E3 Day 0 (Part 3) -- The Sony Press Conference

Written By: Tyler

Here we are... the last press conference of the day/night. I don't have to remind you, but remember when Sony came out and Ether'd Microsoft? Can they do it again? What does Sony have to say for themselves? Read below.

We see the blue, we hear the calming, pretty music... and then there is black. When images and light return the stage, we see Mars. It looks exactly like Mars and I would know because I've been there. But what does this all mean? It's your destiny to know. It's um, Destiny, and spoiler alert, it still looks really cool, even if the opening video didn't really give us much in the way of gameplay footage.

Andrew House takes the stage and uh, rocks the house (okay I'll stop) by talking about understanding what it takes to be the best in the world. Then, he announces that Playstation gamers will get their grubby little hands on the Destiny beta first on July 17th. Also, starting on Thursday Playstation owners can play the first-look alpha of the game. If you act now you can actually help develop the game. One of these things is a lie made by me, I'll let you guess which.

There's also a white PS4 coming, with an exclusive Destiny bundle.

Next comes a new exclusive IP: The Order: 1886. It is a dark, third-person shooter and in the footage there's a lot of walking through the dark with only your flashlight. But wait, there's more, because you are not alone. I can't imagine. At least now we've seen some gameplay.

Jumping from dark, scary and depressing to light and beautiful, we have two bird-things flying through the air. It's Entwined, and it's apparently about two souls that are in love and can't be together. You have to guide two things at once using the dual sticks, and when you bring them together they'll transform into a dragon. Could be neat, but I wish my soul could merge with something and become a dragon. It is available right now for $9.99 so I think I may have to check it out tomorrow.

Infamous: Second Son is getting standalone DLC. You get exclusive content if you own Second Son but you don't need it. It's called Infamous: First Light.

Then Little Big Planet 3 hits the stage. I'm not real familiar with the previous two, despite buying the first (and not playing it yet) but it appears there are new characters. It looks charming like the first two did and this co-op play looks entertaining. I know they're slightly different but I feel like Little Big Planet 3 will be a better game than Project Spark.

Next on the agenda is the new game from From Software, Bloodborne. They appear to be trying something new by making a dark, gruesome game. You can get it in 2015.

Then Far Cry 4 flashes on the screen. We saw the first five minutes of the game earlier during the Ubisoft press conference, but now we see some gameplay. The video involves the player walking around, where he then picks up some equipment and starts grappling. Then he walks through the trees a little and after that the fun starts. In an unexpected twist, it looks like it's going to play like other Far Cry games, but that isn't even a criticism. Trust me, this looks like it's a lot of fun.

But they're not done, because this one seems to have co-op or at least some form of multiplayer. You can invite your friends to play with you even if they don't own the game... but only on Playstation. What?

What don't we see much of? Zombies. So we better make a game about zombies. We get to see go jogging while people get molested by zombies, things crash and an upbeat song plays. But then he transforms into a zombie himself. The video is silly fun. It's Dead Island 2.

Battlefield Hardline makes another appearance. I'm already sold, I didn't need this, but it's more of a mixture video of gameplay and cinematic. I'm more impressed with what EA showed us in their press conference.

There's an exclusive Disney Infinity collectors edition for PS3 and 4.

They talk about Destiny some more, talking about how Playstation owners will get stuff for owning it on a Sony system. Hulk also smashed during that, which made me chuckle.

They have a new partnership with Paradox Interactive. The first game they're working on is the new Magicka game, appropriately titled Magicka 2.

Grim Fandango is getting a remastering. I suck at Adventure games but I dig this one. It will be exclusive to PS4 and Vita.

After the biggest cheer of the night, we get a montage of a bunch of games who make their debut on Playstation platforms. I won't list them all because I've already forgotten the titles as I write this, but a lot of them look really cool. Some of them are Not A Hero, Hotline Miami 2, and The talos Principle. Wait I can do this... Titan Souls and Broforce as well. I may have missed some.

Oh god yes, here we go. The new Suda51 one game, that's only coming to PS4... I'm a huge Suda51 fan and up until now we only got a brief teaser that told us nothing about his new game. Only this is called Let It Die and it's not the game I thought he was making. What a confusing guy.

Then there's an awkward transition to Journey. Then we get to see the Giant Squid game, Abzu, and I'm not really sure what the point is. I don't think that's a criticism because it's intriguing and beautiful. It's another exclusive console debut for Sony.

No Man's Sky then shows up and it's even more gorgeous than I remember it being the first time I saw it. It's got the visuals and the scope is incredible, especially when you consider it's an indie game. It's a procedural universe, and every player will start on a different planet where the universe is supposedly infinite. Whether it'll be fun to explore these worlds or not remains to be seen, but I'm optimistic and anticipate this game.

After being inspired by No Man's Sky, Andrew House comes back to talk about the Playstation Camera and starts discussing Project Morpheus.

House introduces Shawn Layden, the new President and CEO of SCE. He starts talking about the PSN and statistics. Youtube will be coming to PS4 later this year. In the summer, their broadcasting will be enhanced. He also thinks that free-to-play is important, and there are a bunch of games coming in the next year, then we're treated to a montage of some of these games. Some look cool, some look crappy, but all will annoy a large portion of gamers who hate F2P.

Playstation Now is going to be available in beta on July 31st on PS4. Shortly after it will be on Vita
and PS3. I'm excited for this.

Layden then went on to talk about PS Vita. There are over a hundred games in development for the platform.

Playstation TV is a thing too. You can pair it with your PS4, and play your games via remote play on another TV. When it's released it will cost $99 but there's a bundle for $139 that includes a Dual Shock 3, a game, and an HDMI cable.

After that, we get the world premiere of gameplay footage of Mortal Kombat X, and guess what? That teaser trailer we saw a while back was not gameplay footage, to those who debated how much of it was. When did Mortal Kombat get gory?

After Mortal Kombat, Andrew House comes back and starts talking about movies and television on Playstation. Their first original program is a show called Powers, which is about superheroes.

If you didn't know, there's an animated Ratchet & Clank movie in the works. We got to see a little bit of it. 

Finally we get back to games... with the remastered version of The Last of Us. If you haven't played The Last of Us and you only own a PS4, you definitely have to check this out when it releases on July 29th because it definitely lives up to the hype. The footage presented also has a cover of a Nirvana song so that's a plus in my eyes.

I love Metal Gear, and Sony knows this, so they chose to show us a new trailer of Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain. Not that I need a new trailer, but of course it looks awesome. The trailers for this game have been incredible.

Next comes Grand Theft Auto 5 for PS4. I'm really happy about this because the online aspect of the game seems really interesting and my PS3 broke a while back so I haven't gotten a chance to play it.

After stroking the audience with next-gen GTA5, we get to see the next Batman game, Arkham Knight. This was a must-buy before I knew anything about it. The video that they showed made me happy because now there is no doubt in my mind at all that the game is going to be awesome.

The press conference ends with Uncharted 4. If I'm being honest, I'm not real excited because I'm not a fan of the series, but it's nice to see that the game hasn't imploded with all the people leaving over the past year. It's just a short cinematic, but it says that it's coming out in 2015. There is a big applause at the beginning of the video and at the end.


Closing Statement: Sony suffered from some technical issues on occasion during their presser, but for the most part it was good. It's interesting that they were more like Microsoft last year than Sony of last year... focusing a bunch on their non-game features. Some of this is really interesting, but I felt like it went on a little too long and started clamoring for more game talk. After the talk about all their hardware and services, they came back in a huge way though, which I think kept Microsoft from edging out a victory here. The games that Sony showed are, for the most part, just more interesting.

April Is National Humor Month, So Here Are Some Games That Are Much Funnier Than I Am

Written By: Tyler

Well... March has gone by, and now we're into April. Every month I choose something that the month commemorates and I tie it into video games. April is National Humor Month, so I've taken it upon myself to tell you some of the funniest games I've played.

Unfortunately I haven't played Portal or Portal 2, so I'm just letting you know so we can get the disappointment out of the way because damn, those games are loved.


Grim Fandango
 Grim Fandango has an interesting plot. I'll let Wikipedia take it away:

 Grim Fandango takes place in the Land of the Dead, where recently departed souls aim to make their way to the Ninth Underworld. Good deeds in life are rewarded by access to better travel packages to assist in making the journey of the soul, the best of which is the Number Nine, a train that takes four minutes to reach the gate to the Ninth Underworld.^[6] Souls who did not fulfilll a kind life are left to travel through the Land of the Dead on foot, which would take around four years. Such souls often lose faith in the existence of the Ninth Underworld and instead find jobs in the Land of the Dead. The travel agents of the Department of Death act as the Grim Reaper to escort the souls from the mortal world to the Land of the Dead, and then determine which mode of transport the soul has merited. Each year on the Day of the Dead, these souls are allowed to visit their families in the Land of the Living.

Grim Fandango has memorable and hilarious characters and plays with Film Noir conventions incredibly well. It's a dark comedy due to the subject matter, but it's a blast to play.


Conker's Bad Fur Day
The Nintendo 64 had some mature games, but even back then I'd say they started to focus more on family affairs. But not Conker's Bad Fur Day. No, this game is gross and immature, but there's a lot of clever writing on display here. The game also parodies various things, such as Saving Private Ryan, and it does a great job. To this day I still remember coming across one of the other characters and it says, "I'm just wandering around... aimlessly."



Saints Row: The Third 
When Saints Row first came out, it was a decent Grand Theft Auto clone. I had no desire to play the second one because of this so I don't know if they started carving their own path at that point or not. But then the third came out, and oh my god. 

It's another game that may seem juvenile, but it's cleverly juvenile, and it made me laugh a lot with its parodies and jokes.


Jazzpunk
Jazzpunk came out this year, and it's one of the funnier games I've played in the last few years. It takes the spy genre and flips it on its head, crafting a genuinely humorous game. It's just a shame that it isn't a little bit longer.



Earthbound
Ah, Earthbound, the legendary SNES RPG. As a kid I laughed at the jokes, but as an adult I can truly appreciate just how smart and funny it is. And dark. Somehow Earthbound manages to be comical yet tackle some pretty serious issues. Don't get me wrong... it's all about the quirky characters and environments, but there is more to this game than meets the eye. One of the best RPGs of all time and also one of the funniest games.






South Park And The Stick of Truth
Another game that just came out this year, but I had to put it on here because it does what a South Park game should do -- it makes you feel like you're playing an episode (or season) of the show. This is the highest praise I can give it because when South Park is on, it is one of the funniest shows on television. The same can be said about this game. It has all the South Park flavour and characters that fans know and love, while maintaining the gross out satire that it became famous for. For fans of the show you can't do much better than The Stick of Truth.



The Simpsons Game
The game has some gameplay issues, but it's still a fun game. However, like The Stick of Truth, The Simpsons Game perfectly nails the look and feel of the show it's based on. It's a joy watching the classic Simpsons characters interact with each other in context of a video game. It's an homage and parody of the medium.


Psychonauts
I'm not sure if Psychonauts is an underrated/overlooked game at this point or not. Some games get that title so much that they stop being it. Regardless, Psychonauts is an hilarious game.



HK47 from Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic
While not a game, I had to throw some love for HK47 in here because he's a great character in a series that's epic and serious. He provides comical relief in the form of being a homicidal droid that has no respect for human life. Seriously, just go Youtube HK47.



Borderlands 2 
Borderlands was funny, but Borderlands 2 is even funnier because of one person -- Handsome Jack. The rest of the game makes me laugh, but when Handsome Jack basically calls me up just to shit talk me (for the entire game), I can't help but smile and chuckle to myself.



What games make you bust a gut (I've never said that before in my life)? Let me know in the comments below, or if you really want to bitch at me about how Monkey Island isn't on here then tweet me on that Twitter thing @ArtBathednCrime and hurt my feelings.

Tim Schafer Returns! A Broken Age Act 1 Review! Exclamation Marks!

Written By: Tyler Selig

Rating: 8/10

Verdict: Tim Shafer’s first point-and-click adventure game since the legendary Grim Fandango is another great addition to the genre, with memorable characters and jokes, but may be a little easy for adventure aficionados. 

                I have to start this review by saying that the only reason I don’t rate this game higher is that I’m not exactly a big fan of the genre that it’s in. I’d say it’s one of my least favourite genres, but I don’t hate it by any means. I love games like Grim Fandango, but the amount of point-and-click adventure titles that I can say that about are slim. So with that bias out of the way, you can adjust your rating by about a point or so because it is truly a great game.

                What makes it great? The story and characters, much like the classics in the genre. This is something I’ve always respected about point-and-clicks because the story isn’t often a centerpiece for most video games. If it is, developers often sacrifice the gameplay and admittedly the mechanics that operate the genre aren’t preferable for me. Maybe it’s because I’m too stupid to figure out the puzzles, but the gameplay in the genre doesn’t entice me as much as it does others. I wonder how many times I can say genre in this review?

                The story in Broken Age Act 1 is whimsical, odd, intriguing and creative. You play as two different characters, with two different stories that end up connecting at some point. How they connect is a pretty magnificent thing, and both stories offer a good degree of humour, absurdity and darkness. I was pretty invested in Vellas story especially because it focuses on sacrificing yourself, whereas when you’re playing as Shay you’re essentially trying to free yourself from a bored life that was created for you when you were a child and still has that structure of immaturity.

                If you want to laugh, this is a great game. There are many characters with funny things to say, like a tree who keeps calling you a murderer. Broken Age is filled to the brim with memorable lines and the voice acting is superb, which really brings the characters to life. Despite the seriousness of the events that engulf these characters, it’s nice to see it treated with finesse and hilarity.

                The art work also helps in that regard. It’s like a story book brought to life, with beautiful images flooding the screen at all times. It’s a joy to just look at the game in action.

                Where serious adventure game fans may have a problem is with how easy the game is. Even I can figure out the puzzles, so smarter people shouldn’t have a problem. The genre often tests the intellect of people and while there are definitely some head scratching puzzles here, and some are nonsensical, players shouldn’t have a hard time figuring out what to do next. The game is short, so experienced point-and-click adventure gamers should complete Act 1 pretty quickly.

                Some have criticized the ending because it’s abrupt, but I think it does a good job of making you crave the next act. More gameplay is always welcome so long as it’s interesting, and I think the game is a little overpriced, but Broken Age Act 1 managed to get my attention. I look forward to Act 2, which comes out later this year.