E3 2015: Bethesda Press Conference Impressions

Bethesda kicked off E3 2015 with their first ever press conference late Sunday night.  Anticipation for the press conference was building from the moment that Bethesda announced it to the world.  Everybody was hoping for the official reveal of Fallout 4 along with a few unannounced projects hidden deep in Bethesda's pockets.  Those expectations changed once Fallout 4 and Doom 4 were both confirmed for the showcase as some thought the respectable game publisher already revealed their entire hand.  Could Bethesda pull out a show-stealing performance for their freshmen showcase?  Or would early reveals and leaks pull the rug out from under them?

While leaks did sour the Dishonored 2 reveal, the rest of Bethesda's press conference went off without any real problems.  I have to give huge kudos to everybody from Bethesda for stepping back and letting the games do the talking for themselves.  Just seeing Doom and Fallout 4 in all their glory was outstanding.

Both titles look incredible in their own way.  Doom hopes to bring old school FPS gameplay from past entries with modern graphics and controls.  The fast-pace and visceral action of Doom completely sold me on it, but adding in a return to twitch-based multiplayer of the 90s and the mod-making app Doom Snapmap has certainly made it a standout in the crowded FPS genre.

With a nearly 40 minute presentation that included everything from concept art to companion apps to a collector's edition reveal, Fallout 4 looks to be the ultimate post-apocalyptic sandbox ever created.  Just the sheer amount of things to do in Fallout 4 is unbelievable.  In-depth character customization, weapon and armour crafting, building settlements that open up a tower-defense style meta-game and modding the game within the game are just the tip of Fallout 4's immense iceberg of content.  Plus Todd Howard's presentation was simply wonderful.  He brought a form of sincerity and enthusiasm that you rarely see from the typical suits that do the presenting at E3.

Doom and Fallout 4 were the centerpieces of Bethesda's showcase as they spent a good 80 per cent of their conference talking about them.  As for the remaining 20 per cent of the show, it was spent on trailers for Battlecry, The Elder Scrolls Online and Dishonored 2 and announcements for Dishonored Definitive Edition and The Elder Scrolls Legends, Bethesda's competitor to Hearthstone.  While it was well-paced and to the point, this part of the conference felt flat especially considering the mystique surround Dishonored 2's reveal was lost thanks to leaks.  Everything contained in this middle portion of Bethesda's showcase could have been saved for the pre or post-show for better effect.

All-in-all, Bethesda's freshman showing in the E3 press conference circuit was a home run.  They focused on impressing gamers instead of stockholders, kept the conference moving at an entertaining pace, threw in a few inside jokes and established their small lineup as one of the finest in the industry.  If you missed out on Bethesda's conference due to its late airing, make the time to watch it very soon.  The Fallout 4 demo is worth it alone.

Grade:  A

Bravely Default Review

Japanese role-playing games (JRPGs) have a long and illustrious history.  Among the most dominant forces in this genre was arguably Square Enix.  As the JRPG fell out of favour for the freedom of Western RPGs like Elder Scrolls, Fallout and Mass Effect, Square Enix has had an incredibly tough time adapting with the times.  Recent entries in their long-running Final Fantasy series has tirelessly tired to modernize the JRPG genre to varying degrees of success.  Funny enough, the company's recent entry into the JRPG genre, Bravely Default, has captured the hearts and minds of gamers by going back to the basic storytelling and gameplay of early entries in the genre.

Bravely Default's premise is very similar to first few Final Fantasies.  You control the four Heroes of Light (Tiz, Agnes, Ringabell and Edea) as they purify four elemental crystals in order to save the world.  On their journey to purify the crystals, the Heroes of Light must combat the forces of the Duchy of Eternia and discover the truth behind the Crystal Orthodoxy.  On the surface, the story and the protagonists seem to fall under many classic JRPG tropes such as a heroes' hometown getting decimated and one of the heroes conveniently suffering from amnesia.  As the story advances, the depth and complexity of the huge cast of characters becomes evident.  The conflict between the Crystalism and Anti-Crystalism is not as black-and-white as the game originally makes it out to be.  Bravely Default offers a good amount of twists and turns to keep gamers interested.  While the story provides motivation to keep playing, it is not the most compelling feature of Bravely Default.

Bravely Default truly shines above other entries in the JRPG genre through its combat and job systems.  The combat is similar to other turn-based RPGs as the player and their opponents takes turns attacking, defending and using items.  The creative twist in Bravely Default's combat comes from the brave-default system.  Default acts like defending as it decreases damage taken, but also increases battle points (BP).  You use BP to brave, which allows a character to unleash multiple attacks in a single turn or spend on job-specific attacks and abilities.  Braving and defaulting is a risk-reward system that adds an extra layer of strategy to battles.  You can try to dispatch enemies in one turn by attacking multiple times, but you risk leaving your party vulnerable to multiple attacks if they survive your onslaught.  Managing when to brave or default can be the difference between life or death in Bravely Default.  The game's job system has clearly been inspired by the systems implemented in past Final Fantasy games.  Although the inspirations from other titles, Bravely Default's job system is much more approachable than other RPGs due to the improvements Square Enix and Silicon Studio has made.  Jobs level up independently of the character's actual level so changing jobs does not reset a character's overall level.  While characters can only be employed by one job at a time, you can equip the attacks and abilities from another job to use as well.  This feature allows for tons of customization as you can have a white mage that can cast black magic on top of healing spells or a knight that can imbue their blade with a spell fencer's sword magic.  Going along with the customizable jobs, you can equip any special attribute learned through levelling up jobs or those your friends have learned through the Ablink feature.  These two systems are only just one slice of the great suite of features that Bravely Default gives you to play with.  From the excellent StreetPass and online features like rebuilding the town of Norende with the people you StreetPass and connect with online or summoning friends to help in battle to the incredible ability to change encounter rates and game difficulty at anytime, Bravely Default offers tons of features to keep players satisfied.

With all the great features and systems Bravely Default has to offer, it has one critical blemish that almost derails the entire experience.  What easily could have been an excellent fifty to sixty hour experience receives some completely unnecessary padding that doubles the length of the game.  What makes this padding even worse is how tedious it is.  Instead of adding some worthwhile quests to elaborate on the story, you repeat the same exact tasks over and over again until the game deems it time to move on to the true final chapter.  After the second time repeating this process, the story stops advancing altogether until the true final chapter which makes a good twenty hours of the game feel like an absolute waste of time.  You can break from the tedium at anytime to complete the normal ending of Bravely Default, but that does not give much closure to the story of the game.  Funny enough, the normal ending of Bravely Default is more satisfying than the true ending of the game because it lacks the drastic difficulty spike the true ending has and it makes more sense than most of the plot points inserted into the true ending with little to no explanation whatsoever.  The true ending is not worth the time and effort needed to reach it.  In fact, trying to reach the true ending could compromise your enjoyment of Bravely Default as a whole.

Aside from the unnecessary padding, Bravely Default is a great game.  There are enough great features packed into this small 3DS cartridge to keep anyone satisfied for days, possibly months on end.  The one thing holding Bravely Default back from being the definitive RPG experience on the 3DS is the major misstep taken in the most crucial hours of the game.  Padding the game by a few hours is understandable, but by close to fifty plus hours cannot be easily reconciled.  While the padding may leave some upset and disappointed, Bravely Default's strengths more than make up for the underwhelming endgame.  For those looking for an old-school RPG with some excellent modern twists, Bravely Default is definitely a game worth picking up.

The Seventh Generation: Xbox 360

The second console to look back on is the first one out of the gate this past generation, the Xbox 360.  Microsoft stepped into the video game industry with the original Xbox, but the Xbox 360 was when Microsoft made their foothold in the market.  Launching a full year ahead of the PS3 and the Wii really helped the Xbox 360 establish itself as the must-have console for the early years of this past generation.  While the PS3 had problems with making the system easily accessible for programmers and the Wii was too concerned with the casual gaming audience, the Xbox 360 had the premier online service in Xbox Live, a prospering selection of downloadable games through Xbox Live Arcade and a good number of first and third party exclusives.  The more successful the Xbox 360 became, the more Microsoft tampered with this winning formula.  The later years of the Xbox 360 saw so many shifts in focus that have gone onto hurt this console and company's standing in various ways.

The Xbox 360 made some significant improvements over its predecessor.  Apart from enhanced processing power and improved online services, Microsoft completely reworked the controller for the 360.  While the original Xbox controller was cumbersome and uncomfortable to use, the 360 controller fit perfectly to the contours of a person's hands.  The 360 controller was so well received by gamers that it is considered among the best video game controllers of all-time.  Through Xbox Live Arcade, the 360 brought forth a new avenue to access games.  No longer did one have to go to their local video game store to pick up the latest game, there were hundreds of games, demos, downloadable expansions and extra content available to download from the system's marketplace menu.  All one needed to access all this content was an internet connection.  Xbox Live Arcade also gave independent game developers a chance to easily release games on consoles.  While these indy developers needed the support of Microsoft or a third-party publisher to get their games on this service, Xbox Live Arcade did offer an affordable way to create console games.  Some of the best games for the 360 such as Braid, Limbo, Shadow Complex and Trials were released through Xbox Live Arcade.  Speaking of games, the Xbox 360 saw the release of some generation defining games like Gears of War, Mass Effect, BioShock, Fight Night Round 3 and The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion before landing on other platforms.

The Xbox 360 was overwhelmingly successful with the core gamer audience despite the hardware problems.  There are always problems with technology, but the 360's problems like the infamous Red Ring of Death and the far too common ring scratches were widespread problems.  Although some people like this writer have never experienced such hardware failures, not everyone was that lucky.  Many people went through a good number of Xbox 360s in the last generation.  During this generation, Microsoft constantly improved the Xbox 360 hardware to avoid these hardware problems in later Xbox 360 hardware.  While the hardware improved over time, the 360's standing did not.  From 2009 onwards, Microsoft shifted the 360's focus from  the defined core gamer audience to a much broader all-encompassing audience.  Microsoft moved away from developing first-party software and pushing support for indy developers to creating new peripherals and fostering greater relations with third-party publishers.  The lack of first-party support and worthwhile exclusives pushed gamers away because there was nothing to differentiate the Xbox 360 from the PS3.  The onslaught of casual games brought on by the Kinect, Microsoft's answer to the Wii's motion controls, did not help matters either.  It did bring in the casual audience, but it also alienated a good portion of the 360's primary audience.  Microsoft's SmartGlass and multimedia initiatives made it even more evident that this company had no clue about what to do with the 360's success.

The Xbox 360 has definitely had its ups and downs.  The 360 started out as the dominant console of this generation in the eyes of gamers, but completely fell flat on its face in the past few years due to Microsoft's lack of focus.  The Kinect and SmartGlass were sadly glorified prototypes that did more to hurt the 360 than extend its life.  Although these mistakes, the 360 offers a great selection of games from the Triple A blockbusters to the independent darlings.  In the end, the Xbox 360 is hands down Microsoft's best console to date.

E3 2013: Sony Press Conference Impressions

After Microsoft's multiple slip ups with the Xbox One, it was Sony's E3 to win.  The question was if Sony would be smart enough to take advantage of this huge opportunity to bury their competition.  Would PS4 walk triumphantly with gamers to back them up or pathetically limp all alone into the next generation?  It was one long haul, but those questions were definitely answered.

Sony's Press Conference had the highest of highs, the lowest of lows and everything in between.  The conference lasted just about two hours and it took close to three quarters of the conference to get to the goods.  The last quarter of this conference will easily go down in video game history.  Starting with the showcase of eight indie games on stage (Don't Starve, Ray's the Dead, Secret Ponchos, Octodad, Oddworld: New 'N' Tasty, Galak-Z, Mercenary Kings and Outlast), Sony opened up the floodgates for the announcements PS4 desperately needed.  Leading up to this point, we were subjugated to Sony's classic strategy of boring the living hell out of every living thing watching.  There were a quite a few games showed off for PS4 before this moment, but they were everything Sony showed off before.  It did not hold our attention especially after suffering through Sony confirming on-stage that the Vita is dead in the water, focusing on PS3 games that did not need to be covered and even pushing their Sony Pictures division down our throats (funny considering they took a shot at Microsoft for doing the exact same thing).  Long story short, it was not a good way to spend nearly three quarters of a video game conference.  Once Sony showed off two bombshells from Square Enix known as Final Fantasy XV (the former Final Fantasy Versus XIII) and flipping Kingdom Hearts 3!  While switching Versus XIII to XV was expected, nobody saw Kingdom Hearts 3 coming and it made this conference special.  From there on, Sony went right into the Watch Dogs and Assassin's Creed IV demos that should have been at the Ubisoft conference.  Nevertheless, Watch Dogs stole this writers heart with the best demo of the conference.  Assassin's Creed IV was nothing too special especially with the amount of technical difficulties the demo suffered from.  Sony also showed off Elder Scrolls Online, Mad Max and Destiny.  There was nothing special about Elder Scrolls Online and Mad Max as all they showed were trailers.  For Destiny, Sony brought the first live gameplay of Bungie's new shooter, which was very enjoyable.  The one moment that left just as much lasting effect on those watching than the Kingdom Hearts 3 reveal was Sony's direct shots at Microsoft.  Even though publishers are pushing for DRM on consoles, Sony is standing firmly behind the consumers as the PS4 will be able to play used games and will not require a constant internet connection or to be authenticated every 24 hours.  Sony took a knife and stabbed it directly into Microsoft's heart, but those shots were not the only thing.  Sony dug their knife even deeper into Microsoft's heart with the bold announcement that the PS4 will retail at 399 dollars.  399 dollars for a PS4 is nuts.  The PS3 was almost twice that price at launch.  What an incredible way to end a conference and single-handedly put the Xbox One on life support.

While the last quarter of the Sony Press Conference was near perfection, I cannot give the abysmal first three quarters of the conference a pass.  Personally, I am not going to forget the hour and a half that we wasted just to get to the good stuff.  The Sony Press Conference is the entire two hour show, not the final thirty minutes and I believe many are forgetting that fact.  Although I still have reservations about a few features such as the Gaikai streaming service, this conference did its job and sold the PS4 to the masses.  For that fact alone, this conference deserves kudos.

Grade:  B-

On the Download: July 29-August 4

It is sad to see things to slow down this much on the downloadable front.  I can expect it from the retail side of things, but there has been a relentless slew of new quality downloadable games all competing for our hard earned cash as of late.  It is rather sad to see things slow down this much.  There was not even any new games released for the 3DS Virtual Console as part of their 8-Bit Summer initiative or a Game of Weekend deal on the eShop as well.  I am still hoping either Pushmo and/or Dillion's Rolling Western to get discounted a few dollars one of these weekends.  Even with the lack of noteworthy downloadable games being released at this very moment, there are a couple noteworthy ones that people should consider pre-purchasing.  You can pre-purchase Symphony, a very interesting musical shooter that I have actually picked up, on Steam for 8 dollars (20% off the regular price) or Sound Shapes, a platformer where the actions make the music, on PSN for 15 dollars (12 dollars if you have PlayStation Plus) both of which come out next week.  Also the first piece of Skyrim DLC, Dawnguard has been released for PC for those PC Elder Scrolls fanatics that have been waiting what to them must seems like ages for this big add-on.  This week there might not be a lot of games releasing on the downloadable side of things, but next week looks to shaping up to be one big week for downloadable games.  Might be big enough to warrant another two part edition of On the Download.  We will have to wait and see.  Before we can get to next week, we still got to take a look at the lone downloadable offering from this week, Deadlight.

Microsoft's Summer of Arcade continues with the release of Deadlight.  Deadlight is a puzzle platformer much like Limbo and Shadow Complex, which both debuted in one of Microsoft's Summer of Arcade promotions from years past.  Set in 1986, the world has been ravaged by a zombie plague.  Deadlight casts you as Randall Wayne, a survivor of this perilous plague.  After his wife and daughter go missing during the beginning of the outbreak, Randall sets out for Seattle to possibly find refuge and hopefully, if they are still alive, find his family.  Each enemy encounter in the game plays out like a puzzle.  You have to expertly use the environment to your advantage in order to get by zombies and other obstacles.  While you are given access to weapons such as an axe and guns to combat the zombie horde, the best solution is to avoid combat unless it is absolutely necessary.  It seems like every other game that releases nowadays has zombies in them in some shape or form and it is getting very tiresome.  While Deadlight is yet another game set in a zombie apocalypse, it looks to be an unique enough experience to make it standout among the horde of zombie games.  If you are interested in Deadlight, you can download from XBLA for 1200 Microsoft Points.

Off the Newsstand: Game Informer Issue 231

Been a little busy these last few weeks with summer game releases to get a chance to talk about the magazines that I have plowed through these last few weeks. Actually finished my latest issue of Nintendo Power and I do not have that much to read. Guess I will have to wait until my new issue of Game Informer comes in the mail. Speaking of Game Informer, today I am looking at the last issue of Game Informer I read, which actually was released the week of E3.

Issue 231 of Game Informer had all the inside scoops on some of the biggest games highlighted at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo.  I know Game Informer does get a lot of inside looks very early, but this issue was sent to subscribers the week of E3, when some of the games/tech demos in this issue were first revealed to the public.  Therefore causing some leaks and killing some of the possible surprises at this year's event.  Personally, I do not believe it would have been that hard to send the issues out so subscribers and newsstands received the issue after E3 was over. While this gripe may not hurt the quality of the issue, I do think that when this issue was released did steal some of the grandeur away from this year's E3.  The cover story was all about the new Gears of War: Judgment (or what I like to call Gears of War: Reach) being co-developed by Epic and People Can Fly, the team that worked on Bulletstorm.  The cover story has an in-depth look at the story of the game that follows Baird and Cole Train on a mission that takes place 14 years before the original and the new multi-player modes such as OverRun, the combination of Horde and Beast modes.   The cover story was fine and enjoyable; I am not sold on the game at all.  It seems like Epic and Microsoft are trying to milk the series for all it is worth instead of providing possibly a new IP or a sequel to Bulletstorm with more refined mechanics.  Right now, Gears of War: Judgment is in my opinion the Gears sequel that nobody wanted.  Along with the Gears of War: Judgment, Issue 231 contained exclusive previews for the Skyrim DLC, Dawnguard, Tomb Raider, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Dead Space 3 and Assassin's Creed III: Liberation.  Each preview had in-depth descriptions of the E3 builds for each game.  I personally enjoyed the Tomb Raider preview that looked at a few scenarios that I did not see while watching the demos from E3.  Honestly the best stuff from this issue came from the Connect section.  An extremely extensive look at Unreal Engine 4, an article on how cross-platform gaming could possibly change the way we play, a very compelling interview with Robert Bowling, former creative strategist for the Call of Duty franchise, on his departure from Activision and his new game Human Element and a great interview with Jason West and Vince Zampella that sheds a different light on their dispute with Activision are all articles that are worth picking up this issue of Game Informer to read.  To round out the issue are the solid previews and reviews for all to enjoy.

While I do not agree with the release schedule of this issue and how it did take away from the lustre of E3, Issue 231 is a great issue of Game Informer that I cannot fault for things possibly out of the editors' control.  This issue has some of the most incredibly thought provoking and informative articles I have found in any magazine and a great set of exclusive previews to accompany another solid cover story.  It is the full package that is well worth the asking price.

On the Download: June 24-30 Part 2

On the Download continues with a look at the console and PC downloadable games released this week.  I will get to the meat and potatoes of this post, I would like to highlight two other downloadable games/DLC.

First, the second episode of Telltale Games Walking Dead adventure game was released this week for XBLA, PSN and Steam.  The second episode, called Starved for Help, continues the story from where the first episode, A New Day, left off.  You are able to find Starved for Help as an individual download for 5 dollars on XBLA or PSN or you can pick up the Season Pass and get the entire series when each subsequent episode is released.

Next piece of business is a piece of free DLC for Mass Effect 3.  When the game came out in March, there was a lot of backlash around the game's ending.  While I did personally enjoy the original open-ended ending, it did bring up a lot of questions that got most fans that could not connect the dots themselves angry.  This Tuesday, BioWare released the Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut DLC.  The Extended Cut DLC does not change the ending of the game, it adds more scenes to the final 30 minutes of the game in order to help gamers get a better understanding of the Mass Effect 3's ending.  By better understanding, I mean BioWare basically lays out every single little detail for those gamers who could not do it themselves.  Hopefully this DLC does satisfy some of the haters, but no matter what BioWare does there will always be a core group of gamers that will hate the ending of Mass Effect 3 no matter what.  If you have Mass Effect 3, download the Extended Cut DLC as it is absolutely free and gives a better understanding of the game's ending.

The next piece of DLC I am going to talk about is for the biggest RPG of 2011, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.  The first big expansion to the world of Skyrim is called Dawnguard.  In Dawnguard, the vampire lord Harkon has returned.  Harkon seeks the power of the Elder Scrolls in order to accomplish his goal of blanketting Tamriel in eternal darkness by blocking out the sun.  As the hero of Skyrim, you must choose between joining Harkon in his dark goal or the collective of vampire hunters known as the Dawnguard in stopping Harkon and his vampires.  Which faction you choose to join will affect the perks you receive, your homebase (Castle Volkihar for the vampires and Fort Dawnguard for the vampire hunters) and some other bonuses exclusive to each faction such as being able to transform into a vampire lord or hiring Armoured Trolls.  Dawnguard also adds new combat options and weapons such as the crossbow and mounted combat, new shouts, new quests, new skill trees, new dragons and other enemies and the ability to alter your appearance at anytime for a price of 1000 septim.  At the moment, Dawnguard is only available on XBLA for 1600 Microsoft points because Microsoft paid Bethesda for timed exclusivity for the DLC.  Dawnguard should be coming to PSN and PC sometime in the near future.

Penny Arcade Adventures: On a Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness has been on a long hiatus.  The first two episodes in this episodic series were created by Hothead Games, but in 2010 the developer discontinued production on future episodes to focus on DeathSpank.  Back in late 2011, Zeboyd Games, the makers of indie RPG hits Cthulhu Saves the World and Breath of Death VII, announced they would pick up where Hothead Games left off and make the third episode in this series.  The most striking difference between Episode 3 and the first two episodes of Penny Arcade Adventures is the 16-bit inspired graphics that are very similar to RPGs from the SNES.  Episode 3 is completely inspired by RPGs from the SNES era as the combat and presentation are very similar to past RPGs mixed with modern design sensibilities.  Episode 3 is suppose to last 8 to 12 hours with more content to be added with free updates.  Currently Penny Arcade's On a Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3 is only available for PC through Steam, but it will will be released for XBLA, Mac, Android and iOS at later dates.  If you do have Steam, you can pick it up for 5 dollars and buy it before July 2 to get Cthulhu Saves the World and Breath of Death VII for free.  Three indie RPGs for 5 dollars that is a great deal.

Off the Newsstand: Game Informer Issue 230

This past month or so I have had a steady of stream of magazines to read.  Whenever I would finish reading one, another would show up in the mail.  It was very nice as I always had something to read and keep me occupied.  Also when I do not have anything in particular to read, I get kind of stir crazy.  While I wait on the newest issues of EGM and Nintendo Power, I read Issue 230 of Game Informer, which I just finished a few days ago.  Without any further ado, here are my thoughts on this issue.

The Elder Scrolls series graces the cover of Game Informer once again as Bethesda and Zenimax Online announce The Elder Scrolls Online in Issue 230 of Game Informer.  While I am not a fan of the Elder Scrolls series and MMOs, this cover story was fairly enjoyable and very informative.  It goes into full detail how Bethesda and Zenimax Online are going to tackle the MMO genre while keeping Elder Scrolls' identify in tack.  I do think how Bethesda and Zenimax are handling the story with the multiple heroes, player choice and the PvP endgame is all very interesting and great hooks.  I still need to see and read more before I am convinced that The Elder Scrolls Online can compete with the likes of World of Warcraft, Star Wars: The Old Republic and the upcoming Guild Wars II.  While not as good the Halo 4 cover story from last issue, The Elder Scrolls Online cover story is an enjoyable read nonetheless.  Honestly, I was more impressed with all the articles in Issue 230's Connect section like the evolution of the ESA, the current state of adventure games, the many different ways game makers are making money in this day and age and interviews with the curator of the Smithsonian's Video Game Exhibit and the filmmakers behind Indie Game: The Movie.  They were all amazing articles that kept me engaged and glued to the page as they dived right into some of the biggest trends and stories in the video game industry today.  Issue 230 is also packed with the brim with previews from big blockbuster games like the Amazing Spider Man and Resident Evil 6 all the way to some great games under the radar of most gamers like Epic Mikey: Power of Illusion and Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch.  The review section this issue is fairly small, but looks at the biggest games from this spring such as Fez, Dragon's Dogma, Prototype 2 and Kinect Star Wars.

As a whole, Issue 230 of Game Informer is a great issue.  While the cover story on The Elder Scrolls Online is a must read for all fans of The Elder Scrolls series, it is still an enjoyable read for the average reader.  The best content is found in the Connect and Preview sections of Issue 230 and make this issue of Game Informer a must-read for all gamers.

Launch Station: Dragon's Dogma

For this whole console generation, Capcom has tried its hand at introducing new intellectual properties that they could possibly lead into bigger franchises.  Capcom has seen success with both the Dead Rising and Lost Planet while also experiencing complete failure with Dark Void.  In 2012, we have already seen Capcom try their hand at one new IP with Asura's Wrath back in February.  Today, sees the release of Capcom's other big new IP, Dragon's Dogma.

Dragon's Dogma is an action RPG published and developed by Capcom to compete with the action RPG giant The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.  In the opening few minutes of the game, a dragon raids your home village.  During the raid, the dragon tears out your heart.  Missing your heart, you inevitably die only to be revived as an Arisen.  As an Arisen, you have been chosen as the hero to find and kill the dragon that stole your heart.  From the outset of the game, Dragon's Dogma offers tons of customization options in order to make your own personalized character.  From your appearance to your gender to your class, you are given the freedom to make whatever character you want.  If you do not like the character you made, you can retool them and change classes at any point in the game.  One of the main features in Dragon's Dogma is the pawn system, which governs the AI that controls the player's party.  These party members referred to in Dragon's Dogma as pawns, fight independently, learn skills on their own, actively converse with the player and give helpful information on enemies.  The player is also able to give pawns orders if you need them to do something in particular.  In Dragon's Dogma, you are able to grab onto anything from enemies to objects to even NPCs.  The grab can be used to grab onto to giant enemies like a griffon and scale them much like what you do in Shadow of the Colossus.  It makes the player feel like you are actually fighting a giant monster rather than chopping at their shins like you do most games.

Dragon's Dogma has a lot of stiff competition to compete with.  The comparisons with Skyrim will no doubtfully come up and most likely be used as a negative point against the game all due to Capcom's huge lack of promoting Dragon's Dogma.  While I was never interested in the game, it was very hard to tell how good or bad the game would be from the trailers or previews.  There is the demo, which I have not tried yet due to how busy I have been lately.  The reviews have been all been very positive so it will be interesting to see how well Dragon's Dogma sells.  If there are gamers out there looking for another high fantasy action RPG much in the vein of Skyrim, Dragon's Dogma should satisfy your needs.

On the Download: April 29-May 5

Another week, another round-up of downloadable games here in On the Download.  While there are a couple games I want to highlight this week.  I want to mention that there are a lot of great sales going on Steam this week.  While the sale on Bastion and Dust Force ended earlier in the day, there are sales on Batman: Arkham City, Sanctum, Elder Scrolls III and IV, Transformers: War for Cybertron and a whole bunch of indie games published by EA.  If you use Steam for downloading PC games, take a look at these amazing deals.  If you do not have Steam, maybe you should think about downloading Valve's incredible PC client.  Without further delay, let us jump into the biggest downloadable games of the week.

Lionhead Studios takes the Fable in an unnecessary direction yet again.  In order to hype up the Fable franchises' first romp on the Kinect in Fable: The Journey, Lionhead Studios has created Fable Heroes for download on XBLA.  Fable Heroes is a action-packed beat-em up set in the Fable universe.  To seperate Fable Heroes from the more mature core Fable games, Lionhead went with an incredibly cute art style.  Up to four players can work together to complete levels and defeat enemies while competing for gold, experience and unlockable items both online and offline.  Also in a way to tie Fable Heroes into Fable: The Journey, you can save the gold you earn in Fable Heroes for use in Fable: The Journey.  While I have never been high on the Fable series, Fable Heroes looks to be a 800 Microsoft Points worth spending only for hardcore Fable fans out there.

"Awesome!  Awesome!  Awesomenauts!  Awesome!  Awesome!  Awesomenauts!"  Once I first heard the amazing 80s cartoon inspired theme, Awesomenauts was one downloadable game I knew I needed to keep an eye on.  While the game is multi-player only, it still looks like one amazing concept that should definitely be checked out by all gamers.  In the long distant future, conflict has engulfed the stars as robot armies are locked in a stalemate.  A powerful group of mercenaries known as the Awesomenauts are called upon to bring an end to the stalemate.  Awesomenauts is a multi-player online arena (MOBA for short) game with elements of 2D platform games.  You can play 3-on-3 matches online.  If you do not mind sharing a screen, you can team up with two friends locally to play other teams online.  At launch, you can play as the six unique members of the Awesomenauts with more characters scheduled to be added to roster in later updates.  At 800 Microsoft Points on XBLA or 10 dollars on PSN, Awesomenauts is a great download for anybody really into multi-player games like Team Fortress 2 or DOTA.  Need more incentive to buy this game, just listen to its theme music.

Hump Day Music: Sons of Skyrim

With everything that went on last week, it was a little too busy to put up  a new edition of Hump Day Music.  For those who missed not having Hump Day Music to help them get over the hump, I hope this week's edition makes up for it.  While by now, you know my love for another game with Sky in its name (one hint, it is not Skylanders), I have to give credit to another game with Sky in its name, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.  Over the past two months, the land of Skyrim has captured the hearts of many gamers.  I have not personally played it yet, but I hope to eventually.  Probably when Bethesda releases the Game of the Year edition with all the expansions or the 5th Anniversary edition with some Behind the Scenes content.

Even though I have not played it yet, one aspect of Skyrim has already impressed me.  That aspect is the game's epic orchestrated soundtrack.  If there was a way to get the soundtrack for Skyrim and many other games on CD or iTunes, I would definitely purchase them.  The track I am sharing with you today is one I cannot stop listening to and even try to sing along with, but fail as it is in another language.  It is Skyrim's main theme, Sons of Skyrim.  If you have seen the Official Gameplay Trailer for Skyrim, you have heard the song and quite possibly tried to sing along with the incredible male choir for the chorus.  It is a song that gets your heart pumping.  As I associate the song with the game, it makes me feel like I want to grab an axe a slay some dragons.  So before you go pick up your axe and slay some dragons, take a few minutes to one of the best pieces of music from 2011.