For the last time this year, greetings from Boston!
PAX East 2015 is now over. Well, the showfloor closed at 6pm but there are still panels and events for hours to come. But ain't nobody got time for them!
Day 3 was probably the most enjoyable yet. I got to the BCEC early enough to finally get a parking spot behind the convention center..third time's the charm, amiright? We were in the 9th queue line, so there hundreds of people in front of us trying to get into the showfloor. As soon as we were allowed in, we made a beeline straight to the Oculus booth...but the line was already capped, with a 3-4 hour wait. We had a panel to get to so Oculus was pretty much out of the question. Because of the length of every line we had really no choice but to line up for the panel...
Which was a live recording of IGN's Gamescoop podcast! Every year I've attended the convention I've also attended IGN's live podcast. The panel consisted of Mitch Dyer, Brian Altano (BRRRAP, BRRRAP), Vince Ingenito, and Marty Sliva, was moderator and Boot Knocker Daemon Hatfield. We were near the front of the line and had great seats. The theme of the panel was "Game of the Decade" watch, as we're now halfway through the 2010s. Daemon went year by year from 2010-2014, with the panel discussing the various previously-decided upon games. This was an improvement from last year's panel, in which the topic was "best game of the generation," in which they fielded suggestions from the crowd for the duration of the show. This change in format allowed us to hear these people speak and share their gaming knowledge with us, which is after all, what we're there for.
Without many big-tickets titles or developers to choose from, we went back to Nintendo's booth and I got some hands-on time with Xenoblade Chronicles for the New 3DS XL. I've never played Xenoblade before, but I can tell you right off the bat that I'm not a fan of the auto-attack system; you pick what kind of attack you want Shulk to make and you just have to run up to your targeted enemy and he'll start swinging away. The 3D was great and visuals seemed fine for something that ran on the Wii.
We then headed back to Microsoft's booth, with the goal of checking out Fable Legends. I've never been a fan of the Fable franchise, and was doubly not interested in Fable Legends, upon it's announcement last year as a 4v1 cooperative action game. 4v1 is the "it" thing right now, I suppose? The line was quite substantial; each demo lasted a solid 15-20 minutes, leading to an almost 3-hour wait. Choosing Fable sealed our PAX fate. I've gotta say that it was actually really quite worth the wait. We were paired with three other gamers and had to choose who played the villain. For the uninitiated, one person plays a villain, or more aptly a dungeon master. They get a top-down view of the battlefield and are responsible for commanding enemy forces and placing obstacles and barriers to prevent the four heroes from surviving the arena. The other four got to choose from a wide variety of characters and classes that fit a more traditional RPG/MMO design; DPS, tank, healer etc. I chose a melee, DPS hero named Adrienne. The right trigger controlled a standard attack, with the left trigger mapped to a ranged knife throw. The Y, X,and A buttons controlled mana-based cool-down attacks that added variety to combat. The left bumper allowed for a much-needed dodge maneuver. Frequently the villain will rain down mortor strikes that made a dodge absolutely necessary. For this demo, I was only able to communicate with the person beside me, but having voice chat and coordination will be absolutely key to victory; the villain can raise gates to separate team members and thusly unleash attacks on them. Keeping the group together and supporting each other leads directly to victory. I was very impressed visually and mechanically with Fable Legends and simply cannot wait to enroll in the beta and pick it up when it comes out later this year.
And that pretty much sums up my experiences with PAX East 2015. While most major developers and publishers were MIA (perhaps at GDC?), we still managed to find some good stuff to check out. I'd say the highlights of the weekend included the impressive Oculus Gear VR demos, the live recording of IGN Gamescoop and surprisingly, Fable Legends. Even though I was a bit underwhelmed with this year's turnout, I cannot wait to make the drive again next year! Oh, and this time, we're getting a hotel within walking distance. I just simply cannot handle more traffic! Till next time..
The Bearded Bullet.
Sunday, March 8, 2015
Saturday, March 7, 2015
PAX East 2015: Day 2
Greetings again from Boston!
Day 2 of PAX East 2015 is a wrap. For those of you who read my post about day 1, you'll be pleased to know that we got more accomplished today, mainly due to better circumstances with parking. Leaving earlier in the morning helped, as did paying extra for valet parking at the BCEC. A little extra money for more peace of mind and less stress is fine by me. Now let's get down to what's important - vidja games!
My day began with waiting in a massive line for a panel with two of the developers of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and two cosplay contest winners. The panel was moderated by the fantastic Larry "Major Nelson" Hyrb, of Microsoft fame. The theme of the panel was next-gen open-world game development, and who better to lead the charge than CD Projekt Red? We got some nice behind-the-scenes info about what it takes to craft such a massive game and some of the problems that go along with such an endeavor, especially when developing for the current-gen consoles. We were treated to around seven minutes of never-before-seen in-game footage. They basically turned on the game and walked in a random direction. We were treated to a random mission involving disappeared townsfolk; main character Geralt found the missing people's overturned cart. He then followed some tracks to a massive cave and ended up fighting a giant wyvern. We've seen the tracking mechanic before at the mission shown at E3 last year, but it's still incredibly cool to see it in action. Combat looks fluid and effective; the battle was epic even though it wasn't even one of the bigger monsters we'll fight. The panel concluded with the typical fan Q&A, with some questions coming in from a live stream on Twitch.
We made our way down to the showfloor and headed directly for the Oculus booth. After the awesome demo yesterday we wanted to get our hands on the Crescent Bay demo. By 12:30 the line was capped and we were told to just try again tomorrow, that the line would take basically the entire day. Woof.
Microsoft was our next destination. One of the only big developers/publishers at the show, Microsoft has quite a few games on display. We got our hands on State of Decay: Year 1 Survival Edition. I've never played SoD before but I felt it was fairly easy to pick up and play. From my short demo I'm quite excited to try the full game and dive into this cool zompocalypse. The main problem is that this game is not a wham-bam action game, and doesn't really lend itself to a loud, raucous convention. It's not about rushing through and murdering zombies, but requires patience and exploration.
Next on our list was Fable Legends, but again, the line was capped with a 30 minute wait until the Enforcer would allow more of us in. We then set our sights on Halo 5's multiplayer. The wait wasn't excruciating despite matches going a potential nine rounds. We played a mode different than December's beta; it was 4v4 with a limited shield, and only one life per round. This ratcheted up the tension, as we were all less likely to go sprinting towards the enemy with only one life. We started with the SMG and pistol with one grenade. The map was fairly small, so even by playing it cautiously we still found the enemy rather quickly. I enjoyed what I played and can't wait to get my hands on the full game this Fall.
Next up was Nintendo, and specifically Splatoon. The line was quite long and unsurprisingly so. Nintendo's booth is always popular, with both the Wii U and 3DS stations always packed. Like Halo, our Splatoon match was 4v4, with the goal being to cover as much ground in your color ink as possible. Walls and objects didn't count towards the final total. The visuals were fun and vibrant and typically Nintendo-cutesy without being obnoxious. The mechanics are simple; spray as much ink as you can on the map, refilling your tank by diving into the ink you just sprayed and swimming through it. At any time you can tap on a teammate's icon on the mini-map on the Gamepad to do a crazy jump to their location. The static map gives you a bird's-eye view of how your team is doing. While I had a blast, the controls weren't exactly the most intuitive. I felt like I was wrestling with them the entire time; a good game blends you and the controller and doesn't draw attention to what you're doing. Perhaps the final version will allow you to toggle and customize the controls, but in the demo I played, character movement and camera controls were mapped to the dual analog sticks, but the direction you were spraying your ink was mapped to Gamepad motion controls. It was just a bit...uncomfortable to aim, run, and shoot at the same time. Again, I really enjoyed what I played, but I don't know if it'll be a day-one purchase for me.
I picked up Codename S.T.E.A.M. on our out of the booth and also really liked what I saw. The 3D was impressive and gameplay reminded me strongly of X-COM: Enemy Unknown. There wasn't much of a tutorial and I skipped through the opening cinematics, so I was just sort of dropped into a mission. Like most grid-based strategy games, I had a set amount of steam that would allow me to move or shoot, exchanging turns with enemy forces. The comic book aesthetic was cool, and visuals really popped with the 3D in full effect.
At this point in the day feet, backs, and shoulders ached. Stomachs growled. Heads pounded. Two options presented themselves; sit down in another panel, this time a live recording of Major Nelson's podcast, or we explore the Square Enix booth. We opted for Squenix. Again, we encountered a capped line but hung around long enough to get in to play Final Fantasy Type 0 HD. We also scored large FFT0 posters signed by two of the developers. Unfortunately we didn't catch their names or recognize who they were, but it's pretty cool nonetheless. Now for the game...well, I was more than confused. I'm not the biggest Final Fantasy fan out there (I've never played any of them for more than a few hours at a time), but I understand and know the basic mechanics of a JRPG. Type 0 is a very strange real-time action game with FF tenements. I know that this is a port of a PSP game that I knew nothing about, but I was surprised at how fast-paced the combat was. Again, I was given no tutorial or explanation from one of the Squenix employees, but rather dropped in a mission with three party members, each with their own abilities. I found myself using the only character who utilized guns, as I'm more familiar with third-person action games. Rather than being turn-based, I found myself jamming on one of three attacks buttons, not understanding exactly what they were doing or what the rules for using them were (did they require a magic meter? What was their cooldown rate?). I spammed the buttons, dodged attacks, and made my way through the mediocre visuals. Again, I know it's a port but wooooof does it look not great. The camera controls were *very* touchy with some insane motion blur. I'm honestly surprised I didn't get any motion sickness from playing. All in all, not worth the wait but maybe the finished product (who knows when this demo was made) will show more promise.
And that pretty much sums up day two. State of Decay was fun, Halo was promising, Splatoon was enjoyable if not tough to control, Codename STEAM was intriguing, and Final Fantasy was...just okay. There honestly isn't much left that we want to try to accomplish tomorrow, save for a live recording of the IGN Gamescoop podcast!!
The Bearded Bullet.
Day 2 of PAX East 2015 is a wrap. For those of you who read my post about day 1, you'll be pleased to know that we got more accomplished today, mainly due to better circumstances with parking. Leaving earlier in the morning helped, as did paying extra for valet parking at the BCEC. A little extra money for more peace of mind and less stress is fine by me. Now let's get down to what's important - vidja games!
My day began with waiting in a massive line for a panel with two of the developers of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and two cosplay contest winners. The panel was moderated by the fantastic Larry "Major Nelson" Hyrb, of Microsoft fame. The theme of the panel was next-gen open-world game development, and who better to lead the charge than CD Projekt Red? We got some nice behind-the-scenes info about what it takes to craft such a massive game and some of the problems that go along with such an endeavor, especially when developing for the current-gen consoles. We were treated to around seven minutes of never-before-seen in-game footage. They basically turned on the game and walked in a random direction. We were treated to a random mission involving disappeared townsfolk; main character Geralt found the missing people's overturned cart. He then followed some tracks to a massive cave and ended up fighting a giant wyvern. We've seen the tracking mechanic before at the mission shown at E3 last year, but it's still incredibly cool to see it in action. Combat looks fluid and effective; the battle was epic even though it wasn't even one of the bigger monsters we'll fight. The panel concluded with the typical fan Q&A, with some questions coming in from a live stream on Twitch.
We made our way down to the showfloor and headed directly for the Oculus booth. After the awesome demo yesterday we wanted to get our hands on the Crescent Bay demo. By 12:30 the line was capped and we were told to just try again tomorrow, that the line would take basically the entire day. Woof.
Microsoft was our next destination. One of the only big developers/publishers at the show, Microsoft has quite a few games on display. We got our hands on State of Decay: Year 1 Survival Edition. I've never played SoD before but I felt it was fairly easy to pick up and play. From my short demo I'm quite excited to try the full game and dive into this cool zompocalypse. The main problem is that this game is not a wham-bam action game, and doesn't really lend itself to a loud, raucous convention. It's not about rushing through and murdering zombies, but requires patience and exploration.
Next on our list was Fable Legends, but again, the line was capped with a 30 minute wait until the Enforcer would allow more of us in. We then set our sights on Halo 5's multiplayer. The wait wasn't excruciating despite matches going a potential nine rounds. We played a mode different than December's beta; it was 4v4 with a limited shield, and only one life per round. This ratcheted up the tension, as we were all less likely to go sprinting towards the enemy with only one life. We started with the SMG and pistol with one grenade. The map was fairly small, so even by playing it cautiously we still found the enemy rather quickly. I enjoyed what I played and can't wait to get my hands on the full game this Fall.
Next up was Nintendo, and specifically Splatoon. The line was quite long and unsurprisingly so. Nintendo's booth is always popular, with both the Wii U and 3DS stations always packed. Like Halo, our Splatoon match was 4v4, with the goal being to cover as much ground in your color ink as possible. Walls and objects didn't count towards the final total. The visuals were fun and vibrant and typically Nintendo-cutesy without being obnoxious. The mechanics are simple; spray as much ink as you can on the map, refilling your tank by diving into the ink you just sprayed and swimming through it. At any time you can tap on a teammate's icon on the mini-map on the Gamepad to do a crazy jump to their location. The static map gives you a bird's-eye view of how your team is doing. While I had a blast, the controls weren't exactly the most intuitive. I felt like I was wrestling with them the entire time; a good game blends you and the controller and doesn't draw attention to what you're doing. Perhaps the final version will allow you to toggle and customize the controls, but in the demo I played, character movement and camera controls were mapped to the dual analog sticks, but the direction you were spraying your ink was mapped to Gamepad motion controls. It was just a bit...uncomfortable to aim, run, and shoot at the same time. Again, I really enjoyed what I played, but I don't know if it'll be a day-one purchase for me.
I picked up Codename S.T.E.A.M. on our out of the booth and also really liked what I saw. The 3D was impressive and gameplay reminded me strongly of X-COM: Enemy Unknown. There wasn't much of a tutorial and I skipped through the opening cinematics, so I was just sort of dropped into a mission. Like most grid-based strategy games, I had a set amount of steam that would allow me to move or shoot, exchanging turns with enemy forces. The comic book aesthetic was cool, and visuals really popped with the 3D in full effect.
At this point in the day feet, backs, and shoulders ached. Stomachs growled. Heads pounded. Two options presented themselves; sit down in another panel, this time a live recording of Major Nelson's podcast, or we explore the Square Enix booth. We opted for Squenix. Again, we encountered a capped line but hung around long enough to get in to play Final Fantasy Type 0 HD. We also scored large FFT0 posters signed by two of the developers. Unfortunately we didn't catch their names or recognize who they were, but it's pretty cool nonetheless. Now for the game...well, I was more than confused. I'm not the biggest Final Fantasy fan out there (I've never played any of them for more than a few hours at a time), but I understand and know the basic mechanics of a JRPG. Type 0 is a very strange real-time action game with FF tenements. I know that this is a port of a PSP game that I knew nothing about, but I was surprised at how fast-paced the combat was. Again, I was given no tutorial or explanation from one of the Squenix employees, but rather dropped in a mission with three party members, each with their own abilities. I found myself using the only character who utilized guns, as I'm more familiar with third-person action games. Rather than being turn-based, I found myself jamming on one of three attacks buttons, not understanding exactly what they were doing or what the rules for using them were (did they require a magic meter? What was their cooldown rate?). I spammed the buttons, dodged attacks, and made my way through the mediocre visuals. Again, I know it's a port but wooooof does it look not great. The camera controls were *very* touchy with some insane motion blur. I'm honestly surprised I didn't get any motion sickness from playing. All in all, not worth the wait but maybe the finished product (who knows when this demo was made) will show more promise.
And that pretty much sums up day two. State of Decay was fun, Halo was promising, Splatoon was enjoyable if not tough to control, Codename STEAM was intriguing, and Final Fantasy was...just okay. There honestly isn't much left that we want to try to accomplish tomorrow, save for a live recording of the IGN Gamescoop podcast!!
The Bearded Bullet.
Friday, March 6, 2015
PAX East 2015: Day 1
Greetings from Boston!!
Yes, I know, it's been literal years since I've posted anything on this blog. Life, work, blah, blah you get the gist. But know that's all changed. The Bearded Bullet is back in the proverbial saddle, this time reporting from PAX East 2015! This is my fourth year in a row at the event and is essentially the highlight of my year; I get to travel, eat terribly (like that's any different from my day-to-day normality?) and play games that won't come out for weeks, if not months. There's nothing quite like a convention atmosphere - thousands of people are there for the same reason you are anld are genuinely excited. There are many reasons to go to PAX; the board game scene, the indie game scene, panels featuring icons from the gaming industry, etc. My friends and I go to play as many big games as we can, i.e. The Last of Us, Borderlands 2, Gears of War Judgement to name a few. We're gamers who want to game. I sincerely appreciate the indie developers whose showing at the event can make or break their game, but to be blunt I'm there for the big-ticket games.
Initial impressions:
First impressions set the tone for the whole weekend, and my first impression of the showfloor was that almost none of the big dogs of the developing and publishing community had any sort of presence. EA, Activision, Ubisoft, WB, 2K, including Rockstar and Gearbox, Bethesda, and Sony all skipped PAX East this year, which to say the least, is incredibly disappointing. No Borderlands: The Handsome Collection, Battleborn, Assassin's Creed, The Division, Rainbow Six, Witcher 3, Batman Arkham Knight, Mortal Kombat X, Fallout 4 (wishful thinking, I know), or Uncharted 4. Some titles, such as Battlefield Hardline are part of Microsoft's booth. Nintendo, Square Enix, Capcom, and Blizzard all have big old booths, with a TON of smaller developers (The Behemoth, Wargaming America, Arenanet, etc) and hardware manufacturers. Oculus VR has a huge presence with a packed booth featuring two different demos, as does Logitech and Alienware.
Since I go to the event to check out the big games of the year, it's fair to say that I was more than a little disappointed after roaming that show floor for a bit. There's no "it" game this year (granted, this could change by the end of the weekend, but nothing made an impact or had a massive crowd). Previous years had L.A. Noire, Max Payne, Borderlands 2, Evolve - all booths and games that had lines that were nigh-impossible to get into. We couldn't get into Evolve last year no matter how many times we circled the showfloor and came back, each time greeted with a PAX Enforcer holding a "line capped" sign, raining disappointment down upon us. Oculus was damn near impossible last year as well. Nothing this year screams "must play" to me. Nothing was drawing a crowd so large that it caused a fire hazard (as did Evolve last year). And that bums me out a bit.
It must also be said that the BCEC (Boston Convention and Entertainment Center) had incredibly poor planning with regards to parking this year. For those who haven't attended, there's a massive parking lot behind the convention center. When that fills up, there are satellite garages and lots about a mile or two down the road that somewhat of a pain to get to, but it's an accepted necessity at this point. My friend and I were stuck in massive traffic for hours, just to make it to the BCEC and be redirected to the satellite area. The garage was full and the secondary lot had been filled for "at least an hour." There was no direction as to what to do. No one from the city or BCEC to tell us where to go next. The answer we got was "a lot not owned by us (the BCEC) or parking along the street." ALONG THE STREET?? There are thousands of people descending upon the convention center and we were expected to find street parking. We decided to head back to the rear lot to see if anything changed. We were now told that there was parking in the Seaport area. Once there, there was no one to direct us or tell us anything. We ended up parking in an insanely shady-looking fish market where you'd expect the mob to dump bodies or do illegal business. Oh, and I got a ticket for not having a permit when no sign stated as much. It was a complete and utter clusterfuck of epic proportions. This is an event in its fifth year, one that grows year over year. How this was so incredibly botched is beyond me.
That said, we didn't get to do much after we finally made it on the floor after 12:30 (we're usually there between 9-10am). We roamed the floor, getting the lay of the land, bought some merch at the PAX booth, grabbed some food (road rage makes one quite hungry...) and settled on checking out the Oculus VR. We jumped in line around 2:30, a line that was capped within moments. That means the line was SO long and took so long to get through that we would barely make it in before the 6pm closing time. We actually made it in after 5pm, which made for a two-and-a-half-hour wait. And that doesn't even come close to the longest we've waited to play something. The Darkness 2 was about five hours. Max Payne 3 was over 3, as was The Elder Scrolls Online. Every minute of that wait was worth it, hands-down. We demoed the Samsung Gear VR, which used a Galaxy Note 4 and an android-compatible controller. There was a focus wheel on the top of the headset, with a "back" button on the side. The set-up was topped off with a Tritton headset to get the full effect. We were given six games to choose from. I picked a spy-themed one that had me flying a jet pack around a rudimentary city. The visuals were barely PlayStation 2-caliber, but that isn't the draw. Being able to spin around in my chair and get a 360 degree view is just amazing. And yes, I immediately flew to the top of a building and jumped off. And yes, I felt like I was actually falling. I had a physical reaction. The second game was a top-down action game a la Skylanders and again, while nothing new visually- or game-play-speaking, the degree of the viewing angle was just awesome. I simply cannot wait to use a VR headset with a more major game like Call of Duty or something simple like Minecraft. There's a second demo that we're absolutely going back tomorrow to try out.
Surprisingly enough Harmonix had a presence on the showfloor, with the new version of Amplitude playable and Rock Band 4 signage all over the place (at the time of this writing Rock Band 4 was announced only days ago). We jumped in the merch line and I picked up a sweet Rock Band 4 PAX-exclusive pin. I chatted with one of the developers for a few moments and expressed my thorough and real excitement over this announcement. It's a little moment that made me so very happy!!
With day one in the books, I really feel a bit let down this year. It seems that as the years go on, big-time developers and publishers keep dropping out of the event. And it makes sense; E3 has been fluctuating in size over the years due to big companies not wanting to spend the money and time on demos and booths, and I completely understand. It's just that this is a major event geared directly to the public and a chance for the actual developers of these games to get real feedback and gauge crowd reactions. I plan on checking out what Microsoft and Nintendo have to offer, along with some other random games and demos. Here's to hoping days two and three go smoother..
The Bearded Bullet
Yes, I know, it's been literal years since I've posted anything on this blog. Life, work, blah, blah you get the gist. But know that's all changed. The Bearded Bullet is back in the proverbial saddle, this time reporting from PAX East 2015! This is my fourth year in a row at the event and is essentially the highlight of my year; I get to travel, eat terribly (like that's any different from my day-to-day normality?) and play games that won't come out for weeks, if not months. There's nothing quite like a convention atmosphere - thousands of people are there for the same reason you are anld are genuinely excited. There are many reasons to go to PAX; the board game scene, the indie game scene, panels featuring icons from the gaming industry, etc. My friends and I go to play as many big games as we can, i.e. The Last of Us, Borderlands 2, Gears of War Judgement to name a few. We're gamers who want to game. I sincerely appreciate the indie developers whose showing at the event can make or break their game, but to be blunt I'm there for the big-ticket games.
Initial impressions:
First impressions set the tone for the whole weekend, and my first impression of the showfloor was that almost none of the big dogs of the developing and publishing community had any sort of presence. EA, Activision, Ubisoft, WB, 2K, including Rockstar and Gearbox, Bethesda, and Sony all skipped PAX East this year, which to say the least, is incredibly disappointing. No Borderlands: The Handsome Collection, Battleborn, Assassin's Creed, The Division, Rainbow Six, Witcher 3, Batman Arkham Knight, Mortal Kombat X, Fallout 4 (wishful thinking, I know), or Uncharted 4. Some titles, such as Battlefield Hardline are part of Microsoft's booth. Nintendo, Square Enix, Capcom, and Blizzard all have big old booths, with a TON of smaller developers (The Behemoth, Wargaming America, Arenanet, etc) and hardware manufacturers. Oculus VR has a huge presence with a packed booth featuring two different demos, as does Logitech and Alienware.
Since I go to the event to check out the big games of the year, it's fair to say that I was more than a little disappointed after roaming that show floor for a bit. There's no "it" game this year (granted, this could change by the end of the weekend, but nothing made an impact or had a massive crowd). Previous years had L.A. Noire, Max Payne, Borderlands 2, Evolve - all booths and games that had lines that were nigh-impossible to get into. We couldn't get into Evolve last year no matter how many times we circled the showfloor and came back, each time greeted with a PAX Enforcer holding a "line capped" sign, raining disappointment down upon us. Oculus was damn near impossible last year as well. Nothing this year screams "must play" to me. Nothing was drawing a crowd so large that it caused a fire hazard (as did Evolve last year). And that bums me out a bit.
It must also be said that the BCEC (Boston Convention and Entertainment Center) had incredibly poor planning with regards to parking this year. For those who haven't attended, there's a massive parking lot behind the convention center. When that fills up, there are satellite garages and lots about a mile or two down the road that somewhat of a pain to get to, but it's an accepted necessity at this point. My friend and I were stuck in massive traffic for hours, just to make it to the BCEC and be redirected to the satellite area. The garage was full and the secondary lot had been filled for "at least an hour." There was no direction as to what to do. No one from the city or BCEC to tell us where to go next. The answer we got was "a lot not owned by us (the BCEC) or parking along the street." ALONG THE STREET?? There are thousands of people descending upon the convention center and we were expected to find street parking. We decided to head back to the rear lot to see if anything changed. We were now told that there was parking in the Seaport area. Once there, there was no one to direct us or tell us anything. We ended up parking in an insanely shady-looking fish market where you'd expect the mob to dump bodies or do illegal business. Oh, and I got a ticket for not having a permit when no sign stated as much. It was a complete and utter clusterfuck of epic proportions. This is an event in its fifth year, one that grows year over year. How this was so incredibly botched is beyond me.
That said, we didn't get to do much after we finally made it on the floor after 12:30 (we're usually there between 9-10am). We roamed the floor, getting the lay of the land, bought some merch at the PAX booth, grabbed some food (road rage makes one quite hungry...) and settled on checking out the Oculus VR. We jumped in line around 2:30, a line that was capped within moments. That means the line was SO long and took so long to get through that we would barely make it in before the 6pm closing time. We actually made it in after 5pm, which made for a two-and-a-half-hour wait. And that doesn't even come close to the longest we've waited to play something. The Darkness 2 was about five hours. Max Payne 3 was over 3, as was The Elder Scrolls Online. Every minute of that wait was worth it, hands-down. We demoed the Samsung Gear VR, which used a Galaxy Note 4 and an android-compatible controller. There was a focus wheel on the top of the headset, with a "back" button on the side. The set-up was topped off with a Tritton headset to get the full effect. We were given six games to choose from. I picked a spy-themed one that had me flying a jet pack around a rudimentary city. The visuals were barely PlayStation 2-caliber, but that isn't the draw. Being able to spin around in my chair and get a 360 degree view is just amazing. And yes, I immediately flew to the top of a building and jumped off. And yes, I felt like I was actually falling. I had a physical reaction. The second game was a top-down action game a la Skylanders and again, while nothing new visually- or game-play-speaking, the degree of the viewing angle was just awesome. I simply cannot wait to use a VR headset with a more major game like Call of Duty or something simple like Minecraft. There's a second demo that we're absolutely going back tomorrow to try out.
Surprisingly enough Harmonix had a presence on the showfloor, with the new version of Amplitude playable and Rock Band 4 signage all over the place (at the time of this writing Rock Band 4 was announced only days ago). We jumped in the merch line and I picked up a sweet Rock Band 4 PAX-exclusive pin. I chatted with one of the developers for a few moments and expressed my thorough and real excitement over this announcement. It's a little moment that made me so very happy!!
With day one in the books, I really feel a bit let down this year. It seems that as the years go on, big-time developers and publishers keep dropping out of the event. And it makes sense; E3 has been fluctuating in size over the years due to big companies not wanting to spend the money and time on demos and booths, and I completely understand. It's just that this is a major event geared directly to the public and a chance for the actual developers of these games to get real feedback and gauge crowd reactions. I plan on checking out what Microsoft and Nintendo have to offer, along with some other random games and demos. Here's to hoping days two and three go smoother..
The Bearded Bullet
Monday, February 6, 2012
The Bearded Bullet Thinks About The Avengers...
What's goin on Internet? I'd like to start off by saying that I haven't read a comic book (outside of Watchmen) in probably 15-or-so years. Everything I propose here is based off of what I've seen in all of the Marvel films.
I've been a pretty big fan of Marvel's current library of films, specifically the massive universe that they're building in anticipation of The Avengers. In order of timeline: Iron Man, Iron Man 2, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America. In order of my fondness of them: Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, and Iron Man 2. Over the course of the varying films, SHIELD and the concept of The Avengers has been slowly becoming more of a focus for the franchise. Iron Man 2 really got the ball rolling, with Thor and especially Cap bringing the concept of The Avengers fully to life. I, as have millions of fans, have been trying to piece together what could possibly bring all of these great heroes together...basically any plot threads that might pop up in the film. I'm going to share with you all my thoughts on what we just might see this May...
Captain America - A lot of the groundwork for what I believe will come to pass what laid in Cap, last year. We all know that Red Skull was looking for, and found the Cosmic Cube; presumably Odin gave it to the people of Tonsberg, Norway, as a gift after the assault of the Frost Giants way back in the day (events that played out during the beginning of Thor). As we all know, Red Skull and Dr. Arnim Zola were using the Cube's insane amount of energy output to power Zola's weapons. At the time, and I still stand by this, I made the observation that Zola's weaponry sounded similarly to and had the same bluish hue as Tony Stark's arc reactor technology and his repulsors. This idea is corroborated with the fact that after Cap crashes Red Skull's mega plane, Howard Stark recovers the Cosmic Cube from the floor of the ocean. He was already messing with the tech from Zola's weaponry earlier in the film. Its safe to assume that he himself reverse-engineered the tech from the Cube to power his arc reactor. Its also quite possible that the Cube's energy output helped Howard to discover Vibranium, which Tony had to re-discover in the events of Iron Man 2.
Thor - Most of the events of Thor don't have much foreseeable impact upon The Avengers...its safe to assume that part of the film's plot will revolve around getting Thor back to Earth and rebuilding the Rainbow Bridge/bifrost. The after-credits-scene clearly sets up Loki as the villain of The Avengers (which we've known for quite some time) and first introduced us to the Cosmic Cube. Until Captain America came along, we had no real idea of what the Cube was capable of (within the context of the films). I fully believe that the Cube is capable of creating bifrost, allowing one to travel to the far reaches of Yggdrasil. This would mean that Red Skull is chillin' somewhere in one of the many realms of the World's Tree (as per the ending of Captain America). At the climax of Thor, Loki lets go from Odin and Thor to fall into the vast reaches of Yggdrasil. It must be pretty rough out there, because when he shows up at the end-credits-scene he's not looking too great. The revelation that both Red Skull and Loki are chillaxin somewhere in the cosmos leads me to believe that they've run into each other at some point and are possibly teaming up.
The Avengers - We don't know a ton about the plot of the film...just that Loki is messing up Earth with an army of some sort. Kevin Feige has said that neither Red Skull nor the Skrulls will be in the film. I find that hard to believe. I have a very strong feeling that Hyrda will show up somehow. In the Super Bowl trailer, you can see flying ships of some sort; they're either alien in nature (probably from somewhere in Yggdrasil) or they're commandeered by modern day Hydra. Hydra would make an excellent fit as the army commanded by Loki; Joss Whedon has said that Steve Rogers will be more or less the main character of the film, considering that he's new to our world and we'll be seeing it through his eyes. Making Hydra a force in the film would give Steve motivation; having just fought them in the 1940s he would be able to make some sort of connection to this new modern world. All of these "ships" have a bluish tint to them, indicative of Tony's arc reactor tech and Arnim Zola's weaponry of the past. It would make sense if some of that technology survived through to today, with remnants of Hydra still around. As for the green/brown aliens in the trailer..no idea on that one. I'm not versed enough in the comic lore to make a guess. If that's Loki's army, then either they are piloting those ships, or Hydra is involved as well. If Hydra is involved, I would be hard-pressed to believe that Red Skull is not in The Avengers If he and Loki met somewhere in the cosmos, they would most likely have formed a pact to take over Earth, leading to Loki controlling Hyrda forces.
This is all merely conjecture; there's a strong chance that all of this will turn out a different way and I'll look like a fool. Whatevsies. Let me know what you think in the comments!
Bullet out.
I've been a pretty big fan of Marvel's current library of films, specifically the massive universe that they're building in anticipation of The Avengers. In order of timeline: Iron Man, Iron Man 2, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America. In order of my fondness of them: Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, and Iron Man 2. Over the course of the varying films, SHIELD and the concept of The Avengers has been slowly becoming more of a focus for the franchise. Iron Man 2 really got the ball rolling, with Thor and especially Cap bringing the concept of The Avengers fully to life. I, as have millions of fans, have been trying to piece together what could possibly bring all of these great heroes together...basically any plot threads that might pop up in the film. I'm going to share with you all my thoughts on what we just might see this May...
Captain America - A lot of the groundwork for what I believe will come to pass what laid in Cap, last year. We all know that Red Skull was looking for, and found the Cosmic Cube; presumably Odin gave it to the people of Tonsberg, Norway, as a gift after the assault of the Frost Giants way back in the day (events that played out during the beginning of Thor). As we all know, Red Skull and Dr. Arnim Zola were using the Cube's insane amount of energy output to power Zola's weapons. At the time, and I still stand by this, I made the observation that Zola's weaponry sounded similarly to and had the same bluish hue as Tony Stark's arc reactor technology and his repulsors. This idea is corroborated with the fact that after Cap crashes Red Skull's mega plane, Howard Stark recovers the Cosmic Cube from the floor of the ocean. He was already messing with the tech from Zola's weaponry earlier in the film. Its safe to assume that he himself reverse-engineered the tech from the Cube to power his arc reactor. Its also quite possible that the Cube's energy output helped Howard to discover Vibranium, which Tony had to re-discover in the events of Iron Man 2.
Thor - Most of the events of Thor don't have much foreseeable impact upon The Avengers...its safe to assume that part of the film's plot will revolve around getting Thor back to Earth and rebuilding the Rainbow Bridge/bifrost. The after-credits-scene clearly sets up Loki as the villain of The Avengers (which we've known for quite some time) and first introduced us to the Cosmic Cube. Until Captain America came along, we had no real idea of what the Cube was capable of (within the context of the films). I fully believe that the Cube is capable of creating bifrost, allowing one to travel to the far reaches of Yggdrasil. This would mean that Red Skull is chillin' somewhere in one of the many realms of the World's Tree (as per the ending of Captain America). At the climax of Thor, Loki lets go from Odin and Thor to fall into the vast reaches of Yggdrasil. It must be pretty rough out there, because when he shows up at the end-credits-scene he's not looking too great. The revelation that both Red Skull and Loki are chillaxin somewhere in the cosmos leads me to believe that they've run into each other at some point and are possibly teaming up.
The Avengers - We don't know a ton about the plot of the film...just that Loki is messing up Earth with an army of some sort. Kevin Feige has said that neither Red Skull nor the Skrulls will be in the film. I find that hard to believe. I have a very strong feeling that Hyrda will show up somehow. In the Super Bowl trailer, you can see flying ships of some sort; they're either alien in nature (probably from somewhere in Yggdrasil) or they're commandeered by modern day Hydra. Hydra would make an excellent fit as the army commanded by Loki; Joss Whedon has said that Steve Rogers will be more or less the main character of the film, considering that he's new to our world and we'll be seeing it through his eyes. Making Hydra a force in the film would give Steve motivation; having just fought them in the 1940s he would be able to make some sort of connection to this new modern world. All of these "ships" have a bluish tint to them, indicative of Tony's arc reactor tech and Arnim Zola's weaponry of the past. It would make sense if some of that technology survived through to today, with remnants of Hydra still around. As for the green/brown aliens in the trailer..no idea on that one. I'm not versed enough in the comic lore to make a guess. If that's Loki's army, then either they are piloting those ships, or Hydra is involved as well. If Hydra is involved, I would be hard-pressed to believe that Red Skull is not in The Avengers If he and Loki met somewhere in the cosmos, they would most likely have formed a pact to take over Earth, leading to Loki controlling Hyrda forces.
This is all merely conjecture; there's a strong chance that all of this will turn out a different way and I'll look like a fool. Whatevsies. Let me know what you think in the comments!
Bullet out.
Saturday, November 5, 2011
The Beared Bullet's Thoughts On Uncharted 3 (Including Spoilers!!)
Greetings and salutations, Internet!
***Spoiler Alert***
I just finished Uncharted 3's campaign. For those of you unaware of what Uncharted is, I suggest you read this. For everyone else, please be aware that this post will contain myriad spoilers for multiple aspects of Uncharted 3's single player campaign. If you haven't completed the campaign I suggest that you do so now...because its kind of awesome.
Ok, so I need to get some stuff off my chest. To start, I'm a fan on the Uncharted series. I think that its the best franchise that Sony has exclusivity over. Resistance, Infamous, and God of War are all great franchises but they don't come close to what Uncharted does in terms of atmosphere, story and character development. Uncharted 3 was one of my most anticipated titles this year; I couldn't wait to dive into the single-player campaign.
Overall I quite enjoyed Uncharted 3. Story-wise it certainly didn't fit the mold of the first two titles..which is good and bad. I'll admit, I'm a fan of the supernatural stuff going on in U1 and U2. I was disappointed when the Yeti's in U2 weren't real Yetis. That said, I was a bit bummed that there was nothing supernatural about the plot or story of U3. I was kinda digging the Ghost Rider-soldiers (even though they were a bit annoying to take down)..until I found out that Nathan was just tripping on some spiked water. I was also kind of hoping that there was more to Marlowe; her character was built up with the young-Drake and Sully connection and ultimately she had little to do. Granted, she was the mastermind behind everything bad that happened to Nate but I can't help but feel that her character was wasted. I was hoping that she had discovered some fountain of youth and had been working with Sir Francis back in the day.
I feel that several plot points were just dropped throughout the story. I take it we are to assume that Nate and Elena were/are married and that something dramatic happened that caused her to divorce/separate from Nate. And apparently Nathan Drake's real name is not Nathan Drake?? Why was this brought up and just tossed aside by Marlowe? Am the the only one that didn't know this? Did I miss something in one of the previous games? I assume these will be addressed in a future game or perhaps a novel.
I really like the character of Chloe and the new addition, Cutter. While they featured heavily in the first half of the game, their characters are left by the wayside while Nate and Sully go on and adventure. I know, I know, Cutter's broken leg would hamper his ability to treasure-hunt, but I wish they would've turned up in the end in perhaps an end-credit scene. And speaking of which, no end-credit Easter egg? Gamers these days know to wait till after the credits for a juicy tidbit of info or a clue as to where the franchise is headed next. Nothing here.
I guess I'm just nitpicking over minor plot points. The ending and final section was interesting and not necessarily what I expected..and again it feels like not much was addressed. I would've liked maybe a final conversation between Nate and Salim. The dialogue between Sully and Nate was emotional and quite enjoyable...but maybe would've meant more had we known what happened between Nathan and Elena. Sully giving Nate his ring back would've been more important had the player been privy to the previous situation.
And why was the game called Drake's Deception? Is he deceiving us all because he isn't really who he says he is? The only real deception I saw was in the bar in the beginning of the game..and that in the first ten minutes.
Despite all of these hangups I have with Uncharted 3, I can't help but feel that its one of the best gaming experiences I've had in a very, very long time (along with Batman: Arkham City). The size and scope of U3 is unrivaled - as are the visuals. At plenty of points I wanted to just stop and admire the scenery around me. The voice acting and character animations are movie quality; I am absolutely in love with all of the characters (well, the good guys at least). I just want to keep playing games with these characters, regardless of the adventure. And I just think its funny how many pirates Nate has killed over the course of three games!
What say you, Internet? Agree? Disagree? Let me know!
Bearded Bullet out.
***Spoiler Alert***
I just finished Uncharted 3's campaign. For those of you unaware of what Uncharted is, I suggest you read this. For everyone else, please be aware that this post will contain myriad spoilers for multiple aspects of Uncharted 3's single player campaign. If you haven't completed the campaign I suggest that you do so now...because its kind of awesome.
Ok, so I need to get some stuff off my chest. To start, I'm a fan on the Uncharted series. I think that its the best franchise that Sony has exclusivity over. Resistance, Infamous, and God of War are all great franchises but they don't come close to what Uncharted does in terms of atmosphere, story and character development. Uncharted 3 was one of my most anticipated titles this year; I couldn't wait to dive into the single-player campaign.
Overall I quite enjoyed Uncharted 3. Story-wise it certainly didn't fit the mold of the first two titles..which is good and bad. I'll admit, I'm a fan of the supernatural stuff going on in U1 and U2. I was disappointed when the Yeti's in U2 weren't real Yetis. That said, I was a bit bummed that there was nothing supernatural about the plot or story of U3. I was kinda digging the Ghost Rider-soldiers (even though they were a bit annoying to take down)..until I found out that Nathan was just tripping on some spiked water. I was also kind of hoping that there was more to Marlowe; her character was built up with the young-Drake and Sully connection and ultimately she had little to do. Granted, she was the mastermind behind everything bad that happened to Nate but I can't help but feel that her character was wasted. I was hoping that she had discovered some fountain of youth and had been working with Sir Francis back in the day.
I feel that several plot points were just dropped throughout the story. I take it we are to assume that Nate and Elena were/are married and that something dramatic happened that caused her to divorce/separate from Nate. And apparently Nathan Drake's real name is not Nathan Drake?? Why was this brought up and just tossed aside by Marlowe? Am the the only one that didn't know this? Did I miss something in one of the previous games? I assume these will be addressed in a future game or perhaps a novel.
I really like the character of Chloe and the new addition, Cutter. While they featured heavily in the first half of the game, their characters are left by the wayside while Nate and Sully go on and adventure. I know, I know, Cutter's broken leg would hamper his ability to treasure-hunt, but I wish they would've turned up in the end in perhaps an end-credit scene. And speaking of which, no end-credit Easter egg? Gamers these days know to wait till after the credits for a juicy tidbit of info or a clue as to where the franchise is headed next. Nothing here.
I guess I'm just nitpicking over minor plot points. The ending and final section was interesting and not necessarily what I expected..and again it feels like not much was addressed. I would've liked maybe a final conversation between Nate and Salim. The dialogue between Sully and Nate was emotional and quite enjoyable...but maybe would've meant more had we known what happened between Nathan and Elena. Sully giving Nate his ring back would've been more important had the player been privy to the previous situation.
And why was the game called Drake's Deception? Is he deceiving us all because he isn't really who he says he is? The only real deception I saw was in the bar in the beginning of the game..and that in the first ten minutes.
Despite all of these hangups I have with Uncharted 3, I can't help but feel that its one of the best gaming experiences I've had in a very, very long time (along with Batman: Arkham City). The size and scope of U3 is unrivaled - as are the visuals. At plenty of points I wanted to just stop and admire the scenery around me. The voice acting and character animations are movie quality; I am absolutely in love with all of the characters (well, the good guys at least). I just want to keep playing games with these characters, regardless of the adventure. And I just think its funny how many pirates Nate has killed over the course of three games!
What say you, Internet? Agree? Disagree? Let me know!
Bearded Bullet out.
Friday, July 15, 2011
2012: The Greatest Year in the History of Awesome Stuff
So I know that this year is barely halfway over, and we've still got plenty of awesome entertainment coming up (Captain America, Cowboys & Aliens, Batman: Arkham City, Battlefield 3 etc), but I was thinking about next year...and the plethora of awesome shiz that will be invading our wallets and brain cells.
The most prevalent is in the movie front:
John Carter
The Hunger Games
Wrath of the Titans (I'm willing to the franchise another shot)
The Avengers
Rock of Ages
Snow White and the Huntsmen
Prometheus
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (Just started the book..pretty rad)
Brave
Star Trek 2 (If they start filming this Fall)
The Amazing Spider-Man
The Dark Knight Rises (Enough to make year the greatest year....ever)
The Bourne Legacy (Without Jason Bourne..but I'm still pumped)
Total Recall
GI Joe 2 (I enjoyed the first one enough to warrant a return)
The Expendables 2
Resident Evil: Retribution (Wasn't a huge fan of the fourth, but again I'll give it another shot)
Bond 23
47 Ronin (Keanu Reeves + Samurai=Sweetness)
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
The Lone Ranger
Django Unchained
Batman, Lord of the Rings, James Bond, Spider-Man, Star Trek, The Avengers..all in one year??
I must also mention that two of my most anticipated games come out next year: Mass Effect 3 and Bioshock Infinite. I'm already calling Bioshock Infinite as Game of the Century when it arrives next fall.
Next year may very well be one of the highest-grossing years in cinema history...and I'll definitely be doing my part to contribute!!
What say you, Internet? Anything that you're excited for that I missed? Let me know!
The Bearded Bullet
The most prevalent is in the movie front:
John Carter
The Hunger Games
Wrath of the Titans (I'm willing to the franchise another shot)
The Avengers
Rock of Ages
Snow White and the Huntsmen
Prometheus
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (Just started the book..pretty rad)
Brave
Star Trek 2 (If they start filming this Fall)
The Amazing Spider-Man
The Dark Knight Rises (Enough to make year the greatest year....ever)
The Bourne Legacy (Without Jason Bourne..but I'm still pumped)
Total Recall
GI Joe 2 (I enjoyed the first one enough to warrant a return)
The Expendables 2
Resident Evil: Retribution (Wasn't a huge fan of the fourth, but again I'll give it another shot)
Bond 23
47 Ronin (Keanu Reeves + Samurai=Sweetness)
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
The Lone Ranger
Django Unchained
Batman, Lord of the Rings, James Bond, Spider-Man, Star Trek, The Avengers..all in one year??
I must also mention that two of my most anticipated games come out next year: Mass Effect 3 and Bioshock Infinite. I'm already calling Bioshock Infinite as Game of the Century when it arrives next fall.
Next year may very well be one of the highest-grossing years in cinema history...and I'll definitely be doing my part to contribute!!
What say you, Internet? Anything that you're excited for that I missed? Let me know!
The Bearded Bullet
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Michael Bay Reuses Footage...Big Deal!
So if you haven't seen, it seems that Michael Bay has reused some footage from his movie, The Island, in Transformers 3. It involves a high-speed highway chase between three Decepticons and a handful of Autobots. The scene is awesome. One of the best in the film. And I don't care. You can find comparison videos on youtube if you want to see for yourself. Honestly, its probably not even more than ten total seconds of footage that was reused. Guess what? He did it in Transformers 2 with a shot of naval aircraft carriers from Pearl Harbor. Big deal! If the man wants to destroy a couple fewer cars by taking a few shots from a previous movie (that he directed!) then let him. I understand why people are making a big deal out of this but seriously? That's just what I think.
Did anyone actually see The Island anyway? It made less than $70 million domestically. Again, what's the big deal?
Bullet
Did anyone actually see The Island anyway? It made less than $70 million domestically. Again, what's the big deal?
Bullet
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