Friday, June 14, 2013

Things that Kind of Went on at E3, 2013

If you've come looking for an article filled with information that you can find elsewhere, then you've come to the right place.  I'm just writing what I want about an event that I've never been to and have only read about.  And because here we cover predominantly video games, I feel somewhat obligated to bring up that little convention that just wrapped up yesterday down in SoCal.

So now, I bring to you, our wonderful reader:

I've actually read quite a bit this year before, during and after the megalopolis known as E3.  For some reason I had thought that the Electronics & Entertainment Expo was an all week affair, although I guess it only ran from Tuesday June 11th through Thursday June 13th, because the companies putting the expo on didn't want to get in the way of serious gaming time from Friday through Monday.  Maybe?  Keep in mind, during the next couple of paragraphs, that my knowledge is limited, I did not attend E3 and all I will be discussing are things that I liked that I read about.  So now you're getting second or third hand information and not information from a direct source.

That all being said, I would like to say that the thing that surprised me the most about this years E3, was that Rare and Double Helix Games are developing a new Killer Instinct game as an Xbox One exclusive.  Sigh.  Killer Instinct was the game that got me into fighting games, and when I say "fighting games," I should elaborate and say that I only fiddled with other fighting games (Street Fighter II, Tekken, Mortal Kombat) and I never mastered any of them, KI included.  The Joystiq article has the most concise review, being the trailer, then a few sparse words.  There wasn't any mention of who is going to do the music (if it's going to be Robin Beanland from Rare who did the original soundtrack along with Graeme Norgate).

The PS4 was finally (?) revealed this week as well.  Gizmodo has a pretty decent article comparing the PS4 and the Xbox One with a special guest appearance by the Wii U.  Speaking of the Wii U, the Penny-Arcade Report brought up Nintendo's lack of big show press conference-type activities that are the norm for this convention.  Basically what I came away from E3, was that I probably won't be owning any of the current next-gen consoles and I'll be sticking with my PC and 3DS for new games.  However, if I do end up buying a gaming console, it might be the Wii U as I really just want a dedicated video game console, not an all-in-one, that's what my PC is for, and I already have one.

David Wong over at Cracked.com wrote a great article about how certain powers in the video game industry view its consumers.  Not everything he brings up is from E3 this week, but enough is directly related to how the video game industry advertises and sells itself, hence my inclusion of it here.

Lastly I'm going to list a few of the games (and the system that I would be playing them on) that managed to catch my attention, which is just another way of saying that if I won't be able to play it, I don't care too much, such as Tom Clancy's The Division which comes out on the PS4 and Xbox One or Super Mario 3D World for the Wii U.


That's really it.  That's all I know, maybe a bit more, but that's all I feel like I'm able to share about something that I've only read about.  So with that, happy Friday and y'all have a pleasant weekend.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

1 comment:

  1. Mmmmm, Link between two worlds, yummy yum SNES fan service!

    ReplyDelete