E3 Wishes and Predictions - Sega + Atlus

Oh boy, it's my favorite company in the gaming industry, Sega. I'm going to talk about what I want from them and what I expect from them. Oh, and Atlus is there too.

So there are 3 "tiers", in a sense, of what I want Sega to announce at E3, each one being more believable than the last.

The thing I want the most is for Sega to announce a new console that's as powerful as the Scorpio with internal support for Dreamcast, Saturn, and Sega CD games, with the original controller ports and VMU slots on the side. The Saturn would need original hardware (since it's pretty hard to emulate Saturn hardware), but the Dreamcast and Sega CD games would run through emulation. It would also support Genesis and Master System cartridges, but you need to buy an adapter that plugs in through USB 3.0. This console would be just as popular as the PlayStation 4 (or at least the Xbox One) and feature some amazing first party titles within the first year. Jet Set Radio 3, Crazy Taxi 4, Space Channel 5 Part 3, Sonic Unleashed Remastered (both the PS2 and PS3 versions together), a new Panzer Dragoon, and Yakuza. Nearly all multiplats would appear on it; it would have tons of 3rd party support. It will be wildly successful and Sega's back in the hardware business; the price will be $409.99.

I drew one of these in the first post of this series. Go look at it if you want to see it.

So that's the most unbelievable of the 3.

If that doesn't happen, I'll settle for this. Sega announces a new console that's about as powerful as the PS4 Pro and supports Sega CD games through emulation, but you need to buy a new controller that looks like a Saturn controller, but wireless; there are no ports on the side for original contollers. It has a few Genesis games in the store and some of the Sonic games and Crazy Taxi 1 & 2 at launch, as well as Phantasy Star Online 2 and a bunch of 3rd party games as launch titles. It will be super popular and everyone will buy it.

I frankly think Project Dream is poorly designed, but I don't have a better design scanned to my computer right now. This one is the closest to what the lesser of the 2 planned consoles would be like.

That's more likely to happen, but it's still very unlikely.

Or, I'd be fine with this.

Sega announces a new Sonic and All Stars Racing game for the Vita, Wii U, PS4, Xbox One, and Switch. They also announce Jet Set Radio 3 for PS4, Xbox One, and Switch. There's more about Sonic Forces, and Sonic Mania has a playable demo. Phantasy Star Online 2 is getting a western release for PS4; Xbox One, Switch, and PC versions are coming some time later. I would be fine with that. That would be alright.

But what do I expect from Sega? More on that later.

And remember, Sega and Atlus share a booth at E3. So what do I wish from Atlus?

To be honest, I don't know a thing about Atlus. I hope for stuff from them and that's all I can say.

But what do I expect from Sega? What about Atlus? Well according to Sega Bits, it's going to be a boring E3 for the both of them. It's mainly stuff we already know about. There's stuff about Yakuza 6, Sonic Forces, Shin Megami Tensei, and Radiant Historia. You can read about that by clicking this link.

So what's next? Activision? Oh well. Show up later to read all about what I want and expect from Activision. Or don't. I don't really care all that much.

E3 Wishes and Expectations - Nintendo

Nintendo is currently my favorite out of the 3 console manufacturers in the industry. Supposedly, their E3 booths are pretty big. I expect they'll have some amazing things to show.

So first, what I wish for.

It would be really cool if Nintendo could show off what Retro Studios is supposedly working on. Be it Metroid Prime, Donkey Kong Country, or some new Nintendo IP, I'll likely be excited.

I hope they'll have some sort of New 2DS XL booth that shows off what the newest iteration of their handheld can do and why it's cheaper. (Speaking of handhelds, did you know that 2014 is the only year that we didn't get some sort of new Nintendo handheld since 2008? 2009 had the DSi, 2010 had the DSi XL, 2011 had the 3DS, 2012 had the XL, 2013 had the 2DS, 2015 had the New 3DS XL, 2016 had the standard-sized New 3DS, and 2017 has the New 2DS XL. I expect next year we'll get the standard new 2DS.) I want to know what processor the 2DS uses. I want to know if it's compatible with both 3DS and Nintendo DS games. I want to know if the camera is better than older models. How does the internet work compared to the others? Does this one come with a charger? What about faceplates? There's lots of information I want to know before I go out and buy a new system for 150 bucks; E3 would be probably the best place to show it off before it's released, especially if they livestream their event.

I hope they'll talk about Skyrim on the Switch, discussing mod support and such. This would normally be at Bethesda's booth, but this is a port of a game from last year; I think they would rather focus their time on their newer games like Doom and whatever new game they're likely to be showing off.

I hope they announce some really cool new IP that they've been working on that everyone wants to play. I have no idea what that might be.

I hope they spend a bit of time talking about the Virtual Console. I've actually been thinking about the Switch Virtual Console for a while and I think I have a good idea on what to release.

NES
Super Nintendo
Nintendo 64
GameCube
Sega Master System
Genesis
Saturn
TurboGrafx-16
Neo Geo AES
Arcade
Game Boy
Game Boy Color
Game Boy Advance
Sega Game Gear

So that's just a little wishlist of mine. I don't think any of these systems will have a large library to begin with; I wouldn't doubt if Saturn and GameCube had only 2 or 3 titles each if they are released. But basic confirmation would be nice.

I plan to make another post about this later; maybe next week, maybe in a year; who knows.

I hope they talk about Pokken Tournament DX a bit; I never played the original and the Direct wasn't as informative as I had hoped.

Finally, I hope they'll talk about the last batch of Wii U games being released. It would feel very coldhearted (for lack of a better word) to not even mention the Wii U only 5 years after its release.

What do I expect from Nintendo though?

I expect more on Super Mario Odyssey, since they've clearly stated that's happening.

I expect they're going to announce some new game; I hope it's not that Mario RPG: Rabbids Invasion thing that the internet seems to think is totally confirmed.

I expect a bit about the Virtual Console, but not much. They may announce, NES, SNES, N64, and Genesis support; and we're lucky if we get even that.

I think we'll get a small amount of info on the New 2DS XL, but nothing on the Wii U. I disagree with any decision to do that, but it does make sense to focus more on the Switch and 3DS.

I guess that's all from me. Show up tomorrow for stuff on other companies.

Reminder: If you're interested in getting a Wii U, Nintendo is selling refurbished ones for 175 bucks with Nintendoland. It's available by clicking this link.

E3 Wishes and Expectations - Sony

Oy, welcome to my blog. So this is part of my series on the Electronic Entertainment Expo. This is what I really want from Sony and what I expect from Sony.

So what I want from Sony is to announce a bunch of really good exclusives like Gran Turismo, Uncharted, Ratchet and Clank maybe, as well as discuss Crash Bandicoot Remastered and their exclusive Spiderman game coming out. A new God of War would be cool, a new Twisted Metal game would be cool, and showing off Parappa the Rapper game would make me a bit excited, even though it's not really my thing. 

If Sony could tell us more about Shenmue 3, that would be great, but if that's anywhere, it's in the Sega + Atlus show. But it is a PS4 exclusive, so who knows.

On the Vita side, there are tons of things they could show. If they could encourage Activision to remake just Crash 1 for the Vita, that would be an amazing thing to show off to promote their handheld. A Gran Turismo game would also be cool. I like Gran Turismo. And if they could add more PS1 games to the PSN Store, that would be great; I just don't know how many of PS1 games they could add without running dry or running into licensing issues.

The Vita is amazing, and it's region free, so you should import one of these blue beauties from Japan.

But what do I expect from PlayStation?

I think they'll spend just a bit of time talking about that super cheap gold PS4, which is an amazing $249.99 USD.

And then I think they'll talk about Crash Bandicoot N-Sane, although that might be on Activision's stage. But since the original Crash trilogy is pretty much the mascot of the PS1, I think it'll be on the PlayStation stage.

I expect them to not talk too much about the Vita, if they talk about it at all. Sony doesn't care about the Vita, which sucks, because it's a really amazing platform with tons of potential. Oh well.

Seriously, buy a Vita.

E3 Wishes and Expectations - Microsoft

So the one company I'm most excited to see (and will likely be the most disappointed with) is Microsoft with the Xbox division unveiling the Xbox Scorpio, a new console from Microsoft that includes 4K gaming with a wonderful framerate and the ability to do a lot more than the Xbox One ever could.

What I hope the Scorpio is, is a super powerful console that can play Xbox, Xbox 360, and Xbox One games using original hardware. (Okay, maybe emulation for the OG Xbox since I would prefer to play all of my OG Xbox games on the OG Xbox anyway; it has a better controller than the Xbox One.) Aside from that, it's supposed to have an LCD screen on the front. With that, I'm assuming that the Dreamcast emulator for Xbox One will use that for VMU displays, although I'm not sure how well that would work. Then I might finally buy an Xbox One.

That is, if it's just an Xbox One.

If it's a new console for a new generation (which I don't think it is), then I hope it can play a bunch of good games with exclusives that I'd actually care about (which the Xbox One does not have), a few Xbox One games (so I can play the one Xbox One exclusive I care about, Halo Wars 2), and all OG Xbox games. And who knows, maybe some Sega Saturn games through emulation or something.

Either way, I think the controller needs to be fixed. The menu and perspective buttons or whatever they're called need to be changed back to Start and Back. There was no reason to change that. Also, the triggers feel very loose on the Xbox One controller and it makes me uneasy, like I'm going to break them. If they make them more substantial, that would be better.

Ehh, the PS4 triggers would be preferrable. The Xbox One triggers feel very loose, like they're going to break off at any moment.

— Josh (@Icystorm9) April 15, 2017

The D-Pad on the Xbox One controller is also awful. I personally felt that the D-Pad on the original Xbox controller (the one that everyone hates) is the best. And since they can totally do this, they should make it nearly identical to that on the Wii U Pro Controller, which is, in my opinion, the best D-pad on any modern console, and the Saturn D-pad would be a bit unconventional on that type of controller.

But what I think I will get is just a more powerful version of the Xbox One S, which would be a shame. If that's what it is, I would not buy that, probably ever. Oh well.

So next time I'll be talking about Sony, I think. So show up later, or just read that one if it's already posted. Okay bye

What I Expect from E3

Hey guys. This is just a set of blog posts I'll be posting over the next few days discussing what I expect and what I want from a bunch of big companies at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2017. 

I plan to talk about the following companies:

Microsoft

Sony

Nintendo

Sega + Atlus

Activision 

Ubisoft

Electronic Arts

Capcom

So I'll get on that now.

This drawing took ~3 minutes to draw, don't kill me for it.