More E3 Thoughts

I have finally caught up with a lot of the demos that I had missed out on (mostly following IGN Live but Gametrailers has some good coverage too) and I thought I'd share some E3 thoughts after a few hours of watching demos and listening to interviews.

-Quantum Break Gets Better by the Minute

I already thought that Quantum Break looked amazing when I saw it at the Xbox One reveal and then when we saw a little bit of it at the Microsoft press conference. However, when I saw two interviews with Sam Lake from Remedy and he explained more of the premise, I got even more hooked.

Quantum Break is going to be a single player experience that includes episodic content in the form of gameplay and a live action series. The live action series will follow different characters but the events will be the same, so you get to see two sides of many events. Your specific gameplay choices will not only affect the game, but the show as well.

As Sam Lake notes you will get your own "director's cut" live action series that responds to the choices you made in the game. This idea sounds really cool and much more manageable than the TV show/Game combo that is Defiance.

The idea that time itself has been broken can lead to an interesting storytelling and gameplay device and that fact that you will play as the main bad guy in key moments (determining how the story will continue forward) is interesting.

-Arkham Origins Looks Great

I saw the gameplay demo several times and heard two different developers from Warner Brothers Montreal go over the game and I am impressed. The graphics don't look all that much better than Arkham City but that is to be expected since it is not a next gen title.

What really impresses me is the fact that the game is taking a very interesting approach to a Batman "origin" story. Instead of seeing Batman turn from Bruce Wayne into a vigilante, we instead see a Batman who has dealt with vastly inferior foes (regular criminals) for a few years and is now finally being tested against some villains who can best him.

This means that the game centers around Batman being taken aback a bit by these new criminals and learning  something about himself in the process. I think this will help the storytelling immensely and is leaps and bounds better than rehashing the "my parents got shot so now I need to fight crime" story again.

Other than that, the changes to the combat (characters who can counter you) and the detective mode (the crime "recreation") all seem to be phenomenal while still maintaining everything that made the other games great. It will be a long wait until I can play this one.

-Need for Speed: Rivals Has my Attention

I can't say I'm the biggest fan of racing games but I do enjoy the occasional romp in  Burnout: Paradise. However, Need for Speed: Rivals has completely sold me on the concept of the game. The Frostbite 3 engine makes this game look so gorgeous and the idea of using the cops vs racers angle to give more than one experience in the game is pretty cool.

The sensation of speed, the graphics, the ability to seamlessly go from single player to multiplayer, and more  all had me excited to get my hands on the game and I think it is going to be a very solid racing title when it is launched.

-Ryse: Son of Rome is One of the Best Looking Games at the Conference

At this point I have seen quite a few game demos and many of them are absolutely stellar in graphical quality (Watch Dogs, inFamous, Quantum Break) but Ryse: Son of Rome is the one that sticks out in my head as the best looking game at the conference.

The facial animations, the environments, the character movement, and the whole package is just incredibly impressive. The combat itself seems to rely heavily on QTEs (though the developers vehemently disagree that it is a QTE) but that isn't a huge problem for me.

One thing I was impressed with was the idea that you are "a warrior with the controller and a general with your voice." Using the Kinect for general squad commands while you are engaged in combat (like asking for assistance from archers while you are in the middle of fighting) seems to be one of the most practical ways of integrating the Kinect into a game that hardcore gamers will want to play.

Ok that is probably enough for tonight, I will be sure to give my thoughts on some more games that are being showcased (and cover a few that I have already seen but neglected to talk about). Check VGU.TV for E3 coverage (we are planning on a lot of podcasts and some great feature pieces are on their way) and let me know what you thought of these games or anything at E3 in the comments or you can tweet @jamespungello.