It is three weeks before E3, I am starting a job with my mother where I need to get up at 6:30, and have several others I may pursue. I am playing a ton of P4G, current 75 hours in, and am still trying to get some content up regularly despite having nothing prepared or planned aside from a cynically written Castle Crashers review I do not want to finish, as it sucks. Life is pretty good for me as a whole and I am actually making progress in part two of my three part novel. Oh, and just as a note, do not expect an anime review this month, as P4G is enough anime for me… God, my review of that game will be four pages at this rate. Oh, and I had to film a bunch of children to get $60, so I am tired as I am posting this… thing.
I recall stating that Microsoft is not going to package an Xbox One without a Kinect, and it turns out I was wrong as, after what had to be a disappointment in terms of sales during the first five months of it being on the market, there will be a $400 standalone console. A move that is even more surprising when you recall how Canada’s PS4 costs $450, meaning the XBO is somehow cheaper there. Throw in what will likely be a still inferior, but better, Playstation Plus parallel and removal of the Xbox Live Gold price wall for many paid services, and I would still put my money towards Sony, but the gap has shrunk and yadayada E3, maybe something will happen but the supposedly true leaks are pretty underwhelming while being serviceable.
On the subjects of filling gaps, I brought up the issue of Interceptor Entertainment making a Duke Nukem game, which it turns out they lack the rights to do, and instead they will be taking what they made so far and make it a new title under the name of Bombshell. However, this transition brought with it a new protagonist, who has a pretty stock serious background hampered by a robotic arm, and naturally is sporting both a needless excess of skin while having an appearance that I can only hope will be altered or alterable when the game sees release. Although I wouldn’t bet on either option, as I would sooner bet on Nordic Games’ claim that another Darksiders is on its way referring to a project far smaller in terms of the scale and scope that the prior two titles have been leading up to. Sure, I didn’t necessarily like either of them, but the titles did show steady improvement and the mythology was interesting.
A series I also view as interesting despite not particularly liking what I played is Far Cry, which is naturally continuing with Far Cry 4, which we only know about through a cover, release date that coincides with my 20th birthday, November 18th, and how Ubisoft expect it to be in 2014’s top ten best selling games. I could complain about that scumminess, except it was information for shareholders and Ubisoft is very much a profit seeker as they will be making franchise iterations more often. Meaning that Assassin’s Creed, Watch Dogs, Far Cry, The Crew, The Division, Just Dance, Splinter Cell, and just about everything they do aside from Rayman and Beyond Good and Evil, which are the two most interesting IPs they have in my humble opinion, will see regular interactions, likely biyearly. Still, they’re doing cool stuff with UbiArt. Seriously, I get that they’re huge and make a lot of money, but this model will likely crash and burn some day.
Speaking of games one would expect to be announced at E3, but are no, Halo 5: Guardians is a clarified version of a thing that was teased, and will be coming out in fall of 2015, which I believe is later than most anticipated. My thoughts on it can be summed up as: I only played Reach, and that was for about two hours, which were pretty alright. Although, it would be difficult to get me to care much about Microsoft at this point, even if they do have Rare IPs. That’s my problem with anybody who feels the slightest bit of nostalgic fondness when the modern Rare claims they are maybe going back to their old ways. You see, nobody at Rare nowadays, maybe one or two at most, are the same people who made the games the company did over a decade ago. It is a dead horse and you are just beating it in hopes that it revives, when that sure is not going to ever happen.