Watch Dogs Probably Still Coming to the Wii U

Back when Watch Dogs was announced, few people were really proclaiming that "the writing is on the wall" or anything of the sort for the Wii U, and the fact that the game was announced to be on the Wii U was less a surprise and more expected.  Especially being an Ubisoft game, which has been one of the few staunch supporters of the system (even if that support is waning a bit), it just seemed an inevitability.  As the Wii U has begun to flounder, support has tapered off, but at least users more or less always had Watch Dogs to look forward to.  A proper new IP with a spin that promised to make the Gamepad invaluable if used correctly with a hardcore draw that, had it released when it was supposed to, might've drawn in quite a bit of business.  As such, it's not going to do that, and its existence was even in question for but the briefest of moments.

What has now been blamed on a 'glitch' was a strange occurrence that disallowed GameStops in Italy (and other regions, including America) to pre-order the Wii U version of Watch Dogs.  That's a problem!  Generally such a thing is a precursor to an unspecified delay (another one would kill the game anyway, and it would've hit the other platforms at least) or an outright cancellation, with pre-order cancellations going out shortly thereafter.  It didn't get to that point, but given the Wii U's standing and Ubisoft's now-shaky faith in the system, many were almost assured that it was a foregone conclusion.  Especially when Ubisoft went the weird route (considering how this all resolved) and dropped the classic "We have nothing to report at this time" instead of just going "Nah, it's still coming out, I don't know what's up."  I suppose it's called the company line because it's the line the company wants you to use all the time, but still, there has to be -some- exceptions.

As of now, it's more or less gone back to the situation as it was before - the Wii U version is still expected, but we're still at a lack of general information for the game itself.  It still doesn't have a release date after the delay it was subjected to, meaning we have no idea just what's going on with it.  And more criminally, we're still not sure just how much of the focus will be on the cool hacking stuff it was premised on, and how much will be bang bang, shoot mans like a good portion of sandbox games out there.  Watch Dogs is at a critical phase where enough time has passed that the initial hype is well and truly gone, and the follow-up pieces have been....lack-luster so far.  It needs -something-, some kind of showing or boon that'll place it front and center again with positive public image, but it's hard to tell if that'll happen.  Or rather, I doubt it will because Ubisoft gonna Ubisoft.

seriously, I just want it to be good, but I have no idea if it even will be anymore

Mighty No. 9 is Mega Man, Funded, Awesome

It's simultaneously easy and incredibly difficult to believe that you have not heard of Mighty No. 9 at this point - on the one hand, it's been a busy weekend in North America at least, and that does sort of make it difficult to find out about Kickstarter news unless you're looking for it, but on the other hand, it feels like everybody already knows about Mighty No. 9.  So for those of you who don't know what the game it, it is basically Mega Man.  It looks like Mega Man, it has the same general concept as Mega Man, the same general playstyle as Mega Man and the same original creator as Mega Man.  Yes, Keiji Inafune, with his company Comcept USA, took to Kickstarter to get funding for the game known as Mighty No. 9 and did so in quite a swift amount of time - just around two days.  For a $900,000 goal on a busy weekend as it has been (PAX and Labor Day), it's rather impressive and it still has a run of 28 days before it closes down and locks in the exact final amount which, thanks to stretch goals, will more or less decide just how much Mighty No. 9 we're going to get.

The base game....well, why don't I let one of the Kickstarter Bullet Points explain that, yes?

• You play as Beck, the 9th in a line of powerful robots, and the only one not infected by a mysterious computer virus that has caused mechanized creatures the world over to go berserk. Run, jump, blast, and transform your way through six stages (or more, via stretch goals) you can tackle in any order you choose, using weapons and abilities stolen from your enemies to take down your fellow Mighty Number robots and confront the final evil that threatens the planet!

Blatant Mega Man comparisons aside (emphasis theirs, by the way, not mine), it says right there that the original goal is for six stages, but that seven and eight can be added through  the Stretch Goals and is specifically the first one at $1,200,000.  At this point in time, it's -almost- there even, being at $1,141,413 as I'm writing this (and updating constantly as I continue writing, and it wouldn't surprise me if it's fully to that goal by the time I'm finished).  It's not broken apart or anything - that stretch goal is the one that will add the stages for Mighty No. 7 and 8 and thus more or less make it even closer to the Mega Man games we all already know and love.  The other Stretch Goals include Mac and Linux versions (btw, base game is set only for PC, however...), New Game Plus and "Turbo Mode", a Making-Of Documentary and, of course, PS3/360/Wii U versions.  There are also two Stretch Goals which are....mysteries?  I guess?  Perhaps surprises along the way to spice things up or something.

If there's absolutely anything to be disappointed in at looking at Mighty No. 9, it's simply that the Console Versions are the very last Stretch Goal, set in at the $2,500,000 mark, and that there's no 3DS or Vita love, nor Next-Gen love aside from the Wii U.  Of course, Kickstarters are malleable by nature and the feedback on their official Twitter has stated that versions for all the consoles left out are possible, depending on funding and feedback.  The official statement re: PS4/XBone versions is that they're not planning on them due to lack of knowledge about the consoles which....is understandable since they're not even out yet, buy by the time Mighty No. 9 comes out, they will have been and for...a little while.  Obviously, I am that guy, always saying how I want everything on my Vita so this is certainly no exception, but mostly because it's a damn good fit.  Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X (which was free through Plus a while back) played wonderfully on the PSP (and the Vita as well) so Vita/3DS versions of the game just make sense, so long as they can work them properly.

Otherwise, I just haven't looked into it all that much because I don't really....need to.  It's a new, improved version of Mega Man with fun, new little twists and such, but is so much built on a foundation that I already know very well.  Conveniently, that means that I know it's going to be good with some level of certainty, which is nice to have.  However, as much as I like looking at Kickstarter projects - I prefer the ability to actually buy them when they're available or, in some cases, while they're on their way to being released, not when they're mere theories and concepts on paper and computer documents and files.  But I'm old-fashioned like that, it seems, especially when I consider that notion to be a silly one, since there are people who will un-ironically agree with my assertion that I'm old-fashioned because of that.  But that sort of stuff just makes my head hurt anymore.

Anyways, Mega M- Mighty No. 9.  It's going to be a thing and it's likely going to be fantastic.  Let's just see where all it ends up landing and how the Kickstarter plays out.  Certainly going to be interesting if nothing else.

I personally just love how tongue-in-cheek against Capcom the whole thing is

Id Software Games Probably Not Coming to Wii U, Vita or 3DS

Ever since I made the post about Developers/Publishers existing in some sort of paradoxical world wherein the only sane business model seems to be to do nothing at all because of risks (since absolutely nothing has an audience until it has an audience, and developing for something without an audience is bad according to them), I just sort of sat back and waited for the next big example of someone calling it into the light.  Or -a- big example, since I have probably already missed one prior to this one.  Turns out I didn't have to wait very long thanks to John Carmack who just had a Keynote speech at this year's QuakeCon.  He had some choice things to say about pretty much everything in the industry today, which Joystiq has collected (though likely not in full, so grain of salt, etc.) and, obviously, some of the things were about the Wii U and Vita specifically, both of which have obviously been identified at this point as "risky" because of the Catch-22 surrounding them.

"I always thought that the Wii U and Vita would be great targets for Doom 3: BFG Edition," Carmack explained. "We should be able to bring that over directly, but [the platforms have] generated nothing for us on the publishing side of things, because they're somewhat marginalized platforms."

"Clearly there's a difference on the handheld platforms," Carmack continued. "While the 3DS is doing okay, the Vita's really not doing particularly well."

"A lot of that has to come from the fact that [...] everybody is carrying a pretty good gaming platform already, and selling a new one to them is a little bit of a harder sell," Carmack said, referring to the widespread adoption of smartphones.

"I'd love to be able to develop on the 3DS and some of the other small platforms," Carmack said. "I'd like to see the games show up on the Vita or the Wii U, just to play with some of the characteristics they've got there, but it's extremely unlikely to happen. There's a finite amount of time and only so many things we can focus on."

At best here, we have a case of John Carmack simply talking out of both sides of his mouth, saying "Oh these things are really neat and great, but nobody likes them so we're not going to bother" and at worst, he's simply parroting the same damaging rhetoric that's already been attached to the Wii U specifically (and to some extent the Vita) which is only making it out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy kind of thing.  "Nothing sells on it because nobody has it because there's nothing on it because nothing sells on it"  It gets less and less convincing every time you hear it because it only allows you to draw from the obvious absurdity that it exists on because it amounts to one big finger-pointing match which, as we know, is far from the height of maturity.  "They're not doing it, so we're not either!"  There's a point where it goes from being understandable to straight-up shifting the blame.

What draws particular attention to this as a blame-shifting exercise is the part of the quote where he infers it would be a very, very basic port job to see Doom 3 (Almost guaranteed the BFG Edition) on the Vita and Wii U from a structure angle, with then a little bit of extra thought to utilize the exclusive features of the devices themselves.  Which seems to infer that it's a very, very low-cost, low-risk situation, otherwise why would he say it would be easy and is something that he wants to do in theory?  Low-Cost, Low-Risk situations are exactly what you want to do in situations like this because it creates a steady platform for you to draw consumers to your particular brand that you can then support with future products.  That whole "If you build it, they will come" situation, basically.  The closing line of that spiel, saying that there's only so much time and so many things they can work on does make perfect sense clearly, but if that's the case then why again is he saying some of the other things he says?  "We'd love to support this platform, but we're currently stretched thin on our own projects" makes sense, but "We'd love to support this platform, but nobody else is so what's the point and OH YEAH, we're kind of busy as it is" doesn't.  It's redundant and unnecessary.

That's rather tame in relation to the other rather dumb thing that he's going on about, in bringing up the whole Cellphone situation, because it's yet another thing that everyone -says- without it being the least bit true.  I consider myself a pretty tech-centric guy in that I like all the new shinies as they come out, if sometimes only enough to find out what they're about before I'm not interested anymore, but my cellphone does not reflect this in the least.  I'm nowhere near alone in this.  I have a basic flip phone that can do standard phone things because it's a phone and that's all I want it to be.  Being just a phone serves it pretty well considering I can go a week and a half or so without even thinking about charging it, and I'm not shackled to some idiotic Data and Messaging plan that allows me the privilege to use my device for its intended purpose for a ridiculous sum of money every month.  Yet, I do enjoy handheld gaming which is why I buy handheld gaming devices.  As in devices specifically designed to be gaming things that are also handheld.  Crazy idea, I know.

This all goes without pointing out that everyone shouting that the cellphone gaming space is awesome so let's all jump head-first into it is creating a situation where that's not the truth of the matter at all.  The resulting bloat, combined with the rather inefficient methods of sorting and visibility on the platform-holders parts lead to hundreds of developers releasing a game and not seeing anywhere near enough money to break even, let alone make a profit.  Which is only one of the myriad of problems with the mobile space, of which we've already expounded on several times in the past, so I don't really even need to go into further detail here about it.  Really, this whole little thing is just kind of some weird meta-reflection of what an unhealthy majority of the industry seems to be thinking at the moment and it's rather unfortunate.  While I don't think Doom 3 on the Wii U or Vita is going to make a difference of any sort, it's just the principle of the matter.  Just another person in the industry shouting all the wrong things at the wrong time.

I would've played Doom 3 on the Vita, but oh well, guess I'll just have to settle for Killzone:  Mercenary, and clearly I am on the losing end of this scenario, clearly

Even More Indie Confusion

Brian Provinciano of Retro City Rampage fame is one of the many suspicious of Microsoft's new plan.

It seems Sony's still the only one out there getting it right in terms of Indies, though Microsoft recently announced that they're making strides in the right direction....if you believe spin at its face, that is.  Essentially, what Microsoft has announced is that Self-Publishing will be possible for games on the XBone and on top of that, every single XBone console will eventually double as a dev kit.  This would allow you to run down to the store, buy an XBone, take it home and work whatever voodoo that involves to turn it into a dev kit/debug unit.  Because it's not going to be as simple as flipping a switch and 'woooo suddenly I'm a game developer'.  Not to mention that allowing you to be able to mess with the innards of the XBone as you would anything with code and such with reckless abandon would open all sorts of unsavory doors, so there's obviously some bits that haven't been mentioned just yet.  Apparently this was supposed to be big news at Gamescom, but it just so happened to leak out beforehand.  Mysteriously.

"Suspicion" seems to be the operative word in terms of reactions among both consumers and Indie Developers alike, and it's not unwarranted, of course.  Even without Microsoft's numerous foot-in-mouth moments subsequently followed by furious back-peddling in what comes off as a desperate display of "PLEASE LOVE US", their previous attempt at the Indie Scene with XBox Live Indie Games was less-than-stellar in concept and execution.  An annual fee allowed you access to the development tools with which you could eventually create a working game for the service that was then checked by other XNA developers (I believe) for QA purposes (pretty much, I just heard Zeboyd asking/talking about "Peer Review" for the XBLIG versions of their games before release) before being unceremoniously placed into the roster next to the rest of the games similarly added without much regard to grouping or visibility.  Of course, that is kind of how these things go, things like the App Store and such that allow 'self-publishing' in this way, which is akin to "Yeah, just kind of put it out there and make sure we get our cut for storage" which is...less than ideal.

Whether or not Microsoft's plan for the XBone will be like XBLIG but 'better' or something else entirely that might actually be good has yet to be seen and will likely remain under wraps even beyond Gamescom.  It's highly doubtful this system will be able to go up and running by launch, of course, and first-hand experience is really where it's going to count, as well as how Microsoft handles the marketplace thereafter.  It -does- sound like Microsoft is making strides in that area in a sense as they previously announced that all the games will be in the 'games' section of the store, thus no "XBLA goes -here-" and "XBLIG goes over -there-", but really that was never the biggest problem.  The biggest problem with indies on the 360 was that you...basically never knew when the games went up because they went up 'whenever'.  Sony has the right of it here, I think - Games go up Tuesday, Mobile games go up Wednesday.  If you're even a little familiar with your Playstation devices and such, you know that, so you'll know to check new releases and you'll be able to find all the new games, indie or otherwise, held within.  Then they also have an Indies Section that, well, actually has visibility as well.

Something else that's curious is that Microsoft seems to be promising full compatibility of the wide spectrum of extra essentials to Indies as well.  Specifically, Mark Whitten, VP of the XBox Division had this to say:

"Our vision is that every person can be a creator. That every Xbox One can be used for development. That every game and experience can take advantage of all of the features of Xbox One and Xbox LIVE. This means self-publishing. This means Kinect, the cloud, achievements. This means great discoverability on Xbox LIVE. We'll have more details on the program and the timeline at gamescom in August."

This is new in terms of Microsoft's treatment of indies for the most part.  Even Kinect integration, something that obviously could have happened on the 360 seems new unless my googling has failed to inform me of a time when XNA developers were allowed to work with the device for 360 purposes.  Additionally, add me to the list of people who believe that you don't just get to say "the cloud" and we fucking know what you're talking about.  Does it mean cloud saves?  Cloud storage?  Cloud computation, as some XBone games are touting already even though that kind of requires internet which was something of a problem as we have discussed?  Will you be able to have some sort of cross-compatibility with Windows 8 thanks to "THE CLOUD"?  Any of this is something you could mention instead of just saying "THE CLOUD" as a thing of reverence.  Regardless, it'll be interesting to see just how many Achievements you can add to your indie game and how updating it can or cannot change that, since that's something that has been played around with quite a lot by actual developers (in terms of adding DLC which adds Achievements/Trophies to the overall list).  Actually, it'll just be interesting to see how it handles updates in general, considering some of Microsoft's difficulties with that.

Meanwhile, on the Nintendo side of the world, Nintendo has made a strange move in telling Japanese Indies to shove it.  Or, more succinctly that they're just not accepting Japanese applications for development on the Wii U, despite Nintendo's moves to make the device friendly to Indies of all types.  It's especially weird that they're not taking applications from Japan of all places, considering that's where they're based, but there are some reasons at play here that do sort of make it a little more understandable.  I don't know a lot about the Japanese Indie Scene, but I have to imagine that a good portion of it is likely Visual Novel-based, since that's really big in Japan, and I have to also imagine that a good portion of -that- is...well...not what Nintendo is looking for, I'll say.  I mean, maybe I'm wrong on that, and it's definitely possible that I -am-, and that the Japanese Indie Scene is just rife with platformers that blow Nintendo's own out of the water or something, but I'm just saying that that's possible.  Still, it's just a weird move, especially amidst all the other drama surrounding Indies.

So yeah, it's just kind of amusing to see all this going on and Sony just kind standing off to the side with the bulk of Indie Developers just looking on going "Okay".  I'm not sure what all moves they actually made in wooing the scene as heavily as they did, but it paid off with dividends and it's continuing to do so.  If nothing else, this is all at least a good exercise in realizing the importance of goodwill.  Sony's gained it massively, Microsoft pissed all theirs away and Nintendo is somewhere comfortably in the middle.  Who knows how this'll all play out when plans are actually outlined and put in place, but I wouldn't expect something of a large-scale event occurring.  It takes a lot of work to shift developers away from something, but most of the time it takes something negative to something else, so unless Sony screws the pooch at some point, they might just be around for a while.  Still, with a little competence, a little humility and a little courting, Microsoft could endear themselves back eventually.  I just don't see that happening, though.

well, something negative or truckloads of money, but

Developers/Publishers Aren't as Smart as You Think They Are

If you pay attention to release announcements, like yesterday's Strider announcement, you tend to see two things that are almost always left out:  Wii U and Vita.  The 3DS misses a lot as well, but that's...kind of a different beast in that the 3DS is likely the weakest machine out there at the moment.  Which isn't a knock against it, it's just that it's fairly impossible to get some games to fit within its confines.  Watch_Dogs, for instance, simply wouldn't go on the device in the same form as it could go on the PS3, the Wii U or anything else.  It's not an unfair statement to make, is my point.  Regardless, that they're -not- on the Wii U or the Vita is always something of an anomaly, given that both platforms can more than likely stomach the game you're trying to hand out, especially if it's on the PS3 and possibly PC, given that it's been said it's an easy port from the former, and I imagine a lot of the PC Indies have found it rather simple to get their game on the Vita, and I've yet to hear of a screaming technical error from any game yet.

Whenever a question is posed, "Why isn't this game on the Wii U/Vita", someone will always (usually in a snarky fashion) state it's "Because those systems don't have anyone buying them."  Okay, so then the question becomes "Why isn't anyone buying them?" (by the way, people are buying them, obviously) and the answer is then, still snarkily, "Because they have no games."  Well, yes, they do have games, but okay, not quite as many as the other systems that have been around for seven years (or almost three for the 3DS), so yes, totally fair.  Totally.  Still, this is a lead-in question as well - "Why do they have no games?"  "Because they don't sell any systems."

Right.

So the way to get a system to sell is for it to already have a fantastic library of games on it already?  Games made for it, I assume is the qualifier, since, you know, the Wii U has the Wii library (of which I'm told has a few gems) and the Vita has a good percentage of the PSP library which has quite a fantastic line-up as well.  Regardless, I'm sure you can all see the logical inconsistency here.  I have faith in you all, you're smart people.

However, the answer to that is that it's simply 'unprofitable', and in today's environment, 'unprofitable' means 'doomed', either in the over-reactive presumptuous way, or the....actual, literal way, which is a fairly sad state of affairs.  That fault lies nowhere but on the developers and publishers for creating the environment to begin with.  We didn't force them to make grandiose teams of developers to work on possibly out-of-this-world-great games or potential over-polished garbage (or, hell, even under-polished garbage as we have seen), certainly.  We assisted in fostering it by buying the games, one could argue, but what are we going to do, not buy games because their developers/publishers were fiscally irresponsible in making them?  Of course not because that's silly.

The harsh truth is simply that you're going to have to eat a loss at some point.  Sorry, but that's just the truth of it.  You have to get games onto a platform to inspire purchases of it so you can put more games on it and eventually recoup from not only late purchases of that original game, but people who have finally picked up the console for the games who are grabbing yours up.  That's simply how it works.  Don't pretend the PS4 and the XBone are anomalies in this, considering the success both consoles seem to be having not only in pre-orders, but game announcements.  Think back on the announced lists and try to present a game that's 1.) Third-Party and 2.) Not also coming out for PS3/360 as a fall-back, ensuring that the PS4/XBone version is just an up-port.  Or perhaps a lateral port of the PC version.  I mean, go ahead, I'll wait, I'm pretty sure you're not going to find a lot.  (I'm gonna cut you off and go out on a limb here and suggest that Sunset Overdrive is a Second-Party thing, like Resistance for Sony has been.)

So it's not even as if they're giving the PS4/XBone 'proper' focus, either.  It's going to be up/side ports for a long time while Sony and Microsoft struggle to keep their First and Second parties making the system enticing enough for you to deem it worthy of a purchase if you're not sold on it already.  Neither of them will have very much trouble in this, of course - Sony has been working very hard at making the PS4 attractive from every angle and have succeeded almost uniformly, while Microsoft has gained back a lot of goodwill from the 180, specifically from the people who went "Well, I -want- Halo, but I don't want bullshit" since said bullshit is (possibly) gone.  The mandatory Kinect isn't near enough of a deal-breaker for most people (unless its requirement requires some funky layouts and/or won't allow a person to simply turn it around to keep the camera off of them, as they'd rather not deal with it) and you simply cannot fault Sony for much at this point, in terms of the PS4 itself.

Still, this is playing both sides of the fence, and eventually somebody is going to lose out on that end.  You're going to need other sources of revenue than the Large McHuge Super-AAA havens that people make the PS4/XBone out to be (as they made the PS3/360 out to be) and the time to get in on this is now.  Or rather, it was half a year ago at least, but you can still get in on it.  You especially want to jump in on Vita development, since the parity between the PS4 and the Vita is going to put the device in a lot of hands, and if it's there, people will buy your games.  Nintendo is probably going to get their act together on displaying the Wii U as a device that you want for reasons as well (if we know Nintendo, part of it'll likely be a price cut right around November to 'devalue' the PS4/XBone out of the gate), and to continue to ignore them isn't going to do you any favors.  People -will- play non-Nintendo First-Party games on a Wii U if you give them to us, it's just in your court to make that leap.  Since you're just hurting yourselves by not making the effort everywhere you could be focusing.

the cyclical bullshit is just so damn annoying

A Look Ahead - Soul Saga

Now that Soul Saga has been over-funded by three times the original pledge with the Kickstarter closed, I believe it's time to really start talking about it, since this is something you'll want to look forward to.  In the interest of full disclosure, the main reason this game is on my radar is because it will be available on Vita (and PS4, Wii U, PC, Mac and Linux) a year from now when it's finished (barring delays) and it looks really, really neat.  Originally, I'd heard the intention was simply those minus the PS4 and Vita (likely because the former hadn't been formally shown off yet, nor extrapolated on, both of which we saw happen at E3 and thereafter) and none of those play options were open to me.  So, admittedly, I just sort of passed on it which is obviously a bit selfish, but it's simply because there are just so many games, you guys.  I'm sure you realize.

If you're not quite sure what Soul Saga is, because you equally haven't been paying attention prior to this point, then it's a game that bills itself as a JRPG that's been inspired by some of the classics we remember growing up like Breath of Fire, Suikoden and of course, Final Fantasy, though there are some other RPGs that it draws from which I will get into in a bit.  It starts a bit familiarly; the main character, Mithos, is a young man following in the footsteps of his loathsome (from Mithos' perspective, at least) father in becoming a Guild Leader with the ultimate goal of succeeding where his father apparently failed.  Of course, just getting to that point will take some doing as being a Guild Leader obviously isn't a walk in the park.  However, it's through this that a bulk of the rather neat gameplay mechanics come into play, which is why I wanted to point it out beforehand.

I have held off long enough, so I want to get to one of the things that made me -really- excited about the game.  The world of Soul Saga is one made up of Sky Islands that rest upon a reef of clouds, shielding them from the harsh surface world below.  Being that they are -islands- in the -sky-, there's obviously only one way to get around - by airship.  Thanks to some of the stretch goals, the developer is going to be able to implement a Skies of Arcadia-styled Airship Exploration and Airship combat system which is amazing.  I would say that that element was one of the better parts of Skies of Arcadia, but that would be lying because -all- of the parts of SoA were good parts.  The Airship Exploration/Combat is merely something that made SoA stand out from the rest of the JRPG fare at the time and with good reason - not only was it different, but it was so good.  If SS's attempt is even half as good, it's going to be worth the game alone - something that I'm not saying as hyperbole.

Really, all of the stretch goals for the Kickstarter were for love letter-type things like that to older RPGs.  After you got by the basics of funding the game itself, Voice Acting and Wii U/PS4/Vita ports, it begins.  The Airship and combat stuff, I covered as Skies of Arcadia, just now.  The Job Board is something you're all familiar with - side quests to keep you occupied in the form of villager requests and the like, all posted to a central location.  Legendary Weapons is a standard as well, though more celebrated in Final Fantasy than anything I can think of - remember getting the Ultima Weapon for Cloud in FF7, or dodging 200 lightning bolts in FFX for Lulu's best doll weapon?  Yeah, it's like that, only they have their own storylines attached, so it's probably more involved than "Beat big optional boss". 

The Guild Master and Guild Hall areas are where we start delving heavily into Suikoden territory, (Technically Skies of Arcadia as well) in that the former has you scour the land for potential guild members and entice them to join you at your HQ.  The latter then allows you to have these guild members actually -do- things, provided they're not in the party (I assume, if they can even -be- in the party) giving things a sense of life that exists beyond when you're there.  Basically, it enters a bit of management into the game, which just isn't done enough, honestly, and has only met with limited success recently (what comes in my head first is the...questionable attempts by the Assassin's Creed games - send person out, wait, they might win, get reward is hardly exciting or worth bothering with), but can be a genuinely good mechanic.  One of the other stretch goals that was met, Guild Battles, also sounds to scratch the Suikoden itch, sounding to me like the War battles that the series introduced and ran with that were quite different and quite enjoyable.  There's still a few more Stretch goals that I didn't explain, some because they weren't funded (Though Garen's Saga is going to happen even though it didn't reach that total before the funding date) or because I'm just not sure what to think of them (like the Pandora's Boxes, which sound interesting and different), and if you're interested the full list is here with fairly detailed descriptions.

Mechanically, the game just sounds outstanding - a mesh of all the best parts of the best RPGs of the past, which seems to be a popular goal of late and an admirable one to go after.  After all, these neat little parts are -why- those series were beloved, even if it didn't get them the big sales numbers that were just hard to come by back then.  The development cycle of the game is something I'll be looking after with quite a bit of interest, since I can guarantee you that fifteen of my dollars will be going this game's way the moment it becomes purchasable on my Vita.  I am thoroughly sold at this point in time, and if you're not, I seriously have to question why.  Unless...you just don't like JRPGs, which is understandable.  Even still, this is ambitious and while I hope it's ready a year from now, I'll check my expectations here.  When it's done, it's done and if that ends up being more like a year and a half or better, well, so be it.  Just make sure the game is as good as it can be, because we're looking forward to it now, DisasterCake.

please include a giant friggin' Harpoon Gun weapon for your airships please, because that thing was so awesome

New Nintendo IP in the Making

I have been complaining for a long, long time that Nintendo seriously needs to reinvigorate its approach to IPs.  The first part of that mostly relies on...making new ones, which Nintendo -has- been doing, obviously, but not on the correct scale and not with the correct weight, is what the problem is.  Which is why, upon hearing the news that Shigeru Miyamoto is busy with a new IP, I'm not immediately jumping with joy.  Yes, it's good that they are working on a new IP, but once upon a time, Nintendogs was a new IP as well, one that Miyamoto personally came up with.  Still, Miyamoto works directly on a lot of games, which is definitely admirable, so his involvement isn't surprising or really different in a sense, nor is it any sort of indication of.....well, anything really.

Which is why I'm not focusing on that aspect, but rather the new IP part of it, since that's what's especially important here.  I'm fully aware that Nintendo has -made- new IPs in previous years.  I'm fully aware that Steel Diver, Xenoblade Chronicles and Pushmo were all new IPs in recent memory.  I'm also pretty sure that those are all of Nintendo's new IPs from recent memory, at least the first-party ones which is honestly what I have to stress the most out of everything that I say.  Second-party IPs are full of muddiness, because of the range of possibilities from whence it came and where it can go in all honesty.  You never know which IPs were born with a developer and then 'bought' by one of the big three to make it happen, which were simply loaned out to an outside developer because their internal studios were too busy and all of the other possibilities that exist.  Second-Party efforts are always, always going to be -close- to First-Party ones, but almost never are they quite there.

Of course, it's not even just about making the IP, but trying to establish it, which is a different beast altogether and one that Nintendo hasn't mastered since the days of yore when Pikmin and Animal Crossing were new and exciting.  They're getting better, of course, because Xenoblade Chronicles is -almost- a good example, given that they're clearly intent on keeping it as a continued thing with a sequel in the works for the Wii U.  The issue I take with it is the lack of faith and follow-up Nintendo had in the title to begin with.  It was one of the three Project Rainfall titles that were almost assuredly not going to see a western release (all three titles ended up getting one) and even when it -was- brought over, there was an incredibly small print-run of it.  Which is...understandable, yes.  Nintendo was wary about its success, or rather its ability to be one, and yet it definitely was a success in all facets.  The problem is that Nintendo...didn't really re-print it.  If they did, they didn't re-print enough of them, because the game reached rare status which should never, ever, ever happen with a First-Party title for any reason whatsoever.

Regardless, that's all negative stuff and we should move away from it far sooner than I managed to.  The question at play here has to be "What kind of game is going to come of this new IP"?  It's a blank slate thematically and realistically.  Genre, setting, characters, all of it is up in the air and it's something that we'll never be able to guess at before it's officially unveiled (likely next year, during E3 Nintendo Directs unless they do a proper presser next year) and that is definitely alluring.  We can analyze what genres Nintendo are filling already and sort of try to go from there, but it's all guesswork.  And if it's all guesswork anyway, why can't we just go full-bore with guessing?  Stop caring about what's there already and try to imagine a scenario with a Nintendo coat of paint.

Personally, I want to see Nintendo take on something a little more modern, a little urban.  Nintendo games, at least what they're known for, tend to be fantastical adventure titles in sparsely populated countrysides and it's always nice and cheery and whatnot, but I'm confident they could do something with it.  After all, Earthbound as a series were all games set in a decidedly modern-day setting and fans swear by those.  Of course, we only technically have the one example of three (in an official sense), but still.  I know Nintendo will want to do light-hearted stuff like....well, usual, but there's still plenty of light-hearted things you can do with a  modern, urban setting regardless.  I think my dream game out of this kind of scenario would be an action/adventure affair with light simulation aspects that are carried out through your in-game smartphone/tablet which are, of course, presented ala your Wii U tablet.  Certainly gives a good reason to use the thing and in an intuitive way, which I believe is what Nintendo worries about in actually implementing uses for it.

The other idea in my head is a little more focused, though it's honestly something I could see Nintendo running with.  Once again, it's sort of built-around the tablet, but it's closer to Nintendo's 'comfort zone' in that it offers plenty of room for fantastical adventure and magic and charm and such.  What it ends up being, really, is sort of Nintendo's take on Sorcery in which your apprentice uses spells out of a spellbook rather than a wand.  I understand that it seems a little off-putting at first, the thought of looking down to see a spell before you look back up and cast it, but done right, I think it could really be enjoyable.  If there's anyone I trust with such a task...well, Nintendo's not at the -top- of that list, but they're on it, I assure you.  I just think it would be an interesting mechanic, and Nintendo assuredly wants to put the Tablet out there and see it used in ways that actively enhance or work with the games on the system, rather than the purely peripheral uses it's been seeing so far.  Of course, that does cut out the chance for Remote Play of this game (and the previous suggested), but what's cooler - being able to play a game ten feet away from your console while the TV is doing something else, or being able to play a game that's fully connected and integrated with the giant pad with a screen in your hands?  Personally, I think the latter.

Whatever the new IP is gonna be, there are at least two things it -has- to be.  Namely, it -has- to be a Wii U game (which just seems obvious) and it -has- to be something big that they're willing to push and make a series out of.  One-offs won't do them many favors at the moment or in the future.  Remember, it's not a problem that Nintendo keeps making Mario, Zelda and Pokemon, it's only a problem that it's all they seem to be making.  Yes, we want those games, but we want new things too, not just new mechanics, new coats of paint for the 25-year-old franchises.  Like I've said before, Xenoblade Chronicles is a step in the right direction, so let's hope they keep up that momentum and start really swinging for the fences.

swinging for the fences also includes re-printing Xenoblade Chronicles btw, come on make it happen

E3: The Grades

It's kind of a hack thing to do, or at least reeks of self-importance, to actually give 'grades' for E3 showings and the like, which makes me not want to do it.  But at the same time, I'm not being super-duper serious about it, so you can basically take whatever I say, run it through the Whose Line Is It Anyway? points system, and you basically have exactly what my grades are worth.  (Hint:  The worth is zero)  I mean, it's not like I'm going to be -super- silly about it, but definitely not going to sit here and pore over everything to get a completely and totally 'informed' opinion and also try and be objective about it.  Because, obviously, I -can't- be objective about it.  So having fun with it is the next best choice.

Microsoft

Microsoft went into E3 with a -lot- of things being expected of them.  Expectations of explanations regarding their still-confusing and Draconian-sounding DRM schemes that are hard-built into the console itself.  Expectations of explanations regarding their equally-confusing -not- Draconian-sounding "Family Sharing" ideas that are apparently a thing but have yet to be explained in a way that allows you to see the catch, leaving them simply as things that seem to defeat the entire purpose of the Draconian DRM.  Expectations of a clear, concise message about any one thing.  Expectations of a lot of games to be shown.

And, well....we got games, at least.

Unfortunately, it's not quite as easy as just saying "They had a bunch of games and they were all awesome and it was great!" because, well, that's just lying.  There -were- a lot of games and while some of them were technically impressive, most of them...well, weren't.  Killer Instinct's revival was quickly mired with the double-tap of news that it's free-to-play with just one fighter where others are purchased and it's being developed by Double Helix Games who have...a less-than-impressive catalog of projects.  Dead Rising 3 eschews the campy B-movie quality of the previous games in lieu of a....*sigh*  'gritty', heavier experience that will be published by Microsoft Game Studios, meaning a multi-platform port is at least a year off of release.  Ryse:  Son of Rome has QTEs for the sake of having QTEs, I suppose, because they complete themselves with incorrect inputs, leading some to think they're just for bonuses or something.  And Project Spark, pretty much the -only- game I really care about, is pretty much LittleBigPlanet, only done with what appears to be the Fable engine.  (Seriously, does that not look like Fable?)  (Seriously the second, "Build, Play, Share?  Really?)

Titanfall is something that I am told is awesome but I haven't quite checked it out for myself yet.  However, I will err on the side of calling it awesome.

Grade:  D+.  Microsoft brought the focus on games in a big way, which is appreciated, but that's pretty much all they did.  Showing MGSV on stage gets you points regardless of anything, and I am all for cribbing ideas and running with them as Project Spark is doing, but I'm not too optimistic on the execution - especially since I will never, ever play it.  Their continued insistence against explaining anything coherently was pre-cemented by cancelling all their E3 meetings beforehand, meaning the only things we -did- get were along the lines of the rather unfortunate PR disasters that Microsoft employees seem to be tripping over themselves to perform lately.  In the end, even though they brought the games, nobody really walked away happy except for the diehards, and those people would be happy if the XBone kicked you in the nuts every hour on the hour.

Sony

Where moods were dire for Microsoft's entrance into E3 because of what we knew, outlooks were similarly bleak for Sony's conference for the most part, with only a few spots of hope here and there.  "Well if Microsoft is being super restrictive with their console, it's obvious that Sony is going to go the same route!," was the cry from the rooftops.  There was an abject refusal to believe that Sony's device would be any less restrictive from the consumer stand-point than Microsoft's on a widespread basis, because nobody could see a reason why it would be on Microsoft's device and not Sony's.  Well, mostly nobody.  Yet even those of us that chose to believe there was some sense left alive in the industry were hard-pressed to assume that Sony would come out and absolutely kick in Microsoft's teeth from a PR stand-point.

So, really, all of us were wrong about something where it concerned Sony.

The absurdity of the night has started to sink in for all of us in the passing days, of Sony getting deafening cheers and applause for simply saying "Yeah, the PS4 is going to work like the PS3 today in terms of used gaming and game lending and internet requirements", but the onus is on Microsoft for calling all of that into question in the first place.  Despite the absurdity of it, Sony's stance on gaming is nonetheless a victory for us all, even with the proponents of a "Digital Future" and the few Microsoft supporters stating that the XBone is simply a generation too soon.  In no uncertain terms, we are not on the precipice of this digital future nor are we a generation away from it, because global infrastructure is simply not there.  Nor is it close.  We are not to the point as a -people- on a worldwide scale where the internet is a provision or a right.  To suggest otherwise is foolish, and to acknowledge that the games industry, like most industries, is a worldwide on makes it that much more obvious.

That's more of a topic for another night, however.

As for Sony's games showing, well, it's something of a hard thing to pin down.  It's easy to overlook in a sense, but Sony bringing up a score of Indie Developers to show off an impressive list of Indie games that will be playable on the PS4 (continuing the absurdly strong relationship that's been heavily emergent in the last few months) easily adds enough games to the list to suggest that maybe they did, in fact, show off the most games at E3.  Perhaps it's because these Indie Games are known quantities at this point, it's easy to overlook them, or perhaps it's something else, but no less than eight Indie Games were featured on-stage on top of the other games shown, while I'm willing to bet a number of them are going to go PC/Playstation-only as well.

If your call for games actually means "New games that we haven't seen before" then Sony's list comprises only four titles:  The Order:  1886 which is a new IP, Mad Max which is a single-player multi-platform offering from Avalanche Games set in the universe of Mad Max with little to no relation to the movies, Final Fantasy XV (Which is actually Final Fantasy Versus XIII rebranded) and Kingdom Hearts 3.  However, I don't think you can be disappointed with the content of that list, even if you're disappointed with the length of it.  Because it's perfectly valid to be disappointed with the length of the list - I am.  I'm disappointed specifically because there's nothing Vita-related on the list.  The Walking Dead Season One with 400 Days DLC doesn't count, to me, even though I'm going to buy the ever-loving shit out of it.  I expected, I wanted something, even if it was just a new Uncharted, or, dare I even speak of it, another portable iteration of God of War (beyond the ports of the first two games in HD) and we didn't even get that much.

It's...disappointing.  I would imagine TGS is the place for the Vita by and large anyway, but now all my expectations fall squarely on that event.  Yet from that, I don't expect Uncharted or God of War of course (though Uncharted -was- shown off during the initial Japanese reveal of the Vita ways ways back) but rather Gravity Rush 2, the inevitable port of Monster Hunter 4, Dragon's Dogma Quest, Phantasy Star Online 2 and dare I dream of Final Fantasy Type-0 Vita.  Japanese games for a Japanese event, of course, which leaves me wondering where Western games -can- be announced aside from...simply announcing them.  Which is a viable enough option, of course, and if an inFamous title for the Vita were announced tomorrow from official channels only, I wouldn't give a shit about that fact, but the fact that finally, an inFamous game on Vita.  Still, in comparison to the huge relief for the PS4, my mis-givings really aren't that big, and ensured I walked away from Sony's E3 with an entirely positive mindset, as did most.

Grade:  A-.  The combination of a $100 system undercut preceded by a merciless beatdown of Microsoft's over-the-line XBone policies ensures that this E3 will be the latest E3 that we always, always talk about.  They didn't slouch in showing off games, certainly, though they didn't have many reveals which is, of course a bit unfortunate, but in the grand scheme it's not really a mark against them.  I'm personally bummed by the lack of presence of the Vita in the presser, but I can understand it in a sense.  At the end of the day, though, Sony gave us not only a presser that was memorable on its own merits and because it had a clear, concise message to it, but also a presser that was memorable because it needs to be.  Standing against ludicrous digital policies while not eschewing the digital marketplace wholesale is important for growth as is continued acceptance of the physical marketplace with the knowledge that we simply are not ready to not have that option.

Nintendo

Nintendo's strange idea to completely eschew a normal presser event at E3 in favor of little Nintendo Direct-like events certainly raised a few eyebrows, and everyone had their own reason for believing why Nintendo did it.  Some simply saw it as a way to cut the 'fat', so to speak - keep the press stuff to press events and give the gamers the games so to speak.  Others expected a little something....more.  Something as a more tangible reason for doing so.  Needless to say, the latter camp was in for a bit of disappointment, since all Nintendo really brought were games, which isn't bad in of itself, but the games were ones that....were not surprising in the least.  I admit, perhaps it's a bit silly to say that Sony had four reveals but that's not a problem, versus Nintendo's three that -are- a problem, and it may have a smidgen of bias inherently, but I'll try to explain what the difference is from my point of view.

Who saw Sony announcing/revealing a Victorian-era steampunk game about hunting werewolves in London?  Anyone?  Nobody?  Okay.  Who saw Nintendo announcing/revealing a new Mario game, a new Yoshi game and a new Donkey Kong game?  Everybody?  Okay, the guy in the back honestly didn't expect another Donkey Kong and that whole row didn't expect a new Yoshi game, but the level of surprise is much, much lower.  It's something of a strange position to be in because nobody dislikes Zelda, Mario, Pokemon or any of the other first-party games, and there's not necessarily a 'fatigue' setting in (as some people say for, like, yearly franchises or what-have-you), but there's a whole combination of reasons that set people to be disappointed when Nintendo makes games using the same stable of characters again and again.

The easiest way I can explain it is basically this:  What Nintendo is doing is like if Naughty Dog were still making Crash Bandicoot games today.  Would today's Crash Bandicoot games be awesome?  Probably!  Am I suggesting that Nintendo's series should have been left back at the NES or SNES days?  Of course not.  There's just....a middle-ground approach.  You can't build a console specifically around old characters with new ideas, despite Nintendo's success at doing just that (though, it's not doing a whole lot for the Wii U at the moment).  You have to introduce actual, physical new things through your first-parties and have the intention of running with them.  To my knowledge, Xenoblade Chronicles and Pushmo are the only -real- examples of this at the moment (both first-party, both with sequels out or on the way) but Xenoblade Chronicles is -just barely- because of that stupidly tiny printing Nintendo made.

Leverage this against Sony's PS3 First-Party efforts which have brought us inFamous, Uncharted, The Last of Us, LittleBigPlanet (started as second-party, is now first), MAG and Starhawk (among others) as new to compliment the returning God of War, Sly Cooper, Killzone, MotorStorm and Gran Turismo games.  The old and the new work off of one another and add a little bit of spice to everything, so to speak.  If Nintendo would just have a couple of their studios -not- make a Zelda game, -not- make a Donkey Kong game, but instead make a new series that they could, you know, -then- make between the others, we'd all be much, much happier with them.  So it's pretty much for that reason why we have a Nintendo offering that has a -lot- of first-party games....yet reactions are so mixed.

Still, from Nintendo's presentations, we got a name for The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past 2 as it's now formally called The Legend of Zelda:  A Link Between Worlds, announcements of New Yoshi's Island, Super Mario 3D World and Donkey Kong Country:  Tropical Freeze alongside footage of  Pikmin 3, Mario & Luigi:  Dream Team, Super Smash Bros. (the new one), New Super Luigi U, Xenoblade's Sequel, Mario Kart 8, The Legend of Zelda:  Wind Waker HD, Bayonetta 2 and The Wonderful 101.  Which is, of course, not -bad- by any stretch of the imagination, and I'm personally hoping Xenoblade Chronicles getting a sequel means the rest of us will be able to play Xenoblade Chronicles for less than $100 Used in the future, but I admit that may be a bit optimistic.  And we got all that without the blather and without the filler of a presser (I think, at least), so, hey, bonus points right there.

Grade:  B-.  I want to be harsher on Nintendo, but I cannot, nor will I fault them for showing games, even if the games aren't exactly the ones I (or others) want.  Except Bayonetta 2.  I want that.  I haven't even played Bayonetta 1 yet (Yes, Chance, I know) but I want to be all over that.  And Xenoblade sequel, but I want to friggin' be able to play the original first in -some- fashion.  I can only hope that Nintendo has something of an epiphany with the Wii U's potential in the near future and springs up a few new series that fans can complain about having too many iterations of twenty years from now.  Or even just goes weird with something like the rumored StarTropics revival that was apparently false  Just do -something- to shake things up a little.

Squeenix gets an F-- for failing to show Drakengard 3 and Type-0 Vita

E3 Hype Get?

E3 is that magical time of the year when game developers, companies and all their ilk come together in a grand-standing attempt to one-up each other by sending out announcements that they think will send shockwaves through the whole community.  It's their biggest chance in the year to be looked upon by the greatest number of eyes and wave their wands to produce something magical, and you cannot deny that, even in the previous years, some companies have done just that.  With this year's E3 mere days away, one would think that the attitude through the internet would be jovial, hopeful and with all sorts of fun speculation.  That's....what the attitude is supposed to be, at least.  It's like Christmas specifically for eletronic-minded folks, and Christmas should be fantastic.  Unfortunately this year, the mood is rather dire, and many, if not most, of us are looking towards E3 with trepidation, pessimism and going on the offensive about all sorts of issues.

It's not at all unwarranted, of course, which is the sad part.  I've contributed to the animosity and I'm not really sure if I should be upset by that or not, but I won't be bringing that up directly.  I'd like to -not- be an angry person for one night at least, so this is honestly going to be my attempt at bringing up some E3-centric ideas and predictions, as well as some reasons for and why I think they're likely, and not just something I have fever-dreamed.  I just want to try and be excited again, since very little of the E3 lead-in has legitimately made me excited, or if it has, it's been heavily out-weighed by the things that have put a damper on my mood, as well as a goodly amount of others.

I'm going to get Microsoft out of the way first because it's....the most difficult one for me, obviously.  I just don't rightly care about anything they'll have to offer because of my disinterest in the XBone, but I also just haven't had any real interest in the 360 or their first-party efforts with it.  Yet E3 is going to be a big stage for Microsoft and they are going to announce things, so I should at least try and take a guess at them because I do believe they'll be the ones to beat in terms of actual game announcements, surprisingly.  They've promised a whole host of exclusive titles, likely through their 'partnership' with publishers that the XBone seems to revolve around (read:  Moneyhats and maximum profits for all) and you can bet that at least one or two, possibly even three of them will be the "Oh, goddamnit" titles for XBone detractors.

It's been said a few times that Microsoft has spent a fat, fat truck-load of cash on XBone games, which I assume means expanding their First-Party Studios (which we know they have been doing) as well as, you know, just sort of buying games that otherwise would be multi-platform or not made at all.  I would say with some degree of conviction that Titanfall's Exclusivity (which was likely supposed to be announced at E3 as a 'megaton') weighs at least somewhat on hats made out of money, and something else that's been rumored, a possible Mirror's Edge 2 being XBone Exclusive (Or at least on XBone and PC only) would also have this ideal to thank.  Mirror's Edge 2 would be huge, potentially even if it was, as there are some concerns out there, essentially a tech-demo/advertisement for Kinect 2.0.  Add into the mix that Rare is going to be allowed to resurrect one of their classic IPs (Most of the speculation points to a new Killer Instinct, but a new Banjo-Kazooie or Perfect Dark would draw some attention, surely) that will likely be shown means Microsoft has a lot of punches they could throw.

Let's not forget that Microsoft also has Halo, which they can continue to pimp out on a glorious scale because it'll get bought over and over and over again.  With an HD Upscaling of the first Halo already done, one for Halo 2 is likely, barring any conflicts with Halo 5, which I honestly don't know when it's supposed to release.  And after googling it, it seems like it hasn't -technically- even been announced, so bam.  Double-tap of Halo 2 Remake while you wait for Halo 5 and you're golden.  We might hear some people whinging about the over-saturation, considering that would be two more projects announced on top of the TV Series and the Windows 8 Exclusive Spin-off, but I highly doubt this will make the market get sick of Halo quite so soon.  Basically what all of this means is that Microsoft has the potential to completely whiff on the Hardware aspect of the XBone (which they have already) and manage to knock it out of the park regarding their games, leaving the bulk of us in a sort of muddy, indecisive area, contemplating whether we want more, shiny, fun games or if it's more important to not buy a console that is literally terribly designed.

It's not all about the Big Three, of course, since Developers will be there as well and if there's anyone to watch this year, it's going to be Squeenix.  Probably.  Squeenix optimism isn't all that high, especially in light of recent decisions, but they have Final Fantasy news this go around.  Well, they always have Final Fantasy news, but this time it's a big deal because they'll be showing off a bit of "The Future of Final Fantasy"....which they also always do, but okay just roll with it, seriously.  The point is that this year, they're going to be showing off something brand-spanking new with the Final Fantasy name on it, almost definitely Final Fantasy XV, and that's always good for a headline if nothing else.  Sure, the game won't come out for years and there's a possibility that it is literally a re-branded Versus at this point which is the laziest kind of cop-out but, it'll still be something.

....hrm.  I'm not doing so well with my positivity, here.  Okay, let's re-group here for a moment.

There is a very, very real chance that Squeenix will be showing off Final Fantasy Versus in a state through which it will be completed.  Some rumors out there state that Sony sent in their development ninja squad to help out with Versus' development to ensure it releases (and that it remains exclusive) and whether or not it comes out on the PS3, the PS4 or both is still high-up in the air.  Which, fortunately or unfortunately, that could very well be the news that we are to 'Please Be Excited' for from all the way back at the PS4 reveal.  Which would be a little underwhelming for me personally, which is why I'm honestly hoping for a little something else.  A little something with a Type-0 Flair.  Like Type-0.  On Vita.  Some would argue that that's -more- under-whelming than Versus being announced again, basically, on PS3 or PS4, but to those people, I say shut up, I want Type-0.

I also hold out hope for an off-handed mention of Drakengard 3.  This is what it's about, people!  Hoping upon all hopes on impossibilities!  This is the magic and excitement of E3 right here!

Nintendo isn't officially at E3 in the same capacity as everyone else, in that they won't be having a big on-stage presentation this year, but rest assured, they are at E3 and they're likely looking to make their presence felt.  They've already promised exactly what they're going to deliver, which is a bunch of videos of games that are announced that are kind of big deals.  Super Smash Bros. alone will sent Nintendo fans into a frenzy no matter what's shown off, if only because it'll be a confirmation that it's happening and happening soon.  On top of that, we'll see footage of a 3D Mario game (apparently), The Legend of Zelda:  Wind Waker HD, Pikmin 3, Mario Kart Wii U and New Super Mario Luigi U at the very least.  That's all before we get in a few surprises, which I like to assume are assumed going to happen.  It would be....underwhelming if Nintendo's E3 was just videos of highly anticipated games, strange as that sounds.

It's very, very likely that Retro Studios is working on something and whatever they're working on is potentially a big, big deal.  Popular guesses are a Metroid game, though I've heard the idea of a StarTropics Revival for the Wii U which is almost too silly to be true....or too silly to be false, I'm not quite sure yet.  In either case, Retro's involvement would basically be a 'megaton' alone, so that would hit the high notes, especially if they were working on a new Metroid game.  As far as the internet goes, that's....really the biggest thing I've seen.  Which is somewhat confusing and disheartening, so maybe I should've researched a little more intently before this set-up.  Hrm.

As for Sony, well, being that I'm primarily a Sony gaming person, I have quite a bit to say about predictions and expectations, so I'll leave that for tomorrow.  It'll likely be large enough to be a post all it's own, of course, which is why I think trying to fit it here would just end poorly.  Also because I have to go off and resume grinding in Soul Sacrifice (which I still totally want a sequel for) so I can launch some rather LARGE elemental arrows into Magusaur's stupid face.

good lord, that is a lot of predicting

Let's Dream Up Some Fun Things

With all the negativity that we've been putting ourselves through since the XBone announcement, I think it's a good idea for us all to sort of try and remember why we like games in the first place and realize that these all still exist and will continue to exist without worry.  I think for a lot of us, the thing about it is just that games have the potential to just do really neat things.  To be honest, Nintendo has really had the ball in their court this generation and last (because the Wii U is Next Generation which is technically -this- generation now) in terms of having really neat things possible, or at least they started with them.  The motion controls thing never really saw truly innovative work done with them in a repeated fashion (I maintain that Shattered Memories' Flashlight and Phone things were amazing conceptually at least and that Sorcery with the Move Wand was amazing in practice) and the GamePad integration is still up in the air.  Sony is jumping in a little earlier with that than they did with the Move, which is wonderful  It's irrelevant if Sony is "copying" Nintendo, because it's a good idea and good ideas shouldn't be 'owned' by any one single thing since that completely limits the scope of who gets to use it.  (I'm talking ideas and practices here, not games what are 'exclusives', because that's a whole other thing)

Sony confirmed today that Remote Play on your Vita will be mandatory for PS4 games unless your game heavily focuses on the Playstation Eye or Move or what have you, which is kind of a huge deal.  Which, first, let us discuss that for a moment, since I'm not convinced that the understanding of Remote Play/Off-TV Play is quite understood on the grand scale just yet.  Speaking in broad strokes, since I know there is more technical finesse to it than this, the bulk of what Remote Play/Off-TV Play (let's be honest, they're the same thing and if you want to be a technical bitch, Sony did Remote Play with the PSP before the Wii U but we're not being technical bitches) is directing the video output elsewhere than the TV it is hooked up to.  It's still the core machine doing all the work, it's just sending it to a different place.  Instead of your TV, it's sent to your Wii U Tablet over the machine's built-in wireless thing specifically made for that purpose.  Instead of your TV, you'll be getting the feed directly to your Vita from your PS4 over your wireless network.  The Sony method is more flexible in distance, but it could also be hampered by latency, but that's a problem for the then, not the now.  So PS4 games aren't going to be hampered by this Remote Play mandate and to suggest that is silly.

Now, I only bring up the Remote Play thing to point out that Sony has already, with that one move, established a co-existence between the PS4 and the Vita.  One that doesn't -have- to simply be on the level of Remote Play, but can transcend to the Wii U level of interactivity, making use of that for fun things just like the possibility exists for the Wii U.  With any luck, out of both consoles, -someone- will come up with a really neat idea as to how to make use of this second screen and such, and -that- right there is a neat thing.  That is, in fact, -the- neat thing that got me thinking tonight.  In the vein of doing something that I've done before, I kind of wanted to just put a few ideas out there that I think could personally be interesting and/or neat.  At worst, they'll be like my MoveShock ideas and will just go on being unused which will just make me sad.

Perhaps it's because I've been playing Soul Sacrifice still, which lets you turn Librom's pages manually instead of advancing them with X (which you can do, it's just a neat touch that I make use of), or perhaps it's because I've read just about every digital manual for the games on my Vita, but I can't help but think of a book interface for an off-screen.  Specifically one that'll likely house your options, but be a big part of your gameplay as well.  Let's take L.A. Noire for example.  I haven't played it, but if I'm correct, then a large portion of the game focuses on your notebook, in which you keep notes about crime scenes, suspects and the like, all of which you eventually use to attempt to solve the case you're working.  Again, if I'm right, things just sort of get put into your Notebook for your perusal at a later date, but what if that was under your control?  What if it was defined by difficulty? 

Assuming L.A. Noire just requires you encounter an event to have it added to your notes (again, I don't know for sure, but you can see why I would assume this), that could be the easiest difficulty.  The next step up would require you actually input when a note has to be made.  Attach an ink meter to this or something so that you can't just tap the GamePad/Vita input over and over again for everything on the off-chance that you'll actually hit something you need to take note of.  Perhaps for the hardest difficulty, you have those things, but when you bring up something to take a note on, you actually have to decide on what the note is about.  So you notice something strange about the crime scene chalk outline and if you're on the normal difficulty, you just tap the screen and it puts down the note.  But if you're on the hardest difficulty, it becomes a sort of multiple choice thing.  You have to pick not only the chalk outline, but what's wrong with it.  Which means you could, of course, have false notes, making the game that much harder for yourself and requiring that you actually think and pay attention.

Even turn this into another kind of functionality entirely.  Instead of a notebook for a detective, it's a spellbook for a sorcerer.  Take a sort of Soul Sacrifice version of things and assign up to six or so buttons for your spells, but also have the spellbook as a way to quick-swap them during gameplay.  That way you're not inherently tied to using some, however trying to access your book in the middle of a fight would, realistically, be a dangerous prospect, since something could very well start eating you as you are flipping through the pages of your book to assign a fire spell to Square or whatever button that corresponds to on the Wii U Gamepad.  Just sort of a Quality of Life upgrade that introduces something a little faster and more tactile than scrolling through menu after menu with control sticks and buttons.  Granted, it might be a sort of semantics thing at work, but it's different enough I think.

That's just if you use the screen of the device you're using as a book instead of the innumerable other types of input things.  The Wii U already has some rather inventive uses for it - take a look at Lego City Undercover - which takes a whole other angle on it by making it a camera/X-ray device of sorts.  There's a ridiculous amount of usability for these things, and I desperately hope someone dips into the potential given the two system exposure.  Three if you count SmartGlass for Microsoft, but I....don't know if it'll actually work in the same way.  Or at all.  In any fashion.  I really don't know anything about SmartGlass.  What I do know about is the GamePad and Vita's Remote Play.  And I am really, really excited for a generation where this sort of thing is possible and, with any luck, heavily thought out.  Because that would just be fantastic and would hopefully ignite a few more imaginations out there.

did I seriously do a post where I wasn't negative about Nintendo, what is happening

Sega and Nintendo Are Getting Cozy

If you've been paying attention to Wii U news at all in the last day or so, then you've seen the above screenshot.  You know what it is.  You know -why- it is.  So you know why I'm using it - not only because it's like the only damn screenshot flying around (I believe), but because it's already created a little bit of a buzz on its own merits.  For those in the dark, the above is a screenshot or concept shot of Sonic:  Lost World, the newly announced Sonic game that will launch exclusively for the Wii U and 3DS at some point in the near-to-far future.  However, what it represents is something far bigger than just one game, no matter how good or not the game itself will be.  Personally, based on Generations, I'm hedging towards "really good", but we'll just have to see on that one.

Sonic:  Lost World is the first of a three-game exclusivity deal titled as a "Worldwide Partnership" that Sega and Nintendo have decided on with regards to the Sonic franchise.  This was announced during the Nintendo Direct from the other day and, as mentioned, made something of a splash considering Lost World -seems- like it's going to be a big-deal Sonic game.  Of course, Sonic games coming out exclusively on Nintendo consoles isn't anything new - look at Sonic and the Secret Rings, Sonic and the Black Knight and Sonic Colors, all exclusive to the Wii, with at least Colors being fairly well-regarded.  So to find out that they're running with that (ha!) still isn't much of a surprise, even after Generations skipped the Wii (and I believe the 3DS version wasn't quite full-featured).

The second game of the three-game deal, you might be wondering?  Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games for the Wii U.  It's the fourth installment of that particular franchise that I really don't see how it has seen four iterations.  It's...probably going to release sometime around Winter.  Moving on...

Switching gears for -just- a moment, and offering a nice little segue in the process, another part of the Nintendo Direct was the announcement that the 3DS' Virtual Console is getting more classic Game Gear games.  And classic in this case actually means classic, and not 'classic'.  With just about every Sonic game that came out for the device announced - Sonic Blast, Sonic Drift 2, Sonic Labyrinth, Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and the tangentially related Tails Adventure - and a few other things to write home about surely - Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, Shining Force II:  The Sword of Hajya and Vampire:  Master of Darkness - it's more than a little bit of a welcome development.  Announced all at the same time, it sort of elevates it by that much more, and makes me wonder how Sega can manage to get that many games up at once (or at least lined up at once), given how....difficult it seems to be to actually populate the Virtual Console.

Getting back to that third game that was mentioned as part of the deal, you're probably wondering what it is.  Truth is, we -all- are, since it's yet-to-be-announced and is likely going to be an E3 hold-over (even though Nintendo still isn't going to have an official E3 presser, just an obvious presence).  But simple knowing that it's going to be -something-, and that it's going to involve Sonic in some fashion leaves the door wide open to a whole network of possibilities.

From my little bit of investigating and a little bit of my own thought, one prominent theory seems to be a Mario Kart/Sonic All-Stars Racing Cross-over.  Which, I personally think is rather brilliant.  For some reason, to me it's felt like the Mario Kart series has been going a little downhill, though I'm not quite sure if I base that on my own personal opinion or opinions I've gleaned from portions of the internet.  Still, regardless of quality or lack thereof, the Wii U has not yet seen a Mario Kart game and with Nintendo's pro-crossover stance (as evidenced by Pokemon X Nobunaga's Ambition, Fire Emblem X Shin Megami Tensei, etc.) combining what are, in fact, two actual popular franchises into one with the added effect of that extra impact seems like a no-brainer.  Who -wouldn't- want to hop into a vehicle as Knuckles and Dash past Bowser, for instance?  Or, maybe even drive Luigi right past Sonic to pick up a last-moment first place?  It's definitely the thing I would expect from the last game of the deal, but we won't hear anything about it til about E3.

Now, my own personal hope would be for something a little more....inspired.  Which is a funny thing to say since my idea is basically Sonic Generations, but with Sonic -and- Mario, but, hey, Generations was pretty damn inspired, really.  Both franchises have seen shining installments in side-scrolling and fully 3D games and doing a mash-up of their various levels and styles would be something to see, especially since you have to find a happy middle ground for their clashing design philosophies.  Since Sonic is 'Gotta Go Fast', meaning he's got to have a longer track to go on than most of the classic Mario levels could offer, perhaps they could do a sort of system where all levels of a zone are connected end-to-end (as they are in the game, really) so Sonic speeds through an entire zone in a go rather than just 1-1 or 3-2.  Alternatively, having Mario bounced around by bumpers in a 3D, brightly-lit Casino-themed level from one of the Sonic installments with badass music in the background just brings some sort of sensation of joy to my brain and I'm not sure why.

If nothing else, that just goes to show just how open speculation can be on this sort of thing since details are very very sparse and we're just given a few things that are, likely just meant to inspire certain avenues of thought.  I know people are already thinking Lost World might be in the vein of a Mario Galaxy-type game because of the look of that single screenshot and Nintendo's involvement, and hell, that might actually be a good idea.  And even if the third game is 'just' a Mario Kart/Sonic All-Stars Racing Cross-Over, well, that's not a bad deal at all.  Of course, the game doesn't -have- to involve Mario at all, but it would seem a bit silly to announce two Sonic games...roughly at the same time, which is what they'd do, so unless he's partnering up with a different character (which isn't a bad thought), then look for -some- sort of Mario involvement.  Just one more reason to eagerly await E3, I suppose.

Sega also announced Yakuza 1&2 HD for the Wii U in Japan only and I couldn't think of a way to integrate that since it means nothing for North America, goddamnit Sega

Nintendo Announced Some Things

Yesterday saw yet another Nintendo Direct wherein Nintendo saw it fit to throw even more things on the 3DS, finer-tuning their laser focus while....mostly ignoring the Wii U still.  Which is kind of the exact opposite priorities they should probably have at the moment considering the 3DS can probably carry on its own momentum for a while, whereas the Wii U needs help desperately, but hey, what do I know.  I'm sure it doesn't have anything to do with the disparity of success between the -other- things in the respective markets or anything like that.  Regardless, like most Directs, there was some reiteration of some points while also providing a few rather large announcements that deserve a mention.

The biggest news, certainly, is that a sequel to The Legend of Zelda:  A Link to the Past is in the works for 3DS.  Yes, a sequel.  A direct sequel.  In Legend of Zelda.  (Yeah, it's happened before, but that was a -while- ago)  Or at least a game that takes place in the exact same world as A Link to the Past, albeit with a brand new story, new dungeons and the like.  Something else that it adds that I'm a little undecided about is Link's ability to turn paper-thin and walk along walls which is, obviously new to the series and a decided reference to Paper Mario.  While it is an interesting mechanic, I can't help but look at it, scratch my head and say "Why? because it is...more than a little confusing.  It seems superfluous at best and the only thing I can figure is that it's the answer to the "Dark World" transformation that, for a little while, turned Link into a bunny.  But that was not a mechanics thing and it wasn't permanent, so I don't even know what to think.

Those aren't the only sequels that are now heading for the 3DS however!  Joining LTTP2 is yet another Mario Party and a sequel to Yoshi's Island, also known as "That game with Baby Mario".  And yes, Baby Mario returns and yes, he probably cries very horribly once again.  Possibly.  From what I can tell, there is damn near no information on either game except a screenshot of Yoshi's Island 2 (probably not the title) showing Yoshi with Baby Mario on his back in an area similar to the original with a slightly different aesthetic.  One comment states that it looks more watercolor than crayon which is very astute.  Yoshi's Island, I can understand since that was a game that people liked, despite its issues, but when has Mario Party been relevant after the first three iterations?  No online play was mentioned which probably means there will be none which means....there is very little incentive to buy it unless you are constantly around people who have 3DSes and you all want to play what amounts to a board game on them, I suppose.

It's not like there wasn't -any- Wii U news announced at this Direct thing, however!  Next week, the oft-mentioned Spring System Update is hitting, which brings a lot of little improvements to the Wii U's overall workings.  Faster Load times, the ability to boot right into Wii Mode and some fancy things with downloading games and updates for said games in the background are all included as well as the actual, really real Wii U Virtual Console.  As in the platform that will allow you to buy NES, SNES and eventually GBA and N64 (and possibly other systems) games and play them with full integration to the Wii U's features, including the ability to play directly on the tablet to free up your TV.  Also Miiverse stuff, which I suppose is good since it is apparently to thank for Earthbound getting a VC release.  Apparently a flood of Miiverse posts and the like wanting Earthbound is what inspired them to do that.  That's...you know, probably not true, since doing something like this isn't a magic wand type of deal, but it's nice all the same.

Of course, the bit I'm most interested in, if you couldn't tell, is that the Animal Crossing 3DS XL Bundle is coming to NA, which is the thing at the top of this post.  It's not exactly what I want, and I know I'm going to be disappointed by New Leaf, but I want a 3DS XL and my only other options are Washed-out Red or Blue, maybe pink, and the special Pika-Nipples Yellow unit.  (Seriously, I bet you can't unsee it now)  So I figure, I'm getting New Leaf, I'm getting a 3DS XL and that one's not -bad-.  Besides, the version of the game is digital, coming pre-loaded on a 4 gig SD stick (that is easily moved to a bigger stick which is exactly what I'm going to do), so I'll be able to have it available whenever in case I feel like just hopping into it for a bit between Harvest Moon sessions.

There were a few other announcements, but those are the main ones that grabbed me in any way, so they're the only ones I'm really concerning myself with bringing up.  It seems pretty divisive, with either people being in the "oh shit the is all of the amazing at the same time" camp or people being in the "meh" camp about it.  With the people from the former camp being absolutely disgusted at the people in the latter, it seems.  Obviously, I'm more in the latter camp since even a sequel to my favorite Legend of Zelda game only has me wary instead of excited, but maybe that'll change when we start getting some more information about it.  Still, I guess it's a successful Direct, since they've finally convinced me to part with 220 of my dollars come June 9th, and I'm probably going to pick up a few 3DS games between then and now in preparation for when I actually get my system.