Another E3 has come and gone and with it some awesome new stuff to look at and some things we would have rather not seen.
Here at the TGA we are going to show you the top 10 the best things that you should look at and the 5 worst things from E3 2012.
Next up on the list at E3 is Sony. Right out of the gate Sony does a great job at really dropping a bomb on the world with the announcement the makers of Heavy Rain are developing a new title. Not much is known about this title other than the trailer released at E3, but with Quantic Dream making this project it will sure to be nothing other than a smash hit. With Beyond: Two Souls you will play as Jodie Holmes and go through points in her life spanning 15yrs. But there is something very special about Jodie; she is surrounded by an invisible and powerful unknown presence that she talks to. In the video we see her sitting at a local police station not saying a word to a jabbering officer trying to help. The officer later becomes frightened when the coffee mug he placed on the table is lifted off and thrown against the wall, and chooses to leave Jodie. Left alone she starts to interact with this supernatural being stating that she knew that SWAT was coming for her. Right after SWAT members start to storm the building and position themselves to try to capture Jodie. The door to where she is opens than the video than cuts to an amazing montage of what else is in store for the game. The video alone was enough to give me goose bumps.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 is the newest installment of the FF franchise. Trying to make up for the amount of complaints from the FF XIII and possibility of lacking creative ideas Square Enix attempts another console FF sequel. The first thing that came to mind was, “Why?” After the travesty that was FF X-2 I was very resilient to think that doing another FF sequel would be a good idea. The feedback that I received from reviews and word of mouth put my worries at ease and also stating that the complaints I had about the first one were also changed. Did the title live up to or exceed its predecessor? Let’s take a look and see.
Gameplay:
The gameplay of FF 13-2 is very similar to that of FF13. The battle system is based off of 6 interchangeable class types and managing those into 6 on the fly class combos in order to heal, stagger, or devastate your opponents. If you played FF13 than you will feel right at home with the battle system. There were minor tweaks in place that now give some enemies the ability to wound your health making you unable to heal wounded damage, also some of the class abilities aren’t as vast as they were in FF13, and now your 3rd battle partner is a monster. You now have the ability to capture, infuse, and level up monsters in the game. While this makes it able to build the ultimate monster for each class type I would much rather have static characters that I can level up just like Noel and Serah. Having to worry about grabbing new monsters or not knowing which ones are good to level up can be frustrating at times. Monsters can only be leveled up, depending on the class of monster, using items you can either buy or earn in battles. This can also be very frustrating as you have a limited number of items and don’t want to waste them on monsters that aren’t going to ever be as strong as the monster you are using now. The crystarium system of leveling up is back again but with a small change. In the previous title you could level up one of the 6 classes and each one had a cap and you could dump XP into any one you wanted. This time around you dump those points into each class type and get stat boosts in strength, HP, and Magic depending on which class you level. Each time you do that specific class will level up and each class caps at level 99. Each time you fill an entire crystarium field you also get a bonus which can range from boosting a class or raising your accessory limit amount. In this game you can’t just wear any accessory you want as each accessory has a number attached to it. If you don’t have a high enough number cap than a lot of accessories are dead to you and this really limits what you can wear to 1 maybe 2 accessories at best. Overall I feel gameplay took a step back from FF13
14/20
Presentation:
The game has Serah in search of her sister Lightning who she saw in a dream fighting in Valhalla in the beginning. Shortly after she is met with the last human in existence from the future, Noel as they both travel through time solving paradoxes created in the timeline in order to bring back Lightning. You travel to a great array of places scattered all throughout time as well as multiple versions of the same time but changed after fixing paradoxes. In each time you spend anywhere from 30min to 3hrs following the trail of the next time period unlocked by gates. Since the previous title was too linear this one is too open. I quickly felt overwhelmed with the amount of stuff that I had open to me in the timeline, and had to also revisit the same places to see if I could find more fragments in each time. The storyline was sub-par at best as it unfolded with a cast of characters that never moved or inspired me. Over the 38hrs of my time with the game I found myself playing it more out of not having anything else better to play rather than wanting to know what happens next. Most of the game posed no difficulty except for the final boss that resulted in me spending another 5hrs of leveling and creating stronger monsters in order to just barely win. The ending (spoiler free) infuriated me with the direction in which it played out. Overall, I would have rather played through FF13 a 2nd time than my one play through of FF13-2.
11/20
Visuals:
Visuals are usually a department that Square Enix does right. This title is an exception to that rule. The vast array of locations and geography always made it seem fresh. I would jump from one time period to the next and be immersed in a whole new world completely different from where I just was. However, the character models often seemed pixelated and it looks like there wasn’t a lot of effort into making this a well-polished and visually astounding title. The turnaround is that the cutscenes look as good as would be expected, but the environments, characters, and everything else outside of cutscenes looks like ass.
13/20
Sound:
The soundtrack for this game is atrocious. Most music consisted of not just music but some of them also had someone else singing in the background. I found the music to be so horrible that I would try to leave certain time periods quicker than others or play over the video game music with stuff from my computer because it just hurt my soul. I took the time to listen to what those people were actually saying I hung my head in disgust to hear that the lyrics were horribly written. Below I have linked some Youtube links to a few examples of what I mean.
10/20
Lasting Appeal:
The game has a vast amount of content with 160 fragments to collect, multiple endings, and a casino to blow all your money and time at. The only problem is that it was hard enough to stomach one full play through that I could never see myself going back to playing this title ever again. Do yourself a favor and do not waste your money on this game.
10/20
Final Score: 58/100
I completed this game on the PS3 with a time of 38:27:20. I was able to collect 77/160 fragments in the game and was able to reach 56% trophy completion
What did you think about FFXIII-2? Post your comments in the section below and remember to follow us on http://www.facebook.com/thegamersabstract
With E3 beginning in just a few short hours we here at The Gamer’s Abstract would like to throw out some predictions for the major press conferences. Alongside those predictions will be stuff that is most anticipated and the biggest shocker announcement of E3. This will be written in the order of the press conferences themselves.
You will see the big heavy hitter first party titles here. Expect to see some new clips involving Epic Games new Gears of War title, and also more in depth with Halo 4. Microsoft will want to reinforce why gamers choose Xbox 360 above all else with the strength of their first party IP’s and how they have exclusive content first to the market. Microsoft will remind users that Xbox is the only place to get Call of Duty content first on the market and show some gameplay footage from Black Ops 2. Look to Microsoft to have a dedicated time slot to just showing off the Kinect. As always this might include a bunch of kids or adults doing silly things on stage in their 2 minutes of fame. Xbox 360 seems to want to become more and more integrated for being the only media device one might need for a household (cable, dvd, bing, ESPN, etc.) . It will come as no shock to see that Microsoft will announce further integration with the mobile market and moving more into a cloud based system. Microsoft wants to be like Apple in that all their devices will talk and communicate with one another. I do not anticipate that there will be any announcement or buzz for the new Xbox and will be absent from E3 until next year.
Sony may never outsell Microsoft but they do gain more and more ground with their IP’s each year. Look for videos of the new Assassin’s Creed, Sly Cooper 4, The Last of Us, The Last Guardian, God of War: Ascension, and the newly announced All Star Battle Royal. The Last of Us and All Star Battle Royal will be the highlight of the unreleased games during the press conference. The big push will not only reinforce why gamers choose the wide variety of exclusive games on the PS3 but will also focus on the Vita. Vita sales are less than what Sony would like them to be and gamers need a reason to go out and buy a Vita. I would recommend that Sony get Kevin Butler to do this segment as if anyone could get people pumped about buying anything gamer related it would be him. Expect Kevin to make an appearance at the conference and just like his appearance in 2010 people to be hanging on his every word. Vita will be seeing a price drop due to lackluster sales in the range of $50-$100. PS Move seems to be something that didn’t and still hasn’t caught on. Move will be mentioned but not to very much extent. Sony has been rumored in doing a strictly streaming based form of gaming sort of like onlive, I expect to see more details announced as to what exactly is in the works. With the PS3 still strong and the Vita in need of more sales it would not be smart for Sony to announce a new system at E3. I do not expect that this will be in the arsenal for Sony
All eyes are on the Big N this conference with buzz and hype all centered on Wii U. The name is here to stay as recent pictures of the tablet controller have the Wii U branded logo all over it. People want to know what it is, what the intended way to play this new system is, and what the recently leaked Rayman Legends trailer with Wii U means. (For those of you who do not know there was a trailer that showed putting action figures on the Wii U tablet controller and being recognized on the screen as an item, possibly game, or character. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSlccZt5O2o ) Consumers will see a release date of Early 2013 and no price point yet. There will be announced 1st and 3rd party games for the system possibly in the realm of Metroid, Mario, and Super Smash and how these games will work with the new tablet controller. Pikmin 3 along with the New Super Mario Bros 2 and the popular upcoming 3DS titles like Paper Mario and Luigi’s Mansion 2. And last as always we will be graced by the wonderful and charismatic personality of Reggie Fils-Aime. Who always manages to bore and annoy the crap out of me every E3 press conference.
With Predictions also comes the most anticipated already expected stuff that here at The Gamer’s Abstract are itching to know more about or can’t wait to see. Below is a list of what we here at TGA will be looking out for. Those things would be:
Castlevania DS and Lords of Shadows
Wii U (We want to know wtf this thing is)
Kevin Butler as always makes a great addition
Paper Mario and Luigi’s Mansion 2
Bioshock infinite
Resident Evil 6
Tomb Raider
Assassin’s Creed 3
The biggest shocker prediction to hit E3:
Valve will finally man up and announce Half-Life 3
What do you think will happen at E3? Post your comments in the section below and remember to follow us on http://www.facebook.com/thegamersabstract
In today’s day and age quantifying success comes down to how a product performs commercially and how it performs critically. When it comes to hardware however, success is usually quantified by sheer amount of units sold. You can have a system with lots of great games (a la Dreamcast), but if it doesn’t perform well at retail it will be met with an untimely demise. One thing about Sony hardware launches that had remained perpetual until now was with every launch a Ridge Racer game accompanied it [in the USA, forgetting about Japan for right now]. The PS Vita is the first system that Sony has released stateside that does not have Ridge Racer game available at launch. The Ridge Racer that is already out in Japan will not release in the USA until June of this year. While my hypothesis may be extremely wild in nature I still believe it should receive some examination. So I ask propose the question; does having a Ridge Racer title at launch equal success for Sony?
A true classic
Listed below I have gathered some statistics which seemed to be the most accurate ones I could find, but I will disclaim right now that they might not be 100% accurate, so don’t be too harsh on me if they are wrong or slightly different. But for the purpose of this small study they will give us a basis for analysis and possibly uncover either a fruitful or painful future for the PS Vita.
Could this be the Vita's saving grace?
Sony hardware launches in the USA with estimated sales figures to date (all regions)
Ridge Racer games launched with Sony hardware in the USA
By looking at the numbers, each Sony hardware release that has had a Ridge Racer at launch has performed well at retail (some better than others). I will not come out and say that Ridge Racer is the sole catalyzing factor for said success, but I believe it stems beyond pure coincidence. The Ridge games themselves haven’t evolved much over the years, but maybe that offers some level of comfort to those who decide to purchase a system at launch. You know what you are getting when you buy a Ridge Racer title and I know when I invest a significant amount of money into a hardware purchase I don’t want to take risks with software that might not meet my expectations. Every Ridge Racer game that I have purchased with new Sony hardware showcases the system in an alluring dimension and that could be another mitigating factor for hardware success. I know when a new piece of hardware is being talked about Sony or not I wonder if it is going to have a Ridge Racer game available at launch. Most systems in fact have Ridge games available at launch and go on to be successful (Xbox 360, Nintendo DS etc.). Purchase decisions have always been a great topic in the world of psychology, because our own individual psychologies determine how we justify spending any amount of money.
For instance when you go to any store; let’s say a GameStop and you are looking to purchase a new system. You want to be sold on the features, value and also the software that is available for that platform. Most of us don’t like taking risks and with the lofty prices attached to hardware no one can blame you for searching for comfort. Maybe subconsciously Ridge Racer offers that comfort. It may sound crazy, but if you know that a piece of hardware has a familiar title on it, that in return offers comfort. That is mainly the reason why many system launches have similar software as their predecessors; to offer comfort before you branch out into newer software. Easing into a new piece of hardware or any product for that matter makes consumers more apt to attain comfort faster and branch out into different properties faster. Could Ridge Racer be the underlying success for the game industry as a whole? I’ll admit that is going a little too far, but it certainly will have you thinking about it for at least the rest of this day.
So will the PS Vita perform well stateside sans a Ridge Racer title [for at least the next 4 months]? I do hope so. I think that dedicated handheld systems are a sacred part of the industry and if they are willing to adapt to the current landscape of mobile gaming they will be able to compete. The coming months will be interesting for the PS Vita and hopefully come June that Ridge Racer title will “launch” it to unimaginable heights. So what do you think about my hypothesis? Do you think I am insane and should seek a shrink? Or do you think that there is possibly some validity to this and should be further researched? Let us know by sounding off in the comments section and as always you can follow us on Twitter @GamersAbstract and like us on Facebook for more content.
The PS Vita launches today in North America and I know more than a few people who are clamoring to get their hands on the units they preordered. Sony’s marketing has picked up substantially for the Vita in the past few weeks, albeit having some very ambiguous commercials that really don’t highlight anything about the system’s capabilities (the GAMECHANGER campaign). Besides the marketing for the system going into overdrive, deals for the system have followed suit. Almost every retailer that is selling the Vita is offering some kind of deal either on the hardware, accompanying software or both. I know Sony constructed their own “Launch” bundle that included and 8 GB memory card, one month of 3G access from AT&T and a free PSN game for $299.99 (the standard price of the 3G/WiFi model). Those three additional items amount to a $55 value which is nothing to sneeze at (that is almost two Vita games). While Sony won’t come out and say that they are worried about the poor sales in Japan, this bundling incentive was absolutely constructed to make the system more appealing at launch.
For those of you not familiar with the “Ambassador” program, it was an initiative from Nintendo to appease early adopters who felt cheated when Nintendo dropped the price of the 3DS $80 six months after it launched in March of last year. Nintendo offered a bunch of free content to members of the program that was available through the Nintendo E-Shop, but I feel Sony is taking opposite approach. Sony won’t drop the price of the system because it will cost them too much money up front and it will inadvertently show weakness and lack of confidence in their product, both of which are bad things. In addition to hardware bundles many retailers are offering deals on the software including buy 2 get 1 free deals and other discounted software on day one. I have no doubt that this has been initiated to stimulate sales of not only software available at launch, but also the hardware. Attach ratios are huge for retailers because the ones that sell more units per transaction are given preference when it comes to restocking inventory. Offering the value day one is a great strategy Sony is undertaking and I think the consumer will appreciate it, rather than having to wait several months to get content which is how Nintendo handled it.
I have gone on record saying that I really want a Vita (probably the 3G/WiFi model), but can’t afford one now, but Sony is making it very difficult for those who want and can afford one to say no at launch. The deals being offered now will likely resurface at some time, but it takes a little bit of the sting out of purchasing at launch when you have such great offers on the table. I have high hopes for the Vita in North America and I hope it exceeds everyone’s expectations and with this “preemptive Ambassador” initiative I think more people will be inclined to purchase now rather than later. The Vita will more than likely be dominating the gaming airwaves for the coming weeks and we will do our best to offer what coverage we can, but in the meantime let us know what you think about the Vita by sounding off in the comments section. As always you can follow us on Twitter @GamersAbstract and like us on Facebook for more content.
By now anyone who plays games or follows them knows about the setbacks that have fallen upon Team ICO’s latest project The Last Guardian. In a recent article on Kotaku, Shuhei Yoshida, the president of Sony Worldwide studios, said that Ueda, the game’s director, for better or worse is making the game tough to develop. For those who played Team ICO’s previous two gamesm, Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, know that they are very polished and enjoyable games, but for each game’s respective length is the development cycle a little too drawn out? On the most recent episode of Podcast Beyond (227) the Beyond crew (Colin Moriarty, Ryan Clements, Greg Miller) discussed this hot topic in the Sony world and how other studios are pumping out games faster that Team ICO and with almost the same pedigree in the quality department. So this got me thinking about the topic a little more and decided to do a little research and I’d like to share it with all of you to give you some context to the absurdity of The Last Guardian’s development time.
Assuming that The Last Guardian went into development either concurrently or immediately after Shadow of the Colossus’s release it has almost been in development for 7 years (2005 – present). So with that information I took to the internet to track down some facts about other studios and found out how many games have been released within other internal Sony studios in the same general time frame. I warn you that these statistics may be alarming so approach the following with caution.
After looking at some (not all) of Sony’s internal studios I generated a list of games that came out after 2005 from each respective studio and then did some basic addition to derive a number that is borderline upsetting for Team ICO. Since 2005 the studios I will list below (with games) have developed and released 45 games to Team ICO’s 1 that is still in development. Like I said a couple sentences ago that isn’t all the games or studios so that number is far larger in the grand scheme of things, but 45 is still nothing to sneeze at.
Most of Sony (not all)
Average score for Most of Sony – 83.26
[Updated: Added available Metacritic scores and averaged them per developer and as a whole]
Team ICO – average score – 91
There is no doubt that Fumito Ueda, the former leader of Team ICO, is a brilliant and talented video game developer, but that brilliance and talent needs to be coupled with focus and compliance. Other studios within Sony’s umbrella have been creating and releasing games much faster than Team ICO and have been incredible (i.e. the Uncharted series). Another thing the Beyond Crew pointed out is that this team has been getting paid for 6 going on 7 years and hasn’t even finished one product. Name any other studio, besides Polyphony Digital, the makers of Gran Turismo, which would be given that kind of leniency in regards to development time. Most publishers would have shit canned Team ICO if they took as long as they are taking currently. This also begs the question does Sony give preferential treatment to Team ICO/Studio Japan for reasons outside of an industrial context? Would Naughty Dog be given the same pass if they wanted to take another 5 years to develop The Last of Us (I sincerely hope not)? We could speculate all day about the answer to that question, but we will save that for another day. This will continue to be a hot topic in the world of video games until some ground is broke on The Last Guardian. Until definitive information is disseminated down to us about a release date and any developmental resolutions, it will all continue to just be conjecture. So what do you all think about this? Do you think Team ICO needs to get their asses in gear and finish up the game or should they be allowed to take their sweet time to give us their “vision” of the game? Sound off in the comments section and as always you can follow us on Twitter @GamersAbstract and like us on Facebook for more content.
As a final disclaimer I want to play the hell out of The Last Guardian. Also I give my consent for this article and research to be used on other sites/blogs. I want this research to be continued and more detailed. The numbers were provided via Metacritic. I was given inspiration for this research by the Podcast Beyond crew from IGN which is comprised of Colin Moriarty, Ryan Clements and Greg Miller. So a thank you for them is in order as well.
Last night I felt the urge to go to GameStop and peruse the store (which happens often), but to my delight they had a PS Vita demo unit out for use. So what was supposed to just be a short outing turned into me getting my first hands on experience with Sony’s new handheld. While I didn’t get to fully explore the Vita I feel like I got a pretty good showcase of what the system is capable of so let me share my thoughts with all of you.
The design is very similar to that of the PSP which made it very comfortable to use and even with a security cradle attached to the system it was still very light, which is a plus. The face and shoulder buttons are once again identical to that of the PSP, but the major additions come in the form of an additional analog stick, front touch screen, rear touch panel and a camera. Dual analog sticks were something PSP owners wanted out the gate, but even through two system redesigns were never integrated so prospective Vita buyers fear not. While the dual analog sticks are a great design addition they are very small and depending on how they are integrated into various pieces of software could potentially pose a problem for users with large hands (such as myself). One other caveat with the analog stick design is that if a game uses the rear touch panel and both sticks it could potentially make the Vita a bit cumbersome to use hypothetically speaking (you would literally be clutching just the outside of the system and would be putting extra pressure on the sticks). Enough with the design jargon let me tell you about the software I played.
The system had quite a few demos loaded on it, but due to time constraints (i.e. store closing) I only had the opportunity to play Gravity Rush and Uncharted: Golden Abyss. Both games were a blast to play and it reaffirmed in my mind that dedicated handheld systems still have a place in the video game industry. Gravity Rush has a great art style with quirky characters and the gameplay mechanics were beyond unique. If I had the available funds to purchase a Vita at launch Gravity Rush would absolutely be a day one purchase. Uncharted: Golden Abyss was a treat as well, but it wasn’t anything that players haven’t already experienced in the previous three entries (sans some touch integration). Nonetheless Golden Abyss is setting the bar really high out the gate for graphics on the Vita and makes me very optimistic about the visual fidelity games will present down the road. Like I said earlier I wasn’t able to fully explore the other demos available or any of the other features that were on the display unit so I apologize if this seems inconclusive.
The PS Vita is a cool piece of tech that will definitely please those who are purchasing it day one and will be a great device for people to save up for. I unfortunately fall into the latter category, but it will be a glorious day when I can get my hands on one of my own. In the meantime many more trips to my local GameStop will be in order until that day arrives. Also if this article piqued your interest head to your local GameStop to see if yours has a demo unit and give it a spin; if you are a fan of handheld systems I promise you it won’t disappoint. As always you can follow us on Twitter @GamersAbstract and like us on Facebook for more content. If you get a chance to check out the Vita sound off in the comments section and let us know what you think.
The 19 Days of Deals are rolling on at Amazon and today’s theme is Long Live Play. For those of you not familiar with that motto it belongs to our friends over at Sony. So with that being said today’s discounted items will be for the PS3 anad PSP. You can take this link over to Amazon and check out what is on sale and I’ll throw up some notables below to satisfy any curiosities you may have. Also in Video Game Downloads, Arcade games are up to 80% off and I’ll throw up a link below for that too. Happy Shopping everyone.
Long Live Play Deals
Amazon Video Game Download Discounts – Arcade Day – link to deal
There you have it folks your Amazon Gaming Deals of the Day. Check back often for new deals and as always you can follow us on Twitter @GamersAbstract and like us on Facebook for more content.
This game just can not catch a break. The Last Guardian has been the victim of many delays and last month it was rumored that the creator of ICO (and Shadow of the Colossus) Fumito Ueda had left Sony to pursue other ventures. Since that rumored surfaced things were looking pretty bleak for The Last Guardian. However it has since been confirmed by many news outlets that Ueda will finish The Last Guardian and that the title is still in production. Great news right? I’d say so, until today. According to a report on Gamasutra the game has lost its Executive Producer Yoshifusa Hayama to the social gaming company Bossa Studios. The attrition rate of important figures surrounding this game is absolutely astounding. Who are they going to lose next? Hopefully no one, but at this point it is hard to tell. With so much ambiguity surrounding this title to begin with it begs the question; is there something wrong with the production of The Last Guardian? Is there trouble in paradise over at Sony? These questions will be answered sooner than later I suspect. Until then stay tuned for more news regarding The Last Guardian and as always you can follow us on Twitter @GamersAbstract and like us on Facebook for more content.
The Gamer's Abstract 