E3 2013: Mad Max Trailer: No Gameplay Makes Me A Road Worrier (For The Moment)…

Yeah, yeah… CG trailers are fine and dandy, but I hate them so far into this generation where game engines can do this stuff and look better overall. Oh well – as long as the actual game itself is fun to play and gets the look and feel of the Mad Max movies right (well, I don’t mean that last one so much), it’ll be a hit. If it’s not a hit… well, I still have my copies of Outlander for the Super Nintendo and Genesis here to replay. Then again, this IS being done by Avalanche Studios (Just Cause, Just Cause 2), so it’s bound to be impressive and quite awesome as an open-world experience should they go that route.

E3 2013: Swery 65’s D4: Episodic Detective Xbox One Exclusive? Well, 2 out of 3 Isn’t Bad…

Nope, I’m betting my entire WARP games collection this has no relation to Kenji Eno’s great, languidly paced horror game D or it’s more mature and outrageous follow-up D2, but it’s from one of my favorite game creators, so it’ll get played… provided it eventually comes to a console I can play it on, grrrr. This is the ONE and only thing I despise about this “exclusive” thing, especially in this coming cycle where a lot of games will indeed be VERY “exclusive” as in you can’t play at all unless you meet too many requirements. Bleh. Swery-saaaaaaaaaaaan! PLEASE get this on other systems as soon as possible. ALL your fans deserve to play it – not just a select few!

E3 2013: Star Wars Battlefront Teaser: EA Rolls the DICE And Comes Up With A Future Winner…

This super early teaser means there’s nothing ready to show at all as far as gameplay goes. Still, I totally called this one on a game industry board a few months back to some skeptical replies even though it was SO obvious that the same developer that brings you the Battlefield series would absolutely love it if they were handed this license to work their magic on. Are you kidding me? Frostbite 3 engine, Star Wars license, chance to redeem the license AND bring gamers one really insane FPS action across multiple consoles? Nope, that’s not going to be passed up at all, folks. That said… there had better be a solo play mode like the other Star Wars Battlefront games made for less powerful consoles in the past or to paraphrase Uncle Owen “There’s going to be hell to pay!” Well, not from me, necessarily… I can see plenty of fans of those old games wanting to dive in and play Solo (ha ha)… OK, OK, I’ll quit it with the puns while I’m ahead.

Er… I am ahead, right? No? Rats…

E3 2013: Dragon Age: Inquisition – Open World And A Few Familar Faces…

You can’t keep a good (well, so bad she’s good) witch down it seems. If that is indeed, Morrigan we’re looking at, well – the game is sold already to many Dragon Agers out there who love the character and her evil ways… The open world focus HOPEFULLY means no recycled maps (one of Dragon Age 2’s notorious downfalls) and a lot more to see and do than in previous entries and even better, it’s coming to current gen as well as next-gen consoles (but not the Wii U, oops), so it’ll be played by more when it launches next year…

E3 2013: So, There’s a Need For Speed Movie Coming? NFS Rivals Has A Rival!

Well, EA’s upcoming racer Need for Speed Rivals (above) looks really great and that live gameplay demo at the press event was really quite cool as it went from single player to multiplayer modes seamlessly. Still, I’m not quite sold on the upcoming movie in production, as I think that money would be better spent on making the game as good as it gets and to other SKUs along with the one coming for Next-Gen consoles. Well, what do I know, right? Eh, we’ll see what’s what – the comment in the behind the scenes vid below about the film being an accurate representation of car culture is a TOTAL hoot, as it comes right before a crazy crash that probably would kill a driver in real life… oops.

Well, this should be interesting, as the game looks like it’ll keep racing fans OUT of theaters, not send them into one to catch this because they’d rather PLAY instead of watch… we shall see…

E3 2013: Ryse: Son of Rome Trailer: Crytek’s Xbox One Action Game Is No Roamin’ Holiday…

I’m no history buff, but I figured the chiming in would start as soon as the this gameplay trailer was all done. Crytek is making a stellar-looking exclusive here, the nitpickers have been at it about thee shields not being accurate, the English-accented Roman soldiers (what, you want to read subtitles or get stabbed in the head?) the gameplay having too many QTE’s (quick time events, for the uninitiated), and this sequence basically being paced like the Omaha Beach sequence from the old PS2 game Medal of Honor Frontline (ouch!). Oh well – you’ll never please ’em all, I guess. I think it looks mighty awesome, although thanks to the Xbox One’s rather silly and restrictive always connected/online-only focus on making sure everything’s “connected”, I can’t play this at all (and neither can millions of others who may want to drop five hundred clams on that new console). Ah well… the “future” is here, right? RIGHT? Er, SPQR?

E3 2013: Sunset Overdrive – Insomniac Pokes Sony (And Themselves) In The Eye With This Xbox One Exclusive

 
Ouch and double ouch. Bringing Ted Price on stage to state their new game could ONLY be done on the Xbox One was pretty a nasty shock to some longtime Sony and Insomniac fans who thought the companies were inseparable. The again, as soon as FUSE was announced initially as Overstrike, I figured that the relationship was over as far as a one-console future for the developer. Well, here you go – it looks like this one will do well based on the response, but some hate the visuals for looking “too Xbox 360” or “too cartoony!”… which is hilarious, as that’s what they wanted with FUSE when it was called Overstrike. Ha and ha ha. Well, it’s still early as far as the dev process goes, so stuff may or may not change as development continues…

Xbox One: $499, Always Connected, HUGE Cloud Focus, New Xbox 360 Model in Stores Now…

Xbox One

Hmmmm… so it’s officially priced (429 Pounds in the UK, 499 Euros in Europe), there’s still NO explanation about the license policies (awful PR there), most of the games look really impressive and if you have no online at home… welp, you need to buy another console. Also, the major focus on Xbox Live GOLD memberships across the board, while not enforced at the press conference, means it’s probably a given that it’s going to be the sole way to go. Well, at least Microsoft Points are now in REAL currency. Finally.

Back in a bit with more…

VGA 101: Xbox One – Making Plug In & Play Obsolete Since Never…

Ah, NeoGAF… what would we do without you? Well, when your fast-typing opinion-driven crowd gets it right, that is. One clever user there named Cheesemeister has put together a fun to pore over little flowchart that, based on all currently available info more or less describes the “simple” act of playing a game on Microsoft’s upcoming Xbox One console.

Well, it’s “simple” if you can meet a few important requirements… enjoy!

Xbox One Flowchart

E3 2013: Murdered: Soul Suspect: Dead Man Walking in This New Game Most Intriguing…

 
Finding a truly original game idea is like looking for ice cream on the sun, but here comes a really nice surprise headed to current and next-gen consoles: Murdered: Soul Suspect from developer Airtight Games (Dark Void, Jet Pack Joyride). In this PC/PS3/Xbox 360/Xbox One game, you play as a murdered detective named Ronan O’Connor who rises from the dead thanks to a mysterious power and seeks out his killer. The game’s Salem, Massachusetts setting makes for an intriguing choice thanks to it’s somewhat compelling real life witch trails, and yes, there’s indeed a mystical element added in here as Ronan’s spirit can possess townspeople in order to solve cryptic puzzles, do a bit of combat with evil spirits and while indoors, pass through solid walls. Yes, to some out there the concept may sound very close to Capcom’s Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective for the Nintendo DS and iOS, But among other things, Murdered is without the 2D side-scrolling gameplay and main ghost character’s amnesia affliction found in the portable sleeper hit.

It’ll be interesting to see how this turns out as more information surfaces, but I’m already ticking it off as a must-play title. Of course, not being at E3, I’ll need to hope Square Enix comes flying into NYC like many other publishers do after the big show is over and done. I have the feeling that this is one of those new IP they’ll want to show off to as many editor types as possible just to get the engine firing up on that hype train. If it’s going to be as intriguing as the concept makes it sound, I’ll be there with bells on when they come a-calling. Back with more on this one soon – stay tuned…