Wednesday, June 6, 2018

E3 Wishes and Expectations 2018 - Bethesda Softworks

Eyyy, Bethesda. They're a cool company. They've worked hard in the past year to put all the coolest games on Switch and PSVR. No Vita, but we'll forgive them. What are they going to show at E3 this year?

Well, I know they'll be showing off Fallout 6 (Fallout 76 is a dumb name), but what are they going to show off? I'm thinking they'll show off a short trailer, but not gameplay footage. If my guesstimate is correct that this game is coming out in spring, then we'll get some gameplay footage further down the line. But hopefully we can get gameplay footage sooner, like, sometime during E3 would be great. It could really boost Sony or Nintendo's conference; preferably Sony's because their conference last year was much less interesting than Nintendo's.
But Fallout 6 can't be the only game they're showing off. That would be lame! So they've got to announce something else.

Elder Scrolls 3! Bethesda seems to love rereleasing Elder Scrolls 5. There are 7 releases of it as far as I know, maybe 8. But Elder Scrolls 3 is only on 2 platforms- Xbox and PC. The Xbox version doesn't even run that well without an Xbox One X. So here's an idea for Bethesda - rerelease Elder Scrolls 3 on PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and Vita.

"Vita? Why the Vita, Josh?" Hear me out.

Bethesda likes to port stuff. It could port Elder Scrolls 3 to the Vita to make a bit more money. Even if it's a straight port of the original with no enhancements other than framerate and draw distance, they should be good. The Vita users would definitely pick it up, since the Vita's AAA release schedule in the coming months is pretty much nonexistent. Besides, the Vita is portable. You don't know how many people would buy either a Switch or a Vita just to play Elder Scrolls 3 portably. And since the Vita is the cheaper of the two, there will likely be a decent amount of Vita sales. Bethesda gets the sales from Vita fans, and Sony gets the sales from Elder Scrolls fans. Good?
I didn't bother fixing half the Bethesda logo here. Sorry.
I really hope the ES3 port has that thing that the Master Chief Collection has on Xbox One, where you can switch between the high-definition remaster and the original graphics just by pressing the Select button or something. If it runs at a consistent 30fps and has both graphics modes, then we're gucci. Also include the expansions please Bethesda. I don't see them charging full price for a remake of this game, since Dark Souls is 40 bucks on current platforms, but I can't say for sure.

But I don't expect them to do that at all. Here's what I think they'll actually do.

They WILL talk about Fallout 6. I think they'll announce platforms, just like in that tweet above, and they won't show gameplay, but they'll have a really short trailer. Less than a minute, no doubt. They'll probably have an eSports thing, just like they did last year with Quake III or whatever game it was that they played. They'll announce that, like, Dishonored 2 or something is coming to PSVR. They'll probably announce Skyrim for TurboGrafx16 or Saturn or both. Then it will probably be over and that will be it.

What conference comes up after theirs? Hopefully it's Ubisoft. I'll look at the list later. Whatever it is, I'll be posting about their conference later so be sure to read that one as well.

Tuesday, June 5, 2018

E3 Wishes and Expectations 2018 - Microsoft

I have more hopes for Microsoft than I do for Electronic Arts. But I'm not entirely sure why. Microsoft doesn't really do much as far as games go, and E3 is all about games. They make Xbox Ones and they make 6th-gen and 7th-gen games run on Xbox One. That's why I'll have a lot more wishes than I'll have expectations, but we'll get to that later.

E3 Wishes and Expectations 2018 - Electronic Arts

So Electronic Arts is the first conference up at E3 2018. I've made it clear that I don't like Electronic Arts in the past, including last year's predictions post. But what do I want to happen this year at E3?

Well first of all, I would think it would be really cool if Electronic Arts would announce that Battlefield V is coming to Switch. I still wouldn't buy it, but shooter fans don't have much to buy a Switch for.

Wait, doesn't EA own the rights to the Simpsons license? And wasn't the last Simpsons game for a platform other than mobile way back in 2007? Why don't we get another Simpsons game? I would rather like that. I think that if the studio had some creative people in charge, a Simpsons title would do very well. The best part is that it doesn't even need to have loot boxes! It's a pre-established franchise, so it has brand power! And I know that EA makes tons of money off Tapped Out, so why not make it multiplat? PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC, and heck, even put it on 360, PS3, and Wii U if you really can. That would be awesome.

PVZ Garden Warfare 2 is honestly not something I'm too familiar with. But PVZ is a game that I enjoy, so I wouldn't mind if Garden Warfare 2 found itself on my favorite Nintendo platform besides the GameCube, Wii, and Wii U.

What do I expect from Electronic Arts though?

I'm sure we'll get something about their sports titles. They have Madden and Fifa. I'm sure we'll hear something about their mobile games.

After their whole loot box fiasco last November, I'm sure we'll hear something about how Electronic Arts games will not have loot boxes, or will have very miniscule loot boxes, for the foreseeable future.

And finally, I'm 100% sure we'll see a lot of Anthem this year. Xbox showed off Anthem last year and it got a fair amount of showtime. With the release date inching closer, there might even be a demo of some sort. Probably not, but I can't say for sure.


So that's what I want and what I think Electronic Arts will show off. Now I only have all the other companies to talk about. See you later!

Monday, June 4, 2018

Upcoming Switch Games and My Thoughts on Them

My name is Keri and I'm so very happy to be talking about the Switch. I do it often, but it's a good platform, so can you blame me? Probably in the upper half of my Nintendo console rankings and in the upper half of my 8th-gen rankings (only below the Wii U), it's got a good library of strong titles coming out for the foreseeable future. So I'm gonna take a look at some upcoming titles for the platform and what I think about them.

That's the Japanese version of the box art. Sue me.
Minecraft - Minecraft was already released on Switch about a year ago, but I don't care because it wasn't physical. My siblings decided to buy it, so I tried it out. It runs very similar to how it runs on 360, which is good. But that doesn't matter. That's because the new release runs on Better Together's engine, Bedrock. 

OOF

I tried Bedrock on different devices (Windows 10 PCs and 7" tablets), and I noticed that it doesn't look as nice as it does through Java or on 360. It has a really bad OS, too. Like, the inventory system is confusing, and the menu looks like it was designed for 2-year-olds. And from what I've heard from Xbox One users when they got the Better Together update, there's a chance that your worlds will be corrupted when converting them from the 4J engine to Bedrock. I'll buy it so I own as few games digitally as possible, but I'm not too interested in it personally. Minecraft releases on June 21st.



Okami HD - The original Okami was released on PS2 way back when, and it was very well-received critically. It was released on the Wii and PS3 later, each bringing their own strengths to the game. The Wii had motion controls so the drawing technique worked better, and the PS3 version runs in 720p high-definition. At least on my TV it does. It's a 720p TV. But neither version features both of those enhancements until now. The Switch version is in HD and it features the motion controls that the Wii version has.

But I'm not sure if I'm going to buy it. It's not physical here in the States. It's a shame, because I would love to have it available on Switch physically in English, which isn't confirmed yet for the Japanese release, so I don't know whether to import it or not. If it has English, I might import it. If it doesn't, I'll be sticking with the Wii version. Okami HD releases on August 9th.


Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus - I'm not too interested in shooters outside of the Wii and Halo 2 & 3. But I'd be lying if I said the story to Wolfenstein IX didn't intrigue me just a bit. The game isn't a particularly beautiful game (the only good looking Bethesda games as of late are Doom 4 and Elder Scrolls 5), but it looks like I would get a kick out of it. I might get it, but I'd need to get a memory card first. My Switch doesn't have the space for a 293GB download. Thanks, Bethany. Wolfenstein II is released on Switch on June 29th.



The 2 Mega Man games - Mega Man X Legacy 1&2 is coming out first. I'm not sure if I want to get it or not. Mega Man Legacy is already out on Switch, and despite the fact that Capcom could easily fit all 10 games on one cartridge, they decided to make the second half a download code. It seems they are doing the same thing with the X Legacy Collection. I don't like downloadable games, so I'm not entirely sure if I should buy it. But I think I will probably at some point just for the games on the cartridge. I might give the download code away, or sell it. Mega Man X is a cool franchise. And say what you will, but they could charge 100 bucks for the collection and I'd buy it long before I'd buy a PAL copy of Mega Man X3 on Sega Saturn. Mega Man X Legacy Collection comes out July 24th.

Mega Man 11 is coming out later, and I'm much more excited for that one. A new Mega Man game is much more interesting than ports of old Super Nintendo and Sega Saturn games. I'm really happy they're taking the direction they're taking with the art style, since the industry seems to be oversaturated with indie pixel art games right now after 9 and 10 and a ton of other, unrelated games. And it's only 30 bucks to preorder! I'm super excited for this game, and it's a guaranteed purchase from me. Mega Man 11 is out on October 2nd.


Flashback - This game was released last year on the Dreamcast for the same price, so I'm not getting the Switch version. I just thought I'd promote the Dreamcast some. Go support JoshProd. If you want the Switch version, it's out July 24th.


Sonic Mania Plus - Sonic Mania was released digitally last year. Now it's got a cartoon already available for streaming, a vinyl soundtrack by DATADISCS available for purchase, and a physical copy coming later this year. The physical copy comes with an art book and all upcoming DLC. The DLC includes 2 new characters, a 4-player single split-screen mode, an Angel Island extension, and some new sprites or something. I will definitely be getting this. Sonic Mania Plus is out July 17th.

So those are all the games I have for today. But soon I'll have my E3 predictions posts coming, and after E3 there will be more games to talk about. I can't wait to see what the conference brings us.