What Not to Hate About E3

[BehattedWanderer]

Demos are fine, but I'm distrustful of them after the Brutal Legend fiasco, where I was promised Heavy-Metal themed God of War, and instead got heavy-metal themed RTS with God of War elements, which was significantly less fun. Nice to finally hear an actual consistent thought on Quantic Dream's works from our neighborhood curmudgeon, though.

 

[StriderShinryu]

So much truth in this article, particularly in the commentary on the WiiU. A solution looking for a problem is probably the best way I've seen/heard it stated.

 

[Sheo_Dagana]

To be fair Yahtzee, EVERY Kingdom Hearts title is fucking stupid. I would think they're doing it ironically if I didn't know that Japanese developers just take the two or three coolest sounding words and assign that to be the game's title. Kingdom Hearts 365/2 didn't make any sense to pronounce and Birth By Sleep made zero sense at all.

 

[kortin]

To be fair Yahtzee, EVERY Kingdom Hearts title is fucking stupid. I would think they're doing it ironically if I didn't know that Japanese developers just take the two or three coolest sounding words and assign that to be the game's title. Kingdom Hearts 365/2 didn't make any sense to pronounce and Birth By Sleep made zero sense at all.

Maybe you should play the games. 358/2 days (that is 358 days over two), while I agree it is incredibly annoying to pronounce, makes perfect sense after you've played the entire game. Birth By Sleep as well.

Dream Drop Distance sounds silly, but I can almost guarantee that there will be a reason for the title that is revealed in the game itself, just like 358/2, BBS, and Chain of Memories.

 

[mjc0961]

Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance: I didn't watch the trailer for this one, I just wanted to point out that the title is fucking stupid.

Thank you. Always nice to hear more people pointing this one out.

 

[GonzoGamer]

It pisses me off whenever someone cites Heavy Rain as an example of good writing in video games, because, as you said, David Cage really can't write for shit. Still, at least he's pushing new ideas in this stagnant industry, and I may check out Beyond: Two Souls if it's actually a game this time around, rather than a glorified choose-your-own-adventure with button-prompts.

I was beginning to think I was the only one who thought so. Everyone went nuts over Heavy Rain but I just can't get into a game where you press x to watch your boy do his homework and then press x to watch him eat dinner. That was pretty excruciating and I'm not exactly the kind of guy who needs to be shooting something every time he plays a game.
I'm all for trying new things provided those new things are more interesting than just looking out my window for an hour pressing the x button every time I see anyone do anything.

 

[Truly-A-Lie]

I saw the screen with "Look at the controller" and thought it was the worst possible advertisement for the Wii U. It may as well let you play a game, then when you've been playing for about two hours and you're really into it suddenly "Hey look outside your window, there's a sheep in the garden. Oh right, back to the game." appears on screen. Looking away from the screen is just an instant atmosphere and immersion killer.

 

[-Drifter-]

I was beginning to think I was the only one who thought so. Everyone went nuts over Heavy Rain but I just can't get into a game where you press x to watch your boy do his homework and then press x to watch him eat dinner. That was pretty excruciating and I'm not exactly the kind of guy who needs to be shooting something every time he plays a game.
I'm all for trying new things provided those new things are more interesting than just looking out my window for an hour pressing the x button every time I see anyone do anything.

Yes, pacing is certainly among the many, many things that Heavy Rain is terrible at. About the only thing it does well is atmosphere.

 

[ex275w]

Like the DS, the Wii U worries me in having crappy, touchscreen options. Still I think it has good applications in Pikmin 3, letting you see the whole map and switch characters quickly or a Resident Evil 4 type game where instead of breaking the action when trying to switch weapon you just click on your briefcase adn switch weapons.

At least it can end up like the kinect, with the mods being better than the games.

 

[MS267]

After E3 last year when no games had actually been announced, I thought the WiiU seemed like a great idea. I loved the idea of having the main game going on, then having the second screen as an omni-present map or inventory, which you can casually glance at or use without interrupting the flow of a game through pausing.

However after seeing the WiiU now I'm really not looking forward to it. When I'm looking at the guys on stage constantly flicking around the touch screen playing Rayman or the whole idea of having a player making blocks in NSMBU it's just turned me off completely. Essentially what could have been something half decent that subtly adds to a game experience is going to be shoe-horned in at every possible opportunity by developers so that it will in their minds give gamers a reason to actually buy the whole new console (which is tragically similar to what happened with the Wii's motion controls really). So I agree, now it just seems like a solution searching for a problem.

 

[hermes]

To be fair Yahtzee, EVERY Kingdom Hearts title is fucking stupid. I would think they're doing it ironically if I didn't know that Japanese developers just take the two or three coolest sounding words and assign that to be the game's title. Kingdom Hearts 365/2 didn't make any sense to pronounce and Birth By Sleep made zero sense at all.

Maybe you should play the games. 358/2 days (that is 358 days over two), while I agree it is incredibly annoying to pronounce, makes perfect sense after you've played the entire game. Birth By Sleep as well.

Dream Drop Distance sounds silly, but I can almost guarantee that there will be a reason for the title that is revealed in the game itself, just like 358/2, BBS, and Chain of Memories.

Yeah... I am sure the title makes perfect sense, despite having little sense in English. Also, I am sure its not some cheap word game because it abbreviates as 3D.

 

[aguywhoknowsaguy]

You know, as much as looking at the Wii U makes me want to shake my head sadly at how pointless it seems, I remember that a lot of people said the same thing about motion controls early on and look how that turned out. Somehow I won't be surprised if we see Microsoft and Sony releasing touchpad controllers for their own systems a few years after launch.

Also, even if it seems misguided, it's nice to see that someone is at least still *trying* to be innovative with their video game consoles. Even if it fails, such experimentation can only help the game market.

What do you think smartglass and the vita-PS3 connecting are. also I don't think it is a pointless solution looking for a problem. The problem is that Gamecube sold badly with a traditional control scheme and Nintendo needed to do something since making the next thing but stronger wouldn't bring back third parties since they could just go to the more successful xbox and playstation units. They did have a problem and they tied to fix it with the wiimote and they can't go back to a traditional control method since third parties still didn't go to their system. So wii u gamepad. good idea or not they don't have a choice if they want to stay open.

 

[Sean951]

Could that screen of the WiiU possibly have been a demo and informing the player that the next step of the tutorial would be shown there?

 

[ShotgunZombie]

The point is that the only thing you need to take away from E3 2012 is this: WatchDogs looks awesome. Oh, and THQ is apparently run by heartless/soulless abominations who axed an entire studio during the busiest day of the convention hoping nobody would notice. Well that's all I took away from E3 this year anyway.

 

[Woodsey]

'I could maybe see a use for having two simultaneous screens in a hardcore title if you want an inventory screen or something without having to pause the game for it'

The problem being, of course, that you're still going to have to look away from the screen anyway. Arkham City sticks its inventory on the screen it seems, which is pretty fucking useless, since it's quicker to do it using a pad then it is to look down and manipulate a different screen just for the hell of it.

It'll face the same issue as motion controls: immersion. In that there won't be any. You look down at the screen and suddenly you're very much aware of the entire room and the different screens.

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That's a pre-vis trailer, and even that manages to relay the immersion issue. Which is somewhat problematic for a supposed survival-horror.

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What gets me is how it's supposed to be an amazing piece of writing all-round, in spite of the frequently crap dialogue and rather gaping plot holes.

Also im suprised that yahtzee never mention Metro LAST LIGHT .It just seems like his kind of thing .

I'm also surprised at the lack of "The Last of Us". Maybe he thinks it will be good but "safe", like his opinion on Uncharted, so he didn't have anything funny to say?

Then he's a fucking idiot. This is pretty much the rebirth of survival horror, grounding it in a reality instead of supernatural, and he doesn't have anything to say about that? Then he's either blind or retarded.

Invest in a copy of ARMA II: Combined Ops and download DayZ. The Last of Us will seem... 'eh', in comparison.

The point is that the only thing you need to take away from E3 2012 is this: WatchDogs looks awesome.

As one of the writers on RPS pointed out, perhaps the most interesting thing about Watch Dogs is what's in people's heads. Because what's implied was interesting. What was shown was, for the most part, a guy walking about and then doing some shooting.

I do hope it lives up to what it implies, but I get the feeling we're looking at another AC1 before we get to the good stuff.

 

[Deacon Cole]

The Wii U (again): But after all was said and done, to me there was no greater gift offered by E3 2012 than one picture I saw of the Wii U in action. A picture in which the player was fiddling around with the touchscreen controller while in the background, gloriously, a TV screen had its image blacked out and the words "Look At The Touchscreen Controller" superimposed across the middle.

You mean this, Yahtzo?

Sounds like it's doing a thing where you look through the touch screen like a window to see "hidden" pictures.

Know what would work well for that? Detective vision in those Batman games. That way it's a tool to use as it always is, but it's cumbersome for the player to just use all the time, so it would become something the player would pull out only when they really need it.

Just sayin'.