Battle Royale: The Last Generation Of An SNES-CD Saga
- Thread starter RySenkari
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Damn, I didn't know Duke Nukem Forever was gonna be in the E3 2017 post.
Funnily enough, it actually gets released on time ITTL, though it's more of a mission pack sequel to Duke Nukem 3D.
E3 2017 (Part 3)
Nintendo Keynote - E3 2017
Nintendo's E3 keynote begins with a teaser trailer, which begins with a person chasing something through a forest. That something turns out to be an owl, and the object is a book. As the person runs, the words "from the makers of Terror Trip", "the producer of Bulwark of Stonewall", and "the director of Fairytale and Final Fantasy XII" are shown on screen. The person pursues the owl through the forest until they reach a door, and after they go through that door, they emerge on a cliff overlooking a massive landscape that appears to be built upon the decaying bones of a continent-sized creature. The game's title is revealed as The Boiling Isles, and the teaser ends there. After the teaser, Nintendo CEO Katsuya Eguchi and Nintendo of America president Shawn Layden take the stage and talk about the game we've just seen: The Boiling Isles is Pyramid Games' latest title, an epic open-world RPG produced by Vin Diesel's new company Kauldersoft, and directed by Tetsuya Takahashi, who previously directed numerous Squaresoft RPGs. The game is still early in development, and will have exclusive content and DLC on the Nintendo Reality. After this, Layden segued into about a ten-minute segment entirely focused on the upcoming Squad Four Apocalypse, which will be releasing on October 20th of this year. The segment showed numerous Argonaut developers discussing the game, the new mechanics, and the plot, and while it didn't cover too much we haven't seen before, we did get a fun glimpse at some of the new weapons and items that will be obtainable in the game, including some really sweet energy swords for Rebecca, different types of guns for Marcus, a flurry of pistols for Shad, and of course, plenty of gadgets and traps for Lane. Combat is a bit faster than it was in Betrayal, going with more of an action-RPG approach than the previous game's more deliberate cinematic fighting. The intuitive, responsive combat is still there (indeed, enemies seem to have gotten a bit smarter), but it looks like it's a bit more forgiving for button mashers and you don't have to quite watch enemies so much anymore. The game also seems to make more use of your AI partners, with your chosen character frequently able to team up for dual attacks with another character. The game also introduces vehicular combat to the mix, with characters able to ride speeders, cars, and even spaceships to battle against enemies. These segments won't take up much of the game from what we've seen, but they are there. We got a bit more plot info from the presentation, though the developers were careful to avoid spoilers: Squad Four Apocalypse seems to center on a Luddite death cult who call themselves the Renewal, and early in the game, they execute an attack that wipes out nearly all electricity and technology in the galaxy. Squad Four must find a way to defeat the Renewal and restore power to the galaxy before chaos and death take over everything. The biggest plot reveal was that Raquel, now sporting an eye patch, seems to be working with the Renewal for some reason, and is seen as an enemy that must be fought by Squad Four. We then got a trailer for the game, set to Imagine Dragons' "Whatever It Takes", which revealed a bit more of the plot and even shows Rebecca and Raquel fighting. The trailer did a great job setting the tone for the upcoming game, and it definitely looks to be Nintendo's major holiday release this year, though Squad Four Betrayal is still one of the best games of this generation and it'll be a hard act to follow.
Eguchi and Layden then discussed how Squad Four Apocalypse is the kind of game that really pushes what the Reality is capable of, and ask the audience if they noticed that the game looked better than any Reality game that's been released so far. They then reveal that the Squad Four Apocalypse footage that was shown is actually from a new model of the Nintendo Reality that will be released later this year, finally introducing the long-awaited 4K Reality upgrade. Called the Reality Neo, it is capable of 4K output of a wide array of games, much more than the limited 4K capabilities of the original Reality model. It's also more compatible with the Super VR headset released last year, and can show VR imagery in more detail and with more lifelike animation. The Reality Neo looks to be a similar upgrade to the Reality as the Virtua S was to the Virtua, not an enormous upgrade, but a noticeable one, and definitely desirable to those with 4K TVs. The Reality Neo will be released on October 20th, the same day as Squad Four Apocalypse, and in addition to the $499.99 base model, which includes the Super VR headset, there will also be two bundles: the Gran Turismo Real bundle, which includes Gran Turismo Real and the official steering wheel accessory, and the Squad Four bundle, which includes Squad Four Betrayal and Squad Four Apocalypse. Both bundles will cost $599.99. We then got a Pokemon presentation, which focused on Pokemon: Companion Quest, a new 3-D adventure title for the Nintendo Reality, in which players will be able to choose between Pikachu, Eevee, Bulbasaur, Squirtle, or Charmander, and go on a quest with that Pokemon in a brand new region, the Accel region, featuring Pokemon from the series' first two games. The Accel region has only six gyms, but has a wide variety of activities and adventures for the player and their chosen companion, and the game also features the Accel League mode, in which players can import any of their Pokemon from the original seven games in the series and do battle with the CPU or with local or online friends, serving as a successor to the popular Pokemon Stadium series. Pokemon: Companion Quest will launch on October 6th. Numerous other Pokemon games were then discussed, including a set of mobile titles, a first for the series, and also an upcoming Connect Pokemon spinoff game in 2018, an action-RPG title called Pokemon Brave. Following the Pokemon segment, we got to hear from Naughty Dog, who updated us on their upcoming games Mystic 3 and The Adventures of Anna Goldstar, both of which are expected to come out next year. We got a teaser trailer for Mystic 3, featuring a mysterious new protagonist (voiced by Laura Bailey), while Luma and Lake are nowhere in sight. This protagonist is on the front lines of the Oridae war, in which the beings are battling over the fate of a newly re-emerged human race. After the Mystic 3 trailer, we got to see a lot more of Anna Goldstar, which is revealed to be targeting an early 2018 release date. This is a much more family-friendly game, a Western-based adventure game featuring a friendly cowgirl protagonist who battles bandits and protects her friends in the Old West. While it's not a kids' game per se (Anna does shoot people, though it's fairly bloodless), Anna herself seems like a really cheerful heroine, and the game throws itself headlong into being a classic style adventure game with a mix of open world adventure and third person shooter mechanics, with a fully orchestrated soundtrack and plenty of wild characters. It looks like it could be one of next year's more fun original IPs, and hopefully it lives up to the considerable hype.
Next up, a presentation for Kid Icarus: Ascension, an epic adventure game in which Pit must descend to the world of humanity to protect them from the threat of a dangerous new god. Pit seems conflicted between helping the humans and returning home, but he's inspired by Palutena, and also by a girl he meets named Isadora, who seems to be his love interest. This game is a full-on hack and slash adventure, with Pit capable of battling enemies on the ground with his swords or shooting them from above with arrows and laser blasts, and features battles against both dangerous humanoid enemies and massive, epic bosses. It's the first Kid Icarus title developed in the West, directed by David Jaffe of Lash Out fame, and his stamp is all over this one, with plenty of recognizable mechanics from that series. Similar to the slightly longer Squad Four Apocalypse presentation, this segment ended with an epic trailer, this time set to a minute and a half segment of Kansas' "Icarus - Borne On Wings Of Steel", which received one of the most positive audience reactions of the entire show. It's coming out in November. Another of the most positive audience reactions of Nintendo's presentation came at the next trailer, for a Connect remake of Metroid II: Return Of Samus. Titled Metroid: Samus Returns, it's a 2-D re-imagining of the classic Game Boy title, and features all the Metroid hunting action players know and love, with tons of new features and quality of live improvements, and it's coming to Connect in October (Nintendo is going to have a huge October). Next is a Connect title called The World Of Drawica, developed by HAL Labs and meant to use the Connect's ability to interact with the player's television to draw things on the Connect's touchscreen to help out the game's hero, Scrib, explore a vast 3-D world. The gameplay looks like a lot of fun, and we really enjoyed playing this one at Nintendo's booth. It does have a mode where the player can enjoy it fully portable, but to get the most out of the game, you do need to be able to interact with a television. The World Of Drawica is coming in December. We then got a quick look at Hazardous: The End War, the third and final game of Sony's epic shooter/RPG series, via a trailer combining both plot and gameplay elements. This segued into a sizzle reel of third party titles, which didn't reveal too much but did show some nice new scenes from games like Doggerland and Resident Evil 8. The final reveal of the third party reel was the reveal of some DLC content for the Reality's Kingdom Quest compilation, and then we got a new scene that ultimately showed Princess Calypso receiving an invitation to Super Smash Bros. Reality! Yes, Cally is coming to Smash, and the trailer showed off some of her moves, including her Final Smash which shows her transforming into her final boss form. After the Calypso Smash reveal, we got a trailer for a new horror IP in which a young woman is wandering alone in a mysterious mansion with only a flashlight. This flashlight is revealed to have properties that can ward off the mansion's various horrors, though we also saw that a strange ghost woman has a darklight that she can use to create horrors. The game looks to make heavy use of VR. The game's title was revealed as Light In The Darkness, and it's coming exclusively to the Reality in 2018.
Eguchi then spoke at length about Nintendo's relationship with its third party partners, and how it's been the best in the business for the last 35 years, allowing Nintendo to create great things like the Super Smash Bros. series and bring experiences to its consoles that players everywhere can enjoy. He then speaks about Squaresoft, and how some of the greatest games of all time have resulted from the partnership between Squaresoft and Nintendo. He talks about some of the great games of the past, such as Secret Of Mana, Chrono Trigger, and Final Fantasy VII, then states that this next game being revealed will be exclusive to the Nintendo Reality at launch, and that it is one of the most exciting projects ever to appear on Nintendo hardware. A trailer then begins, and the audience immediately knows what it is from the familiar music and the close-up on a legendary sword... this is the Secret Of Mana remake, and the trailer ends by showing some brief glimpses of the game's 3-D action RPG gameplay, which shows the game's characters and world in vivid detail, and looks stunning on the Reality Neo hardware in full 4K, even in the game's fantastical graphical style. Eguchi thanks the crowd for coming, but then says those familiar words... "one more thing"... and we get another trailer, this time showing a world revealed to be Hyrule, besieged by various weather calamities, before focusing on a weathervane in the shape of a Cucco. The weathervane comes to life, and the Cucco perches on a familiar shoulder, and we get a glimpse of Link's face before the words "THE LEGEND OF ZELDA" are shown on screen. We then see Eiji Aunoma, announcing that a brand new Legend Of Zelda game is on its way to the Nintendo Reality and is already well into development, and that more information will be revealed at a later time. Eguchi and Layden both thank the fans for watching, and that's the end of the Nintendo keynote presentation for E3 2017.
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E3 2017 had plenty of news from third party studios, with Activision, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Acclaim, Squaresoft, and Capcom all having their own keynotes in addition to the big presentations from Nintendo, Apple, and Google. Lots of new games were revealed, with some looking like they could be among the biggest things in gaming over the next few years.
Activision's keynote had plenty of Call Of Duty: WWII footage to show of, with fully 15 minutes of their presentation dedicated to the upcoming FPS title and its plethora of multiplayer modes. Activision devoted almost as much time to The Hidden City, the much talked about open world RPG with a heavy noir aesthetic. While the game does have some echoes of Volare, it's much grittier and intense, more like a Grand Theft Auto title than an optimistic dieselpunk adventure. There's plenty to do in the big, beautiful city of Graylake, and the player's actions will have a major impact on how this epic plays out. Activision also showed off two new titles: Aerial Kings is a game based on World War I era aerial dogfighting, in which the player seeks to become the greatest flying ace of all time, surpassing even the great Red Baron. It's Ace Combat meets Call Of Duty, with thrilling close calls and intense firefights, and the graphics look spectacular. This is a game that seems like it has to be played in VR, whether you're playing the Reality, Nexus, or Virtua. Finally, we saw a brief glimpse at Snohomish, which looks to be a follow-up to last year's Pocatello, though this time, it's set in Washington. The game actually looks to have a bit of a more lighthearted feel compared to the gritty murder mystery, and its protagonist is a college-aged girl who just wants to make friends and lead a normal life, only to stumble into a tragedy. This game is very early in development, but we'll no doubt hear more about it in the coming months, and the early scenes look melancholy and beautiful.
Squaresoft's keynote had plenty to show of the new Kingdom Hearts: Princess Destiny, which features Kairi as its new protagonist, and will visit nearly every Disney Princess over the course of the game, with much of the featured gameplay from the trailer showing off the new Goldilocks world. The game focuses heavily on magic, with Kairi able to combine diferent spells with different Keyblades for powerful new effects. Creator Tetsuya Nomura says that while this game does follow up the lore from the original trilogy, it also functions as a "stand alone adventure" that can be enjoyed without experiencing the lore of previous titles. We saw more of the Secret Of Mana remake, just a bit more gameplay footage showing the combat mechanics. It functions much like the original SNES-CD title, but with quicker combat and a wide array of new attacks and spells... and of course, it's in full, breathtaking 3D. There were lots of mobile games, including Calex Of Endymion, a card-based tactical RPG with gacha mechanics and a deep character based storyline that encourages players to plow through different battles to unlock each character's story. We also learned of a new Final Fantasy spinoff for consoles called Final Fantasy Elementus, an action-RPG in which players choose from up to 16 different elements and then must battle through a quest tuned to that element, powering up that element's attacks and interacting with different characters. The game seems like it will have branching paths and feature various lore from the series, but as it's early in development, we didn't get to find out all that much. We're getting a new life-sim/RPG called Coffee Shop, in which a girl in a modern-day town is visited by various adventuring characters, and must involve herself in their adventures by mixing and drinking different kinds of coffee. It's a very weird little game, but the combat system, a modified turn-based battle system with a heavy item emphasis, looks really unique, so this is one to look forward to. We also got small glimpse an an upcoming RPG that's early in development, featuring a big open world and motorcycles that transform into beasts. We didn't get a title for this one, and the earliest we're likely to see it is 2019.
Psygnosis didn't have a keynote, per se, but their booth was one of the busiest of the show, likely due to the huge crowd around the Cyberwar 5 display and the 30-minute presentation which featured the game's developers and even members of the game's voice cast, including AJ Michalka who voices Netizen X (the game's seeming antagonist). One of the highlights was getting to see AJ play some of the game's multiplayer modes with various celebrities who stopped by, including the cast of GameTV (who she managed to do pretty well against, something you probably wouldn't be able to say about the old cast). Along with all the Cyberwar 5 coverage, we got to see some of the company's new game, an online shooter/RPG title taking place in a post-apocalyptic future. Called Scrounger, the game requires you to steal, loot, and generally obtain as much stuff as you can, and features "full PvP", in which players can kill each other at any time, no matter what, even when you're playing through the single player missions. Sounds like a recipe for trolling, but the game looks really fun, and we'll be hearing more about it for sure at a future presentation.
THQ also had a fairly small presentation, but they are indeed still around, mostly thanks to their success with their WWE games and also with the Rise A Knight series, which will be getting a new entry next year. Rise A Knight: Avarice will be a spinoff title, and centers around the race for gold and treasure in a newly discovered territory. You play as a created character living in that territory, who must repel the invaders and discover the secrets of the world beyond. The company is also working on an adventure game focused on puzzles and exploration, with no combat at all, though there will be enemies trying to kill you. The game is untitled and early in development, but it goes by the codename "Project Archeo".
Electronic Arts' keynote focused heavily on their sports games, with NBA Live 18 sporting an updated graphical package and a bevy of new features, and after nearly 25 years it's still at the top of the heap in terms of popularity amongst basketball sims. The other game that was focused on is Derelict, coming this December. The space-based adventure/horror game looks better than ever, and you'll surely be scared out of your mind exploring old space stations in search of the mysterious calamity that befell your fellow galactic travelers. The graphics look superb, and the game seems to parse out its scares well: no cheap jump scares in this one, just plenty of tension and psychological horror. It was one of the most popular games out on the floor as well, where the first few hours of the game were available for play. Finally, Electronic Arts showed off The Cabin, which despite the name evoking images of horror in the woods, is actually a building/lifesim game in which you play a bearded dad who moves to a new town with his family in order to build his dream home, meeting a variety of interesting characters along the way. Originally intended as an indie title, Electronic Arts picked it up and has significantly increased its budget. It seems like they think they've got a hit on their hands, and we actually really enjoyed some of the gameplay of this one. The dad is a fairly hapless fool voiced by Jim Belushi, but he's also quite lovable, and his family is endearing as well.
Acclaim had one of the biggest keynotes of the show, and showed off a huge bevy of upcoming content, giving plenty of promotion to their upcoming Eidos acquisitions The Gatherer and Tomb Raider: Seeker Of The Heart. Despite rumored development issues with both games, The Gatherer looks like it's coming together extremely nicely. It's a gorgeous, open world RPG taking place on Stone Age-era Earth, and features a rich and robust crafting system, while the combat with animals also looks to be thrilling and intense. As for the new Tomb Raider, it's focused on Lara and two of her friends from Soul Of The Betrayer, Aria and Rei, as they go on an adventure together to discover a new and strange artifact. While the leadtime was really short on this game, less than two years (according to some, due to Acclaim's rushing of production), it has the exact same engine as Soul Of The Betrayer, and feels like an extension of that title with new plot elements and some polish. It looks great and was plenty of fun to play in the booth, but we are a bit skeptical of how rushed this one might be. We hope it lives up to the standard set by the previous game. We also got a first look at next year's Mortal Kombat: Wrath, which finally introduces characters from Divine Wrath into the Mortal Kombat universe. Not everyone will be making it in, but we did get to see Santa Claus, Thor, and God in the game, and we're sure that this one's going to be highly bloody and highly controversial. We finally got a teaser for the much anticipated Acclaimed Champions 2, which will also be releasing next year, and will introduce characters from Eidos properties including Lara Croft and Kain to the mix of popular Acclaim stars.
Ubisoft's keynote started off with lots of new footage from the upcoming Assassin's Creed: Restoration, the first title in the series in two years. It takes place in feudal Japan in the 19th century, during the Meiji Restoration. This game introduces lots of RPG elements to the series, much in the same way that Squad Four Apocalypse was revealed to do so, but this one leans more heavily into those elements, and players should be able to find plenty do to in this one. It looks utterly beautiful, especially when shown on Virtua S and Reality Neo hardware, and will be released in October (it should compete heavily with games like Squad Four Apocalypse for players' time). We also got more gameplay from For Honor, an action title in which a wide variety of warriors of various disciplines battle it out in epic clashes across space and time. We're really intrigued by this one, and it was a ton of fun to play at the Ubisoft booth. We also got a glimpse at the upcoming Metal Gear Black, the Metal Gear Solid/Blackheart crossover that's been in the works since Ubisoft's acquisition of Konami's gaming properties. Though the game looks to play much like the recent Metal Gear Solid titles, it also looks a lot like Blackheart 4 in certain ways, especially when controlling Messiah (we haven't had playable Sadira confirmed yet, though we did get a glimpse of her in the game's trailers, and she will be an ally to the heroes). Raiden is still the main protagonist, and we also got to see Zax, which confirms that this takes place after Metal Gear Solid IV and that Solid Snake is dead and gone... or is he? Plenty of mystery and intrigue are still surrounding this game, but we'll get all the answers we're looking for when this game comes out next year. We got a look at a new 3-D adventure game, Bugalee's Adventures, which almost seems to be an answer to Nintendo and Apple fans clamoring for Miraculous Ladybug to be ported to their consoles. We're not getting that, but this anime-inspired 3D platforming adventure title in which an anthropomorphic butterfly girl battles evil is fairly close, without the lifesim elements at least. It looks cute, and should be popular with families. After a few more small updates on other Ubisoft projects, we got a "one more thing"-type reveal from Hideo Kojima himself... revealing a full remake of Snatcher as a Metal Gear Solid-like 3D adventure/mystery game. No longer will this classic be a visual novel: it's going to be made into a fully 3D game, with new plot twists and characters. It's aiming for a 2019 release date, the 25th anniversary of the game's classic SNES-CD port.
Capcom showed off plenty of Resident Evil stuff, including footage of Resident Evil 8 showing the main protagonists, Claire Redfield and Jill Valentine, engaged in battle against an army of L-Virus infected thralls, led by Claire's revived brother Chris. The infected of this game possess a degree of intelligence somewhat greater than that of previous titles, but are still capable of mutating into hideous horrors, and some of them have terrifying new powers. We also got to see the reveal of a spinoff game, Resident Evil: Mansion, which seems to be an alternate re-telling of the original title, with a new protagonist and certain elements out of place. That game is coming next year. There's a new Star Siren on the way, this one doesn't have an official title and looks to be somewhat of a reboot, with Saiyuki returning alongside what appears to be an entirely different cast, while the game features full 3D gameplay rather than the 2D beat 'em up style of previous installments in the series. This game looks to still be early in development, and while long-time fans may be skeptical, the game itself looks really fun and could be a fresh update of this popular series for a new generation. Capcom also revealed two games coming next year: a puzzle-based handheld title called Brainbuster League, and an action/adventure title centered on a magical smartphone that can manipulate the world around it, called Digiscape.
Take-Two's booth focused heavily on Doggerland, showing off a ton of gameplay and expanding on the survival mechanics, as well as the tribe-building mechanics in which the player must develop their relationship with their tribemates and build a suitable settlement to defend from other tribes and from the elements. While the game does have some gameplay echoes of Grand Theft Auto IV and Valdoza, it's nothing like the company has done before, and could well be a survival game for the ages. For those looking for a traditional experience akin to the classic Race 'n Chase games, we got a teaser for a topdown driving/crime based game called Do The Crime, which looks even more chaotic than Race 'n Chase and allows players to go totally wild, running over pedestrians and performing insane rampages, without the complex mission-based structure that the Grand Theft Auto games are known for. The game is early in development, so don't expect it to be out before late 2018. As for Grand Theft Auto, we got some news on DLC and updates for Grand Theft Auto Online, including the addition of an amusement park and a demolition derby, among many other things.
Finally, though The Boiling Isles is still extremely early in development (we're thinking a 2020 release window is accurate), we did get to speak with three of the game's main developers, including Alex and Ariel Hirsch, as well as Dana Terrace, who developed the game's initial concept and will serve as lead writer and world/character designer. The three all were incredibly enthusiastic with the game, and were thrilled when actor/game designer Vin Diesel offered to make the game the first to be produced by his new studio. According to the Hirsch twins, Diesel has taken a hands-off approach with the game, offering up suggestions but leaving the development in the hands of Pyramid's writers and the director, Tetsuya Takahashi, whose involvement extends primarily to game mechanics and world design. The game will be an open-world RPG, you'll create a character (who, according to Terrace, will be a young college-age person currently in their "gap year", pressured by parents to go to an Ivy League college but wanting to find their own way in the world when they're transported to the titular Boiling Isles), and the game will have a "horror" aesthetic, though, according to Alex Hirsch, it's not a "horror game". That's all we know this early on, but it's already looking like it could be one of the most epic RPGs of its generation, and could push the current generation of consoles to their limits (or might even end up on the next generation of consoles if they're released in 2019 or 2020).
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Austin Watson: So now that E3 is over, we've played all the games, seen all the presentations, I have one question to ask... who won E3?
Christina Grimmie: Nintendo.
Austin: You always say Nintendo!
Avan Jogia: Yeah, you're biased.
Bryce Papenbrook: It's true this year, though, Nintendo won E3. They revealed so much, and they've got so much going on. The Reality Neo is a great upgrade over the base system, Squad Four Apocalypse looks like a much better progression over its predecessor than Squad Four Upheaval was back in 2003, Metroid: Samus Returns is the remake all of us wanted, The Adventures Of Anna Goldstar is super charming and fun, they've got two awesome new Pokemon games coming... no bias here, Nintendo really did win E3.
Christina: There's gonna be a new Zelda game! I thought we'd have to wait until the next console to get a new one, but there's gonna be a new one coming like, next year or the year after! I want it now!
Avan: You know, I actually do have to agree with my colleagues here, Nintendo did win E3 this year. It was close, it was uh, it was pretty close, because Apple showed off a lot of really nice games too, but what did it for me was Kid Icarus: Ascension. It's an actual serious Kid Icarus game.
Christina: He's not a kid anymore.
Avan: He really isn't, and I don't think this game is going to go like Elysium Awaits, which was Nintendo's last effort to make a serious Kid Icarus game, but not really. This time, they went balls out on it and it's going to pay off. I think it might even overshadow Squad Four Apocalypse.
Austin: I don't think that's gonna happen, because Squad Four is awesome and Apocalypse looks badass, but yes, Kid Icarus: Ascension looks incredible and I can't wait to play it and pretty much everything Nintendo's got this year. The World Of Drawica too, don't sleep on that one.
Christina: I really want to play it too, on the biggest TV I can find. Finally, someone is using the Connect's connectors to actually make connections. It's going to be a lot of fun.
Austin: So yeah... Nintendo won E3.
Bryce: But I have to agree with Avan, Apple looked really good this year, and The Last Gift... damn, I really wanted to play it this year. All we got was a tease, but what a tease. Maybe the best individual game we got to see, and that's including The Boiling Isles, the Secret of Mana remake, and Snatcher.
Christina: Two huge, huge remakes from the SNES-CD era. I was too young to appreciate those games when they came out, I wasn't even born, I had to play Secret Of Mana on the Supernova shop later and I've NEVER played the original Snatcher, which is something I've always meant to rectify but haven't been able to do and now I don't know if I will.
Avan: You really need to go back and play Snatcher.
Mari Takahashi: I know you guys aren't going to agree with me on this, but can I just say that I think Google won E3 this year? They really made a serious statement about what they want to do with the Nexus platform, and that's bring it to everyone, everywhere. They might just be the first console maker to move beyond the console, and for a company that's going to sell 100 million Nexus units, that's a really bold move and one I think I have to applaud. I also really love Redshift, I love the idea of Redshift, I loved playing it at the booth, I loved all the social networking possibilities of the game, and I think Google is really onto something with what they're doing and it means more to me personally than Nintendo and Apple's games, which looked good but which are still sort of the same old thing, while Google is making progress in software delivery that Nintendo and Apple aren't.
Bryce: You make a really good point in that Google is doing a great job pushing its platform to as many people as they can, and I know Apple is trying to do some of the things Google's doing but they've gotten caught up in recent years in pushing the Virtua at the expense of sort of everything else. They barely even showed off the Gemini.
Avan: Well, they're trying to push more people onto the iPhone.
Bryce: They're going right for Google's throat but I don't think it's working. Google wants to push Android as a Nexus platform. Google and Samsung have been working hand in hand on that.
Christina: Yeah, all Nintendo bias aside, I really like what Google's doing too, they're going for the jugular in both the console and the phone market, as if they see Apple as much more of a competitor than they see Nintendo.
Mari: Google and Apple are using their consoles as a way to get people to buy more of their stuff, and it's worked for Google and Samsung more than it's worked for Apple. Nintendo might've had the most impressive games, but Google had the most impressive message and I think set themselves up for future success much more than either Nintendo or Apple did this year.
Austin: Really good insights there, I still choose Nintendo but people who think that Google didn't show anything are absolutely wrong, Google showed a lot of things and I think in a year or so people are going to look back and see what Google was talking about during their presentation this year.
Christina: ...there's gonna be another Zelda game.
Avan: Go play Snatcher. You can buy it to play on the Reality right now, go play it.
Christina: I think I want to play Link To The Past again.
-from GameTV's streaming coverage of E3 2017, posted on June 16, 2017
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Game Critics Awards E3 2017
Best Of Show: Devoid
Best Original Game: Devoid
Best Console Game: Devoid
Best PC Game: Tower Of Epsilon
Best Handheld Game: Herzog Zwei: Satellite War
Best Peripheral/Hardware: Enthrall VR
Best Action Game: Bayonetta 3
Best Action/Adventure Game: Doggerland
Best Role Playing Game: Tower Of Epsilon
Best Racing Game: Hypervelocity
Best Sports Game: NBA Elite 18
Best Fighting Game: Ubisoft vs. Konami: Battle Of Legends
Best Shooter: Devoid
Best Party Game: Just Dance Revolution 2
Best Online Multiplayer: Doggerland
Nintendo's E3 keynote begins with a teaser trailer, which begins with a person chasing something through a forest. That something turns out to be an owl, and the object is a book. As the person runs, the words "from the makers of Terror Trip", "the producer of Bulwark of Stonewall", and "the director of Fairytale and Final Fantasy XII" are shown on screen. The person pursues the owl through the forest until they reach a door, and after they go through that door, they emerge on a cliff overlooking a massive landscape that appears to be built upon the decaying bones of a continent-sized creature. The game's title is revealed as The Boiling Isles, and the teaser ends there. After the teaser, Nintendo CEO Katsuya Eguchi and Nintendo of America president Shawn Layden take the stage and talk about the game we've just seen: The Boiling Isles is Pyramid Games' latest title, an epic open-world RPG produced by Vin Diesel's new company Kauldersoft, and directed by Tetsuya Takahashi, who previously directed numerous Squaresoft RPGs. The game is still early in development, and will have exclusive content and DLC on the Nintendo Reality. After this, Layden segued into about a ten-minute segment entirely focused on the upcoming Squad Four Apocalypse, which will be releasing on October 20th of this year. The segment showed numerous Argonaut developers discussing the game, the new mechanics, and the plot, and while it didn't cover too much we haven't seen before, we did get a fun glimpse at some of the new weapons and items that will be obtainable in the game, including some really sweet energy swords for Rebecca, different types of guns for Marcus, a flurry of pistols for Shad, and of course, plenty of gadgets and traps for Lane. Combat is a bit faster than it was in Betrayal, going with more of an action-RPG approach than the previous game's more deliberate cinematic fighting. The intuitive, responsive combat is still there (indeed, enemies seem to have gotten a bit smarter), but it looks like it's a bit more forgiving for button mashers and you don't have to quite watch enemies so much anymore. The game also seems to make more use of your AI partners, with your chosen character frequently able to team up for dual attacks with another character. The game also introduces vehicular combat to the mix, with characters able to ride speeders, cars, and even spaceships to battle against enemies. These segments won't take up much of the game from what we've seen, but they are there. We got a bit more plot info from the presentation, though the developers were careful to avoid spoilers: Squad Four Apocalypse seems to center on a Luddite death cult who call themselves the Renewal, and early in the game, they execute an attack that wipes out nearly all electricity and technology in the galaxy. Squad Four must find a way to defeat the Renewal and restore power to the galaxy before chaos and death take over everything. The biggest plot reveal was that Raquel, now sporting an eye patch, seems to be working with the Renewal for some reason, and is seen as an enemy that must be fought by Squad Four. We then got a trailer for the game, set to Imagine Dragons' "Whatever It Takes", which revealed a bit more of the plot and even shows Rebecca and Raquel fighting. The trailer did a great job setting the tone for the upcoming game, and it definitely looks to be Nintendo's major holiday release this year, though Squad Four Betrayal is still one of the best games of this generation and it'll be a hard act to follow.
Eguchi and Layden then discussed how Squad Four Apocalypse is the kind of game that really pushes what the Reality is capable of, and ask the audience if they noticed that the game looked better than any Reality game that's been released so far. They then reveal that the Squad Four Apocalypse footage that was shown is actually from a new model of the Nintendo Reality that will be released later this year, finally introducing the long-awaited 4K Reality upgrade. Called the Reality Neo, it is capable of 4K output of a wide array of games, much more than the limited 4K capabilities of the original Reality model. It's also more compatible with the Super VR headset released last year, and can show VR imagery in more detail and with more lifelike animation. The Reality Neo looks to be a similar upgrade to the Reality as the Virtua S was to the Virtua, not an enormous upgrade, but a noticeable one, and definitely desirable to those with 4K TVs. The Reality Neo will be released on October 20th, the same day as Squad Four Apocalypse, and in addition to the $499.99 base model, which includes the Super VR headset, there will also be two bundles: the Gran Turismo Real bundle, which includes Gran Turismo Real and the official steering wheel accessory, and the Squad Four bundle, which includes Squad Four Betrayal and Squad Four Apocalypse. Both bundles will cost $599.99. We then got a Pokemon presentation, which focused on Pokemon: Companion Quest, a new 3-D adventure title for the Nintendo Reality, in which players will be able to choose between Pikachu, Eevee, Bulbasaur, Squirtle, or Charmander, and go on a quest with that Pokemon in a brand new region, the Accel region, featuring Pokemon from the series' first two games. The Accel region has only six gyms, but has a wide variety of activities and adventures for the player and their chosen companion, and the game also features the Accel League mode, in which players can import any of their Pokemon from the original seven games in the series and do battle with the CPU or with local or online friends, serving as a successor to the popular Pokemon Stadium series. Pokemon: Companion Quest will launch on October 6th. Numerous other Pokemon games were then discussed, including a set of mobile titles, a first for the series, and also an upcoming Connect Pokemon spinoff game in 2018, an action-RPG title called Pokemon Brave. Following the Pokemon segment, we got to hear from Naughty Dog, who updated us on their upcoming games Mystic 3 and The Adventures of Anna Goldstar, both of which are expected to come out next year. We got a teaser trailer for Mystic 3, featuring a mysterious new protagonist (voiced by Laura Bailey), while Luma and Lake are nowhere in sight. This protagonist is on the front lines of the Oridae war, in which the beings are battling over the fate of a newly re-emerged human race. After the Mystic 3 trailer, we got to see a lot more of Anna Goldstar, which is revealed to be targeting an early 2018 release date. This is a much more family-friendly game, a Western-based adventure game featuring a friendly cowgirl protagonist who battles bandits and protects her friends in the Old West. While it's not a kids' game per se (Anna does shoot people, though it's fairly bloodless), Anna herself seems like a really cheerful heroine, and the game throws itself headlong into being a classic style adventure game with a mix of open world adventure and third person shooter mechanics, with a fully orchestrated soundtrack and plenty of wild characters. It looks like it could be one of next year's more fun original IPs, and hopefully it lives up to the considerable hype.
Next up, a presentation for Kid Icarus: Ascension, an epic adventure game in which Pit must descend to the world of humanity to protect them from the threat of a dangerous new god. Pit seems conflicted between helping the humans and returning home, but he's inspired by Palutena, and also by a girl he meets named Isadora, who seems to be his love interest. This game is a full-on hack and slash adventure, with Pit capable of battling enemies on the ground with his swords or shooting them from above with arrows and laser blasts, and features battles against both dangerous humanoid enemies and massive, epic bosses. It's the first Kid Icarus title developed in the West, directed by David Jaffe of Lash Out fame, and his stamp is all over this one, with plenty of recognizable mechanics from that series. Similar to the slightly longer Squad Four Apocalypse presentation, this segment ended with an epic trailer, this time set to a minute and a half segment of Kansas' "Icarus - Borne On Wings Of Steel", which received one of the most positive audience reactions of the entire show. It's coming out in November. Another of the most positive audience reactions of Nintendo's presentation came at the next trailer, for a Connect remake of Metroid II: Return Of Samus. Titled Metroid: Samus Returns, it's a 2-D re-imagining of the classic Game Boy title, and features all the Metroid hunting action players know and love, with tons of new features and quality of live improvements, and it's coming to Connect in October (Nintendo is going to have a huge October). Next is a Connect title called The World Of Drawica, developed by HAL Labs and meant to use the Connect's ability to interact with the player's television to draw things on the Connect's touchscreen to help out the game's hero, Scrib, explore a vast 3-D world. The gameplay looks like a lot of fun, and we really enjoyed playing this one at Nintendo's booth. It does have a mode where the player can enjoy it fully portable, but to get the most out of the game, you do need to be able to interact with a television. The World Of Drawica is coming in December. We then got a quick look at Hazardous: The End War, the third and final game of Sony's epic shooter/RPG series, via a trailer combining both plot and gameplay elements. This segued into a sizzle reel of third party titles, which didn't reveal too much but did show some nice new scenes from games like Doggerland and Resident Evil 8. The final reveal of the third party reel was the reveal of some DLC content for the Reality's Kingdom Quest compilation, and then we got a new scene that ultimately showed Princess Calypso receiving an invitation to Super Smash Bros. Reality! Yes, Cally is coming to Smash, and the trailer showed off some of her moves, including her Final Smash which shows her transforming into her final boss form. After the Calypso Smash reveal, we got a trailer for a new horror IP in which a young woman is wandering alone in a mysterious mansion with only a flashlight. This flashlight is revealed to have properties that can ward off the mansion's various horrors, though we also saw that a strange ghost woman has a darklight that she can use to create horrors. The game looks to make heavy use of VR. The game's title was revealed as Light In The Darkness, and it's coming exclusively to the Reality in 2018.
Eguchi then spoke at length about Nintendo's relationship with its third party partners, and how it's been the best in the business for the last 35 years, allowing Nintendo to create great things like the Super Smash Bros. series and bring experiences to its consoles that players everywhere can enjoy. He then speaks about Squaresoft, and how some of the greatest games of all time have resulted from the partnership between Squaresoft and Nintendo. He talks about some of the great games of the past, such as Secret Of Mana, Chrono Trigger, and Final Fantasy VII, then states that this next game being revealed will be exclusive to the Nintendo Reality at launch, and that it is one of the most exciting projects ever to appear on Nintendo hardware. A trailer then begins, and the audience immediately knows what it is from the familiar music and the close-up on a legendary sword... this is the Secret Of Mana remake, and the trailer ends by showing some brief glimpses of the game's 3-D action RPG gameplay, which shows the game's characters and world in vivid detail, and looks stunning on the Reality Neo hardware in full 4K, even in the game's fantastical graphical style. Eguchi thanks the crowd for coming, but then says those familiar words... "one more thing"... and we get another trailer, this time showing a world revealed to be Hyrule, besieged by various weather calamities, before focusing on a weathervane in the shape of a Cucco. The weathervane comes to life, and the Cucco perches on a familiar shoulder, and we get a glimpse of Link's face before the words "THE LEGEND OF ZELDA" are shown on screen. We then see Eiji Aunoma, announcing that a brand new Legend Of Zelda game is on its way to the Nintendo Reality and is already well into development, and that more information will be revealed at a later time. Eguchi and Layden both thank the fans for watching, and that's the end of the Nintendo keynote presentation for E3 2017.
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E3 2017 had plenty of news from third party studios, with Activision, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Acclaim, Squaresoft, and Capcom all having their own keynotes in addition to the big presentations from Nintendo, Apple, and Google. Lots of new games were revealed, with some looking like they could be among the biggest things in gaming over the next few years.
Activision's keynote had plenty of Call Of Duty: WWII footage to show of, with fully 15 minutes of their presentation dedicated to the upcoming FPS title and its plethora of multiplayer modes. Activision devoted almost as much time to The Hidden City, the much talked about open world RPG with a heavy noir aesthetic. While the game does have some echoes of Volare, it's much grittier and intense, more like a Grand Theft Auto title than an optimistic dieselpunk adventure. There's plenty to do in the big, beautiful city of Graylake, and the player's actions will have a major impact on how this epic plays out. Activision also showed off two new titles: Aerial Kings is a game based on World War I era aerial dogfighting, in which the player seeks to become the greatest flying ace of all time, surpassing even the great Red Baron. It's Ace Combat meets Call Of Duty, with thrilling close calls and intense firefights, and the graphics look spectacular. This is a game that seems like it has to be played in VR, whether you're playing the Reality, Nexus, or Virtua. Finally, we saw a brief glimpse at Snohomish, which looks to be a follow-up to last year's Pocatello, though this time, it's set in Washington. The game actually looks to have a bit of a more lighthearted feel compared to the gritty murder mystery, and its protagonist is a college-aged girl who just wants to make friends and lead a normal life, only to stumble into a tragedy. This game is very early in development, but we'll no doubt hear more about it in the coming months, and the early scenes look melancholy and beautiful.
Squaresoft's keynote had plenty to show of the new Kingdom Hearts: Princess Destiny, which features Kairi as its new protagonist, and will visit nearly every Disney Princess over the course of the game, with much of the featured gameplay from the trailer showing off the new Goldilocks world. The game focuses heavily on magic, with Kairi able to combine diferent spells with different Keyblades for powerful new effects. Creator Tetsuya Nomura says that while this game does follow up the lore from the original trilogy, it also functions as a "stand alone adventure" that can be enjoyed without experiencing the lore of previous titles. We saw more of the Secret Of Mana remake, just a bit more gameplay footage showing the combat mechanics. It functions much like the original SNES-CD title, but with quicker combat and a wide array of new attacks and spells... and of course, it's in full, breathtaking 3D. There were lots of mobile games, including Calex Of Endymion, a card-based tactical RPG with gacha mechanics and a deep character based storyline that encourages players to plow through different battles to unlock each character's story. We also learned of a new Final Fantasy spinoff for consoles called Final Fantasy Elementus, an action-RPG in which players choose from up to 16 different elements and then must battle through a quest tuned to that element, powering up that element's attacks and interacting with different characters. The game seems like it will have branching paths and feature various lore from the series, but as it's early in development, we didn't get to find out all that much. We're getting a new life-sim/RPG called Coffee Shop, in which a girl in a modern-day town is visited by various adventuring characters, and must involve herself in their adventures by mixing and drinking different kinds of coffee. It's a very weird little game, but the combat system, a modified turn-based battle system with a heavy item emphasis, looks really unique, so this is one to look forward to. We also got small glimpse an an upcoming RPG that's early in development, featuring a big open world and motorcycles that transform into beasts. We didn't get a title for this one, and the earliest we're likely to see it is 2019.
Psygnosis didn't have a keynote, per se, but their booth was one of the busiest of the show, likely due to the huge crowd around the Cyberwar 5 display and the 30-minute presentation which featured the game's developers and even members of the game's voice cast, including AJ Michalka who voices Netizen X (the game's seeming antagonist). One of the highlights was getting to see AJ play some of the game's multiplayer modes with various celebrities who stopped by, including the cast of GameTV (who she managed to do pretty well against, something you probably wouldn't be able to say about the old cast). Along with all the Cyberwar 5 coverage, we got to see some of the company's new game, an online shooter/RPG title taking place in a post-apocalyptic future. Called Scrounger, the game requires you to steal, loot, and generally obtain as much stuff as you can, and features "full PvP", in which players can kill each other at any time, no matter what, even when you're playing through the single player missions. Sounds like a recipe for trolling, but the game looks really fun, and we'll be hearing more about it for sure at a future presentation.
THQ also had a fairly small presentation, but they are indeed still around, mostly thanks to their success with their WWE games and also with the Rise A Knight series, which will be getting a new entry next year. Rise A Knight: Avarice will be a spinoff title, and centers around the race for gold and treasure in a newly discovered territory. You play as a created character living in that territory, who must repel the invaders and discover the secrets of the world beyond. The company is also working on an adventure game focused on puzzles and exploration, with no combat at all, though there will be enemies trying to kill you. The game is untitled and early in development, but it goes by the codename "Project Archeo".
Electronic Arts' keynote focused heavily on their sports games, with NBA Live 18 sporting an updated graphical package and a bevy of new features, and after nearly 25 years it's still at the top of the heap in terms of popularity amongst basketball sims. The other game that was focused on is Derelict, coming this December. The space-based adventure/horror game looks better than ever, and you'll surely be scared out of your mind exploring old space stations in search of the mysterious calamity that befell your fellow galactic travelers. The graphics look superb, and the game seems to parse out its scares well: no cheap jump scares in this one, just plenty of tension and psychological horror. It was one of the most popular games out on the floor as well, where the first few hours of the game were available for play. Finally, Electronic Arts showed off The Cabin, which despite the name evoking images of horror in the woods, is actually a building/lifesim game in which you play a bearded dad who moves to a new town with his family in order to build his dream home, meeting a variety of interesting characters along the way. Originally intended as an indie title, Electronic Arts picked it up and has significantly increased its budget. It seems like they think they've got a hit on their hands, and we actually really enjoyed some of the gameplay of this one. The dad is a fairly hapless fool voiced by Jim Belushi, but he's also quite lovable, and his family is endearing as well.
Acclaim had one of the biggest keynotes of the show, and showed off a huge bevy of upcoming content, giving plenty of promotion to their upcoming Eidos acquisitions The Gatherer and Tomb Raider: Seeker Of The Heart. Despite rumored development issues with both games, The Gatherer looks like it's coming together extremely nicely. It's a gorgeous, open world RPG taking place on Stone Age-era Earth, and features a rich and robust crafting system, while the combat with animals also looks to be thrilling and intense. As for the new Tomb Raider, it's focused on Lara and two of her friends from Soul Of The Betrayer, Aria and Rei, as they go on an adventure together to discover a new and strange artifact. While the leadtime was really short on this game, less than two years (according to some, due to Acclaim's rushing of production), it has the exact same engine as Soul Of The Betrayer, and feels like an extension of that title with new plot elements and some polish. It looks great and was plenty of fun to play in the booth, but we are a bit skeptical of how rushed this one might be. We hope it lives up to the standard set by the previous game. We also got a first look at next year's Mortal Kombat: Wrath, which finally introduces characters from Divine Wrath into the Mortal Kombat universe. Not everyone will be making it in, but we did get to see Santa Claus, Thor, and God in the game, and we're sure that this one's going to be highly bloody and highly controversial. We finally got a teaser for the much anticipated Acclaimed Champions 2, which will also be releasing next year, and will introduce characters from Eidos properties including Lara Croft and Kain to the mix of popular Acclaim stars.
Ubisoft's keynote started off with lots of new footage from the upcoming Assassin's Creed: Restoration, the first title in the series in two years. It takes place in feudal Japan in the 19th century, during the Meiji Restoration. This game introduces lots of RPG elements to the series, much in the same way that Squad Four Apocalypse was revealed to do so, but this one leans more heavily into those elements, and players should be able to find plenty do to in this one. It looks utterly beautiful, especially when shown on Virtua S and Reality Neo hardware, and will be released in October (it should compete heavily with games like Squad Four Apocalypse for players' time). We also got more gameplay from For Honor, an action title in which a wide variety of warriors of various disciplines battle it out in epic clashes across space and time. We're really intrigued by this one, and it was a ton of fun to play at the Ubisoft booth. We also got a glimpse at the upcoming Metal Gear Black, the Metal Gear Solid/Blackheart crossover that's been in the works since Ubisoft's acquisition of Konami's gaming properties. Though the game looks to play much like the recent Metal Gear Solid titles, it also looks a lot like Blackheart 4 in certain ways, especially when controlling Messiah (we haven't had playable Sadira confirmed yet, though we did get a glimpse of her in the game's trailers, and she will be an ally to the heroes). Raiden is still the main protagonist, and we also got to see Zax, which confirms that this takes place after Metal Gear Solid IV and that Solid Snake is dead and gone... or is he? Plenty of mystery and intrigue are still surrounding this game, but we'll get all the answers we're looking for when this game comes out next year. We got a look at a new 3-D adventure game, Bugalee's Adventures, which almost seems to be an answer to Nintendo and Apple fans clamoring for Miraculous Ladybug to be ported to their consoles. We're not getting that, but this anime-inspired 3D platforming adventure title in which an anthropomorphic butterfly girl battles evil is fairly close, without the lifesim elements at least. It looks cute, and should be popular with families. After a few more small updates on other Ubisoft projects, we got a "one more thing"-type reveal from Hideo Kojima himself... revealing a full remake of Snatcher as a Metal Gear Solid-like 3D adventure/mystery game. No longer will this classic be a visual novel: it's going to be made into a fully 3D game, with new plot twists and characters. It's aiming for a 2019 release date, the 25th anniversary of the game's classic SNES-CD port.
Capcom showed off plenty of Resident Evil stuff, including footage of Resident Evil 8 showing the main protagonists, Claire Redfield and Jill Valentine, engaged in battle against an army of L-Virus infected thralls, led by Claire's revived brother Chris. The infected of this game possess a degree of intelligence somewhat greater than that of previous titles, but are still capable of mutating into hideous horrors, and some of them have terrifying new powers. We also got to see the reveal of a spinoff game, Resident Evil: Mansion, which seems to be an alternate re-telling of the original title, with a new protagonist and certain elements out of place. That game is coming next year. There's a new Star Siren on the way, this one doesn't have an official title and looks to be somewhat of a reboot, with Saiyuki returning alongside what appears to be an entirely different cast, while the game features full 3D gameplay rather than the 2D beat 'em up style of previous installments in the series. This game looks to still be early in development, and while long-time fans may be skeptical, the game itself looks really fun and could be a fresh update of this popular series for a new generation. Capcom also revealed two games coming next year: a puzzle-based handheld title called Brainbuster League, and an action/adventure title centered on a magical smartphone that can manipulate the world around it, called Digiscape.
Take-Two's booth focused heavily on Doggerland, showing off a ton of gameplay and expanding on the survival mechanics, as well as the tribe-building mechanics in which the player must develop their relationship with their tribemates and build a suitable settlement to defend from other tribes and from the elements. While the game does have some gameplay echoes of Grand Theft Auto IV and Valdoza, it's nothing like the company has done before, and could well be a survival game for the ages. For those looking for a traditional experience akin to the classic Race 'n Chase games, we got a teaser for a topdown driving/crime based game called Do The Crime, which looks even more chaotic than Race 'n Chase and allows players to go totally wild, running over pedestrians and performing insane rampages, without the complex mission-based structure that the Grand Theft Auto games are known for. The game is early in development, so don't expect it to be out before late 2018. As for Grand Theft Auto, we got some news on DLC and updates for Grand Theft Auto Online, including the addition of an amusement park and a demolition derby, among many other things.
Finally, though The Boiling Isles is still extremely early in development (we're thinking a 2020 release window is accurate), we did get to speak with three of the game's main developers, including Alex and Ariel Hirsch, as well as Dana Terrace, who developed the game's initial concept and will serve as lead writer and world/character designer. The three all were incredibly enthusiastic with the game, and were thrilled when actor/game designer Vin Diesel offered to make the game the first to be produced by his new studio. According to the Hirsch twins, Diesel has taken a hands-off approach with the game, offering up suggestions but leaving the development in the hands of Pyramid's writers and the director, Tetsuya Takahashi, whose involvement extends primarily to game mechanics and world design. The game will be an open-world RPG, you'll create a character (who, according to Terrace, will be a young college-age person currently in their "gap year", pressured by parents to go to an Ivy League college but wanting to find their own way in the world when they're transported to the titular Boiling Isles), and the game will have a "horror" aesthetic, though, according to Alex Hirsch, it's not a "horror game". That's all we know this early on, but it's already looking like it could be one of the most epic RPGs of its generation, and could push the current generation of consoles to their limits (or might even end up on the next generation of consoles if they're released in 2019 or 2020).
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Austin Watson: So now that E3 is over, we've played all the games, seen all the presentations, I have one question to ask... who won E3?
Christina Grimmie: Nintendo.
Austin: You always say Nintendo!
Avan Jogia: Yeah, you're biased.
Bryce Papenbrook: It's true this year, though, Nintendo won E3. They revealed so much, and they've got so much going on. The Reality Neo is a great upgrade over the base system, Squad Four Apocalypse looks like a much better progression over its predecessor than Squad Four Upheaval was back in 2003, Metroid: Samus Returns is the remake all of us wanted, The Adventures Of Anna Goldstar is super charming and fun, they've got two awesome new Pokemon games coming... no bias here, Nintendo really did win E3.
Christina: There's gonna be a new Zelda game! I thought we'd have to wait until the next console to get a new one, but there's gonna be a new one coming like, next year or the year after! I want it now!
Avan: You know, I actually do have to agree with my colleagues here, Nintendo did win E3 this year. It was close, it was uh, it was pretty close, because Apple showed off a lot of really nice games too, but what did it for me was Kid Icarus: Ascension. It's an actual serious Kid Icarus game.
Christina: He's not a kid anymore.
Avan: He really isn't, and I don't think this game is going to go like Elysium Awaits, which was Nintendo's last effort to make a serious Kid Icarus game, but not really. This time, they went balls out on it and it's going to pay off. I think it might even overshadow Squad Four Apocalypse.
Austin: I don't think that's gonna happen, because Squad Four is awesome and Apocalypse looks badass, but yes, Kid Icarus: Ascension looks incredible and I can't wait to play it and pretty much everything Nintendo's got this year. The World Of Drawica too, don't sleep on that one.
Christina: I really want to play it too, on the biggest TV I can find. Finally, someone is using the Connect's connectors to actually make connections. It's going to be a lot of fun.
Austin: So yeah... Nintendo won E3.
Bryce: But I have to agree with Avan, Apple looked really good this year, and The Last Gift... damn, I really wanted to play it this year. All we got was a tease, but what a tease. Maybe the best individual game we got to see, and that's including The Boiling Isles, the Secret of Mana remake, and Snatcher.
Christina: Two huge, huge remakes from the SNES-CD era. I was too young to appreciate those games when they came out, I wasn't even born, I had to play Secret Of Mana on the Supernova shop later and I've NEVER played the original Snatcher, which is something I've always meant to rectify but haven't been able to do and now I don't know if I will.
Avan: You really need to go back and play Snatcher.
Mari Takahashi: I know you guys aren't going to agree with me on this, but can I just say that I think Google won E3 this year? They really made a serious statement about what they want to do with the Nexus platform, and that's bring it to everyone, everywhere. They might just be the first console maker to move beyond the console, and for a company that's going to sell 100 million Nexus units, that's a really bold move and one I think I have to applaud. I also really love Redshift, I love the idea of Redshift, I loved playing it at the booth, I loved all the social networking possibilities of the game, and I think Google is really onto something with what they're doing and it means more to me personally than Nintendo and Apple's games, which looked good but which are still sort of the same old thing, while Google is making progress in software delivery that Nintendo and Apple aren't.
Bryce: You make a really good point in that Google is doing a great job pushing its platform to as many people as they can, and I know Apple is trying to do some of the things Google's doing but they've gotten caught up in recent years in pushing the Virtua at the expense of sort of everything else. They barely even showed off the Gemini.
Avan: Well, they're trying to push more people onto the iPhone.
Bryce: They're going right for Google's throat but I don't think it's working. Google wants to push Android as a Nexus platform. Google and Samsung have been working hand in hand on that.
Christina: Yeah, all Nintendo bias aside, I really like what Google's doing too, they're going for the jugular in both the console and the phone market, as if they see Apple as much more of a competitor than they see Nintendo.
Mari: Google and Apple are using their consoles as a way to get people to buy more of their stuff, and it's worked for Google and Samsung more than it's worked for Apple. Nintendo might've had the most impressive games, but Google had the most impressive message and I think set themselves up for future success much more than either Nintendo or Apple did this year.
Austin: Really good insights there, I still choose Nintendo but people who think that Google didn't show anything are absolutely wrong, Google showed a lot of things and I think in a year or so people are going to look back and see what Google was talking about during their presentation this year.
Christina: ...there's gonna be another Zelda game.
Avan: Go play Snatcher. You can buy it to play on the Reality right now, go play it.
Christina: I think I want to play Link To The Past again.
-from GameTV's streaming coverage of E3 2017, posted on June 16, 2017
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Game Critics Awards E3 2017
Best Of Show: Devoid
Best Original Game: Devoid
Best Console Game: Devoid
Best PC Game: Tower Of Epsilon
Best Handheld Game: Herzog Zwei: Satellite War
Best Peripheral/Hardware: Enthrall VR
Best Action Game: Bayonetta 3
Best Action/Adventure Game: Doggerland
Best Role Playing Game: Tower Of Epsilon
Best Racing Game: Hypervelocity
Best Sports Game: NBA Elite 18
Best Fighting Game: Ubisoft vs. Konami: Battle Of Legends
Best Shooter: Devoid
Best Party Game: Just Dance Revolution 2
Best Online Multiplayer: Doggerland
Well, was this ever so much worth the wait or what?
The way it's looking, Pyramid Games might very well be my favorite indie game developer. Between Terror Trip and The Boiling Isles, how can you top these two?
That Reality Neo is really good, and the bundles they have planned make it worth the high cost in my opinion. Not to mention that if we have a Link that is friends with a Cucco, then that will be all too surprising considering how deadly those guys are.
But it's not just Nintendo that shared some juicy details in this post. I'm very intrigued to see how Acclaim can get away with Mortal Kombat: Wrath, and the prospect of Lara Croft and The Mask in a team battle is really making me excited.
Although, you simply can NOT reveal a "Ubisoft vs. Konami" fighting game and expect me to want more from that! You just can't!
The way it's looking, Pyramid Games might very well be my favorite indie game developer. Between Terror Trip and The Boiling Isles, how can you top these two?
That Reality Neo is really good, and the bundles they have planned make it worth the high cost in my opinion. Not to mention that if we have a Link that is friends with a Cucco, then that will be all too surprising considering how deadly those guys are.
But it's not just Nintendo that shared some juicy details in this post. I'm very intrigued to see how Acclaim can get away with Mortal Kombat: Wrath, and the prospect of Lara Croft and The Mask in a team battle is really making me excited.
Although, you simply can NOT reveal a "Ubisoft vs. Konami" fighting game and expect me to want more from that! You just can't!
June 2017 - The Year Of Star Wars (Part 1)
Enix Falls Behind Game Arts, But Still Strong In Japan
The software company Enix has had a tumultuous decade to be sure. The company has seen sales steadily decline, despite the release of yet another hit Dragon Quest game, some highly popular Gemini RPGs, and the company's rebirth as a mobile gaming powerhouse. Amongst gaming companies, Enix ranks just behind Japanese RPG rival Game Arts in total revenue, with Game Arts' recent sales surge being propelled by the worldwide success of their hit RPG Volare. Enix has also lagged severely behind its one-time rival Squaresoft, though its overall revenue hasn't approached that of Squaresoft since the release of Full Metal Alchemist in 2005. The company's North American sales in particular have dropped to their lowest level since the 1990s, when the company pondered pulling out of the North American market entirely, only to remain due to a spike in Western sales of their SNES-CD titles.
Despite Enix's woes, the company remains quite lucrative in Japan, largely thanks to a series of gacha-based mobile games based on their hit Dragon Quest and Full Metal Alchemist franchises. Dragon Quest Xm: The Mighty Mobile Ark, based on the story and characters of 2014's Dragon Quest X, but with mobile-friendly gameplay and mechanics, has made over a billion dollars in total revenue in Japan, though it has yet to be released in the West, and is unlikely to see Western release in the near future. Their 2016 RPG title Nom Nom Slime, a Dragon Quest spinoff and another Japanese exclusive, has seen outstanding sales on both the Reality and the Nexus. We're likely to see fewer Enix titles brought to the West over the next few years, though Dragon Quest XI, expected to be released in 2019, has already been confirmed for a Western release, as has the next game in the Full Metal Alchemist series, which is already in production. Enix's director of mobile games has also expressed a desire to bring a new mobile-based title to the West, and it's rumored that the new game will be an iOS exclusive, as Enix and Apple have had a highly positive relationship over the past generation. Will Enix games become Apple-exclusive, as they once were to the Sega Saturn in the late 1990s? Most experts consider that unlikely, but iOS could become the exclusive home of Enix mobile games in the West for the forseeable future.
-from a June 1, 2017 article on RPGamer.com
-
2017 NBA Playoffs
First Round:
(1) Cleveland Cavaliers over (8) Toronto Raptors, 4 to 0
(5) Philadelphia 76ers over (4) Washington Wizards, 4 to 3
(3) New York Knicks over (6) Chicago Bulls, 4 to 1
(7) Detroit Pistons over (2) Orlando Magic, 4 to 3
(1) Las Vegas Aces over (8) Minnesota Timberwolves, 4 to 2
(5) Houston Rockets over (4) Seattle Supersonics, 4 to 2
(3) Dallas Mavericks over (6) Los Angeles Lakers, 4 to 0
(2) Denver Nuggets over (7) Los Angeles Clippers, 4 to 0
Second Round:
(1) Cleveland Cavaliers over (5) Philadelphia 76ers, 4 to 1
(3) New York Knicks over (7) Detroit Pistons, 4 to 3
(1) Las Vegas Aces over (5) Houston Rockets, 4 to 3
(2) Denver Nuggets over (3) Dallas Mavericks, 4 to 2
The 2017 NBA Conference Finals saw a pair of highly anticipated clashes between some of the league's most exciting players. In the East, Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers faced the New York Knicks and their exciting Chinese phenom, Liu Fauzeng, who in his second year in the league had guided the Knicks to a 53-29 record behind a 30.0 ppg, 6.5 rpg, 10.5 apg season, leading the league in both assists and points and claiming the MVP award at just 21 years of age. In the West, Willard Jones had also emerged as a brilliant young superstar, after a rocky first three years in the league with his Denver Nuggets, including an injury riddled 2015-16 season in which the Nuggets missed the playoffs. Jones would be going up against Giannis Antentokoumpo and the Las Vegas Aces, newly relocated from St. Louis, with a brand new name and a brand new look.
(1) Cleveland Cavaliers over (3) New York Knicks, 4 to 3
One of the all time great Eastern Conference Finals series saw LeBron James putting the Cavs on his back to get it done after going down 3-2 to the Knicks and Fauzeng. The Cavaliers had to travel to Madison Square Garden for Game 6, but King James wouldn't be denied, and Game 7 was a thriller, with the Cavs winning by just five points despite a 46 point, 13 assist performance from Fauzeng. This could've been LeBron's last year in Cleveland if the Cavs had lost, as rumors circulated that he'd been getting frustrated with things in Cleveland and had wanted to go play in New York with Fauzeng. However, in the end, the Cavaliers proved to be the better team, and LeBron was back in the Finals once again, while Fauzeng would have to wait at least another year to claim an NBA championship.
(2) Denver Nuggets over (1) Las Vegas Aces, 4 to 2
The young Aces were outmatched by Jones' Nuggets, who were able to win thanks to the heroics of Tobias Harris, the Nuggets' biggest offseason acquisition of 2016. He stepped it up in a major way, bullying Antentokoumpo at the rim and also picking up Ben McLemore's slack, while superstar Willard Jones was also able to do his thing thanks to Harris setting powerful picks for him. The Aces are a strong team, especially as long as they have Giannis, but the Nuggets were better, and they would win to set up a revenge series between LeBron and his old team, the one he guided to several NBA titles.
2017 NBA Finals: Cleveland Cavaliers over Denver Nuggets, 4 to 0
The Cavs would win this one in a clean sweep, with LeBron coming back to haunt his old team and school young Willard Jones in the art of basketball. While the series wasn't exactly a crushing defeat for the Nuggets (none of the four games were decided by more than 12, and two were decided by a single possession), Cleveland got it done when they needed to, and LeBron was able to bring another title back to his home state. He'd stick around in Cleveland for at least another year, but the competition would only get tougher...
-
Life After Episode IX: The Future Of The Star Wars Franchise
Star Wars Episode IX: The Balance Of The Force is set to debut in December, and is expected to be the most anticipated movie of all time, with some box office analysts predicting a $300 million opening weekend and a $1 billion domestic total. With Star Wars' grand film saga finally at an end, it could be expected that there will be a letdown, but according to top brass at LucasArts, as well as George Lucas himself, that's not going to be the case.
A slew of new Star Wars video games are planned, including Star Wars: Force Rising, a VR lightsaber based title coming exclusively to the Virtua in 2018. The game was present at LucasArts' booth at E3, though it wasn't discussed in Apple's keynote presentation. According to LucasArts, the game is still in the early stages of development, but will utilize the motion controls of the Virtua to bring lightsaber combat to life in a big way. Another major game is a multiplatform title focused on Ahsoka, from the Star Wars: The Clone Wars series of video games. The series will chronicle Ahsoka's story after the events of Revenge Of The Sith, how she escaped Order 66 and her activities during the rebellion. This is another game we didn't get much information about at the LucasArts E3 booth, but we expect more information at E3 2018.
Lucas also recently announced plans for a series on the FX television network, based on the life of bounty hunter Boba Fett. Called The Mandalorian, the series is expected to debut on the cable network next year, and isn't based on any of the Expanded Universe novels, but is instead a collaboration between George Lucas and television and film writer J.J. Abrams. It's not yet been announced who will play the titular bounty hunter, but we do know that Temuera Morrison, who played Jango Fett in the prequel trilogy, will not be playing Boba in the new show.
In a recent Rolling Stone interview, Lucas mentioned that he'd considered retirement after the release of Episode IX, and pondered selling the rights to Star Wars to 21st Century Fox, but says that he plans to work on Star Wars-related projects for at least five more years before calling it quits. From the interview: "Fox has been a great partner, and I'm still having fun doing Star Wars, so why stop now? It's been tempting to hand over the reins to someone else, but every time I do, I get some new ideas that I want to see brought to life. I love getting to work with everyone on new projects, and 40 years later, there's still so much to do. So... I think I'll keep working, at least a bit longer. Maybe J.J. (Abrams) can take over after I get tired of it, who knows?"
-from a post on Forcesensitive, posted on June 19, 2017
-
First Promotional Stills From Lord/Miller 'Mario Bros.' Movie Show Vibrant World True To The Games
While we didn't get much information about the upcoming Super Mario Bros. CGI animated movie at E3 2017, we did see a few stills from the film at Nintendo's E3 booth. Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the stills depict a film that looks nearly identical to the recent games, but with a slightly more fluid look, almost akin to that of a comic book. The film will be produced by Sony's film division in collaboration with Nintendo, and is still on track for a 2018 release. One of the stills shows the heroes, Mario, Luigi, and Peach standing outside Peach's castle, but another still shows Peach with a much more dynamic action pose, indicating that she may not be depicted in the movie as the damsel in distress she is in the games. Another pic showed a ferocious looking Bowser breathing fire as Toads run for their lives, and another pic showed Mario and Luigi riding a flying Yoshi. So far, it appears the film will stick to the core Mario characters and universe, so we likely won't get many of the elements of some of the more "out there" games in the series. Lord and Miller have both promised an "action-packed film" that "stays absolutely true" to the feel of the games, and we definitely get the sense that the two love the Mario characters and world as much as the long-time players do. The Super Mario Bros. animated film has a high bar to vault, with Pixar's Sonic The Hedgehog movie scoring major box office profits, and the sequel, which also comes out in 2018, expected to bring in even more money.
-from an article on Blargo, posted on June 23, 2017
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Game Spotlight: Star Wars: Shatterpoint
Star Wars: Shatterpoint is an action title based on the Star Wars series of films. It distinguishes itself by focusing heavily on lightsaber combat, with a huge variety of offensive and defensive moves that are learned and earned throughout the game. The protagonist is Kylar Mathus, a Padawan of Jedi Master Mace Windu, and the game takes place some time before the events of Star Wars: Episode I. The game centers around Vaapad, a variation of Form VII of lightsaber combat, and throughout the game, Kylar will learn this form and grow to master it as he battles a series of increasingly dangerous threats to the Republic, including numerous Vaapad users who have fallen to the Dark Side. The game's lightsaber combat is easily the most advanced to date in a Star Wars video game, and relies heavily on the player's skill and timing. Button mashing is heavily frowned upon and punished: you'll need to have both a smart offense and a smart defense to win battles. You can earn buffs to health, attack, and defense, as well as new lightsaber moves and skills, on the game's skill tree, but even a highly leveled player will need to carefully time their attacks and defenses to win the game's most brutal battles. You can't just leap into battle either: even outside of battle, you'll need to search for "shatterpoints" to gain an upper hand, and these shatterpoints can even exist in dialogue, allowing Kylar to win verbal battles and not even have to enter combat at all. The game has some stealth elements, but stealth is never required, only encouraged at certain points, with timing being more important than memorizing patterns. Shatterpoint features a strong voice cast, with relative newcomer (at the time) Zeno Robinson as the voice of Kylar, while Samuel L. Jackson reprises his role from the films as Mace Windu (this is a major selling point for the game, with Jackson helping to promote the game at the booth at E3 as well). The game's plot focuses both on Mace's relationship with Kylar, becoming a father figure to him (we learn that Kylar's parents were killed as a result of Kylar's Force powers going out of control when he was a young child, and that he's spent his whole life trying to fight off the influence of the Dark Side as a result of his fear and anger with himself). As the game progresses, we learn of the influence that Vaapad has on its users, and Kylar has to watch as numerous friends of his fall to the Dark Side, and he's forced to fight them while still wrestling with his own demons. Mace learns of a cult of Vaapad users led by a former apprentice of his, and he fears that Kylar will fall as well, though ultimately, though Mace's tutelage and his own strength, he's able to prevail, and he ends up defeating the cult's leader in a ferocious battle. Kylar ultimately ends up going into self-exile, as even though he's been able to conquer much of his own self-doubt, he still has lingering worries about his powers, and Mace grants his blessing for Kylar to study the Force in seclusion (setting up a potential sequel).
Star Wars: Shatterpoint is released for the Reality, Nexus, Virtua, Connect, and Gemini, as well as PC and Mac, on June 16, 2017. The game receives strong reviews, with an 83 on Metacritic, and sales are quite brisk, topping sales charts in June on most platforms it's released on. It's seen as a groundbreaking Star Wars title as far as combat is concerned, and it would have an influence on future series games even before its inevitable sequel is released.
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Other Significant Titles For June 2017:
Kirby's Arena World: For those who love the intense boss battles of the Kirby series, this Connect title is a compilation of sorts, bringing together dozens of the Kirby series' best boss battles as well as a number of original bosses and tying them together in a storyline that sees Kirby and friends battling them in succession. It strips out all the pesky platforming and delivers on the series' signature combat, making for a fun experience that scores decently with critics and sells quite well also.
Midnight Fright: This homage to classic games such as Night Trap on the Apple Virtua can basically be summed up as “Night Trap with the production values of Quantum Break and some of the gameplay elements of Until Dawn”. The plot revolves around a group of young women on vacation together, eventually coming up against a dangerous attacker, and the player has to make the right decisions to help them. Though somewhat of a novelty, the acting is actually really good, the characters are written well (a couple of Thrillseekers writers were involved in this), and the player's choices matter quite a bit. It's not a huge selling game but it gets surprisingly good reviews and becomes a cult hit.
International Tour Circuit: A realistic racing game optimized for a handheld screen, this is a technical showcase for the Gemini and the closest one can get to a Gran Turismo-like experience on the handheld. While obviously not as pretty or feature rich as Gran Turismo, it's still an excellent racer, and does quite well in Europe and Japan.
Rainbow War: An RTS-type game in which six armies, each bearing a different color, battle it out in a cartoony, simplistic clash. Intended to be an online game in which up to six players can compete, this Nexus exclusive is simple but quite fun, and catches on as a popular streaming title.
Court Of Verity: A Squaresoft published action-RPG for the Reality and Nexus, in which a young countess and her new husband, Eliza and Alistair, must fight together against would-be usurpers to Eliza's new title, wielding a mysterious magical force in battle. It's a very wild game featuring elaborate costumes and a bizarre mix of scenery inspired by Alice in Wonderland and David Bowie. It gets decent reviews, and is popular amongst a small segment of RPG fans, finding a The World Ends With You-esque cult audience.
Street Fighter: The Rise Of Bison: A 3-D beat 'em up in the style of 2014's Chun-Li Rising, though rather than appearing on the Gemini, this game comes to the Reality and Virtua, looking quite a bit better and playing a bit faster. It chronicles the rise of M. Bison, from a government agent embedded within a criminal syndicate, to someone who goes rogue and takes over the syndicate to form the criminal organization Shadaloo, this game allows the player to play as Bison and embrace their inner villain. Does decently enough in sales to turn a healthy profit, though most players think Chun-Li Rising was better.
Tomb Raider: Seeker Of The Heart: The latest game in the Tomb Raider series, and the sequel to 2015's Soul Of The Betrayer, Seeker Of The Heart sees Lara Croft and her two friends from that game return to hunt down a dangerous artifact known as the Heart of Erisius. The Heart has the capability to enthrall the bodies of the dead, allowing its possessor to control an army of zombie-like humans. The game, which uses the same engine as Soul Of The Betrayer, is a competent Tomb Raider title, but it's a bit short and players can definitely tell that Acclaim rushed it out. It also gets a lot of flak for killing off Rei, seemingly just as a "shocking twist" to upset players. Reviews are mediocre to slightly above average, and sales take a serious dip from the previous game.
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"It definitely casts a pall, I think, losing mom so soon before the last film. I was looking forward to us watching it together, so to lose her so close to when it was supposed to be released, it's... it's definitely upsetting. She got to visit the set, at least, last year, so that was good that she got to see all of us filming one last time. I miss her so much, I miss her terribly, but everyone's been really really kind. Mark and Harrison both were at the funeral... there's been such an outpouring of love and I really, really appreciate all of it very much. It's okay, I don't mind talking about it, it's been long enough... it's been a couple weeks, so yeah, I'm all right now, definitely."
-Carrie Fisher, discussing her mother Debbie Reynolds' death on Late Night with Drew Barrymore on June 28, 2017
The software company Enix has had a tumultuous decade to be sure. The company has seen sales steadily decline, despite the release of yet another hit Dragon Quest game, some highly popular Gemini RPGs, and the company's rebirth as a mobile gaming powerhouse. Amongst gaming companies, Enix ranks just behind Japanese RPG rival Game Arts in total revenue, with Game Arts' recent sales surge being propelled by the worldwide success of their hit RPG Volare. Enix has also lagged severely behind its one-time rival Squaresoft, though its overall revenue hasn't approached that of Squaresoft since the release of Full Metal Alchemist in 2005. The company's North American sales in particular have dropped to their lowest level since the 1990s, when the company pondered pulling out of the North American market entirely, only to remain due to a spike in Western sales of their SNES-CD titles.
Despite Enix's woes, the company remains quite lucrative in Japan, largely thanks to a series of gacha-based mobile games based on their hit Dragon Quest and Full Metal Alchemist franchises. Dragon Quest Xm: The Mighty Mobile Ark, based on the story and characters of 2014's Dragon Quest X, but with mobile-friendly gameplay and mechanics, has made over a billion dollars in total revenue in Japan, though it has yet to be released in the West, and is unlikely to see Western release in the near future. Their 2016 RPG title Nom Nom Slime, a Dragon Quest spinoff and another Japanese exclusive, has seen outstanding sales on both the Reality and the Nexus. We're likely to see fewer Enix titles brought to the West over the next few years, though Dragon Quest XI, expected to be released in 2019, has already been confirmed for a Western release, as has the next game in the Full Metal Alchemist series, which is already in production. Enix's director of mobile games has also expressed a desire to bring a new mobile-based title to the West, and it's rumored that the new game will be an iOS exclusive, as Enix and Apple have had a highly positive relationship over the past generation. Will Enix games become Apple-exclusive, as they once were to the Sega Saturn in the late 1990s? Most experts consider that unlikely, but iOS could become the exclusive home of Enix mobile games in the West for the forseeable future.
-from a June 1, 2017 article on RPGamer.com
-
2017 NBA Playoffs
First Round:
(1) Cleveland Cavaliers over (8) Toronto Raptors, 4 to 0
(5) Philadelphia 76ers over (4) Washington Wizards, 4 to 3
(3) New York Knicks over (6) Chicago Bulls, 4 to 1
(7) Detroit Pistons over (2) Orlando Magic, 4 to 3
(1) Las Vegas Aces over (8) Minnesota Timberwolves, 4 to 2
(5) Houston Rockets over (4) Seattle Supersonics, 4 to 2
(3) Dallas Mavericks over (6) Los Angeles Lakers, 4 to 0
(2) Denver Nuggets over (7) Los Angeles Clippers, 4 to 0
Second Round:
(1) Cleveland Cavaliers over (5) Philadelphia 76ers, 4 to 1
(3) New York Knicks over (7) Detroit Pistons, 4 to 3
(1) Las Vegas Aces over (5) Houston Rockets, 4 to 3
(2) Denver Nuggets over (3) Dallas Mavericks, 4 to 2
The 2017 NBA Conference Finals saw a pair of highly anticipated clashes between some of the league's most exciting players. In the East, Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers faced the New York Knicks and their exciting Chinese phenom, Liu Fauzeng, who in his second year in the league had guided the Knicks to a 53-29 record behind a 30.0 ppg, 6.5 rpg, 10.5 apg season, leading the league in both assists and points and claiming the MVP award at just 21 years of age. In the West, Willard Jones had also emerged as a brilliant young superstar, after a rocky first three years in the league with his Denver Nuggets, including an injury riddled 2015-16 season in which the Nuggets missed the playoffs. Jones would be going up against Giannis Antentokoumpo and the Las Vegas Aces, newly relocated from St. Louis, with a brand new name and a brand new look.
(1) Cleveland Cavaliers over (3) New York Knicks, 4 to 3
One of the all time great Eastern Conference Finals series saw LeBron James putting the Cavs on his back to get it done after going down 3-2 to the Knicks and Fauzeng. The Cavaliers had to travel to Madison Square Garden for Game 6, but King James wouldn't be denied, and Game 7 was a thriller, with the Cavs winning by just five points despite a 46 point, 13 assist performance from Fauzeng. This could've been LeBron's last year in Cleveland if the Cavs had lost, as rumors circulated that he'd been getting frustrated with things in Cleveland and had wanted to go play in New York with Fauzeng. However, in the end, the Cavaliers proved to be the better team, and LeBron was back in the Finals once again, while Fauzeng would have to wait at least another year to claim an NBA championship.
(2) Denver Nuggets over (1) Las Vegas Aces, 4 to 2
The young Aces were outmatched by Jones' Nuggets, who were able to win thanks to the heroics of Tobias Harris, the Nuggets' biggest offseason acquisition of 2016. He stepped it up in a major way, bullying Antentokoumpo at the rim and also picking up Ben McLemore's slack, while superstar Willard Jones was also able to do his thing thanks to Harris setting powerful picks for him. The Aces are a strong team, especially as long as they have Giannis, but the Nuggets were better, and they would win to set up a revenge series between LeBron and his old team, the one he guided to several NBA titles.
2017 NBA Finals: Cleveland Cavaliers over Denver Nuggets, 4 to 0
The Cavs would win this one in a clean sweep, with LeBron coming back to haunt his old team and school young Willard Jones in the art of basketball. While the series wasn't exactly a crushing defeat for the Nuggets (none of the four games were decided by more than 12, and two were decided by a single possession), Cleveland got it done when they needed to, and LeBron was able to bring another title back to his home state. He'd stick around in Cleveland for at least another year, but the competition would only get tougher...
-
Life After Episode IX: The Future Of The Star Wars Franchise
Star Wars Episode IX: The Balance Of The Force is set to debut in December, and is expected to be the most anticipated movie of all time, with some box office analysts predicting a $300 million opening weekend and a $1 billion domestic total. With Star Wars' grand film saga finally at an end, it could be expected that there will be a letdown, but according to top brass at LucasArts, as well as George Lucas himself, that's not going to be the case.
A slew of new Star Wars video games are planned, including Star Wars: Force Rising, a VR lightsaber based title coming exclusively to the Virtua in 2018. The game was present at LucasArts' booth at E3, though it wasn't discussed in Apple's keynote presentation. According to LucasArts, the game is still in the early stages of development, but will utilize the motion controls of the Virtua to bring lightsaber combat to life in a big way. Another major game is a multiplatform title focused on Ahsoka, from the Star Wars: The Clone Wars series of video games. The series will chronicle Ahsoka's story after the events of Revenge Of The Sith, how she escaped Order 66 and her activities during the rebellion. This is another game we didn't get much information about at the LucasArts E3 booth, but we expect more information at E3 2018.
Lucas also recently announced plans for a series on the FX television network, based on the life of bounty hunter Boba Fett. Called The Mandalorian, the series is expected to debut on the cable network next year, and isn't based on any of the Expanded Universe novels, but is instead a collaboration between George Lucas and television and film writer J.J. Abrams. It's not yet been announced who will play the titular bounty hunter, but we do know that Temuera Morrison, who played Jango Fett in the prequel trilogy, will not be playing Boba in the new show.
In a recent Rolling Stone interview, Lucas mentioned that he'd considered retirement after the release of Episode IX, and pondered selling the rights to Star Wars to 21st Century Fox, but says that he plans to work on Star Wars-related projects for at least five more years before calling it quits. From the interview: "Fox has been a great partner, and I'm still having fun doing Star Wars, so why stop now? It's been tempting to hand over the reins to someone else, but every time I do, I get some new ideas that I want to see brought to life. I love getting to work with everyone on new projects, and 40 years later, there's still so much to do. So... I think I'll keep working, at least a bit longer. Maybe J.J. (Abrams) can take over after I get tired of it, who knows?"
-from a post on Forcesensitive, posted on June 19, 2017
-
First Promotional Stills From Lord/Miller 'Mario Bros.' Movie Show Vibrant World True To The Games
While we didn't get much information about the upcoming Super Mario Bros. CGI animated movie at E3 2017, we did see a few stills from the film at Nintendo's E3 booth. Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the stills depict a film that looks nearly identical to the recent games, but with a slightly more fluid look, almost akin to that of a comic book. The film will be produced by Sony's film division in collaboration with Nintendo, and is still on track for a 2018 release. One of the stills shows the heroes, Mario, Luigi, and Peach standing outside Peach's castle, but another still shows Peach with a much more dynamic action pose, indicating that she may not be depicted in the movie as the damsel in distress she is in the games. Another pic showed a ferocious looking Bowser breathing fire as Toads run for their lives, and another pic showed Mario and Luigi riding a flying Yoshi. So far, it appears the film will stick to the core Mario characters and universe, so we likely won't get many of the elements of some of the more "out there" games in the series. Lord and Miller have both promised an "action-packed film" that "stays absolutely true" to the feel of the games, and we definitely get the sense that the two love the Mario characters and world as much as the long-time players do. The Super Mario Bros. animated film has a high bar to vault, with Pixar's Sonic The Hedgehog movie scoring major box office profits, and the sequel, which also comes out in 2018, expected to bring in even more money.
-from an article on Blargo, posted on June 23, 2017
-
Game Spotlight: Star Wars: Shatterpoint
Star Wars: Shatterpoint is an action title based on the Star Wars series of films. It distinguishes itself by focusing heavily on lightsaber combat, with a huge variety of offensive and defensive moves that are learned and earned throughout the game. The protagonist is Kylar Mathus, a Padawan of Jedi Master Mace Windu, and the game takes place some time before the events of Star Wars: Episode I. The game centers around Vaapad, a variation of Form VII of lightsaber combat, and throughout the game, Kylar will learn this form and grow to master it as he battles a series of increasingly dangerous threats to the Republic, including numerous Vaapad users who have fallen to the Dark Side. The game's lightsaber combat is easily the most advanced to date in a Star Wars video game, and relies heavily on the player's skill and timing. Button mashing is heavily frowned upon and punished: you'll need to have both a smart offense and a smart defense to win battles. You can earn buffs to health, attack, and defense, as well as new lightsaber moves and skills, on the game's skill tree, but even a highly leveled player will need to carefully time their attacks and defenses to win the game's most brutal battles. You can't just leap into battle either: even outside of battle, you'll need to search for "shatterpoints" to gain an upper hand, and these shatterpoints can even exist in dialogue, allowing Kylar to win verbal battles and not even have to enter combat at all. The game has some stealth elements, but stealth is never required, only encouraged at certain points, with timing being more important than memorizing patterns. Shatterpoint features a strong voice cast, with relative newcomer (at the time) Zeno Robinson as the voice of Kylar, while Samuel L. Jackson reprises his role from the films as Mace Windu (this is a major selling point for the game, with Jackson helping to promote the game at the booth at E3 as well). The game's plot focuses both on Mace's relationship with Kylar, becoming a father figure to him (we learn that Kylar's parents were killed as a result of Kylar's Force powers going out of control when he was a young child, and that he's spent his whole life trying to fight off the influence of the Dark Side as a result of his fear and anger with himself). As the game progresses, we learn of the influence that Vaapad has on its users, and Kylar has to watch as numerous friends of his fall to the Dark Side, and he's forced to fight them while still wrestling with his own demons. Mace learns of a cult of Vaapad users led by a former apprentice of his, and he fears that Kylar will fall as well, though ultimately, though Mace's tutelage and his own strength, he's able to prevail, and he ends up defeating the cult's leader in a ferocious battle. Kylar ultimately ends up going into self-exile, as even though he's been able to conquer much of his own self-doubt, he still has lingering worries about his powers, and Mace grants his blessing for Kylar to study the Force in seclusion (setting up a potential sequel).
Star Wars: Shatterpoint is released for the Reality, Nexus, Virtua, Connect, and Gemini, as well as PC and Mac, on June 16, 2017. The game receives strong reviews, with an 83 on Metacritic, and sales are quite brisk, topping sales charts in June on most platforms it's released on. It's seen as a groundbreaking Star Wars title as far as combat is concerned, and it would have an influence on future series games even before its inevitable sequel is released.
-
Other Significant Titles For June 2017:
Kirby's Arena World: For those who love the intense boss battles of the Kirby series, this Connect title is a compilation of sorts, bringing together dozens of the Kirby series' best boss battles as well as a number of original bosses and tying them together in a storyline that sees Kirby and friends battling them in succession. It strips out all the pesky platforming and delivers on the series' signature combat, making for a fun experience that scores decently with critics and sells quite well also.
Midnight Fright: This homage to classic games such as Night Trap on the Apple Virtua can basically be summed up as “Night Trap with the production values of Quantum Break and some of the gameplay elements of Until Dawn”. The plot revolves around a group of young women on vacation together, eventually coming up against a dangerous attacker, and the player has to make the right decisions to help them. Though somewhat of a novelty, the acting is actually really good, the characters are written well (a couple of Thrillseekers writers were involved in this), and the player's choices matter quite a bit. It's not a huge selling game but it gets surprisingly good reviews and becomes a cult hit.
International Tour Circuit: A realistic racing game optimized for a handheld screen, this is a technical showcase for the Gemini and the closest one can get to a Gran Turismo-like experience on the handheld. While obviously not as pretty or feature rich as Gran Turismo, it's still an excellent racer, and does quite well in Europe and Japan.
Rainbow War: An RTS-type game in which six armies, each bearing a different color, battle it out in a cartoony, simplistic clash. Intended to be an online game in which up to six players can compete, this Nexus exclusive is simple but quite fun, and catches on as a popular streaming title.
Court Of Verity: A Squaresoft published action-RPG for the Reality and Nexus, in which a young countess and her new husband, Eliza and Alistair, must fight together against would-be usurpers to Eliza's new title, wielding a mysterious magical force in battle. It's a very wild game featuring elaborate costumes and a bizarre mix of scenery inspired by Alice in Wonderland and David Bowie. It gets decent reviews, and is popular amongst a small segment of RPG fans, finding a The World Ends With You-esque cult audience.
Street Fighter: The Rise Of Bison: A 3-D beat 'em up in the style of 2014's Chun-Li Rising, though rather than appearing on the Gemini, this game comes to the Reality and Virtua, looking quite a bit better and playing a bit faster. It chronicles the rise of M. Bison, from a government agent embedded within a criminal syndicate, to someone who goes rogue and takes over the syndicate to form the criminal organization Shadaloo, this game allows the player to play as Bison and embrace their inner villain. Does decently enough in sales to turn a healthy profit, though most players think Chun-Li Rising was better.
Tomb Raider: Seeker Of The Heart: The latest game in the Tomb Raider series, and the sequel to 2015's Soul Of The Betrayer, Seeker Of The Heart sees Lara Croft and her two friends from that game return to hunt down a dangerous artifact known as the Heart of Erisius. The Heart has the capability to enthrall the bodies of the dead, allowing its possessor to control an army of zombie-like humans. The game, which uses the same engine as Soul Of The Betrayer, is a competent Tomb Raider title, but it's a bit short and players can definitely tell that Acclaim rushed it out. It also gets a lot of flak for killing off Rei, seemingly just as a "shocking twist" to upset players. Reviews are mediocre to slightly above average, and sales take a serious dip from the previous game.
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"It definitely casts a pall, I think, losing mom so soon before the last film. I was looking forward to us watching it together, so to lose her so close to when it was supposed to be released, it's... it's definitely upsetting. She got to visit the set, at least, last year, so that was good that she got to see all of us filming one last time. I miss her so much, I miss her terribly, but everyone's been really really kind. Mark and Harrison both were at the funeral... there's been such an outpouring of love and I really, really appreciate all of it very much. It's okay, I don't mind talking about it, it's been long enough... it's been a couple weeks, so yeah, I'm all right now, definitely."
-Carrie Fisher, discussing her mother Debbie Reynolds' death on Late Night with Drew Barrymore on June 28, 2017
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A Mario movie by Phil Lord and Chris Miller? And it's released by Sony Pictures Animation? Why hasn't this happened sooner?
The influx of Star Wars games is something to admire, but not as much as how George Lucas still owns the Star Wars brand for himself.
On the lower end of the spectrum, I'm predicting a bidding war for Enix in the next few years if they don't shape up their profit margin.
The influx of Star Wars games is something to admire, but not as much as how George Lucas still owns the Star Wars brand for himself.
On the lower end of the spectrum, I'm predicting a bidding war for Enix in the next few years if they don't shape up their profit margin.
It would've been interesting to see it release the same year as Pixar's Sonic to play up the rivalry. However, we are (kind of) getting that OTL as Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Illumination's Super Mario set to release next year.
The reason why I asked that question is because Nintendo has had their relationship with Sony for decades with arguably even more mass appeal ITTL than IOTL, plus Lord and Miller have been creating SPA movies on and off again since the first Cloudy film in 2009. Obviously, it's surprising they waited 9-10 years to debut the film. But I digress.
Reminder the SMB otl movie still happened plus OTL Nintendo took their time with those ( plus an abortive effort mid 00 cancelled when F-zero anime bombed hard) so is just they took their time, ittl James Cameron Metroid sucess mean the iron was hot to strike but they just take their Time
So, uh, is this a tweet from OTL or is this TTL Avril training for the 2020 Olympics?
The timelines are converging. Look out for someone who looks exactly like you. Especially if they have a goatee (or don’t in my case. Oh shit, I’m the evil one!)
I mean, we already have Banjo and Crash is always on the rumor mill for it. Hell, I wouldn't even be that surprised if Ratchet made it to Smash at this point.
Like John 117 that ball is on Sony Court, if they want Nintendo would no say no but like MS might not want it