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.

• The Evil Within from Bethesda Softworks (PC)
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds from Nintendo (3DS)
• Dragonage: Inquisition from Bioware (PC) 
• [Although I still haven't played the first in the series].
• Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 from Konami (PC)
• [Haven't played anything from this series either].
• Batman: Arkham Origins from Warner Bros. Games (PC)
• Not mentioned at E3 was Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate (3DS) from Armature Studios
• Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure (3DS)
• The Elder Scrolls: Online from Bethesda Softworks (PC)

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

The Spark I Once Had Seems to Have Died

It's Not Paranoia If They Really Are Watching You

If it's one thing that video games have taught me, it's that you can't trust the "computer" anytime you play video games against a computer controlled character.  Let's break this down so that there's some semblance of planning and cohesion.

Board Games: (Monopoly, Dokapon Journey):  I don't trust computer controlled characters.  Now way about it.  Sure there could be a logarithm that actually has the "die" roll by any player be purely random, I just don't believe it.  

I've played Monopoly enough times on the NES and SNES against the computer to feel cheated every time, especially in the die roll department.  I don't have any empirical evidence that actually says that the game cheats, I just used to feel that I was fighting an uphill battle when it came to 1 player Monopoly.  Like how their Thimble or Car piece will magically move over my properties while I will frequently land on theirs.

Dokapon Journey on the other hand, sigh.  Penny Arcade does a great job of summing up the "theory" behind the game, but the game's execution isn't all there.  Imagine you're playing Dragon Warrior, but you're playing with three other people and you're able to get in the other players' way while everyone tries to complete the same tasks.  There's plenty of online forum bantering about how the computer characters will spin the exact number they need to get to a specific place (say, a weapon shop so you don't die in every battle and have to spend 3 turns at the church being resurrected).  The main problem I have with the computer in this game, is that it knows where to go.  Let's say a King's mission is something like "Go to the cave to find the treasure that was taken from me by the bandits."  There are 4 possible caves on the map, (and to enter a cave you have to "land" on it with the exact spin/roll number) and the computer knows exactly which ones to go to.  Anyway, don't trust the computer here.

Fighting Games:  (Street Fighter, Killer Instinct, Primal Rage)  Yes, I know there're a ton of fighting games out there, I just chose to list those three just because and put them in no particular order.  My distrust of fighting games stems from my awesome ability to get the shit kicked out of me 60% of the time.  The thing with a lot of these types of games is that you have to learn the moves for either a particular character or any number of characters (like games that use tag-teaming).  This has always been a personal problem for me in these games, which I know isn't universal.  Mainly for me it's about remembering the combination of buttons to press while trying not to get the shit kicked out of me.  And I just don't trust the computer (when the game's on "easy" settings) to accidentally screw up a combo move or to not know all the moves that that one character knows.  Although, I did like that in Killer Instinct, the AI would learn the moves that you would frequently perform, forcing the player to continually alternate their attack strategy or nothing would work.  Kind of like the Borg.

Poker/Card Games:  I learned this lesson very early on in my video gaming life.  One of the first video games that I played was Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack on the Intellivision.  All I'm going off is my memory, but I recall that I could do alright playing against the computer, but I was often convinced that the dealer would deal themselves better cards in any of four available games (5 or 7 Card Stud, 5 Card Draw or Blackjack).  Inevitably I would always end up bankrupt and then play either Astrosmash, Star Strike or Golf.

Then there were the little handheld poker and slot machine LCD games from Tiger that I would always seem to loose all my "money" on.  Tiny little hand held balls of cheating madness is what I call them.

This then brings me to Poker/Slot Machines in video games.  I don't trust them at all; like that's a shocker.  Especially in games where money or game tokens may be hard to come by (Pokemon, Dragon Quest V, Bioshock, Chrono Cross).  I always seem to play a couple of games to get the feel of them, realize that I'm not going to spend a couple of hours just in the casino when I could be out in the world map earning gold at a probably faster rate.  And I'll feel less cheated.

And now this brings me to real world video poker.  I personally don't trust the computers who control the outcomes.  I've played video poker a couple of times during a single venture while out with former employees on a unit moral building outing.  The whole time though I felt I was inside of Fear & Loathing.  I did manage to win $15 from the $5 that I was playing with, and like any person who just won, I kept playing and ended up with $0.  Which was fine with me.  I called it up to the computers winning and taking their first step in taking over the world.  

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Well Played Skynet