Not gonna lie, I am surprisingly intrigued at Open Ocean, most notably how they'll manage to make a mythical creature game dark and gritty.
Battle Royale: The Last Generation Of An SNES-CD Saga
- Thread starter RySenkari
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E3 2016 (Part 3)
Apple Keynote - E3 2016
Apple's keynote begins with John Carmack taking the stage and thanking those in attendance, followed by a brief speech discussing the recent success of the Virtua and the Oculus. He says that this year's presentation is all about "Stage 2" for the Virtua, the next level of interactive and immersive entertainment that will put players in their favorite games like never before. This is a segue into a presentation focused on three "Virtua" titled games coming to the console later this year. The first is Virtua Hero, an interactive RPG experience in which the player can customize their hero and then experience their own virtual quest that can have a variety of different outcomes depending on the player's actions. The game looks a bit simple in terms of storyline and gameplay, but as an immersive experience, it looks to be the most exciting RPG yet, with gorgeous graphics and very realistic motion controls, and when we got our chance to play this game at Apple's interactive booth, we were quite blown away. Next up, Virtua Daytona, a totally revamped version of Sega's classic arcade franchise. This game MAJORLY ramps up the number of tracks, with every single current NASCAR track playable in the game, meaning that there are dozens of racing levels to enjoy. This game will be fully VR compatible, and Apple plans to market a number of realistic accessories alongside the game, including a full racing seat and steering wheel accessory to give fans the full Daytona experience (this accessory will also be compatible with Virtua Rally, NASCAR 2K, and other Apple racing titles). We then got a presentation for Virtua Fighter Infinity 2, coming in September. In addition to being a full fledged traditional fighting game, Virtua Fighter Infinity 2 will also include an extensive first person fighting mode much more detailed and feature-rich than the one in the original game. Designed to be a fully immersive fighting experience that Carmack says will "change the way we look at fighting games forever", this mode includes complex motion controls, and Apple will also be launching a series of force feedback accessories so that players will be able to feel the blows of their opponents. We got to try this one out at the booth as well, and don't worry, the force feedback doesn't actually hurt, but it is pretty intense and far more realistic than the rudimentary force feedback gear that was sold in the 90s. With these three titles, Apple looks to be bringing the arcade experience back to homes in a big way, and after this part of the presentation, Carmack tells the audience that there's one more thing to show, but first, he wants to introduce more of the great games coming soon to the Apple Virtua in the next couple of years. We're then treated to a pair of "developer spotlight" videos, in which upcoming Virtua games are shown off by the development teams behind them. The first of these games is called Apis, a "bee RPG" of sorts in which the player is a young worker bee who is called into service by the queen to explore outside the hive. The game blends realistic bee physics and behavior with anthropomorphized bee emotions, so while it's a fantastical game about a colony of bees, it also takes itself quite seriously, and features gorgeous graphics depicting the individual bees and their hive. It almost looks like an "Assassin's Creed: Beehive" type of game, and we're excited to see where the developers take this one. Then, we got a look at a game still early in development. Simply called Vegas, it's an open world crime simulator in which the player is a small-time criminal in Las Vegas, and can choose to either become a professional gambler to make their fortune, or earn their fortune through criminal activities, or both. The game features a huge variety of casinos and casino games, but also a combat system reminiscent of the True Crime or Yakuza games. It's one of the more intriguing titles of the show, and again, we're definitely looking forward to it, even if it won't be out for a while.
Next came a segment focusing exclusively on Gemini games, pretty much the only such segment of the show. Sonic Worldbreakers, an exhilarating action title that eschews the more traditional platforming of The Rings Of Order in favor of a more speed focused title broken down into shorter segments, was the focus of the presentation, and as is the case with other Sonic games on the platform, it looks extremely good. Quintet's Walls Of Caradae was one of the best looking games of the show, combining elements of games like ActRaiser with the frantic slash and burn style of Dynasty Warriors. In it, a prince must defend his kingdom from invaders on all sides. This game released recently in Japan to the highest sales numbers ever for a Gemini game, and it's coming here in August. Then, we got to see more footage of the upcoming Alex Kidd vs. Commander Keen, perhaps the year's most anticipated Gemini game. This is a wild top-down action adventure in which the two young heroes have been pitted against one another by Kidd's earliest nemesis, King Janken, who has obtained an artifact that allows him to reach through worlds. Janken has kidnapped Becky Blaze, and has blamed Kidd for the crime, causing Commander Keen to go after him. Kidd's fisticuffs style contrasts well with Keen's array of blaster weapons, and as the two journey toward a confrontation, their friends must find a way to get them to team up before it's too late. The game looks utterly hilarious, and should bring plenty of joy to Commander Keen fans, while it's also awesome to see Alex Kidd again after 25 years. We got a few other small previews, including one for a crossover Puyo Puyo and Tetris game that should prove quite exciting to play, and also very addictive. After this segment, Carmack returned to the stage, and announced that it was time to talk about the rest of Apple's plans for "Stage 2" of the Virtua's life cycle. For that, he introduced Steve Jobs to the stage, to roaring applause from the crowd. Jobs spoke briefly about the original philosophy behind the Virtua's design, and that Apple had to sacrifice some horsepower for the sake of VR technology. Now, three years have passed, and Apple no longer needs to make that sacrifice. The company can finally bring together both hardware power and immersion tech, and they'll do that with the new Apple Virtua-S, the upgraded model of the Virtua. The Virtua-S is three times as powerful as the Virtua, more than capable of handling full 4K graphics and full HDR imaging, while also boosting the speed and detail of the Oculus VR and the responsiveness of the Virtua's motion controls. Jobs then displays the graphics from several upcoming games, including Doom 4 and Scalebound, to show the power of the new hardware. The games look incredibly impressive, with Doom 4's fidelity and frame rate nearly matching that of a high end PC. He pulls up a multiplayer battle from Call Of Duty: Altered Warfare to demonstrate the responsiveness of the controls, and uses a cutscene from Thrillseekers: Thin Air 2 to show off the Virtua-S' lighting and ray-tracing capabilities. He continues to discuss the upgraded tech for a few more minutes, showing off more graphical detail and high-end lighting tricks to show how well the Virtua-S does with first party games, and also how well the graphical upscaling works even on non-4K displays. After all of this, he announces the release date: December 9, 2016. Then, the price: $399.99 for the Virtua-S base system, $499.99 for the Virtua-S and Oculus combo. The release date is definitely sooner than some of us expected, while the price is right around the expected range. After this segment of the presentation is over, Jobs then briefly discusses some gaming related iOS updates and announces some new features and titles for the iPhone 7, nothing too major is revealed here but for those gaming on Apple's mobile platforms, it did show how dedicated Apple is to maintaining compatibility between the Virtua, the Gemini, and the latest iPhone models.
We got a couple quick game previews next: First up, Steel Combatant Vexial, a sequel to 2014's revival title. The mech cockpit style of gameplay returns, and while the preview focused mostly on the motion controls and Virtua-S graphical enhancements, we did get hints at the storyline, including the return of Crusher Gantz and the introduction of a new protagonist, a woman named Vex, while also teasing at the return of Layla. It's fun mech combat and looks really graphically impressive, not much more to say. This was followed up by an intriguing game called Vidnight, in which the player has to switch back and forth between different cameras to spot bad guys before getting killed. The VR aspect of the game makes for some really exciting horror, and we doubt you'll want to play this without an Oculus, as the VR REALLY enhances the visual effect. Then, we got a preview trailer for a brand new single player Panzer Dragoon title that looks to be in the vein of Zeta and Phanta. The preview shows a dragon flying over a world almost totally covered in water, and the protagonist, a young man, searching for any sign of land on the horizon as he rides his dragon across the endless ocean. The game's title is revealed as Panzer Dragoon Aquarius, and its release date is given as 2018. After this teaser, John Carmack again addresses the crowd and thanks them for coming, but just before the stage goes dark, we hear a sultry female voice with a British accent, saying "You didn't think you were going to end this show without telling them what I've been up to, did you, love?" The video screen turns back on, and we see a high-heeled boot stepping on the ground, which pans up to reveal the beautiful Bayonetta in all her glory. We then get a fairly long trailer combining a gameplay preview with a storyline reveal, essentially revealing that the final battle between heaven and hell is about to begin, and that Bayonetta needs to choose a side. She says that she honestly thought the final battle would be both sides teaming up against her, to which an exhausted Enzo replies "you'd like that, wouldn't you?" We also see the reveal of a new angel woman who fights like Bayonetta and Jeanne, using brutal attacks but with a holy motif rather than a demonic one, though it's not revealed whether this new character is friend or foe. We also see Bayonetta and Jeanne walking into what looks like Purgatory, battling both demonic and angelic forces as they go to rescue a friend who's being punished there. The new combat style looks more intense than ever, with more time-freezing and space-bending attacks, more complex combos, and more bloody brutality and sexy fanservice, and all of this insanity is set to a remixed version of the classic song "Blue Moon". We then finally get the Bayonetta 3 logo. The video ends with "2017" on a black screen, and Bayonetta's voice saying "don't keep me waiting...", and then the presentation ends.
Apple's presentation focused heavily on tech, but also delivered pretty strongly on the new game front, with some exciting previews for some of next year's biggest titles. Apple is leaning really hard on VR and interactivity, perhaps even moreso than Nintendo, and the Gemini looks to have a healthy crop of new titles coming as well. The Virtua-S is a LOT more powerful than the Nexus Pro, and power gamers will definitely want it, but is it stronger than Nintendo's Reality upgrade? We'll probably have to wait a few months longer to find out...
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All the big game companies were on display at E3 2016, and many of the little ones too! Here's the best of the games from E3's third party keynotes and floor presentations, and as you'll see, many of the best games of the show were shown outside of the big speeches...
Activision's booth was jam-packed with major games, but our focus was on four. Of course, Call Of Duty: Altered Warfare was the biggest game present, and while the main gameplay hasn't changed too much, the game's setting and premise are a major twist: it's the first Call Of Duty game to focus on alternate history. Instead of one big plot, this game returns to the old style of storyline for the series, with four different stories. There's a World War I themed scenario in which Theodore Roosevelt wins the presidency in 1912, taking America to war in 1915, and you play as an American doughboy entering the brutal trench warfare in France. Of course, the ever-popular "What if the Nazis won World War II?" scenario appears, in a 1960s era scenario in which America fights Nazi Germany in World War III. Then, there's another World War III scenario, taking place in the 1980s, after nuclear war has broken out and the American army rushes desperately toward Moscow to prevent an all out strike that will doom the entire world. Finally, there's a 2000s scenario, where you play as a soldier in the Indian army in a world where Pakistan and India fought a war in the aftermath of 9/11. The multiplayer mode even features a "create your own alternate history" scenario, in which you can have one of dozens of different armies from different countries and eras of time battling it out in a deathmatch to the finish. Altered Warfare will surely please FPS fans and alternate history buffs alike, while Thrillseekers: Thin Air 2 promises to please fans of beautiful women and extreme sports, in this sequel to 2013's game focused on aerial extreme sports. Thin Air 2 has a new feature called "Secret Spot", an open-world, procedurally generated mode in which players can look for the perfect place to engage in skateboarding, snowboarding, surfing, and all manners of thrillseeking. The original Thin Air revivified the series in the eyes of a lot of fans, so Thrillseekers: Thin Air 2 should be another big hit. Activison also showed off a brand new IP, called Fightfest, essentially an open world, battle royale type game in which 100 players roam around a huge town (sort of modeled off of Sturgis, South Dakota from what we could glean from the preview videos) and beat each other senseless. It actually features a fairly deep and complex combat system, and even though the game looks like it might be fairly silly, it could also be the next big competitive game. We then got a big update on The Hidden City, which some fans took to calling "NoiRPG" after that intriguing black and white trailer from last year. The game takes place during the Great Depression, and you play a down on his luck private detective taking cases to make his rent. When you uncover a criminal conspiracy, you have to decide just how deep the rabbit hole you want to go. There's so much to do in this game, from simple missing persons cases to complex quest lines, and there's also an incredibly deep morality and relationship system. The game's 30s era aesthetic is absolutely beautiful, and we have no doubt that this will be one of next year's biggest hits if it's as good as the previews indicate.
Acclaim's booth wasn't quite so busy this year, though we did get another look at Destined 3, which comes out in November and introduces a lot of new characters, while promising players that some old favorites will die and their actions will determine which ones. It seems like that aspect of the game might have been included for shock value, but the combat itself looks really promising, and we do like the addition of branching storylines to what would otherwise be a fairly ho-hum action brawler. Of course, Acclaim is also publishing Doom 4, and people were crowding the booth to play. The graphics look incredible, combat is as brutal as ever, and there are a ton of weapons to choose from, along with a ferocious multiplayer mode in which fun is the name of the game. Doom 4 looks like pure, glorious fanservice and a big thank you letter to fans of the series, and we can't wait until we get to play. Unfortunately, it won't be coming out until early next year.
Electronic Arts devoted a surprising amount of attention to the upcoming game Lego Worlds, a massive, open world game focused on the Lego world and various other properties. EA has been quietly publishing Lego titles for many years, including games based on both the DC and Marvel franchises, Harry Potter, Star Wars, and others, but Lego Worlds looks to bring them all together and will allow the player to build pretty much anything they want, making this potentially one of next year's biggest sleeper hits. We've also been keeping our eye on EA's many, many sports titles, with Madden NFL 17 looking to be another thrilling installment of the popular football series, and NBA Elite 17 looking like perhaps the best game in the series to date, with an upgraded physics engine and the most robust career storyline yet. NHL 17 is also looking like a winner this year, thanks to improved graphical presentation and improved announcer AI to make games sound as realistic as ever... and of course, this year also features the return of the popular NCAA Basketball 17 and NCAA Football 17, after that historic 5-4 Supreme Court decision last year gave college players the rights to profit from their likenesses. The two games feature major presentation improvements and should be some of the best college sports titles ever made, and fans are quite happy to have them back, which should generate huge sales. We're also excited for next year's Derelict, in which players will be able to explore space looking through the wreckage of old spaceships and space stations. The sandbox horror title features some excellent FPS gameplay and gorgeous graphics, and will likely be finished sometime late next year. And Star Wars: Shatterpoint, a combat focused Star Wars title, also makes its way to console and PC sometime next year. Featuring what is easily the most complex combat system ever in a Star Wars game, with parries, ripostes, and timely dodges, it should revolutionize how players think of a Star Wars title, and could be the best Star Wars game ever.
Ubisoft always brings a ton of new games to E3, and that's the case with their lineup this year as well. Blackheart: Lucky 7 is coming very soon, and looks as wild and ferocious as ever, though it's a bit more grounded than some recent Blackheart titles, with slightly less fanservice and more of a realistic combat focus. Surprisingly, players will start out as Messiah this time around, though it appears that she and Sadira are on better terms, and that players will have plenty of time to take the sadistic secret agent Sadira out for a spin as well. We also got a VERY brief teaser for Metal Gear Black, the confirmed Metal Gear and Blackheart crossover that will combine characters and elements from both worlds. It looks like Raiden will be the game's primary protagonist, and he'll be teaming up with Sadira and Messiah to stop a world threatening foe... though we may yet see Solid Snake return if the game is set before the events of Metal Gear Solid IV. The crossover looks to be at least a year away though, so fans will have to speculate on what's coming next. We also got to see a lot more of Steep, and this Thrillseekers meets Far Cry extreme sports adventure looks incredible, though it remains to be seen just how the intense storyline will serve the extreme sports gameplay. It looks like the four protagonists will spend a lot of their time dodging criminal pursuers, we just hope that leaves enough time for actual sports. Next up, For Honor, which will see warriors of different eras and places go into glorious battle, both with each other and against each other. Fans of intense hack and slash gameplay should be pleased, and the graphics look outstanding. Tom Clancy's The Operative, a mix of spy thriller and war shooter, is also headed to console and PC, and as the company's first new Tom Clancy IP in several years, it looks to mix the best elements of games like Splinter Cell and Delta Force, while also introducing some RPG elements to the mix such as loot and character progression. We like what we've seen so far, but we'll need to learn more of the story before we know if this will be another classic or just a pretender. Finally, we got a very early look at a fantasy themed project from Ubisoft's Montreal studio, Fairy: The Endling. Taking some dark fantasy cues from games like Fairytale and Haze, the game combines Zelda-esque adventure with some heavy storyline elements, and even includes work from Jim Henson's studio and voicework from Frank Oz. This game is extremely early in development, but the snippets reveal an incredible world and a whole new style of fantasy gameplay, and we're excited to hear more about this game in the months ahead.
Take-Two's presentation focused mostly on new gameplay and items for Grand Theft Auto Online, which has become one of the most lucrative MMO titles in recent years. There's some exciting new heists and a new race mode for Speed City, and we even got a tease at a riverboat casino that can either be gambled from or robbed. However, the big game announcement from Take-Two was focused on Doggerland, a Neolithic-themed open world survival game in which the player must gather resources and battle prehistoric beasts. Rockstar, who is developing the game, promised a very large multiplayer area with both PvP and PvE challenges, and this game definitely seems more like an RPG than anything else Rockstar has ever done. Some fans were hoping for a Valdoza sequel, but Doggerland looks really exciting, even if it probably won't be coming out until 2018.
Squaresoft had plenty of new footage of Final Fantasy XIV, which is just a few months away. We got a final storyline trailer, which was suitably epic and shows Brynn and Luminous forming a strong attachment to one another, while Shade, originally given the task of hunting down and killing Luminous, seemed like she could become an ally character to the two of them as all three are pursued by the relentless organization that made Luminous into a superweapon. The combat continues to impress, combining elements of real-time and turn-based combat, and the graphics are utterly gorgeous, and should look amazing on consoles like the Virtua-S. We then got to see the first footage of the next console Kingdom Hearts title, Kingdom Hearts: Princess Destiny, which features Kairi as the playable character and has her uniting all the Disney princesses to battle a new threat. We'll be visiting some new worlds, including the Goldilocks world (I don't know how Goldilocks is a princess, but the movie was awesome, so just go with it), and the new combat system, which is fully action based and focuses on ranged attacks and magic, operates like a really fun twin stick shooter. Princess Destiny is coming sometime next year. We're also getting a brand new 3D action RPG set in what looks to be 1800s England and focuses on a young couple fighting alongside one another. The game is called Court Of Verity, and will have a more realistic focus than the typical fantasy Squaresoft game, though it seems to have hints of fantasy elements as well, including some Alice In Wonderland-esque strangeness revealed at the end of the trailer.
Eidos was mostly showing off footage of two games: its upcoming Legacy Of Kain MMORPG Nosgoth and its upcoming prehistoric-themed RPG, The Gatherer. Nosgoth will see the player as a vampire or vampire hunter, battling it out in a series of wars to determine Nosgoth's fate, and featuring an improved version of the action RPG combat system from previous Legacy Of Kain titles. The Gatherer looks to be a more lighthearted and fantastical prehistoric exploration game than Doggerland, and also has a wider scope, but there's no multiplayer element, as Eidos is focusing entirely on single player gameplay. It's also coming out a year sooner than Doggerland, and ultimately it'll be fans that determine which game reigns supreme. For our money, Doggerland looks like the more intriguing of the two, but The Gatherer could be more accessible to a wider range of players, as it looks to be a bit easier and a lot less violent.
Game Arts surprised us with one of the absolute best games of the entire show, developed by the Japan-based company's San Francisco studio (we also got to see some games from the Japan studio that will be ported to the West in the next year, but the best game by far was this one). Volare is a fully dieselpunk JRPG, taking place in a setting full of adventure and fantastical gadgets, a fully Art Deco motif and some wild characters evoking memories of Golden Age comics and classic adventure stories. The main character is a bounty hunter turned hero of the downtrodden who's already acquired a reputation as a troublemaker, and he teams up with an intrepid young reporter and a rogue government agent to battle a mad scientist and his army of dangerous creations. The combat system blends turn-based and action gameplay, with weapons like Tommy guns and cattle prods used in lieu of traditional swords and axes (though we did get confirmation that there will be at least one sword). These battles play out in thrilling fashion in a variety of ways, depending on the battle environment.
Capcom confirmed what we've known for a while now: the company will once again start making games for non-Apple systems, starting in 2017. They'll be porting games like Resident Evil 6 and the recent Mega Man titles to systems like the Reality and Nexus, and we're also getting Resident Evil 8 on all major consoles sometime next year. There's a new Street Fighter spinoff in the vein of the Chun-Li game called Street Fighter: The Rise Of Bison, and a brand new installment of the Devil May Cry series focused on a female demon hunter who seems to be related to Dante in some fashion (though it's been confirmed she's not his sister) called Angel May Cry. Capcom also revealed a brand new IP, also coming to consoles in 2017, that focuses on Japan being taken over by strange mechanical creatures that have escaped from storehouses all over the country. Called Revenge Of The Metalbeasts, the game will have a 1960s monster movie type feel, hearkening back to old Godzilla movies, and its heroes are a bombastic team of heavily armed fighters with special powers. Capcom's pulling out all the stops for this exciting new game which is being developed by the team behind Star Siren, and we're excited to get a chance to play.
Psygnosis' booth was all about the big reveal for Cyberwar 5, coming sometime next year. There's a brand new protagonist, a man named Rafe Symar, who specializes in repairing technology destroyed by the logic bomb detonated at the end of Cyberwar 4. He's also tasked with hunting down scavengers and other cybercriminals, with Netizen X, aka Lucy Brunstein, on the top of his kill list. Rafe doesn't work for the Power Corps, which is still around and still growing in power, but instead works for a new organization called Blackstone Solutions, which rose to power in the United States after the logic bomb's detonation. Blackstone works with the new American government to restore order, as the country is threatened by dangerous groups, including groups funded by the Power Corps to destabilize the country. As for the gameplay, it's a bit more traditional than Cyberwar 4's, with no drones controlled by the player (at least not in the segments we saw). Looting and scavenging is a big part of the game now, as is the construction of weapons and devices from scavenged tech, and the game itself has a bit more of an open feel to it, like Cyberwar 4 but even moreso. The multiplayer is also back, of course, and more intense than ever, as Psygnosis wanted to top what they've done for Cyberwar 4 and push the game heavily as an e-sport. Psygnosis has also been hard at work on Wipeout Electro, the gorgeous new futuristic racing title that will be released next year as well. Car customization is a big part of the game, with parts earned from winning races on the game's dozens of new tracks. Finally, we got a preview for a brand new IP, Stream Story, in which a young woman who likes to stream fantasy games is transported to another world, and though she can't get back home, she still has her phone and is able to communicate to her followers. As she battles her way through the world, solving puzzles and doing quests, she gets more and more followers, and if she gets enough followers, she might be able to find her way back home. It's as interesting of a concept for a WRPG as we've seen in quite some time, but we'll have to wait a while to play: it's early in development and not expected to be released until 2018.
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Game Critics Awards E3 2016
Best Of Show: Volare
Best Original Game: Volare
Best Console Game: Volare
Best PC Game: New Orthodoxy
Best Handheld Game: Walls Of Caradae
Best Peripheral/Hardware: Apple Virtua-S
Best Action Game: Star Wars: Shatterpoint
Best Action/Adventure Game: Miraculous Ladybug 2
Best Role Playing Game: Volare
Best Racing Game: Gran Turismo Real
Best Sports Game: Thrillseekers: Thin Air 2
Best Fighting Game: Energy Brawlers
Best Shooter: Cyberwar 5
Best Party Game: Sydney
Best Online Multiplayer: Merkabah
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E3 2016 saw the announcement of some truly amazing games from first parties, third parties... it was just one big party, and pretty much every gamer could find something to love. Mario, Zelda, Sonic, Call Of Duty, Final Fantasy... all were well represented at E3, and whether you played games on a console, a handheld, a computer, or a phone, you got something huge announced just for you. Like E3 2015, there really wasn't a clear winner, so it pretty much depended on who you'd been rooting for going in.
For Nintendo fans, Super Mario Adventure was the big game of the show, and it didn't disappoint. Combining classic Mario platforming with the open world feel of an RPG, the game promises to be the most exploration heavy Mario game ever, with a big world that only the Reality could bring. The Connect was fairly light on games, though with Pokemon, Mario, Zelda, and Squad Four all seeing new titles in 2016, it was definitely quality over quantity, showing that Nintendo's handheld was still at the top of the heap, even as the Gemini surged. Nintendo didn't have a 4K upgrade for the Reality on display, but did they need one? Super Mario Adventure looked plenty good on its own, and to top it all off, there was a new Squad Four game announced as well, along with intriguing new exclusives like Open Ocean.
Apple went all-in on immersion, with the Virtua-S announcement and a slew of new games inspired by arcade-style VR gameplay, Apple aimed to provide with the Virtua an experience that couldn't be had on any other console. If you wanted traditional games... well, Bayonetta 3 was coming. Apple's presentation had something to please everybody, and with the surprise announcement of a 2016 release date for the Virtua-S, managed to beat the Reality's 4K solution to the punch, at least by a few months.
Google showed off a lot more games this year, and the news that World Of Warcraft is coming to consoles proved to be earth-shattering, ensuring plenty of people buying into the Google ecosystem in the future. Miraculous Ladybug 2 looks to be a fun one as well, and if it sells as many Nexus units as the first one did, we could see the Nexus Pro become a major success, even if it's not as technically impressive as the Virtua-S.
There were lots of great new games announced at this year's E3, from Blizzard's promising New Orthodoxy to Rockstar's surprising new prehistoric sandbox game Doggerland to interactive gameshow simulator Sydney, video games continued to push the boundaries in every which way, and as we reach the height of this generation and start to slowly build up anticipation for the next, the big game makers look to be pulling out all the stops to make us buy, buy, buy. While some troubling trends such as microtransactions, lootboxes, and the Nexus' occasional privacy intrusions have crept up over the past few years, the game industry is still as healthy as ever. One thing's for certain: this is the closest console generation ever in terms of hardware and software sales, and all three major hardware developers will continue pushing hard in search of that killer app to get them over the top. Have we seen that killer app this year, or will we have to wait until E3 2017 to get the next big thing?
Apple's keynote begins with John Carmack taking the stage and thanking those in attendance, followed by a brief speech discussing the recent success of the Virtua and the Oculus. He says that this year's presentation is all about "Stage 2" for the Virtua, the next level of interactive and immersive entertainment that will put players in their favorite games like never before. This is a segue into a presentation focused on three "Virtua" titled games coming to the console later this year. The first is Virtua Hero, an interactive RPG experience in which the player can customize their hero and then experience their own virtual quest that can have a variety of different outcomes depending on the player's actions. The game looks a bit simple in terms of storyline and gameplay, but as an immersive experience, it looks to be the most exciting RPG yet, with gorgeous graphics and very realistic motion controls, and when we got our chance to play this game at Apple's interactive booth, we were quite blown away. Next up, Virtua Daytona, a totally revamped version of Sega's classic arcade franchise. This game MAJORLY ramps up the number of tracks, with every single current NASCAR track playable in the game, meaning that there are dozens of racing levels to enjoy. This game will be fully VR compatible, and Apple plans to market a number of realistic accessories alongside the game, including a full racing seat and steering wheel accessory to give fans the full Daytona experience (this accessory will also be compatible with Virtua Rally, NASCAR 2K, and other Apple racing titles). We then got a presentation for Virtua Fighter Infinity 2, coming in September. In addition to being a full fledged traditional fighting game, Virtua Fighter Infinity 2 will also include an extensive first person fighting mode much more detailed and feature-rich than the one in the original game. Designed to be a fully immersive fighting experience that Carmack says will "change the way we look at fighting games forever", this mode includes complex motion controls, and Apple will also be launching a series of force feedback accessories so that players will be able to feel the blows of their opponents. We got to try this one out at the booth as well, and don't worry, the force feedback doesn't actually hurt, but it is pretty intense and far more realistic than the rudimentary force feedback gear that was sold in the 90s. With these three titles, Apple looks to be bringing the arcade experience back to homes in a big way, and after this part of the presentation, Carmack tells the audience that there's one more thing to show, but first, he wants to introduce more of the great games coming soon to the Apple Virtua in the next couple of years. We're then treated to a pair of "developer spotlight" videos, in which upcoming Virtua games are shown off by the development teams behind them. The first of these games is called Apis, a "bee RPG" of sorts in which the player is a young worker bee who is called into service by the queen to explore outside the hive. The game blends realistic bee physics and behavior with anthropomorphized bee emotions, so while it's a fantastical game about a colony of bees, it also takes itself quite seriously, and features gorgeous graphics depicting the individual bees and their hive. It almost looks like an "Assassin's Creed: Beehive" type of game, and we're excited to see where the developers take this one. Then, we got a look at a game still early in development. Simply called Vegas, it's an open world crime simulator in which the player is a small-time criminal in Las Vegas, and can choose to either become a professional gambler to make their fortune, or earn their fortune through criminal activities, or both. The game features a huge variety of casinos and casino games, but also a combat system reminiscent of the True Crime or Yakuza games. It's one of the more intriguing titles of the show, and again, we're definitely looking forward to it, even if it won't be out for a while.
Next came a segment focusing exclusively on Gemini games, pretty much the only such segment of the show. Sonic Worldbreakers, an exhilarating action title that eschews the more traditional platforming of The Rings Of Order in favor of a more speed focused title broken down into shorter segments, was the focus of the presentation, and as is the case with other Sonic games on the platform, it looks extremely good. Quintet's Walls Of Caradae was one of the best looking games of the show, combining elements of games like ActRaiser with the frantic slash and burn style of Dynasty Warriors. In it, a prince must defend his kingdom from invaders on all sides. This game released recently in Japan to the highest sales numbers ever for a Gemini game, and it's coming here in August. Then, we got to see more footage of the upcoming Alex Kidd vs. Commander Keen, perhaps the year's most anticipated Gemini game. This is a wild top-down action adventure in which the two young heroes have been pitted against one another by Kidd's earliest nemesis, King Janken, who has obtained an artifact that allows him to reach through worlds. Janken has kidnapped Becky Blaze, and has blamed Kidd for the crime, causing Commander Keen to go after him. Kidd's fisticuffs style contrasts well with Keen's array of blaster weapons, and as the two journey toward a confrontation, their friends must find a way to get them to team up before it's too late. The game looks utterly hilarious, and should bring plenty of joy to Commander Keen fans, while it's also awesome to see Alex Kidd again after 25 years. We got a few other small previews, including one for a crossover Puyo Puyo and Tetris game that should prove quite exciting to play, and also very addictive. After this segment, Carmack returned to the stage, and announced that it was time to talk about the rest of Apple's plans for "Stage 2" of the Virtua's life cycle. For that, he introduced Steve Jobs to the stage, to roaring applause from the crowd. Jobs spoke briefly about the original philosophy behind the Virtua's design, and that Apple had to sacrifice some horsepower for the sake of VR technology. Now, three years have passed, and Apple no longer needs to make that sacrifice. The company can finally bring together both hardware power and immersion tech, and they'll do that with the new Apple Virtua-S, the upgraded model of the Virtua. The Virtua-S is three times as powerful as the Virtua, more than capable of handling full 4K graphics and full HDR imaging, while also boosting the speed and detail of the Oculus VR and the responsiveness of the Virtua's motion controls. Jobs then displays the graphics from several upcoming games, including Doom 4 and Scalebound, to show the power of the new hardware. The games look incredibly impressive, with Doom 4's fidelity and frame rate nearly matching that of a high end PC. He pulls up a multiplayer battle from Call Of Duty: Altered Warfare to demonstrate the responsiveness of the controls, and uses a cutscene from Thrillseekers: Thin Air 2 to show off the Virtua-S' lighting and ray-tracing capabilities. He continues to discuss the upgraded tech for a few more minutes, showing off more graphical detail and high-end lighting tricks to show how well the Virtua-S does with first party games, and also how well the graphical upscaling works even on non-4K displays. After all of this, he announces the release date: December 9, 2016. Then, the price: $399.99 for the Virtua-S base system, $499.99 for the Virtua-S and Oculus combo. The release date is definitely sooner than some of us expected, while the price is right around the expected range. After this segment of the presentation is over, Jobs then briefly discusses some gaming related iOS updates and announces some new features and titles for the iPhone 7, nothing too major is revealed here but for those gaming on Apple's mobile platforms, it did show how dedicated Apple is to maintaining compatibility between the Virtua, the Gemini, and the latest iPhone models.
We got a couple quick game previews next: First up, Steel Combatant Vexial, a sequel to 2014's revival title. The mech cockpit style of gameplay returns, and while the preview focused mostly on the motion controls and Virtua-S graphical enhancements, we did get hints at the storyline, including the return of Crusher Gantz and the introduction of a new protagonist, a woman named Vex, while also teasing at the return of Layla. It's fun mech combat and looks really graphically impressive, not much more to say. This was followed up by an intriguing game called Vidnight, in which the player has to switch back and forth between different cameras to spot bad guys before getting killed. The VR aspect of the game makes for some really exciting horror, and we doubt you'll want to play this without an Oculus, as the VR REALLY enhances the visual effect. Then, we got a preview trailer for a brand new single player Panzer Dragoon title that looks to be in the vein of Zeta and Phanta. The preview shows a dragon flying over a world almost totally covered in water, and the protagonist, a young man, searching for any sign of land on the horizon as he rides his dragon across the endless ocean. The game's title is revealed as Panzer Dragoon Aquarius, and its release date is given as 2018. After this teaser, John Carmack again addresses the crowd and thanks them for coming, but just before the stage goes dark, we hear a sultry female voice with a British accent, saying "You didn't think you were going to end this show without telling them what I've been up to, did you, love?" The video screen turns back on, and we see a high-heeled boot stepping on the ground, which pans up to reveal the beautiful Bayonetta in all her glory. We then get a fairly long trailer combining a gameplay preview with a storyline reveal, essentially revealing that the final battle between heaven and hell is about to begin, and that Bayonetta needs to choose a side. She says that she honestly thought the final battle would be both sides teaming up against her, to which an exhausted Enzo replies "you'd like that, wouldn't you?" We also see the reveal of a new angel woman who fights like Bayonetta and Jeanne, using brutal attacks but with a holy motif rather than a demonic one, though it's not revealed whether this new character is friend or foe. We also see Bayonetta and Jeanne walking into what looks like Purgatory, battling both demonic and angelic forces as they go to rescue a friend who's being punished there. The new combat style looks more intense than ever, with more time-freezing and space-bending attacks, more complex combos, and more bloody brutality and sexy fanservice, and all of this insanity is set to a remixed version of the classic song "Blue Moon". We then finally get the Bayonetta 3 logo. The video ends with "2017" on a black screen, and Bayonetta's voice saying "don't keep me waiting...", and then the presentation ends.
Apple's presentation focused heavily on tech, but also delivered pretty strongly on the new game front, with some exciting previews for some of next year's biggest titles. Apple is leaning really hard on VR and interactivity, perhaps even moreso than Nintendo, and the Gemini looks to have a healthy crop of new titles coming as well. The Virtua-S is a LOT more powerful than the Nexus Pro, and power gamers will definitely want it, but is it stronger than Nintendo's Reality upgrade? We'll probably have to wait a few months longer to find out...
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All the big game companies were on display at E3 2016, and many of the little ones too! Here's the best of the games from E3's third party keynotes and floor presentations, and as you'll see, many of the best games of the show were shown outside of the big speeches...
Activision's booth was jam-packed with major games, but our focus was on four. Of course, Call Of Duty: Altered Warfare was the biggest game present, and while the main gameplay hasn't changed too much, the game's setting and premise are a major twist: it's the first Call Of Duty game to focus on alternate history. Instead of one big plot, this game returns to the old style of storyline for the series, with four different stories. There's a World War I themed scenario in which Theodore Roosevelt wins the presidency in 1912, taking America to war in 1915, and you play as an American doughboy entering the brutal trench warfare in France. Of course, the ever-popular "What if the Nazis won World War II?" scenario appears, in a 1960s era scenario in which America fights Nazi Germany in World War III. Then, there's another World War III scenario, taking place in the 1980s, after nuclear war has broken out and the American army rushes desperately toward Moscow to prevent an all out strike that will doom the entire world. Finally, there's a 2000s scenario, where you play as a soldier in the Indian army in a world where Pakistan and India fought a war in the aftermath of 9/11. The multiplayer mode even features a "create your own alternate history" scenario, in which you can have one of dozens of different armies from different countries and eras of time battling it out in a deathmatch to the finish. Altered Warfare will surely please FPS fans and alternate history buffs alike, while Thrillseekers: Thin Air 2 promises to please fans of beautiful women and extreme sports, in this sequel to 2013's game focused on aerial extreme sports. Thin Air 2 has a new feature called "Secret Spot", an open-world, procedurally generated mode in which players can look for the perfect place to engage in skateboarding, snowboarding, surfing, and all manners of thrillseeking. The original Thin Air revivified the series in the eyes of a lot of fans, so Thrillseekers: Thin Air 2 should be another big hit. Activison also showed off a brand new IP, called Fightfest, essentially an open world, battle royale type game in which 100 players roam around a huge town (sort of modeled off of Sturgis, South Dakota from what we could glean from the preview videos) and beat each other senseless. It actually features a fairly deep and complex combat system, and even though the game looks like it might be fairly silly, it could also be the next big competitive game. We then got a big update on The Hidden City, which some fans took to calling "NoiRPG" after that intriguing black and white trailer from last year. The game takes place during the Great Depression, and you play a down on his luck private detective taking cases to make his rent. When you uncover a criminal conspiracy, you have to decide just how deep the rabbit hole you want to go. There's so much to do in this game, from simple missing persons cases to complex quest lines, and there's also an incredibly deep morality and relationship system. The game's 30s era aesthetic is absolutely beautiful, and we have no doubt that this will be one of next year's biggest hits if it's as good as the previews indicate.
Acclaim's booth wasn't quite so busy this year, though we did get another look at Destined 3, which comes out in November and introduces a lot of new characters, while promising players that some old favorites will die and their actions will determine which ones. It seems like that aspect of the game might have been included for shock value, but the combat itself looks really promising, and we do like the addition of branching storylines to what would otherwise be a fairly ho-hum action brawler. Of course, Acclaim is also publishing Doom 4, and people were crowding the booth to play. The graphics look incredible, combat is as brutal as ever, and there are a ton of weapons to choose from, along with a ferocious multiplayer mode in which fun is the name of the game. Doom 4 looks like pure, glorious fanservice and a big thank you letter to fans of the series, and we can't wait until we get to play. Unfortunately, it won't be coming out until early next year.
Electronic Arts devoted a surprising amount of attention to the upcoming game Lego Worlds, a massive, open world game focused on the Lego world and various other properties. EA has been quietly publishing Lego titles for many years, including games based on both the DC and Marvel franchises, Harry Potter, Star Wars, and others, but Lego Worlds looks to bring them all together and will allow the player to build pretty much anything they want, making this potentially one of next year's biggest sleeper hits. We've also been keeping our eye on EA's many, many sports titles, with Madden NFL 17 looking to be another thrilling installment of the popular football series, and NBA Elite 17 looking like perhaps the best game in the series to date, with an upgraded physics engine and the most robust career storyline yet. NHL 17 is also looking like a winner this year, thanks to improved graphical presentation and improved announcer AI to make games sound as realistic as ever... and of course, this year also features the return of the popular NCAA Basketball 17 and NCAA Football 17, after that historic 5-4 Supreme Court decision last year gave college players the rights to profit from their likenesses. The two games feature major presentation improvements and should be some of the best college sports titles ever made, and fans are quite happy to have them back, which should generate huge sales. We're also excited for next year's Derelict, in which players will be able to explore space looking through the wreckage of old spaceships and space stations. The sandbox horror title features some excellent FPS gameplay and gorgeous graphics, and will likely be finished sometime late next year. And Star Wars: Shatterpoint, a combat focused Star Wars title, also makes its way to console and PC sometime next year. Featuring what is easily the most complex combat system ever in a Star Wars game, with parries, ripostes, and timely dodges, it should revolutionize how players think of a Star Wars title, and could be the best Star Wars game ever.
Ubisoft always brings a ton of new games to E3, and that's the case with their lineup this year as well. Blackheart: Lucky 7 is coming very soon, and looks as wild and ferocious as ever, though it's a bit more grounded than some recent Blackheart titles, with slightly less fanservice and more of a realistic combat focus. Surprisingly, players will start out as Messiah this time around, though it appears that she and Sadira are on better terms, and that players will have plenty of time to take the sadistic secret agent Sadira out for a spin as well. We also got a VERY brief teaser for Metal Gear Black, the confirmed Metal Gear and Blackheart crossover that will combine characters and elements from both worlds. It looks like Raiden will be the game's primary protagonist, and he'll be teaming up with Sadira and Messiah to stop a world threatening foe... though we may yet see Solid Snake return if the game is set before the events of Metal Gear Solid IV. The crossover looks to be at least a year away though, so fans will have to speculate on what's coming next. We also got to see a lot more of Steep, and this Thrillseekers meets Far Cry extreme sports adventure looks incredible, though it remains to be seen just how the intense storyline will serve the extreme sports gameplay. It looks like the four protagonists will spend a lot of their time dodging criminal pursuers, we just hope that leaves enough time for actual sports. Next up, For Honor, which will see warriors of different eras and places go into glorious battle, both with each other and against each other. Fans of intense hack and slash gameplay should be pleased, and the graphics look outstanding. Tom Clancy's The Operative, a mix of spy thriller and war shooter, is also headed to console and PC, and as the company's first new Tom Clancy IP in several years, it looks to mix the best elements of games like Splinter Cell and Delta Force, while also introducing some RPG elements to the mix such as loot and character progression. We like what we've seen so far, but we'll need to learn more of the story before we know if this will be another classic or just a pretender. Finally, we got a very early look at a fantasy themed project from Ubisoft's Montreal studio, Fairy: The Endling. Taking some dark fantasy cues from games like Fairytale and Haze, the game combines Zelda-esque adventure with some heavy storyline elements, and even includes work from Jim Henson's studio and voicework from Frank Oz. This game is extremely early in development, but the snippets reveal an incredible world and a whole new style of fantasy gameplay, and we're excited to hear more about this game in the months ahead.
Take-Two's presentation focused mostly on new gameplay and items for Grand Theft Auto Online, which has become one of the most lucrative MMO titles in recent years. There's some exciting new heists and a new race mode for Speed City, and we even got a tease at a riverboat casino that can either be gambled from or robbed. However, the big game announcement from Take-Two was focused on Doggerland, a Neolithic-themed open world survival game in which the player must gather resources and battle prehistoric beasts. Rockstar, who is developing the game, promised a very large multiplayer area with both PvP and PvE challenges, and this game definitely seems more like an RPG than anything else Rockstar has ever done. Some fans were hoping for a Valdoza sequel, but Doggerland looks really exciting, even if it probably won't be coming out until 2018.
Squaresoft had plenty of new footage of Final Fantasy XIV, which is just a few months away. We got a final storyline trailer, which was suitably epic and shows Brynn and Luminous forming a strong attachment to one another, while Shade, originally given the task of hunting down and killing Luminous, seemed like she could become an ally character to the two of them as all three are pursued by the relentless organization that made Luminous into a superweapon. The combat continues to impress, combining elements of real-time and turn-based combat, and the graphics are utterly gorgeous, and should look amazing on consoles like the Virtua-S. We then got to see the first footage of the next console Kingdom Hearts title, Kingdom Hearts: Princess Destiny, which features Kairi as the playable character and has her uniting all the Disney princesses to battle a new threat. We'll be visiting some new worlds, including the Goldilocks world (I don't know how Goldilocks is a princess, but the movie was awesome, so just go with it), and the new combat system, which is fully action based and focuses on ranged attacks and magic, operates like a really fun twin stick shooter. Princess Destiny is coming sometime next year. We're also getting a brand new 3D action RPG set in what looks to be 1800s England and focuses on a young couple fighting alongside one another. The game is called Court Of Verity, and will have a more realistic focus than the typical fantasy Squaresoft game, though it seems to have hints of fantasy elements as well, including some Alice In Wonderland-esque strangeness revealed at the end of the trailer.
Eidos was mostly showing off footage of two games: its upcoming Legacy Of Kain MMORPG Nosgoth and its upcoming prehistoric-themed RPG, The Gatherer. Nosgoth will see the player as a vampire or vampire hunter, battling it out in a series of wars to determine Nosgoth's fate, and featuring an improved version of the action RPG combat system from previous Legacy Of Kain titles. The Gatherer looks to be a more lighthearted and fantastical prehistoric exploration game than Doggerland, and also has a wider scope, but there's no multiplayer element, as Eidos is focusing entirely on single player gameplay. It's also coming out a year sooner than Doggerland, and ultimately it'll be fans that determine which game reigns supreme. For our money, Doggerland looks like the more intriguing of the two, but The Gatherer could be more accessible to a wider range of players, as it looks to be a bit easier and a lot less violent.
Game Arts surprised us with one of the absolute best games of the entire show, developed by the Japan-based company's San Francisco studio (we also got to see some games from the Japan studio that will be ported to the West in the next year, but the best game by far was this one). Volare is a fully dieselpunk JRPG, taking place in a setting full of adventure and fantastical gadgets, a fully Art Deco motif and some wild characters evoking memories of Golden Age comics and classic adventure stories. The main character is a bounty hunter turned hero of the downtrodden who's already acquired a reputation as a troublemaker, and he teams up with an intrepid young reporter and a rogue government agent to battle a mad scientist and his army of dangerous creations. The combat system blends turn-based and action gameplay, with weapons like Tommy guns and cattle prods used in lieu of traditional swords and axes (though we did get confirmation that there will be at least one sword). These battles play out in thrilling fashion in a variety of ways, depending on the battle environment.
Capcom confirmed what we've known for a while now: the company will once again start making games for non-Apple systems, starting in 2017. They'll be porting games like Resident Evil 6 and the recent Mega Man titles to systems like the Reality and Nexus, and we're also getting Resident Evil 8 on all major consoles sometime next year. There's a new Street Fighter spinoff in the vein of the Chun-Li game called Street Fighter: The Rise Of Bison, and a brand new installment of the Devil May Cry series focused on a female demon hunter who seems to be related to Dante in some fashion (though it's been confirmed she's not his sister) called Angel May Cry. Capcom also revealed a brand new IP, also coming to consoles in 2017, that focuses on Japan being taken over by strange mechanical creatures that have escaped from storehouses all over the country. Called Revenge Of The Metalbeasts, the game will have a 1960s monster movie type feel, hearkening back to old Godzilla movies, and its heroes are a bombastic team of heavily armed fighters with special powers. Capcom's pulling out all the stops for this exciting new game which is being developed by the team behind Star Siren, and we're excited to get a chance to play.
Psygnosis' booth was all about the big reveal for Cyberwar 5, coming sometime next year. There's a brand new protagonist, a man named Rafe Symar, who specializes in repairing technology destroyed by the logic bomb detonated at the end of Cyberwar 4. He's also tasked with hunting down scavengers and other cybercriminals, with Netizen X, aka Lucy Brunstein, on the top of his kill list. Rafe doesn't work for the Power Corps, which is still around and still growing in power, but instead works for a new organization called Blackstone Solutions, which rose to power in the United States after the logic bomb's detonation. Blackstone works with the new American government to restore order, as the country is threatened by dangerous groups, including groups funded by the Power Corps to destabilize the country. As for the gameplay, it's a bit more traditional than Cyberwar 4's, with no drones controlled by the player (at least not in the segments we saw). Looting and scavenging is a big part of the game now, as is the construction of weapons and devices from scavenged tech, and the game itself has a bit more of an open feel to it, like Cyberwar 4 but even moreso. The multiplayer is also back, of course, and more intense than ever, as Psygnosis wanted to top what they've done for Cyberwar 4 and push the game heavily as an e-sport. Psygnosis has also been hard at work on Wipeout Electro, the gorgeous new futuristic racing title that will be released next year as well. Car customization is a big part of the game, with parts earned from winning races on the game's dozens of new tracks. Finally, we got a preview for a brand new IP, Stream Story, in which a young woman who likes to stream fantasy games is transported to another world, and though she can't get back home, she still has her phone and is able to communicate to her followers. As she battles her way through the world, solving puzzles and doing quests, she gets more and more followers, and if she gets enough followers, she might be able to find her way back home. It's as interesting of a concept for a WRPG as we've seen in quite some time, but we'll have to wait a while to play: it's early in development and not expected to be released until 2018.
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Game Critics Awards E3 2016
Best Of Show: Volare
Best Original Game: Volare
Best Console Game: Volare
Best PC Game: New Orthodoxy
Best Handheld Game: Walls Of Caradae
Best Peripheral/Hardware: Apple Virtua-S
Best Action Game: Star Wars: Shatterpoint
Best Action/Adventure Game: Miraculous Ladybug 2
Best Role Playing Game: Volare
Best Racing Game: Gran Turismo Real
Best Sports Game: Thrillseekers: Thin Air 2
Best Fighting Game: Energy Brawlers
Best Shooter: Cyberwar 5
Best Party Game: Sydney
Best Online Multiplayer: Merkabah
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E3 2016 saw the announcement of some truly amazing games from first parties, third parties... it was just one big party, and pretty much every gamer could find something to love. Mario, Zelda, Sonic, Call Of Duty, Final Fantasy... all were well represented at E3, and whether you played games on a console, a handheld, a computer, or a phone, you got something huge announced just for you. Like E3 2015, there really wasn't a clear winner, so it pretty much depended on who you'd been rooting for going in.
For Nintendo fans, Super Mario Adventure was the big game of the show, and it didn't disappoint. Combining classic Mario platforming with the open world feel of an RPG, the game promises to be the most exploration heavy Mario game ever, with a big world that only the Reality could bring. The Connect was fairly light on games, though with Pokemon, Mario, Zelda, and Squad Four all seeing new titles in 2016, it was definitely quality over quantity, showing that Nintendo's handheld was still at the top of the heap, even as the Gemini surged. Nintendo didn't have a 4K upgrade for the Reality on display, but did they need one? Super Mario Adventure looked plenty good on its own, and to top it all off, there was a new Squad Four game announced as well, along with intriguing new exclusives like Open Ocean.
Apple went all-in on immersion, with the Virtua-S announcement and a slew of new games inspired by arcade-style VR gameplay, Apple aimed to provide with the Virtua an experience that couldn't be had on any other console. If you wanted traditional games... well, Bayonetta 3 was coming. Apple's presentation had something to please everybody, and with the surprise announcement of a 2016 release date for the Virtua-S, managed to beat the Reality's 4K solution to the punch, at least by a few months.
Google showed off a lot more games this year, and the news that World Of Warcraft is coming to consoles proved to be earth-shattering, ensuring plenty of people buying into the Google ecosystem in the future. Miraculous Ladybug 2 looks to be a fun one as well, and if it sells as many Nexus units as the first one did, we could see the Nexus Pro become a major success, even if it's not as technically impressive as the Virtua-S.
There were lots of great new games announced at this year's E3, from Blizzard's promising New Orthodoxy to Rockstar's surprising new prehistoric sandbox game Doggerland to interactive gameshow simulator Sydney, video games continued to push the boundaries in every which way, and as we reach the height of this generation and start to slowly build up anticipation for the next, the big game makers look to be pulling out all the stops to make us buy, buy, buy. While some troubling trends such as microtransactions, lootboxes, and the Nexus' occasional privacy intrusions have crept up over the past few years, the game industry is still as healthy as ever. One thing's for certain: this is the closest console generation ever in terms of hardware and software sales, and all three major hardware developers will continue pushing hard in search of that killer app to get them over the top. Have we seen that killer app this year, or will we have to wait until E3 2017 to get the next big thing?
Spring 2016 (Part 6) - An Old Legend Returns, A New Legend Begins
A new Apple Gemini game, Sailor Moon U, will be released in the West this week, capping off a year of new Sailor Moon-related releases worldwide. The game, a traditional turn-based RPG that plays much like Sailor Moon: Another Story, is a "sequel" of sorts to the original final season of the anime, Sailor Moon Stars, and sees Sailor Moon and friends uniting once more to battle the dangerous Universal Empire, led by Emperor Quasar. Several prominent foes from Sailor Moon's past make appearances in the game as resurrected "shades" working under Quasar, and a multitude of new characters, both friend and foe, also appear, while the game itself contains around two hours of brand new anime cutscenes, the equivalent of five episodes of new footage. The game was released last year in Japan to rave reviews and strong sales, becoming one of the best selling Gemini titles of the year, and Western critics are giving it high marks as well, praising the game's graphics, voice acting (performed by a brand new Los Angeles-based cast rather than the Vancouver-based Ocean team that dubbed the anime in English back in the 1990s), and the length of its storyline (around 30 hours total). Sailor Moon U is part of the "Sailor Moon Alterworlds" series of works that have been released in Japan, including a new manga and new chapter books depicting alternate stories about the Sailor Moon universe, exploring what might have happened had certain events played out differently. These include the questions "What if Queen Beryl's generals had lived?", and "what if Sailor Saturn had been present during the events of Sailor Moon Super S?", which are explored in a pair of 4-part manga series that were released in Japan last year and are being released in North America by Sega.
Of course, all of these releases are leading up to the Sailor Moon 25th Anniversary Remaster, which will see a full remake of the original five anime seasons, compressed from 200 episodes to 100 and incorporating more manga events, as well as including some new "surprises" as well. This remake has already been announced for North America, and will incorporate the same dub voice actors from the Sailor Moon U video game. The remaster will be released over the next two years in Japan, airing weekly from 2017 to 2019. There will also be a new movie, Sailor Moon Stars: The Movie, though the details of the movie have not yet been revealed and it likely won't be released until 2018 or 2019. The new remastered anime will be dubbed for North America and released via Blu-Ray and DVD a few months after it airs in Japan. As for a re-release of the original anime, there are currently no plans to produce a new Blu-Ray or DVD for the North American market, but the original anime (with the Ocean dub and in its uncensored version) has been available on streaming services, while the TV-Y10 version produced for Fox Kids and Toonami has been airing on certain OTA stations. There are currently no plans to air the remaster on cable, though it's rumored that Cartoon Network might be interested in picking them up to begin airing in 2018 on their Adult Swim block. Interest in Sailor Moon has spiked in recent months thanks to all the new material being released, both in North America and other territories such as Latin America and Europe. Sega is currently the major producer of Sailor Moon-related merchandise worldwide, and it has become one of the company's most lucrative brands as of late.
-from an article on Anime News Network, posted on May 11, 2016
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Sensekai Takes Anime World By Storm
Japan's latest massive hit anime, Sensekai, is on the verge of its international release, and it's already taking the world by storm, with the subtitled version topping the charts on streaming services in North America. The anime, based on the manga released back in 2014, focused on a youngster named Senzo who is tasked with restoring the balance between the "1000 Worlds", one thousand different dimensions all contained within the same multiverse. Senzo is one of two characters who can travel between dimensions, though unlike the other character who can do this (High-Heaven, the godlike being who gave Senzo his task), Senzo is able to bestow this gift upon others, allowing them to travel between dimensions with him to help him on his journey. Like many popular action-based anime shows, Sensekai has a mix of drama and humor, never too much of both, though there are moments that are particularly dramatic and moments that are particularly funny. Most of the dimensions that Senzo visits are quite humorous in nature, including a mall dimension based entirely around shopping, and the Janken dimension, where disputes are solved entirely based on games of "rock paper scissors". Senzo himself is a fun-loving, everyman protagonist with a brave heart and a kind spirit, and unlike a lot of similar protagonists, he's actually fairly smart and doesn't often have the moments of stupidity that many shonen heroes seem to suffer from. The series is full of fun and memorable side characters as well, including shopping-addicted Akiko, who wields giant blunt objects in her shopping bags to defend herself, and stoic samurai archetype Hashima, who often finds himself suffering from culture shock when he enters a new dimension. The show moves along at a fairly brisk pace, and few episodes deal entirely with one dimension, in fact, during fight scenes, Senzo will often travel between dimensions to grab objects quickly, leading to Benny Hill-esque chase scenes when his enemies pursue him (he unfortunately can't always control who he bestows his gift too, and often just being in close proximity to Senzo when he jumps will allow everyone around him to gain his ability), and dimensions are revisited often (Akiko will often go back to her home dimension to participate in a sale, much to her teammates' chagrin). Sensakai's exciting action scenes and big cast of fun characters have lended the series well to shipping and fanworks, and the series has been one of the top trends on social media for the past several months, even before its official American release. It's already been picked up by Cartoon Network, which will begin airing the series in the fall (and has been marketing it alongside highly anticipated upcoming action cartoon Lyte and Darke, which it plans to air in the same block with).
-from an article on Kotaku, posted on June 16, 2016
Of course, all of these releases are leading up to the Sailor Moon 25th Anniversary Remaster, which will see a full remake of the original five anime seasons, compressed from 200 episodes to 100 and incorporating more manga events, as well as including some new "surprises" as well. This remake has already been announced for North America, and will incorporate the same dub voice actors from the Sailor Moon U video game. The remaster will be released over the next two years in Japan, airing weekly from 2017 to 2019. There will also be a new movie, Sailor Moon Stars: The Movie, though the details of the movie have not yet been revealed and it likely won't be released until 2018 or 2019. The new remastered anime will be dubbed for North America and released via Blu-Ray and DVD a few months after it airs in Japan. As for a re-release of the original anime, there are currently no plans to produce a new Blu-Ray or DVD for the North American market, but the original anime (with the Ocean dub and in its uncensored version) has been available on streaming services, while the TV-Y10 version produced for Fox Kids and Toonami has been airing on certain OTA stations. There are currently no plans to air the remaster on cable, though it's rumored that Cartoon Network might be interested in picking them up to begin airing in 2018 on their Adult Swim block. Interest in Sailor Moon has spiked in recent months thanks to all the new material being released, both in North America and other territories such as Latin America and Europe. Sega is currently the major producer of Sailor Moon-related merchandise worldwide, and it has become one of the company's most lucrative brands as of late.
-from an article on Anime News Network, posted on May 11, 2016
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Sensekai Takes Anime World By Storm
Japan's latest massive hit anime, Sensekai, is on the verge of its international release, and it's already taking the world by storm, with the subtitled version topping the charts on streaming services in North America. The anime, based on the manga released back in 2014, focused on a youngster named Senzo who is tasked with restoring the balance between the "1000 Worlds", one thousand different dimensions all contained within the same multiverse. Senzo is one of two characters who can travel between dimensions, though unlike the other character who can do this (High-Heaven, the godlike being who gave Senzo his task), Senzo is able to bestow this gift upon others, allowing them to travel between dimensions with him to help him on his journey. Like many popular action-based anime shows, Sensekai has a mix of drama and humor, never too much of both, though there are moments that are particularly dramatic and moments that are particularly funny. Most of the dimensions that Senzo visits are quite humorous in nature, including a mall dimension based entirely around shopping, and the Janken dimension, where disputes are solved entirely based on games of "rock paper scissors". Senzo himself is a fun-loving, everyman protagonist with a brave heart and a kind spirit, and unlike a lot of similar protagonists, he's actually fairly smart and doesn't often have the moments of stupidity that many shonen heroes seem to suffer from. The series is full of fun and memorable side characters as well, including shopping-addicted Akiko, who wields giant blunt objects in her shopping bags to defend herself, and stoic samurai archetype Hashima, who often finds himself suffering from culture shock when he enters a new dimension. The show moves along at a fairly brisk pace, and few episodes deal entirely with one dimension, in fact, during fight scenes, Senzo will often travel between dimensions to grab objects quickly, leading to Benny Hill-esque chase scenes when his enemies pursue him (he unfortunately can't always control who he bestows his gift too, and often just being in close proximity to Senzo when he jumps will allow everyone around him to gain his ability), and dimensions are revisited often (Akiko will often go back to her home dimension to participate in a sale, much to her teammates' chagrin). Sensakai's exciting action scenes and big cast of fun characters have lended the series well to shipping and fanworks, and the series has been one of the top trends on social media for the past several months, even before its official American release. It's already been picked up by Cartoon Network, which will begin airing the series in the fall (and has been marketing it alongside highly anticipated upcoming action cartoon Lyte and Darke, which it plans to air in the same block with).
-from an article on Kotaku, posted on June 16, 2016
Holy shit. Doggerland showing up at E3. You have no idea how much that excited me. Thanks guys. A badass trailer is def showing up at next year's E3.
I just didn't expect a big mention like that. I was kinda skimming. And was like 😲
Spring 2016 (Part 7) - Rare's Battle Royale
Battle Buddies
Battle Buddies is a shooter/battle royale game exclusive to the Nintendo Reality, developed by Rare and published by Nintendo. Combining elements of OTL games such as Fortnite, Playerunknown's Battlegrounds, and Overwatch, Battle Buddies is a third person shooter that features a stylized graphical motif (though it's not as wild or wacky as Fortnite, it's also not as barebones as PUBG. In development for four years, it takes inspiration from the rising popularity of battle royale games on the market, and from the Japanese book/movie Battle Royale (which was still released ITTL). Battle royale games actually became popular slightly earlier than they did IOTL, and were developed by larger studios rather than the indie teams that initially popularized them IOTL. In addition, a number of bare-bones battle royale games made it to PC as early as the late 2000s/early 2010s, and while they didn't sell a whole lot of units, they did inspire battle royale-type games to be created in SimSociety and Pixelworld, which were ultimately what gave rise to the genre ITTL, and what inspired Rare to begin work on such a game for the Reality. The game operates like many of the popular OTL battle royale games, with 120 players parachuting down into a large island-type area filled with buildings, environments, and tons of randomized loot. Once they arrive, they shoot each other until only one player (or team, in duo/squad/team modes) is left standing. Like in OTL's popular battle royale games, the battlefield gradually shrinks as the game progresses (though in Battle Buddies, the battlefield is constantly shrinking, unlike in OTL's Fortnite where there's a few minute wait between phases, however, the shrinking in Battle Buddies is a bit slower than the shrinking in Fortnite). There's no building element to Battle Buddies, though there is a platforming element, with more things to jump on and between, meaning that players will need to master both shooting and platforming to truly "get good" at the game. In addition to weapons and armor, there's also items that help with mobility, such as shoes that allow players to jump higher or more times, shoes that allow players to survive large drops, and even jetpacks and helicopters. There are also items that produce a temporary "battle buddy" to fight alongside you, and this buddy usually takes the form of a character from a Rare video game, such as Joanna Dark or Dick Gumshoe (from TTL's Dick, not OTL's Ace Attorney games, obviously). Players themselves can also choose one of these characters in the selection screen, where there are 28 different Rare characters to choose from (and more added via DLC), along with generic characters, and a custom character feature in which players can create a human character or something wacky. Unlike in Fortnite, DLC isn't sold piecemeal, it's sold in packs, and there's no "daily" download DLC, it's just $9.99 for a pack with a bunch of cosmetic content, of which there will eventually be a total of 10 packs. There's no lootboxes (other than the boxes players find in the level that give out a random item), there's no major push to buy DLC (since there are already 50+ "default" characters and literally trillions of customization options in the base game), once you buy the game (which is $59.99), you have pretty much everything you need to deck out your character with tons of new looks, and you CAN spend more on the DLC packs, but it's completely optional, much like the DLC for Super Smash Bros. As for other gameplay mechanics, each character has a unique "ultimate" ability that provides a special effect, some focusing on offense, others on defense, and others on mobility. When creating a custom character, you can choose from 10 different ultimates to bestow on them. These ultimates are strong abilities, but they're not "required" for victory, except perhaps at the highest levels of play, and good shooting/platforming abilities can make up for the lack of skill with an ultimate. Ultimates are charge by dealing damage, taking damage, and from items picked up via looting. As Battle Buddies has been made with the Reality in mind, it has a significantly more graphically polished look than OTL's Fortnite, since it doesn't need to be ported to any other platforms. It runs incredibly well, at 60 FPS, even when some truly crazy stuff is happening (like a firefight between dozens of players and mass destruction going on). The game also features a good amount of voice acting, with Eveline Fischer even returning to voice the announcer (though Rebecca Mader still voices Joanna and Velvet Dark in the game), and also a lot of music from Grant Kirkhope and David Wise. It's not just an intensely fun battle royale, it's also a celebration of all things Rare, with tons of Rare cameos and references to Rare games, and along with Rare Replay, is a deep nostalgia dive for any fan of the company. In addition to the game's battle royale and team battle modes, there's also a 10 hour story mode which serves to introduce the player to the mechanics of the game, and is essentially a fun third person shooter/platformer in which the player creates their own character and must then fight in various combat scenarios to liberate the island from an evil mad scientist supervillain. For a tutorial, it's extremely fun (much like the single player mode in OTL's Splatoon), and though it's not worth the price of admission on its own, it's definitely worth playing.
Battle Buddies is released on May 6, 2016, to strong reviews from critics, averaging in the 9/10 range. It's not QUITE seen as a critical Game of the Year contender, with the shooting and platforming mechanics earning some criticism, as well as the fact that it's not the first battle royale game to hit the market (and thus isn't seen as majorly innovative). However, it gets a ton of hype from Nintendo and from fan anticipation, moreso than last year's Elemancers (which has also become quite the popular online game), and sales are through the roof after launch, beating out games like Metroid Quarantine and Animal Crossing: Welcome To Suburbia to become the fastest selling Nintendo Reality game of the year thus far, as well as Rare's fastest selling game in years. It's hugely popular with men and women, kids and adults, and players all over the world, and while it's not nearly as ubiquitous or influential as OTL's Fortnite (the $59.99 cost of admission is somewhat steep, after all), it doesn't attract nearly the hate fandom that Fortnite does either. In a rapidly growing genre of battle royale titles, Battle Buddies emerges as the most popular, and becomes the first true killer app of the year on the Reality. As for the battle royale genre itself, it's picking up steam in a more decentralized fashion, with battle royale modes in popular games becoming the norm, rather than dedicated battle royale titles. This has the consequence of making the genre more expensive, as, at least right away, there are few true free to play battle royale titles IOTL (which also has the effect of making the genre more popular amongst adults and less popular amongst kids). However, this also, at least in the early going, limits the battle royale genre's potential as an e-sport compared to IOTL, where popular streamers helped raise the popularity of the genre overall. Richard "Ninja" Blevins, for example, remains a popular gamer and streamer ITTL, but mostly focuses on Cyberwar 4, and doesn't get into Battle Buddies (though he does get into Strikeback on the Virtua, his preferred console of choice). As for Rare itself, the company begins to devote a segment of its studio to working exclusively on Battle Buddies updates and balancing, while the rest of the studio prepares for the launch of Slaughtered Planet 2, which they hope is an equivalent success, even if it's hard for them to imagine anything catching on as quickly as Battle Buddies. Battle Buddies quickly joins Elemancers and Super Smash Bros. Reality as Nintendo's most popular online titles, though as time passes, Rare's battle royale game begins to surpass them, showing that the battle royale genre still has the potential to become as popular ITTL as it does IOTL.
Battle Buddies is a shooter/battle royale game exclusive to the Nintendo Reality, developed by Rare and published by Nintendo. Combining elements of OTL games such as Fortnite, Playerunknown's Battlegrounds, and Overwatch, Battle Buddies is a third person shooter that features a stylized graphical motif (though it's not as wild or wacky as Fortnite, it's also not as barebones as PUBG. In development for four years, it takes inspiration from the rising popularity of battle royale games on the market, and from the Japanese book/movie Battle Royale (which was still released ITTL). Battle royale games actually became popular slightly earlier than they did IOTL, and were developed by larger studios rather than the indie teams that initially popularized them IOTL. In addition, a number of bare-bones battle royale games made it to PC as early as the late 2000s/early 2010s, and while they didn't sell a whole lot of units, they did inspire battle royale-type games to be created in SimSociety and Pixelworld, which were ultimately what gave rise to the genre ITTL, and what inspired Rare to begin work on such a game for the Reality. The game operates like many of the popular OTL battle royale games, with 120 players parachuting down into a large island-type area filled with buildings, environments, and tons of randomized loot. Once they arrive, they shoot each other until only one player (or team, in duo/squad/team modes) is left standing. Like in OTL's popular battle royale games, the battlefield gradually shrinks as the game progresses (though in Battle Buddies, the battlefield is constantly shrinking, unlike in OTL's Fortnite where there's a few minute wait between phases, however, the shrinking in Battle Buddies is a bit slower than the shrinking in Fortnite). There's no building element to Battle Buddies, though there is a platforming element, with more things to jump on and between, meaning that players will need to master both shooting and platforming to truly "get good" at the game. In addition to weapons and armor, there's also items that help with mobility, such as shoes that allow players to jump higher or more times, shoes that allow players to survive large drops, and even jetpacks and helicopters. There are also items that produce a temporary "battle buddy" to fight alongside you, and this buddy usually takes the form of a character from a Rare video game, such as Joanna Dark or Dick Gumshoe (from TTL's Dick, not OTL's Ace Attorney games, obviously). Players themselves can also choose one of these characters in the selection screen, where there are 28 different Rare characters to choose from (and more added via DLC), along with generic characters, and a custom character feature in which players can create a human character or something wacky. Unlike in Fortnite, DLC isn't sold piecemeal, it's sold in packs, and there's no "daily" download DLC, it's just $9.99 for a pack with a bunch of cosmetic content, of which there will eventually be a total of 10 packs. There's no lootboxes (other than the boxes players find in the level that give out a random item), there's no major push to buy DLC (since there are already 50+ "default" characters and literally trillions of customization options in the base game), once you buy the game (which is $59.99), you have pretty much everything you need to deck out your character with tons of new looks, and you CAN spend more on the DLC packs, but it's completely optional, much like the DLC for Super Smash Bros. As for other gameplay mechanics, each character has a unique "ultimate" ability that provides a special effect, some focusing on offense, others on defense, and others on mobility. When creating a custom character, you can choose from 10 different ultimates to bestow on them. These ultimates are strong abilities, but they're not "required" for victory, except perhaps at the highest levels of play, and good shooting/platforming abilities can make up for the lack of skill with an ultimate. Ultimates are charge by dealing damage, taking damage, and from items picked up via looting. As Battle Buddies has been made with the Reality in mind, it has a significantly more graphically polished look than OTL's Fortnite, since it doesn't need to be ported to any other platforms. It runs incredibly well, at 60 FPS, even when some truly crazy stuff is happening (like a firefight between dozens of players and mass destruction going on). The game also features a good amount of voice acting, with Eveline Fischer even returning to voice the announcer (though Rebecca Mader still voices Joanna and Velvet Dark in the game), and also a lot of music from Grant Kirkhope and David Wise. It's not just an intensely fun battle royale, it's also a celebration of all things Rare, with tons of Rare cameos and references to Rare games, and along with Rare Replay, is a deep nostalgia dive for any fan of the company. In addition to the game's battle royale and team battle modes, there's also a 10 hour story mode which serves to introduce the player to the mechanics of the game, and is essentially a fun third person shooter/platformer in which the player creates their own character and must then fight in various combat scenarios to liberate the island from an evil mad scientist supervillain. For a tutorial, it's extremely fun (much like the single player mode in OTL's Splatoon), and though it's not worth the price of admission on its own, it's definitely worth playing.
Battle Buddies is released on May 6, 2016, to strong reviews from critics, averaging in the 9/10 range. It's not QUITE seen as a critical Game of the Year contender, with the shooting and platforming mechanics earning some criticism, as well as the fact that it's not the first battle royale game to hit the market (and thus isn't seen as majorly innovative). However, it gets a ton of hype from Nintendo and from fan anticipation, moreso than last year's Elemancers (which has also become quite the popular online game), and sales are through the roof after launch, beating out games like Metroid Quarantine and Animal Crossing: Welcome To Suburbia to become the fastest selling Nintendo Reality game of the year thus far, as well as Rare's fastest selling game in years. It's hugely popular with men and women, kids and adults, and players all over the world, and while it's not nearly as ubiquitous or influential as OTL's Fortnite (the $59.99 cost of admission is somewhat steep, after all), it doesn't attract nearly the hate fandom that Fortnite does either. In a rapidly growing genre of battle royale titles, Battle Buddies emerges as the most popular, and becomes the first true killer app of the year on the Reality. As for the battle royale genre itself, it's picking up steam in a more decentralized fashion, with battle royale modes in popular games becoming the norm, rather than dedicated battle royale titles. This has the consequence of making the genre more expensive, as, at least right away, there are few true free to play battle royale titles IOTL (which also has the effect of making the genre more popular amongst adults and less popular amongst kids). However, this also, at least in the early going, limits the battle royale genre's potential as an e-sport compared to IOTL, where popular streamers helped raise the popularity of the genre overall. Richard "Ninja" Blevins, for example, remains a popular gamer and streamer ITTL, but mostly focuses on Cyberwar 4, and doesn't get into Battle Buddies (though he does get into Strikeback on the Virtua, his preferred console of choice). As for Rare itself, the company begins to devote a segment of its studio to working exclusively on Battle Buddies updates and balancing, while the rest of the studio prepares for the launch of Slaughtered Planet 2, which they hope is an equivalent success, even if it's hard for them to imagine anything catching on as quickly as Battle Buddies. Battle Buddies quickly joins Elemancers and Super Smash Bros. Reality as Nintendo's most popular online titles, though as time passes, Rare's battle royale game begins to surpass them, showing that the battle royale genre still has the potential to become as popular ITTL as it does IOTL.
Spring 2016 (Part 8) - The Last Voyage
Tales Of The Seven Seas: To The End Of The World
Developed by Naughty Dog and published by Nintendo, Tales Of The Seven Seas: To The End Of The World is a cinematic adventure game exclusive to the Nintendo Reality, and is the final game in the Tales Of The Seven Seas series, providing closure to the stories of its seven protagonists. Like its predecessor, Tales Of The Seven Seas: Horizon, To The End Of The World blends swashbuckling action with open sea exploration, and gives each of its seven protagonists time to shine. In terms of basic gameplay, it actually doesn't change all that much from Horizon, in the same way that OTL's Uncharted 4 (the game that this one best compares to) didn't change all that much from Uncharted 3, maintaining the fairly simple combat and cinematic-based exploration of the previous title and instead focusing on upgrading presentation and the scale of the world. The biggest change to this game from Horizon is its non-linearity: To The End Of The World is divided into eight chapters, with each of the first seven focusing on one of the seven protagonists and actually having the player take control of them while they're alone, and giving them a large, open area to explore at their leisure. This segment sometimes comes at the beginning of the chapter, sometimes in the middle, and sometimes at the end. Sometimes, the player will have a lot of time with that character by themselves, while other times, it's possible to find other characters straight away, and in addition, there are a variety of optional story elements and upgrades to be found during these open segments, while the player will always be warned if they're about to advance out of the segment, giving them a chance to explore to their leisure. Each character's basic skill set remains fairly intact, though there have been some slight upgrades to each character's movement. Erick and Dona have more sword skills, Victoria (as well as Jack) can invent things with component parts, McKenna has incredible range of movement with even more parkour skills than Dona, Creel can find treasure and hidden objects more easily, and Albert has influence over certain enemy NPCs and is able to make them stop attacking or even attack each other. The movement itself has been majorly upgraded as well (much the same way that Uncharted 4 had more range of movement IOTL), with characters able to climb and jump with much more precision, hanging off of ledges (even upside down), moving their limbs more freely in combat, and using more context-sensitive controls. Every character has their own distinct method of movement, giving everyone a unique feel when controlling them both in combat and outside of it. Combat itself has been improved, but only slightly, taking a bit of influence from the combat of Squad Four Betrayal in that it's more cinematic, enemies have better AI, and there are different reactions to the same attack at times. The game features probably the best graphics of any Nintendo Reality game to date, and it's possible to get spectacular first person views that are even more breathtaking in VR, while the third person camera angles have been improved to allow for easier movement than ever before. Characters are voiced and mo-capped by the same actors as in the previous game, while the soundtrack is composed by Hans Zimmer, like in Horizon.
The game takes place four years after the events of Horizon, with Erick and Dona having settled down to raise their four year old daughter (but still going on occasional pirate voyages in the Venture), Creel having become an infamous and wanted pirate, Victoria trying to settle into a life in the aristocracy (but still inventing and practicing fencing), Albert going on a voyage of his own with his daughter Sana, and Jack and McKenna exploring the world. The seven of them are brought back together by Victoria, who has been contacted by James (the prince from The Victorian Legacy), now a king, who asks Victoria to help him locate a ship full of people that's disappeared after sailing to parts unknown. Victoria believes that the ship has found it's way to "the end of the world" on a search for a mythical lost continent. We're also introduced to a few other characters here, including James' brother Frederick (James' brothers were briefly referred to in The Victorian Legacy, but were absent, and it's stated early in this game that James and Frederick's other brothers were killed), a trader named Longfellow (who makes repeated appearances throughout the game and is sort of a comic relief character), and an ambitious young woman named Charlotte, an aristocrat like Victoria who idolizes Creel and wants to become a pirate like him. The first chapter gives players control over Victoria, and consists mostly of a brief "getting the band back together" segment in which most of the people she needs to find are fairly close to the opening town, while the only one she needs to go out on a limb to find is Creel, which she does by getting "captured" by him, only to easily escape and make him an offer he can't refuse (an offer he'd never refuse, since he's madly in love with her). Once the crew is reunited, the player can choose which of the seven to control for the remainder of the chapter, which is a voyage to an island where the crew was last seen, in search of a rumored wreck site that turns out to be an ambush from a group of pirates that are a rival to Creel, who are easily defeated by the heroes, who set sail once more to end the chapter.
The next three chapters are set against the backdrop of the search for the mysterious lost continent, with Creel's rival pirate crew (led by a man named Boggs) as the main villain of the story. During this time, a series of story threads are set up, including Victoria and Creel's strained relationship (Creel has done some fairly morally bad things during his time as a lone pirate, and Victoria is ashamed of him), Albert's desire to give Sana the childhood she never got to have, Jack and McKenna's continued dispute about whether they want to sail the seas or settle down, and Erick and Dona weighing their own adventurous proclivities against their desire to give their daughter (who spends most of her time with either Erick or Dona below deck while the other one goes on adventures) a normal life. At the same time, we see that Victoria is in regular correspondence with James via carrier pigeon, and that James has never lost his affection for her, even after Victoria rejected (in canon) his marriage proposal to her. Chapter two centers around Albert, and features a sea exploration segment, chapter three centers around McKenna and her return to the city where Jack's family lives as she searches for a clue to the whereabouts of the lost continent, and chapter four centers around Erick, who must rescue the other crew members after the ship runs aground on a deserted island and they all get captured (except for Dona, who easily evaded capture, though she is somewhat hampered by having to take care of her daughter while fighting off the rival pirates' crew), and Creel, who is looking for Victoria. Victoria is absolutely furious to have to be saved by Creel, though she's mostly worried for him after he takes a really stupid risk to save her from Boggs. Boggs and the remainder of his crew make it off the island, with Creel in hot pursuit on a stolen vessel, by himself after a furious Victoria abandons him. She and the others head out onto the open sea, where they come across a settlement constructed out of boats and anchored to a peninsula with a large jungle behind it. Chapter five takes place in this area, and after a segment in which the crew reunites with Charlotte (who stowed away on a pirate vessel), the player is eventually given control of Jack for an open exploration segment in which he and McKenna eventually reunite and discover a clue about the lost crew and the lost continent.
We learn a lot in chapter six, which features some story segments in which it's revealed that Boggs' crew is working with Duke Frederick, who plans to usurp his brother James from the throne. We take control of Creel here, who pursues Boggs' crew to James and Frederick's castle, where they execute a daring plot to kidnap James. After some soul searching (Creel is jealous of James for his relationship with Victoria), Creel does manage to rescue James, who is still believed to be dead, allowing Frederick to execute his coup. Frederick orders the entire royal navy to make way for the lost continent, using the information Victoria sent James via their letters. Creel and James set out to go find the rest of the crew before it's too late, and the rest of chapter six focuses on the Venture crew finding the Lost Continent and beginning the search for the wreckage of the lost ship. Chapter seven mostly centers around the exploration of the lost continent, with a large exploration segment focused on Dona (while Erick takes care of their daughter). Dona eventually finds the wreckage of the lost ship, and learns that the voyage was sent by James in order to find an ancient artifact that will allow him to gain the wisdom of King Solomon, so that he can be a good ruler (he still blames himself for the events surrounding Libertalia in The Victorian Legacy, which led to many innocent deaths). Dona wonders if such an artifact can help her decide what's best for her and Erick's child, and begins to follow the clues to search for it, but before she can get far, she's attacked by Boggs. She bests him in straight combat, but the rest of his crew arrives, and Dona is outmatched. She's saved when Victoria shows up, and the two fight off Boggs' lackeys, though Boggs himself gets away with the clue to King Solomon's treasure. As Dona and Victoria give chase, they can see Frederick's fleet over the horizon. Victoria, thinking it's James, leads Dona to them, only for the two to realize too late that it's a trap, and both of them get captured. Meanwhile, Albert, Jack, and McKenna are forced to flee the Venture after it's sabotaged and sunk, but can't reach Erick and his daughter in time, and the two seemingly sink to the bottom of the ocean as the chapter ends. Chapter eight begins with Dona and Victoria escaping together amidst a humorous and heartfelt dialogue scene, Erick and his daughter pulled out of a seemingly watery grave by Creel, and Albert, Jack, and McKenna outsmarting their pursuers. Boggs is the first to find King Solomon's treasure, and uses it to set a trap for Creel, while Creel and Erick reunite with Victoria and Dona (with more heartfelt dialogue as the result). James is also there, though it's clear that Victoria still loves Creel more than him, which James accepts, though he admits to Victoria that he wanted to be a good ruler to impress her. Creel wants to go face Boggs alone, but his friends insist on going with him, not realizing that they're all walking into Boggs' trap, while Frederick and his crew are right behind. There's a massive battle, and during this segment, the player is actually able to switch between all seven heroes in real time, taking part in any part of the battle, with three main objectives to complete: destroying Frederick's flagship, defeating a certain number of soldiers, and reaching the area of the island where Boggs is holed up with the treasure. Unfortunately, once this segment is complete, Boggs springs his trap, resulting in Dona, Jack, McKenna, and Albert all being incapacitated (not badly hurt, just taken out of the fight). Creel, Victoria, and Erick continue on, but Boggs is ready for them as well. Eventually, Creel seems to have Boggs caught, but Boggs springs one more trap, aimed at Victoria. Creel takes the hit and is mortally wounded. Victoria wants revenge, but because of the trap, only Erick can reach Boggs, so Victoria stays behind to tend to Creel. Erick confronts Boggs for the game's final boss fight. Unlike when Dona defeated Boggs, Boggs is MUCH smarter this time thanks to the treasure, and this is one of the toughest battles in the final game. Once Erick prevails, all the heroes, along with James, show up to tend to Creel, but it's too late, and he dies in Victoria's arms after one final kiss and heartfelt goodbye. Erick and Dona are tempted to use King Solomon's treasure, but are forced to abandon it after the area it's in collapses and they have to relinquish the treasure. The entire continent (which is more like just a large island) is sinking into the sea. The crew is fleeing to Frederick's flagship, the last ship remaining. We don't see them make it, but we do see Frederick and what's left of his crew. The usurper king laughs as the ship sets sail, only to turn around to face Victoria, who is standing next to him with a gun pointed at his head and a look of pure hatred in her eyes. The king asks Victoria if she's here to arrest him, and says that instead, she's under arrest, at which point all of Frederick's men point their swords at her. Frederick says that even if Victoria shoots him, she'll be taken back in chains, and as he starts to imply that she'll be sexually abused after she's taken prisoner, she shoots him in the face, killing him on the spot. Of course, before Frederick's stunned men can apprehend her, they're in turn surrounded by Erick, Dona, Albert, Jack, and McKenna, and also the rightful king, James, who arrest Frederick's soldiers and take command of the ship as it sails back to the kingdom's capital.
The end of the game sees Creel mourned as a hero, and reveals all the characters' fates in a lengthy ending sequence. James is restored as the rightful king, and though he doesn't have Solomon's treasure, he's inspired to become a wise and just king nonetheless. Victoria becomes the head of the king's admiralty, allowing her to live as both noble and adventurer, and it's implied that she might eventually become James' queen, though the fate of their relationship is left ambiguous. After much soul-searching, Jack and McKenna settle down, and build a beautiful tower to live in, while also taking in lots of orphans to give them the childhood that the two of them never had. Albert settles on an island with his daughter Sana. His island becomes a refuge for escaped slaves, under the protection of King James and the royal navy. Erick and Dona live their lives as pirate captains on the high seas, with their daughter Bonnie, and we even get a "ten years later" epilogue with her at age 14, much like Cassie Drake in OTL's Uncharted 4, where it's implied that Bonnie is on track to become the greatest hero pirate in the history of the seven seas.
Tales Of The Seven Seas: To The End Of The World isn't praised quite as highly as the groundbreaking Horizon, but it still gets excellent reviews and sales upon its release in June 2016, becoming one of the most successful Reality games of the year. It wraps up the story of the Venture crew in incredible fashion, satisfying most fans (though the reaction to Creel's death is quite mixed). The series would go down as one of the most epic sagas in video game history, wrapping up after 21 years and seven mostly excellent games. Naughty Dog would consider returning to the series some day, and there would be some Sana-focused DLC, along with a Longfellow and Charlotte story, and of course some spinoff media, but there wouldn't be another game in the series, at least until much, much later (beyond the scope of the TL, and of course focusing on Bonnie). Naughty Dog would concentrate its efforts from this point on into Mystic 3 and potentially a new IP, though production at the company would slow down in the coming years as more crunch controversy rears its head. Overall, the game is a successful and satisfying conclusion to an epic saga, and Naughty Dog is praised for allowing the series to end with dignity.
Developed by Naughty Dog and published by Nintendo, Tales Of The Seven Seas: To The End Of The World is a cinematic adventure game exclusive to the Nintendo Reality, and is the final game in the Tales Of The Seven Seas series, providing closure to the stories of its seven protagonists. Like its predecessor, Tales Of The Seven Seas: Horizon, To The End Of The World blends swashbuckling action with open sea exploration, and gives each of its seven protagonists time to shine. In terms of basic gameplay, it actually doesn't change all that much from Horizon, in the same way that OTL's Uncharted 4 (the game that this one best compares to) didn't change all that much from Uncharted 3, maintaining the fairly simple combat and cinematic-based exploration of the previous title and instead focusing on upgrading presentation and the scale of the world. The biggest change to this game from Horizon is its non-linearity: To The End Of The World is divided into eight chapters, with each of the first seven focusing on one of the seven protagonists and actually having the player take control of them while they're alone, and giving them a large, open area to explore at their leisure. This segment sometimes comes at the beginning of the chapter, sometimes in the middle, and sometimes at the end. Sometimes, the player will have a lot of time with that character by themselves, while other times, it's possible to find other characters straight away, and in addition, there are a variety of optional story elements and upgrades to be found during these open segments, while the player will always be warned if they're about to advance out of the segment, giving them a chance to explore to their leisure. Each character's basic skill set remains fairly intact, though there have been some slight upgrades to each character's movement. Erick and Dona have more sword skills, Victoria (as well as Jack) can invent things with component parts, McKenna has incredible range of movement with even more parkour skills than Dona, Creel can find treasure and hidden objects more easily, and Albert has influence over certain enemy NPCs and is able to make them stop attacking or even attack each other. The movement itself has been majorly upgraded as well (much the same way that Uncharted 4 had more range of movement IOTL), with characters able to climb and jump with much more precision, hanging off of ledges (even upside down), moving their limbs more freely in combat, and using more context-sensitive controls. Every character has their own distinct method of movement, giving everyone a unique feel when controlling them both in combat and outside of it. Combat itself has been improved, but only slightly, taking a bit of influence from the combat of Squad Four Betrayal in that it's more cinematic, enemies have better AI, and there are different reactions to the same attack at times. The game features probably the best graphics of any Nintendo Reality game to date, and it's possible to get spectacular first person views that are even more breathtaking in VR, while the third person camera angles have been improved to allow for easier movement than ever before. Characters are voiced and mo-capped by the same actors as in the previous game, while the soundtrack is composed by Hans Zimmer, like in Horizon.
The game takes place four years after the events of Horizon, with Erick and Dona having settled down to raise their four year old daughter (but still going on occasional pirate voyages in the Venture), Creel having become an infamous and wanted pirate, Victoria trying to settle into a life in the aristocracy (but still inventing and practicing fencing), Albert going on a voyage of his own with his daughter Sana, and Jack and McKenna exploring the world. The seven of them are brought back together by Victoria, who has been contacted by James (the prince from The Victorian Legacy), now a king, who asks Victoria to help him locate a ship full of people that's disappeared after sailing to parts unknown. Victoria believes that the ship has found it's way to "the end of the world" on a search for a mythical lost continent. We're also introduced to a few other characters here, including James' brother Frederick (James' brothers were briefly referred to in The Victorian Legacy, but were absent, and it's stated early in this game that James and Frederick's other brothers were killed), a trader named Longfellow (who makes repeated appearances throughout the game and is sort of a comic relief character), and an ambitious young woman named Charlotte, an aristocrat like Victoria who idolizes Creel and wants to become a pirate like him. The first chapter gives players control over Victoria, and consists mostly of a brief "getting the band back together" segment in which most of the people she needs to find are fairly close to the opening town, while the only one she needs to go out on a limb to find is Creel, which she does by getting "captured" by him, only to easily escape and make him an offer he can't refuse (an offer he'd never refuse, since he's madly in love with her). Once the crew is reunited, the player can choose which of the seven to control for the remainder of the chapter, which is a voyage to an island where the crew was last seen, in search of a rumored wreck site that turns out to be an ambush from a group of pirates that are a rival to Creel, who are easily defeated by the heroes, who set sail once more to end the chapter.
The next three chapters are set against the backdrop of the search for the mysterious lost continent, with Creel's rival pirate crew (led by a man named Boggs) as the main villain of the story. During this time, a series of story threads are set up, including Victoria and Creel's strained relationship (Creel has done some fairly morally bad things during his time as a lone pirate, and Victoria is ashamed of him), Albert's desire to give Sana the childhood she never got to have, Jack and McKenna's continued dispute about whether they want to sail the seas or settle down, and Erick and Dona weighing their own adventurous proclivities against their desire to give their daughter (who spends most of her time with either Erick or Dona below deck while the other one goes on adventures) a normal life. At the same time, we see that Victoria is in regular correspondence with James via carrier pigeon, and that James has never lost his affection for her, even after Victoria rejected (in canon) his marriage proposal to her. Chapter two centers around Albert, and features a sea exploration segment, chapter three centers around McKenna and her return to the city where Jack's family lives as she searches for a clue to the whereabouts of the lost continent, and chapter four centers around Erick, who must rescue the other crew members after the ship runs aground on a deserted island and they all get captured (except for Dona, who easily evaded capture, though she is somewhat hampered by having to take care of her daughter while fighting off the rival pirates' crew), and Creel, who is looking for Victoria. Victoria is absolutely furious to have to be saved by Creel, though she's mostly worried for him after he takes a really stupid risk to save her from Boggs. Boggs and the remainder of his crew make it off the island, with Creel in hot pursuit on a stolen vessel, by himself after a furious Victoria abandons him. She and the others head out onto the open sea, where they come across a settlement constructed out of boats and anchored to a peninsula with a large jungle behind it. Chapter five takes place in this area, and after a segment in which the crew reunites with Charlotte (who stowed away on a pirate vessel), the player is eventually given control of Jack for an open exploration segment in which he and McKenna eventually reunite and discover a clue about the lost crew and the lost continent.
We learn a lot in chapter six, which features some story segments in which it's revealed that Boggs' crew is working with Duke Frederick, who plans to usurp his brother James from the throne. We take control of Creel here, who pursues Boggs' crew to James and Frederick's castle, where they execute a daring plot to kidnap James. After some soul searching (Creel is jealous of James for his relationship with Victoria), Creel does manage to rescue James, who is still believed to be dead, allowing Frederick to execute his coup. Frederick orders the entire royal navy to make way for the lost continent, using the information Victoria sent James via their letters. Creel and James set out to go find the rest of the crew before it's too late, and the rest of chapter six focuses on the Venture crew finding the Lost Continent and beginning the search for the wreckage of the lost ship. Chapter seven mostly centers around the exploration of the lost continent, with a large exploration segment focused on Dona (while Erick takes care of their daughter). Dona eventually finds the wreckage of the lost ship, and learns that the voyage was sent by James in order to find an ancient artifact that will allow him to gain the wisdom of King Solomon, so that he can be a good ruler (he still blames himself for the events surrounding Libertalia in The Victorian Legacy, which led to many innocent deaths). Dona wonders if such an artifact can help her decide what's best for her and Erick's child, and begins to follow the clues to search for it, but before she can get far, she's attacked by Boggs. She bests him in straight combat, but the rest of his crew arrives, and Dona is outmatched. She's saved when Victoria shows up, and the two fight off Boggs' lackeys, though Boggs himself gets away with the clue to King Solomon's treasure. As Dona and Victoria give chase, they can see Frederick's fleet over the horizon. Victoria, thinking it's James, leads Dona to them, only for the two to realize too late that it's a trap, and both of them get captured. Meanwhile, Albert, Jack, and McKenna are forced to flee the Venture after it's sabotaged and sunk, but can't reach Erick and his daughter in time, and the two seemingly sink to the bottom of the ocean as the chapter ends. Chapter eight begins with Dona and Victoria escaping together amidst a humorous and heartfelt dialogue scene, Erick and his daughter pulled out of a seemingly watery grave by Creel, and Albert, Jack, and McKenna outsmarting their pursuers. Boggs is the first to find King Solomon's treasure, and uses it to set a trap for Creel, while Creel and Erick reunite with Victoria and Dona (with more heartfelt dialogue as the result). James is also there, though it's clear that Victoria still loves Creel more than him, which James accepts, though he admits to Victoria that he wanted to be a good ruler to impress her. Creel wants to go face Boggs alone, but his friends insist on going with him, not realizing that they're all walking into Boggs' trap, while Frederick and his crew are right behind. There's a massive battle, and during this segment, the player is actually able to switch between all seven heroes in real time, taking part in any part of the battle, with three main objectives to complete: destroying Frederick's flagship, defeating a certain number of soldiers, and reaching the area of the island where Boggs is holed up with the treasure. Unfortunately, once this segment is complete, Boggs springs his trap, resulting in Dona, Jack, McKenna, and Albert all being incapacitated (not badly hurt, just taken out of the fight). Creel, Victoria, and Erick continue on, but Boggs is ready for them as well. Eventually, Creel seems to have Boggs caught, but Boggs springs one more trap, aimed at Victoria. Creel takes the hit and is mortally wounded. Victoria wants revenge, but because of the trap, only Erick can reach Boggs, so Victoria stays behind to tend to Creel. Erick confronts Boggs for the game's final boss fight. Unlike when Dona defeated Boggs, Boggs is MUCH smarter this time thanks to the treasure, and this is one of the toughest battles in the final game. Once Erick prevails, all the heroes, along with James, show up to tend to Creel, but it's too late, and he dies in Victoria's arms after one final kiss and heartfelt goodbye. Erick and Dona are tempted to use King Solomon's treasure, but are forced to abandon it after the area it's in collapses and they have to relinquish the treasure. The entire continent (which is more like just a large island) is sinking into the sea. The crew is fleeing to Frederick's flagship, the last ship remaining. We don't see them make it, but we do see Frederick and what's left of his crew. The usurper king laughs as the ship sets sail, only to turn around to face Victoria, who is standing next to him with a gun pointed at his head and a look of pure hatred in her eyes. The king asks Victoria if she's here to arrest him, and says that instead, she's under arrest, at which point all of Frederick's men point their swords at her. Frederick says that even if Victoria shoots him, she'll be taken back in chains, and as he starts to imply that she'll be sexually abused after she's taken prisoner, she shoots him in the face, killing him on the spot. Of course, before Frederick's stunned men can apprehend her, they're in turn surrounded by Erick, Dona, Albert, Jack, and McKenna, and also the rightful king, James, who arrest Frederick's soldiers and take command of the ship as it sails back to the kingdom's capital.
The end of the game sees Creel mourned as a hero, and reveals all the characters' fates in a lengthy ending sequence. James is restored as the rightful king, and though he doesn't have Solomon's treasure, he's inspired to become a wise and just king nonetheless. Victoria becomes the head of the king's admiralty, allowing her to live as both noble and adventurer, and it's implied that she might eventually become James' queen, though the fate of their relationship is left ambiguous. After much soul-searching, Jack and McKenna settle down, and build a beautiful tower to live in, while also taking in lots of orphans to give them the childhood that the two of them never had. Albert settles on an island with his daughter Sana. His island becomes a refuge for escaped slaves, under the protection of King James and the royal navy. Erick and Dona live their lives as pirate captains on the high seas, with their daughter Bonnie, and we even get a "ten years later" epilogue with her at age 14, much like Cassie Drake in OTL's Uncharted 4, where it's implied that Bonnie is on track to become the greatest hero pirate in the history of the seven seas.
Tales Of The Seven Seas: To The End Of The World isn't praised quite as highly as the groundbreaking Horizon, but it still gets excellent reviews and sales upon its release in June 2016, becoming one of the most successful Reality games of the year. It wraps up the story of the Venture crew in incredible fashion, satisfying most fans (though the reaction to Creel's death is quite mixed). The series would go down as one of the most epic sagas in video game history, wrapping up after 21 years and seven mostly excellent games. Naughty Dog would consider returning to the series some day, and there would be some Sana-focused DLC, along with a Longfellow and Charlotte story, and of course some spinoff media, but there wouldn't be another game in the series, at least until much, much later (beyond the scope of the TL, and of course focusing on Bonnie). Naughty Dog would concentrate its efforts from this point on into Mystic 3 and potentially a new IP, though production at the company would slow down in the coming years as more crunch controversy rears its head. Overall, the game is a successful and satisfying conclusion to an epic saga, and Naughty Dog is praised for allowing the series to end with dignity.
Wow.
Just... Wow.
I am shocked that you would just end an acclaimed TTL-exclusive franchise like that. Still, at least it died with the dignity it deserved.
This begs the question. Aside from Mystic, and maybe a new IP, is there anything left in Naughty Dog's arsenal that could be utilized for the future? Or is the company going to shut down in the coming years?
I mean, sooner or later, Naughty Dog is going to realize that they have nothing left to offer. And that's just sad.
Just... Wow.
I am shocked that you would just end an acclaimed TTL-exclusive franchise like that. Still, at least it died with the dignity it deserved.
This begs the question. Aside from Mystic, and maybe a new IP, is there anything left in Naughty Dog's arsenal that could be utilized for the future? Or is the company going to shut down in the coming years?
I mean, sooner or later, Naughty Dog is going to realize that they have nothing left to offer. And that's just sad.
I’d say Naughty Dog has a lot more to work with ITTL than OTL even with Dog Dash and Tales of the Seven Seas over. They still have Crash Bandicoot, Goblins, and potentially another Pokemon alongside a potential new IP Ry mentioned.
Naughty Dog is actually TWO companies (or, divisions at least) at this point. Naughty Dog North, based in San Francisco, works on more family-friendly series like Dog Dash, Goblins, Crash Bandicoot, and the upcoming The Adventures of Anna Goldstar. They focus on more traditional games, and don't do mocap. Naughty Dog Mothership, based in Los Angeles, works on the big AAA mo-cap titles like Tales Of The Seven Seas and Mystic, and is now at work on a new IP for 2020 or 2021.
Oh. Thanks for telling me this!
In fact, I thought of something that feels like a pipe dream. Would we see Naughty Dog make a mega crossover with all their IPs, like how Argonaut made that Star Fox x Squad Four x X crossover? I mean, think of the possibilities for such an IP blend!
Hey, checking in again after I think 7 or 8 actual months of silent observance. Apologies for that.
About the TTL Puyo Puyo writeup I talked about doing near the beginning of the thread; I was actually slowly writing it all out over the course of these past few months, though I think I got a bit too invested in it since the Word document I have everything written down on is 20+ pages long. I was actually near finished, only having one game left in the timeline to write (Out of around 11 games in total), though I'm a bit concerned about finishing and sending it for review at this point (admittedly, life matters got a bit in the way) since I'm afraid what I've done so far (which is a lot) could potentially contrast or contradict whatever you guys have planned for TTL's version of the Puyo Puyo Tetris crossover (which the mention of it in the Apple keynote is what motivated me to talk about this again in the first place).
I'm open to discussing matters further either in here or in private conversations, and I sincerely apologize if I had left either of you hanging over this topic until now.
About the TTL Puyo Puyo writeup I talked about doing near the beginning of the thread; I was actually slowly writing it all out over the course of these past few months, though I think I got a bit too invested in it since the Word document I have everything written down on is 20+ pages long. I was actually near finished, only having one game left in the timeline to write (Out of around 11 games in total), though I'm a bit concerned about finishing and sending it for review at this point (admittedly, life matters got a bit in the way) since I'm afraid what I've done so far (which is a lot) could potentially contrast or contradict whatever you guys have planned for TTL's version of the Puyo Puyo Tetris crossover (which the mention of it in the Apple keynote is what motivated me to talk about this again in the first place).
I'm open to discussing matters further either in here or in private conversations, and I sincerely apologize if I had left either of you hanging over this topic until now.