Most Anticipated Video Games

[Foggle]

You mean that QTE-infested Arkham clone showcase from two years ago? Eh, agree to disagree there. That looked boring as fuck and I have no idea why anyone got excited by that footage.

No, I mean the reveal trailer that showed Spider-Man swinging around the city. The combat footage from the following year was awful and I said as much at the time (maybe not here, but definitely on Twitter).

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Ah, I see. Fair point, though to be honest I never actually saw that one. That said, I mean....if this game had a tech showcase of Iron Man flying through the city and it actually looked cool without much on the actual combat, it still wouldn't sell me on the game, hence why I don't think seeing that Spider-Man footage a few years ago would have done much for me, either. But, to be fair, that's just personal preference.

As I indicated earlier, though, the most exciting aspect of this game for me is seeing a fan-favorite voice actor from my childhood getting bigger roles in the industry. That should pretty much tell you what I think of the actual project itself.

[Foggle]

Ah, I see. Fair point, though to be honest I never actually saw that one. That said, I mean....if this game had a tech showcase of Iron Man flying through the city and it actually looked cool without much on the actual combat, it still wouldn't sell me on the game, hence why I don't think seeing that Spider-Man footage a few years ago would have done much for me, either. But, to be fair, that's just personal preference.

To be fair, it was pretty brief and also featured barely any actual gameplay (if at all), I just really love Insomniac and the old Spider-Man games, so I still got excited, that's what I mean. The combat and QTE footage took a lot of the wind out of my sails but I still had hope that Insomniac would deliver (which I think they did, to a point). I don't have the same faith in modern Crystal Dynamics or a non-Deus Ex game from Eidos Montreal, especially when they started talking about the whole "games as a service" BS at the end.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

It is funny that the much more cartoony and lower-budget MUA3 looks more entertaining than what I've seen of this game so far. I mean, it looks like a mediocre beat-em-up and despite Team Ninja's action prowess I'm sure it won't be anything special (probably because they gave this game to their B-team like with Hyrule Warriors). That said, I can say that it does at least look, in fact, like a video game. Also, I have extremely biased nostalgia from playing the first MUA game in particular a lot with my older brother back in the day.

Outside of that, they might as well have called this the Final Fantasy press conference with a couple of other games thrown in.

I'd actually be mildly interested in the FF7 remake if I could get a grasp on what it's combat is actually supposed to be like. One the one hand it seems to be like a real-time action game with hack n' slash elements, but then it has this confusing implementation of the traditional turn-based mechanics infused into it. I imagine it's something similar to Kingdom Hearts? If it can do that but on the more technical side, it might actually be a fun enough game for me to play. I'm not expecting much, though.

On a side note, there's always that part of me that, despite knowing that it'll never happen because it would have been leaked weeks before the show otherwise, wanted that big kind of surprise reveal like a new Nier game or something.

[Foggle]

I don't know what to think of FF7's combat either. I think it's leaning toward Type-0's battle system, which I enjoyed a lot, but was very rudimentary all things considered. I'm also extremely disappointed that they didn't announce anything related to Nier or Drakengard.

[Foggle]

Banjo in Smash and No More Heroes 3 announced. God bless us, every one!

[Mustang]

Had some weird ish happen last night when trying to login. I haven't gotten the chance to see anything from today, let alone Ubisoft yet, so I'll likely make a 2nd post (or edit this one) after I catch up on everything. For now, let met address this ish from yesterday.

Avengers. Boy, I was already iffy on it coming from Square. Equally iffy when I heard it was going to be Crystal Dynamics. Last night was so disappointing. I didn't really have high expectations to begin with but the long wait for something like that. Ugh.

Final Fantasy 7. I, too, don't know what to make of the combat. I was originally thinking something along the lines of FFXV, but I'm not so sure anymore. But I am sold on it for sure though. Still iffy on it being episodic though. If they find a way to fit in everything and still manage to be good I'll be impressed.

Final Fantasy 8 remake. Nostalgia at it's best for me. This is what started everything in terms of rpg's. I understand why people don't like FF8, but personally, I loved everything about it. And to finally see it getting the same treatment as the rest, all I can say is "it's about damn time".

I will say right now this E3 has been wack. Outside of Final Fantasy 7 & 8 remake, Shenmue 3, Cyberpunk, and Death Stranding, for me there hasn't been much to look forward to.

Edit:

Add Astral Chain and Zelda: Breath of the Wild sequel to the list. Ok, so I take this E3 being wack back (same amount of games for me I think last year as well or close to it)

[Foggle]

E3 is always wack, and I hate that I try to convince myself there might be another year on the level of 2015 only to end up disappointed every time. That was lightning in a bottle.

I got new Shinji Mikami (or Mikami-adjacent), Suda51, and Arkane games to look forward to, plus Banjo in Smash, so I'm satisfied.

[Mustang]

Touche, you got me there. I don't know, I guess because of Sony not being there I guess I was hoping they'd come stronger than ever, but wishful thinking.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Truthfully, I've learned to temper my expectations for E3 over the past few years.

To be fair, a big part of this is due to my own personal tastes. Gaming has a medium has largely moved away from what I value about it in the first place, so naturally very few new games coming out which actually grab my interest, and even fewer will manage to really impress me with their actual content. That's why most of my gaming interest has been focused towards exploring older classics that I missed out on back in the medium at it's peak (by my personal standards).

Still, that's obviously just me. Over the past few years, I have also learned to be a bit less snobby and try not hating on games or gamers simply because my interest doesn't often align with the masses. That'd make me no better than the obnoxious film snobs that look down on superhero movies or other forms of entertainment that I really like, despite having a lot of personal love for whatever medium it is that they value. In that regard, I don't want to be that obnoxious dick (or at least I try not to be), so I am glad for the people who really get what they want out of events like these, but for me personally, it's always about those core few titles that I'm really interested in. That's the only thing keeping my attention for E3 these days.

That said, I don't feel like a pretentious douche-nozzle in saying that I absolutely loathe the way that game trailer presentations have become so focused on overly cinematic window dressings to the actual game that more than half the time aren't even an accurate representation of what the actual game will look like in action. It doesn't get me hyped for a game to see nothing but a glorified cutscene for a few minutes and then the developer promising me that it'll be really awesome when it comes out. I miss the days when developers would announced a game and then show you an actual working demo that you can tell is real gameplay and gives you a genuine preview of the game itself. I still remember back in 2007 when Tomonobu Itagaki went on stage (not at E3, mind you, but TGS if I'm not mistaken) to present the first gameplay of Ninja Gaiden 2 (there was a short CG trailer released online just a few days before this), and he literally just went to a developer-testing level select screen (something not available in the official release version of the game) and just started playing through part of a level in real-time. He was so nonchalant about it and didn't even stop every few seconds to guide viewers through the experience. He just let the gameplay speak for itself, and despite the presentation being so casual, it was the most awesome thing ever to me at the time. It got me so hyped for the game in a way that very few other games have managed to do.

I miss shit like that.

[Foggle]

I agree that there isn't enough focus on gameplay at these conferences. Those Gears of War 5 trailers were especially bad. The hypest shit at E3 for me was Doom Eternal, and for many people it was Final Fantasy 7 Remake or something from the Nintendo Direct, and that's because they showed off extended footage of people actually playing the games! Tango, Arkane, and Grasshopper got me hyped on name recognition alone because I know exactly what to expect from their work, but that isn't gonna be true for a lot of people. I'm not necessarily against flashy CGI trailers but there's gotta be something with more substance accompanying them.

Speaking of exploring older games, I just picked up an original Xbox, and I'm excited to finally play Gun Valkyrie and Otogi, which I've been looking into for half a decade it feels like. Popped in Ninja Gaiden Black to test it out (it's the only Xbox game I currently own) and instantly remembered how good that shit is. Gonna give that and NG2 another playthrough soon. Currently replaying Deus Ex with the GMDX mod and even this many years later it's still fresh to me. The improvement mod brings one of my all-time favorites as close to perfection as possible.

You should definitely take a look at the current indie scene if you miss the way games used to be made, though. There's a lot of dull walking simulators and weird match-three porn games on Steam but there's also just as much good stuff. You gotta check out The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile, Assault Spy, Dusk, Ion Maiden, Amid Evil, CrossCode, Momodora, Not A Hero, Freedom Planet, and Iconoclasts to name a few.

[Peanutbutter]

Most excited for Cyberpunk, FF 7 Remake which melted away any doubts I had thanks to showing off the gameplay, and No More Heroes 3!! 

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Speaking of exploring older games, I just picked up an original Xbox, and I'm excited to finally play Gun Valkyrie and Otogi, which I've been looking into for half a decade it feels like. Popped in Ninja Gaiden Black to test it out (it's the only Xbox game I currently own) and instantly remembered how good that shit is. Gonna give that and NG2 another playthrough soon.

It would've been great if there was still a way to experience the Hurricane Packs, but unfortunately the original XBOX's access to XBOX Live has long since been dead. It's a shame that there's a version of that game that flat-out no longer exists and is lost to time except for the rare few working consoles that still have it downloaded on their hard drives.

I haven't played Otogi in ages so I have no idea how it holds up, but I remember really enjoying it back in the day when I rented it from Blockbuster (damn....that was still a thing), though I never did get around to playing the sequel. I also don't know anything about Gun Valkyrie.

Also, if you can find them, I think that Panzer Dragoon Orta and Jet Set Radio Future are both worth checking out.

I do have to ask what set-up you are using to play the original XBOX, though? I've been wanting to get some older systems to play at some point, but right now I don't have an old CRT TV on hand. Did you already have one that was still in good working condition, or did you buy one from online? I did try using an adapter once, which I stupidly wasted money on without doing proper research on it, to try and play XBOX360 games on a Smart TV. It did technically work, in that it displayed images on the screen, but there was just one major problem....it shredded the frame-rate to absolute shit. We're talking like 10-20 FPS here. So, yeah, that was a no go.

You should definitely take a look at the current indie scene if you miss the way games used to be made, though. There's a lot of dull walking simulators and weird match-three porn games on Steam but there's also just as much good stuff. You gotta check out The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile, Assault Spy, Dusk, Ion Maiden, Amid Evil, CrossCode, Momodora, Not A Hero, Freedom Planet, and Iconoclasts to name a few.

I have enjoyed The Dishwasher games back on the XBOX 360, and I'll look into all of those other games that you listed. Thanks for the recommendations!

[Foggle]

It would've been great if there was still a way to experience the Hurricane Packs, but unfortunately the original XBOX's access to XBOX Live has long since been dead. It's a shame that there's a version of that game that flat-out no longer exists and is lost to time except for the rare few working consoles that still have it downloaded on their hard drives.

Yeah, it's really sad. The Xbox One backwards compatible versions of the Splinter Cell games apparently have their DLC included, so I guess there's hope that someday maybe the Hurricane Packs will be available again through BC, but I wouldn't hold my breath since Black has already been playable on it for years and I have a feeling Microsoft probably thinks no one cares about the original version of Ninja Gaiden.

I haven't played Otogi in ages so I have no idea how it holds up, but I remember really enjoying it back in the day when I rented it from Blockbuster (damn....that was still a thing), though I never did get around to playing the sequel. I also don't know anything about Gun Valkyrie.

Also, if you can find them, I think that Panzer Dragoon Orta and Jet Set Radio Future are both worth checking out.

I miss Blockbuster! I never owned Star Fox 64 as a kid but I must have rented it like six times. Gun Valkyrie is supposedly one of the system's hidden gems from Sega (just like Orta and Future), and I've wanted to try it ever since I saw the box at a local game store like 7 years ago. Hopefully I won't be disappointed!

I do have to ask what set-up you are using to play the original XBOX, though? I've been wanting to get some older systems to play at some point, but right now I don't have an old CRT TV on hand. Did you already have one that was still in good working condition, or did you buy one from online? I did try using an adapter once, which I stupidly wasted money on without doing proper research on it, to try and play XBOX360 games on a Smart TV. It did technically work, in that it displayed images on the screen, but there was just one major problem....it shredded the frame-rate to absolute shit. We're talking like 10-20 FPS here. So, yeah, that was a no go.

So far my HDTV seems to run games just fine using the A/V cables, but they look really bad, and the HDMI converter cable I got seems to be a dud, so I don't really have a proper setup for it yet. If the replacement HDMI also doesn't work then I'll try to get my hands on some component cables, though the official ones are really expensive and I hear the knockoff ones aren't great. I do have an old CRT lying around, but I'm considering that a last resort since it's very small and only does Mono audio. Ah, the joys of old school gaming in 2019.

I have enjoyed The Dishwasher games back on the XBOX 360, and I'll look into all of those other games that you listed. Thanks for the recommendations!

I played the first one back in the day and enjoyed it well enough, but it wasn't until the Steam release that I played Vampire Smile, and it quickly became one of my favorite games! Hopefully you'll find something you like in the other ones I listed.

[Mustang]

Truthfully, I've learned to temper my expectations for E3 over the past few years.

To be fair, a big part of this is due to my own personal tastes. Gaming has a medium has largely moved away from what I value about it in the first place, so naturally very few new games coming out which actually grab my interest, and even fewer will manage to really impress me with their actual content.

For the most part my expectations were pretty much held in checked for the past couple of years (I think it was 2015 that broke me with Shenmue 3's announcement). I was listening to Easy Allies podcast earlier today and they mentioned something alone the lines of "leaks" made this years E3 ho-hum. I mean, even if some games weren't leaked beforehand would it have made a difference (I hate leaks just as much as the next person)? For me outside of Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Keanu Reeves there was nothing worth getting hyped over so I don't see leaks stealing the thunder from companies this year. Maybe a lot more people would've been hyped for Watch Dogs 3, I don't know, but I just don't see it.

I would probably say at this point I'd be fine without there being an E3 though. Being into fighting games as heavy as I am my E3 don't start until Evo which don't take place until August. And then you got Sony and Nintendo going the direct route which can be done at any given time and I don't think you really have to worry so much about leaks (at least not as much or you have ample opportunity to address whatever). Square usually have some sort of event in September. So yeah, each big dev should pick a month or quarter or something along those lines and we can do away with E3 altogether.