Tag: e3
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E3 2013 Impressions: Dragon’s Crown (Sony PlayStation 3/Vita)
I’m a big fan of Vanillaware titles, so as you might imagine, I’ve been keeping my eye on Dragon’s Crown for quite some time. What perhaps interested me even more is knowing that it would be a beat-’em-up style game, but with a fantasy aesthetic much like the Golden Axe and Dungeons & Dragons arcade…
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E3 2013 Impressions: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (Sony PlayStation 4/Microsoft Xbox One/PC)
I was a little late to the Witcher bandwagon, but over the last couple of years, I not only checked out the original PC release, but also the Xbox 360 version of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. I absolutely loved the storytelling in both, with the second game’s branching paths providing incentive to give…
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E3 2013 Impressions: Shin Megami Tensei IV (Nintendo 3DS)
It’s incredible to think that it has been almost a decade since the last main entry in the Shin Megami Tensei series. Unlike Nocturne though, the latest installment is making the leap to portable consoles in the form of Shin Megami Tensei IV for the Nintendo 3DS. While I would have preferred a full on…
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E3 2013 Impressions: Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (PlayStation 3/PC)
I won’t mince words, I was not a big fan of Final Fantasy XIV‘s initial release. Setting up subscriptions was a pain, there was a needless reliance on crafting and its subsequent minigame, and above all else, it just wasn’t fun. So naturally, the cynic in me is eager to pass off A Realm Reborn…
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E3 2013 Impressions: Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII (Sony PlayStation 3/Microsoft Xbox 360)
When Final Fantasy XIII-2 released last year, it managed to address nearly every flaw the plagued the original. The maps were opened up, the cast was scaled down and better written, and time travel elements were implemented. Honestly, the only thing missing was a decent conclusion. That’s where Lightning Returns comes in. There isn’t much…
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E3 2013 Impressions: Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 (Sony PlayStation 3/Microsoft Xbox 360/PC)
Whether you were for or against it, the Castlevania franchise is one of many that has found itself in the reboot camp as of late. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow was a complete re-imagining of not only the mythos, but also the gameplay. Rather than following the trend of the Metroidvania games of old, Lords of…
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E3 2013: 10 Thoughts On… the Sony Press Conference
After the tepid response of Microsoft’s press conference and the fact that Nintendo decided to forego doing one altogether, it really was Sony’s year to steal the show. The heavily social media focused presentation of the PlayStation 4 has largely been forgotten by this point, presenting a rare opportunity to start things off on a…
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E3 2013: 10 Thoughts On… The Microsoft Press Conference
After their colossal PR meltdown following last month’s Xbox One reveal, Microsoft had a lot to prove at E3. Not only did they have to show off actual games coming out for the system (since their initial announcement was all talk of television and… that’s about it), but they also had to clarify the complex…
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E3 2012 Impressions: Astro A50 Wireless Headset
Sometimes it’s hard to know when you have a bad headset until you’ve listened to one that’s better. It’s not something you think much about as a system like the Xbox 360 will often come with one or will have one that will come bundled with a necessary peripheral. So moving from a free headset…
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E3 2012 Impressions: DmC: Devil May Cry (Microsoft Xbox 360/Sony PlayStation 3)
I’m of the opinion that franchise reboots are wholly unnecessary and only succeed in alienating the fans that enjoyed the source material of what was being altered. How many people do you know are excited that Devil May Cry is hitting the reset button? Tomb Raider? Castlevania? What successful video game series has ever gotten…
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E3 2012 Impressions: Dragon Ball Z Kinect (Microsoft Xbox 360)
Call me crazy, but when Namco Bandai announced that they were making a Dragon Ball Z Kinect, I couldn’t help but think that perhaps this would be the game that would make me want Microsoft’s motion peripheral. It has everything going against it: the motion controls might not work right, the game might not have…
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E3 2012 Impressions: PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale (Sony PlayStation 3/Vita)
When screenshots for PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale were first leaked, I thought they were fake. They looked very much like a Super Smash Bros. hack to me. Then, when the officially announcement came and there was actual footage of the game in action, it almost looked even more fake to me. Having come away from…
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E3 2012 Impressions: Persona 4 Arena (Microsoft Xbox 360/Sony PlayStation 3)
I’ll be blunt: I suck at fighting games. This isn’t to say I won’t play them, I just don’t go into them expecting to best anyone particularly seasoned at it. Since I had an interest in the Persona titles, particularly the fourth entry, I figured I’d at least give the fighting game spinoff a try…
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E3 2012 Impressions: Code of Princess (Nintendo 3DS)
One of the most frustrating things about Treasure, as a company, is that despite being incredibly successful at introducing new IP’s that are well revered by fans, they always seem to choke when concocting follow up games. There are exceptions, of course. I felt that Sin & Punishment: Star Successor was pretty decent, and I…
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E3 2012 Impressions: New Super Mario Bros. U (Nintendo WiiU)
The other major game from the Nintendo booth that I couldn’t wait to try out was New Super Mario Bros. U. I was a huge fan of its Wii predecessor, so I was anxious to have the opportunity to see what kinds of new things they had done with this version. And the truth of…
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E3 2012 Impressions: Pikmin 3 (Nintendo WiiU)
Of all the games that were discussed during Nintendo’s press conference, Pikmin 3 probably made me the most giddy. Here was a game that had been discussed long ago as being in development for the Nintendo Wii and just never surfaced for one reason or another. Now it’s one of the launch titles for the…
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E3 2012 Impressions: Legasista (Sony PlayStation 3)
Fans of the Cladun series of games should feel right at home with the upcoming Legasista by System Prisma and NIS America. It’s an action RPG with dungeon crawler elements played from a top down perspective, though not quite as retro looking as its predecessors. Legasista takes place in a world that has abandoned science,…
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E3 2012 Impressions: The Witch and the Hundred Knights (Sony PlayStation 3)
The Witch and the Hundred Knights had the rare honor of earning my interest based on name alone. I mean, think about the potential of a name like that. You know there’s going to be a witch involved. Is it a good witch? A bad witch? Do you play as her? And then there are…
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E3 2012 Impressions: Bellator MMA Onslaught (Microsoft Xbox Live Arcade/Sony PlayStation Network)
One of the biggest challenges when trying out a game that belongs to a particular property, such as UFC, MMA, or even something like WWE, is that most of them are built as simulators. What I mean by that is they are constructed primarily for the fans, and random onlookers who may not have much…
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E3 2012 Impressions: Mugen Souls (Sony PlayStation 3)
As much as I like the Disgaea games, I sometimes think of how nice it would be if the humorous over-the-top nature of the games can be applied to a more traditional RPG setting. And wouldn’t you know it, come this fall, the folks at Idea Factory and NIS America are going to deliver. As…