TCPS 24: EA & Ubisoft E3 2013 Wrap Up

We talk the shows that EA and Ubisoft put on for us at this years 2013 E3. What games are we excited for? What hits are headed our way? Were we surprised or given the same old schpiel? We talk about all that. Take a listen!

The Super Smash Nintendo Change Up

While Nintendo may not have had a press conference this year at E3, they still delivered on game announcements. And if we're being honest, it was probably a good move to save all that money, specially with the big guns of Microsoft and Sony an their new consoles. Nintendo came at us with a Nintendo Direct 40 minute showcase broadcast, a booth at E3, demos, trailers, and a couple of roundtables at the conference, so they weren't absent altogether at the Expo.

So what did they show us and what are we excited to see? There we actually quite a few titles announcements, for both the Wii U and the 3DS. Some old favorites like new Pokeman X and Y coming out this October, including a new fairy class that will be strong against Dragon class. A new Super Mario 3D World including a new cat power up, and Peach! Peach finally as a playable character, and giving everyone an old throw back move from Super Mario World 2. Not a dream this time Nintendo? And of course new Mario Kart 8 that includes a new antigravity driving style.

This is what I think of your franchise and promises

They of course announced their 3rd Party titles, some not so surprising, and some we're no doubt excited about. The expected Assassin's Creed IV, Batman Origins, Disney Infinite, Just Dance 2014, Spinter Cell Blacklist, and Watch Dogs. A new Batman Origins Blackgate coming out for the 3DS, Scribblenaughts Unmasked: DC Adventure for both the Wii U and 3DS, Shin Megami Tensei IV for the 3DS, and hold on, a new Sonic game, Lost World, coming out for both console and handheld. It looks like they took the 3D in semi 2D worlds like they did in Generations. Not even crossing my fingers.

Ta Da! I'm Back!

They threw out a bunch of new eShop titles with no release dates, including Ducktake Remastered, Dungeons and Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara, Oddworld New N Tasty, and World of Keflings which most will recognize from the XBLA library. A new trailer for a game very near and dear to my heart, The Legend of Zelda Wind Waker HD. The graphics will look pretty amazing on the Wii U in 1080p, and they've added some new features including an option to go faster while you're sailing the vast ocean. Although from the trailer it looks like you're only able to activate this while you're catching a certain amount of wind in your sails. I know I'm not the only one who would sail in in zig zags to get to my next destination just so I wasn't moving at a snails pace, or so I didn't have to change the wind directions every time I needed to turn. They've also changed the Tingle Tuner! Obviously you can't connect your GameBoy Advance to the Wii U, (also holy crap, throw to the past with the GameBoy Advance Nintendo!) so they've changed the Tingle Tuner to the Tingle Bottle. From the beaches of Islands you can write a message, take screenshots, and through them out into the water. What good will this do? Your messages will then start to wash up on shore in other players games while they play. An interesting little addition, it seems like it could be fun.

They also teased up with some images and gameplay of The Wonderful 101, a group of heroes that unite against space invaders to their city. They use the Unite Morph abilities to gather together and change into different weapons, like swords, or defensive items. It will offer a multiplayer options of up to five players. That one will release this coming September.

Let's just appreciate how spry Link, Pit, and Samus look here.

The three trailers and teasers we got next might have been some of the most exciting ones. A New Donkey Kong Country, backed up with some old classics tunes in the background that had my little gamer heart excited. DKC Tropical Freeze features the return of Diddy Long and Dixie Kong and her blond helicopter hair. Then they hit us a new trailer for Bayonetta 2, this time featuring a full on look of the sassy Main Character, and her pixie style hair cut, (I'm a woman, yes I know hair styles,) and her new outfit. We saw some cinematic and in game action and while I didn't see a whole lot of changes, there was enough to keep me interested. Then we saw a rather pretty looking trailer for a new game from the creators of Xenoblade called X. So far we know that it's going to be an open world with monsters, and looks like a switch between the city and the wilds, and some mech play. Interesting. Expect that in 2014.

Retro Throwback of Nostalgia

Let's not beat around the bush anymore, it's liable to catch fire from the next announcement. Super Smash Bros. The trailer opened showing us a new character. Villager from the Animal Crossing franchise running to join along. Gonna have to be honest and bet that a lot of people weren't very excited that, he's not your first choice to join the cast of characters now is he? Then we see some of our cast of regulars; Mario, Link, Samus, Fox McCloud, Kirby, Donkey Kong, Pit, Pikachu, and Bowser. First we see them in a cell shaded style, outlined in black. They're announcing a 3DS Version. I think the black outline of the characters is a good move because we know how crazy the battle screens can get on a regular TV screen, and with this new style it makes it easier to pick our our fighters on the craziness of the background paired with the smaller screen of the 3DS. While it's all but confirmed that this will be a direct mirror of the Wii U version, it looks like some levels are going to be better suited for the smaller screen of Super Smash; For instance the train level from the Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks.

Mario jumps out and breaks from his cell shaded 3DS style and we get to see the Wii U's HD graphics come into play. Link takes on the look of the Wii U demo we saw him in last year and some of his Skyward Sword apparel. Samus how shed the old classic armor for her Prime look. Looking snazzy there, girl. We don't see Zero suit Samus, but we only have a handful of the confirmed line up so far, so she could make her return in both versions. Pit takes on his more stylized look from Kid Icarus: Uprising, and some of his new attacks, including two shields for an upper punch. When will this Nintendo Powerhouse come out? 2014 of course.

But they weren't done with Super Smash yet. Last year they big names were Solid Snake and Sonic the Hedgehog. This year they throw another one at us. If you arne't excited for this one then I don't even know you. Mega Freaking Man. He gets the classic pan up, hair blowing in the wind, and then the helmet is on, it lights up and he opens his eyes. Game. On. They throw in some Mega Man 2 theme in there, until he gets beat down, shown the way of Super Smash. Then we see the powers of Mega Man int he game. Hit with some rock of Wily's Castle theme and we see what we can expect form our little blue dude in the game. You need to see the trailer (linked above) to see the awesomeness. 

And stretch. And hold. Good Job

One day after announcing Mega Man as a playable character, Nintendo showed their next new character. No one saw this one coming. The Wii Fit Trainer. Don't knock her yet, check out the trailer bewlow. I think she could be a bit of fun. 

TCPS 23: Microsoft E3 2013 Wrap Up

Here is epidose 23! It's back the podcast is back! And we're kicking off with E3 and the Press Conference from Microsoft. Did they go a good job? Did they miss the mark? What about the Xbox One? We talk about all that and more!

  

Still Not Dead: E3 Edition

As I type this I am currently editing our first pocast in a year. And it's the Microsoft E3 wrap up podcast. I'm also watching the Nintendo direct E3 announcement, but I would lying if I said I was getting any information from this. The lag is so bad, even in 240p, that it keep buffering every 5-10 seconds. This is not a good start for Nintendo to announce their titles. I want to think that I haven't missed anything since it's taking forever. I don't know how long this was supposed to take (as it's all pre-recorded it looks like), but the buffering and eventually skipping was not good.

I'm having to rewatch the stream to get the information that I missed. We'll talk about what this means later on the podcast.

We're recording podcasts today, and writing blogs, and posting videos as E3 officially opens to the public and trailers and news comes out. Stay tuned. We're back, and we're going to be doing some cool stuff. More videos coming to the Youtube channel as well!

TCPS 22: E3 Microsoft Wrap-Up

We had a few minutes to spare between the Microsoft Conference and the EA conference, so we decided to do a short podcast summarizing what was announced. We'll later go into detail about what was announced, about what it means, and what we think about it. But until then, we didn't want to leave you all hanging!

This Week In E3

If you know anything about gaming, then you know that this week is Gaming's biggest time to shine. The World Series of Gaming. It's the Electronics Entertainment Expo! And once again we're going to be covering it, this time in blog post and podcast form. We'll do what we did last year, break up the podcasts, this time the Big 3 (Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo) into one, and Ea and Ubisoft into another. Or something like that. It will of course all depend on what kind of news we get. If you've listened to our previous podcasts then you know what we're hoping for something big, but our hopes aren't big. At least they weren't, until earlier today.

Despite other announcements of games, and trailers and gameplay from others, Nintendo wanted to get a head start. How? By talking about the Wii U of course! Some people might thing that this is a bad move, that they should have saved all information for their press Conference on Tuesday. People like me. But after watching the short (only about half an hour) special broadcast, it wasn't a bad move on their part. We were treated Nintendo President Satoru Iwata talking to us about what we can expect from the Wii U, what makes it different than the Wii, improves on fromt he Wii, and why it's going to be the system to beat. The controller has been update; it's been made bigger, joysticks have replaced the thumb pads, and the form has been designed for comfort with long hours of gaming in mind. They even announced the Wii U Pro Controller, looking much like a 360 controller. The only difference between the two Wii U controllers is that the Pro is meant for, well,w hat it's named after, Pros. No screen will be in this controller. I can only imagine that you won't be able to use this controller for every game, as I can see Nintendo, and other third party designers, utilizing the screen for game purposes and you'll probably be required to use the screen.

Although there wasn't much that was announced that we didn't already now, or assume, from last years E3, there was a video that showed what the Wii U, and it's controller, would be able to do. Including what looked like it's own social network, complete with video chat. Nintendo has found a way to include the Mii's in a very interactive way, much better than before and just using your Mii to show off to your friends when they come over to your house. Not so possible when your friends live half way around the world. They're calling it the Miiverse, and it'll include interactivity between the Wii U, and the 3DS, and other systems. It also looked like there might be an mobile app coming to a smart phone near you, so that you can interact with the Nintendo community.

These are things that will all be covered again this Tuesday, I'm sure, at the Nintendo Press Conference. Let's see how Sony and Microsoft take this news. E3 kicks off tomorrow with the first big press conference from Microsoft starting at 12:30pm EST (9:30am PDT), EA at 4pm EST (1pm PDT), Ubisoft at 6pm EST (3pm PDT), and Sony at 9pm EST (6pms PST). Then Nintendo will step up on Tuesday at 12pm EST (9am PST) to show off their goods. Here's hoping for some kind of LoZ fan service. Expect tweets from us (@TCPSpodcast) and wrap up posts after each press conference summing everything up, and podcasts to go up after the big conferences are over. We won't leave you hanging.

TCPS 21: Pre-E3 Ramblings

Like usual, we're on top of things, and took the time to sit down and talk about E3. What we got from last year, what we were promised, and what we'd like, and what we Need to see this year. Enjoy. We actually got a little serious. Until the end.

TCPS 20: We're Not Dead

No, we're not dead, we're back! And we somehow manage to cover short reviews of the games that have come out since January of 2012 up until just this week! And then there's some nonsense, but then we actually have some meaningful conversations about Sony and Nintendo and some Microsoft. Yes, we talk a little bit about Mass effect 3. Listen in!

 

TCPS 15: E3 Special - Nintendo

We watched the press conferences, we took notes, and now we talk about it. We cover Nintendo and what they announced, how the brought their game, and how excited we are about it!

TCPS 14: E3 Special - EA & Ubisoft

We watched the press conferences, we took notes, and now we talk about it. We cover both EA and Ubisoft in this special podcast, talking about what they announced, and how we feel about it.

TCPS 13: E3 Special - Sony

We watched the press conferences, we took notes, and now we talk about it. We cover Sony in this special podcast, talking about what they announced, and how we feel about it.

TCPS 12: E3 Special - Microsoft

We watched the press conferences, we took notes, and now we talk about it. We cover Microsoft in this special podcast, talking about what they announced, and how we feel about it.

TCPS E3 Preview

Today kicked off E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, and I couldn't be more excited right now. Antonio and I are making sure that one of us watches it live if the other can't. Presently, Microsoft has just wrapped up and I have a long list of notes that I took. What can you expect from this? Well up to 5 podcasts, that's what!The big 3 will get their own podcast, (Unless Sony doesn't give us a lot), and then Ubisoft and EA combined with other third-parties. You might get treated to Microsoft tomorrow in fact. We work hard, just for you! Also, my lovely co-host and I will be discussing some exciting things for everyone.

Steampunk Finally makes it's debut in Video Games?

This past Memorial Day weekend, here in the US, I found myself a little further south of my home city. I was in Dearborn, MI, while Antonio was moving from his old apartment into his new living quarters. He'll have to fill you in on that, I know very little about how that went. What was I doing down in Dearborn you might ask? Why I was attending the second annual World Steam Expo! An assemblage of steampunk nerds far and wide across the whole world! And now you might be asking, why am I telling you this? What does this have to do with games and this podcast? Let me fill you in!

The first Steampunk MMO will be making it's gaming debut in a few short years, as early as 2012. About time I say. Style influences in games is fine, but now we get a game with a full steampunk premise. How can I tell you all this? I was able to attend a panel at WSX giving the audience an exclusive preview of the games artwork and story. I'm not able to give you much, as those involved in the creation of the game weren't able to us much information. It's set in 1908, the year that the world ends. The oceans are evaporated, the land is crumbled, and pieces are sinking into the molten core of the earth, and aether is released into the air. Those nations that aren't destroyed must quickly learn how to survive in this new world and all the changes that are happening. Most revert back to barbarism and must rebuild their own civilizations. The ultimate goal is to get back to the glory that was the late 19th century, when empire's were at their peak. While they rebuild they must also learn to survive the creatures that were created by the aether, and each other. This story of AIR is set two hundred years after the cataclysm.

What I can tell you about the gameplay is that it's going to be your typical MMO, and not, at the same time. They're working hard to make sure this isn't full of fetch and retrieve missions. They want to focus on plot and story, on making this more than just a game. I for one, couldn't be happier. I've met and talked to some of the writers and artists and there's so much planned for this game. Coming later this year, or early next year will be a mobile game, focusing more on the flight of airships, a flight simulator, that will be able to be ported to other platforms in the future. One of the lead writers is also releasing a book this July that starts to tell the tale of the great cataclysm, Blood in the Skies, by G.D. Falksen.

I'll be keeping a close eye on this game and it's developments. We were tipped to keep an eye on the website, AIR, as it should be getting a revamp soon, with more information. Awesome things are happening friends, awesome things. Just like E3 coming up this week. Expect reports on that soon.