A Green Mushroom

So, I had to compile a ton of show notes over the past 48 hours for my Video Game News Now podcast.  If you aren't already subscribed you should seriously go check it out  and I'll help you stay on top of game news. Anyway, I had to pull together as many youtube links as possible to go with my show notes for each conference and I realized that other people might like to have them all in a list... and since I have them anyway... here you go: EA Titanfall 2 Multiplayer Trailer Titanfall 2 Single Player Campaign Trailer Mass Effect Andromeda Behind the Scenes Trailer FIFA 17 “The Journey” Trailer Fe Gameplay Trailer EA Star Wars: A Look Ahead Trailer Battlefield 1 Gameplay Trailer Bethesda Quake Champions Cinematic Reveal Trailer Skyrim Remaster Trailer Elder Scrolls Legends Campaign Trailer Prey Reveal Trailer Dishonored 2 Gameplay Trailer Microsoft Xbox One S Reveal Killer Instinct General RAAM Trailer Forza Horizon 3 Trail...

There are so many great announcements coming out of E3 this year.  Here are the games I'm most excited for so far: Mario Maker The footage from the Nintendo World Championship really sold me on this game.  It's my most anticipated game right now.  If it has good sharing and community capabilities it could become one of my favorite games of all time. Star Wars Battlefront Star Wars is my weakness and this is the first real Star Wars game that we're getting under the new management of the franchise.  It looks gorgeous and the gameplay should be a ton of fun.  There's no question this is a day one purchase for me. Fire Emblem Fates I love a good strategy RPG and Fire Emblem was always on my radar, but when Fire Emblem Awakening came out it finally clicked with me.  I loved Fire Emblem Awakening and it was my game of the year for the year it came out.  Fire Emblem Fates looks like the next step in the same direction f...

I'm pretty disappointed in the Square Enix press conference.  It was full of talking heads, pre-rendered CG trailer videos, and not much concrete information. Almost none of the games were being released in 2015 and there were barely any release dates given.  Most of the press conference was men in suits saying, "We're making this game and we hope you're excited to find out more but we won't tell you more now." I guess I was expecting a big announcement, like Final Fantasy XVI or a new Chrono game or... something.  Instead I got some trailers for games we already knew were coming and the announcement of some mobile games. I'm disappointed. The biggest announcement for Square Enix was done yesterday at the Sony press conference when they announced a Final Fantasy VII remake. The thing is, I know a lot of the Square Enix games they talked about today will be good, but they were just presented in such a boring manner that it was disheartening. I...

Ah!  The Nintendo conference is over and I only have 7 minutes before the Square Enix one starts.  Quick!  Thoughts! Nothing revolutionary announced.  They're holding off on talking about the new system until next year. Lot's of gameplay from games releasing later this year or early next year.  Things like Star Fox and Yoshi's Wooly World look to still be on track and fun. I'm super excited for the new Fire Emblem which now has an English name, Fire Emblem Fates.  I loved Fire Emblem Awakening, so I'll definitely be picking up this one.  That Fire Emblem cross over on the other hand... looks a little crazy.  I'm not sure what to think about it. A new multiplayer Metroid for 3DS just got announced.  I hope Metroid fans are happy.  It didn't look all that appealing to me, but that's ok, I'm not a huge Metroid fan. The new Triforce Heroes Zelda game for 3DS is more my speed.  I'm not sure if I'll have people to play it with v...

Wow.  Wow.  Just Wow. Final Fantasy VII is getting a remake.  There were a bunch of other bombshells in the press conference but this is all I can think about.  Nothing else seems to matter much right now. If you didn't know, I'm a huge Final Fantasy fan .  I'm so excited for the remake!  And they announced another Final Fantasy game too!  But seriously, that FFVII remake is just dominating my thoughts. It's going to take some time to decompress after all these press conferences.  Wow.

The Ubisoft Press Conference was mixed for me.  There were a couple games that piqued my interest, and of course I'm always excited for a new Assassin's Creed (it's a weakness) but I didn't really see any games that are a guaranteed day one buy for me. For the most part I'd like to hear more about these games from the journalists who will get to play them this week on the show floor. I want to know more about Rainbow Six Siege, The Division, and Assassin's Creed.  Hopefully we'll get to read some good impressions as the week goes on. The thing that impressed me the most with the Ubisoft press conference was the amount of real gameplay footage and live demos.  It seemed like almost every game had real gameplay footage to go with it.  They're not hiding behind pre-rendered CG trailers for their games and they deserve applause for that. Now I'm going to wait for the Sony event to start.  I'm really excited to see what pops up in that one.

I had a lunch meeting so I'm a little behind on E3 today, but I just blasted through the Microsoft conference and have a couple minutes to write before the EA conference starts. It was a solid showing, but not enough to get me to buy an Xbox One.  There are a lot of games that are interesting to me, but most of them are on both Xbox One and PC.  I much prefer to use my monster of a gaming PC instead of spending more money on hardware I don't need.  It seems like I won't miss out on too much. The Xbox One exclusives that did  interest me are Halo 5 and Thieves of the Sea.  Halo 5 is fairly self explanatory, but I really liked the ODST vibe it gave off.  That has always been my favorite Halo game.  Thieves of the Sea looks like a sweet stylized pirate MMO that I would play in a heartbeat if it were on PC, but for the moment it's staying as a Xbox One exclusive. They showcased a lot of games and hardware announcements, I'm still kinda decompressing....

I think I'm just going to write up E3 thoughts whenever they strike this week, instead of waiting for my normal posting schedule. I just watched the Bethesda Press Conference and it was... ok?  I have to fess up, I'm not a huge Fallout fan.  Or Doom fan.  Or Dishonored fan.  I don't even think I like the Elder Scrolls as much as most people. Honestly, I usually play a Bethesda game for a week or two, grow bored of it, and move on with my life.  That's where I'm coming from, so keep that in mind. I watched the press conference anyway because it's E3 and I'm interested. To me, Doom looked super generic and bloody but not all that interesting. Dishonored 2 was basically a pre-rendered concept trailer so who cares.  I'll hold off having real thoughts until I see gameplay. Elder Scrolls card game looks like it wants a piece of that sweet sweet Hearthstone money.  Now that Blizzard has proved there's a market for mobile digital card games it...

The Nintendo World Championship just happened and it totally lived up to the hype.  I watched the whole thing while talking to my brother over text and my Twitter friends over Twitter.  I had a great time. The main rounds were modern games played competitively and the "underground" rounds were classic Nintendo games done as speed runs or score challenges.  The variety and game selection were fantastic. Nintendo even revealed a new game in the middle of the event and then immediately had the competitors play it for the next round. The best part of the event was watching the final round with the competitors playing Mario Maker levels that Nintendo Treehouse employees had designed.  It was strangely captivating watching them figure out the levels in real time. The event just wrapped up but it looks like it's already posted on YouTube.  I highly recommend checking it out.  I'll even embed it below, for your convenience.

It's E3 Week!  A time to get hype!  A time to be skeptical.  A time for many things. But mostly a time for fun speculating and dreaming. I love the current format of E3 because all the big press conferences are livestreamed to everyone.  I used to dream about attending an E3, but now there is no point.  I can get the best E3 experience by sitting at home, watching the livestreams, and keeping up with my RSS feeds. What news are you guys most excited about hearing?  Any particular press conference or game you're looking forward to? For me, I can't wait to hear more about VR.  It seems like 2016 is the year where VR systems are actually finally releasing to the public as retail products.  That means this is probably the last E3 before they are released.  I'm so excited to get my hands on an Oculus Rift or a Steam VR. How about you guys?