E3 2012

@Beta Ray: It was written by John Cheese. Normally, I love his articles, but this one is just... nah.

edited 8th Jun '12 6:23:11 PM by Komodin

Is it possible that it wasn't meant to be taken seriously?

I mean, It's not like Cracked isn't known for screwing around and saying wacky stuff.

Alternatively, is it possible to not flip out over a different opinion?

It's not that it's a different opinion, it's just that ... a lot of this stuff he's complaining about (3 of his 5 points) are not new or Nintendo-specific at all. Stuff like a game system or digital distribution platform being hooked up to a messaging and networking system is so old that Nintendo was the last big distributor not to do it, just as one example. And I'd be fine with that if the article was something like "7 things that are shitting up gaming" or something, but he's directly attributing it to Nintendo in particular losing their minds, which is just, well, incorrect.

Presumably the author has never played an online game where everything doesn't freeze still because you want to gawk at your stabby-sticks' stats. You'd think it would be more immersion-breaking to have the inventory button function as a stop-everything-in-the-game-universe-while-I-pull-crap-out-of-my-bag switch than having inventory browsing going on in real-time. I know I exploit the heck out of that in Borderlands, switching everything equipped on my character while they're floating in mid-air surrounded by Psychos; it's a pain to forget to do that in co-op.

edited 8th Jun '12 6:43:55 PM by FirionStrife

(This is mostly in response to this article posted earlier)

Well, at least there is some good news for the game industry: The underlying game engines should be getting new updates soon that will drastically reduce the man-hours needed to create a game.

Game Informer has a long article "Introducing Unreal Engine 4." There are going to be a number of graphical improvements ("global illumination" being the most talked about one) and new features (being able to test-run the program on the fly), but "the biggest improvement... is philosophical. We want designers and creative people to take charge of as much of game production as possible." UE 4 will provide the option to make changes to the game without having to send it back to the programers for every little change. Basically changing the ratio from "~5% designer idea and 95% programer implementing it" to "80% designer getting it close and 20% programer doing the finishing touches." (not the exact wording of the article, but close)

I also saw G4 talking with another of the big engine designers (can't remember which one right now) and how they have basic pathing logic built into their system. You can select an area, the program figures out the parts of that area NPCs can move through, and an NPC placed in that area with a destination (also within that area) will take the shortest root between the two points. If there is a new obstruction, it automatically calculates the areas that the NPC can't go and has them take a different root. The NPC also can not leave the selected area if it is just wondering around. No need for the programers to try and figure out all the different paths an NPC could take because the engine handles all that.

I bring this up because once the developers get a hold of these new engines, they will theoretically be able to make better looking games while cutting costs (the GI article estimates weeks or months of man-hours saved). Once that is true, we should start seeing those developers take more risks.

...I'm not particularly sorry for the Wall of Text. This is stuff that people should be looking forward to.

After the reading the article... I'm siding with him. It's not the same thing as not having a pause button because at least in other games you have your inventory on the same fucking screen.

I'm really put off the Wii-U by some of the points it brought up.

And what's wrong with moving the inventory out of the way of the main screen? It worked with the DS.

Several sites have mentioned that helicopters and bows were pretty prevalent at E3 this year. Amazon seems to be aware of that too. This amuses me a lot.

It was truly the year of the bow. I can't think of a conference that didn't have one somewhere.

@Enlong: Well you are right, it will obiously be Half-Life 2: Episode 2: Chapter 2 Electric Boogaloo because Valve can not count to three.

The guy at Cracked probably never heard of games like Dark Souls or Team Fortress 2.

Not only developers taking more risks but also indie games with better graphics which will making appealing to the masses easier and help to shut up the ones who criticize them because of the graphics.

edited 8th Jun '12 7:22:46 PM by Joaqs

There is literally nothing wrong with putting inventory on one screen. In fact, that should benefit gameplay, as not only do you not have to pull a big intrusive menu to pull out an item, but you have quick and easy access to equipping your weapon. Imagine all the times you were panicking or overwhelmed by enemies, and you had to stop the action, either through an actual pause or with a big menu, find the item you want, equip it, and then use it. Now imagine that you're in a panicked situation, and with just one touch or slide, you're pulling out the item you need.

And I also like the screen could potentially remove tons of the clutter on the screen, while still keeping it available. I like to know a precise amount of health I have, but I also dislike having it take up a big fraction of the screen. Now the screen will be clear and I can still access that type of information.

So, is E3 over? Sounds like all the news has dried up.

Cracked has probably never heard of the original Alone In The Dark in that case. Or pretty much any RPG that requires immense customization.

The shooter-craze has really caused gamers to become complacent.

Yeah, it is a 3 day (+1 day spent on press conferences) event. It ran Tuesday-Thursday.

Oh.

Well...that was pretty underwhelming overall.

I'm not sure if anyone else noticed this, but as I was watching the G4 stream, they had Tanks, Tanks, Tanks! as the second most tweeted about game during E3. I don't understand how that happened...

Possibly from people saying "What the hell is Tank! Tank! Tank!?"

Clearly it has something to do with tanks.

Well see most games just have tanks, and maybe a few games have tanks and tanks, but there's never been tanks, tanks, and EVEN MORE tanks in any game before. This is revolutionary technology here.

So my internet was cut off for a while so I missed most of E3 but for the most part I got the big stuff and nothing really happened at this E3. MGRR looks better then last time and I was pretty much sold on it then, Dead Space 3 has co-op which I'm not a fan of but I have no friends to play with so I'm a little biased, Ellen page is in 2 games this year which is a short step to my ultimate goal of her being in all of them, Star Wars 1313 is a Star Wars game that's not terrible the first in a while, and Watch_Dogs is the future of gaming. Do I pretty much have my bases covered?

Onward to the future!...

Oh wait. Construction threatens to uproot E3 from LA. Dates and a host city change, if necessary, will be announced in the coming weeks.

Well, I guess this year's E3 didn't showcase much spark compared to last year's.

Well, there's still the Tokyo Game Show.

Does a lot get announced at TGS? I can't really remember many big announcements that happen there. Although I hope something from Killer Is Dead shows up. Bit of a long shot but it'd be nice.

I think most japanese companies except Nintendo will announce some megatons on TGS. Nintendo will probably stick to their Nintendo Direct.

I dunno, I can't really pull any major TGS reveals from memory. Usually I associate the event with detailed pricing/launch windows for future hardware, and just a general games showcase.

Okay, wait. I guess Capcom does a lot of TGS reveals that they haven't already shown at their spring and summer events.

edited 9th Jun '12 2:15:32 AM by MrDolomite