Aceattorney's e3 megathread with impressions and pics

[aceattorney]

E3 2015 was the most exciting E3 in recent memory - even besting the Xbox 360 slim giveaway, and the recent console launches. It was exciting because the announcements and high quality of games were surprisingly good.

All of my pics: https://www.flickr.com/photos/aceattorney/sets/72157654877173056

HoloLens and Halo 5: Guardians

The Xbox booth had tons of demo stations, but the one that had the highest demand was for HoloLens/Halo 5. Oddly enough, in order to play Halo 5, you HAD to test out HoloLens first. There was no separate set of stations just to demo Halo 5.

Since the entire HoloLens/Halo 5 demo took about 30-40 minutes, and there were two rooms servicing 10 people at a time, you can imagine that the wait was excruciating. Adding to the wait were VIPs and media, who got priority in the line. Non VIP/Media people had to show up at the convention center at 8 AM to try to be one of the first people to enter the show floor when the doors opened at 10 AM. If you showed up at the convention center right at 10 AM, you could expect to wait about four hours to get through the line. If you didn't show up by 10 AM, you were gambling on wasting your day waiting in line, only to be told that there wasn't enough time left in the day for you to play the demo.

I asked to be put on a media waitlist on Wednesday morning. I was finally able to check out the demo on Thursday afternoon, on the second to the last demo session. Thankfully, I got to bypass the terrible line.

HoloLens is clearly still in its infancy. The heavy headset didn't fit properly on my face, and it kept slipping down, moving the lenses out of my vision. I had to hold up the front of the headset like a pair of oversized eyeglasses in order to enjoy the experience. And I did enjoy it.

After they put the headset on, you are instructed to walk down a hallway, and you can see a floating arrow/waypoint in mid-air! The hallway was relatively dark, with blue-colored ambient light, simulating a sci-fi environment, so that contributed to the intensity of the image. I followed the waypoint and looked at a station in a second, shorter hallway, where there is a hologram image of something from Halo (I don't quite remember the image), just to serve as a teaser. I then joined four other people in a medium-sized room surrounding a square table. As we each stood on our own side of the table, the center of the table came to life with a map. There was an audio recording playing, telling us our objectives, and the hologram video pointed out the objectives as well.

There were other related hologram images projected, like a Scarab or a ship, and strangely, I don't recall what image it was because I was so focused on trying to retain the memory of what it was like to experience it. We weren't allowed to walk around the table, but I did lean forward, left, and right. I crouched down to change my perspective. And I could look "around" the hologram as my head position changed.

Obviously, the image isn't projected onto the table. The image is only displayed on the lenses in a rectangular field of view. When you move your eyes around that rectangle, you don't see the hologram. However, I didn't find that to be a problem because I was focused on looking at the hologram and turning/moving my head to look around the hologram, not moving my eyes around. The hologram looked like it was projected onto the table.

After the mission objectives were spelled out, an arrow guideline hologram pointed onto the table, where a USB flash drive (modeled after Cortana's chip) awaited removal. More swag yay!

They collected the HoloLens headsets at that point, and then we were moved to another room where the demo stations were.

Halo 5 is fun. Of course it is. It's Halo. I had fun playing it, despite the fact that my team was filled with VIP noobs who have never played an FPS.

Cuphead

I have been anticipating this game ever since it was teased at E3 two years ago. We hadn't seen much from it even leading up to E3 this year, so I was extremely surprised to see it playable on the show floor! The booth was constantly packed.

The game reminds me a lot of Contra, Castle Crashers (the boss levels), and every other side-scrolling shooter. Except that Cuphead is a game that is terrifyingly difficult. The bosses throw everything at you, forcing you to have perfect timing with jumps to avoid their attacks. Thankfully, you have special attacks as well.

I'm not sure what else there is to the game, but certainly part of the charm are the 1930's era cartoon graphics. It's an incredible game to look at. But it's also fun, especially in co-op. Be warned though: co-op makes the bosses 2X as tough to kill.

Xbox One Elite Controller

The Xbox One standard controller sucks compared to the Elite controller. The ring around my left thumbstick on my launch controller has worn down and is scratchy and gross. The Elite has some kind of silky smooth material coating it that is virtually impossible to wear down. Seriously. They tested it and it's virtually impossible to diminish the smoothness.

The paddles are so useful. The mappable buttons, the trigger locks, the grips, the weight, the solid feel, and swappable thumbsticks make the Elite a premium product.

Yes, I think it's worth $150.

Forza 6

The rain is fun. I wish there was more force feedback during hydroplaning, but it's not bad. The racing remains the same. It's as good as ever.

Xbox Pins (a side note)

It was devious of Xbox to give away pins for the first time ever. The pins were beautifully crafted, and there were limited numbers of each available. But it was hell for the workers because thousands of people came to the booth hunting for them and bugging them to the point of getting seriously antagonistic about it. I felt bad for the booth workers.

But I love the pins! I didn't get all of them, unfortunately.

More in following posts.

 

[BDaddyK]

Is that ET in the Forza cockpit?

 

[aceattorney]

Ubisoft

For Honor

This is an epic franchise in the making. Not only does it look good, it feels good to play. There's a lot of heft behind the characters and in the fighting. It's not a Dynasty Warriors clone.

I got to play a session of 4 v. 4, and each team had a dev coaching us, and helping out with strategy by calling out orders and stuff. I picked a female knight (only knights were available in the demo) and pretended to be Brienne of Tarth from Game of Thrones.

The enemy AI are like the dudes from Titanfall. They're there to be a nuisance, and to be killed easily. Player controlled characters are bigger than the AI. You can tell they mean serious business. And when you engage in a duel, it's freaking intense.

When you duel, you have three sword positions: up, down-left, and down-right. The sword position determines your blocking position and your attack position. In order to block, your sword position must match your opponent's sword position (you can see what sword position your opponent has by a handy arrow hovering on the opponent). If you want to successfully attack, you leave yourself exposed to attack as well. This is where the tension comes into play.

Both players are asking themselves: focus on defense or offense? When should you attack? When will the other player attack? OMG HE'S ATTACKING!

And then there's a move where you can break the block. There is a light attack and a heavy attack. And yes, there was respawning in the mode we played.

The mode in the demo was domination. We had to control three points in the map, and you can get your enemies to a "breaking point" where the enemy players won't respawn - giving you a chance to wipe them all out. However, if the enemies take back a point in the map, they can get out of the breaking point.

There are special attack powers like calling on archers to attack certain positions, then huge map events that you can get, like a catapult attack on an area on the map.

There was a point in the game when I was in a duel, and then my opponent's teammate joined the fight. You will likely lose a fight if outnumbered, so I ran. The two players chased me, and I saw a ladder, which I began to climb. They kept chasing me up the ladder! The dev quickly told me - hit "B" to slide down! I slid down the ladder and knocked both of them off - the weakened player DIED when he hit the ground!

My strategy of ganging up on enemy players paid off and we won our match. It was exhilarating.

Two different people I spoke with on two different occasions both said they couldn't stop shaking after playing the demo - it was that intense.

There's no release date for this awesome game.

Ghost Recon

Sadly, this game wasn't playable, but we saw the devs play it. It honestly seems more like Far Cry than Ghost Recon. The open world, vehicles, and various objectives also remind me of GTAV's heists in a way.

The Division

This game was kind of disappointing. The graphics were not as polished as I expected, but it's definitely something they're working on. There was no destruction or interior environments in the demo, both of which will be in the final game.

The gameplay just didn't do much for me. The demo I played was pretty much the same demo from the Ubisoft press briefing. Attack some enemy AI, get some loot, then proceed to a pick-up point, where we encounter other players.

One of my teammates shot at the other players, which triggered a war. The real issue was with the combat. Player-controlled enemies were bullet sponges. When they were downed, they could be revived. And they could respawn. My deployable turret (it was my special power, which would recharge after a short period) did little to kill the enemies, it seemed.

The battle was chaotic. And I didn't know at what point it was over. But soon enough, the demo was done.

This game certainly has potential, and I'm interested in seeing more of it, but I think this is one that will need some more time to be polished.

Assassin's Creed: Syndicate

It uses the same graphics engine as Unity, so it looks very similar to Unity. I didn't notice any of the pop-ins that Unity had though, but then again, the streets didn't seem as populated as in Unity. The zip line is crazy. Some will call it cheap because you don't really have to scale walls as much. Also, you basically can create an overhang to air assassinate anyone.

Driving the stagecoaches is pretty fun, and the fighting is great. Your gangster buddies will help you in fights, and will actually kill enemy AI as well. I really dig the gang theme - it's what is going to make this game good.

Trackmania

I can't wait for this game to come out on consoles. So much wild and nutty fun. It's basically Trials but with cars.

 

[aceattorney]

Activision

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3

Got to play some multiplayer and it fixes my problem with Advanced Warfare. The movement in Blops3 is silky smooth. No more clunky exosuit to bog you down.

I didn't get to mess with force powers though, so that could be weird, or it could make the game brilliant.

All I know is, the king is back.

Skylanders: Supercharged

Skylanders has cars now. It's totally backwards compatible, but only the vehicles can access certain areas in the game.

Here's the major takeaway with Skylanders: Nintendo granted Activision the license to make Donkey Kong and Bowser figures and vehicles. They are glorious, and only available on Wii and Wii U.

Donkey Kong can turn into a barrel and roll around. He can summon barrel fists. And he can teleport by way of barrel cannons. His vehicle can be upgraded to have Diddy Kong as a passenger. Lastly, he can rain down freaking ladders and steel girders from the sky.

Bowser has a giant hammer that is made of koopa shells. His car is armored with koopa shells. And he can summon koopas and stomp on them to deploy the shells. Bowser is pretty badass.

Destiny: The Taken King

I couldn't deal with the slow grind of Destiny, so I gave up playing it after a while. The Taken King will bring me back because of the new subclasses. They are awesomely powerful. I played a capture the flag mode as the Warlock, and got to unlock his supercharge mode: LIGHTING GOD. His lighting bolts kill dudes in mere seconds. The opposing team must've been filled with noobs because we handidly won.

The Mayhem Mode sounds like a complete blast to play: everyone's powers charge up really quickly.

Guitar Hero

The choice between Rock Band and Guitar Hero is going to be tough. Rock Band is a total party game. Guitar Hero is for a solo experience. But Guitar Hero's new two-level buttons are a game changer to be honest.

You have to play virtual chords, and in higher difficulties, it can be very challenging. My problem with this control scheme however is that the "chords" aren't at all like actual guitar chords, at least from what I could tell. At least with the single row of buttons, it feels like you're hitting a logical note.

But for those who want a new challenge, Guitar Hero is great. Plus, it comes with the Guitar Hero LIVE thing, which pumps out a playlist that you just jump in and play. It's a free service for Guitar Hero.

 

[Viktor]

Is that ET in the Forza cockpit?

C-C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER!

 

[Two Pennys Worth]

Great read. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts and pictures.

 

[Visual Rhino]

Excellent pictures!

 

[Two Pennys Worth]

I thought For Honour looked cool too. I know Ubisoft has come in for a bit of stick this gen but I think their concepts are pretty cool. They're taking a risk with For Honour and I hope it pays off for them.

 

[TeKPhaN]

No Sony pics?

 

[aceattorney]

Ok where was I?

STAR WARS BATTLEFRONT

Let me start by saying that despite being a major Star Wars fan, I haven't really played too much of the Battlefront franchise. The one time I did play Battlefront in the past, I did not care too much for how "floaty" all the characters looked and felt. It felt like a poor-man's Battlefield.

I got stuck on the Rebels team, and our objective was to defend the Rebel base on Hoth. It boiled down to protecting the shield generators by killing the AT-ATs. The only way to destroy the AT-ATs was to collect enough little Rebel icons strewn throughout the map in order to activate a Y-Wing bombing run, which would temporarily expose the AT-ATs to damage from our little blasters (and bazookas).

Another way to kill the AT-ATs was to use a Snowspeeder, but I never figured out how to get one.

There were tons of trenches in the map, and a lot of wide open space. My character was floaty as hell. Nothing felt like there was any weight behind them. The shooting just felt empty. Maybe it's the animation, or the physics. Whatever it was, it never felt satisfying when I got kills.

Now, I get that you're shooting laser guns, and they probably don't have a lot of kick, but still, I expect the damage to be powerful. It just felt flat.

I did see TIE fighters and Snowspeeders fighting in the skies. I'm sure that would've been fun. But playing as a Rebel soldier and basically floating around the map shooting at hollow Stormtroopers wasn't very exciting.

I hope it gets better. I have the limited edition on pre-order as of now.

ROCK BAND

Rock Band is the same old Rock Band that we all love. The major difference here is with the freestyle guitar sections. Instead of playing the lead guitar riff during the middle of a song, you can now hit random buttons, and the game will play notes that sound like they match the song. It's basically button mashing, and although the notes do sound different depending on which buttons you press, there isn't a whole lot of skill that goes into it.

But that's kind of the fun of it. You're basically playing air guitar, and the game is interpreting it as music. That's pretty fun.

You can also play power chords (two buttons at the same time), and it will play different notes in the game. Again, air guitar.

It's Rock Band, so you know people are going to love singing all the tunes, bashing the drums, or playing a guitar.

MAD MAX

Don't expect this to be like the movie. I mean, the game uses the same source material, but you're not going to get in-your-face type of action at every turn.

In this open world game, you drive around, looking for camps and outposts to scavenge for parts to upgrade your car and yourself. Any water you find are health potions. You'll need fuel to drive, and to use for your flamethrower. There are also random enemies along the roads, who you can just drive by, or you can attack. When you encounter a convoy, there's a lead car that's tougher than the normal car, but will give up a hood ornament when you kill the driver. The hood ornament can be adorned on your car!

The vehicular combat is pretty neat. There's fire, smoke, and a lot of just ramming other vehicles. You can use a grappling hook to yank off tires, armor, and even the drivers out of their car. You can also just shoot the other cars and their drivers. The car-to-car combat is pretty fun, but I can see myself just bypassing them to get to more interesting story objectives. Then again, you need parts to upgrade your car and your abilities.

When you're outside of your car, you are Batman. You can fight hand to hand like the Dark Knight, and you can use guns as well.

The graphics are pretty decent, but nothing blew me away.

This game looks like it can offer a lot of content, but the content is all pretty similar to each other. My biggest concern is whether things will get old and repetitive quickly.

LEGO DIMENSIONS

This was one of my most anticipated games. I love LEGO and I wanted a game that would give a truly unique experience with the physical toys. I ended up feeling somewhat let down by it.

The minifigures and vehicles all come with a circular base. The base contains all of the RFID information that the game's "portal" needs to read the data. In theory, you can just slap on any minifigure to the base and the game will just read it as the same minifig that it's supposed to be.

As for gameplay, it's a standard LEGO game. That means, there's a linear story, and no open world. Although levels can be replayed during free play mode, I couldn't help but feel disappointed. You can play co-op, and swap out any of the characters and vehicles easily, just like in Disney Infinity or Skylanders.

There are puzzles in the game that require certain figures be placed on certain parts of the portal (middle, left, or right), and the game gives you abilities to grow and shrink. The puzzles are actually pretty fun, and require you to think about your use of the minifigures.

Levels are nicely designed, and it's wonderful to see the various licenses be used in this way.

Speaking of the licenses, LEGO Dimensions has got it all. Playing as Chell from Portal, alongside Scooby Doo and the core characters (Gandalf, Batman, and Wyldstyle) is just plain fun. Imagine throwing in Lord of the Rings characters, Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, DC Superheroes, and many more, and you've got a lot of fun characters that you can play as. Unfortunately, the limitation of the linear storyline reduces most of the characters are just skins. On the upside, there are some great levels from these licenses (Portal, Wizard of Oz, etc.).

Overall, this game is much more akin to Skylanders than Disney Infinity due to the linear storyline, but LEGO fans will eat it up for the unique minifigures.

 

[aceattorney]

X-COM 2

We only saw a demo being played, but I'm sold on it. Sure, the graphics still retain the cartoony look of the previous X-COM, but it still looks fun as hell. New enemy types, the ability to carry teammates, and new weapons make me excited for it.

OCULUS RIFT

The consumer edition is finally complete, and I was able to do two separate demo sessions with the unit. Unfortunately, neither session included the Oculus Touch controller.

Oculus captured my imagination ever since it was first announced years ago. The promise of virtual reality sounded promising, but also very risky. What I came to learn was that the key to VR was with the tracking. The unit must replicate the way a human head moves around. The way a head rotates and turns on a neck is actually rather complex, and they've been able to figure out how to replicate it in virtual reality.

The graphics aren't fantastic, at least not yet. But the graphics aren't the most important part of VR.

I was surprised at how audio added incredible depth to the experience. Whether it was a hockey puck whizzing by my head, or the odd noises of monsters lurking in the shadows around me, the surround sound made the experience far more immersive than any graphical advances the Rift has had since launch.

Like I said in the Oculus thread, I'm concerned that my mind will become so accustomed to VR that it will no longer be fooled by it - that I won't be tricked into believing that a puck actually flew by my head. A woman told me that she physically felt something touch her lap when in her VR demo, a cat jumped on her lap. Will we become immune to this mental trickery?

I cannot wait for the non-gaming applications of VR. I want to experience amusement park rides with Oculus. Imagine Star Tours or Transformers the Ride, but instead of watching a giant screen, you're wearing Oculus Rift.

Among everything at E3, Oculus is the one thing I anticipate the most. It is mind-blowing technology with vast amounts of potential.



THE END.

 

[TeKPhaN]

Zzz

 

[Lucid Rifter]

Thanks for the write up! Take me next year?

 

[Intellivision]

No Fallout 4 on the showroom floor?

 

[menace-uk-]

And now E3 is complete.

Nice write up, Ace. Nice pics too. Although, where are the booth babes

A few of my comments on some of the games talked about here.

• For Honor looks awesome. Nice to hear it plays as it looks. However, Why do we need an arrow for sword position? Surely we should be able to see from the character stance what he is planning to do. Oh, and lol at pretending to be Brienne of Tarth
• Ghost Recon: Wildlands looks awesome. You say it seems more like Far Cry, I can live with that. FC3 & 4 were great.
• Guitar Hero sounds exactly like Guitar Hero should sound. Guitar Hero for me has always been about the challenge. Unlike Rock Band which seems a more laid back social affair.
• Star Wars: Battlefront for me looked mediocre. Seems like one of those Graphic showy games where game-play is an afterthought.
• Mad Max looks like a fun romp. I am glad they didn't limit the game-play to just car combat like I imagined they would. I always compare this game to Shadow of Mordor, another game that looked like a fun romp.

Anyway, and again, nice write up. I always enjoy reading your E3 thread.

 

[Registered User 1]

Thanks a lot Ace! A great read, and I really appreciate the effort you put in.

I really don't know what to make of For Honour... I think its something that Ill need to play to get excited about.

Xo

 

[aceattorney]

One quick comment about video game journalists: some of the really "famous" video game journalists are prolific writers and social butterflies on social media, but in real life, they're socially awkward and loners. Made me sad to see them sitting in a hallway eating lunch by themselves, or looking skittish as they were waiting for a game.

 

[Obscene Jester]

You forgot Sony.

 

[TDbank24]

Nice impressions. You must have had the time of your life. Microsoft really put on a show at E3.

 

[The Wolf King]

You forgot Sony.

That's coming 2016/17....

 

[Obscene Jester]

That's coming 2016/17....

I guess I shill wait until then.

 

[Kuu2]

Thanks Ace! Always nice to have a first hand account of a premium gaming event.

 

[Wiseguy]

Nice impressions, glad you enjoyed this year more than ever. Seemed like the new consoles are finally hitting their stride and the new tech is also (VR)
I really liked seeing Shenmue 3 being announced and the genuine excitement of some of the gaming media that aren't jaded by the industry this year too.

Like you, I think VR is the exciting next step to immersion that will take us into the 21st century and beyond. The Holographic stuff is exciting as well and I can see some of the bigger holographic stuff that is happening in other entertainments fields having a huge impact in the next decade or two.

It was interesting to see what the last few years in gaming were like from the couch perspective. Slow start for the consoles, but it's looking better everyday.