E3 2012 Opinions

I know it’s a bit late, but I’m finally bringing you guys “E3 2012 Opinions”. So after watching as much as I can of E3, after sharing as many links as I possibly can via twitter, I am finally going to give my opinions on what was awesome, what was shit, what surprised me and my over all opinion of E3 this year. Since this is my first gaming convention thingy that I am covering, when I do my “opinions” article I will set it up like this:
Overall opinions
What was shit
What was surprising
What was awesome
Now let us finally, after many a hour, read my opinions.

We all have them

So over all E3 2012 was really, really... disappointing. E3 this year didn’t even feel like E3, it just felt like another PAX East with more games. There are two reasons to this, the first being that nothing we didn’t already know happened. Yes we did see some cool fresh things like Watch Dogs but really, we all knew what was going to happen. We knew Dead Space 3 would have co-op, we knew Dishonored would allow us to take control of rats and fish, we knew it all which is why not a lot of things really seemed interesting. Yes it was cool seeing real gameplay of these things in action but videos of the same gameplay scene get boring over time. The second reason being the participants of E3. Normally during E3 I don’t just see interviews, I see the entertainment, the booth babes, the people dressed up in strange costumes, the open booths, and things like these are normally all over places like YouTube. But this year, it felt like everyone just wanted to interview someone and gtfo. So overall I was really disappointed as it just didn’t feel like E3.

Now another thing that can ruin the E3 experience is bad games/products. Now this year I enjoyed a majority of the items that were shown off, but a couple of things should have stayed behind closed doors. The biggest one being Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. The campaign demo that was shown during the Microsoft conference was a major disappointment. Not only was it boring, but it was anything we haven’t already seen from Black Ops. Same graphics, same gameplay, same Michael Bay explosions. Sure we saw the ability to choose between using an X-Ray sniper or getting down a bridge using a grappling hook but overall it looked like the same Call of Duty we have been playing for years now. Let’s just say for a second that I’m wrong and the Call of Duty gameplay wasn’t bad, it was just how it was presented that made it look bad. I would actually easily believe this, as the Microsoft conference was the biggest load of stinky dog poo my eyes have ever seen. Not only was nothing interesting shown off, it was also put together in two seconds. A random gameplay trailer was just thrown in every so often to cover up there crappy organization skills. So basically what I’m saying is, if there was no such thing as a Microsoft conference, E3 2012 would have been a lot better!

Disappointed!

Now for what was surprising at E3. The first thing on my list has to be the Nintendo Wii U. When this was first announced and shown off a bit, people just thought it was a crappy attachment to the Wii. But after E3 2012, every should know that it’s actually a whole new system that looks really, really... good! They showed of some cool games with the Wii U and over all the Wii U is not only impressive, but could also bring Nintendo back into the battle with Microsoft and Sony. Watch Dogs was also a major surprise to everyone. No one had really head anything about Watch Dogs, but when the gameplay was released at E3 everyone was throwing money at their screens hoping they would get the game. Watch Dogs looks like one hell of an amazing game. The last thing that surprised me at E3 was Assassins Creed III naval warfare gameplay. This naval warfare gameplay looks amazing and it has made me more than happy. Why would such a small part of the game make me happy you may ask? Because the last two Assassins Creed games were just $80+ DLC’s. Finally we see Assassins Creed doing what the first and second game did, taking the gaming world a step in the future, or should I say past?

!! Surprise!!

Now finally, the moment you have all been waiting for. The most awesomest game related thing in the world (during the moments of E3) is... Dishonored! Now I was going to say Medal of Honor: Warfighter, Alien: Colonial Marines, Assassins Creed 3, Nintendo’s WiiU ect. But Dishonored just looks so bloody awesome! Being able to take control of animals, all the powers you can use. At E3 they showed the same quest in every interview/gameplay video but every video was different. Showing different ways to complete the quest. And that, along with the awesome art design, is why Dishonored is my game of E3!

  

                                

                                 All games mentioned in that paragraph will be pre-ordered... maybe.

Article Update

Quick note before I start: From now on this updates will be called "Article Updates", general info will be called "News Updates". Now stop reading this crap and start reading the "Article Update".


Hello guys and girls of the gaming world. I am back today with another update. So I haven’t been able to post an article this week thanks to tests and assignments due for school. But school holidays are just around the corner so I thought I would let you guys know what’s happening in the future. Now this is a long update but if you don’t want to read all of it that’s fine, I’m just covering what games I will be reviewing and future articles I will be writing.

So first things first, reviews. So I currently have a plan set up for reviewing games. I have thirteen games that I haven’t finished yet and I really want to go back to. So I have decided that once I finish playing the game I will give it a review, if I dislike the game I will do my best to play as much as possible to give you guys the best review I can. If I love it, well then I will be playing the whole game. This is the list of games (in order) that I will be playing/reviewing:
Uncharted: Drakes Fortune
Resistance: Fall of Man
Dragon Age: Origins
Demons Souls
God of War III – I have already reviewed this game
Dead Space 2
Bioshock (the review for Bioshock won’t be up this year, I am saving it and Bioshock 2 review for Bioshock Infinite)
Fallout New Vegas
L.A. Noire
Rage
Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim
Dues Ex: Human Revolution.

Those were the days

I also have Saints Row: The Third that I will be playing in and out of games and that review will come once I finish the game. Along with Saints Row, I also have the following games pre-ordered: Far Cry 3, Dishonored and Medal of Honor: Warfighter. Once I get the games in my hands I will be playing those straight away and reviewing them once I finish.

No comment

Now that reviews are done, I will let you guys know what articles I will be writing for the weekend/next week. This weekend I will have my “E3 2012 Opinions” up for all to read, this will have my favourite games, my least favourite games, my over all opinion of E3 itself and more. Other articles that you can expect to see this weekend/next week include: “Survival Games Success” and “Nintendo’s Great Comeback”.

Only one more article to go!

Last thing I want to say, over the school holidays I am going to pick my 5 favourite games of E3 and do previews for all them with up to date information, trailers, screenshots, gameplays and more!

Can you guess the 5 games?

I have lots planned for the upcoming weeks and hopefully you guys will enjoy it and would be great to see some new faces reading the articles. That’s all for now, have fun gaming. Cya!

!!!E3 2012 Updated Links!!!

E3 is over. The busiest gaming time of the year is done and I am ready to help you guys check out the stuff you may have missed. Now if I was to post every single link there would be a crap ton of links. Since I am a bit lazy and don’t want to do that, I am going to post all my favourite links. I will also put in a bit of a description and everything to keep you guys happy. So let’s get to it!

Now this first link is probably the most important link. The following link will take you to IGN’s E3 2012 Interviews playlist. Pretty much every single game is featured in here with mostly detailed interviews. If you had your eyes closed for the past 4 days than this is the place to catch up on some serious gaming: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL31D3D03B3576C8C2&feature=iv&annotation_id=annotation_283120&src_vid=DiKT_6KGm9g

At E3 a lot of Assassins Creed III gameplay was shown. Now instead of sharing all the links with you I want to show you something that makes Assassins Creed III really unique... Naval warfare! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpBL-g9-Ss4

This is probably my favourite interview for one of my most anticipated game Dishonored:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmOogPD2ROI

Now something that I found extremely cool was the voice controls for the new Madden NFL 13: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVqLH5gJa2k

there was also a FIFA 13 demo of the Voice Control: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op_aLTbL9V8

Now I’m not mean enough to let you guys miss out on the newest game to the best series ever: God of War: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSo6IwTBMmw

Now I love me some good co-op. I also love me some good Far Cry. So what happens when you mix the two together? Insanity! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Inpf61cQBOI

People say this is just a SSB clone, and in a lot of ways it is. But along with that it also has its unique features and it also looks really awesome: Playstation All Stars Battle Royale: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=et_WhO_7yto

In case you couldn’t tell by my gamer tag I am a big fan of racing games. Need for Speed: Most Wanted? Well let’s just say it’s my... Most Wanted: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uYN7fPkNh8

Now for the past 6 years Nintendo has fallen in the gaming community. With the Wii and the 3Ds, the only time people ever think about the Wii is to have some party fun with Mario Bro’s. But after seeing this Wii U... I am actually really interested in seeing what Nintendo can do with this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=iv&src_vid=Ub5HXbukp9E&annotation_id=annotation_584395&v=umEbx6SM4DE

One of the reasons the Wii U has intrigued me so much, is because the games no longer look crappy and boring. This is my favourite game Nintendo showed at E3 that will be on the Wii U: Zombieu http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSgqmfTqZyo

I, like a lot of other people, have been dying for another Spider-Man game which is set up the same as Spider-Man 2. Well I think our savour is here with The Amazing Spider-Man: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7Ln9Gp4Jzc

I have never played a Splinter Cell game before, but this looks really awesome. Splinter Cell Blacklist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZkj3dE1Lu0&feature=relmfu

When I get my hands on Borderlands 2, I will be playing as Zer0 straight away! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PY1yEBbFPY

A game that is at the top of my “Games to buy” list is Alien: Colonial Marines. Now I was going to share a campaign demo/interview of the game but I feel as though I should post the multiplayer as it is something we haven’t really seen that much from past gaming conventions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h3tPMT-in8

I enjoyed the old Tomb Raider games, but this time Lara looks better than ever. Can’t wait to get my hands on this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7j-BukLug8&feature=relmfu

This is probably the most unique game at E3. The Unfinished Swan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMqY7JBiZfs&feature=BFa&list=PL31D3D03B3576C8C2

Now for a bit of eye candy, the sexiest game on the planet. Crysis 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCBCiBDQMmM

This is probably my favourite Medal of Honor: Warfighter interview I have seen. It shows how dedicated they are to make things as authentic and realistic as possible to teach us a little bit about our Tier 1 protectors: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8VcSVnDSRM

Now to finish it all off with something nice and creepy. Dead Space 3 demo everybody: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKVzNPWppyI

Hope you guys had a great E3. I will try to make an article on my overall opinions of E3. But other than that I will leave you guys with the links. I hope you enjoyed your E3 experience and I hope I helped you guys at home keep up with all the latest info. Cya guys!

!!!Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Review!!!

Star Wars. It started mass debates, it created awesome ideas and wether you think it’s good or not, you can’t deny that it has made a massive impact on the world. The whole “I am your father” quote has made its way into every home on the planet (except for those people who live in caves, I don’t think it has reached the cave people yet). Just as there are many films, there are also many games that hold Star Wars in the title. I personally didn’t find many of them that good (not that I actually played many of them), I can remember enjoying Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast and Star Wars: Battlefront II but other than that nothing else interested me. But now, finally, I am here today to give you guys a review on one of the more modern Star Wars games: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

Like father, like adopted son.

One thing that people are used to from the Star Wars films is the long ass text at the start of each film giving you a brief update of the plot. Well believe it or not but the intro to the game does that very thing. So if you’re not very familiar with the Star Wars story line, have no fear. Everything you need to know will be explained at the start of the game.

Yeah, we all know you have seen that before!

So the main storyline of the game is a very powerful baby that Darth Vader finds, he than trains you to become even more powerful and to prepare you to help him (Darth Vader) take over everyone, including the Emperor. For most of the game I completely forgot about that story. The only time anyone talked about taking over the Emperor and joining Darth Vader and what not happens in 5 second cutscene after you finish killing each Jedi. The storyline wasn’t told very well at all. It was just “Kill this guy”, spend 30 minutes finish the mission and killing someone, “Now we are closer to overthrowing the emperor”. That was the whole game right there.

The strong baby you play as.

Graphically this game wasn’t that impressive. Now to be fair it did come out in 2008 but even for a 2008 game it wasn’t that great. The cut scene's looked pretty nice, but then again they are cut scene's. Now I am not going to mark down this game because of its bad graphics for 2 reasons. 1, people who don’t play games due to bad graphics are rather stupid, it shouldn’t matter at all and 2, the levels you play are massive and the art design is fantastic. The art design it so perfect, it really makes you feel like you’re in the Star Wars universe! The costumes, the level design, the character models and everything else all makes you feel like you’re a part of the world. If the graphics were at the standard of say, Mass Effect 3 then visually this game would be amazing eye candy. 

I found 26 pics related to eye candy, this is the only one that didn't have a girl in it...

Gameplay wise this game is similar to the visuals. The gameplay is lots of fun and makes you feel like your from the Star Wars universe. The attacks you can do with your lightsaber, the force and other abilities make you feel like an unstoppable power house. Especially in the first mission where you play as Darth Vader and have pretty much every power unlocked, you feel like god. It is just so much fun choking people to death than throwing them at their friends. But unfortunately there are things that can stop you from having all this fun. The biggest one being the 3^rd person camera. You will find yourself constantly getting screwed over because the camera is just in such an awkward position. When you’re doing jump puzzles (and there is at least 2 of those in every mission) it is really hard to work out your distance from where you're standing to the next platform because the camera is just so hard to control. Another problem is using the force. When you use the force to control something it is pretty awesome, but that awesomeness goes away when you’re trying to aim a laser to kill all your enemies for you but it is just so hard to control that you can’t do anything. I’m trying to be as accurate as I can with things but it’s just so random with what happens, sometimes things will movie really fast, other times it will move really slowly. Sometimes it will move left, sometimes (even when I'm pushing the thumb stick in the exact same position) it will move right. It’s just so hard to use and can get very annoying. Along with unresponsive/laggy controls and constantly getting stuck on random objects, the gameplay will be a struggling love hate relationship.

Another person suffering from the love hate relationship...

So all together with the bad storytelling, crappy graphics and pretty shocking gameplay it’s hard to give this game a good score. Even with the gameplay making you feel like a god (which is always fun) and the art style being absolutely amazing, it’s still pretty difficult. I am going to give this game a 6.5/10. Now before you say “Michael, you just spent this paragraph saying it’s hard to give the game a good score. So why the Jebus would you give this game a 6/10?!?!?!” well, the problem is this game is Star Wars. I have always wanted a Star Wars game that just made me feel like a total bad ass Jedi. Whether you hate this game or love it, one thing that it definitely does is make you feel like a bad ass Jedi. That is why I have to give this game a 6/10. Not for the good graphics, not for good gameplay. But because it managed to make me feel like an all powerful Jedi killing adopted son of Darth Vader in the Star Wars universe. If you think I’m an idiot, well I don’t care to be honest. I had my fun, and even though it’s a 6/10 if you can rent the game I suggest you do! That first mission is one of the best things I have ever done.

No caption needed.

P.S. I would just like to give a shout out to Marty and Very Reasonably Priced games. Marty gave me a wonderful discount and allowed me to get this game nice and cheap to review. But even without discounts Very Reasonably Priced games are extremely cheap. If you want this game, you can get it from www.veryreasonablypricedgames.com for just $24.99. Ever since I found out about the site I have bought all my games there. They do cool things on their Facebook page like 10 minute auctions so you can get your games even cheaper! So remember, check out www.veryreasonablypricedgames.com or go onto Facebook (everyone has it) and like Very Reasonably Prices PS3 Games.

Nintendo Live Conference E3 2012

So after annoying searches for Nintendo’s conference I finally found one. It was glitchy as hell, but I found one! So Nintendo’s conference was pretty impressive. I am not the biggest fan of Nintendo, never really cared about what they do or what they show (E3 wise) ever since they released Wii and NintendoDS. But after seeing the WiiU in action, the games they are releasing on it and the features it has, I am really interested! After 6 long years I am finally intrigued by Nintendo. Although it's not at the top of my list, if I ever get the chance to buy the WiiU I will definitely think about it.

So the conference itself was really good. The intro was nice, it wasn’t a montage, and it wasn’t Dance Dance Revolution 69,000. What it was, was a funny intro featuring Mr. Miyamoto and Pikmin 3 characters. The intro included the audience, really made everyone feel at home. It was also a good way to introduce the new game for the WiiU, Pikmin 3. For most of the first part of the conference it was focused on showing of the WiiU gamepad and its features. Now normally when I watch these conferences and they spend a long time talking about their console I get bored really fast, but I was really interested in the WiiU, the features of Miiverse, Wii Fit U and being able to play games without the T.V. being on was really cool. During the conference some awesome 3^rd party games were shown, but the thing that made me really happy with Nintendo’s conference was Zombieu. The game not only looks great but it also seems like it will be great to play. After some strange Nintendo land ending, I was done.

So overall the Nintendo’s conference was pretty awesome. The 3^rd Party games were awesome in the way they included the WiiU to be different from the Xbox/PS versions. And the exclusive Nintendo games were awesome too. Super Mario Bros U, Pikmin 3, Scribblenaughts Unlimited and Zombieu all looked fun, intriguing and unique. The Wii was really no competition compared to the Xbox 360 and PS3. And even Nintendo3DS let NintendoDS fall (PS Vita is the current go to portable for me), but now Nintendo has a chance to compete against Sony and Microsoft, now Nintendo can say “Hey, our creation is awesome, buy it you noobs!” and people won’t laugh at them. The conference was great, well planned out and well pulled off. The actual products shown were even better. After seeing all the conferences I will have to say this is my favourite. And I also have to say that I am looking forward to seeing what’s in store for Wii U.