Topic: All-Encompassing E3 2018 Thread

@NEStalgia Nah, they always say "we're focusing on titles releasing later this year". They've never explicitly excluded titles launching the following year before. This year though they've explicitly said 2019 titles would be featured at a later date. Now, we can speculate and get into semantics about what they mean by "featured", but the most likely outcome, and the one we should expect, is that their presentation will be 2018 only.

I'd reckon that them doing a 2018 only presentation comes from reliance/confidence in Smash hype to carry them and not because of some massive amount of stuff coming later this year. We know damn well their presentation will focus on the "big" titles for each month (of which we know 3 out of 5 unless they double up in certain months) and then a couple major third party ports and some DLC.

@Ralizah Aha... So, just out of curiosity: where exactly was the love lost? Or if there was none in the first place: what's the aversion to classic pirates?

@Octane No disc drive? Is it one of those ultra slim PC's, like the ones with everything stuck on the back of the monitor? If not, an internal Blu-ray drive can be had for all of 20 bucks, so I'd say that's definitely worth the purchase.

@link3710 Kickstarter. Hm.... not my favorite kind of initiative. And you'd always have to wait what the end result is going to be, so there's never any guarantee. I'd go with solutions that are fully under my own control, if I were you. There's always patches, both forward and backward (the Win XP patch for Vista-exclusive Halo 2 comes to mind) but even those aren't always completely successful, so I'd say look into VMware or Microsoft's own Virtual PC.

There's dozens upon dozens of tutorials for those programs to be found on YouTube, and once you've got one (or several) set up, you've got your all in one system with several operating systems to choose from and to natively run games on. I'd say it's at the very least worth checking out. Might be the perfect solution for you, seeing as after the initial virtual machine install, your PC will act like a native legacy platform, so no more "trying to get it to work on current OS" shenanigans...

@Ralizah Well, I mean the guy's an assassin in ancient times. Did you want him dressed in a pinstripe Armani?

FWIW: AC1: Altair, Assassin's order of Syria during the Crusades (Based loosely on the actual Hashashin order, including their actual leader and base of operations). Still my favorite because it hadn't gone off the rails and was roughly historical fiction.

AC2: Ezio, Renaissance Italy (descendant of Altair.) (AC2: Brotherhood, Roma, AC2: Whatever....Istanbul (Not Constantinople)....)

AC3: Connor, Revolutionary Boston/New York. With a brawler character that wouldn't know stealth if you stuffed him in a cardboard box, and an attitude less likable than said cardboard box.

AC4: Pirates.

AC5 Unity: Revolutionary France: Dunno, it was a broken MMO game that I haven't got around to playing once they patched it.

AC6 Syndicate: Victorian London, Evie + Jacob. Evie for proper stealth. Jacob to satisfy people that actually liked Connor. This number matches the number of people that bought an XBox in Japan.

AC7 Egypt.

@EvilLucario Torture keeps your attention from start to finish. The EA conference does not.

@ThanosReXXX It's a laptop, it's a pretty good onr, but I need the portability for work and university.

And yeah, I've been looking at those external disc drives, but I'm not sure if it's worth it for those 1 or 2 games. If I can get it on Wii U and PS4, why even bother?!

@ThanosReXXX I just don't get the appeal of watching groups of dirty criminals sail around and victimize people. It's a fantasy rooted in a sense of wild, unbridled masculinity, and that has never really spoken to me.

@NEStalgia The aesthetics of it just do nothing for me. I'm sure cloak dude has a cracking personality, but the marketing puts me off.

Good overview. The last one definitely seems like the way to go, as Ancient Egypt seems like a way neater setting than boring European and American settings. I've also heard it has a mode where you just learn about history, which is pretty cool. I'm guessing the game is very open, which goes to the BotW comparisons?

@NEStalgia Here's a simple solution: sleep through torture! Guaranteed to work 100% of the time! :^]

@Ralizah Pirates of the Caribbean is more like a comedy than anything serious. The first three are pretty good. 4 is kinda bad, and 5 is even worse.

@-Green- "Ubisoft's the best. Their presentations create an indescribable feeling with myself, that I don't understand."

It's the dancing giraffes and psychedelic colorscape. It's just so..... So....... French.

@EvilLucario "Battle...field... five...? Uh, um... yeah, and Need for Speed... Dirt... something... I needed another rehearsal"

No...no, that's the beauty. You actually don't. You nailed it right there in the first run! You are ready for the big stage!

@ThanosReXXX The first 3 AC games were a "real" story with the overarching Desmond story. After that story concluded at the end of 3, they haven't really been very linked anymore, only the overarching "Piece of Eden" sequence vaguely referenced. ( AC1 was the only one to REALLY do well with Desmond though.)

Wait....did you just say "No Syndicate" and then proceed to show a picture of Syndicate of your available games? I'm confused....

@Anti-Matter Well XBox as a brand is kind of the definition of the modern Dudebro gamer They went out of their way to build that brand (they inherited directly a lot of Sega's prior work, and they were pushing for edgy as well....but mostly XBox's whole purpose was to make a console out of Windows gaming....so...yeah...it's the PC market of the 90's brought into the present. Which is fine...at least there's one console that won't tempt you at all! Though Super Lucky's Tale and Ori are worthwhile....

@IceClimbers I still think Smash is going to fall on its face. Sure it'll make a profit, but we're not talking a situation of an abandoned WiiU game. It already had a run in a mega popular portable console. People that hang out on NL will be awed...the rest of the world will be tepid I think. It'll sell, it'll be popular, but it'll be E3 2012 all over again if that's what they're banking on. OTOH, if Pokemon is included, they don't NEED anything else, which is probably the bigger reason for nothing post 2018. Still, it's a lean year of exclusives if it's just that. Nintendo gonna' Nintendo. But if this year is just last year + Smash (from 3DS + WiiU) that's pretty lame. I'll look forward to Sony instead.

I still think they have more to show, either a bigger 2018 rollout, or they'll tap 2019 even though they said they won't. I'm just hoping they don't think Labo is the keynote.

Would be funny if XBox won E3 this year.

Uhh, a new Bethesda RPG is probably also going to be announced at E3 and launch this fall. That and Red Dead not being on Switch is absolutely going to influence system sales. Of course Bethesda’s sales aren’t a sure thing since it’ll be a new IP –and Red Dead doesn’t do GTA numbers – but somthing tells me it’ll look more attractive than Yoshi: The Subtitle Wars or Fire Emblem. Certainly Smash if it’s a port.

@Haru17 I believe we can move past Smash being a port at this stage. You dont doll up your entire booth for a port when you have a new RPG right there being revealed too.

Anyway yes, Bethesda is most likely revealing Starfield at E3 alongside DOOM 2 that we know is at least going to be a thing if not already.

@NEStalgia I don't agree with that description of Smash. It's a new game on a mega popular console, moreso than the 3DS, and it's a full-featured console game with no compromises. Smash is a system-seller for a really good reason. People bought Mario Kart 8 Deluxe in droves and that's just a "GotY edition". That's the #2 best selling Switch game and it's not even its own original game.

For Smash? The first HD and portable game, wrapped up in one package, that's too good of a deal to pass up for a lot of people. That sells itself.

@NEStalgia I don't know that it'll be that lame a year of exclusives necessarily. Without any surprises, we still have:
Mario Tennis Aces
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
Fire Emblem
Octopath Traveler
Yoshi (Switch)
Smash Bros (almost definitely a new one, there's overwhelming evidence)
And there's a better than average chance we'll get at least a couple of the following:
One more AAA third part exclusive - Nintendo's been very good about keeping up relations with Koei, Sega/Atlus, and Ubisoft at least?
Pikmin 4 - supposedly near complete
Animal Crossing - Rumors keep swirling on this one
Pokemon RPG - 2018 date is still on the table
Pokemon Spinoff - Because if the main series game doesn't come, they'll probably have a spinoff instead. How often does a year go without a pokemon title?
Retro's Project - Five years old, so highly likely to reveal this year
Mario Party - Honestly likely to come early 2019, so I doubt it will be at E3, but we know it's coming soon based on series history.
Others - Nintendo manages to surprise us on a regular basis, so EPD shooting out a project no one saw coming would be likely.

Anyways, even with only a couple of these we'll be getting multiple exclusives per month, possibly with no ports this year after June. That would definitely be a pretty nice rate.

@Ralizah Well (in real pirate history) which AC half taps into and half taps into fantasy pirates, it was largely a rebellion rather than just raucaus criminals. Most were ex-Navy leaders, some were common crooks, a fair few stole their ship from their military and were in general running an experiment in extreme libertarian theory. They even had it up and running for a while. It was as much a bad attempt at rebellion as it was about pure theft. Then add in the privateers where they were marauding and pillaging with the blessing of their monarchy and it gets confusing (I.E. if Canada decided to legalize gang violence against the US, including invasion to do so....would it be criminals, or soldiers? Gray area...) The pirate era was complicated. Fantasy pirates aren't. AC is slightly between both. I'm not the biggest fan, really, but it worked. It's a little more real than most pirate stories.

Cloak dude was kind of a giant jerk in the first game (but not in an irritating way to the player.) A playboy in the second. Connor was just a giant jerk (in an irritating way to the player.) Evie & Jacob were cool.

Yeah the Egypt one has me most excited since the first. I bought it day 1...then never opened it.

@Octane Ah, okay. That's a different story altogether then. I just assumed you had a desktop PC. My bad.

@Ralizah Well, to be honest, in real life, most of these "criminals" were only criminals because the government, who had previously made extensive use of their services, drove them to it (most pirates were previously soldiers, captains, generals enlisted in her Majesty's Royal Navy), seeing as once they didn't need them anymore, they were literally hung out to dry. Much like so many other groups and individuals through the ages: the Knights Templar, Joan of Arc, William Wallace etc.

If those would have been seafarers, they might very well also have become pirates. So, becoming one was more or less the only option or a defense mechanism against capitalism and colonialism back in those days, so they weren't all bad, and a lot of the people that they killed, were just as bad themselves.

Conversely, the government even hired some pirates as well, such as the Dutch and the English did, when they were at war with the Spanish, and some of these former pirates are now regarded as national heroes.

But history aside, if that is your opinion and taste, I can only respect that. To each their own, as they always say. And as @NEStalgia has already said, you can indeed just play the latest game as a standalone, since there isn't as much focus anymore on that main story line as there was before, so perhaps you should give it a fair go. And ancient Egypt is a cool setting.

P.S.

The first Assassin's Creed wasn't in Europe either. That is also why this latest game in the series is applauded as a return to form.

@NEStalgia Yeah, my bad: I'm not very good with partial titles, but considering we were talking about Assassin's Creed, I should have understood that, so my bad. I was thinking about the game Syndicate, which was a remake of the Amiga/PC classic, which also came out on Xbox 360, so that was part of the confusion.

The other part was me being distracted, because I had some issues with my washing machine last week, and it wasn't repairable for a reasonable amount of money anymore, so I got it replaced today, and with installing that and having to do 2,5 washes (even as a single guy, laundry quickly amasses over the space of 10 days) I wasn't all that focused on gaming and related matters. Oh, well...

Back on track again, now that I now what you were really talking about: I have downloaded AC Syndicate, but I haven't found the time to play it yet, so hopefully, I'll get to try it out come this weekend.

Interesting, kind of, that they dropped the main story line. I would have to play more of them to find out if that is ultimately to the detriment of the series or if that is actually what has brought this latest outing in the series back to form. Guess we'll find out soon enough.

@EvilLucario Smash has never really been a big system seller. It's hyper popular in the niche of Smash super fans.....but it's not mass market popular in the way Kart is. It's bigger than Splatoon and Arms, certainly smaller than Kart. But it's still a port (if it's a port.) Somehow "the internet" thinks it's this mega franchise. It's certainly not small, but it's not exactly Pokemon or Kart (or GoW.) And again it already had a solid run on 3DS for a long time. The question isn't "is this version better", the question is, how big is that niche of double, or triple dippers plus the new sales outside the super fan base. I do think it will be popular to a point. But not popular enough to stake E3 on. Heck, it didn't really make E3 the first time when it was a genuine new game on two systems.

Of course if it's not a port then that's a reason to make it a centerpiece, I'm just going on the assumption it's a port for now (I don't see how Sakurai could quietly make an all new Smash without anyone noticing after all the DLC in that short space of time given his usual timelines. And if it's not Sakurai.....I wonder if it will disappoint.) I'm still betting on port.

@NEStalgia I mean it's been about 2.5 years since the last of the Smash 4 DLC released. That would give Sakurai the same dev time as Smash 4 (~2.5 years), and that was on two platforms.

This is going by Wikipedia, position of Smash in best selling lists:
N64 - 5th (beaten by Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, Goldeneye 007 and Ocarina of Time)
GCN - 1st
Wii - 8th (beaten by Mario Kart Wii, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Wii Sports, Wii Sports Resort, Wii Fit, Wii Fit Plus, Wii Play)
3DS - 8th (beaten by Mario Kart 7, Pokemon XY, Pokemon ORAS, Pokemon Sun/Moon, New Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario 3D Land and Animal Crossing New Leaf)
Wii U - 4th (beaten by Mario Kart 8, Super Mario 3D World and New Super Mario Bros. U)

@ThanosReXXX Haha, disposable plastic washers. I thought you Euro crowd were all into your Bosch and Electrolux that last forever (and they're not obscenely priced like they are here.... )

Syndicate is a dream after how horrid 3 was and how stand-alone 4 and Unity were as experiences. As for Desmond. The story with him in 1 was so tight. In 2 it started to go off the rails. In the expansions it was really heading sideways and by 3 it had lost sight of where rails had once stood. It was clear it was different authors with different creative direction and there was no way to salvage it. The just focus on Abstergo generically, and they keep Rebecca and whats-his-name in to keep it different, but IIRC in Egypt I heard they even dropped that. If they stuck with how it was in 1 that was great. IT was an intriguing story about genetic memory and the company searching through people's minds by force. And the back and forth between the 12th century and the modern lab was interesting and mysterious. By the time it got to "Because Aliens" in 2 it got freaky. If they're not going to do it right I'd rather it be gone than cringe through it all. I want a proper Desmond story now

So what you're saying is that nearly zero games have ever been big system sellers by this standard.

@ThanosReXXX Well, I can always just wait for it to be complete. It's already funded, and the games will be available digitally.

@NEStalgia Well, if you'd like to know how it's possible, it's simple. Smash 4 released in 2014. The last batch of DLC finished in February 2016. Now then, we know from those people who dissect the code that work had already begun on a new project with the Smash code by the time the final DLC had released. Please keep in mind, Brawl started out by porting Melee, and building on top of it. Smash 4 did the same thing, with Brawl being ported to both 3DS and Wii U, and built on top of. So porting efforts this time around seemed to be in place by the end of 2015.

Now then, that'll give almost 3 full years of development if that is the case. Let's look at prior timelines:
Melee: 13 Months
(Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland, Kirby Air Ride and Meteos happened here)
Brawl: Development started between 2005-6, released 2008. Approximately 2-3 years
(Kid Icarus happened here)
Smash 4: Development started after Kid Icarus released (approx March 2012), and released October 2014. Approximately 2 and a half years, though porting likely started slightly earlier, so let's say about 3 years.
(Smash DLC released)
Smash 5

So the timelines do match up, it's just usually there's a break inbetween developments that didn't appear to happen this time.