News & Views
6/13/15-6/19/15
E3 2015 has
come and gone! I feel pretty comfortable declaring that this year was one of
the best I’ve ever seen. There were huge
game announcements that at times almost felt like fan fiction. As always, Charles Fliss and I (@alexsamocha) sat down to talk about the stories with the biggest impact on our podcast. You can kind it on our SoundCloud or on iTunes!
I’ve talked
a lot about this extraordinary E3. You can find my Day 0,
1
and 2
wrap-ups right here on the blog. I also wrote about a handful of games I
thought had the
biggest impact.
Expect more
E3 2015 talk here on The Impact Factor as I have some time to sit back,
reflect, and synthesize some of the bigger themes that emerged from this
colossal industry event. Seeking trends and drawing conclusions is what I do
every day as a biomedical scientist after all! But even though E3 was in full
swing this week, we still were graced with a bunch of great written pieces from
around the web. I found excellent articles discussing difficulty curves, a lack
of originality in Sci-Fi and fantasy games, a simple suggestion to make E3 more
enjoyable, and a story detailing The Last
Guardian’s eight-year journey to the PlayStation 4. That’s right, did I
forget to say that The Last
(freakin’) Guardian was re-announced
for PS4 and given a 2016 release year? These are crazy times folks.
Spotlight
Alexander Freed,
Gamasutra
Worth Reading
Max
Battcher, WorldMaker
Richard
Cobbett, Rock, Paper, Shotgun
Felipe
Pepe, Gamasutra
Ethan Gach,
KillScreen
Samit
Sarkar, Polygon
Dave
Baggett, Quora
And the rest!
Ashley
Barry, Not Your Mama’s Gamer
The announcement of The Last Guardian is a perfect lead up to Barry’s excellent
piece. Silence can be used as a powerful, and evocative, tool for world and
character building. The silence of the protagonists and stillness of the surrounding
world gives Journey and Shadow of
the Colossus extraordinary game feel. I
wonder if The Last Guardian will use
silence in the same way?
Patricia
Hernandez, Kotaku
I’m not ashamed to admit I spent of
a lot of my E3-watching time tuned into the Capcom Fighters Twitch stream. More
than a little excited about Street Fighter V. Justin
Wong is a huge figure in the fighting game community, kicking butt and taking
names at nearly every tournament and in nearly every game. I love that he put a
bounty on his head in Marvel at EVO,
the biggest fighting game tournament in the world. I know I’ll be watching
closely.
David
Rudin, KillScreen
I thought this year’s E3 was fantastic. That said, there is always
room for improvement. Having not watched many (read: any) NFL drafts, I can’t
say if this style of new game announcements and demoes would be more engaging,
but I do sometimes wish I could pause the press conferences to talk about an
announcement RIGHT as it was made. If KillScreen is suggesting this, will they
make it a reality? Seems tough given Twitter exploding with each new
announcement as they are shown.
Michael
McWhertor, Polygon
I had to include this. I was a bit
skeptical at first, since Dark Souls 3 marks the third Souls
game in as many years. Usually when a
franchise gets annualized, the quality tends to suffer and innovation gets
severely diminished. Looking at you, Call of Duty and Assassin’s Creed. But
everything I heard from E3 assuaged my Dark Souls 3 fears. First, it will be the last in the Dark Souls saga, which is great, I don’t want From to
be trapped in Lordran too long. Second, Miyazaki is at the helm. Third, it
looks like they’re doing a lot to change up gameplay and make Dark Souls 3 it’s own game. Cool. See you early 2016.
David
Rudin, KillScreen
Menswear at E3 is always something
that makes me laugh and shake my head. Most presenters wear the “gamer business
suit” which is a game-branded t-shirt, jeans, and a blazer. Lame. Often times
you get people that look like they just rolled out of bed. And this is supposed
to be a professional event? And then you get some suits. I’m not sure what
balance people should strike, as video games are just a more casually dressed
industry, but it would be fun if presenters experimented a bit more!
Brain
Crecente, Polygon
It sucks that in 2015 you still have
to worry about a female lead impacting game sales. Like, honestly, who are the
people that are bothered by using a female character? You know you’re playing a
game, right? I’m so glad Guerrilla and Sony stuck to their guns to give us Horizon: Zero Dawn’s awesome main character. I’m so excited to
learn more about the game.
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