Most Anticipated Video Games

[Mustang]

Gotham Knights. Completely turned off from this game. I know people are already divided because it's going on PS5 and XBSX but I applaud them for that. Don't want another Cyberpunk situation, granted I get why everyone is mad. Hell, it's the same reason my Square/Sony is on my shit list at the moment (I will eventually get over it). Nah, what turned me off was the gameplay demo. What the hell happened from when it was announced? If I'm not mistaken these are the same people that did Arkham Origins. Okay, cool. AO was a rip from AC, and even with the bugs it still played and looked good.

The animations here in GK is terrible. Looks like it's going to have delayed responses to button presses. And then when you look at the moves they were doing and think back to Arkham Knight, like what the hell is this? It's like they regressed and lost moves. I was never sold on Suicide Squad because they are like Guardians of the Galaxy, I just don't like them, but this right here, hard pass for me.

[Mustang]

Saw the rest of Sony's State of Play.

Of course I'm hyped for Street Fighter 6 (lots of leaks coming out the woodwork though). I hope Capcom can make some bomb ass trailers for the characters to combat the leaks because that's just unfortunate to have to keep dealing with them to kill any hype that's being generated.

The talk of the town was of course Resident Evil 4 Remake and Final Fantasy 16. Kudos to those amped for RE4R. FF16, if I can get a PS5, sure I'll be hyped for it. Combat looking closer to a DMC/Bayonetta type of game. Although, it might play like FF7R. Not sure.

There was one little small game that caught my attention that's probably going to be ignored. Eternights, I think that's the name. Typical anime type stuff but I've been into them as of late (it's why I've been so gung-ho about the Trails series and I might be getting a little sawft the closer I get to 40 lol)

Overall, Sony came out punching.

[Foggle]

I can usually find a fair few things to get excited for at each of the big trade shows, but this year's not-E3 has been almost barren so far for me. That said, Wanted: Dead from ex-Itagaki-era Team Ninja devs (possibly including the big man himself, I'm not sure) looks almost exactly like the original version of Devil's Third we were promised a decade ago and I can't fucking wait. I think E-K's gonna want to see this... https://youtu.be/qITxSJGL3B4

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I did see this and had the exact same thought. Soleil made the surprisingly decent Samurai Jack game that almost nobody played, but you can tell that old-school Team Ninja DNA is definitely there. I am unsure if Itagaki would have any involvement in this property as he had nothing to do with the formation of Soleil Games, to my knowledge, and his own new company is Itagaki Games.

That said, it's not hard to believe that this game is clearly another stab at what the ex-TN (and also ex-Valhalla) devs originally wanted to do with Devil's Third. People often focus so much on Itagaki and his ridiculously over-the-top persona that it kind of overshadows the fact that various other key members in high-ranking positions at Team Ninja left with him because they too were disgruntled employees working under Tecmo at the time. It's not hard to imagine that they were also passionate about making another great action game that clearly went into development hell. Granted, while part of that was out of their control, it's only fair to point out that Valhalla had made some bad business decisions of their own which contributed to the game being a mess.

Still, the game looks over-the-top and cheesy in all of the ways that I love, but with a potentially deep and interesting combat system.

This and Street Fighter 6 are probably among the only few upcoming games that I'm excited for.

[Foggle]

I thought you would have seen it already but just wanted to make sure! SF6 does look good as hell too, and I'm usually not a fighting game guy as you know. Thanks for the info on Valhalla's/Soleil's history, couldn't really find out much by looking them up sadly. I definitely gotta check out that Samurai Jack game now!

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

It's not a classic or anything (definitely not on the level of Ninja Gaiden), but as a clearly low budget title for them to break in, it's probably better than it has any right to be. I'd compare it to Transformers: Devastation from Platinum. Made on the quick and cheap but still with their trademark style at it's core so it's still undeniably well designed and fun.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Wasn't terribly interested in too much from the XBOX/Bethesda showcase. Maybe Diablo IV will be the first game I try in that series because it does look kind of interesting to me.

Wo Long of course has my interest, but there's no actual gameplay to go on yet. Team Ninja has had a comeback in recent years with the success of the Nioh games, which I love. That said, while I'm sure that this will be more in that camp, I would be thrilled if this leans more to a pure action focus like the Ninja Gaiden games. It's also interesting to see Team Ninja making a Microsoft exclusive for the first time in well over a decade. They had a good relationship with Microsoft from the launch of the original XBOX to Tomonobu Itagaki's departure in 2008, so I wouldn't be surprised if this was a Microsoft move to try and rekindle their former relationship with a big-name Japanese developer.

[Mustang]

Soooo Gamescom opening night was a bust for me. Lot's of outer space and FPS games. More power to the people into them.

1 little nugget manage to catch my interest though. Where Winds Meet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDDeQD35y8A

It was giving off a lot of Ghost of Tsushima vibes, but it could be souls-y. Need more.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

OK, despite my gripes that we're sticking with the Souls route instead of getting a new Ninja Gaiden game, PWAR's breakdown of the short gameplay trailer has me so much more hyped for this game now: https://youtu.be/NyWBu4HlL8g

The key takeaway points are:

-No Stamina to worry about
-Generally faster combat speed
-Less RNG and loot/item management to distract from core gameplay
-Keeping Nioh 2's burst counters
-Keeping Nioh's elemental magic system
-More skill-based than level-based progression
-The ability to jump opens both mobility and combat options
-Critical finishers return

Essentially, this seems to be like Nioh but with less of the RPG baggage to deal with (though still a fair amount of it), which I'm all in favor of since I want to focus more on the action gameplay.

And look, I like Souls, and had a ton of fun with Elden Ring as well as their most action-focused game which was Sekiro. But just look at how smooth the combat animations in this game are and try to tell me that Team Ninja doesn't put almost every other modern action developer to shame in actually making a current-gen experience that manages to look as exciting as it is to play. This is like a Wuxia film that you can play through, and since it's Team Ninja, they won't have to dumb down the mechanics to achieve that effect.

[Rynnec]

Gungrave G.O.R.E has been announced for years, but we're finally starting to see more direct gameplay footage, and it's looking pretty damn solid (despite some jank animations), especially for a mid-budget title from an unknown Korean developer. This is exactly the sort of insane, over-the-top action game I absolutely love and I'm glad the franchise is getting at least one new entry after all these years. I was cautiously optimistic at first (especially after that VR game that came out a few years ago), but this is now a game I am absolutely excited to play.

I can't see this game setting the world on fire, but between Gungrave, Soulstice, and Evil West, I'm just happy to have these mid-budget, somewhat janky action games back.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Gungrave G.O.R.E has been announced for years, but we're finally starting to see more direct gameplay footage, and it's looking pretty damn solid (despite some jank animations), especially for a mid-budget title from an unknown Korean developer. This is exactly the sort of insane, over-the-top action game I absolutely love and I'm glad the franchise is getting at least one new entry after all these years. I was cautiously optimistic at first (especially after that VR game that came out a few years ago), but this is now a game I am absolutely excited to play.

It's still baffling to see a revival of a long forgotten and dormant PS2-era franchise in this day and age (not even a particularly popular one at that), but it's also kind of refreshing. It's one of those things that would be cool to see happen to other cult classics, like Phantom Dust, Otogi, Shinobi, or various other candidates.

As far as mid-budget games go, I have to admit to being morbidly curious about Wanted: Dead. This could easily be another Devil's Third situation but the combat itself actually looks legitimately good this time. Most people point out the atrocious voice-acting and the brain dead-looking enemy AI, and while both are true, to the first point it has the potential to be unintentionally hilarious like an old-school PS1-era game (this is one thing that Devil's Third actually did have going for it), and to the second point, apparently a few people who reported on playing the demo at the show said that the enemies were a lot harder than the gameplay reveal made them look, so I suppose we'll see there. Anyways, I'll go in fully expecting a disaster of a train wreck and hopefully be somewhat pleasantly surprised if the core gameplay is at least decent.

[Mustang]

I completely forgot about Gungrave: Gore. I guess that's because I don't have a PS5 yet (I'm assuming it's exclusively on the PS5 right? Don't recall seeing a PS4 release or anything) but when I had my PS2, you better believe I had Gungrave: Overdose. That and probably DMC3 were my most played games on the PS2. I remember having a lot of my anger out on that game because all you did was go around and shooting shit up. Walls, desks, chairs, etc were obliterated on most days.

Slow day at work today but the Nintendo Direct and Sony State of Play might've been pretty hot. I missed them both but I saw some of the games that were announced at both and if I had either a Switch or PS5 I'd be coming from both a very happy man.

Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (obviously)
Octopath Traveler 2
Fire Emblem: Engage (If I were to ever jump into the series this would be where I'd leap in at)
Ateiler Ryza 3

There might've been 1 more that I can't remember off the top of my head at the moment. As for the online stuff, specifically Goldeneye007, I don't know how I feel about it. Nintendo is not particularly good with online stuff. That being said, both my brother and sister are already plotting revenge/rematch even though it might be completely weird playing Goldeneye without the N64 controller.

God of War: Ragnarok (I have a rant towards some of these journalists/podcasts when it comes to 2018's game)
Tekken 8
Like a Dragon (I'm not a fan of the Yakuza series. Can't get into them for some reason, but slap samurai on it and you have my attention)
Rise of the Ronin (Team Ninja kinda going crazy. I'm not getting souls-vibe from this. Almost getting ghost of tsushima vibes)

There might've been 1 more here also that I can't remember off the top of my head that I'm looking forward to as well. Good stuff overall.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Shit, between this and Wo Long, Team Ninja are just cranking shit out. I kind of hope they aren't being stretched too thin, but both games look solid so far.

[Mustang]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYZAPvJhc30

Still holding out hope. No release date, but I think this is my most anticipated game yet. Relink should've been out. Hopefully it'll be a hit. This is one of those type of games that'll get me outta my funk.

[Mustang]

That state of play, wow, other than Street Fighter 6, that was a terrible showcase for me. Should've just saved that showcase for another day or something.

Rocksteady got 3 strikes for Suicide Squad for me. The first one was because it was Suicide Squad to begin with. Suicide Squad is the equivalent to Guardians of the Galaxy to me. Both groups I just don't care nor have any attachment to. Your job is to sell me on it. Strike 2 for having it being a 3rd Person Shooter. I get it, trying to go for something different from your norm, but of all things 3PS, really? Strike 3, game of service or whatever that bullshit all battle royales end up being. Graphically, it looks good though.

Street Fighter 6. I've cooled off on a lot since the announcement of Honda and Blanka, but it's still day 1 for me. That being said, the FGC's gotta have some of the most horniest and corniest people I've ever come across and all of them are man children. All this ass and feet worship over imaginary characters. Sorry, I'm a spoil sport, but I prefer real women. Anyway, like I said, day 1 purchase but I don't think it'll be my main game. Everyone looks solid but like SF5, none of the characters really jump out at me. I'll settle on the shotos (which I don't want to do) until the first wave of DLC. People have told me Jamie would be for me. To those people, thanks but the problem is me being a loyalist and to that, the problem with Jamie is that he's not Yun or Yang. It'd be different if I were coming to a new IP looking for a character like Dudley/Cody/Yun/Yang, but this is Street Fighter. Gimmie my character 1st dammit, not some upgraded knockoff.