Topic: All-Encompassing E3 2018 Thread

@ThanosReXXX I guess my point is that as someone who ALREADY owns a up to snuff gaming PC, there's no reason to purchase an Xbox One on top of that. Game Pass is in fact available on PC (I saw they were allowing Sea of Thieves to be played for free with it the other day), it does have access to a huge amount of backwards compatibility (I can still play freaking Myst on my PC, along with a huge chunk of games released over the last 20 years.). In addition, I did pick up a 360 for like $10 last year, so I'm set on playing those exclusives anyways. Plus, I have my PC hooked up to be playable from my TV anyways with a wireless controller, so it really isn't inconvenient. Like, I can imagine there are people the Xbox One is great for, but... that's not me clearly.

@link3710 Ah, so PC actually DOES have GamePass. I didn't know that. Where backward compatibility is concerned, I was of course talking about Xbox titles, NOT about older PC games. There's literally hundreds of Xbox games that were never available on PC, so that's not an option for that.

Come to think of installing older games on PC, though: quite a few of them are a complete b**** to get running like they should, unless you make use of a dual boot system or virtual machines.

In my entire group of friends, there's only one who has his PC set up both as media center and game console, so obviously I've seen it and know that it is possible, but for me it's just not an option. Having said that, I can respect that a console also isn't an option for everyone, so ultimately, it's up to every individual to make the choice that's the most suitable/cost-effective/comfortable for them.

@NEStalgia Vice City was my jam back on PS2, which no doubt @ThanosReXXX can attest to as a great game.

But honestly I call it Cowboy GTA Online because TakeTwo already said all their games will be heavily monetised and we already know it has a GTA Online style multiplayer.

And there are cowboys.

@ThanosReXXX GamePass IS on PC....buuuut....there are like...8 Xbox One games. It's only Play Anywhere titles according to the FAQ, which is literally 8 games XD

How about maybe:
August - Yoshi
September - Smash
October - Animal Crossing
November - Pokemon if 2018, nothing 1st party if Pokemon is 2019
December - Fire Emblem

If you combine the Animal Crossing site changes with E3 being only 2018 games, that suggests Animal Crossing is 2018.

@YummyHappyPills You better inform @link3710 about that rather meager Game Pass support on PC.
I didn't even know there was Game Pass for PC, but now that I know this, that certainly puts it in the "no competition for the console version" category for me, so Xbox still wins over PC.

As for Vice City: I played that on PC (in fact: I still have it installed). I never had a Sony console.
But it was a good game, so yeah...

@ThanosReXXX To be honest, when Microsoft cancelled that Scalebound is when their nail for me is sealed

That's literally the game that make me really, really want a Xbox One... and they canned it D: Still ponder why because it was looking really cool!

@link3710 "hich brings me back to my original point, if you have a PC, there's no exclusives worth getting the XB1 for. "

I don't think Microsoft has a problem with that. The point isn't to sell you an XBox One, it's to sell you their platform/ecosystem. If you're playing Microsoft games with a Microsoft account on Microsoft Windows (which alone costs as much as an XBox One S........ ) I don't think they mind one bit: You already ARE playing games on the Microsoft platform. X1(X) is basically just a pre-made pretty cheap gaming PC that costs the same as the video card alone and can only use the App Store and no other service. That's why they're giving you the option to begin with. You can play XBox on an XBox One S, XBox One X, or an expensive overpowered machine with Windows 10. It's all the same to them (until recently XBox was just part of the Windows division, after all...) For MS, for now, a Windows PC is just the 3rd model of XBox. (Maybe that will change in the future, now that XBox is its own division and not just a Windows sub-division. Up through last E3, XBox was run in a way that was constrained by whatever benefited the Windows team. Now its its own entity of equal stature (Windows, hardware, cloud/Azure, AI, enterprise, platforms, and Xbox)

@ThanosReXXX I know, man, I mean, man, I, like, tried GTAV and stuff man, and it was, like, totally sick and stuff, dude. But then, I was like, "whoa", and then I was like "WHOA", but then I was all like "whooooahhh" and stuff, dude. RDR is gonna' be so sweeeeeet, bro! Got my Doritos pre-ordered...totally stoked!

I would like a Western game more if it was from someone other than the GTA team. I just don't have faith they'll deliver a world that won't be stylized in a such a way to pander to their "core" demographic. I'll give them that their engine for GTAV was beautiful, smooth, and controled exceptionally fluidly. Great I/O and engine team. Mediocre to awful design team.

@Octane. I love open world. Not hyped for RDR. Still an Assassin's Creed fan, and a lot of other open world games. That's just not among them. But I don't like "sandbox", I like "open." GTA is just a sandbox. Originally "sandbox" meant you have a lot of options for how to approach problems in an open environment. Since GTAV, "sandbox" literally means a box of toys to play with without much direction. Like Minecraft with strippers.

@link3710 Myst? Surely not if you bought the original CDs.....good luck getting Quick Time 2.0 plugin to run on anything newer than XP!

You know, it just occurred to me that I've NEVER played an Assassin's Creed game. OK, well I did try the Vita one for, like, five minutes, but that's it.

@darkfenrir That was indeed a bit of a bummer, but for me, it wasn't a deal breaker, since I already had an Xbox 360, with active Live subscription, AND I've saved up two year's worth of free Xbox One games through the Games with Gold initiative, so I wasn't about to let that go to waste...

@NEStalgia Well, that's true to some extent, or rather: I agree to some extent. Truth is only ever in the eye of the beholder anyway. But that still didn't stop me from enjoying the Red Dead games. I like the over-the-top-ness of them. Some of it also reminded me of the OG Xbox classic Dead Man's Hand, another good Western game.

@Ralizah Say what now?
Not that they are all great games, but the first Assassin's Creed was definitely revolutionary in several ways, and it was also quite a story. Nowadays, with all the sequels and spin-offs, it's hit and miss, but overall, it's still a great IP. The Vita game was also a spin off, so if you really want to give the series a chance, then you should try one of the mainline games. Probably Black Flag: that'll leave you with a good impression, unless you don't like boats and pirates...

@ThanosReXXX Yeah, that looks like a very great list of games! Have tons of fun playing all those games!

Honestly, my gut feeling is that this year's E3 will be rather.... tame, if not somewhat underwhelming. I feel like there will be very few new announcements in general, and that most of the excitement will come from known quantities, which ranges from "we know it exists" (see: Fire Emblem) to "we're tired of seeing this, release already!" (see: Spider-Man, Crackdown 3).

I don't think anyone will have an outright bad presentation (well, maybe EA), in fact I think they'll have solid presentations. There just won't be much in the way of new announcements. Like less than a dozen.

Microsoft has the most room for surprises IMO, especially with Nintendo's weird decision to exclude 2019 titles.

@ThanosReXXX I actually don't like pirates.

How is the most recent one, set in Egypt? Is it OK to jump in with that one?

@Grumblevolcano Almost, you forgot Pikmin 4.

@NEStalgia ''Like Minecraft with strippers.'' That's pretty accurate.

On a more serious note, most open world games feel empty. A billion things to do, but none of them are meaningful. I prefer something a little more linear, a little more controlled, preferably on a smaller scale. I do enjoy an open world game from time to time, but when I look at Ubisoft's output for example, it all looks the same to me. If you've played one, you've played them all. They're probably not bad by any means, just unremarkable. At least, that's how it seems to me.

@Ralizah Me neither, I was thinking of playing them all, since I can technically play them all right now, but what's the point? I rather play something like Tomb Raider, or the Batman games. There are a lot of games I have yet to play, Assassin's Creed has to wait for now.

@Ralizah Please send me the address of the rock you live under so that I may send you a copy. Some hate it. You may hate it....it's repetitious....it's Ubisoft so half the physics systems are unreliable and the AI is worse, and the scripting is iffy at best. But there's "something" about it that keeps me coming back. It's one of the only multiplat series I actually get excited for. PERSONALLY, my favorite one remains the one everyone else hates: the first one. The environment, the world, the character (arrogant jerk that he was) felt more appropriate. And it was the only one that actually acknowledged the titular Creed, was set in the actual (real world) time period/location of the Assassins....and most importantly missions were "big". The entire district was built around the hit. All mini-quests were supporting the hit. And then you finally got the contract to go take out the mark and it felt "big" invading that guarded part of the world....stalking them, finding them, taking them out brashly in the open (as was intended), and then RUNNING LIKE CRAZY with the town on full alert. That was broken...but fun. Also the present day part actually made sense and had mysteries still. Not so much by the sequel.

The newer ones that everyone loves are more scripted, more "out of time" (but still so fun somehow.) III was a horrible train wreck of a game. I call it God of Assassin. Black Flag was....interesting on its own but not great as an AC game. It was more like Sid Mayer's Pirates! as an AC game.

I haven't opened Origins yet. I have it, I've heard it's a return to the original mixed with BotW. Syndicate is good (but very different.) Unity was a really really really broken mess (it didn't even work out of the box, until it got huge patches months later..) I haven't played it yet. I have it, but haven't played. I can't comment on Origins or Unity, but 1, 2, 2.5, 2.8, 6 (Syndicate) are fair places to consider starting.

I've often thought that Jade Raymond was the heart of the series and when she left it went downhill, but some of the downturn was during her time....and now she's making really awful garbage at EA....so maybe she was the problem?

@ThanosRexxx FINALLY someone paying respects to the original game! I don't dislike Black Flag...it was fun...but it was also even MORE repetitive than most other entries with more limited depth and scope, so it's not the best overview of AC IMO. You have Syndicate on your spiffy XBLG now...tried it yet? (I played it mostly on PS4 already.)

@ThanosReXXX Yeah I was curious about Game Pass on PC and all it says we have here is...

Sea of Thieves
ReCore
Riptide GP Renegade
Halo Wars: Definitive Edition
Halo Wars 2
Gears of War 4
Super Lucky's Tale
Zoo Tycoon: Ultimate Animal Collection

That's it!

@IceClimbers " especially with Nintendo's weird decision to exclude 2019 titles."
They always say they're excluding 20xx, and then they include 20xx. I can't imagine them doing a "next 6 months only" presentation....though that implies there's a LOT coming in a short space (my poor wallet )

And EA has never had a good presentation....I think of them as the E3 soft opener. It's 2 hours of boredom that you watch just because there's no other shows running yet and gets you warmed up for Microsoft. Even when EA has good games to show they manage to make them seem boring.

@Ralizah the egypt one, though I can't comment on it yet...shrink wrap prevents me, has been called Breath of the Assassin. Take that for what it's worth I've heard it's a mix of a return to the roots of the original and BotW.

@Octane Ubisoft's Open World output is...well they pioneered the genre, but stagnated. AC has a huge open world, but it's mostly an excuse to link the traditional linear campaign together and let you roam the world. Same for Watch_Dogs. Wildlands, Crew, Steep are really all about the big MMO online world.....it's only empty because nobody plays them. For Honor....sigh.....what could have been....of course that's their only non-open world game next to South Park.

EA's conference is used as a makeshift, slap-dash way of torture.

@NEStalgia Funny thing is that I wasn't even primarily a Nintendo gamer that gen. I played mostly on my Xbox 360. Something about those games never appealed to me. I think it's the edgy looking guy with the cloak on the covers. Really turns me off, for some reason.

@Octane I still need to play Tomb Raider. I actually quite like the Batman games. Arkham Asylum, in particular, is fantastic, as it's sort of a 3D, action-based Metroidvania. Not open-world, unlike other games in the series.