Battle Royale: The Last Generation Of An SNES-CD Saga
- Thread starter RySenkari
- Start date
I was doing a fire emblem reference but was genuinely surprised people didn't at least give a reaction, again ITTL Stadia did give several well thought strong reactions here. Maybe I was over-expecting. But thanks.
Knowing the internet evolution, something like that could happen, just with not the same anime girls and voice actresses...and the same name either. but something might be happening just didn't worth be mentioned so far.
The bird-like figure is definitely the next incarnation of Ganon.
Mystic 3 is receiving so many special editions that it may as well have a Ubisoft logo slapped on it.
Seems like reception to Days Gone will be a lot more positive withou the presence of TLOU.
My guesses of Bloodborne Hunter and Vaon from Slaughtered Planet were dead wrong lmao. I'm still guessing Sadira Blackheart for the last fighter; weird seeing all these Ubisoft characters like Rayman and Jade (as well as the ones formerly owned by Konami) and not seeing her.
Metroid Zero Dawn is looking great lol
It could be, though it's important to remember which Zelda game is said to have inspired this one.
To be fair, it's happening with pretty much every AAA game ITTL, much like IOTL. Mystic 3 is one of the more egregious cases, but this sort of thing is happening with a lot of games these days.
Well, it still has to compete with The Last Gift, though the two games will be on two different consoles.
It WILL be a third party character...
Yep, that's exactly what we're going for with this one. Stay tuned!
Maybe it went over peoples' heads because it wasn't Full of Incest™️ 😛
I just realized I haven't seen Mega Man in the roster (could be mistaken), so I'm gonna go with him now that Capcom is doing Nintendo games again.
The fandom is WAY less toxic.
And yeah, Kira/Galen is a lot better received. It's still slightly controversial, but considering that Kira is more popular than Rey, and that Galen never did anything as evil as Kylo (pretty much everyone his Force Storms killed was working for Thrawn, so it's no more or less evil than Luke blowing up the Death Star).
@RySenkari I finally got caught up with the timeline. AlternateHistory.com was being dumb and stopped giving me updates. I'm so glad that Drawica was so well received! I'm honored to have introduced a new franchise to this world!
I would say that the Zombie genre is not as burned as was as OTL(as the zombie boom in tv and movies goes ITTL to Sci-fi Instead) and unironically, going against the last gift might help, giving that mystique of rival exclusives very close each other. but is up to see how perform.
Thanks to you for sharing your idea buddy.
Yeah a huge reason why people were so lukewarm on Days Gone IOTL was because Sony already had a zombie franchise with The Last of Us and three sandbox franchises with Spider-Man, Horizon and Death Stranding. Days Gone just seemed redundant on top of that.
E3 2018 (Part 3)
Apple Keynote - E3 2018
Apple's keynote presentation for E3 2018 begins with a montage of footage from recent and upcoming Virtua titles, then we a quick montage of Apple developers on the screen, thanking players for their support of Apple's games. After this video finishes, John Carmack takes the stage and introduces us properly to what Apple is going to be doing today, which is focusing on a selection of games coming out over the next year, before spending some time at the end of the show to preview some upcoming titles they've been working on. The first game that we'll be seeing is The Last Gift, and this segment of the presentation spends about 20 minutes showing off the gameplay and story, with interviews from the developers at Midi Software, a European company based in France, with some Spanish-based developers as well. This segment shows off some of the aspects of gameplay, including the various monsters, and also showing off the game's extensive crafting system, in which pretty much anything can be crafted into a melee weapon. We learn that while the game does have some guns, most of the combat is melee-focused, with bullets and guns hard to come by. After these video segments play out, John Carmack invites the game's lead developer to the stage to discuss and demo the game, and we even get a segment where Steve Jobs comes out and tries his luck, dying in about ten seconds his first time playing, but then concentrating and lasting a bit longer the second time around (while also showing how difficult the game can be). At the conclusion of this segment is the game's final launch trailer.
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(The following trailer was provided to us by the reader jolou!)
*It’s nighttime on a castle. We can see some lights despite the storm that is happening and most people are probably inside their houses.
We follow what seems to be a guard who has pieces of armor over him and is also holding a lantern. He is patrolling the walls until we begin to hear a low rumble, and as if a thousand voices were trying to say something but can’t.
He goes over the edge and there we can see it. Thousands of infected people and animals coming in the direction of the castle. He shouts and suddenly massive lights are activated and peoples arrive on the walls with firearms revealing that it wasn’t during the medieval ages.
Away from the walls we can see the castle lights going one of one out as peoples cries and try to flee.*
The Archivist : “ Your husband was on the cusp of the greatest scientific discovery since the Outbreak.”
*We can see Zoé and the boy from the first trailer watching something coming, both of them are shocked. That something is infected who seem to have retained some human characteristic and is commanding a horde of infected.*
The Archivist : “ The Liberators were seeking a vaccine.”
*The Duo are now on a mountain range, there is snow everywhere and the two are bloodied. Zoé is holding the boy while also shooting what we can only hear as a group of people behind them.*
The Archivist : “They may be gone, but I’m still here and I need it to stop us from falling in barbarism. “
*There is a swordfight between Zoé and a man stopped when the boy simply shoots the man.*
The Archivist : “Zoé, I need your help with that. ”
*We can finally see The Archivist, an old man but with a stern face one made from a thousand hard choice and guided by a purpose. He is directly asking it to Zoé who is deeply in thought.*
THE LAST GIFT
*But this isn’t the last part of the trailer as there is another.
We can see Luis, who looks like and is voiced by Giancarlo Esposito, in what we can recognize as a doctor attire preparing something on a table filled with instruments. He is talking to someone unseen.*
Luis : “Do you think I like doing that ?”
*He turns himself and we can see a woman hold there who is trying to free herself and is visibly hurt.*
“But those things are needed to give ourselves a new beginning”
*He uses a syringe to give her something he prepared. She cries out in pain and we can see the face of Luis. He’s determined but we can see a glimpse of him being sad about what he’s forced to do in his work now.*
3-15-2019
Only on Apple Virtua
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The crowd cheers as the trailer ends and the release date is revealed. Carmack is now alone on stage again, and he talks a bit more about the game. He says that the game will be playable on the show floor, and that as soon as Apple's presentation is over, there will be a free demo for the game available on iTunes for everyone to play, with about 30 minutes from the early part of the game. After this segment of the presentation concludes, Carmack then segues into the next game of the presentation, which is says is something "near and dear" to his heart: the newest game in the Commander Keen series. We then get an exciting trailer, focused on Keen, Becky Blaze, Reynard, and some new allies teaming up to battle an invasion of what appears to be demons, in some very Doom-inspired visuals (but of course much more lighthearted and non-gory). The trailer ends with a reveal of the game's title: Commander Keen: All Heck Breaks Loose!, and then we get a featurette of the game from the folks at Ion Storm, showing off the gameplay. Not a whole lot has changed from the other recent games in the series, but there's more of an emphasis on combat and shooting, and the game itself seems a lot more fast paced and action packed, focusing on action segments rather than exploration and collection. It looks like a wild and fun ride, and it's coming in October, exclusively for the Virtua. The next feature focused on next month's exciting exclusive title Vegas, which is very reminiscent of the True Crime and Yakuza games, and will cast the player as a small time criminal (who can be either male or female), looking to make their fortune in the city, either legitimately through gambling, illegitimately through crime, or a mix of both. There are a truly massive amount of casino games in Vegas, with dozens of unique slot machines alone, along with several different varieties of poker, roulette, blackjack, craps, and even some obscure games like baccarat. It's an incredibly open and non-linear game, and players will have absolutely no shortage of things to do. The presentation concluded with a trailer set to none other than Elvis' "Viva Las Vegas", and the release date was given as July 16th. We then got a featurette for an upcoming Gemini title, a game that looks like it could be the biggest handheld game of the year. Deus Ex: The Coded Mystery is a full fledged open world sci-fi RPG, every bit as big and engrossing as the console games, and the hero is a "cyber detective" with a dark secret who must hunt down an elusive hacker-turned-murderer. The game is intense and complex, and will give players an enormous amount of freedom to complete their objectives, as any typical Deus Ex game would be expected to do. We didn't get a trailer for this one, but we did get a release month: November 2018. Next, we went to Japan, to check in on the developers of the upcoming Phantasy Star X: Darkness Across Space And Time. It's a fully sci-fi RPG, and while the setting is quite futuristic, it looks to be a love letter to previous games in the series, with the band of heroes setting out to venture across the eons, battling the forces of darkness, including previous villains from the series. The combat system is turn-based, but with context sensitive commands and timed actions, and looks to be somewhat similar to last year's Volare. This game will be released worldwide in December, exclusively for the Apple Virtua. We were then treated to a featurette for the upcoming game Blood and Victoire, by the developers of 2016's The Twilight Of Doctor Adler. Like that title, this game takes place in Victorian England, and follows the story of a woman seeking answers in the murder of one of her children and the abduction of another, getting herself caught up in a journey of intrigue and tragedy. We got a short trailer, and a video interviewing the game's director and lead writer, as well as Katharine Kingsley, who voices the game's protagonist Angie. While there's not as much hype for this game as there is for the earlier games in the presentation, if it's as good as its predecessor, it could be a contender for the Virtua's best game of the year. It's coming in November.
The video presentations for just these six games have run nearly an hour and a half, and while we've learned quite a bit about what's coming up on the Virtua soon, the next segment of the presentation consisted of shorter previews of games that will be coming to the Virtua in the future. We first saw a segment focused on a pair of twin boys, in a game with a strange, almost pencil-like art style. The boys wield various implements of pranking, and seem to be menacing their school and their neighborhood. At first, they contend with their fellow kids, as well as a few adult authority figures like teachers. However, they eventually have to battle a large dragon, and team up with other kids to take it down. We then see the view expanding to a wider one, and see people online, all pranking and battling in the same world. The game's title is shown as Prankworld: There Goes The Neighborhood, and we're given a "Coming To Virtua" screen, with no release window. Next, we see a trailer combining storyline cinematics and gameplay, and showing a teenage girl (who sounds like and we later found out is indeed voiced by Jennifer Hale), who is living a fairly ordinary life with her single mother. The two get along quite well and are almost best friends, but one day, the girl's mom is kidnapped, and she has to track down clues in order to save her. The trailer almost has a "teenage movie" feel to it, action-packed with some drama, but not too much drama, as the girl realizes that she has the gift of learning things extremely quickly, including combat moves and new languages, to save her mother. The girl is shown performing various speech challenges and puzzles, and teaming up with other people who also have their own weird quirks and powers, to save her mom. We then get the game's title: Jessica Saves Her Mom (And Maybe The World!), and its release window is given as 2019. The last trailer of this segment is much more epic, and seems to be focused heavily on an open world setting in feudal era Japan, in which a disgraced ninja must venture across the realm, activating elemental power nodes to transform from a mortal into a god, in order to battle the one who led to his downfall, who has already begun unlocking similar powers. The game's title is revealed to be Leyline, and though the trailer didn't reveal the game's release window, John Carmack said afterward that it's coming in 2020. Finally, Carmack segues into one more segment: a video from Japan, of famed developer Yu Suzuki announcing that he's working on another Shenmue game, intended to be the last of the series. It will follow the story of the son of Ryo Hazuki, Kei Hazuki, who must answer for his father's deeds as he attempts to build a life of his own. The game is already late into development and is targeting a release sometime next year, and though we didn't get to see much, Suzuki showed the game's incredible, lifelike graphics, and said that he was inspired to continue the series by the capabilities of the Virtua, particularly its motion controls which will allow players to truly embody Kei and sympathize with his struggles. He says that he is eager to show off more of Shenmue: Sins Of The Father at a future show, and thanks all of those fans who have shown their support to his games over the years.
With that, John Carmack announces that the presentation is concluded, thanks fans for watching, and asks those in attendance to make sure they play the games on the show floor at the Apple booth, while asking fans at home to enjoy the demos for The Last Gift, Commander Keen: All Heck Breaks Loose, Vegas, Phantasy Star X, and Blood and Victoire.
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E3 2018's third party keynote presentations weren't short on big announcements, with some of the biggest upcoming games of this year and beyond shown off for the first time. Here's a quick rundown of some of the biggest announcements from the third party studios that were here at E3 this year.
Activision's presser is always one of the biggest, and this year's was no exception. While most of their announcements focused on new installments of their yearly franchises, there was no shortage of big news from some of the most beloved IPs in gaming. This year's Call Of Duty looks especially intriguing, as the company will be ditching the gritty realism this year and instead going with gritty horror: Call of Duty: Undead Warfare will focus on a World War Z-like battle against a zombie apocalypse, and the trailer, set to Bad Wolves' hard rock cover of "Zombie", was one of the best received of the show. Of course, there will also be plenty of multiplayer modes in the game as well, but the campaign took center stage in the presentation, and we haven't seen fans this excited for a new Call Of Duty in the last few years. Meanwhile, Thrillseekers: All-Stars looks to be a culmination of the last 14 years of the series. While the game won't feature any new sports, it will include every single extreme sport that's been in the games so far, along with every single character, with campaign storylines focused on 12 of them. With rumors swirling about a possible reboot of the series, this could be the Thrillseekers' last hurrah. We got a bit more footage and a playable demo for the upcoming crime thriller Snohomish, which will make its way to consoles next year. Again, it doesn't look to be as gritty of a game as Pocatello, but as the new trailer revealed, there's at least one murder that will have to be solved. Pitfall: The Descent continues the story from 2015's hit Nexus exclusive, though this time around, the game will be available on not only the Nexus and Stadia, but the Reality and Virtua itself. It'll be taking place a short time after the original, with Harry and Annie returning for another adventure, this time with a bit of a horror element. We got a teaser for Quixsters Arena, a new Quixsters title still early in development, that will focus on wacky obstacle courses and competitions, and finally, we were introduced to a new IP, Emerald, a dungeon crawler with a King's Grave feel, in which the protagonist is a daring knight on a quest to gather gems and treasures for his king.
Ubisoft's presser showed off a few games we already knew about, and introduced some very intriguing upcoming titles. First up, of course, and center stage, was Assassin's Creed: Confederation, set on the border of the United States and Canada in the late 19th century, and focused on the Indian Wars that followed the American Civil War. The intense combat and expansive world look to be a step up from previous games in the series, and the game's demo was extremely popular at the Ubisoft booth. Far Cry 4, also coming out later this year (in October, the same as Assassin's Creed) was also heavily featured. Taking place on an island in the Pacific, the game seems to focus on a Battle Royale-esque reality show in which the protagonist must hunt down and kill his fellow captives, and looks positioned to be one of the year's most controversial games, with an extensive crafting mechanic and some brutal kills. We also got a look at some upcoming games from Hideo Kojima's studio, including the 25th anniversary Snatcher remake which is coming along incredibly nicely, with some nice action segments and stealth, along with extensive dialogue trees and investigation options. Metal Gear Black is coming in August, and we got to play the game's full demo, which focused exclusively on Raiden and Messiah gameplay. While the two control quite similar to one another, we got to see Messiah's emphatic abilities and Raiden's ninja-like movement and combat on full display, and it's clear that the game, which will be divided fairly evenly between the two Metal Gear protagonists and the two Blackheart protagonists, will feature segments heavily suited to both. We were also given a teaser for a future Hideo Kojima project targeted for 2020, which is heavily implied to be some kind of giant mech game. Tom Clancy Online 2 is also coming next year, and we got to see some of that game's new features, including enhanced stealth and combat mechanics, and we also got to see a preview for another new game that looks to be focused on flowers and was given the tentative title Lotus. We learned a bit more about this game and it appears to be some sort of Zelda-esque adventure title, but that's all we were able to learn. Finally, we saw an announcement for Castlevania: The Awakened Symphony, a new 3-D console Castlevania which appears to be heavily based on Symphony of the Night, and may in fact be a distant sequel. We didn't get to see much from this game, so it too is likely early in development.
Of course, Electronic Arts was there, showing off the new Madden, NBA Elite, and NHL titles, which boasted little in the way of major gameplay updates, save for some welcome presentation improvements in Madden and NBA Elite to make the games more lifelike to what you see on TV every week. We did get some trailers for new IPs, including a first person shooter called The Sin Of Wrath, in which a police officer takes matters into his own hands to avenge his murdered partner, and Cold Kingdom, a very beautiful cinematic fantasy game about a girl seeking refuge in a far northern kingdom, who must defend her new home from mysterious werewolf-like enemies. However, the game most people were interested in at EA's booth was Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, which focuses on a new Spider-Man, Miles Morales, who teams up with Spider-Men from other dimensions, as well as Spider-Gwen, to battle a dangerous new foe. The game boasts a cartoon-like art style and some truly incredible visuals, and is said to have been based off a proposed Spider-Man movie (itself based on a comic miniseries from a few years back) that was canceled and retooled into a game. Whatever the reason for this game's existence, it looks like one of the most interesting superhero games ever, and it's coming in December of this year.
Take Two's booth was all about Doggerland and Grand Theft Auto Online, with plenty of updates for the latter, and the full game on demo of the former. We've been gushing about Doggerland for months now, and it's finally coming out next month, with the game getting high praise from pretty much everyone at the show. Do The Crime, the arcade-style open world crime title, also got some more info at the show, and we got to take a spin with the game's fun and addictive car chase mechanic, as well as try out some of the actual crimes themselves. Despite the game's somewhat primitive visuals, it's a blast to play and bloody as hell, and will no doubt be among next year's most controversial titles. Finally, we got a preview for a new game that's being published by Take Two and developed by a small studio. Called Pigman, the game is pretty much what the name implies: an anthropomorphic pig who becomes a superhero in a world populated by normal humans. While the game lacks some of the typical grit and violence of most of the games published by Take Two, it still looks like somewhat of a serious story, and we'll be keeping an eye on this one as more info is released. Take Two also had a short trailer and a playable demo for the newest Crime Stories title, Crime Stories: The Mourner's Requiem, which is to be released next April.
Acclaim's booth mostly focused on the announcement of the upcoming Destined 4, slated for next year and featuring an entirely new slate of heroes, though with some guest appearances by the old one. It's of course accompanied by a major marketing blitz, and the gameplay looks slick and exciting. No doubt it'll be one of next year's most hyped games, even with some of the original trilogy's luster fading. We also got an announcement for a surprise CarnEvil reboot, CarnEvil: The Return, coming next year and looking as brutal and bloody as ever, though it's no longer a light gun game, but instead a fully realized horror adventure. Finally, we got some updates for Nosgoth, including a new questline focused on Vorador. While Acclaim has taken some flak for neglecting the Legacy of Kain MMO as of late, these major content updates shown that the company is still at least somewhat committed to this one, and it should be interesting to see how the player base reacts.
Squaresoft's presser was mostly focused on next year's Final Fantasy Elementus and Gestalt, both of which are headed to consoles and looking quite slick. Final Fantasy Elementus still looks like a fun action-RPG, and will have online multiplayer allowing for four friends to team up and tackle the game's extensive challenges. Meanwhile, Gestalt, which will feature a big open world and transforming motorcycles, looks to be somewhat of a dark game, with a hero named Trace and a team of villains who look like Hell's Angels combined with the Heartless from Kingdom Hearts. Gestalt is definitely one of 2019's more interesting games, but only time will tell if it lives up to the slowly building hype. We got somewhat of a teaser for another upcoming RPG, this one coming to handhelds and featuring a team of monsters, though we didn't get a title for this one yet. We also saw a teaser for what looked to be a new game in the Fairytale series, and we also got confirmation that two major remakes, Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII, are in development and will be released sometime after the Secret Of Mana remake, a bombshell announcement for sure.
Game Arts showed off some intriguing new titles, including a brand new game in the Lunar series called Lunar: Ascent Of Althena, in which the titular goddess might actually be the main protagonist of the game. We also saw some footage for the upcoming Ithiel sequel, which Game Arts will be publishing but not developing. Called Ithiel: Redemption, that game is coming to consoles next year. Finally, we got a teaser for a brand new action-RPG called Gloria, which looks to have anime styled cutscenes and graphics, and could well be a throwback to the old-school action RPGs we saw on systems like the Genesis and Super Nintendo.
Capcom had what many are calling its best E3 in years, with a highly touted demo and preview for the Star Siren reboot game, Star Siren: Battle Princess, which features some of the best beat 'em up combat we've ever seen in a 3D game. Capcom also announced a remake of the original Resident Evil, which has seen remakes and re-releases in the past, but none so extensive as this one, which totally overhauls the original title from the ground up, and adds to the already extensive list of full remakes we're looking forward to seeing in 2019. Capcom showed off a trailer for a new fighting game, Ribbon Chalice, which looks somewhat like Street Fighter but with a magical girl mentality, focused on powerful magical superheroines pulling off some truly spectacular moves on each other. We then got a teaser for a brand new Mega Man game implied to be a fully 3-D adventure title, though it's confirmed not to be a new game in the Legends series, but something entirely new.
This E3 saw a steep decline in PC exclusives, as many of the best PC games will be making their way to the Stadia platform over the next year or two, and many other PC games have also seen simultaneous releases on the physical consoles. Among the best of this year's true PC exclusives was Zealandia, a 3-D adventure game combining elements of open world RPGs with simulation and city planning gameplay, almost as if the upcoming Doggerland had a baby with Civilization VI. We also got to play an intriguing detective game called Criminal Element, in which we'll be able to solve procedurally generated crimes, a very ambitious idea for a detective game. There's also a brand new multiplayer quiz show game, Trivia God, which will feature live online gameplay and real life prizes, while remaining exclusive to the Steam platform indefinitely.
As far as mobile titles, we saw plenty from Apple, including a teaser for some kind of Sonic endless run game. We also got to try out Cooking Warrior, a sort of Iron Chef-type game with gacha mechanics, though these mechanics are somewhat less intrusive than those in other mobile titles, and from what we could tell, did not result in any type of "pay to win" feeling, though of course we'll have to wait for the game's official release to know for sure. However, as far as unique mobile games go, the strangest had to be Russian Baywatch: The Game, a mobile title based on an ongoing web series about a fictional early-90s Russian adaptation of the popular syndicated show Baywatch. Crammed with over the top characters and hilarious in-jokes, the web series has become an online sensation, and the game itself, in which you create a lifeguard and try to keep people alive while surrounded by incompetent fools, could be equally funny and addictive, and though it's obviously not as involved as some of the huge RPGs, racing titles, and shooters that will be coming to mobile this year, it may win the gold when it comes to originality.
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Austin Watson: E3 is almost over, and I gotta say... wow, that was the best E3 in a LONG time.
Mari Takahashi: Agreed.
Austin: Everybody brought their A-game. The Stadia was awesome, and Nintendo and Apple have a ton of great games coming out for the Reality and Virtua.
Avan Jogia: Yeah, I was really impressed by The Last Gift, I personally thought that was the best game of the show, though of course I also loved playing on the Stadia, and Devoid especially looks great on there... but The Last Gift, what an amazingly good game. It's dark, it's terrifying, it's really, really tough, but in a good way, it really makes you feel the desperation of its world, and I am so psyched to play the full game, next year can't come soon enough.
Christina Grimmie: My favorite game from this year's show was actually Star Siren: Battle Princess. I loved it so much, I loved the original series and while I'm sad that they're rebooting it, this new one was so much fun to play, still lots of crazy anime moves you can do, Saiyuki hasn't changed even if the style of the game itself has changed.
Bryce Papenbrook: I'm going to agree with Avan that The Last Gift is an amazing game and probably the one I'm most looking forward to next year, but also of course The Legend Of Zelda: Flight Of The Weathervane... and Christina, I'm surprised you haven't been talking about that one!
Christina: The demo wasn't long enough! I liked getting to control Link's weather powers, but there were only three and the demo only had just a few rooms and I couldn't really get a feel for how fun the game's gonna be, so... I can't say for sure just yet.
Bryce: Well, The Last Gift is an amazing game for sure, along with F-Zero XR, which is probably the fastest racer I've ever played, but even while zipping along the track, I still felt I was in complete control.
Mari: F-Zero XR is amazing, and I really hope everyone plays it in VR mode, because I was gripping my control so hard as I was playing, it's an incredible feeling!
Austin: And that game will be compatible with most of the Gran Turismo Real accessories, so you can use a steering wheel and get force feedback too.
Mari: Yeah, I'm really glad for that.
Christina: I really liked the demo for Jessica Saves Her Mom (And Maybe The World!)... what a title, really fun and descriptive but what a mouthful! But you know, getting to journey around, use Jessica's powers, talk to people, it's such a fun little game and I just hope it's not short, I want to spend more time in Jessica's world. Also... how good is Jennifer Hale? To go from voicing someone as intense as Zoe, to voicing a typical teenager like Jessica... I mean, her emotional range is incredible, I really hope she gets some recognition for those games. I am kinda sad she's not coming back as Samus, but Ashly Burch is gonna do a great job in Samus Awakens, which I'm also super excited for.
Austin: Jennifer Hale is a badass, absolutely.
Bryce: Agreed.
Avan: Who won this E3? I mean, it seems like Google Stadia won because that's what everyone's talking about, but man, Nintendo and Apple's slate of games were super impressive... it's hard to say, isn't it?
Mari: I'm going to say Google, and mostly because my predictions last year, they came true! Google is focusing on the cloud, the Stadia is like their secret weapon, and I'm glad to be right even if I'm skeptical about their business model.
Christina: I say Nintendo this year! I can say Nintendo without shame because they really did have the best show with all those awesome games, a great looking Zelda, a great looking Metroid, the future is bright for Nintendo fans.
Bryce: I'm going Apple, mostly on the strength of The Last Gift which I think outshone every other game here at E3, but they really laid out their case for quality over quantity with all the great games they showed off. Blood and Victoire is going to be amazing, Commander Keen looks like a lot of fun, and we're getting one more Shenmue, which looks really awesome.
Austin: Man, I dunno... it's hard to pick between Google with the Stadia, Nintendo with F-Zero and Zelda, and Apple with The Last Gift and that sweet Commander Keen game... Avan, you go... lemme think a bit more.
Avan: I say Apple, The Last Gift is too good, but man, with Stadia it's close between them and Google.
Austin: Uggggh..... I think Google won it, I think the Stadia looked tremendously impressive with so much value, you don't have to buy a new console, you get the first month free.. you can play Devoid for free, can you believe it?
Christina: No love for Nintendo, really?
Mari: It was such a good year for everyone, no shame in being third place this year.
Austin: Best E3 ever.
Avan: Gamers won E3 this year.
-from GameTV's E3 recap stream, which aired on June 15, 2018
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Game Critics Awards E3 2018
Best Of Show: Google Stadia
Best Original Game: The Last Gift
Best Console Game: The Last Gift
Best PC Game: Zealandia
Best Handheld Game: Deus Ex: The Coded Mystery
Best Peripheral/Hardware: Stadia Grip
Best Action Game: Star Siren: Battle Princess
Best Action/Adventure Game: The Last Gift
Best Role Playing Game: Secret Of Mana Remake
Best Racing Game: Forza Stadia
Best Sports Game: Thrillseekers: All-Stars
Best Fighting Game: Acclaimed Champions 2
Best Shooter: Call Of Duty: Undead Warfare
Best Party Game: Drone Pro-Am
Best Online Multiplayer: Benefactors
Apple's keynote presentation for E3 2018 begins with a montage of footage from recent and upcoming Virtua titles, then we a quick montage of Apple developers on the screen, thanking players for their support of Apple's games. After this video finishes, John Carmack takes the stage and introduces us properly to what Apple is going to be doing today, which is focusing on a selection of games coming out over the next year, before spending some time at the end of the show to preview some upcoming titles they've been working on. The first game that we'll be seeing is The Last Gift, and this segment of the presentation spends about 20 minutes showing off the gameplay and story, with interviews from the developers at Midi Software, a European company based in France, with some Spanish-based developers as well. This segment shows off some of the aspects of gameplay, including the various monsters, and also showing off the game's extensive crafting system, in which pretty much anything can be crafted into a melee weapon. We learn that while the game does have some guns, most of the combat is melee-focused, with bullets and guns hard to come by. After these video segments play out, John Carmack invites the game's lead developer to the stage to discuss and demo the game, and we even get a segment where Steve Jobs comes out and tries his luck, dying in about ten seconds his first time playing, but then concentrating and lasting a bit longer the second time around (while also showing how difficult the game can be). At the conclusion of this segment is the game's final launch trailer.
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(The following trailer was provided to us by the reader jolou!)
*It’s nighttime on a castle. We can see some lights despite the storm that is happening and most people are probably inside their houses.
We follow what seems to be a guard who has pieces of armor over him and is also holding a lantern. He is patrolling the walls until we begin to hear a low rumble, and as if a thousand voices were trying to say something but can’t.
He goes over the edge and there we can see it. Thousands of infected people and animals coming in the direction of the castle. He shouts and suddenly massive lights are activated and peoples arrive on the walls with firearms revealing that it wasn’t during the medieval ages.
Away from the walls we can see the castle lights going one of one out as peoples cries and try to flee.*
The Archivist : “ Your husband was on the cusp of the greatest scientific discovery since the Outbreak.”
*We can see Zoé and the boy from the first trailer watching something coming, both of them are shocked. That something is infected who seem to have retained some human characteristic and is commanding a horde of infected.*
The Archivist : “ The Liberators were seeking a vaccine.”
*The Duo are now on a mountain range, there is snow everywhere and the two are bloodied. Zoé is holding the boy while also shooting what we can only hear as a group of people behind them.*
The Archivist : “They may be gone, but I’m still here and I need it to stop us from falling in barbarism. “
*There is a swordfight between Zoé and a man stopped when the boy simply shoots the man.*
The Archivist : “Zoé, I need your help with that. ”
*We can finally see The Archivist, an old man but with a stern face one made from a thousand hard choice and guided by a purpose. He is directly asking it to Zoé who is deeply in thought.*
THE LAST GIFT
*But this isn’t the last part of the trailer as there is another.
We can see Luis, who looks like and is voiced by Giancarlo Esposito, in what we can recognize as a doctor attire preparing something on a table filled with instruments. He is talking to someone unseen.*
Luis : “Do you think I like doing that ?”
*He turns himself and we can see a woman hold there who is trying to free herself and is visibly hurt.*
“But those things are needed to give ourselves a new beginning”
*He uses a syringe to give her something he prepared. She cries out in pain and we can see the face of Luis. He’s determined but we can see a glimpse of him being sad about what he’s forced to do in his work now.*
3-15-2019
Only on Apple Virtua
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The crowd cheers as the trailer ends and the release date is revealed. Carmack is now alone on stage again, and he talks a bit more about the game. He says that the game will be playable on the show floor, and that as soon as Apple's presentation is over, there will be a free demo for the game available on iTunes for everyone to play, with about 30 minutes from the early part of the game. After this segment of the presentation concludes, Carmack then segues into the next game of the presentation, which is says is something "near and dear" to his heart: the newest game in the Commander Keen series. We then get an exciting trailer, focused on Keen, Becky Blaze, Reynard, and some new allies teaming up to battle an invasion of what appears to be demons, in some very Doom-inspired visuals (but of course much more lighthearted and non-gory). The trailer ends with a reveal of the game's title: Commander Keen: All Heck Breaks Loose!, and then we get a featurette of the game from the folks at Ion Storm, showing off the gameplay. Not a whole lot has changed from the other recent games in the series, but there's more of an emphasis on combat and shooting, and the game itself seems a lot more fast paced and action packed, focusing on action segments rather than exploration and collection. It looks like a wild and fun ride, and it's coming in October, exclusively for the Virtua. The next feature focused on next month's exciting exclusive title Vegas, which is very reminiscent of the True Crime and Yakuza games, and will cast the player as a small time criminal (who can be either male or female), looking to make their fortune in the city, either legitimately through gambling, illegitimately through crime, or a mix of both. There are a truly massive amount of casino games in Vegas, with dozens of unique slot machines alone, along with several different varieties of poker, roulette, blackjack, craps, and even some obscure games like baccarat. It's an incredibly open and non-linear game, and players will have absolutely no shortage of things to do. The presentation concluded with a trailer set to none other than Elvis' "Viva Las Vegas", and the release date was given as July 16th. We then got a featurette for an upcoming Gemini title, a game that looks like it could be the biggest handheld game of the year. Deus Ex: The Coded Mystery is a full fledged open world sci-fi RPG, every bit as big and engrossing as the console games, and the hero is a "cyber detective" with a dark secret who must hunt down an elusive hacker-turned-murderer. The game is intense and complex, and will give players an enormous amount of freedom to complete their objectives, as any typical Deus Ex game would be expected to do. We didn't get a trailer for this one, but we did get a release month: November 2018. Next, we went to Japan, to check in on the developers of the upcoming Phantasy Star X: Darkness Across Space And Time. It's a fully sci-fi RPG, and while the setting is quite futuristic, it looks to be a love letter to previous games in the series, with the band of heroes setting out to venture across the eons, battling the forces of darkness, including previous villains from the series. The combat system is turn-based, but with context sensitive commands and timed actions, and looks to be somewhat similar to last year's Volare. This game will be released worldwide in December, exclusively for the Apple Virtua. We were then treated to a featurette for the upcoming game Blood and Victoire, by the developers of 2016's The Twilight Of Doctor Adler. Like that title, this game takes place in Victorian England, and follows the story of a woman seeking answers in the murder of one of her children and the abduction of another, getting herself caught up in a journey of intrigue and tragedy. We got a short trailer, and a video interviewing the game's director and lead writer, as well as Katharine Kingsley, who voices the game's protagonist Angie. While there's not as much hype for this game as there is for the earlier games in the presentation, if it's as good as its predecessor, it could be a contender for the Virtua's best game of the year. It's coming in November.
The video presentations for just these six games have run nearly an hour and a half, and while we've learned quite a bit about what's coming up on the Virtua soon, the next segment of the presentation consisted of shorter previews of games that will be coming to the Virtua in the future. We first saw a segment focused on a pair of twin boys, in a game with a strange, almost pencil-like art style. The boys wield various implements of pranking, and seem to be menacing their school and their neighborhood. At first, they contend with their fellow kids, as well as a few adult authority figures like teachers. However, they eventually have to battle a large dragon, and team up with other kids to take it down. We then see the view expanding to a wider one, and see people online, all pranking and battling in the same world. The game's title is shown as Prankworld: There Goes The Neighborhood, and we're given a "Coming To Virtua" screen, with no release window. Next, we see a trailer combining storyline cinematics and gameplay, and showing a teenage girl (who sounds like and we later found out is indeed voiced by Jennifer Hale), who is living a fairly ordinary life with her single mother. The two get along quite well and are almost best friends, but one day, the girl's mom is kidnapped, and she has to track down clues in order to save her. The trailer almost has a "teenage movie" feel to it, action-packed with some drama, but not too much drama, as the girl realizes that she has the gift of learning things extremely quickly, including combat moves and new languages, to save her mother. The girl is shown performing various speech challenges and puzzles, and teaming up with other people who also have their own weird quirks and powers, to save her mom. We then get the game's title: Jessica Saves Her Mom (And Maybe The World!), and its release window is given as 2019. The last trailer of this segment is much more epic, and seems to be focused heavily on an open world setting in feudal era Japan, in which a disgraced ninja must venture across the realm, activating elemental power nodes to transform from a mortal into a god, in order to battle the one who led to his downfall, who has already begun unlocking similar powers. The game's title is revealed to be Leyline, and though the trailer didn't reveal the game's release window, John Carmack said afterward that it's coming in 2020. Finally, Carmack segues into one more segment: a video from Japan, of famed developer Yu Suzuki announcing that he's working on another Shenmue game, intended to be the last of the series. It will follow the story of the son of Ryo Hazuki, Kei Hazuki, who must answer for his father's deeds as he attempts to build a life of his own. The game is already late into development and is targeting a release sometime next year, and though we didn't get to see much, Suzuki showed the game's incredible, lifelike graphics, and said that he was inspired to continue the series by the capabilities of the Virtua, particularly its motion controls which will allow players to truly embody Kei and sympathize with his struggles. He says that he is eager to show off more of Shenmue: Sins Of The Father at a future show, and thanks all of those fans who have shown their support to his games over the years.
With that, John Carmack announces that the presentation is concluded, thanks fans for watching, and asks those in attendance to make sure they play the games on the show floor at the Apple booth, while asking fans at home to enjoy the demos for The Last Gift, Commander Keen: All Heck Breaks Loose, Vegas, Phantasy Star X, and Blood and Victoire.
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E3 2018's third party keynote presentations weren't short on big announcements, with some of the biggest upcoming games of this year and beyond shown off for the first time. Here's a quick rundown of some of the biggest announcements from the third party studios that were here at E3 this year.
Activision's presser is always one of the biggest, and this year's was no exception. While most of their announcements focused on new installments of their yearly franchises, there was no shortage of big news from some of the most beloved IPs in gaming. This year's Call Of Duty looks especially intriguing, as the company will be ditching the gritty realism this year and instead going with gritty horror: Call of Duty: Undead Warfare will focus on a World War Z-like battle against a zombie apocalypse, and the trailer, set to Bad Wolves' hard rock cover of "Zombie", was one of the best received of the show. Of course, there will also be plenty of multiplayer modes in the game as well, but the campaign took center stage in the presentation, and we haven't seen fans this excited for a new Call Of Duty in the last few years. Meanwhile, Thrillseekers: All-Stars looks to be a culmination of the last 14 years of the series. While the game won't feature any new sports, it will include every single extreme sport that's been in the games so far, along with every single character, with campaign storylines focused on 12 of them. With rumors swirling about a possible reboot of the series, this could be the Thrillseekers' last hurrah. We got a bit more footage and a playable demo for the upcoming crime thriller Snohomish, which will make its way to consoles next year. Again, it doesn't look to be as gritty of a game as Pocatello, but as the new trailer revealed, there's at least one murder that will have to be solved. Pitfall: The Descent continues the story from 2015's hit Nexus exclusive, though this time around, the game will be available on not only the Nexus and Stadia, but the Reality and Virtua itself. It'll be taking place a short time after the original, with Harry and Annie returning for another adventure, this time with a bit of a horror element. We got a teaser for Quixsters Arena, a new Quixsters title still early in development, that will focus on wacky obstacle courses and competitions, and finally, we were introduced to a new IP, Emerald, a dungeon crawler with a King's Grave feel, in which the protagonist is a daring knight on a quest to gather gems and treasures for his king.
Ubisoft's presser showed off a few games we already knew about, and introduced some very intriguing upcoming titles. First up, of course, and center stage, was Assassin's Creed: Confederation, set on the border of the United States and Canada in the late 19th century, and focused on the Indian Wars that followed the American Civil War. The intense combat and expansive world look to be a step up from previous games in the series, and the game's demo was extremely popular at the Ubisoft booth. Far Cry 4, also coming out later this year (in October, the same as Assassin's Creed) was also heavily featured. Taking place on an island in the Pacific, the game seems to focus on a Battle Royale-esque reality show in which the protagonist must hunt down and kill his fellow captives, and looks positioned to be one of the year's most controversial games, with an extensive crafting mechanic and some brutal kills. We also got a look at some upcoming games from Hideo Kojima's studio, including the 25th anniversary Snatcher remake which is coming along incredibly nicely, with some nice action segments and stealth, along with extensive dialogue trees and investigation options. Metal Gear Black is coming in August, and we got to play the game's full demo, which focused exclusively on Raiden and Messiah gameplay. While the two control quite similar to one another, we got to see Messiah's emphatic abilities and Raiden's ninja-like movement and combat on full display, and it's clear that the game, which will be divided fairly evenly between the two Metal Gear protagonists and the two Blackheart protagonists, will feature segments heavily suited to both. We were also given a teaser for a future Hideo Kojima project targeted for 2020, which is heavily implied to be some kind of giant mech game. Tom Clancy Online 2 is also coming next year, and we got to see some of that game's new features, including enhanced stealth and combat mechanics, and we also got to see a preview for another new game that looks to be focused on flowers and was given the tentative title Lotus. We learned a bit more about this game and it appears to be some sort of Zelda-esque adventure title, but that's all we were able to learn. Finally, we saw an announcement for Castlevania: The Awakened Symphony, a new 3-D console Castlevania which appears to be heavily based on Symphony of the Night, and may in fact be a distant sequel. We didn't get to see much from this game, so it too is likely early in development.
Of course, Electronic Arts was there, showing off the new Madden, NBA Elite, and NHL titles, which boasted little in the way of major gameplay updates, save for some welcome presentation improvements in Madden and NBA Elite to make the games more lifelike to what you see on TV every week. We did get some trailers for new IPs, including a first person shooter called The Sin Of Wrath, in which a police officer takes matters into his own hands to avenge his murdered partner, and Cold Kingdom, a very beautiful cinematic fantasy game about a girl seeking refuge in a far northern kingdom, who must defend her new home from mysterious werewolf-like enemies. However, the game most people were interested in at EA's booth was Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, which focuses on a new Spider-Man, Miles Morales, who teams up with Spider-Men from other dimensions, as well as Spider-Gwen, to battle a dangerous new foe. The game boasts a cartoon-like art style and some truly incredible visuals, and is said to have been based off a proposed Spider-Man movie (itself based on a comic miniseries from a few years back) that was canceled and retooled into a game. Whatever the reason for this game's existence, it looks like one of the most interesting superhero games ever, and it's coming in December of this year.
Take Two's booth was all about Doggerland and Grand Theft Auto Online, with plenty of updates for the latter, and the full game on demo of the former. We've been gushing about Doggerland for months now, and it's finally coming out next month, with the game getting high praise from pretty much everyone at the show. Do The Crime, the arcade-style open world crime title, also got some more info at the show, and we got to take a spin with the game's fun and addictive car chase mechanic, as well as try out some of the actual crimes themselves. Despite the game's somewhat primitive visuals, it's a blast to play and bloody as hell, and will no doubt be among next year's most controversial titles. Finally, we got a preview for a new game that's being published by Take Two and developed by a small studio. Called Pigman, the game is pretty much what the name implies: an anthropomorphic pig who becomes a superhero in a world populated by normal humans. While the game lacks some of the typical grit and violence of most of the games published by Take Two, it still looks like somewhat of a serious story, and we'll be keeping an eye on this one as more info is released. Take Two also had a short trailer and a playable demo for the newest Crime Stories title, Crime Stories: The Mourner's Requiem, which is to be released next April.
Acclaim's booth mostly focused on the announcement of the upcoming Destined 4, slated for next year and featuring an entirely new slate of heroes, though with some guest appearances by the old one. It's of course accompanied by a major marketing blitz, and the gameplay looks slick and exciting. No doubt it'll be one of next year's most hyped games, even with some of the original trilogy's luster fading. We also got an announcement for a surprise CarnEvil reboot, CarnEvil: The Return, coming next year and looking as brutal and bloody as ever, though it's no longer a light gun game, but instead a fully realized horror adventure. Finally, we got some updates for Nosgoth, including a new questline focused on Vorador. While Acclaim has taken some flak for neglecting the Legacy of Kain MMO as of late, these major content updates shown that the company is still at least somewhat committed to this one, and it should be interesting to see how the player base reacts.
Squaresoft's presser was mostly focused on next year's Final Fantasy Elementus and Gestalt, both of which are headed to consoles and looking quite slick. Final Fantasy Elementus still looks like a fun action-RPG, and will have online multiplayer allowing for four friends to team up and tackle the game's extensive challenges. Meanwhile, Gestalt, which will feature a big open world and transforming motorcycles, looks to be somewhat of a dark game, with a hero named Trace and a team of villains who look like Hell's Angels combined with the Heartless from Kingdom Hearts. Gestalt is definitely one of 2019's more interesting games, but only time will tell if it lives up to the slowly building hype. We got somewhat of a teaser for another upcoming RPG, this one coming to handhelds and featuring a team of monsters, though we didn't get a title for this one yet. We also saw a teaser for what looked to be a new game in the Fairytale series, and we also got confirmation that two major remakes, Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII, are in development and will be released sometime after the Secret Of Mana remake, a bombshell announcement for sure.
Game Arts showed off some intriguing new titles, including a brand new game in the Lunar series called Lunar: Ascent Of Althena, in which the titular goddess might actually be the main protagonist of the game. We also saw some footage for the upcoming Ithiel sequel, which Game Arts will be publishing but not developing. Called Ithiel: Redemption, that game is coming to consoles next year. Finally, we got a teaser for a brand new action-RPG called Gloria, which looks to have anime styled cutscenes and graphics, and could well be a throwback to the old-school action RPGs we saw on systems like the Genesis and Super Nintendo.
Capcom had what many are calling its best E3 in years, with a highly touted demo and preview for the Star Siren reboot game, Star Siren: Battle Princess, which features some of the best beat 'em up combat we've ever seen in a 3D game. Capcom also announced a remake of the original Resident Evil, which has seen remakes and re-releases in the past, but none so extensive as this one, which totally overhauls the original title from the ground up, and adds to the already extensive list of full remakes we're looking forward to seeing in 2019. Capcom showed off a trailer for a new fighting game, Ribbon Chalice, which looks somewhat like Street Fighter but with a magical girl mentality, focused on powerful magical superheroines pulling off some truly spectacular moves on each other. We then got a teaser for a brand new Mega Man game implied to be a fully 3-D adventure title, though it's confirmed not to be a new game in the Legends series, but something entirely new.
This E3 saw a steep decline in PC exclusives, as many of the best PC games will be making their way to the Stadia platform over the next year or two, and many other PC games have also seen simultaneous releases on the physical consoles. Among the best of this year's true PC exclusives was Zealandia, a 3-D adventure game combining elements of open world RPGs with simulation and city planning gameplay, almost as if the upcoming Doggerland had a baby with Civilization VI. We also got to play an intriguing detective game called Criminal Element, in which we'll be able to solve procedurally generated crimes, a very ambitious idea for a detective game. There's also a brand new multiplayer quiz show game, Trivia God, which will feature live online gameplay and real life prizes, while remaining exclusive to the Steam platform indefinitely.
As far as mobile titles, we saw plenty from Apple, including a teaser for some kind of Sonic endless run game. We also got to try out Cooking Warrior, a sort of Iron Chef-type game with gacha mechanics, though these mechanics are somewhat less intrusive than those in other mobile titles, and from what we could tell, did not result in any type of "pay to win" feeling, though of course we'll have to wait for the game's official release to know for sure. However, as far as unique mobile games go, the strangest had to be Russian Baywatch: The Game, a mobile title based on an ongoing web series about a fictional early-90s Russian adaptation of the popular syndicated show Baywatch. Crammed with over the top characters and hilarious in-jokes, the web series has become an online sensation, and the game itself, in which you create a lifeguard and try to keep people alive while surrounded by incompetent fools, could be equally funny and addictive, and though it's obviously not as involved as some of the huge RPGs, racing titles, and shooters that will be coming to mobile this year, it may win the gold when it comes to originality.
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Austin Watson: E3 is almost over, and I gotta say... wow, that was the best E3 in a LONG time.
Mari Takahashi: Agreed.
Austin: Everybody brought their A-game. The Stadia was awesome, and Nintendo and Apple have a ton of great games coming out for the Reality and Virtua.
Avan Jogia: Yeah, I was really impressed by The Last Gift, I personally thought that was the best game of the show, though of course I also loved playing on the Stadia, and Devoid especially looks great on there... but The Last Gift, what an amazingly good game. It's dark, it's terrifying, it's really, really tough, but in a good way, it really makes you feel the desperation of its world, and I am so psyched to play the full game, next year can't come soon enough.
Christina Grimmie: My favorite game from this year's show was actually Star Siren: Battle Princess. I loved it so much, I loved the original series and while I'm sad that they're rebooting it, this new one was so much fun to play, still lots of crazy anime moves you can do, Saiyuki hasn't changed even if the style of the game itself has changed.
Bryce Papenbrook: I'm going to agree with Avan that The Last Gift is an amazing game and probably the one I'm most looking forward to next year, but also of course The Legend Of Zelda: Flight Of The Weathervane... and Christina, I'm surprised you haven't been talking about that one!
Christina: The demo wasn't long enough! I liked getting to control Link's weather powers, but there were only three and the demo only had just a few rooms and I couldn't really get a feel for how fun the game's gonna be, so... I can't say for sure just yet.
Bryce: Well, The Last Gift is an amazing game for sure, along with F-Zero XR, which is probably the fastest racer I've ever played, but even while zipping along the track, I still felt I was in complete control.
Mari: F-Zero XR is amazing, and I really hope everyone plays it in VR mode, because I was gripping my control so hard as I was playing, it's an incredible feeling!
Austin: And that game will be compatible with most of the Gran Turismo Real accessories, so you can use a steering wheel and get force feedback too.
Mari: Yeah, I'm really glad for that.
Christina: I really liked the demo for Jessica Saves Her Mom (And Maybe The World!)... what a title, really fun and descriptive but what a mouthful! But you know, getting to journey around, use Jessica's powers, talk to people, it's such a fun little game and I just hope it's not short, I want to spend more time in Jessica's world. Also... how good is Jennifer Hale? To go from voicing someone as intense as Zoe, to voicing a typical teenager like Jessica... I mean, her emotional range is incredible, I really hope she gets some recognition for those games. I am kinda sad she's not coming back as Samus, but Ashly Burch is gonna do a great job in Samus Awakens, which I'm also super excited for.
Austin: Jennifer Hale is a badass, absolutely.
Bryce: Agreed.
Avan: Who won this E3? I mean, it seems like Google Stadia won because that's what everyone's talking about, but man, Nintendo and Apple's slate of games were super impressive... it's hard to say, isn't it?
Mari: I'm going to say Google, and mostly because my predictions last year, they came true! Google is focusing on the cloud, the Stadia is like their secret weapon, and I'm glad to be right even if I'm skeptical about their business model.
Christina: I say Nintendo this year! I can say Nintendo without shame because they really did have the best show with all those awesome games, a great looking Zelda, a great looking Metroid, the future is bright for Nintendo fans.
Bryce: I'm going Apple, mostly on the strength of The Last Gift which I think outshone every other game here at E3, but they really laid out their case for quality over quantity with all the great games they showed off. Blood and Victoire is going to be amazing, Commander Keen looks like a lot of fun, and we're getting one more Shenmue, which looks really awesome.
Austin: Man, I dunno... it's hard to pick between Google with the Stadia, Nintendo with F-Zero and Zelda, and Apple with The Last Gift and that sweet Commander Keen game... Avan, you go... lemme think a bit more.
Avan: I say Apple, The Last Gift is too good, but man, with Stadia it's close between them and Google.
Austin: Uggggh..... I think Google won it, I think the Stadia looked tremendously impressive with so much value, you don't have to buy a new console, you get the first month free.. you can play Devoid for free, can you believe it?
Christina: No love for Nintendo, really?
Mari: It was such a good year for everyone, no shame in being third place this year.
Austin: Best E3 ever.
Avan: Gamers won E3 this year.
-from GameTV's E3 recap stream, which aired on June 15, 2018
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Game Critics Awards E3 2018
Best Of Show: Google Stadia
Best Original Game: The Last Gift
Best Console Game: The Last Gift
Best PC Game: Zealandia
Best Handheld Game: Deus Ex: The Coded Mystery
Best Peripheral/Hardware: Stadia Grip
Best Action Game: Star Siren: Battle Princess
Best Action/Adventure Game: The Last Gift
Best Role Playing Game: Secret Of Mana Remake
Best Racing Game: Forza Stadia
Best Sports Game: Thrillseekers: All-Stars
Best Fighting Game: Acclaimed Champions 2
Best Shooter: Call Of Duty: Undead Warfare
Best Party Game: Drone Pro-Am
Best Online Multiplayer: Benefactors
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I think Apple's presentation was actually lacking. If all that was going to be revealed, then why have them be last?
With that said, though, the prospect of Into the Spider-Verse becoming a game instead of Sony Animation's best film ever really shows how far gaming technology has come since the days of the SNES-CD.
With that said, though, the prospect of Into the Spider-Verse becoming a game instead of Sony Animation's best film ever really shows how far gaming technology has come since the days of the SNES-CD.
Damn, Giancarlo Esposito in The Last Gift. If I already didn't own a Virtua, that would have got me to take the plunge. How's he doing ITTL btw? Don't remember how Breaking Bad went if it happened at all.
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This E3 was really one of the best ! Congrats to you guys !
The Stadia announcement was big and well like everyone else i think it's gonna work way better than OTL, especially since Google has an actual experience into Gaming this time ^^
The games were also quite great, i like Jessica saves her mom, sound like a fun games ^^ And well Metroid Zero Dawn (using that joke too
) looks great, i love when this TL makes western game studios create game from a japanese IP !
The Stadia announcement was big and well like everyone else i think it's gonna work way better than OTL, especially since Google has an actual experience into Gaming this time ^^
The games were also quite great, i like Jessica saves her mom, sound like a fun games ^^ And well Metroid Zero Dawn (using that joke too
) looks great, i love when this TL makes western game studios create game from a japanese IP !Apple's presentation was fairly small on surprises (the biggest announcement being the new Shenmue game), and basically took the form of a show where they discuss the games you already know are coming out on the Virtua (and Gemini) to try and sell you on them. Few "wow" moments, but definitely informative. As for them going last, that just happened to be a function of how the three companies scheduled their shows this year, nothing really to read into it
Breaking Bad didn't happen, Giancarlo Esposito remains just a character actor who occasionally shows up on TV and film. Not really less visible than IOTL, just lacking that big well known role that he had IOTL.
I am a bit surprised that Apple and Nintendo didn't show off new handheld hardware thinking about it. Both are seven years old now. Curious if this means both might tie into their next consoles also.
Hoping The Last Gift also makes Giancarlo a bigger name than he was before. Like how Uncharted put Nolan North on the map and Bioshock Infinite/The Last of Us did the same for Troy Baker.
Hoping The Last Gift also makes Giancarlo a bigger name than he was before. Like how Uncharted put Nolan North on the map and Bioshock Infinite/The Last of Us did the same for Troy Baker.
June 2018 - Flights Of Fantasy
Now this new game, Fairy: The Endling, comes out almost 25 years to the day after Star Fox, and apart from a few Muppet and Star Wars-related projects, it's the first video game you've worked on since then. What drew you initially to this project?
Frank Oz: Well, the Jim Henson Studio got involved with the game before I was brought in. And I haven't worked for them in a while, but I was contacted by someone close to the project, and they showed me some art and asked me if I'd like to be involved in some capacity. In particular, they asked me if I'd like to come in and voice the character of Korgarreth, who they'd designed with my performance in mind. They showed me the character, and this is... well, the level of creativity with this game, it absolutely blew me away. Everything is so lovingly designed, and this character in particular, who serves as the "gatekeeper" of sorts to this incredible world... I was definitely drawn to the project and I agreed to take on the role.
Did you have any creative say in Korgarreth's character?
Oz: No, just in my performance itself. I trusted the writers and the artists from the get go, I wouldn't have joined the project if I wasn't convinced that it was something special, and so I really wouldn't have had anything to add to the character.
Korgarreth is just an amazing character. Without giving too much away, he's this big, imposing, massive guardian bull creature, but with so much personality and depth, and the back and forth he has with Metissa (the game's deuteragonist, the "endling" fairy referred to in the title) is one of our favorite interactions in recent gaming history. The two of them are the last of their respective kinds, and the way their goals contrast but also converge is a perfect microcosm of the plot of the game itself. What are your thoughts on Metissa, what you know about her character and how the two of you interact?
Oz: Metissa is a really wonderful character, and though I wasn't able to get the chance to record with her, I did hear some of the work that Jenna (Coleman, the voice of Metissa) did for her, and she did an outstanding job, pretty much what I imagined in my head when I was recording my character's lines to respond to hers. I also loved the interactions that Korgarreth has with Argos (the game's protagonist, the hero who guides Metissa on her journey), they hardly cooperate at all and it was a lot of fun to put him in his place.
We definitely got some echoes of Luke Skywalker's early interactions with Yoda in some of the banter exchanged between Argos and Korgarreth. Did you get a chance to play the game yet, or are you not much of a gamer?
Oz: Not much of a gamer, but I did play some of the game like I did with Star Fox, and games have certainly gotten a lot more complicated since then! The way you have to control both characters, it was a bit confusing to get a handle on, but I know more experienced players will be able to handle it much better. When I finally did get used to it, I was having fun. They were kind enough to gift me a copy of the game and an Apple Virtua to play it on, but I don't know if I'll get around to it. My grandkids will enjoy it, I think. It's a beautiful game.
It's gotten quite the reception from the gaming press, including a 9/10 from our sister publication, Games Unearthed. Some are calling it a Game of the Year contender.
Oz: Well deserved in my opinion.
If you were nominated for a game award for voicing Korgarreth, would you attend the ceremony?
Oz: I'd have to check my schedule!
-from "Catching Up With Frank Oz: The Legend Talks Age Of Resistance, New Video Game" on Media Unearthed, posted on June 11, 2018
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2018 NBA Playoffs
First Round:
(1) New York Knicks over (8) Atlanta Hawks, 4 to 1
(4) Chicago Bulls over (5) Orlando Magic, 4 to 0
(3) Philadelphia 76ers over (6) Indiana Pacers, 4 to 3
(2) Cleveland Cavaliers over (7) Brooklyn Nets, 4 to 0
(1) Seattle Supersonics over (8) San Antonio Spurs, 4 to 3
(5) Phoenix Suns over (4) Los Angeles Clippers, 4 to 3
(3) Denver Nuggets over (6) Los Angeles Lakers, 4 to 0
(2) Las Vegas Aces over (7) Dallas Mavericks, 4 to 1
Second Round:
(1) New York Knicks over (4) Chicago Bulls, 4 to 2
(3) Philadelphia 76ers over (2) Cleveland Cavaliers, 4 to 3
(1) Seattle Supersonics over (5) Phoenix Suns, 4 to 1
(2) Las Vegas Aces over (3) Denver Nuggets, 4 to 2
The 2018 NBA conference finals would once again see Liu Fauzeng, now in his third year with the Knicks, hoping to make his mark on the NBA's biggest stage after falling short against Lebron James the previous year. This time, Lebron wouldn't be standing in his way: his defending champion Cavs were upset by the Philadelphia 76ers, led by their veteran center Dwight Howard, who had just announced that he planned to sign a long-term deal that would keep him in Philly for the remainder of his career (after the team's president assured him that he'd be surrounded with young talent to help keep the team contending at a high level). In the West, the defending conference champion Nuggets, led by their own young phenom Willard Jones, were eliminated in a revenge showdown by Giannis Antentokoumpo and the Las Vegas Aces, who now returned to the conference finals once again to take on the Lob City Sonics, who were attempting to make their last push at a title behind Chris Paul and Blake Griffin. Both players had been together for years, and had been close to championship glory many times, but this would likely be their last push for the title, as both Paul and Griffin were expected to leave in free agency. It would set up a conference championship between a veteran team and a young superstar, in one of the biggest Western Conference battles in NBA history.
(1) New York Knicks over (3) Philadelphia 76ers, 4 to 0
In a truly anticlimactic conference final, Liu Fauzeng and the Knicks dominated, thanks to Fauzeng's outstanding play (which included a 56 point, 13 rebound, and 12 assist performance in Game 1). Dwight Howard and the 76ers found themselves unable to stop Fauzeng on defense, and the Knicks (who went 62-20 during the regular season, the league's best record) had surrounded Fauzeng with veteran role players and young stars who complimented his skills perfectly, while Fauzeng was so good that even James Dolan couldn't mess things up. He was just happy to let the money roll in from hundreds of millions of Chinese fans buying New York Knicks-branded Liu Fauzeng merchandise, and took a mostly hands off role with the team, allowing team president Dave DeBusschere (who'd survived a health scare 15 years prior but had enjoyed mostly good health since then) to make the right moves that would help the team win. And win they did, advancing easily to the Finals.
(2) Las Vegas Aces over (1) Seattle Supersonics, 4 to 2
Another young superstar defeats a veteran team, though this time, it was much closer, with five of the games decided by six points or less. The Supersonics placed fierce, winning Game 1 by 13 points (the biggest margin of the series), but it was a dogfight after that, with the Aces pulling off a comeback win in Game 2, then returning and winning a tough Game 3. Game 4 went to overtime, with Chris Paul's heroics saving the day and giving the Sonics a one point win, but the Aces came back big, with Giannis scoring 40 and 38 respectively in the last two games of the series, which the Aces would win by four points a piece. The Sonics had lost another heartbreaking conference finals, and were now left soul searching, with both Paul and Griffin seeking out different teams in the off season. Though a new arena in the city would keep the Sonics in Seattle for at least 20 more years, they weren't likely to be this good again for quite some time.
2018 NBA Finals: New York Knicks over Las Vegas Aces, 4 to 1
The New York Knicks would bring a title back to the city for the first time since 1973, knocking off the Aces in a series that was rarely competitive, despite some impressive play from Antentokoumpo. Giannis was all over the court, and poured in tons of buckets, but he couldn't match the all around play of Liu Fauzeng, who averaged a triple double in the series' five games, and easily took home the Finals MVP, adding to his already crowded trophy case (which included two consecutive Most Valuable Player awards). Fauzeng was rapidly becoming the world's most famous athlete, with millions of fans in the United States, and many, many, many millions more back home in China, where he was as big in his native country as Selena was in Corpus Christi. While Yao Ming had also been exceptionally popular in China, Yao had never won a title. Liu Fauzeng now had, and with free agents (including Chris Paul) clamoring to play with the Knicks, the team would likely get even better in the years ahead.
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SONIC SEQUEL SHATTERS OPENING WEEKEND RECORD FOR ANIMATED FILMS, BIGGEST OPENING SINCE EPISODE IX
Sonic The Hedgehog 2 debuted at $181 million over its three-day opening weekend, easily topping the North American box office and shattering records for both animated film openings and video game adaptations. It also surpassed the $168 million opening weekend of Nightwing and Batgirl to become the biggest opener since last year's Star Wars Episode IX - The Balance Of The Force. The film, Pixar's sequel to 2014's hit film Sonic the Hedgehog, sees Sonic and his friends return to save the universe from the deadly machinations of a powerful young scientist named Dayne, who has stolen a matching set of Chaos Emeralds, using them to summon the powerful being Chaos. The film, though not quite as positively received by critics (78% on the review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes, compared to 88% for the first film), was still quite well received by fans, and the film received a rare "A+" Cinemascore. The $181 million opener surpassed analysts' expectations of a $120-$140 million opening weekend for the film, and even surpassed Disney's expectations of a $150 million opening. Overseas, the film debuted in nearly every major territory and grossed a total of $215 million, giving the film a total worldwide opening figure of $396 million. The film's opening weekend performance, ahead of expectations, puts a potential $600 million total domestic take in play, though it is expected to drop fairly steeply next weekend, where it faces competition from the debuting Tom Cruise/Margot Robbie action thriller "Dynast", which is expected to gross between $70-$100 million and challenge Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the weekend crown.
-from a June 17, 2018 article on Boxofficemojo.com
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Game Spotlight: Masqueworld
Masqueworld is a Google Nexus exclusive action/adventure game, developed by an internal studio. It tells the story of Valentina, an 11-year-old girl who is trapped in a parallel Earth after being granted mysterious powers when a strange purple entity transforms everything around her. Armed with only her wits and a magical mask, Valentina must transform into a wide variety of powerful entities if she hopes to free her loved ones and her world from this strange force. The game can best be described as a cross between NIGHTS and Kirby, with Valentina stealing the masks of the enemies she defeats to gain their powers, while flying through a strange, dream-like world inhabited with magical denizens and various sights. The game's graphics and mood is best summed up by the words "electric circus": both fun and whimsical, but also slightly haunting, Valentina tumbles and vaults through the world, discovering her powers and freeing those who have been trapped. As you progress through the various zones, opening up new areas as you clear puzzles and gather up artifacts, you'll encounter stronger enemies, but also stronger masks, a total of 32 in all, that range from basic masks that allow Valentina to jump higher and fire energy bolts from her hands, to masks that allow more freedom of movement through the air, to masks that transform her into a range of literary legends and mythical creatures. Each new mask brings with it an incredible wave of discovery, as Valentina discovers more of the world and more of her own strength as well. It's also possible to combine masks, wielding one in hand while wearing another over the eyes, using two different sets of powers in tandem for brilliant effects. Not all masks can be combined this way, there are about 60 different combos that can be wielded, each with its own special utility. The game boasts some truly incredible bosses, bright and colorful (though these colors mostly consist of different shades of purple, blended with other dark hues), which sometimes can be quite frightening, Dark Souls-esque creatures (though not nearly as difficult to beat). As Valentina progresses, she gains more confidence, going from somewhat fearful at first to being quite elegant and snarky, learning about the masks' powers and what's happened to her world. The masks worn by Valentina give her a very Joker (Persona 5)-esque look and feel, and she actually moves very much like aTTL Phantom Thief, sneaking swiftly in and out of places as she dashes and darts around her foes. Valentina will sometimes encounter familiar people and sights, and as she interacts with those people, she has the ability to transform them back to normal, and they can give her clues about what's happened, and what she needs to do next. The game, which was partially made in the United Kingdom, has a mostly British voice cast, with a 15 year old girl voicing Valentina (she's original TTL, and her voice can somewhat best be described as Bella Ramsey's performance from TTL's Hilda cartoon, though with a very slightly older sound to it). The plot itself focuses on Valentina's efforts to rid the world of the strange, purple-hued phenomenon that's seemingly left the entire world a circus-like dream. Granted her mask by the mysterious entity known as the Ringmaster, Valentina must journey through this purple electric circus world, liberating others and learning more about just what's happened to everything and everyone. She learns that the energy is being generated by something called the Dark Masque, and that she and everything she knows has been trapped inside the Masque's dream. She surmises that the only way she can save everyone is to wake the Masque up by defeating its nightmare creations, and she begins doing so, freeing various loved ones and landmarks along the way. However, about two-thirds of the way through the game, she seemingly wakes the Masque, only for it to be revealed that she's not within the Masque's dream, she's within her own dream: her mind has been infected by a mysterious energy seed, and it's caused her own power to spread and take over everything. Indeed, it's the Ringmaster who's actually using Valentina as a conduit for its own dark energy, and the Masque was a creature known as a Nightshade, who was using its powers to protect everyone from Valentina's influence. Valentina realizes she has to wake up from her own dream, and she can only do this by teaming up with the Nightshade to defeat the Ringmaster. However, she then learns that waking herself up risks trapping herself in nothingness forever, and her parents, despite being trapped and imprisoned by the Ringmaster using Valentina's powers on them, beg her not to go through with it... but of course she does it anyway. However, thanks to the Nightshade, which has befriended Valentina, she is able to awaken without losing her grip on reality, and emerges back into the real world safe and sound, reuniting with her friends and family, who have no recollection of what happened. However, she does remember, and is now confident enough to live her life the way she wants to live it, while it's implied that she still has a tiny bit of residual power from the Masque.
Masqueworld is released on the Nexus in June 2018, and is immediately compared to its fellow fantasy title Fairy: The Endling, which was released earlier in the month to a strong critical reception and a good amount of hype. Positioned as one of the Nexus' biggest games of the year (arguably the biggest before the release of the Stadia), it too mostly lives up to its incredible hype, with excellent reviews matching those for its rival fantasy adventure game, and sales that top Fairy's despite being only released on the Nexus. It's an outstanding game, highly praised for its visuals and the characterization and voice acting of Valentina, and fans eagerly hope she'll return for a future sequel on the Stadia in the years to come.
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Other Significant Titles For June 2018:
WarioWare Gold: Similar to OTL's 3DS game, which featured a wide collection of microgames from across the series, the Connect's latest WarioWare title brings together Wario and friends for a huge collection of miniature games, which are played with both the touchscreen and the Connect's controls. Fans of the WarioWare series quite enjoy this one, as it's a fun and robust collection of microgames and addictive despite its simplicity, scoring big sales for the handheld.
Spell Skirmish: (Authors' Note: This game idea was given to us by the reader HonestAbe1809!) Spell Skirmish is a supernatural/magic-themed RTS title, released for the Reality, Virtua, and Nexus consoles. Described as a cross between Harry Potter, XCOM, and Doom, it sees a secret society of heroic mages teaming up with the modern militaries of Earth to fight back an unholy alliance of demonic foes and evil mages. Featuring allusions to all sorts of supernatural fantasy tropes and real-world legends such as the Shroud of Turin and the Spear of Longinus, it allows players to combine scientific research and magical might, utilizing magitech to battle back the evil hordes. It also features multiplayer play, allowing one player to control the military/mage alliance and another to control the combined forces of the demons and dark wizards. While the game's graphics aren't all that detailed (more attention is given to the game's animation), it features a very deep ability and skill tree system, and dozens of campaign levels, making it one of the deepest RTS titles in recent memory. Though sales aren't too strong at first, it quickly becomes a cult hit thanks to strong reviews and word of mouth, and many more players would jump on board later thanks to discounts and sales (whenever Wario64 announces that the game's on sale for $20, he gets lots of grateful Twitter replies).
Frank Oz: Well, the Jim Henson Studio got involved with the game before I was brought in. And I haven't worked for them in a while, but I was contacted by someone close to the project, and they showed me some art and asked me if I'd like to be involved in some capacity. In particular, they asked me if I'd like to come in and voice the character of Korgarreth, who they'd designed with my performance in mind. They showed me the character, and this is... well, the level of creativity with this game, it absolutely blew me away. Everything is so lovingly designed, and this character in particular, who serves as the "gatekeeper" of sorts to this incredible world... I was definitely drawn to the project and I agreed to take on the role.
Did you have any creative say in Korgarreth's character?
Oz: No, just in my performance itself. I trusted the writers and the artists from the get go, I wouldn't have joined the project if I wasn't convinced that it was something special, and so I really wouldn't have had anything to add to the character.
Korgarreth is just an amazing character. Without giving too much away, he's this big, imposing, massive guardian bull creature, but with so much personality and depth, and the back and forth he has with Metissa (the game's deuteragonist, the "endling" fairy referred to in the title) is one of our favorite interactions in recent gaming history. The two of them are the last of their respective kinds, and the way their goals contrast but also converge is a perfect microcosm of the plot of the game itself. What are your thoughts on Metissa, what you know about her character and how the two of you interact?
Oz: Metissa is a really wonderful character, and though I wasn't able to get the chance to record with her, I did hear some of the work that Jenna (Coleman, the voice of Metissa) did for her, and she did an outstanding job, pretty much what I imagined in my head when I was recording my character's lines to respond to hers. I also loved the interactions that Korgarreth has with Argos (the game's protagonist, the hero who guides Metissa on her journey), they hardly cooperate at all and it was a lot of fun to put him in his place.
We definitely got some echoes of Luke Skywalker's early interactions with Yoda in some of the banter exchanged between Argos and Korgarreth. Did you get a chance to play the game yet, or are you not much of a gamer?
Oz: Not much of a gamer, but I did play some of the game like I did with Star Fox, and games have certainly gotten a lot more complicated since then! The way you have to control both characters, it was a bit confusing to get a handle on, but I know more experienced players will be able to handle it much better. When I finally did get used to it, I was having fun. They were kind enough to gift me a copy of the game and an Apple Virtua to play it on, but I don't know if I'll get around to it. My grandkids will enjoy it, I think. It's a beautiful game.
It's gotten quite the reception from the gaming press, including a 9/10 from our sister publication, Games Unearthed. Some are calling it a Game of the Year contender.
Oz: Well deserved in my opinion.
If you were nominated for a game award for voicing Korgarreth, would you attend the ceremony?
Oz: I'd have to check my schedule!
-from "Catching Up With Frank Oz: The Legend Talks Age Of Resistance, New Video Game" on Media Unearthed, posted on June 11, 2018
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2018 NBA Playoffs
First Round:
(1) New York Knicks over (8) Atlanta Hawks, 4 to 1
(4) Chicago Bulls over (5) Orlando Magic, 4 to 0
(3) Philadelphia 76ers over (6) Indiana Pacers, 4 to 3
(2) Cleveland Cavaliers over (7) Brooklyn Nets, 4 to 0
(1) Seattle Supersonics over (8) San Antonio Spurs, 4 to 3
(5) Phoenix Suns over (4) Los Angeles Clippers, 4 to 3
(3) Denver Nuggets over (6) Los Angeles Lakers, 4 to 0
(2) Las Vegas Aces over (7) Dallas Mavericks, 4 to 1
Second Round:
(1) New York Knicks over (4) Chicago Bulls, 4 to 2
(3) Philadelphia 76ers over (2) Cleveland Cavaliers, 4 to 3
(1) Seattle Supersonics over (5) Phoenix Suns, 4 to 1
(2) Las Vegas Aces over (3) Denver Nuggets, 4 to 2
The 2018 NBA conference finals would once again see Liu Fauzeng, now in his third year with the Knicks, hoping to make his mark on the NBA's biggest stage after falling short against Lebron James the previous year. This time, Lebron wouldn't be standing in his way: his defending champion Cavs were upset by the Philadelphia 76ers, led by their veteran center Dwight Howard, who had just announced that he planned to sign a long-term deal that would keep him in Philly for the remainder of his career (after the team's president assured him that he'd be surrounded with young talent to help keep the team contending at a high level). In the West, the defending conference champion Nuggets, led by their own young phenom Willard Jones, were eliminated in a revenge showdown by Giannis Antentokoumpo and the Las Vegas Aces, who now returned to the conference finals once again to take on the Lob City Sonics, who were attempting to make their last push at a title behind Chris Paul and Blake Griffin. Both players had been together for years, and had been close to championship glory many times, but this would likely be their last push for the title, as both Paul and Griffin were expected to leave in free agency. It would set up a conference championship between a veteran team and a young superstar, in one of the biggest Western Conference battles in NBA history.
(1) New York Knicks over (3) Philadelphia 76ers, 4 to 0
In a truly anticlimactic conference final, Liu Fauzeng and the Knicks dominated, thanks to Fauzeng's outstanding play (which included a 56 point, 13 rebound, and 12 assist performance in Game 1). Dwight Howard and the 76ers found themselves unable to stop Fauzeng on defense, and the Knicks (who went 62-20 during the regular season, the league's best record) had surrounded Fauzeng with veteran role players and young stars who complimented his skills perfectly, while Fauzeng was so good that even James Dolan couldn't mess things up. He was just happy to let the money roll in from hundreds of millions of Chinese fans buying New York Knicks-branded Liu Fauzeng merchandise, and took a mostly hands off role with the team, allowing team president Dave DeBusschere (who'd survived a health scare 15 years prior but had enjoyed mostly good health since then) to make the right moves that would help the team win. And win they did, advancing easily to the Finals.
(2) Las Vegas Aces over (1) Seattle Supersonics, 4 to 2
Another young superstar defeats a veteran team, though this time, it was much closer, with five of the games decided by six points or less. The Supersonics placed fierce, winning Game 1 by 13 points (the biggest margin of the series), but it was a dogfight after that, with the Aces pulling off a comeback win in Game 2, then returning and winning a tough Game 3. Game 4 went to overtime, with Chris Paul's heroics saving the day and giving the Sonics a one point win, but the Aces came back big, with Giannis scoring 40 and 38 respectively in the last two games of the series, which the Aces would win by four points a piece. The Sonics had lost another heartbreaking conference finals, and were now left soul searching, with both Paul and Griffin seeking out different teams in the off season. Though a new arena in the city would keep the Sonics in Seattle for at least 20 more years, they weren't likely to be this good again for quite some time.
2018 NBA Finals: New York Knicks over Las Vegas Aces, 4 to 1
The New York Knicks would bring a title back to the city for the first time since 1973, knocking off the Aces in a series that was rarely competitive, despite some impressive play from Antentokoumpo. Giannis was all over the court, and poured in tons of buckets, but he couldn't match the all around play of Liu Fauzeng, who averaged a triple double in the series' five games, and easily took home the Finals MVP, adding to his already crowded trophy case (which included two consecutive Most Valuable Player awards). Fauzeng was rapidly becoming the world's most famous athlete, with millions of fans in the United States, and many, many, many millions more back home in China, where he was as big in his native country as Selena was in Corpus Christi. While Yao Ming had also been exceptionally popular in China, Yao had never won a title. Liu Fauzeng now had, and with free agents (including Chris Paul) clamoring to play with the Knicks, the team would likely get even better in the years ahead.
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SONIC SEQUEL SHATTERS OPENING WEEKEND RECORD FOR ANIMATED FILMS, BIGGEST OPENING SINCE EPISODE IX
Sonic The Hedgehog 2 debuted at $181 million over its three-day opening weekend, easily topping the North American box office and shattering records for both animated film openings and video game adaptations. It also surpassed the $168 million opening weekend of Nightwing and Batgirl to become the biggest opener since last year's Star Wars Episode IX - The Balance Of The Force. The film, Pixar's sequel to 2014's hit film Sonic the Hedgehog, sees Sonic and his friends return to save the universe from the deadly machinations of a powerful young scientist named Dayne, who has stolen a matching set of Chaos Emeralds, using them to summon the powerful being Chaos. The film, though not quite as positively received by critics (78% on the review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes, compared to 88% for the first film), was still quite well received by fans, and the film received a rare "A+" Cinemascore. The $181 million opener surpassed analysts' expectations of a $120-$140 million opening weekend for the film, and even surpassed Disney's expectations of a $150 million opening. Overseas, the film debuted in nearly every major territory and grossed a total of $215 million, giving the film a total worldwide opening figure of $396 million. The film's opening weekend performance, ahead of expectations, puts a potential $600 million total domestic take in play, though it is expected to drop fairly steeply next weekend, where it faces competition from the debuting Tom Cruise/Margot Robbie action thriller "Dynast", which is expected to gross between $70-$100 million and challenge Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the weekend crown.
-from a June 17, 2018 article on Boxofficemojo.com
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Game Spotlight: Masqueworld
Masqueworld is a Google Nexus exclusive action/adventure game, developed by an internal studio. It tells the story of Valentina, an 11-year-old girl who is trapped in a parallel Earth after being granted mysterious powers when a strange purple entity transforms everything around her. Armed with only her wits and a magical mask, Valentina must transform into a wide variety of powerful entities if she hopes to free her loved ones and her world from this strange force. The game can best be described as a cross between NIGHTS and Kirby, with Valentina stealing the masks of the enemies she defeats to gain their powers, while flying through a strange, dream-like world inhabited with magical denizens and various sights. The game's graphics and mood is best summed up by the words "electric circus": both fun and whimsical, but also slightly haunting, Valentina tumbles and vaults through the world, discovering her powers and freeing those who have been trapped. As you progress through the various zones, opening up new areas as you clear puzzles and gather up artifacts, you'll encounter stronger enemies, but also stronger masks, a total of 32 in all, that range from basic masks that allow Valentina to jump higher and fire energy bolts from her hands, to masks that allow more freedom of movement through the air, to masks that transform her into a range of literary legends and mythical creatures. Each new mask brings with it an incredible wave of discovery, as Valentina discovers more of the world and more of her own strength as well. It's also possible to combine masks, wielding one in hand while wearing another over the eyes, using two different sets of powers in tandem for brilliant effects. Not all masks can be combined this way, there are about 60 different combos that can be wielded, each with its own special utility. The game boasts some truly incredible bosses, bright and colorful (though these colors mostly consist of different shades of purple, blended with other dark hues), which sometimes can be quite frightening, Dark Souls-esque creatures (though not nearly as difficult to beat). As Valentina progresses, she gains more confidence, going from somewhat fearful at first to being quite elegant and snarky, learning about the masks' powers and what's happened to her world. The masks worn by Valentina give her a very Joker (Persona 5)-esque look and feel, and she actually moves very much like aTTL Phantom Thief, sneaking swiftly in and out of places as she dashes and darts around her foes. Valentina will sometimes encounter familiar people and sights, and as she interacts with those people, she has the ability to transform them back to normal, and they can give her clues about what's happened, and what she needs to do next. The game, which was partially made in the United Kingdom, has a mostly British voice cast, with a 15 year old girl voicing Valentina (she's original TTL, and her voice can somewhat best be described as Bella Ramsey's performance from TTL's Hilda cartoon, though with a very slightly older sound to it). The plot itself focuses on Valentina's efforts to rid the world of the strange, purple-hued phenomenon that's seemingly left the entire world a circus-like dream. Granted her mask by the mysterious entity known as the Ringmaster, Valentina must journey through this purple electric circus world, liberating others and learning more about just what's happened to everything and everyone. She learns that the energy is being generated by something called the Dark Masque, and that she and everything she knows has been trapped inside the Masque's dream. She surmises that the only way she can save everyone is to wake the Masque up by defeating its nightmare creations, and she begins doing so, freeing various loved ones and landmarks along the way. However, about two-thirds of the way through the game, she seemingly wakes the Masque, only for it to be revealed that she's not within the Masque's dream, she's within her own dream: her mind has been infected by a mysterious energy seed, and it's caused her own power to spread and take over everything. Indeed, it's the Ringmaster who's actually using Valentina as a conduit for its own dark energy, and the Masque was a creature known as a Nightshade, who was using its powers to protect everyone from Valentina's influence. Valentina realizes she has to wake up from her own dream, and she can only do this by teaming up with the Nightshade to defeat the Ringmaster. However, she then learns that waking herself up risks trapping herself in nothingness forever, and her parents, despite being trapped and imprisoned by the Ringmaster using Valentina's powers on them, beg her not to go through with it... but of course she does it anyway. However, thanks to the Nightshade, which has befriended Valentina, she is able to awaken without losing her grip on reality, and emerges back into the real world safe and sound, reuniting with her friends and family, who have no recollection of what happened. However, she does remember, and is now confident enough to live her life the way she wants to live it, while it's implied that she still has a tiny bit of residual power from the Masque.
Masqueworld is released on the Nexus in June 2018, and is immediately compared to its fellow fantasy title Fairy: The Endling, which was released earlier in the month to a strong critical reception and a good amount of hype. Positioned as one of the Nexus' biggest games of the year (arguably the biggest before the release of the Stadia), it too mostly lives up to its incredible hype, with excellent reviews matching those for its rival fantasy adventure game, and sales that top Fairy's despite being only released on the Nexus. It's an outstanding game, highly praised for its visuals and the characterization and voice acting of Valentina, and fans eagerly hope she'll return for a future sequel on the Stadia in the years to come.
-
Other Significant Titles For June 2018:
WarioWare Gold: Similar to OTL's 3DS game, which featured a wide collection of microgames from across the series, the Connect's latest WarioWare title brings together Wario and friends for a huge collection of miniature games, which are played with both the touchscreen and the Connect's controls. Fans of the WarioWare series quite enjoy this one, as it's a fun and robust collection of microgames and addictive despite its simplicity, scoring big sales for the handheld.
Spell Skirmish: (Authors' Note: This game idea was given to us by the reader HonestAbe1809!) Spell Skirmish is a supernatural/magic-themed RTS title, released for the Reality, Virtua, and Nexus consoles. Described as a cross between Harry Potter, XCOM, and Doom, it sees a secret society of heroic mages teaming up with the modern militaries of Earth to fight back an unholy alliance of demonic foes and evil mages. Featuring allusions to all sorts of supernatural fantasy tropes and real-world legends such as the Shroud of Turin and the Spear of Longinus, it allows players to combine scientific research and magical might, utilizing magitech to battle back the evil hordes. It also features multiplayer play, allowing one player to control the military/mage alliance and another to control the combined forces of the demons and dark wizards. While the game's graphics aren't all that detailed (more attention is given to the game's animation), it features a very deep ability and skill tree system, and dozens of campaign levels, making it one of the deepest RTS titles in recent memory. Though sales aren't too strong at first, it quickly becomes a cult hit thanks to strong reviews and word of mouth, and many more players would jump on board later thanks to discounts and sales (whenever Wario64 announces that the game's on sale for $20, he gets lots of grateful Twitter replies).
Yeah, true... though the particular segment referencing him wasn't in-universe (it was just a game description), so I said Wario64 so people would understand who I was talking about