First Byte: Fan Expo 2015 Gauntlet

Early September, I went to Fan Expo Canada for a day. Aside from exploring the massive show floor and buying a few cool items on sale, I spent the majority of my time playing upcoming games. Actually, it was more like standing in line to play said games. Much like last year. there were well over 30 games at Fan Expo for all to play from big AAA titles such as Assassin's Creed: Syndicate to smaller titles like Cuphead. I always go in dreaming to play every game on the show floor, but I can only get in a quarter at best. This year, I played 10 games in total.

This time around I'm changing up the structure of the Fan Expo Gauntlet. Instead of taking two parts to outline every game I played, I'm going to highlight three titles. These are the titles that I got more time to play and can dissect for your pleasure. With how poorly some demos were managed by volunteers, I just couldn't extract enough from them to fill a paragraph. For example, I played Transformers: Devastation for only enough time to say the combat is exactly the same as Bayonetta just with some third-person gunplay thrown in the mix.

Yo-Kai Watch
To my surprise, Nintendo had a lot more games at their booth than the three games advertised (Splatoon, Super Mario Maker and Yoshi's Wooly World). One of the titles available to play on 3DS was the newest sensation out of Japan, Yo-Kai Watch. The demo I played gave me a good impression on the game's combat system, which is pretty different from most JRPGs on the market.

There are no random encounters in Yo-Kai Watch, you literally chase down wild yo-kai by keeping your cursor over them. Once the yo-kai are caught, you engage in combat. Combat consists of spinning a wheel on the touch screen to alternate between the six yo-kai on your team and activating special touch screen specific activities in order to unleash special attacks. Outside of lining up the correct elements to maximize damage and special attacks, normal attacks automatically occur at regular intervals.

For the 15 to 20 minute demo, I found the combat really fun and engaging alternative to the traditional RPG combat systems, but I can see it getting tedious over the course of a 40 hour playthrough if this is all Yo-Kai Watch offers.

Star Wars Battlefront
Ever since EA and DICE released the first slew of information on the new Star Wars Battlefront at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim, people have been tirelessly debating over the game's content or lack thereof and its similarities to Battlefield. The gameplay footage revealed at E3 did quite a bit to fan the flames, but there were still some doubters. I will say this: you will have no doubts when you get your hands on the game. My friends and I walked away from the demo at Fan Expo astounded at how amazing it was.

The only mode available to play was Survival. It is Battlefront's version of Horde mode as you and a teammate are tasked with battling through waves upon waves of Imperial forces on Tatooine. The first few waves consist of just Stormtroopers, but as the waves go on, the difficulty goes up at a gradual yet challenging pace by throwing AT-ATs and shocktroopers your way. For somebody who can't hold their own in contemporary shooters, Battlefront made me feel like an all-star. The controls felt perfectly tuned to deal with everything that was being thrown my way. There were a couple waves where I was the last man standing and the tight controls were the only thing that allowed me to pull through.

Although the demo consisted of only one mode, the superb controls and the game's ability to accurately emulate the world of Star Wars has me highly anticipating playing Battlefront later this year.

Star Fox Zero
Most games I played at Fan Expo left me feeling optimistic about their final release. Sadly, I can't say the same for Star Fox Zero. While I will still buy this game early next year, I have a bad feeling that the game is going to alienate a lot of people because of its unique control scheme, much like Kid Icarus: Uprising before it.

Star Fox Zero has you using the analog sticks to control the Arwing and the motion controls in the Wii U gamepad to aim your weapons. This control set-up works during the on-rail segments. but completely falls apart when you enter all-range mode. The reason for this occurrence comes from the all-range mode's reliance on pinpoint accuracy to dispatch enemies. If you played Splatoon, you would already know that this control scheme is no where near accurate and Star Fox's focus on it feels counter-productive. Transforming into the walker did alleviate some of the targeting problems with particular enemies, but the walker's controls felt rough around the edges as will.

After playing Star Fox Zero, I am happy that Nintendo delayed the game until early 2016 because it gives Nintendo more time to refine the controls for the game. While Star Fox Zero has the potential to breathe new life into this struggling franchise, a polarizing control scheme might just ground the Star Fox team for good.

E3 2015: EA Press Conference Impressions

Aside from recent releases like Dragon Age: Inquisition and Battlefield: Hardline, EA hasn't had the best few years.  Buggy launches, poor customer support and selling certain titles without being feature complete are a few examples of EA's sins over the past few years.  Last year's EA press conference didn't make things any better as they put on possibly the worst press conference I ever had the dishonour of watching.  There is no way that EA could put on two bad performances in a row, right?

Let us start with the good news, EA's press conference was better than last year's showing.  The bad news is that isn't saying much.  In all honesty, EA has a great lineup of games under their umbrella; they just can't seem to translate that quality to the stage.  When a conference with Mass Effect, Mirror's Edge and Star Wars almost puts you to sleep, there is something wrong.

The reason that EA had problems in translating quality to their stage performance was that they spent too much time telling instead of showing.  The actual game demos showed at the conference combined for a run time of maybe 20 minutes.  For a 90 minute press conference, that's unacceptable.  Also whoever thought splitting EA Sports into four excruciatingly boring and unnecessarily long segments to fill time should be fired along with the person who thought having an interview with soccer legend Pele was a good use of time.

Out of all the bad, there were a couple of diamonds in the rough.  Star Wars Battlefront had a phenomenal demo that expertly replicated the scale and grandeur of the Battle for Hoth from Empire Strikes Back.  In five minutes, DICE showed first and third-person perspectives, vehicle combat (which includes controlling AT-ATs) and playable hero characters all to a great amount of fanfare.  Other than Battlefront, the only other game to truly impress was Unravel, a puzzle platformer with unique mechanics revolving around yarn.  While I have a feeling Unravel will be a smaller title in EA's lineup, it has the potential of stacking up their with other great mascot platformers like LittleBigPlanet and Mario.

If it wasn't for Star Wars Battlefront and Unravel, EA's 2015 press conference would have served as a good time for a nap or a bathroom break.  EA seems to bark to the heavens that they understand their fans, but they are so out of touch that it's hilarious.  Gamers don't watch your E3 press conference to hear about your onslaught of yearly sports games, we want the Battlefronts, Mass Effects, Mirror's Edges and Unravels to be the focus of your show.  Until EA understands that fact, they will suffer the same negative reaction year-in and year-out.

Grade:  D+

First Byte: Splatoon

I can't seem to escape Nintendo's gravitational pull.  For the past month, they have released a handful of great content for me to dissect and discuss here on Silver Bit like the Super Smash Bros. and Mario Kart 8 DLC.  Now, Nintendo goes ahead and drops a public beta for Splatoon.  Considering my excitement for the game, I dived headfirst into the free Splatoon Global Testfire this past weekend.

Open to everyone who downloaded the free demo from the Nintendo eShop, the Splatoon Global Testfire gave Wii U owners three hour-long chances to play the game's multiplayer.  Each hour-long opportunity was the same experience: pick your inkling, play the tutorial, pick your weapon set and jump right into multiplayer.  The Splatoon Global Testfire offered four weapon sets to use, two maps to fight on and one mode to play.  In between matches, you could play a retro-stylized Doddle Jump clone called Squid Jump.

After spending close to three hours with Splatoon, I found Splatoon's take on the multiplayer shooter to be a very enjoyable experience.  Despite more developers focusing on team-based and asymmetrical skirmishes recently, the most popular entries in this genre try to make the player feel like a one-man army.  On the opposite side of the fence, Splatoon's multiplayer only consists of four vs. four team battles, which focus on covering the battlefield with ink instead of blood.  Focusing on teamwork and toned down violence makes Splatoon a more age-appropriate mutliplayer game than the military shooters like Call of Duty and Battlefield that kids find ways to play.  This focus also shows that multiplayer shooters don't need to be extremely violent in nature to be fun.

The first thing you will definitely notice upon loading up Splatoon are the controls.  The controls are very similar to other shooters with the left analog stick to move, the right analog stick to look left and right, and the triggers for weapons.  The difference comes with how you control looking up and down.  Instead of mapping it to the right analog stick like most shooters, you control looking up and down by tilting the Wii U Gamepad in either direction.  This control scheme can be jarring at first, but was easy to grasp after a few rounds.  While I did get use to these unique controls, they don't work for every weapon in the game.

The controls fell apart when using the Splat Charger, a weapon that works much like a sniper rifle.  Accuracy and precision are key when using this weapon, which makes aiming incredibly frustrating when the motion controls pick up every slight movement.  I found out from friends and other sources that you can customize the controls, but the option was never made clear during the beta or through Nintendo's vast amount of promotion material.

Aside from the inconvenience, Splatoon plays great.  The weapons have their unique strengths and weaknesses.  Sub-weapons and special moves offer tactical options for changing the tide of battle.  The instantaneous jump into the heat of battle activated by tapping the Gamepad eliminates the downtime of travelling.  Plus, transforming into a squid to hide from foes or escape from danger is exhilarating.

The Splatoon Global Testfire offered two maps to play: Walleye Warehouse and Saltspray Rig.  Both maps are symmetrical, but different in their design.  Walleye Warehouse is built for close-combat with tight alleyways and few open areas, while Saltspray Rig is an open arena with multiple elevations and central platforms to battle over.  Compared to other shooters, the maps are small and compact.  The smaller maps increases the tension as your opponents is always close by.  The tension is heightened by the lack of communication outside of a few preset phrases.  While it creates a tense atmosphere, the lack of voice chat between teammate is a missed opportunity on Nintendo's part.

Apart from a few failures to initially connect to a game or connection errors, I had little to no problems with the Splatoon Global Testfire.  The game's multiplayer looks to be shaping up nicely and I look forward to spending more time with it in the near future.  With this successful test into public betas, hopefully Nintendo will use this method of testing for future projects.  Maybe even give Wii U owners a few more chances to play Splatoon before launch.  Wink wink, nudge nudge.

E3 2014: EA Press Conference Impressions

2013 was not a year Electronic Arts wants to remember.  Everything under the sun seemed to go wrong for the gaming giant in 2013 starting with the mess that was SimCity and concluding with the severe online problems of Battlefield 4.  Hoping to turn their fortunes around, EA should bring out all the stops with their conference this year.  In a few short moments, you will hear if EA can turn around their fortunes from their unlucky 2013 or continue their downward spiral.

Well EA's misfortunes continue with easily their worst performance at E3 to date.  Words cannot describe how mindbogglingly bad EA's conference was.  Things seemed to be going in the right direction with Andrew Wilson's description of the structure for the conference which would see first looks at projects early in development along with demos for soon to be released games.  Sadly, none of the initial promise led to anything worthwhile.  EA showed footage and images so far in advance for games such as the next Mass Effect, BioWare's new IP, Star Wars Battlefront and Criterion's extreme racing game that it did nothing to build hype or excitement.  Everything just fell flat and EA could never build any sort of excitement or momentum.  The most boring moments of EA's conference came from the onslaught of EA Sports titles.  It may be nice for some to see hyper realistic graphics that they will never see in the actual game but that is misleading advertising not quality marketing.  EA use to be able to move through the sports presentation at a smooth clip, but it just went on forever this year.  The only sports game that appeared to be remotely fun was the new EA Sports PGA Tour that looks to mix traditional golf courses with crazy fantasy courses however that one trailer could do nothing to save this show.  If the monotonous sports game presentation was not enough, the Battlefield Hardline main event just emphasized how mind numbing this press conference was.  Nothing in the full multiplayer reveal of Hardline stood out.  It was exactly the same as every other Battlefield multiplayer demo EA has done at previous E3s just with instant grappling hooks and zip lines.  Nevertheless like everything else on this show, Battlefield Hardline was nothing impressive as it felt very derivative in its design and execution.

E3 has seen no shortage of bad press conferences.  EA's offerings this year rank among the worst to ever grace this stage.  Bringing the audience into the developer's studios and seeing upcoming projects in progress was a neat idea, but the execution did nothing to elicit any sense of joy or excitement.  Barely anytime was spent on the games that people wanted to see like Star Wars Battlefront, Dragon Age: Inquisition and Mirror's Edge.  All-in-all, EA's E3 2014 Press Conference was a complete waste of sixty minutes and never worth revisiting again.

Grade:  F

E3 2013: EA Press Conference Impressions

One of the few constants at E3 has been Electronic Arts.  There conferences have been consistently watchable as they have provided a lot of good information on the great amounts of projects they publish.  As we head face first into the next generation of consoles, will EA soar to brand new heights or continue to falter?

To answer that question right off the bat, EA will continue their abysmal year after such a weak conference.  There was a good number of quality games on display just EA only spent fifteen to twenty minutes of their conference covering them.  Right at the beginning, EA blew off the door with an incredible trailer for Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare that parodied EA's own Battlefield trailers.  Following the trailer, EA gave us an incredible demo for Garden Warfare that easily convinced me of PopCap's newest venture with the Plants vs. Zombies series.  There was the announcement of Peggle 2, but nobody seemed to care because what follow was easily the surprise of EA's conference.  That surprise was... wait for it... Star Wars Battlefront!  Eight years following the release of Battlefront 2, we are finally getting a sequel to one of the best Star Wars games out there.  Also the multiplayer shooter specialists at DICE are handling the next Battlefront so it should be good.  Disappointing enough after the Battlefront reveal, EA's conference took a turn for the worse.  There were still some good stuff in this conference such as Dragon Age Inquisition, Battlefield 4 multiplayer and another reveal that we will get to in a bit, but not enough to keep the absolutely horrible from sucking the life from this conference.  The horrible started when EA moved onto Need For Speed.  The new Need For Speed Rivals looked interesting, but felt too derivative of the past Criterion Need For Speed games.  Then EA decided to make a venture into the realm of movies by showing us a trailer for the Need For Speed movie (we all know how this movie will turn out).  EA's time in Hollywood was not the lowest point of the conference that honour goes to EA Sports, which drove this conference straight into the ground and kept on digging deeper.  From random rapping to nonsensical celebrity appearances to Dana White repeating the same sentence over and over again, EA made a complete and utter joke of their entire sports division.  None of the gameplay shown for these sports games looked anything close to the target video that EA put on a pedestal at the Xbox One reveal.  Even with all the crap EA put us through, there was a light shining at the end of the dark tunnel.  That light was the long awaited reveal of Mirror's Edge 2.  The short trailer was enough to send gamers home happy.  Just not enough to save a conference that was already six feet under.

EA's press conference started out great, but it was all downhill after the Battlefront reveal.  EA tried to bring the conference back to life multiple times but no avail.  There were a few good moments, nothing that could make me personally recommend watching past the first 15 minutes of the conference.

Grade:  D+

E3 2013: Microsoft Press Conference Impressions

The next generation of consoles starts now.  Today is when Sony and Microsoft pull back the curtain on their new machines and next wave begins.  There are going to be tons of huge announcements and yours truly is here to follow them all.  Following each press conference, I will be writing my impressions.  I will take a look at the good, the bad and the utmost ugly for each conference then wrap it all up with a final grade at the end.  Like usual, Microsoft is first at bat.

After such a poor Xbox One reveal, Microsoft needed a home run with this press conference.  Sadly, the house that Bill Gates built got thrown out trying to round third base.  Microsoft kept their entire conference focused on the games, which was a step in the right direction.  The fault of this conference was that Microsoft focused on too many games for their allotted time.  They jumped from one game to the next with no real sense of pacing.  Case and point, the Killer Instinct reveal.  The reveal of Killer Instinct was easily a high point for this conference, but Microsoft just showed off a trailer for the game and went on to the next game instead of taking their time to let the surprise sink in and show off some actual gameplay.  Microsoft did show some gameplay later in the conference as part of their Xbox Live demo, but it felt too little too late.  Games such as Minecraft, Forza 5, Quantum Break, Dark Souls 2, Black Tusk Games' teaser and Battlefield 4 could have been cut from the conference to help properly pace the show and give more time to interesting games like Below, Crimson Dragon and Sunset Overdrive.  Another thing that plagued the Microsoft conference was a slew of technical difficulties.  The audio cut out during the Metal Gear Solid V demo and the Crimson Dragon trailer and the Battlefield 4 demo failed to start.  These mishaps felt like problems that Microsoft could have been prepared for say by doing a dress rehearsal or running back-up demos backstage if something does not work properly.  Out of the sheer number of games and announcements shown at the Microsoft conference, there were a few that caught my eyes and ears such as all the 360 announcements, Killer Instinct, Crimson Dragon, Metal Gear Solid 5 and Witcher 3.  The final reveal at the Microsoft conference was Titanfall, the long-anticipated game from Respawn Entertainment.  Revealing this game would have been a grand finale if Titanfall was not leaked just under a week ago.  Microsoft should have kept Titanfall much closer to their chest in order to avoid such a huge leak.  The leak was not the only problem with Titanfall.  Considering it is made by the same team that developed Modern Warfare 2, Titanfall pretty much looks like a futuristic Call of Duty.  Not a good comparison to have considering how tarnished the Call of Duty name is.

While I have complained quite a bit about the Microsoft Press Conference, it was an okay showing.  At one point, I personally thought they could pull off the unthinkable and give us one excellent conference.  It was not the train wreck this writer expected, but it was not the knock out performance Microsoft direly needed.

Grade:  C

Launch Station: Spec Ops: The Line

In an incredibly crowded genre like the first/third person shooter genre, games like Spec Ops: The Line can easily fall under the shadows of genre heavyweights like Call of Duty and Battlefield.  Sometimes this happens for good reason.  Sometimes it causes gamers to overlook what was a pretty good game.  If Spec Ops: The Line falls under the former or the latter, you will just have to try the demo or pick up the game, which just released today.

In Spec Ops: The Line, you play as Captain Martin Walker, accompanied by a Delta Force bravo team,  on a mission to rescue a U.S. Army Colonel by the name of John Konrad trapped in the sandstorm ravaged city of Dubai.  This is not your standard search-and-rescue mission as Walker and company must battle unknown enemies and the forces of nature.  Spec Ops: The Line really focuses on using the natural sandstorms of Dubai to change the game.  Spec Ops' engine randomizes when and where sandstorms start, which makes the game very unpredictable and the environment very dynamic.  Sandstorms can unlock or close off different areas of Dubai or can be used to change the tide of battle.  Spec Ops: The Line's other big selling point is its' mature story that dives into the dark side of war.  To reinforce the mature story, there are realistic choices interspersed throughout the game where there is no defined good or bad choice like in other games.  All the choices fall under different shades of grey.  For those to take the Spec Ops experience online, The Line also features a class-based multiplayer mode.

Honestly, I am not a huge shooter fan so Spec Ops: The Line has not done much to excite me.  For shooter fans, Spec Ops: The Line looks like an interesting shooter that does enough to differentiate itself from the giants of the genre.  It should keep shooter fans busy until the next big shooter hits the market.  If you are a big shooter fan or really enjoyed the demo, Spec Ops: The Line should definitely be the shooter to pick up this summer.

E3 2012: EA Press Conference Impressions

E3 2012 had a very bumpy start with a disappointing conference from Microsoft.  As the second conference of the big show, it was Electronic Arts turn to show us their next wave of big games releasing this Fall and early 2013.

Each year EA's Press Conference is one of the most focused out of the bunch.  They get straight to the point and they do not deviate.  This year much like the last two years before, EA showcased 10 games from 10 different developers under the EA banner.  They were all concise and to the point.  It made the conference go by fast and barely drag.  The only thing wrong with EA's conference was that nothing stood out.  No game they showcased really made an impact in my opinion.  It all kind of all blended together.  Dead Space 3 seemed to have an identity crisis as it was more third-person shooter than survival horror.  Madden NFL 13 and FIFA 13 were both a boring list of new features.  Star Wars: The Old Republic had some cool news such as going free-to-play up to level 15.  Medal of Honor: Warfighter was a decent demo of another generic FPS.  Battlefield 3's answer to Call of Duty Elite was revealed in Battlefield 3 Premium, which was less than impressive.  The only things I found really interesting was Need for Speed: Most Wanted demo, which proves why Criterion should only be working on the Need for Speed series and EA's new partnership with UFC (funny how Dana White jumps to the company he said he would never work with when THQ hits hard times).  Also Crysis 3 did have a good little demo to give a satisfying end to the conference.  I believe there were a few missed opportunities such as unveiling the first story-based DLC for Mass Effect 3, giving first gameplay of Overstrike or even unveiling whatever Respawn Entertainment is working on (Riccitiello pointed out both Zampella and West in the crowd, why not reveal something?).

Overall, EA's E3 2012 Press Conference was just okay.  All their games had a good showing and the focus, which Microsoft lacked, was definitely there, but not much that was shown stood out of the humongous crowd of shooters and sports games.

Grade:  C-