E3 2016 Thoughts: Ubisoft, Sony, Nintendo

Ubisoft:

Girlwood.

Ghost Recon Wildlands is the umpteenth title of a series I never bothered to even look into to be honest. But I suppose they are realistic tactical shooters just like Rainbow Six.

I am definitely looking forward to South Park The Fractured But Whole as I really liked the first one!
Watch Dogs 2 will hopefully fix the performance, the textures and the bugs plagueing the first one.
And For Honor might be worth checking out.

Rating: C

Sony:

Easily the best show of E3 2016!

Starting with a great opening with the orchestra and God of War looks fantastic and is upon further investigation indeed a sequel and not a remake. Days Gone is a survival zombie third person shooter adventure in daylight with running hordes of zombies.

The Last Guardian has finally a release date, but unless the reviews will convince me, I am not very hyped for it at this moment. Horizon Zero Dawn looks like The Witcher, Tomb Raider, Zelda and sci-fi combined and also very promising.

Detroit: Become Human is getting ambitious of having many choices to progress the story. Resident Evil 7 was the biggest WTF surprise as no one expected the series to go first person!

The Playstation VR will sell for 399 dollars, I will have to check the reviews for each VR device at the end of this year before I will decide on which one I will get.

A Crash Bandicoot collecion of remasters seems interesting as I never played the platformers before! Death Stranding starring Norman Reedus, I have no idea what to expect from Hideo Kojima's new game, all I know is that the trailer was both cryptic and pretentious.

And finally the Spider Man game developed by Insomniac Games really clicked with me as well.

Rating: A

Nintendo:

Honestly, Nintendo was the biggest dissapointment for me.

Having only The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Pokemon Sun and Moon to show for the Wii U and 3DS, and nothing else of interest or surprises means that I really was craving for more. Even worse is that there was not even a Nintendo Direct happening this time.

I kind of understand that they are most likely wrapping up all of their projects for the NX as it apparently seems that no other Wii U games are coming out other than the troublesome looking Paper Mario Color Splash and an apparent Pikmin 4, but I am definitely not used to them having no surprise unravels this time.

Simply put, 2 promising titles was insufficient and way below the quantity of quality titles we normally get from the Big N. The times are changing, let's just hope that Nintendo will manage to recapture gamer's hearts once again with the reveal of the NX and her games, which is bound for a march release next year.

Rating: D

E3 2016 Thoughts: Electronic Arts, Bethesda, Microsoft

Electronic Arts:

The conference within a conference event made me chuckle.

Known for it's numerous sports titles, Electronic Arts had an average run and it's too bad that Mass Effect Andromeda revealed little. Battlefield 1 looks great, and Titanfall 2 looks promising, adding single player plus portability to PlayStation 4 is nice.

The Stonemountain footage was random and funny.

Rating: C

Bethesda:

Despite being very famous for The Elder Scrolls and Fallout series, I have yet to start with either of them. My favorite Bethesda title at this moment is Wolfenstein The New Order, but I am intrigued by the new Doom as well.

As for the show, Quake Champions was a nice surprise, but later on I heard that it would be having multiplayer only. The Skyrim Special Edition might finally tempt me to start with Arena. Prey seemed to be a remake or reimagination? 

Dishonored 2 however was my favorite presentation for showing lenghty gameplay, behind the scenes and commentary.

Rating: C

Microsoft:

Xbone S seems like a good deal, and backwards compatibility is also live these days.

Gears of War 4 looks solid and bland at the same time. Recore seems like good times of platforming and action, and Scalebound seems like a typical Platinum Games title, but with co-op. Sea of Thieves had a boring trailer but good multiplayer footage with pirate ships!

Project Scorpio is apparently the most powerful upcoming console with 6 teraflops, but I understand that it's not a successor to the Xbone yet.

I am more surprised that almost all of the shown Xbone games are exclusive on Windows 10 as well, meaning that I will have to migrate for free soon
and get even more busy with video games!

Rating: C

I am not even gonna review the PC Gaming show as it was boring again, having no fixed identity unlike the other conferences.

E3 2016: Expectations and Dreams

With E3 2016 lurking around the corner starting tomorrow, it's time to list a new list of Expectations and Dreams, before the annual show will commence once again:

Expectations:

1.The Legend of Zelda: Insert Subtitle

With development time easily reaching Ocarina of Time and Skyward Sword, the next major Zelda will no doubt spark the interest and hype back into the franchise, as I am sure that Nintendo will pull out a great mixture of old and new tropes to the series, including an "open world" of tackling the dungeons in any order.

2.Resident Evil 7, REmake 2

With the 20th anniversary, it will be utterly impossible for Capcom to ignore this commemoration, because the timing could not be better. Either one of these titles could be presented, and for both cases, I hope that the horror roots will be completely restored, just as the 2 Revelations already marked the right paths.

3.Final Fantasy VII Remake

A release date is unlikely, but an exciting gameplay trailer alongside Squeenix's many other major titles will no doubt empower the nostalgia countless gamers have for Final Fantasy VII, including me. All it takes is for more prominent characters to re-appear, more exciting combat, and a glimpse of the Gold Saucer!

4.Mass Effect Andromeda

It's time for Bioware to expand the Mass Effect universe further, with or without Captain Shepard. Many are eager to finally see footage of Andromeda, but perhaps even more interesting, I can't wait to see the return of the vast dialogue and lore, besides the above average third person shooting.

5.Paper Mario: Color Splash

Unfortunately, everyone expects Sticker Star 2.0 to happen here. If only Intelligent Systems knew that we all love the first 2 Paper Mario's, but that we are divided by the other 2. Is there still time for the traditional gameplay, partners and unique NPC's with story chapters to come back to Color Splash?

6.Sonic the Hedgehog

Sega has been mumbling about rejuvenating their flagship franchise for a while now, and it seems that if we forget about the doomed Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice for a moment, that we just might finally see, either a proper Sonic Adventure 3, or a proper classic 2D Sonic side scroller appearing at E3.

7.Yooka Laylee

I have high hopes for this one, as much of the original team behind the famous N64 platformers has gathered once again, and it just might re-ignite massive interest back into the "collectathon" genre once we can try Yooka Laylee out.

Dreams:

1.F-Zero U, 3D, or NX

By far my most demanded dream game, F-Zero deserves to return to the modern family of Nintendo's IP's, and it easily differentiates itself enough from Mario Kart, by mere speed alone. Just use the GX/AX template and expand from there, with HD, online, a course editor, amiibo and so on and so on!

2.Seiken Densetsu

Mana titles have appeared over the years, but none have come close to the quality 2 and 3 brought to us on the SNES. What if Square Enix is finally able to transition the gameplay over properly? Either on a handheld or a console, Seiken Densetsu deserves another chance. Or, while I am on topic, perhaps Secret of Evermore ought to deserve another chance as well.

3.Advance Wars

Enough with Fire Emblem already lads. It's been 8 years since the last title emerged, and therefore it's time for another Advance Wars, which I always preferred over their medieval counterpart. Just make it appealing for a larger audience, don't fix the gameplay and introduce a map editor with the ability to share maps online.

4.Mega Man

All of the drama and the shame surrounding the development of Mighty No. 9 does not mean that Mega Man cannot return after a 6 year hiatus. I already spoke about this in a previous blogpost this year, but to summarize, Capcom should either reboot the franchise, or concentrate on one of the various cliffhangers.

5.Warcraft IV

I have only played 1 hour of gameplay from World of Warcraft. Merely for investing time alone into MMORPG's am I not interested by them, and I also dislike that pausing is difficult when you go on long quests with many other players. Anyway, I grew up with Warcraft 1, 2 and 3, and they only got better with each title. I would love to see Blizzard concentrate on Warcraft IV after releasing sequels to StarCraft and Diablo, and also having just released a new IP in recent years.

6.Half Life 3

Gabe should break the "can't count higher than 2" curse already and finally make everyone go absolutely crazy by announcing Half Life 3, since Gordon Freeman and G-Man deserve to return! The first title remains a great long FPS adventure, and the second title is pretty good on it's own as well, except for leaving with a cliffhanger.