E3 Thoughts This Year?

[Harry Sunderland]

Ranger,

I'm just excited that the gameplay trailer that was closed doors to the press for MGS V will be coming out for the general public soon. I much would rather watch gameplay over trailers as well. But these days publishers are getting REALLY defensive about showing gameplay. I watched a Rev3Games review with Adam Sessler (for the PS4 inFAMOUS game) that was burning with sarcasm over how little footage they could show. I bet that's part of what led him to leave the publishing industry .

Matt,

I didn't realize a K1 device was coming out so soon! When I read about the capabilities of the K1, it blew my mind. Technology seems to improve so fast these days!

[matt]

Fun fact: I ran into Adam Sessler at E3, and he said his interview with us was the VERY last he did at Rev3.It's a shame it never got published because it was really good. At GDC, he seemed a bit fed up with the reaction from people for his 6/10 review for Infamous: Second Son. Perhaps that was the straw that broke the camel's back? Personally, I like to see people using more numbers than just 7+ (except when rating my game). Game reviews are weird. If you look at metacritic for movies - they are much lower - even for stand out films.

I feel like there is some unspoken rule where game reviewers have to give games the benefit of the doubt unless they are indie or unknown. It'd be great to read a review that said, "You know, I think I've had enough Assassin's Creed", but you don't see many of those. There was some backlash against Call of Duty Ghosts, but I think it has a metacritic of 78 or so, which is not bad at all. Personally, I did NOT enjoy Call of Duty Ghosts at all. I'm not saying it's bad game, but it wasn't for me. I don't feel like it is possible to make a game for everyone, but why isn't that reflected in review scores? Okay, rant over.

Anyway, while I thought Splatoon was just Nintendo trying to get with the program and make a networked shooter, I watched a video about it today, and it seems pretty unique and interesting. Too bad they probably won't have voice chat or a decent network platform, so it seems like a game much better suited to another platform...

I find it difficult to get excited about Zelda when they just showed something so brief. They claim it's open world, but maybe that just means a repeat of WindWaker's terrible sailing to get everywhere.

I find it impossible to get excited about Metal Gear Solid V because all they talk about is how big the world is. Their last demo was Snake riding a horse through a giant world, and they had to speed it up like 8x and it was still boring. I don't understand how having an enormous empty world is a selling point, but that seems like what they are talking about with Metal Gear Solid V...

[Harry Sunderland]

Did you play MGSV: Ground Zeroes? I played it, and it was kind of interesting taking Metal Gear into the open world space. However, the entire game takes place in a relatively small military camp. I didn't realize they were constantly hiping how huge the world is. That could be concerning. It's the classic dilemma. Look how big our Map is! Oh shit, we made it so big we need to add fast travel. Ignore how big our Map is now!

I'm a Metal Gear fanboy though, so honestly Kojima could release a 16 bit side scroller with a kill screen after ten seconds and I'd probably buy it and join the sub-reddit.

[matt]

I did not. I'm not big into stealth games, but I had a friend who enjoyed the story of the games, so I thought it might be interesting in that respect. However, as near as I can figure, the stories are borderline nonsensical. I asked friends who were Metal Gear fans a while back to explain the story of part 2 to me, and I don't think anyone really remembered or could explain it. From what I do know, it seems like weird inconsistent soap opera things going on over your intercom with Otacon sleeping with his step mother causing the suicide of his father. Whaaaaaaaaaaaa?

I'm sure they are good games, but I guess they aren't my thing. I was considering getting 4 until I heard that it was half cutscenes. Ground Zeroes is basically $40 for 10 minutes of gameplay, so I passed on that as well. hahaha

[Harry Sunderland]

I'll take a stab at summarizing for fun SUPER DUPER SPOILERS AHEAD:

In my opinion, MGS 2 is essentially about the control of knowledge. It's been a few years since I played it (probably 11 or 12 to be honest, but it really stuck with me), but essentially the game follows up the big question of MGS 1: how much do our genes control our destiny? In the ending of that game it's revealed that despite being the weaker clone, Solid Snake somehow survived Shadow Moses and defeated his superior clone brother.

The realization of the events of MGS led the Patriots (basically the Metal Gear equivalent of illuminati type dudes) to realize that we are more than just our genes, but the product of our lives/experiences. So the plot of the game slowly starts to unravel that the entire mission is an elaborate set-up to see if they can build up a pretty boy like Raiden and turn him into a bad-ass like Snake, by recreating the events of Shadow Moses. However, the plot twists even more when it's realized that the Patriots aren't just trying to mold Raiden, they have an elaborate AI which can censor the entire internet/media empire. The Metal Gear in MGS2 isn't a bi-pedal tank, but an AI. They plan to use this to mold the entire population to their wishes. Along the way, many crazy Japanese drama type things happen, and those are the details I'm fuzzy on.

The real genius of the game though is when it starts to take a post-modern twist, and really starts making Raiden a proxy for the gamer. The way the Patriots begin manipulating sort of starts to reveal that it's not the character Raiden that is being manipulated, it's you the person holding a controller playing a PS2 game (at the beginning of the game, it asks your real name and blood type. In the games ending, Raiden discards his dog tag, and you realize his real name is Matt Gilgenbach and he's your blood type. Basically you are Raiden...someone being manipulated into becoming a tool of the Patriots. The tool for this manipulation is the actual game Metal Gear Solid 2).

Metal Gear basically takes the scenic route to drive it's points home, but I really get into the plots...even though I feel like after 3, Hideo keeps going more and more into the realm of absurdity at times. However, I feel like he's kind of the crazy uncle that you have to just let him do his thing and appreciate his genius in spite of it.

[matt]

When you put it like that, it sounds kind of interesting, but I watched a friend play it, and I was turned off by the crazy drama stuff. I tried reading up on all the characters to see if I could get caught up for MGS 4, but everyone was a clone of someone's hand or something, so I was pretty confused.

Metal Gear basically takes the scenic route to drive it's points home, but I really get into the plots...even though I feel like after 3, Hideo keeps going more and more into the realm of absurdity at times. However, I feel like he's kind of the crazy uncle that you have to just let him do his thing and appreciate his genius in spite of it.

I think a lot of people feel that way. Everyone seemed to be using that argument when he said he was making the character of "Quiet" more erotic to sell figures and promote cosplay... :-/ Maybe it lost something in the translation?!