E3 2012 and the aftermath of news that overshadowed it

Every year I eagerly wait for E3, the hype machine that starts up on the internet weeks prior just can't be ignored. This year the hype was overwhelming. With Nintendo's next big thing finally being discussed in depth, and who knows what surprises to expect from Sony and Microsoft, it looked to be a landmark year for the gaming community. It wasn't.

Lets start with the big N. It was the one thing nobody could miss at E3 this year. The second unveiling of the Wii-U was finally happening. No more rumors and speculation, we would finally get to see what we were told would be Nintendo's return to relevance in the hardcore gaming community; unfortunately, that's not what we got.

Nintendo decided instead to ignore just about every franchise that has made them the face of gaming and stick mostly to generic casual gamer crap that no one really cared about. Someone needs to tell Nintendo that a karaoke game will not get me to buy a console.

They did announce two new Mario games. That's right, two. One for the Wii-U and one for the 3DS. They look like exactly the same game. A couple of years ago, in the Mario 64/Mario Sunshine/Mario Galaxy era we begged for an old-school side scrolling Mario game; and now we're drowning in them, seriously. We've gotten almost as many side scrolling Mario games as we have Call of Duty games... And that's never a good thing.

I'm not saying that these Mario games are going to be bad, who knows, I might just play one. The fact of the matter is that there is no diversity in presenting the same game over and over, much less twice in the same press conference.

The other bright spot in Nintendo's press conference was Pikmin 3, a game everyone knew was coming. I've never really played a Pikmin game, but I guess it doesn't look bad, just not my mug of beer.

Nintendo didn't show me a single game that makes me think I need to buy a Wii-U. They're pandering to the casual gamer by lowering their standards.

I'm going to totally ignore the minigame extravaganza shitfest that is going to be Nintendo Land. Yeah, I said it, it's going to suck. This should be this console's Wii Sports. The fact that they plan on charging full retail price for something that looks like a tech demo baffles me. The fact that it was the centerpiece and the closer at their press conference feels like a slap in the face to their fans.

But this was only the beginning, Nintendo then announces that they're discarding the 3DS altogether and delegating it to a second informational live feed that would be held a day after their initial press conference. And they had a info package the day before as well that actually had more info on the Wii-U than the actual press conference. We had around five hours of Nintendo content that really didn't answer any of our huge questions.

I will say that I am very excited for Castelvania's return to the 2D-ish realm on the 3DS. It's the one thing they did right.

On to Microsoft.

Why do I even watch the Microsoft conference anymore? They never do anything different. They show off two "big games", one of which is always either the new Halo or the new Gears Of War, and they they show off Call Of Duty or the new shooter from EA. Every year, and this one was no different.

Sure, the new Halo looks almost decent, but it's still the same old shit. When was the last time the Xbox had a new IP that was actually relevant to the gaming world. All they do is Halo, Gears, Kinnect and third party games.

Then they started with the Kinnect. An accessory that hasn't produced a single memorable gameplay experience outside of dancing like an idiot in your living room. I know, I know, I'm a Sony fanboy, and I'll say the exact same thing (or worse) about the Move in a minute, I promise.

With the announcement that Dragon Ball Z would have a Kinnect game, you can add on another beloved franchise of mine that gets shit all over because of a half assed game, with half assed controls that could never deliver any depth.

The moment that Microsoft realizes that the Kinnect is a supplemental device and should never be your main means of control the gaming world will be a much better place.

And of course, just like every year, the brunt of Microsoft's focus went on expanding the media parameters and attempting to make the Xbox the center of your living room. I have no problem with this. I actually wish Sony would do more of this (UFC on my PS3 please!). The problem is that at in your time to shine and show off the games you have coming up these companies have decided that gamers don't need games. And it's ridiculous.

This is actually where the coolest part of Microsoft's thing came about; they brought out something they called Smart Glass. Without a doubt the biggest 'fuck you' to the Wii-U you'll ever see. The Xbox is integrating a tablet concept to your viewing experience, and the way they showed it off was actually both innovative and interesting. Expect Sony to do something similar, and Nintendo to implement some of these ideas.

Once again, the biggest announcement came almost two weeks after E3, when Microsoft announced their line of tablets that might as well be the iPad killer... Or at least the Kindle killer. Of course, this will be compatible with the Smart Glass concept.

To sum it all up, it's quite obvious that this press conference was their way of saying "we're revealing a new console next year, so this year is going to be duller than usual", and I think for what it's worth, they handled it as best as they could.

And finally, Sony.

Last year at E3, Sony spent most of their time apologizing for the hacking and subsequent downtime of the Playstation Network, a debacle that still haunts their reputation. In a way, they're still apologizing for the PSN outage.

But they really tried to put their best foot forward. And fanboy-ism aside, they honestly had the best games of E3 at their show.

If you haven't seen it yet, stop reading this article and go watch every bit of footage from Naughty Dog's new game The Last Of Us. This is a game that I firmly believe will redefine what the way we look at violence in video games.

In one trailer, we got a spectrum of emotion and morality rarely seen in Oscar winning movies. Think about what I just said there.

Then we had Ubisoft's surprise game, WatchDogs. We were expecting The Last Of Us, but WatchDogs caught us way off guard. With impressive visuals, groundbreaking gameplay, a little bit of decent looking third person shooting, and the subtle yet rumored hint that all this was happening in a multiplayer world, WatchDogs has the world buzzing and clamoring for more info.

The third big game that sticks out in my mind has to be Beyond: Two Souls. Developer Quantic Dream turned a lot of heads with Heavy Rain, and now they seemed to have taken a giant step forward. Unfortunately we have more questions than answers about this one. Will it be as linear a story? Is this their approach to a more gameplay oriented experience, or are they still working under the 'interactive movie' umbrella? Whichever it is, the fact that Ellen Page is this involved in a video game is definitely a game changer.

The Sony press conference also had a strong showing from Assassin's Creed 3. The most anticipated entry thus far in the franchise added maritime battles to their ever growing repertoire of gameplay modes. Lets just hope it doesn't get old too fast. My critique for every AC game is always the same: interesting ideas that get way too old and overused by the end of the game. That said, this looks amazing and I can't wait to play it.

They also announced the Instant Game Collection for all PSPlus subscribers (which made me very, very happy). They gave away a good handful of full retail games for free to anyone who was a part of their premium gaming service, probably converting a shitload of people to the service and finally really making it worth it. And they've kept it up in the latest weeks with other games. While some are still unclear, Sony promised 12 full games before the end of the year.

Much like Nintendo ignoring the 3DS, the PSVita seems to have fallen by the wayside. While the announcement of Assassin's Creed 3: Liberation is a step in the right direction, it's barely what the Vita needs. It needs games, lots of them. Good games. It's an impressive piece of hardware, but no one wants a web browser that expensive.

While the Sony show wasn't without it's misses (JK Rowling's Spell Book, anyone?), it was definitely the least groan inducing. And I'm going to catch a lot of flack for saying it, but they did the best job out of the three big companies this year at E3.

I'm not saying that they won. I think all three failed miserably at what they needed to improve.

So, who won E3 this year then?

That's easy, Ubisoft.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but Ubisoft did a spectacular job this year. Every game they showed off was a huge success.

While The Last Of Us is by far my Game Of Show, all my other top spots are mostly taken up by Ubisoft titles.

They had the only two Wii-U games that actually looked decent; Rayman Legends actually looks like a lot of fun and Zombi U (Is that really the title? *facepalm*) looks to be the best example so far on how to use that gamepad adequately. Add that to WatchDogs and Parkour-A-Hontas and you have the winning-est lineup we've seen at an E3 in a long time.

What was I disappointed by? I was sad we didn't get to see any more of Bioshock Infinite. Last year's game of show was inconspicuous in it's absence as was Grand Theft Auto V. Also, the Resident Evil 6 trailer was slightly underwhelming, considering that I've heard the game is good from people who have played it behind closed doors.

The most pleasant surprise has to be Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (now that's a title). I had little to no expectations, but what's in that gameplay footage is so over the top and ridiculous that I need to play it to believe it.

And of course, my beloved Borderlands 2 just keeps getting better and better every time I see something new. I really can't wait to get my hands on that game. I'll probably play it straight into 2014.

In summary, Nintendo has a lot to make up for. At this point I can't think of one person who is interested in purchasing a Wii-U, and I can't blame them. Microsoft is setting us up for big things next year, and I predict they kick all sorts of ass next year at E3. Meanwhile Sony continues to prove that they've had a bigger picture in mind all along, with a couple of missteps along the way nonetheless.

I was let down by the major companies this year, but E3 has reaffirmed my faith in games, because that's what it was all about this year. We should focus on the games, not the companies, no matter how aligned we feel. Picking a console has become almost as bad as picking a political party, and that needs to change (went kinda deep on that one, sorry)... But as far as I can see, it should still be a great year for games, and for gamers.

0.15 steps above the last - Assassin's Creed: Revelations

Assassin's Creed is a rare breed of game, I'm not sure if anyone has ever pulled of the one-game-a-year formula any better. But it's not like each game is miles above the previous installment; it feels more like adding an extra floor than making a new building, but it's such a nice addition to an already great place though.

The fourth installment (which is actually more like 2.3) is titled Revelations, which is more or less hinting at the idea that Altair and Ezio's stories will finally be rounded up and we can really move on to the meat of this story, and I really hope this is the case. Gamers have put up with Desmond going back and forth long enough, it's about time that he put on the hidden blades himself and took the fight to the Templars instead of running from them.

With that said, Revelations doesn't exactly pick up where Brotherhood left off, kinda, it's hard to explain. In the Desmond timeline, it does, the Animus has broken shattered Desmond's mind leaving him trapped inside his own little virtual world. He struggles to put his existence back together and reclaim his own identity. Sound confusing? That's because it really is. And this is where the story lacks. In the previous installments I looked forward to the Desmond portions of the game, but in this case they seem watered down, probably because of the change of environment, the familiar characters are barely voices Desmond overhears in his comatose state, making them seem distant at best. What makes matters worse is the fact that they were so pivotal to the previous game's cliffhanger ending. I was expecting a play by play of what happened after the last story ended, but what I got were barely the Cliff-notes.

The Desmond portions are also hindered by one of the two horrible new in game mechanics. When Desmond goes further into is consciousness to rebuild his reality the game for some reason switches into this absurd first person view and throws in some of the most annoying platforming puzzles I've ever seen. The controls are horrible, Desmond is granted the ability create little white platforms directly in front of him. He then climbs on to them to get to the next area. These sections are also plagued by some of the most boring narration in the series so far. Sure, we find out about Desmond's past, which has been a mystery so far, but it should have been done in a much less torturous way. And considering that this is what substitutes the amazingly fun puzzle solving of previous entries, it's a shame.

The ancestor parts are much more enjoyable, but not without it's letdowns. Once again, you assume control of the hooded assassin Ezio, this time a much older man, much removed from his prime. The problem is, he's still capable of everything he was last time you controlled him. I think this was a huge wasted opportunity. I mean, Metal Gear Solid 4 proved that using an old man can be an interesting dynamic to add to a video game, and I sincerely feel that ACR could have benefited greatly to more changes to the play style. Ezio's age seems to be nothing more than a superficial change, kind of like a character skin.

Also back in the mix is Altair, whom you assume control of for several occasions, filling in the rest of his life. These parts are actually very cool, story heavy sections. They quickly became the sections I looked forward to the most. Creative storytelling is implemented nicely and it actually does keep you invested. Oddly enough by the end of these sequences Altair is over one hundred years old, and age is implemented very well here. He almost reminds me of Yoda at the end of Attack Of The Clones.

Unfortunately, most of the time is spent as Ezio, completing a main quest that almost feels like side missions once you consider how irrelevant it is to what's really going on. I won't even go into what the story entails, the game basically tells you, to get to what you really want to do you need to do this shit first. And it just feels like busy work. Once it all boils down to the bare bones, it's a filler game. Ubisoft wanted to finish Ezio and Altair's stories so we could move on once and for all... I hope.

The gameplay is almost identical to Brotherhood, except for the locale change. Other than that, the additions of bomb crafting and the hook-blade are nice distractions but they barely merit a whole new game. It feels like a bit of an upgrade but it's nothing spectacular. I went through most of the game without using a single bomb, and they can be fun, but not really necessary. The zipline system is quite useful, when you can find one, mostly because you can only use ones that you can zip down from; and trust me, nothing is more frustrating than fleeing from a fight and finding a zipline just to realize you're at the wrong end of it.

The other awkward gameplay decision is the new tower defense mode that happens when one of your bases is under Templar attack. It's pretty bad. You kinda get thrown into the first one by surprise, and it's barely explained. The weirdest part is that they're almost optional. You never have to do it for a second time if you can keep your notoriety down. It's like the developers know how bad it is and they gave you the chance to skip it altogether. Smart move.

This game is without a doubt a filler story. Ubisoft needed to tie lose ends before moving on to the next big thing. The problem is that I don't think it needed a whole new game. This could have been shortened and been downloadable content. I still give Ubisoft all the credit in the world, this is still  a good game, it does what Brotherhood did well, it just stumbled in other areas. And the fact that it got made in a year is amazing, I just wouldn't mind waiting two years so we can fix all those little issues.

6/10