Tag Archives: video games

Ubisoft E3 Press Event – Live Reaction

Posted on by

Alright, here is our last live reaction press event of the day: Ubisoft. Yes, Sony is after this, but I will have to give a post-show reaction later tonight as I will be in a movie theater for the PlayStation E3 Experience. I may have to duck out before the end of Ubisoft to get there, but hopefully not.  Anyway, exciting stuff ahead: Assassin’s Creed, The Division and much more! Get ready!

This page will not automatically refresh. I will put the latest update at the top of the list, so if you join us late, scroll down. Here is the full E3 coverage schedule, so stick with us.

Update 11: Nope, playable on the floor and in a few cities across the globe. Yves is back for one last thing. Fighting a drug cartel as a tactical team…this looks incredible. Open world. Ghost Recon: Wildlands. Bam. Ubisoft is the winner so far. I give that a B. New IP announcements, showing more from what we are curious about, but too much time spent on not the games. Alright, time to run for Sony. Check out my write-up later.

Update 10: Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate time. Victorian London, here we come. Streets covered with filth, a gray haze to the industrialized air. Think you can cook? He’s got a grappling hook. Lots of new elements coming forward in time. More firearms, more vehicles, jumping from carriage to carriage, and building your gang. No game play yet, but it looks cool, and I think we are abut to change that.

Update 9: Beta starts September 24th. TrackMania a customizable arcade cart racer is coming to consoles. It is like if you could actually drive your Hot Wheels tracks that you made as a kid. It is fast and ridiculous. It also has a random track generator.

Update 8: Rainbow Six: Siege gets a great trailer staring Angela Bassett, who comes out on stage. She is the deputy director of the Rainbow team. Then we get a mini-interview with her. It is fine, but doesn’t tell us anything new about the game. Here comes the info though. Terror Hunt mode is back- playable solo or coop against AI opponents. They show us a level that was pretty intense. The team had to go into a consulate and defuse a bomb.

Update 7: We’re still on Just Dance. I guess if you are the biggest seller you get more stage time than is strictly necessary. Available October. Wii U, Xbox One, and PS4 players will have access to a dance streaming service that brings new songs and greatest hits to the new game. It is a “Dance on demand streaming service” no talk of price.

Update 6: Just Dance 2016 time. No camera needed, you can use your smartphone as the motion controller. Now, a dance break with Jason Derulo. Apparently Just Dance is now the biggest selling music game of all time. This is worse than Pele. At least Pele had interesting stories. This isn’t even a good performance.

Update 5: Next up is a city builder, but it is set on the moon. Anno 2205, oh cool. You don’t start on the moon, but can get there. The Anno series is a solid sim series, and this looks to continue on that fine record.

Update 4: The Division time. Introducing us to the “dark zone” which seems to be the PVP area? You can work cooperatively or against other players. The demo shows computer enemies and a group of players getting ready to attack for loot. Another group of players show up and their is a brief discussion on if they should attack the other player group. There was no evidence of the two groups being able to communicate. As they wait for extraction, they decide to jump the other player group which ends in two injured from the team and the third member deciding the loot is too great, and takes out his teammates and makes off with all the loot. Betas are coming early next year. Release date is March 8, 2016.

Update 3: Expansion time. The Crew Wild Run Expansion is taking the game off road. Monster trucks, rally cars, drag racing on salt flats. Coming November 17th. Trials Fusion: Awesome Level Max expansion is coming. We just got a video of a cat with a gold-plated handgun riding a unicorn. I’ve got nothing.

Update 2: Yves Guillemot, CEO, comes to the stage to present a new IP- vikings and knights fighting…and samurai? Okay, you have my interest. Only a video so far. But it looks brutal and pretty awesome. For Honor is the title. It looks pretty interesting. The Montreal studio is behind this game. High promises for the immersion of the melee battle. We are going to get a demo right now, 4 on 4 on consoles. We have knights against samurai. The combat looks similar from the Assassin’s Creed franchise, but weightier. You seem to play captains on a field of soldiers. It is playable in the booth, which is really impressive for a new IP.

Update 1: South Park: The Stick of Truth is getting a sequel? Yes, South Park: The Fractured But Whole. Hilarious. This time, we are ditching the fantasy for superheroes. Aisha Taylor is once again our host (thank goodness) and now Matt Stone and Trey Parker from South Park are on stage and have already made the Ubisoft press conference the most profanity filled E3 presentation. I personally had a good time with Stick of Truth so it will be interesting to see how this one shapes up without Obsidian.

EA E3 Press Event – Live Update and Reacti

Posted on by

Welcome back, dear readers. It is almost time for the Electronic Arts E3 2015 press event. Expect to hear more about EA Access, all the upcoming EA Sports titles, Star Wars: Battlefront, and more. Peter Moore and company will show us what one of the largest publishers has in store.

This page will not automatically refresh. I will put the latest update at the top of the list, so if you join us late, scroll down. Here is the full E3 coverage schedule, so stick with us.

Update 15: We get our first look at game play for Battlefront. It looks like Battlefield with a Star Wars skin on it. We did get Skywalker and Vader fighting on Hoth, but it is unclear who gets to be those characters as opposed to just being grunts. I want this game to be good, but I’m pretty sure it cannot live up to its hype. Well, that is all for EA. I guess the Mass Effect teaser counted as one of the promised 3 new IPs? We knew it existed, but now it has a name? I’d give this presser a C as well. Nothing really groundbreaking again. There certainly were some neat features and games, but I’m not coming away feeling I know a ton more about any of them. Oh well, break time, and then it is on to Ubisoft!

Update 14: Okay, I lost the feed for a bit, but it is back now, and we are talking about Star Wars Battlefront.

Update 13: Madden time. The intro movie focused on the Patriots, which is an interesting decision right now. Madden 16 will have a mode called Draft Champions in which you build a team of current players. It is a mode for Ultimate team. You get three options for each round. Then you can play as your team in a mini-season. They’ve overhauled the passing game….and we’re having some technical difficulties, please stand by.

Update 12: Mirror’s Edge time. The new game is not a sequel. It is called Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst but we still follow Faith. In fact, it is her origin story. The environments look phenomenal. It is first-person, but it is open world free roaming. No levels or loading. Release February 23.

Update 11: Okay, on to FIFA 16. More focus on defense and mid-field play. More motion capture of Messi for better dribbling off the ball. Women’s teams make their debut this year. That is a ton of models in this game. Also, FIFA 15 players will get Pele and Messi in their ultimate team accounts.

Update 10: Pele comes to the stage. He tells a story about coining the phrase “the beautiful game” in relation to football. While I like Pele, this is showing the danger of bringing someone bigger than gaming to the stage. His stories are great, I would watch a 30 for 30 of nothing but him telling stories, but we are here for video games and this is making the presentation lose steam.

Update 9: Let’s talk about mobile. Good news everyone! You can control your FIFA Ultimate Team auctions from you Apple Watch. A new Star Wars digital CCG coming. Also, the Minions are getting their own mobile game. It is a building/resource management game. You are on a tropical island and have to build a paradise with lots of mini-game like activities. Oh boy. Look for Minions Paradise later this year. Okay, FIFA time, and Pele is going to tell us why it is rad.

Update 8: Time to turn to sports. Starting with NHL 16. Do you like hockey video games? Well, here is the one that is available. It looks good, but EA is good at good looking, they aren’t always good at making a great game. Rory MacIlroy PGA Tour will be the first game using the new Frostbite engine in the sports. They promise no load time between holes. All the games with have contextual hints in modes to help improve your playing ability. NBA Live 16 is reintroducing Game Face HD face scanning technology through an app. It looks pretty good this time. Also, we can “up your swag” through the game. I don’t think they are talking about playing as Swaggy P. Look, you can play basketball in this basketball video game with new controls that change the game by making it more like the game.

Update 7: Solo play and local split-screen available. Also, players of the first game can transfer their characters into the new game. Now they are promising free content updates following launch. So maybe EA is learning.

Update 6: The guy on stage wants us to clap for a guy in a zombie suit from Plants vs. Zombies. The crowd is not so interested in that. We’re going to get a live game-play demo. I’m sure this will be amazing…or, you know, not. There is very little here that interests me. Third-person shooter/tower defense is not a genre that appeals to me. Though, EA claims over six million people played the first one, so I guess it works for a lot of people.

Update 5: New IP time. First up, Unravel. You play a tiny creature called Yarny made of yarn. Yarny looks like a cross between an Ugly Doll and Chibi-Robo. It is a puzzle platformer about connections between people. As Yarny moves through the level, he leaves a trail of yarn behind and uses the yarn to navigate the environment. The trailer had me smiling the entire time. It looks really cute.

Update 4: Star Wars the Old Republic is getting a story driven expansion: Knights of the Fallen Empire coming out October 27th. New worlds, new companions, and shaping the world through the choices. It is free to all subscribers. They show a pretty CGI trailer, which as always looks awesome.

Update 3: Need for Speed returns. More street racing, more cop chases. The title is simply Need for Speed. They are trying to pull the best elements from the past 20 years into one package. It is using the latest Frostbite engine. Five modes to capture all of the elements. You can specialize or switch between. Coming Nov. 3rd. It looks like another Need for Speed.

Update 2: Promise of 3 brand new IPs, a sports legend, Mirror’s Edge, and Star Wars. That is a pretty solid line-up for the show.

Update 1: Here we go. Opening with Mass Effect teaser!!! Woo! Exploration jet pack, Mako 2.0, and massive exploration. We also get a name Andromeda, but we don’t get it until Q4 2016.

Microsoft Xbox E3 Press Event – Live Reaction

Posted on by

Hello all! In about half an hour, Microsoft will take the stage to kick off the day of video game press conferences coming out of E3 2015. Right here is where you can get updated information as it is announced at the event. I will be updating this post with announcements and perhaps a bit of snark. So watch with me as the “greatest games lineup in Xbox history” is revealed.

This page will not automatically refresh. I will put the latest update at the top of the list, so if you join us late, scroll down. Here is the full E3 coverage schedule, so stick with us.

Update 18: We’re coming to the end. Phil is back on the stage talking about how awesome they are. Quantum Break and Crackdown will be shown at Gamescon. Exit sizzle reel has some other games, but that is it. I would say the backwards compatibility is the biggest announcement. Otherwise, no real surprises here. Overall, I’d give this presser a grade of a C. Nothing super great or exciting, but no major missteps either. I will give them credit for mainly focusing on what is happening now and not over promising. Still, it would have been nice to see a non-indy title that wasn’t announced at last year’s E3.  Alright, that is it for now. Next up is EA at 4 PM. You can get to our coverage through the hub-page.

Update 17: Gears of War: Ultimate Edition. A remastered version of the first Gears of War. Public beta for it begins today. Now here is the new Gears game. It is dark and has big soldiers with chainsaws on their guns and rumble-running. Oh yeah, and weird monsters you need to destroy from behind cover. Gears 4 is the title, but Holiday 2016 is the date….so we’ll see it again next year for sure.

Update 16: Fables: Legends has become a free-to-play game. We get a new trailer, but aside from a few short clips, it is hard to tell what’s going on. It is cross-platform between Windows 10 and Xbox One. New relationship with Valve VR – working with Valve to make Windows the best VR platform. Reconfirming their partnership with Oculus Rift. And now we’re going to talk about the Microsoft HoloLens. Time for a tech demo using Minecraft and the HoloLens. It is a tether-less holographic projector headset.   They are using a special camera to show what the HoloLens is showing. It is pretty cool as a tech demo, but they aren’t selling this as something that will actually make my gaming experience better. Also, they are going to hold MineCon in London in a few weeks.

Update 15: Rare Replay – 30 games for $30. Haha, 10,000 gamerscore available for the achievement chasers. Battletoads, Viva Pinata, Perfect Dark (the original), Conker’s Bad Fur Day, and many more. Coming in August, this collection is totally worth $30. Also, they introduce a “shared-world adventure game”. Looks first-person and pirate-y. We see a group of players coming to a pirate ship then working as a crew aboard, finding treasure, walking the plank, fighting other ships. Sea of Thieves looks like it could be fun. The problem with all online games like that is the player base needed to make it work is tough to get and balance, but it is exciting.

Update 14: It looks good. Trudging through the snow leaves trails behind Laura. More ice climbing and major storms trying literally rain destruction as Laura tries to make it to some mysterious ruins. November 10th release. That game looks pretty great. Oh snap, time for Rare.

Update 13: Xbox Game Preview – an early-access program. Elite Dangerous and The Long Dark will be available later today. It will be interesting to see how this shapes development for these games. DayZ creator comes to the stage to introduce Ion which is some kind of space management sim. Again, just a teaser. Here comes Crystal Dynamics to show us Rise of the Tomb Raider.

Update 12: Windows 10 and Xbox One exclusive of a cartoony third-person title. Gigantic seems to be a team battle arena? Free to play…I dunno…not a lot here to explain what is happening. Followed by a sizzle reel of a lot of indie games, many of which were introduced at last year’s E3. Now branded as ID@Xbox. Fullbright studios takes the stage to show off their new game, Tacoma which is first on Xbox and PC. It seems to be a first-person puzzler on a space station. Next, Ashen, an adventure game set in a bleak land. Again, not much to judge. Next indie up is Beyond Eyes which has a blind protagonist. Very nice art style, with a very watercolor feel. The world is only “visible” in small swaths of hearing and smell and touch. Keeping the Indie train rolling, the return of Cuphead, which was one of the most interesting teases from last year’s E3. Classic 1930s/40s art style meets 16-bit platform mechanics. Still coming 2016.

Update 11: New video for The Division. The graphics look a little less gritty than when we last saw it. Ubisoft Americas president takes the stage to talk about it a bit more. Action-RPG, set in New York after a plague sweeps the place. Xbox One gets an exclusive beta in December. I’m sure we’ll hear more later tonight. Next up Rainbow Six: Siege. Rainbow Six: Vegas and Vegas 2 will be backwards compatible and will be free with Siege. October 13th release date.

Update 10: From software world premier? Time for a Dark Souls 3 trailer. It looks dark and hard and like a game I won’t be playing, but I know there are a lot of you that like it.

Update 9: Forza time. Ford Motor Company is bringing back the Ford GT, and they lower one onto the stage. It is a good looking car. Forza Motorsport 6 is coming. Guess what? The team that has been making near-photo-realistic racing games for a while are still really good at their job. 24 player multiplayer, 1080p 60 fps. Releases September 15th.

Update 8: Peter Moore from EA comes to the stage to talk about EA Access – the subscription based service. Play first, play more, play for less is their tag. Xbox One EA Access users will get this year’s Madden early. Xbox Live Gold members get to play the EA Access vault for free this week. Also, announcement of Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2 coming next spring. He leaves us with a trailer. This trailer is a mix between the Minions and a bad ’90s action movie. I suppose that is intentional, but it didn’t work for me. Of course, I don’t think I’m the target demo.

Update 7: Fallout 4 on stage. So far nothing new from last night’s Bethesda press event. Here is a bit about a laser musket weapon with a little bit of story. Ah, this is where last night’s bit with the power armor came from. A little more context, but still, nothing amazing to add. Here is a new bit: mods created on PC will be sharable and playable on Xbox One. There is also a banner saying you will get Fallout 3 with Fallout 4 on Xbox One.

Update 6: The backwards compatibility is native and will be available this holiday season for everyone. No charge to play the games you already own. Preview members can start with select titles today. This is a major announcement. It will require that you download the game to the Xbox One, so I guess it is a good thing they are releasing the larger hard drive version. Next comes a trailer for the Xbox Elite Controller which has some cool customization options like the ability to add paddle controllers and it looks like you can program what they do.

Update 5: Phil Spencer takes the stage and drops a bomb: Backwards compatibility with 360 titles is coming.

Update 4: World Premiere video for a game of a kid and its robot dog wandering a desert wilderness. Spider turret bots attack. The kid has a rifle, and gadgets, the dog sacrifices itself leaving behind a big ball of blue energy which the kid uses to power a larger ape-like robot and says “welcome back buddy.” Recore is the title, slated for a Spring 2016 launch. Another exclusive from Microsoft. Looks cool, has a good pedigree, but not a lot to judge since it was just a trailer.

Update 3: Starting with 343 Studios head on the stage. There we go best exclusives launching this year going into Halo 5: Guardians with the audio tag of Xbox One exclusive. Nathan Fillion getting prime play in the teaser. We move into game play. In this demo you are playing as Spartan Locke on the trail of Master Chief. The visuals are impressive. It certainly looks like Halo, but has a different finish and feel from Bungie. There is squad based combat, and we see Locke issuing squad commands to focus on an enemy ship and help a downed comrade. In the next area the group splits in two to flank the enemy. It is Halo, it will sell millions of copies.

Update 2: Here we go. Sizzle reel to start: Tomb Raider, Gears of War, HALO, Fables, Forza all make an appearance. Setting the tone early that we are going to harp a lot on platform exclusives. You know, the bane of the non-fanboy gamer.

Update 1: The stream is up. So far, just a screen telling us in several languages that the briefing will start at 12:30 EDT.

Graphic Policy E3 Live Update Schedule

Posted on by

Hello everyone! The 2015 Electronics Entertainment Expo is upon us and we are here to bring you live updates of the announcements from the major press conferences all afternoon. Things will get started in a little over half an hour with the Microsoft press conference. The full schedule, as well as links to our coverage of each can be found below as they go live.

Monday 6/15:

12:30 PM ET – Microsoft Press Event

4:00 PM ET – Electronic Arts Press Event

6:00 PM ET – Ubisoft Press Event

9:00 PM ET – Sony Press Event – Reaction

Tuesday 6/16:

12:00 PM ET – Nintendo Direct

1:00 PM ET – Square-Enix Press Event

9:00 PM ET – PC Gaming Press Event

Come back and follow as we share the reveals and add our own snark to the proceedings.

Bethesda Softworks E3 Press Event

Posted on by

The show starts with a video of Bethesda employees talking about why they love their jobs followed by a sizzle real of the games we’ll presumably hear more about later. Clearly identifiable: Fallout 4, Doom, Battlecry, Dishonored, Elder Scrolls Online.

doomWe start the show with the reborn Doom. It is being developed by id Software and published by Bethesda. We get what seems to be in-engine game play. It looks really good, but who knows how indicative this is or what platform they are showing (my guess is a computer that would be a few thousand to recreate). It is running on a new engine id developed. The enemies are recognizable from previous iterations. Lots of gore, as one would expect. Injured enemies flash indicating a finishing move can be done to them, and those shown are brutally gruesome and include a variety of melee animations. Once the chainsaw came up, the gore level reached a ridiculous level. The HUD is clean and pretty minimalist: clearly designed with playing with a controller in mind. The footage shows several different weapons. The demo ends with a demon that lands and beats the protagonist with his own arm that the demon just ripped off.

Multiplayer will be “fast-paced arena style combat” It will have several different modes, and looks to allow soldiers to play against demons.

The best part of Doom has always been the mod tools. Id has not forgotten that, and they are promising that ability in the new Doom with “Snapmap.” They say the creations will be cross-platform, which is pretty cool. The interface looks like a mix between Halo’s forge and Little Big Planet. Point-and-click level building with a map overview mode and an in level adjustment/build mode as well.

The Doom portion ends with some more campaign footage in hell. More gore, more guns, more demons. The second clip ends with a giant demon and a glimpse at the BFG. It looks great, it feels like Doom, and I’m sure some segment of the market is excited. I’m just not among them. Release Spring 2016 on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.

Next up, Bethesda.net- the new digital hub for all things Bethesda, including the cross-platform sharing. Transition to talk about Batlecry– the “team based action combat” game- inviting everyone to sign up for the world-wide beta soon. We also get a clip introducing a new faction: the Han Republic. Not a lot of new info here.

Arkane Studios takes the stage. Dishonored 2 time? Looks like- the mask from Dishonored sinks below the water. A very pretty movie comes next. Same setting, new protagonist- a female protagonist? The video shows a female, but the voice-over is male. Ah, you get a choice. Nice. You can play as Corvo or Emily Kaldwin. Not a lot more info here. I expect we’ll get another E3 before we get a release here. Also: Dishonored: Definitive Edition – an HD up-resolution version for PC, Xbox One, and PS4- including all the DLC to date.

Elder Scrolls Online gets a video about new content coming over the next year. The orc homeland? Imperial City? Is this stuff new? I don’t know. I am a heathen and do not care about Elder Scrolls because I do not need a flower-picking simulator and any time I try those games that is what it becomes for me. We also get an announce teaser for The Elder Scrolls: Legends– a digital strategy card game. That could be cool. Free to play on PC and iPad coming later this year. More info to come later.

vault111

Now a funny joke about that being the end of the show. Time for Fallout 4. My issues with Elder Scrolls are also with Fallout. I’m not saying they are bad games or do not deserve the love they get. I get that they are really good, they just aren’t for me.

The Fallout presentation starts out with a TON of concept art, because they make art for everything. It is all pretty amazing. We’re starting before the bombs fall this time. Character customization looks to be some of the best yet seen and you can play as a female or male. Fast-forward to you coming out as the sole-survivor of vault 111 some 200 years later. You can get a dog and give it commands including fetching items. It looks pretty amazing, and is certainly a Fallout game. The collector’s edition will have a real Pipboy that can hold your phone and they have developed an app for it. So, there’s that.

falloutshelterappAlso, a new Fallout game for Apple devices. Fallout Shelter will allow you to make your own vault and manage it. Each dweller has stats, you can build new rooms, equip your residents and send them out to gather resources. You get rewarded with lunchboxes with random loot. It is going to be free, no internet connection required, no pay timers. You can buy lunchboxes. It is available on the Apple app store tonight. Go get it and check it out.

But wait, there’s more about Fallout 4. You can scrap items in the game for materials and rebuild stuff like buildings and furniture. You can build a settlement. Your settlements can be attacked by raiders, so you need to also build defenses. You can run caravans between settlements. This is an optional aspect of the game. The crafting system works on weapons and armor as well. Over 50 base weapons with many mod options. You know, because you didn’t spend enough time with Fallout already.

Next: combat video montage. There are a lot of weapons and a lot of enemies and it can be ridiculous. They close out Fallout announcing the release date: November 10, 2015.

Tomorrow, I will be live-blogging most of the press events.

Nintendo World Championship 2015 – Recap and thoughts

Posted on by

Our 2015 E3 coverage starts with the Nintendo World Championships. Nintendo brought their world championship back to E3 25 years after the original.nintendo-world-championship-trophy-2015

The show began with a Nintendo Treehouse program in which a new level of Yoshi’s Wooly World was demonstrated. The game looks like a lot of fun, and is visually whimsical. This game was introduced last year’s E3 and is slated for release later this year. It is very similar to Kirby’s Epic Yarn on the Wii

Next, we get a new announcement for the North America and Europe release of Earthbound Beginnings via the Virtual Console on Wii U. It is the original game released as Mother in Japan for the Famicom, but did not receive an official release in North America. It is available now only on the Wii U. This will make a lot of Nintendo fans very happy. Of course, if you didn’t already want this game, you probably are not that excited by this announcement.

On to the competition. Eight players were invited by Nintendo, and eight won their spot in the competition through regional qualifiers. Overall, the field was not very diverse and only two of the competitors were female.

Kevin Pereira hosted the evening. He was joined by other commentators through the evening. Including an eight year old during the first round. Pro-tip to Nintendo: in the future, do not have eight-year-old commentators. It almost made me stop watching. Instead, I just muted the stream for a bit.

Round one has 16 competitors, four will head to elimination. The elimination round, or “underground” allows one of those four competitors fight for survival through the underground rounds. Only one person moves on to the next underground round. Round 2 will send four of the 12 players to the elimination round, with 8 moving on to round 3, the 5 gamers (four plus the survivor from the previous round) in the loser’s bracket will fight for one survivor spot. After round four there will be one final underground to set the four competitors for the semifinals.

Round One was Splatoon. The 16 competitors are split into two waves of 8 players. Four teams of four in 2 out of 3 rounds. Double elimination with the last place team going into the underground round. Splatoon is Nintendo’s 3rd person team shooter. The game mode played was “Turf War” in which the team that covered more of the map with ink was the winner. As a spectator eSport, Splatoon is not that interesting to me. The match rounds were 3 minutes, but since the main focus isn’t on direct conflict but on painting territory, it is not all that interesting to watch. Oh look, that player is spraying ink on the floor. It is a lot like being a spectator for a Mario Party mini-game, except it lasts 3 long minutes.

The first elimination challenge, labeled the underground was The Legend of Zelda speed-run through the first dungeon. Lots of “It’s dangerous to go alone” jokes from the commentators.

Round two is the world premiere of Blastball. A first person game in which players in mechs use blasters to push a ball into a goal. It is mech soccer with blasters. This is a new 3DS title that was announced here at the World Championships. Each time you score a goal the goal, the goal shrinks. It is also possible to disable the mechs of your opponents. You have to manage your health and weapon energy throughout the match. Being hit by the ball does major damage, and if you take too much, you are ejected from your mech creating a power play for the other team. There are various power ups for the mechs and in the last 30 seconds of the match, the ball gets much more dangerous. It looks like a fun eShop game- at least I hope it is an eShop game and not a retail release (unless there is a LOT more to it than shown).

SMMBThe second underground features Super Metroid. They have to face Mother Brain and escape. First to defeat, or longest surviving moves on to play the final elimination round.

Round 3 is Mariokart 8. This was the most interesting round so far from a spectator point of view. The races were fast and exciting. The second group of racers in particular had some very close finishes. It was a custom 3 track race at 200cc. Even though there were still two rounds, those that advance were based on point totals from both rounds using a calculation including la times.

Final round of underground/elimination is Balloon Fight. Playing the Balloon Trip mode with the highest score moves on. Players could restart, but it was the highest single run score that counted.

The semi-final featured Super Smash Bros. Prior to the World Championship match, Regie came to the stage to make good on his promise at the Smash championship last year to take on Hungrybox. It went about as well as you would imagine a match between a pro-player against an executive would go.

As far as the semi-final, this was pretty fun to watch. It was a four player all item smash. It was frantic, and everyone had a pretty good grasp on the game. Setting up the final between John Numbers and Cosmo. John Numbers played as Shulk and Cosmo played as the newly re-introduced Roy.

The final is Super Mario Maker. The levels featured were made by the Nintendo team. The competition was the fastest clear time in the fourth stage would be the winner. Four stages, the winner of each of the first 3 stages gets a 15 second head start on the last stage. Each of the four stages is from a different Mario game, with those mechanics available to the player in the level. These stages were harder than anything from the lost levels. They were brutal. John Numbers destroyed that last stage. That was a lot of fun. Seeing something instantly familiar and yet at the same time new, was amazing.

Miyamoto came out to hand out the trophy as well as giving both finalists a signed new 3DS XL. John Numbers is the 2015 Nintendo World Champion. It would be really neat if they tweaked this a little and it became a semi-regular thing. I do not think it could be annual because Nintendo simply does not release enough games. Maybe next time we can get a new Power Glove.powerglove

Avengers Assemble! LEGO Marvel’s Avengers Storms E3 with First Trailer

Posted on by

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment today released the first trailer for LEGO Marvel’s Avengers, the first console videogame featuring characters and storylines from the critically-acclaimed film Marvel’s The Avengers and the blockbuster sequel Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron. Play as Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in their quest to save the world while reliving some of the most amazing moments from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including the famed Battle of New York between the Avengers and Super Villain Loki as seen in Marvel’s The Avengers.

Re-imagined in LEGO form and told in TellTale Games’ signature, classic LEGO humor, LEGO Marvel’s Avengers will be available this winter for Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS4, PS3, PS Vita, WiiU, Nintendo 3DS and Windows PC.

Classic Dinobots Join Transformers: Battle Tactics

Posted on by
Transformers Battle Tactics logoThe Dinobots have entered the battlefield! Today DeNA announced Dinobot Destruction, a new in-game event that brings the original G1 Dinobots to Transformers: Battle Tactics

An exciting turn-based strategy game for iOS and Android, Transformers: Battle Tactics lets players collect and assemble teams of iconic Autobots and Decepticons to battle in strategic combat experiences with other fans in real-time.

Running from June 4 through June 10, players will collect and fight alongside Slug, Snarl, and Slog in the Dinobot Destruction event. As they rise through the ranks, players have the chance to win classic Transformers characters, Grimlock and Swoop.

Transformers: Battle Tactics is a turn-based tactical mobile game inspired by the all new fan favorite Combiner Wars comic story and the expansive 30-year history of the Transformers Generations universe. Players collect and assemble epic teams, made up of Autobots and Decepticons who fight side by side in a unique campaign mode and intense player vs player (PvP) mode to engage with gamers and Transformers fans from around the world.

Transformers: Battle Tactics is available now as a free download in the App Store for iPhone and iPad and on Google Play for Android devices.

Event110_FBBanner

DC and Turbine’s Infinite Crisis Shutting Down

Posted on by

Infinite-Crisis_LOGOThe game came to steam out of beta not too long ago, but developer Turbine Entertainment has announced that they’ll be shutting down the DC Comics based MOBA Infinite Crisis. The pitted various characters from the DC multiverse against each other.

Development has been completed and the service will be shut down on August 14. So, you’ve got until that date to get some gaming in.

Those with questions about refunds for anything bought related to the game can ask questions here.

The game launched on Steam March 26 which also officially ended its beta run. That means the game lasted less than six months after its beta release.

Dungeons & Dragons: Sword Coast Legends coming to Mac and Linux

Posted on by

Sword Coast LegendsIndependent developers, n-Space and Digital Extremes, announced today that their upcoming Sword Coast Legends a party-based RPG set in the Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms universe from Wizards of the Coast, will be released simultaneously on Steam for Windows PC, Mac and Linux operating systems in Q3 2015.

 

Sword Coast Legends fully supports cross platform network play on any mix of Windows, Mac and Linux machines.  As further proof of the team’s shared commitment to gamers on all desktop platforms, each Sword Coast Legends Steam key can be redeemed for the player’s platform of choice.

When Sword Coast Legends releases later this year, it will introduce an entirely new way to play Dungeons & Dragons with Dungeon Master Mode and its introduction of real-time, active and reactive Dungeon Mastering.  While Dungeon Master Mode is a truly innovative RPG “game changer,” Sword Coast Legends will also feature a massive single player campaign and complex storyline, deep character customization, engrossing party-based gameplay and NPC interactions, an epic orchestral soundtrack, high-quality professional voice-over production, and much, much more.

 

Sword Coast Legends is currently available for pre-order at the limited and discounted price of $34.99. Digital Deluxe and Collector’s Editions, which include a tome of knowledge, cloth map of the Sword Coast, the official soundtrack, numerous in-game bonuses, starter items and DM abilities as well as a statue of Belaphoss (Collector’s Edition) are also available for pre-order for $59.99 and $239.99, respectively.

« Older Entries Recent Entries »