In what is proving to be the stand-out game of E3, Tomb Raider is turning heads right and left. At one point in time, Tomb Raider was a game about one tough gal with gigantic boobs named Lara Croft. Lara rarely showed remorse for killing anyone or anything, gaining her a derisive nickname of "Cold Bitch Lara" by detractors of the Tomb Raider franchise. In the last 3 games, Lara became a bit more lighthearted and feminine, but she was still someone who would react unrealistically, not just as a woman, but as a person, to every situation.
When Game Informer first debuted the new Tomb Raider and Lara Croft's new look, a lot of people speculated that this was all done to compete with the Uncharted series and try a new direction since Tomb Raider: Underworld was not successful. In the Game Informer article, it was stated that the game was not a carbon copy of Uncharted, rather it was going to be a much darker game, elements like finding food and herbal medicine to survive, and elements of the survival horror genre, but with actual live humans after you instead of a zombie.
There was some talk about this new Tomb Raider being Uncharted meets Metal Gear Solid 3, but after the live gameplay demo today at Microsoft's press conference (one of the only bright spots, but Tomb Raider is not a 360 exclusive in the slightest), it became clear that Tomb Raider wants you to feel alone, isolated, and in danger. There are still puzzles, but they're more realistic puzzles rather than "Go fetch these 5 pieces of a stone emblem you could probably make from a large rock in the time it would take you to find the 5 pieces and in considerably less risk of death."
I'm going to stop typing words and just let you watch the gameplay for yourself.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Monday, June 6, 2011
Sony has a Legendary E3 Press Conference
Sony did not stray too far from the Move, but there were surprising announcements that Bioshock Infinite and NBA 2K12 will both have Move support. There is word that more 3rd party developers will be making hardcore games with Move support, something that Microsoft has got to be feeling nervous about. Earlier today, Microsoft's representative was visibly upset on GameTrailers TV when asked the question of when a Gears of War game would feature Kinect support, probably fully aware that 2K was going to be fully supporting Move.
The PSP and PSPgo did not feature much of a presence, being replaced entirely by the PSV in Sony's demo of all its hardware. This confirms to most gamers at this point that the PSPgo is going away.
Sony was smart, opening the show with two of the biggest elephants in the room: Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception and the PSN hack. Afterwards, there were passing references to both, but neither truly dominated the show. I was personally disappointed to see that Kevin Butler did not make an appearance, but I'm not terribly broken up about it. Last year he made quite the epic speech, stating that Sony believes in gamers, not about pandering to soccer moms. This time, Sony didn't need Kevin Butler to reiterate that statement, focusing entirely on hardcore gamers and products that only hardcore gamers would probably look into.
There was a surprise announcement of a Playstation branded 24" 3DTV as well, bundled with 3D glasses, an HDMI cable, and Resistance 3, priced at $499, an excellent price for such a bundle.
Where Microsoft failed in addressing what gamers wanted, Sony laid their cards on the table and before the show they told everyone they had a Straight Flush. When the PSV's price and cloud saving features were announced, they showed that it was a Royal Flush. Sony is so far the clear winner of E3 and Nintendo is going to have to make one (or is it two?) hell of an announcement regarding Project Café to compete with winning the show.
Sony Final Score: A+
EA and Ubisoft Cater to Hardcore and Casual Gamers, Succeed in Hybrid Appeal
From Mass Effect 3 to Madden NFL 12, EA proved that it is the leading video game company focusing on both hardcore and casual gamers, something that it has operated as since its first sports game. Mass Effect 3's first gameplay footage was extremely awesome, especially with much less focus on cover-based combat. There's melee weapons, better squad commands, and better guns, bringing the feel of combat of the original game combined with the better tactics of the 2nd. There were minor glimpses into the story of ME3, revealing a situation where Shepard has to save the life of female Krogan not infected by the genophage and an actual fight with a Reaper on foot.
With Ubisoft, they began their presser with Rayman: Origins, a game that kind of has an Earthworm Jim feel. It's a side-scrolling game that would have been standard fare in the mid 90s, but with better gameplay, and the first footage even had a reference to Tetris. Although the game was covered a bit too much, Ubisoft went own to show off their track record with games like Farcry 3, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, Raving Rabbids: Alive and Kicking, Just Dance 3 and Assassin's Creed: Revelations. Ubisoft's presser was made of fail and weird last year (but not F quality) and this year they've bounced back by catering to all video game players.
EA Grade: C+
Ubisoft Grade: B-
EA had a great lineup of games, but no surprises! Everything was expected and they did have a solid conference with no mistakes, but they didn't take any risks. To be fair, this is typical for EA, but even so, EA shows again that they'd rather lay all their cards on the table and show you why those cards are so good.
Ubisoft's lineup was solid as well, even the casual games shown. There was a surprise announcement in Farcry 3, something EA didn't have the balls to do (unless you count The Sims Social as an epic surprise). Ubisoft (to the chagrin of lots of hardcore gamers) announced that Just Dance 3 is a real thing AND IT'S GOING TO BE ON EVERY CONSOLE. Just a few years ago, Activision dominated the market with Guitar Hero, which is thankfully defunct now, and now Ubisoft looks to dominate the music/rhythm genre with Just Dance 3 since they basically have no competition now.
With Ubisoft, they began their presser with Rayman: Origins, a game that kind of has an Earthworm Jim feel. It's a side-scrolling game that would have been standard fare in the mid 90s, but with better gameplay, and the first footage even had a reference to Tetris. Although the game was covered a bit too much, Ubisoft went own to show off their track record with games like Farcry 3, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, Raving Rabbids: Alive and Kicking, Just Dance 3 and Assassin's Creed: Revelations. Ubisoft's presser was made of fail and weird last year (but not F quality) and this year they've bounced back by catering to all video game players.
EA Grade: C+
Ubisoft Grade: B-
EA had a great lineup of games, but no surprises! Everything was expected and they did have a solid conference with no mistakes, but they didn't take any risks. To be fair, this is typical for EA, but even so, EA shows again that they'd rather lay all their cards on the table and show you why those cards are so good.
Ubisoft's lineup was solid as well, even the casual games shown. There was a surprise announcement in Farcry 3, something EA didn't have the balls to do (unless you count The Sims Social as an epic surprise). Ubisoft (to the chagrin of lots of hardcore gamers) announced that Just Dance 3 is a real thing AND IT'S GOING TO BE ON EVERY CONSOLE. Just a few years ago, Activision dominated the market with Guitar Hero, which is thankfully defunct now, and now Ubisoft looks to dominate the music/rhythm genre with Just Dance 3 since they basically have no competition now.
Batman's Post-Reboot Fate Revealed
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| Clockwise from top left: Batman and Robin #1, Batgirl #1, Nightwing #1, Red Hood and the Outlaws #1 |
Nightwing's makeover is similar to his outfit from "Progeny" where he pretended to become a bad guy while Jason Todd was pretending to be Nightwing, ruining his name. The red and black outfit also looks suspiciously similar to a hybrid of the Robin outfit from Batman & Robin the film and Terry McGinnis' Batman outfit from Batman Beyond.
Babs as Batgirl is sure to ignite some controversy, having spent the last 20 years in a wheelchair as Oracle.
More news as it comes.
Microsoft has a Horrific Press Conference, Sparkled with Big, yet Unimportant Announcements
The only true surprises of the press conference were the announcements of Crytek developing a gladiator game exclusively for Microsoft and the very unexpected announcement of Halo 4, the beginning of what Microsoft calls a new trilogy.
In general, Microsoft's presser was nothing but pandering to the casual gamer market, totally ignoring the hardcore gamers who could care less about Kinect, the same mistake Nintendo made at their press conference 2 years ago. In the closing moments, Microsoft also made the incredibly bold and lunatic claim that soon Xbox 360 would become the best selling console in the world, a claim that is likely to be made fun of by Nintendo.
I didn't think it could be possible for Microsoft's press conference to be worse than last year, but they achieved the impossible. I didn't have my blog around this time last year, but back then I gave Microsoft an F rating for their press conference. This year, they're still getting an F, but this time they get the worst kind of F, the "Failure to Appear" kind. There's failing a test because you weren't prepared and then there's failing because you didn't even bother to show up. Hardcore gamers are not going to be purchasing Xbox 360s and Microsoft is kind of counting on that, marketing the console to casual gamers now while Nintendo is expected to reveal their new console.
Microsoft needs to pray that Nintendo's new console is not made of instant win and that Sony's 5 hour press conference does not go over well. Sony is expected to make huge announcements with their 5 hours of time, including information on the new handheld, PSP->PS3 remasters, and hopes for Kevin Butler to apologize for PSN's hack and announcing a huge update for PSN to thank the fans.
Update: Kinect will in fact be getting a software update, and Microsoft ninja-announced Cloud Saving, although it's unknown why Microsoft never announced it during their presser.
Friday, June 3, 2011
X-Men: First Class - A New Beginning
With Wolverine's lack of positive reception, the plans for a Magneto movie fell through. Instead, Fox, Marvel, Bryan Singer, and Richard Donner decided to make a loose prequel and partial reboot to the X-Men franchise. This way, they could tell the Magneto movie they wanted, but also make a new X-Men movie in a world where comic book movies were now expected to be much more faithful to the source material.
X-Men: First Class makes a few attempts to make sure that it is not a direct prequel to any of the X-Men films, including the appearances of several characters that have the "wrong" ages or tweaks to characters' backgrounds. This is similar in concept to the comic of the same name, which was a re-telling of the X-Men origin story. In the film, most of the action takes place in 1962, on the eve of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Through the events of the film, the mutants become involved in the Crisis, narrowly averting it before the U.S. and U.S.S.R. unilaterally declare war on mutants.
The story is incredibly predictable, but there are 2 cameos from Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Romijn that were unexpected. Jackman appears as Wolverine, recruited by Prof. X and Magneto, but he "rejects" them. Romijn appears as Mystique's older self in a scene where Raven displays her powers are not limited to just changing her form into another person; she can deliberately age herself as well.
Where this movie stands out (despite the predictable story) is the acting. James McAvoy as Charles Xavier, Michael Fassbender as Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto, and Jennifer Lawrence as Raven Darkholme/Mystique really stand out. Although Jennifer Lawrence is an Oscar-nominated actress, nobody saw Winter's Bone, so this film is going to be everyone's first exposure to her. The other characters are somewhat interesting, but the film makes pretty clear early that Xavier, Magneto, and Mystique are the main characters.
Final Score: 4 Magneto helmets out of 5
I fully support another X-Men film being made if it follows First Class in the story. As much as I like the original X-Men, that movie was really about Wolverine meeting the X-Men, an already existing group with little background given. This film gives a clear origin to every character, as well as the concept of the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants. If a sequel is made, I'd love to see how the film decides to ignore the events of X-Men Origins: Wolverine and give a new reason for Wolverine to join the X-Men rather than being kidnapped.
X-Men is dead. Long live X-Men: First Class.
E3 Has Apparently Started Early
The gaming community isn't letting a little thing like TIME stand in the way of making epic announcements. There's 3 big news stories of the day: one long rumored and now confirmed, one unexpected that has ignited the Metal Gear fanbase, and another unexpected trailer with a rough release date.
For starters, a new trailer for Batman: Arkham City was released, featuring the confirmation that yes, Catwoman is indeed a playable character. It's been hinted by Rocksteady that Arkham City will play somewhat similar to the Onimusha series, where the player periodically changes the character one plays as. Catwoman is slated to play very similar to Batman, but she will not be able to glide since she doesn't have a cape. Rumors of a co-op mode have yet to be shot down, but those rumors might die down now.
Konami made a rather surprising announcement today, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker will receive HD remakes on the PS3 and Xbox 360, with the PS3 version supporting uploading the PSP version of Peace Walker to a PS3 and transferring the save file. This actually not the first time that MGS2 will be on the Xbox; the original edition of Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance was an original Xbox exclusive for a few months. This will however, be the first time a handheld game will be remade for a different company's console.
Also announced were HD remakes of Zone of the Enders 1 & 2, both also for 360 and PS3. This news is totally unexpected, but Hideo Kojima has been hinting for quite a while that he is not done with ZoE.
Lastly, in the world of "Wow, that was completely unexpected, but sweet!," Square Enix premiered the first trailer of Tomb Raider. It's a reboot of the entire series, taking into account how gaming has changed since the original game and how Lara Croft needed to change. You may remember I wrote about the original announcement of this new Tomb Raider back in December. Back then, Tomb Raider was slated for a Q4 2011 release, but the trailer reveals that the game is far from completion, now slated for a Fall 2012 release. This news is actually unsurprising since Tomb Raider would have to compete with Uncharted 3, something Square Enix definitely does not want. The trailer is fantastic and Lara's new look (and especially voice) are a welcome change. Lara no longer sounds like she's better than you and doesn't look like a guy mistakenly entered +150% rather than +15% on breast size.
More big announcements are expected to come before E3 even starts, so stay tuned!
For starters, a new trailer for Batman: Arkham City was released, featuring the confirmation that yes, Catwoman is indeed a playable character. It's been hinted by Rocksteady that Arkham City will play somewhat similar to the Onimusha series, where the player periodically changes the character one plays as. Catwoman is slated to play very similar to Batman, but she will not be able to glide since she doesn't have a cape. Rumors of a co-op mode have yet to be shot down, but those rumors might die down now.
Also announced were HD remakes of Zone of the Enders 1 & 2, both also for 360 and PS3. This news is totally unexpected, but Hideo Kojima has been hinting for quite a while that he is not done with ZoE.
Lastly, in the world of "Wow, that was completely unexpected, but sweet!," Square Enix premiered the first trailer of Tomb Raider. It's a reboot of the entire series, taking into account how gaming has changed since the original game and how Lara Croft needed to change. You may remember I wrote about the original announcement of this new Tomb Raider back in December. Back then, Tomb Raider was slated for a Q4 2011 release, but the trailer reveals that the game is far from completion, now slated for a Fall 2012 release. This news is actually unsurprising since Tomb Raider would have to compete with Uncharted 3, something Square Enix definitely does not want. The trailer is fantastic and Lara's new look (and especially voice) are a welcome change. Lara no longer sounds like she's better than you and doesn't look like a guy mistakenly entered +150% rather than +15% on breast size.
More big announcements are expected to come before E3 even starts, so stay tuned!
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