E3: Mass Effect Andromeda

            

The Mass Effect Trilogy is, without a doubt, one of my all-time favorite videogame franchises.  When I first got my hands on a copy of the first game it blew me away.  The sheer amount of space that you could explore was incredible and the characters were all immediately memorable.  It contained a universe full of deep and rich lore and told an interesting story, full of plenty of twists, tragedies and betrayals that immediately endeared itself to me.  Mass Effect 2 vastly improved the writing of the characters as well as the graphics and gameplay and was the first game I ever played that actually showed the consequences for the choices we made in a previous entry.  Mass Effect 3 managed to be an epic climatic end to the trilogy that, for the most part, ended the character’s story lines’ in satisfying ways.  That is, once the Extended Cut Ending was released and fixed that horrid ending that even to this day Mass Effect fans are still mad about.  But in spite of that horrible ending, the series is still a great one and one that I come back to every now and then and still greatly enjoy.  What a shame then, that the E3 trailer for the franchise’s latest entry has done nothing but piss me off.

            Now, before I go any further, let me make one thing clear.  What we do see of the game doesn’t look bad.  In fact, the idea of a game centering around a crew as they explore a completely unknown galaxy is the best idea that the franchise could have come up with and feels like a natural continuation of the series.  The problem is that the trailer on display here is so pretentious and so scattershot in presentation that it’s impossible not to hate.  The first and foremost problem with this trailer is that the developers put WAY too much of themselves into this supposed gameplay trailer.  A good chunk of it is the developers showing themselves draw and animate the various things that will supposedly be in the game and all but directly comparing themselves to great explorers and pioneers of the ages, making it sound as if they themselves had gone to the Andromeda Galaxy and are about to tell us how awesome it is.  While watching the trailer I found myself wanting to grab the developers by the throat and yell at them to stop pretending that they were making something that would change the face of humanity forever.  The whole thing is not at all helped by the fact the upcoming No Man’s Sky is promising to do this exact same thing and is due for release in about two months and is promising far more.

            What little we do see in the way of actual gameplay footage seems promising enough but as far as I’m concerned, it’s completely untrustworthy.  Everything about it just reeks of “Made for E3” material with most of it probably only ending up in the pre-title screen cut scene and not actually factoring into the game itself.  What actual, definitive gameplay we do see tells us absolutely nothing about how the game plays or what features it will have outside of the fact that it takes place in an utterly alien galaxy.  This is not at all helped by the fact that the trailer tells us nothing about the plot or characters.  We know that it takes place in this new Galaxy but nothing about what we will encounter in it or what quandaries the player will face.  We know that our new protagonist is another member of N7 and apparently has an Asari friend but that’s about it.  Now normally this would not bother me.  Developers are vague about their IPs all the time when the game’s release date is years away.  But this latest Mass Effect game is supposedly due for release in March of next year and the fact that the developers has released so little in promotional content for their own game is more than a little concerning.

            In the end, this trailer is just infuriating to me.  I hate how self-aggrandizing the developers are in this trailer.  I hate how what little we see are just a few snippets of gameplay footage.  I hate how it’s been over four years since the release of the last game and this is all that they have to offer.  But what I hate most is how much I hate this trailer.  I love Mass Effect and I want to love this game and I really wanted to like whatever BioWare released of it at E3 this year.  But they just aren’t giving me a lot to hope for here outside of vague promises.  And sadly my faith in the gamer industry requires a bit more then vague promises.

            So until next time, please follow the site, like the Facebook page and follow me on twitter and let’s hope that whatever I look at next shows a bit more promise.

E3 2016: Death Stranding

            Welcome back everyone to my look at the various games for E3 and Kojima has announced a new game!  And that’s all I can really say about it.  Just watch the trailer below.

            Yea.  Kojima’s first game since his departure from Konami looks like an odd one.  The only things that we can really infer from it are that it’s a game with Norman Reedus in the lead role, appears to be a psychological horror game and a spiritual successor to P.T.; the playable trailer to the canceled Kojima/del Toro/Reedus Silent Hill reboot, Silent Hills.  Beyond this, however, there really isn’t anything that I can say.  Kojima has been coy and cryptic about any details regarding the game so any definitive statement on what the game is, is impossible to write.  All we can say is that it looks like Kojima and company seem to be dipping back into the survival horror genre and I couldn’t be happier about it.  Let’s just hope that next time Kojima says anything about the game we get something a bit more definitive.

            So until next time, please follow the site, like the Facebook page and follow me on twitter and let’s see what else E3 has in store for us.

E3 2016: God of War

            Welcome back to my look at the games presented at E3 and holy crap!  After six years we finally an official look at the first honest to God continuation to the God of War series, (the prequels don’t count).  And the footage we have of it so far looks….

….well.  Allow me to use this highly inappropriate yet perfect metaphoric image from South Park to express my feelings on this.

            In all seriousness though, this is really cool.  The God of War series is, in my mind, a modern classic hack and slash series and not one that should have faded into obscurity the way it seemed to for a while.  What is so interesting about this gameplay footage is how much we can infer from it as it tells us so much and so little.  The aesthetics, for example, confirm the rumors that the game is in fact based around Norse Mythology with its obviously Nordic inspired setting, icy tundra environments, and a troll actually namedropping Valhalla during a fight featured in the footage.  Graphics-wise the game looks absolutely beautiful with the footage taking full advantage of the PS4’s capabilities as well as modern graphics technology.  Granted you have to take the graphics end with a grain of salt, given the game industry’s reputation with these things and simply because this is E3, but what we have on display here is some of the most graphically impressive stuff I’ve seen presented at the expo so far.

            As to how the game plays, it’s next to impossible to tell because I didn’t actually have a controller in my hand, but it seems to be taking the franchise in a different direction.  The various blades attached to Kratos’ in previous entries to the series are gone and seemed to have been replaced with a battle axe that clearly has some magical properties but beyond that it’s hard to tell.  The life bar appears to be gone as is any kind of apparent mana bar which is an unfortunate compromise for the time we live in but a manageable one all the same.  For reasons that I cannot comprehend, however, the game still seems to include quick time finishers; something that has always been a thing with the God of War franchise but has always been something that can unnecessarily complicate an otherwise by-the-numbers kill.

            On the story end it’s a little hard to tell just what is going here.  It clearly takes place several years after the end of the third game, with Kratos having survived impaling himself with the Sword of Olympus, (although considering all the other crap he has somehow survived that shouldn’t have come as a big surprise), and left the Greek setting and went north and apparently started another family.  He seems to have a loving if stern relationship with his new son and seems intent on teaching him what it means to be a survivor and a warrior; harsh with him when necessary but still patient with him and seems to understand that he is still a boy and I am very interested in seeing how this relationship plays out over the game.  Beyond that, however, there really isn’t anything that we can infer about the game’s story. 

            All in all, this gameplay demo has me really excited.  I’m excited to see Kratos’ story continue.  I’m excited at the prospect of killing new monsters.  I’m excited to see a new gameplay style in this new game.  I’m salivating at the prospect of battling Norse Gods.  But most of all, I am so glad that the God of War series is back in full force and I cannot wait to get my hands on this game whenever it comes out.

            So until next time, please follow the site, like the Facebook page and follow me on twitter and….

“Carry we who die in battle

Over Land and Sea.

Across the Rainbow Bridge to Valhalla

Odin’s waiting for me!”

E3 2016: Battlefield 1

            Well everyone E3 is officially underway and what I’ve seen so far, (through the internet like everyone else sadly), is pretty promising.  Granted you have take everything that’s presented at E3 with a grain of salt, given all the sketchy promotional practices that the industry is infamous for, but for the first time in what feels like a long time I’m deciding to be optimistic and let some of the hype settle into me.  To that end, over the next week or so I’ll be posting a number of new posts that will highlight some of the games that I myself am interested in, be it part of a franchise or a new IP from a talented developer and give my general thoughts on it and the franchise as a whole if applicable.  To that end, let’s talk about what is probably the most highly anticipated game of the year, Battlefield 1.  

            I think it’s safe to say at this point that the initial trailer for Battlefield 1 got everyone hyped for the game in a way that the FPS genera hasn’t in what seems like a very long time, with said trailer garnering more like than any other YouTube video in history.  And to be perfectly honest, when I first saw it, I was right along with them.  The World War I setting is a fresh, new idea in a genre that had stagnated and seemed content to rehash the same dull and dreary modern war setting over and over again and seemed to promise to reinvigorate the genre in a way that we haven’t seen since Call of Duty 4.  But then my skepticism began to set in, primarily because the trailer in question didn’t show any actual gameplay footage and was all pre-rendered CG material.  Then the other day they released an actual gameplay footage trailer and……

…...it looks okay.  Not great.  Not bad.  Just okay.

            You see, the problem with the FPS genre is that once you’ve played one you’ve pretty much played them all.  Sure, the jump from WWII to the modern warfare setting in Call of Duty 4 was different and new when the game was first released but by the time Call of Duty: Ghosts rolled around the whole thing had worn itself thin and people were really getting sick of it; hence the insanely positive reaction to the trailer to a game that literally takes combat back a hundred years.  Unfortunately for me, I’m old enough to remember a time where games like this were commonplace.  Let me make one thing clear before I continue; World War I games were never a mainstream thing.  Before Call of Duty 4 came out in 2007 and turned the entire genre into the modern shooter, it was primarily dominated by World War II games, starting with Medal of Honor back in 1999 before burning out with Call of Duty 3 back in 2006.  But in that seven-year period you couldn’t go into any gamer scene and blink without a WWII game coming into play at least once and, for better or worse, Battlefield 1 looks very much like one of those WWII shooters.  You have machine guns being shot by single infantrymen while standing, shotguns blasting their way through buildings, war torn towns and locations that could have only existed in pre-1950s Europe, and a dull, washed out, grey color pallet that seems to revel in just how dreary and depressing it is.  While these are all things that may seem fresh and new to a modern audience that primarily grew up playing present set first person shooters, these are all things that I saw in abundance over ten years ago and feels to me more like a nostalgic callback to those times as opposed to something fresh and new.

            However, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing as the game still looks pretty good.  You have trench fighting, hand-to-hand combat, assaults on towns, tank battles, and shooting blimps out of the sky in old fighter planes.  The game simply looks fun.  It’s just that, when all is said and done, I still can’t help but feel like it’s some relic from the early 2000s that somehow snuck its way onto the modern FPS scene.  But, in spite of my cynicism, that’s actually more than enough for me.  With all of these modern shooters flooding the market for the past nine years, I am more than willing to welcome a change that harkens back to a time when this genre was still fairly new to me and the responsibilities of adult life were still a good five years away and I think I’ll be picking this one up.  Congratulations D.I.C.E.  You officially have me interested in the FPS genera once again.

            So until next time, please follow the site, like the Facebook page and follow me on twitter and let’s see what E3 has in store for us.