E3 2013 Press Conferences: Final Thoughts

I've compiled some quick thoughts on the E3 press conferences this year.  These were my thoughts immediately following each press conference:

MMONDAY: Community Mechanics

Good Monday, all! It's time for the beginning of our new podcast segment, MMONDAY! Every Monday we will be posting a new podcast discussing certain aspects of MMORPG's, from successes and failures to great innovations and lack thereof.

This week we discuss certain mechanics and systems in MMORPG's and how they can affect the quality of the communities that play the games.

Please remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel!

Street Fighter X Tekken Review

Capcom is no stranger to competition in the fighting game arena. Major franchises like SNK, Marvel, and Tatsunoko have done battle against the Capcom roster but this time, a new challenger enters the ring, in Street Fighter X Tekken (read: Street Fighter cross Tekken).  Namco's famed 3D fighter makes its 2D debut in the first of two titles in the Capcom - Namco co-venture.  All throughout the development of Street Fighter X Tekken, two major questions have piqued  gamers' curiosity; "How well do Tekken characters work in 2D" and "How do the mysterious  gems work?" The answer to both of those questions are pretty positive. 

Capcom's representation of Tekken characters remain true to their Namco roots in terms of general feel.  Not only do the Tekken characters have quite a few more moves in comparison to the Street Fighter characters but in some cases, as with King's Shoulder Tackle and Rolling Elbow, even the inputs are the same.  There are,  however, some creative liberties taken to keep Tekken characters competitive against the Street Fighter cast.  Several Tekken characters such as Jin and Steve were given projectile moves they don't have any iteration of in Tekken.

Hands on With: The Hitbox

The Hitbox features an eight button layout similar to the Madcatz and high end Hori arcade sticks. Unlike those sticks, or any other stick for that matter, the Hitbox features four direction buttons rather than an actual stick.

The placement of the directional buttons are quite unique also. On the upper left are the "left"," down", and "right" buttons. The "up" button is towards the bottom of the stick and is considerably bigger than all of the other buttons. The placement of the" down" button alongside the" left" and "right" buttons shows some serious thought from the stick's designers as most fighting games use a quarter circle or half circle motion that runs along the bottom of the stick.

Playing Tekken 6 on this stick felt really fresh. Usually I have trouble landing the Electric Wind God Fist , a difficult yet vital move for Kazuya, Heihachi, Jin and Devil Jin, but the Hitbox made doing it simple. There is an initial learning curve but after you get used to it, you'll be amazed at how easy it becomes to perform more advance movements.

Now for the big question. Is it worth the $150 price tag? Not so much for the casual fighting game enthusiast but for those that want to shave some travel time off of their standing 720's it's definitely worth considering.

Non-Linear Storytelling

WARNING: CONTAINS MAJOR PLOT SPOILERS FOR *THE WITCHER 2*


The Witcher 2.  When I first started hearing about it I was like, "Oh great, maybe they'll improve on the first Witcher!"  Which I'm sure is anyones normal reaction upon hearing a game they enjoyed is having a sequel made.  I did not actually finish the first Witcher.  The gameplay and what I perceived as "shitty animations" really dampened my ability to enjoy the game.  The Witcher 2, however, exceeds all expectations and is what I consider to be gamings first true example of non-linear storytelling.

It's that deadly final boss!  Or is it?  Only you can prevent forest fires.

Linear storytelling is a fantastic way to tell a story.  Games like the Final Fantasy series, God of War and Halo are all examples of linear storytelling - the story being told has no deviation, it has one outcome and you are essentially on a route to discover it.  No matter how you progress through the game, the ending will always be the same.  Games like Star Ocean, I consider to be a baby step into the direction of non-linear storytelling.  They give you great options during the course of the game that don't impact the story or the world, but can dictate the members of your party, who potentially lives and dies, and what kind of ending you receive.  The endings in this case are usually "paired endings"  or "good or bad" where you see an ending with a specific character or specific outcome based on your morality after you've defeated that deadly final boss.  But to have an honest and truely immersive experience, you have to give the player total control, and that involves falling into the dangerous pit of non-linear storytelling.

Rift: Good But Not Good Enough

Rift: Planes of Telara.  I have a lot to say about this rare gem of development perfection.  When I first heard of "Rift" the very first thing that came to mind was yet another Korean grinder MMO.  And I've had quite enough of those.  The difference between the "Old Age" of MMO's and the current one seems to be based on the fundamental gameplay mechanics.  Old games like Asheron's Call, Everquest, and Dark Age of Camelot...These games all actively promoted unity in the community - a necessity to play a MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER ONLINE ROLE PLAYING GAME with more emphasis on the MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER part and less on the...whatever it is the current generation seems to be focusing on.

Rift started out fantastic - in the beta, the game was so incredibly polished, it felt like I was playing any of the other current MMO's on the market 1-2 years after they released.  The game was a masterpiece of design success.  The developers had actually finished so much of what they planned, I had read several times that they were already working on post-launch end game content that would go live within the first 2-3 months.  That's a damn miracle - even World of Warcraft - who's launch is scarcely remembered, was a pile of shit.  I remember waiting for the servers to come back up from downtime more than I remember playing WoW during it's first month.  In Rift's first month, server downtime has never been more than 10-15 minutes at a time.  Trion Worlds is literally one of the best, classiest and well organized developers I have ever seen, and I've been playing games, specifically MMORPG's, for 12 years.

Exclusivity

The whole "console war" topic really makes me think sometimes.  I think people should buy the console that has the games they want to play and not buy the one that all their friends have.  Someone's gotta break the mold and be the trend setter.  In recent news, it was announced that a former game project, simply code named "Project Dark" will be released late this year as the spiritual successor to 2009's PS3 Game of the Year, Demon's Souls.

Demon's Soul was a fantastic, brutal, unforgiving dungeon crawler which took place in a medieval fantasy setting.  The game was about you, designing a character and then customizing it to play however you want, but what it really boiled down to was magic and swords.  You could use either or, or a combination and variety thereof.  The game was brutal and difficult, each death costly and proving to be a major setback.  Players who are more accustomed to todays standard "run in with complete disregard to personal safety" in game play found themselves at the receiving end of a premium rager.  The learning curve was painful, but just...so rewarding.  You needed to learn to block, to roll, to dodge, to counter attack.  You needed to play it safe at all times otherwise you will easily find yourself dying young.  When you die in this game, you leave a pool of blood behind with all the souls [read: money] you collected during the level, and start all the way back at the beginning.  If you die again, your previous blood stain is removed in favor of the new one, and with it, all the souls you collected.  That means that each death was very, very costly and players needed to tread lightly.