game. It looked fun and it seems Kratos is in Viking land after killing all the Greek Gods. I suppose when you live to kill Gods you go where the work takes you.
Things are very cinematic, but the killing hasn’t improved much from what I could see. The playthough showed a major encounter with a troll that was a lot of fun to see and didn’t have a great deal of QTE that I could see.
Again, it looked nice, but I need to play it to see if there really is anything new to it all. Kratos does have a son now (what?) and looked conflicted at the end of the demo with show compassion to “The Boy” before a Skyrim dragon fly’s by.
Pico VR Headset
Pico showed of their new VR headset at E3 and it was interesting. The headset is incredibly because it does not connect to a PC like the other units out there. Instead the Pico puts all the horsepower into the attached controller that uses a snapdragon processor. It’s a cool idea that makes the unit portable (something that is a first) and they say a full charge will give you 3 – 5 hours depending on use. The controller is based on the SNES controller so you can expect most games to work okay as your head works for movement in most games. The Pico is based on Android and is compatible with Unity so getting games onto the platform should be pretty easy. They also have their own SDK as well for Pico dedicated software. The space game I played was a lot of fun and it was nice spinning around without the fear of pulling out the plug from the computer.
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And that’s it for this years E3 convention. Tomorrow afternoon you can expect our “BEST OF E3” awards where we tell you the games that matter to us here at GAMbIT. I leave you with us enjoying some Super Soul Bros. with WWE Superstar Xavier Woods. See ya next year!
Super Soul Bros with WWE star Xavier Woods #NewDayRocks
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