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The post VGCC Episode 128: Nicer on the Inside appeared first on Gamesline.

As ever, E3 brought us games by the bucketload, some good, and some… well, not so good. Now that we’ve had a chance to breathe and stew on what we’ve seen over the last week, Chooch’s home team have convened to bring you our picks for the best and worst in show.

Niall:

Best:

Look, you read the site, you listen to the podcasts – you know your boy loves David Cage, and you’re probably expecting me to take the easy route here and give my Game of the Show honors to Gaming’s Messiah, and Detroit: Become Human. Or maybe you’re thinking that, hey, Niall loves snowboarding, so maybe Steep most tickled my fancy? Possibly We Happy Few, or Persona 5, could also be in with a shout, but even though all these games have me suitably pumped, there’s one game that I just haven’t been able to get out of my head since its unveiling, and that’s Gwent.

I played a lot of Witcher 3 last year; and a lot of that time was spent on Gwent. What initially seemed to be a tacked on mini-game bore itself out into a deep, frightfully addictive experience, and now that it’s going to be fleshed out and have it’s own single-player narrative, I simply cannot stop thinking about it. I’m no good at card games, but Gwent has me chomping at the bit to actually get out there and learn to play one at a decent level. At the very least, I wanna be able to beat Mike Cosimano at it, because who doesn’t wanna beat Cosimano at everything? Nobody, that’s who. Because he sucks.

Worst:

There’s a very strong compulsion on my end to take the easy road here, too, and just give this one to Bad Rats Show. I’m not gonna, though, ’cause we know already that Bad Rats is going to be a stinker, it’s not going to surprise anyone. Instead, I think it’s prescient to hang the dunce cap on the head of one of two Triple-A exclusive titles that stunk the show up this year, Scalebound and Days Gone.

As bad as Scalebound looked – and it did, indeed, look very bad – I think Days Gone just about edges things as far as the Worst of E3 goes. I mean, Sony closed the show with it, for Christ’s sake! I have no idea what was going through Shu Yoshida and company’s minds when they decided to close with that turd, but boy, did it take the wind out of Sony’s sails. How the hell do you trot out a major new Triple-A franchise and present it as nothing more than a mindless shooter in which waves of zombies run straight at you in single file? It’s concerning, and if this is the direction Sony’s heading in, I may have to hold off on finally buying a PS4 for just a lil’ longer.

Microsoft, Platinum and Hideki Kamiya can breath a sigh of relief; they only gave us the second-worst showing of the week.

Scott

Best:

Now, it might just be from the hours upon hours of livestream coverage Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild received, but that game is so goddamn cool. It’s like they managed to tap into every single thing in my brain that activates pleasure centers. They went above and beyond my expectations for that game and they only showed off the first area. I’m sure some of the mechanics they revealed (like the variety of different bombs you can use or the ability to pick up and move objects in the environment) will be spaced out more in the overworld and this was just a demo to give people a taste of what the proper game will offer, but I’m still excited. They give the tools to make the experience more difficult for yourself, and difficulty is something modern Zelda games have sorely lacked. All the fire effects in the game work more like real life fire than any game I’ve seen in recent years. It’s such an impressive sandbox and I’m hoping the NX winds up with sharing capabilities similar to the Xbox One and PS4, because even watching clips of the crazy stuff people come up with will provide endless entertainment. The tingles I get from thinking about this game are only comparable to kidnapping roleplay ASMR videos. I can’t remember anything that’s gotten me so stoked before.

Worst:

My body has a natural reaction to flush everything I hate out of my memory about one day after I’ve seen it, so there isn’t that much that sticks out in my mind as being aggressively bad. That said, everything I’ve heard about the Final Fantasy XV VR Experience sounds like a dumpster fire. So far, the demo they showed was about five minutes of you standing in one spot and shooting a gun at a big enemy and it’s not particularly interesting and engaging, and then you get to ogle a girl who’s half naked and driving you around. What is Final Fantasy XV anymore? I legitimately have no idea. Everything I’ve tried to parse from all the coverage that game has gotten seems like a poorly brewed concoction of ideas that’s gotten so bloated that they basically have to just release it into the wild and hope it doesn’t flop. It’s the MGSV of 2016. I still want to play it. I want to know.

Also, I know I talked about this in the Best and Worst E3 Conferences piece but I want to give an extra special fuck you to Days Gone, which caused me such frustration that I accidentally banged my already sprained ankle on the hardwood oak footboard of my double-king sized bed. Covering that game also caused me to cover my ankle with my hands, and while I bent over my head knocked over not only several individually picked and arranged doritos but also my entire Limited Edition Bray Wyatt 7-11 Cup full of kombucha onto said doritos AND my late great great grandmother’s New King Of The Jungle Authentic Hand Knit Persian Rug (the rug wasn’t hers, but the money from the inheritance certainly was). My dear, precious Bray Wyatt plastic cup also shattered upon impact of hitting the sogged up ‘ritos. Whilst trying the kombucha covered nacho cheese flavored dorries for myself straight off my gggrammy’s $92,800 rug, I swallowed a piece of Bray Wyatt’s plastic beard which also caused severe cuts on the roof of my mouth.

Days Gone has been a burden on my life, and I expect Sony to fully reimburse me for the wasted ‘buch and ‘rits, a replacement carpet of equal or greater value, my medical expenses, emotional damages, and sentimental value. That will also guarantee a review score of 4 stars or greater on Video Game Choo Choo dot com. Balls in your court, Sony. Also, I have already filed a patent for Kombucha Flavored Doritos so if I see any BULLSHIT from you, Frito-Lay, I WILL cry.

Ashley

Best:

I am not a Nintendo fan. I do not own a Wii U, barely played my Wii and haven’t played a Pokemon game since elementary school. When I talked about my E3 hopes I said I had some interest in the new Zelda game, but everything they showed of it blew me away. The look of this game is incredible and just how open it seems has me excited. This is something that feels familiar but also like a much needed change for a series that feels like it’s been spinning wheels.

It may speak to how stagnant the series was, but seeing Link change clothes, swap weapons  and throw weapons away excited me. Just the fact that Link never was seen wearing the trademark green tunic at any point tells me exactly what this game is. It’s Legend of Zelda, finally moving forward, finally throwing down things that held it back, while keeping what made it special.

Worst:

There were a lot of things I was bored by during E3. I don’t care for Fifa or Madden eSports. Days Gone looks just plain, well, plain. The only thing that really caused me to actually hate it though, was South Park: The Fractured But Whole. The first one was impressive in just how it captured the show’s look but with that feat old news, we’re just left with the unfunny bits from the show.

Having the most awkward stage show during a Ubisoft conference is an incredible accomplishment and Matt Stone and Trey Parker pulled it off. I get that there are people who like their comedy but asking around, it seems like no one liked what they were bringing to the table this year.

Ryan:

Best:

Naming a “best game” for this year’s E3 is something of a challenge, considering most of the actual gameplay we saw, be it for Days Gone or that one pirate game with the fake voice chat, came across as fairly mediocre. However, there was one dark horse that emerged from the fog, and that was Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. My interest in the series has always been tangential best, and I’ve never finished any of the few Zelda games I’ve bothered to pick up. However, I found myself being constantly impressed by the extended Breath of the Wild stream, particularly in how surprised I was that Nintendo would take such leaps with a well-established franchise.

Breath of the Wild offered up enough “wow” factor to get me interested in a franchise I’ve never cared about, and that’s “best game” material in my book.

Worst:

“Worst game” calls for almost more of a discerning eye than “best game,” requiring me to cut through the swaths of mediocre tripe like a machete-wielding Indiana Jones in the jungles of disinterest, in search of the game which can truly be considered “worst.” Despite South Park’s atrocious showing, I can safely say that game will have an appeal to fans of the franchise.

Therefore, the “worst game” baton gets passed down to Days Gone, a game with a trailer that looked inoffensively mediocre but gameplay that came across like a loud, soggy, ten minute fart ripped in an otherwise enjoyable baby shower. The visuals were bland and the gameplay looked terribly repetitive to the point of being a slog. Days Gone lost out to the incredible Dead Rising 4 in the zombie category, but that’s because it simply looks like hot trash in comparison to every other game showed at any conference. It’s also made by the creators of Bubsy 3D, so think on that for a while.

The post The Best Games of E3… and the Worst appeared first on Gamesline.

Niall:

Best:

I honestly can’t believe I’m saying this, but it’s genuinely difficult for me to pick a winner between Microsoft, Sony, and yes, even Ubisoft, this year. I’ve been stewing on it since we wrapped up last night, and I think, when it’s all said and done, Sony juuuust about edged it. I was super impressed with Microsoft’s smart messaging around Project Scorpio, and you can’t underestimate the coups that Gwent and Tekken 7 were for the green team, especially considering Tekken has always been one of the franchise synonymous with Sony’s machines. We Happy Few is up there for the single best game shown at any conference, and looks like it could be something real special when it hits this summer. Microsoft wasn’t perfect – Scalebound looked dreadful – and our first real look at Sea of Thieves couldn’t have been framed in a much worse light, but by and large, they did a good job.

Ubisoft were their usual selves, shooting themselves in the foot with the completely tone-deaf Ghost Recon, some less than stellar Watch Dogs 2 footage and the complete bombing of South Park: The Fractured But Whole, although both For Honor and Steep stood out of two of the best games on show. Nevertheless, this is the first time in years I’ve been interested in anything Ubi’s had to show, so for that, they deserve some praise.

Ultimately, though, Sony did what Sony does best – and that’s play to the hearts and minds of the audience. Sure, not everything they showed was mind-blowing; God of War was a let down, and Days Gone looks to be arguably the worst game of E3 so far, but bringing back Crash, unveiling Spider-Man, and finally dating The Last Guardian were all big wins. Likewise, Hideo Kojima’s new game, Death Stranding, blew the roof off the place, Horizon: Zero Dawn looks dope, and the True Messiah of Gaming™ himself, David Cage, brought the most David Cage-ass fire he could with Detroit. By no means was Sony’s showing perfect, but they sure know how to create hype.

Worst:

Whereas it was actually pretty difficult to pick my favourite press conference, one stands out as being easily the worst – EA’s. Granted, this year EA didn’t trot Pele out for an excruciating twenty minutes of talking about absolutely nothing, and we didn’t get any major whiplash ala Plants vs. Zombies, but EA still managed to put on an embarrassingly amateur stage show, complete with a cringe-worthy soliloquy from an actor portraying their new Fifa protag, Alex Hunter.

EA simply didn’t have much of note to show this year, which is kind of surprising, considering last year’s show had “holding pattern” written all over it. Battlefield 1 didn’t rock my world – although seeing Snoop Dogg smoking a blunt on the post-show was amazing – and Titanfall 2, while looking better than anticipated, doesn’t press my buttons. Having nothing substantial Star Wars related to show didn’t aid things, and you couldn’t help but feel Jade Raymond was talking a lot without really saying anything. Similarly light on details was Mass Effect: Andromeda, although we have since heard some stuff about the game’s new hero, Ryder. Even Fe, this year’s entry in EA’s now-annual “nervous Swedish man” showcase, failed to make the kind of impact Unravel did last year. There just wasn’t anything to sink your teeth into with EA’s conference, and that’s a shame.

Ryan:

Best:

This E3 was interesting in comparison to last year, mostly in that there wasn’t much that absolutely blew my mind or made my eyes shrivel up in disgust. That being said, most of the conferences were on the level of being fairly solid, but Sony was the winner by a close margin for me. Yes, Days Gone (by the makers of Bubsy 3D!) looked like wet rat turds and came close to ruining the conference at the end, but I’ll be damned if Sony’s wasn’t at least the showing that held my attention the most and for the longest.

The Last Guardian release date was a nice follow-up to last year’s announcement, and since I’m divorced from most of the build-up and hype around that game, I’ll be excited to play it on the level with no heady expectations. I’ve never been a huge Resident Evil fan, but the trailer for 7 was desolate, creepy, and bizarre enough to spark my interest in a big way. Horizon: Zero Dawn seems neat, I’m very excited to see how Spider-Man turns out, and Detroit looks enough like Blade Runner for me to say that game will be precisely my kind of thing.

And of course, in the moment that will be discussed for years to come, Hideo Kojima trotted out onstage to the Fury Road soundtrack, proclaimed his return, and proceeded to subject hundreds of thousands of people across the world to a completely inscrutable trailer featuring naked-ass Norman Reedus. The announcement of Death Stranding left my jaw open and my mind spinning in how unbelievably, stupidly audacious the whole thing was. Let’s just hope the game can actually deliver.

Worst:

Despite Ubisoft’s atrocious South Park preview feeling like it stretched on for an eternity, I’d say EA takes home the worst conference. Even Ubisoft had a couple decent games this year, but EA committed the most heinous E3 sin of all: it was absolutely, totally, irredeemably boring.

Even as I write this article I struggle to recall which games EA devoted their conference to. Battlefield 1? The visuals and setting are cool, I guess. Titanfall 2? Nothing stands out. Sports games? Same as every year. EA even managed to bungle Mass Effect: Andromeda, rolling out an ambiguous preview and “behind-the-scenes look” that revealed almost nothing. They did the same thing for the Star Wars announcement, which was a flaccid, hype-free reminder that yes, EA has the Star Wars license, but no, you don’t get any info whatsoever about what they’re actually doing with it.

I’d take EA’s mess of a 2015 conference over this dry toast hour-and-a-half fumble any day, because at least last year’s bungles kept me laughing or on my toes. EA 2016 was simply a wasteland devoid of entertainment; a massive sandy expanse in which the husks of mediocre games cower for shade beneath a monolithic Ozymandias-esque sculpture that simply states: WE ARE GAMERS.

Scott

I’m gonna preface this by saying I missed 75% of Bethesda’s conference since I had to leave for work and I just plain slept through Microsoft’s.

Best:

We (and that’s the royal “we”, not “we” meaning the esteemed Video Game Choo Choo Video Game News Reviews Tudes And Nudes The Website aka Chooch dot Biz aka John Michonski’s High Quality Love Palace) tend to judge E3 conferences on a set of highs and lows. I think in this regard, Sony unquestionably won E3. The highs outweigh the lows exponentially. Kojima striding out on stage with the fattest grin and then proclaiming “hey, guess what you ass eating clowns? I’ve got a trailer with some WEIRD SHIT in it. And you’re gonna eat it up. You’re gonna eat it so hard. Do I even have a game to show yet? No, I have a bunch of abstract ideas and naked Norman Reedus and you don’t need anything else. You fools. You imbeciles. Sucb mny dick.” And we didn’t. We really didn’t. It was easily the best part of the show hands down.

Sony also managed to show off a few other impressive titles outside of total duds like Days Gone. I’ve got little love for God of War these days and I know a lot of people weren’t impressed by the trailer. I personally wasn’t into how much it tried to tap into Last of Us while also seemingly missing the point of Last of Us entirely. But I’ll say that it still impressed me in certain regards that I think are worth mentioning. Aside from how goofy Kratos looks set to a much more realistic world and how much he just can’t pull off a viking beard, the game looks gorgeous. The third person over the shoulder melee combat is also a departure from what we’re used to from God of War games and I’m hoping it winds up feeling good to play. The Last Guardian got a release date. That’s cool! That game has been in development hell for the last decade and under such tight lock and key that it felt like people were questioning whether it would even be here this year. Horizon: Zero Dawn still looks cool as hell and that game has a style to it that just feels unmatched. It seems to understand trends in games such as open world survival and third person action, and it feels like it takes it’s own unique spin on them. I wanna keep being surprised by it. Death Stranding happened and I don’t think there’s much more that needs to be said about that.

I think Ubisoft deserves some credit for making me cautiously optimistic about Watch Dogs 2. Watch_Dogs was hot trash. It was fitted with Ubi’s open world format and felt designed by committee. It followed everyman Aiden Pierce through his heteronormative journey to murder everyone he doesn’t like. It had no flavor or character to it. Watch Dogs 2 surprised me in this respect. The gameplay trailer they showed off didn’t show their protagonist, Marcus Holloway, firing a single gun. He does fire a taser at one point which mechanically didn’t look different from just firing a gun, but it showed awareness of criticisms that the first Watch_Dogs faced. Not to mention that not only are there finally actual dogs in the second game, but you can also pet them. Outside of guns, Marcus also uses tools like drones and RC cars and other silly things. That stuff is cool. I’d really like it if you can get through this game without firing a single gun. I sincerely want this to be a good game, I really do.

Worst:

I’m gonna go off on a tangent before I talk about what I hated most about E3. I was tasked with writing up the announcement of Days Gone after the first short announcement trailer. And that sucked. There was zero info in that trailer. Thankfully the 9 minute long gameplay trailer got posted accidentally when the announcement one showed at the conference. But trying to pay attention to both that and the show wasn’t happening. So I tried my hardest to capture a screenshot on my awful wifi with my terrible laptop in a definition that wasn’t 360p, and tried to gleam what the game was about from the first minute of that trailer. I wasn’t even aware that there were zombies in it. Quick google searches yielded results such as “Days Gone trademarked, possibly Last of Us 2???????” This cumulatively took me about 10-15 minutes to write 2 sentences and include a trailer in the post. This was before I found out it was a generic third person zombie shooter. Days Gone has caused me physical strife and I want it to fail.

I share the opinion of peers on this website that EA had the worst conference. Not because the games don’t look cool and I’m not interested in them, but because I was subject to a video of two incredibly annoying YouTube personalities being not funny. Fuck StoneMountain64 and NeebsGaming. I don’t care about the conflict surrounding your Battlefield One match and I’m incredibly jealous that you got to hang out with We Are Your Friends star Zac Efron. If I was to rub a Genie’s magic lamp, my three wishes would all be to never hear your dumb names, voices, or bad jokes again. I want a sniper to eliminate your YouTube channels with tactical precision. The zeppelin seems cool.

There was no Final Fantasy 7 so Sony was actually trash and the worst and I hate them and I wish them nothing but failure. I know my peers here at Video Game Choo Choo don’t give a shit about Final Fantasy 7, but I do, and I want to see Cloud’s beautiful face and chest. I want to stroke my hand through Barrett’s beard and look at his gun arm and whisper “how awful…” I know you have to judge a conference on it’s merits and not what it doesn’t have, but Sony has denied me this carnal pleasure and I will no longer support their system. This is an Xbox family now. “Get in the game.” – My dad, Phil Spencer.

Ashley

Best:

The E3 Press Conferences are always a weird roller coaster between exciting announcements, showings of games that seem like repeats and corporate executives trying to appeal to the kids. Through all the whiplash and vaguely pukey feeling, I did find a lot to enjoy. I think Sony really delivered this year. Showcasing games like Horizon: Zero Dawn, Resident Evil 7 and Call of Duty actually got me really wanting to play those games. Even though God Of War isn’t my bag I’m still glad to see they’re willing to take one of their landmark series’ and rework it for modern day. And even if I’m not a huge fan of his work I’m glad Kojima is out there still being himself. The industry is better with people like him in it.

I don’t think Microsoft can be swept aside though. They also had a strong showing. ReCore looks great, as does Dead Rising 4 and Forza Horizon. They also showed We Happy Few which is a game I’m just happy to see more of. I have a weaknesses for Ubisoft’s mess of  conference each year and this one delivered in the best way. I didn’t expect to be at all excited for Watch_Dogs but color me surprised. That game looks a bit of a mess, but it looks like a mess I want part of. They also had Eagle Flight which was the only main stage VR game that seemed interesting to play and not just experience.

Worst:

EA started well, then they dropped off into a chasm of boredom. I’m not going to complain about sports games because that’s every year, I expect that and they certainly appeal to someone. However Mass Effect and Star Wars shouldn’t leave me staring blankly at the screen as I see people work on tablets. I love seeing how games are made but these was barely a behind the scenes look. For singularly bad segments though I have to give that to South Park: The Fractured But Whole at Ubisoft. I’m not big into South Park but even I can admit the show can elicit a laugh in it’s best moments. This was them at their worst. While you think that a parody of the modern superhero movie landscape would be ripe for new laughs, it was full of lazy repeated jokes and just plain tired humor.

Microsoft had a strange problem where it would present games I was somewhat excited for and then show them in the least appealing light. Final Fantasy XV, Scalebound and Sea of Thieves are all games I want to like, but these demos made them seem boring and bad. Whose idea was to show Final Fantasy: Boy’s Trip fighting a pretty boring giant monster? Why showcase the still rather unknown Sea of Thieves by having people shout over it? Either they don’t know what makes those games interesting and good or they just aren’t either of those things to begin with.

The post Chooch’s Best and Worst E3 Press Conferences appeared first on Gamesline.

At today’s Nintendo Treehouse event at E3, Nintendo announced a brand new action RPG titled Ever Oasis for the Nintendo 3DS. Ever Oasis looks to be one part dungeoneering, one part city management sim. You play as Tethu, a young boy or girl tasked with restoring your oasis by placing shops and encouraging very rich bird people named Noots to visit your village and spend their hard earned water.

In dungeons, you can have up to 3 party members which you can switch between at any time. In fact, it’s necessary to in order to get past character specific obstacles and puzzles. Not only that, but in combat certain characters are more effective than others against certain enemies. It’ll require some on the fly testing to figure out what’s effective and what isn’t.

Ever Oasis features a really refreshing aesthetic. Heavy desert themes and Egyptian inspiration come off as really striking. You can see an impressive amount of attention to detail in the character and world design, even with the 3DS’s graphical limitations.

The game comes from some serious pedigree being developed by Grezzo games and headed by Koichi Ishii. Ishii has done significant work on the Final Fantasy series, as well as Mana series. Grezzo as a studio is best known for their work on the 3DS Legend of Zelda games, including the remakes of Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask. You can see plenty of Legend of Zelda influence in the dungeon sections of the game.

This game looks neat, but unfortunately there isn’t a release date as of yet. Considering the E3 demonstration was localized just before it was shown off, it’s not hard to imagine the rest of the game might be a little ways off.

The post Nintendo Announces New IP, Ever Oasis appeared first on Gamesline.

Follow us on Twitter @VGChooChoo, @JohnMichonski, @finaldasa & @mybuddysuperfly

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The post VGCC at E3 2016: Day One Podcast appeared first on Gamesline.

Austin, John, and Michael take some time to discuss the many adventures of Day -1. How was EA? Where was Pele? Do Titans dream of electric sheep? And then there’s Bethesda. We share our thoughts and experiences as E3 only warms up.

The post VGCC at E3: Day -1 appeared first on Gamesline.

The game launches on August 26th, for PS4, PS3, and PS Vita.

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Marvel as gameplay from Bad Rats is shamelessly recycled! Stare with mouth agape as your ears are relentlessly assaulted by the choir of rats! Shake your head in disbelief as the racist caricatures make a return! Be shocked at fully three-dimensional stages and what might be sandbox gameplay! Clutch your loved ones and hold tight in the face of nonsensical dialogue and atrocious voice-acting! Oh yeah baby…the rats are back!

This newest offering to the Old Ones offers “comic cartoon violence” as well as “lots of laughters.” Prep your apocalypse bunker soon, because this nuclear turd of a game is dropping on Steam “from July 2016” with an official date coming within the next few days.

Retreat into the void of endless night and the cacophony of shrieking madness with the trailer below:

The post The Dark Rat Gods Of Death Are Returning appeared first on Gamesline.

Among those are a battle system that allows for information recall; such as being able to see degrees of status effects on both sides and being able to check strengths and weaknesses for Pokemon you’ve battled before. In addition, shadow bars on the top and bottom of the screen now indicate when you’re approaching a trainer battle.

The game will also feature a four-player online mode called “Battle Royale” in which trainers pick up to three Pokemon and work together or against each other in a free-for-all elimination match.

There were also a couple new Pokemon revealed during the demo, the first being an adorably angry and fanged ferret Pokemon named Yungoos. The second was a woodpecker Pokemon called Pikipek. The presenters were careful not to reveal too much info about the game, but we can apparently expect more before long.

Check out some tidbits from the stream below:

The post Pokemon Sun & Moon Gameplay Revealed appeared first on Gamesline.

The game will apparently feature an all-new story and be exclusive to PS4. Stay tuned for more updates as they come.

Check out the teaser below:

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