Nintendo Conference Recap: Love is Over

 Nintendo.  What have you done, my old decrepit friend?

I really don't know what to say about Nintendo right now.  I'm sure that the Wii U is going to sell millions, but I feel like it's going to end up being the exact same thing the Wii was: a great hardware install base, but an overall software pick up rate of about 20%.  Trashy.  The touch pad controller looks nifty but I'm waiting to see a game that will use it in a way that isn't a total gimmick.  ZombiU looks like it might be that one, but I won't be sure until I've seen more of it.  Scribblenauts is a game I play on the bus.  Those far-too-beautiful looking people in their demo did not convince me it's a big screen TV type of game.  I wish I were more optimistic about this.

Some Fast Talk on E3

E3 Today was nifty. From what I can remember and from looking at my notes...

Things I liked:
Matt and Trey Parker
South Park: The Game
Ascend: New Gods
Halo 4
Splinter Cell: Blacklist
SimCity 5
Assassin's Creed 3
Watch Dogs <--BEST IN SHOW
The Last of Us
Beyond
Playstation All-Stars
God of War 4

Things that mite b cool:
FarCry 3

Things I hated:
Tomb Raider

Things that will probably suck or be irrelevant:
Everything else




I'll be going into greater detail on most of this once the conference is over, but, Sony and Ubisoft both had a great showing today. PS1 Classics coming to the Vita is a great thing for my vita and a terrible thing for my wallet. Watch Dogs was absolutely amazing. Beyond looks pretty nifty. The Last of Us looks just as incredible as I figured it would be.  The boat action of Assassin's Creed 3 had me reeling.  Just awesome.

Check back later this week/early next week for a full slew of my thoughts on this years showings!

The Weekly Roundup: Games You Can Buy Without Wearing Pants

Too lazy to get off of the couch today?  Or any day for that matter?  Well there is no problems here, you can still get great games without ever having to put pants on.  Not only that, you can spend less than $20 to get any of them.  Now before you jump to conclusions and assume that if it wasn't good enough to be a full retail release that it isn't worth buying, you need to take a closer look at the DLC game business.  I have provided 4 prime examples to support the claim that DLC exclusive games are worthy of our money and our time.

Guild Wars 2: The Saving Grace

This is no in-depth explanation of the game.  This is just one MMORPG fanatics humble opinion, and I am going to keep this brief:  Guild Wars 2 will be the best MMORPG to come out since World of Warcraft.

And the reason for this?  Simple: It's not trying to be World of Warcraft.  Over the last half decade so many games have come out trying to imitate something else to get a piece of the big success.  Call of Duty has hundreds of clones, and virtually every MMORPG to come out since 2004 has attempted to create the next "World of Warcraft" by attempting to make World of Warcraft.  But did anyone ever stop to think, "Hey, WoW wasn't the first MMO!  I bet it drew it's inspiration from somewhere!"  Well, luckily for us, ArenaNet did.

Project X Zone preview

It would really take a lot from me to consider what I'm about to discuss an actual "preview".  What we have here is a collection of information gathered from the ends of the internet to bring you an update of what looks to be a triple developer crossover fighting game/RPG hybrid butt-fucked into existence for the 3DS by a desperate attempt to stroke the cock of fan-boys everywhere.  That being said, it looks pretty damn cool.

There was a game released a while back called Namco X Capcom that had a similar taste to this title.  It played as a grid based RPG (like FF Tactics or Disgaea) and featured characters that spanned both developer's universes with some sort of interactive battle component.  I of course did not play this title so i don't have much as far as a frame of reference goes.  From what little i can gather from the videos I have seen for this game, there seems to be a real time look to the gameplay.  It honestly looks to play out like a fighting game.  As if you control the team of respective characters to beat the living shit out of the respective universes' baddies.  It is quite stylized and really cool looking.  But it is not a graphical achievement by any stretch.   Our minds can only dream of what a title like this could have looked like with the HD graphics capable on the next-gen systems (or even the PS Vita), but this type of game belongs on a portable system, and I have no objections to playing this title on a 3DS.   

Some Quick Thoughts On Diablo 3

In short, my thoughts on Diablo 3 are "more 'meh' than your body has room for." I found it very fun for the first hour of the 4-5 hour "chapter 1" available in the beta which is really more of a demo. After that it became a spam click fest, but it had a very different feel than it's predecessors. It was boring. I was bored by it. I never thought I'd say that about a Diablo game. None of what I was doing was interesting after the first hour.

I'm a huge fan of Diablo 1 and 2, and I felt the art direction, while very smooth and pretty, did not lend itself properly to what I envision as Diablo. The colors are too bright, I honestly and truly expected this, of all games to be grimdark in it's art and style. Also, Why does my clearly Eastern Orient Monk have a thick Russian accent?

Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch Preview

Have you ever wanted to play a Studio Ghibli film?  Well Level 5 studios is giving you the chance by bringing the insanely stylized RPG Ni no Kuni: Wrath Of The White Witch state side for all of us to get our hands on.

Ni no Kuni's story revolves around a young boy named Oliver.  After his mother dies rescuing him from drowning, his tears animate a doll his mother has given him.  The newly animated friend introduces himself as the fairy "Shizuku" and rewards Oliver with a spellbook and a new world to explore.  Oliver takes to the adventure filled with monsters, magic, and mayhem all in the hopes of reuniting with his mother once again.  There isn't much in the way of imagination that this game is lacking.  Its style is on par with its wackiness and it doesn't look like the game will get much less ridiculous the more hours you end up pumping into it.  But of course, my knowledge of the story beyond that is limited as I cannot read Japanese.  However, as with any RPG, it takes more than story to build up a game to my liking (or hopefully anyone's).