Author: Thomas Ortsik

Founder and Kinda-Editor-In-Chief at Twinstiq.
Also known as Dr. Strangethumb

E3 2015: Nintendo Direct

Way too tired,
Coffee!
AAAH, it’s starting already. I missed the first 10 seconds. Nooooo! And they are muppets! Love it already. My body isn’t ready yet, but give me a second and some coffee. And now they turn into Star Fox characters. I really love those Nintendo Directs.

Ok, Star Fox is also the first game we see. Looks ok, I guess?

Reggie now. And he just told us: No NX until 2016. Why even announce it then? What the hell Nintendo? Are you kidding me? You want to show your immediate future? Let me guess, you talk for Amiibos now for 30 minutes. Screw you! Oh, no he talks about Mario Maker. Yeah, we’ve seen that already. Nothi AMIIBOS! I KNEW IT!

kthxbye

Zelda Triforce Heroes? Never been a Zelda fan. Sue me.

Oh, Hyrule Warriors. That’s how you get me to play Zelda, but I already posted the trailer some days ago.

Some more puppets, Trisha in the team internal chat distracting me, and some Metroid? The game we’ve seen in the Nintendo World Championships…..ooooooooohhhhh Fire Emblem Fate. This looks really cool. Wait a second. Is that… wow, that’s the best cell-shading I’ve ever seen.

What the hell is this now? Hatsune Miku style music and… looks a bit like Persona. No idea what that was. The symbol reminded me a bit of persona. Need to watch that whole thing again when awake.

Ohhh, Xenoblade now. Only started playing the first one when it came to the 3DS and love it so far. Did get bogged down with the sidequests though.

Animal Crossing. Never played it, was thinking about getting it for the 3DS. It’s the card Amiibo one. NEEXT!

A WiiU Animal Crossing party game? And the Amiibos -.- I’m out again. Amiibo Festival my ass. Until I get all 3 Splatoon Amiibos, you lost me with that shit.

Yoshi’s Woolly World. Ok, that Amiibo is cute. NO! No more Amiibos until I get the Splatoon one! Ok, maybe a woolly Yoshi….
Game still looks cute. I would totally play it, would it not be for my backlog.

Oh, that supposed Pokemon Killer. Yo-Kai Watch. Heard it’s a big hit in Japan.

Paper Mario meets 3D Mario? Looks pretty cool. Not much like traditional Mario games, but cool. Mario & Luigi – Paper Jam. K. Have to keep an eye on that.

Mario Tennis for the WiiU. Loved the Mario Tennis RPG thing on the Gameboy, this seems to be a straight up arcade Tennis. Meh.

Mario Maker now. The levels we’ve seen in the World Championship looked really cool, but I don’t trust community made levels. And Amiibo support. And a 8bit Mario Amiibo. Looks cool, but it’s another Amiibo that isn’t Splatoon.

Reggie talking transformation again. Looks like that’s the end of this Direct. Need to watch the first half of it again, since my brain was still asleep. Not a big show, certainly not up there with Sony or Microsoft, but Nintendo is kinda doing their own thing anyway.

Anyway, Square Enix is up next. So I have to hurry.

E3 2015:  Shenmue III Funded Approximately 9 Hours After Going Live

On June 15, 2015 at approximately 16:00 on the Sony stage, Ys Net’s Yu Suzuki told us about his dream project:  Shenmue III.  And then, of course, a timer started.  That timer lead directly to the Kickstarter page.  His request was clear:  help save Shenmue III.

Within the first hour of that particular stage show going live, the game had racked up an incredible $1 million.

9 hours later, more-or-less the project is completely funded – getting all of its $2 million in that short time.  One wonders just how far – and how fast – this particular Kickstarter will climb?

E3 2015: Sony Press Conference

Sony with the final conference for today. Warning: I’m a bit of a Sony fanboy, so don’t expect the same amount of cynicism.
YEAH! BEST INTRO TO ANY E3 EVER!!!!11!! Just kidding, last year’s Sony intro was better :p

The beard suits him. The PR speak….oooh, the Zeitgeist has been dropped.
The Last Guardian is here… wow, so it’s still a thing? Now don’t crucify me, but I’m really not hyped for it. Never was. It looks cute and all, but I really can’t see me playing it. Big question now: Is it still a PS3 game? Probably not, but it doesn’t look very PS4. Maybe the PS3 swansong, while also getting a 1080p/60 PS4 release. Release date: 2016. I really doubt a PS3 release then. Shuhei just confirmed PS4. Wow, that’s not going to make any points on the visual front.

Guerilla Games guy on the stage. New Killzone? No. A new franchise. Post-Apocalyptic. Looks neat.
Scratch that. Looks awesome. Robo dinos. Cool weapons. I’m down for that.
It’s called Horizon: Zero Dawn.

Square Enix trailer now. No idea. New IP? Hitman reboot? Ok, Hitman. But is it a reboot?
Oh, come oooon. You know what I didn’t miss during the Xbox press conference? Exclusive content. So why are you doing it Sony? Screw that shit.

Anyway, console exclusive (there it is again) Street Fighter 5 now. Don’t really care. Wow, he really can’t stop saying exclusive.

Hello Games, you know what that means? No Man’s Sky. And we see actual gameplay. A universe sized sandbox? Sand is rather boring though. Yeah, we get it, it’s big, but what is it about? Has a certain Elite: Dangerous vibe, but about 100x cooler, thanks to the whole being able to land on planets thing. Looks all very peaceful. Fully destructible environment. And there are big robot sentinels, who are guarding the planets from people. And that’s it. We still don’t know much. Trading, fighting, exploring, survival. Well, it looks cool at least.

Media Molecule has more than just the Tearaway port. Ok, what is this? A sculpting game? The visuals are pretty cool, but I can’t see an actual game in it. It’s called Dreams and the crowd goes nuts. That’s the thing with crowds, they like good lucking stuff. BUT WHAT IS IT?!

Firewatch, no idea what that is, but it looks freaking awesome. Is this becoming a trend now? How can you not show up at Gamescom?! WE WANT ANSWERS TO WHAT YOU ARE SHOWING US!

Destiny. NEEXT!

Assassin’s Creed. NEEEEEEXT!

World of Final Fantasy. Finally a Vita game. Also PS4. Looks ...ok? Can’t say much.

So, time for Final Fantasy 7? Let’s be this a troll. The PC version with with new CGI cutscenes. HOOOLLLYYY FUCKING SHIT! The internet just died. It’s a Final Fantasy VII Remake. First on PS4 (so also on XBO, probably)

Devolver Digital Showcase? I didn’t really look. The Final Fantasy thing got me distracted.

Ok, this is insane now. Shenmue 3?! If this is an exclusive, then… a Kickstarter? Are you kidding me? What is this shit? Promoting a Kickstarter during the Playstation conference?

I…I…This is confusing. Sorry. Some Batman trailer is running. I don’t really…

Shenmue 3 Kickstarter? FF7 Remake? My brain is all messy right now.

Ok, exclusive Batman Arkham Knight mission.

Morpheus! The games look decent. People can try Morpheus at E3. Looks like that’s it.

Some media stuff I don’t care about.

Call of Duty Black Ops 3. Whatever. Liked the last one, but come on: It’s CoD. What’s there to say about it? So there is coop, cool. Can we skip the rest? You can make people vomit? Fine, GOTY. Can we continue with the show now? Crysis like abilities. Again: next? Please?
And now they talk about it. Oh god. If you stop now, I’ll buy it. Promised.

So, that’s it?

Vita. Very little Vita. Vita dead?

Oh, it’s not over. Was wondering why not Uncharted. Star Wars now. Disney Infinizzzzzzzzzzzz.
Battlefront still looks good. Not much has changed since the EA conference, however.

Last game, probably Uncharted then. Yes, it is. Nathan looks to be as confused as I am however. Not moving and all. Somebody at Sony has a heart attack now.
Game looks good, but I really don’t need to see so much of it. Unless you make it a space shooter, I know what to expect. Game looks really good though. “First time driver here” heh, that’s cute. The driving sequence looks fun, but now you’ve spoiled it.

People are getting up, so I guess that’s it. So, whats my opinion? Can’t say. Still confused about the whole thing. The Kickstarter killed my brain. And the Final Fantasy 7 remake? Damn. No word on Kingdom Hearts. That exclusivity thing was pissing me off. The new reveals looked interesting. Last Guardian is also big, though I still don’t care.

Interesting bit of information: Shenmue 3 will be PC and PS4 only.

E3 2015:  King’s Quest, Episode 1 On Its Way

King’s Quest – a venerable gaming franchise from the 1980’s is slowly but surely coming back to life.  It is being bought to modern audiences through the combined efforts of a reborn Sierra On-Line and a development studio known as The Odd Gentleman.

As per news from E3, this new team is starting a whole new adventure in the land of Daventry in July, 2015.

Follow along after the break for more information.

King Graham was the protagonist of most of the King's Quest games. In this particular game, he is your guide through the story.

The now-ancient King Graham tells stories of his youth to his granddaugther, Gwendolyn
King’s Quest will be an episodic game that tells stories from the history of King Graham’s many feats and accomplishments.  The first such instalment tells of how he became a knight in Service of King Edward and is called A Knight To Remember.

This new venture will not be in the style of the old games; instead, it will feature a little bit of action along with puzzle-solving elements that utilize an inventory.  The backbone of the first episode will be somewhat open-world in that you should be able to go and solve puzzles in any place and at any time.

The current platforms for release are PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and PC [via Steam]

Get ready, for your legacy awaits.

E3 2015: Ubisoft

You should already be familiar with how I do this, so enjoy more brainfarts from the conference. -Dr. S
The Uplay people start out strong. A new South Park game, The Fractured But Whole. HELL YEAH!I was thinking about skipping this one, but South Park!It’s a successor to The Stick of Truth, and it’s all about your butthole. They promise that it’s going to be a much better game than the previous one.

Aisha Tyler, still the best thing about Uplay people press conferences, acknowledges their failure in the last year.

Yves Guillemont or however you spell him comes on stage to show us a Samurai, Viking, Knight game. Trailer looks pretty damn cool. Game is called For Honor, but you can’t fool me again. Oooh, actual gameplay coming up. So it’s a co-op game?
Fuck. This looks nice. Not co-op, but versus. 3rd person Chivalry, with slower fights. Really looking forward to trying that out at Gamescom. If you are going to E3, you can so tomorrow.

The Crew expansion. Yawn.

New Trials expansion. Awesome Level MAX. No idea what to say. “You’re a cat riding a fire breathing unicorn”

The Division. Remember: This game is made by 4 development studios. If this isn’t the biggest and best thing ever …who am I kidding.
Same acted voice chat. A Wilhelm Scream. Can’t say much about it. It’s playable at E3. Beta access for everyone not at E3 early 2016, full release is on March 8th 2016.

Blue Byte up next. Could this mean Anno? It’s sci-fi. Looks like you are on the moon. Yep, it’s Anno 2205, you can play on the moon, but you will start on earth. Sounds a bit boring though. Earth is all beautiful and shit, and the moon? The moon is grey.

Cringe moment with Aisha

Just Dance 2016. No camera needed. You can use your smartphone instead. Probably works as well as Kinect. Now some dude singing on stage. Song sucks, singing is bad. WHAT ARE YOU DOING UPLAY PEOPLE?! THIS IS AWFUL?! DID YOU ACTUALLY PAY THEM FOR THIS? You just ruined music for me. Thanks!

Is this the rumored ZombiU sequel? Nope, it’s Rainbow Six: Siege. After some talking we finally see some actual live gameplay. AI is stupid as can be, game looks fun though. Beta starts September 24th and feature PvP & Co-op.

Trackmania, nice! Trackmania Turbo to be precise. If you are unfamiliar with the series, it’s an arcade racer with a great map builder. Ohh, there is also a VR demo available at the Ubisoft booth. Nice! Get the vomit bucket ready.

Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate. NEXT!
Setting is sweet, no question, but it’s just another AC.

One last thing from the Uplay folks. A new IP? Made by a “very good group” and it’s supposed to be “so good”. There it is, the first mention of the “Cloud”. Nice Soundtrack. Game is set in middle/south-america. You are part on some anti-drug enforcement agency. Ghost Recon? Some Vin Diesel look-alike whit face tattoos. Now come the bullet points. Open world. Nice scenery, looking good. And it’s confirmed, we have Ghost Recon: Wildlands. That whole South American Drug Lord thing made my willy soft, but the game itself looks pretty cool so far.

And that’s it. Stronger showing from the Uplay people than expected. Actually looking forward to some of their games.

Fallout 4 Mods coming to PS4 too

Microsoft shocked us previously by announcing mods for Fallout 4 on the Xbox One. Now Todd Howard shared some more information.
Most importantly: Mods are also planned for the PS4!
The modding tools won't be available at launch, but like with Skyrim, some time after launch. Xbox will receive mod support early 2016 first, after that, and if everything works out, the PS4 will receive them.
However we don't know which mods make it onto the consoles. Do all the mods work? Unlikely. Will it be a curated mod system? Likely. Does this mean paid mods? Could very well be.
Your thoughts on this? Share them in the comments.

E3 2015: EA Press Conference

Same deal as with Microsoft. Not a real recap. Very personal opinions that don’t reflect anyone elses but mine. – Dr. S
(Video of the conference as soon as it’s available)

EA starting with Johnny Cash and Mass Effect! Big opening.
Mass Effect: Andromeda, Holiday 2016

Need for Speed, yeah, we know. The Screenshots look good and it looks like the much beloved NFS: Underground series. Release November 3rd. It’s something for my EA Access vault probably, but something I look forward to.

Star Wars the Old Republic gets an expansion October 27th. Knights of the Fallen Empire will be free to subscribers and story focused. Don’t know. Tried out TOR, but didn’t really get much into it. Not big on the whole MMORPG thing.

Lots of thumb pressing going on now. Maybe he isn’t sure about the reaction the next game gets: Unravel.
Looks cute. The guy on stage now is super shaky and nervous. Makes it way more interesting than some EA business guy talking like he’s on sleeping pills.
Now some gameplay. 2D action platformer. You use yarn to swing and jump around places, or drag stuff around. Looks super adorable.

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2. The game will feature a couple new characters and cutscenes in the co-op. Not much else new. Characters can be transferred from GW1 to GW2. Free content updates are also promised.

NHL. Last year’s was shit on launch, so I don’t care. PGA Tour…next? Ultimate Team talk….next!
NBA Live…AHAHAHAHA. Well, who knows. Last year’s was decent, but still miles behind NBA 2k.

Mobile talk. I think I stop this until they get to Star Wars.
That was quick. A Star Wars CCG. Not what I wanted. And now a minions game. Just kill me.

FIFA 16. It’s supposed to be really good. Pelé talking stuff. Wait a second, last time he was involved with a football game, it was Academy of Champions: Soccer for the Wii by the people behind Uplay. It sucked. Not a good omen. Nah, it has nothing to do with me not liking Pelé. Pelé rambles on for about 10 minutes about women who touched his head. Boring stuff.
Defensive play is supposed to get a major overhaul. Really needed in my opinion. Messi is doing motion capturing. Little present for FIFA 15 Ultimate Team players: You get Messi and Pelé for free.

Mirror’s Edge. Looks nice. Again a very clean style and all. Bad guys are called Kruger. Of course, it’s a game dealing with futuristic fascism after all. Release: February 2016.

Back to sports with Madden. I care about FIFA, less so for Madden. So could we continue with something else? I want a Blitz: The League.

Now it’s time for Star Wars: Battlefront. PR talk. More PR talk. The Swedish accent makes it a bit more entertaining, though not exactly easier to understand. And I believed mine was bad.
Actual gameplay now. Finally!
Visuals look good. Gameplay…well, what we’ve seen is clearly scripted. But it could be amazing. Either way, I’m stoked for it.That’s it. Well, it was an EA conference. Too little Mass Effect info. Battlefront looks good. The rest? Not bad, but far from really interesting.

E3 2015: Microsoft Press Conference

You probably already watched the Microsoft press conference. If not, the video of it is linked above. This post will not offer pictures and will be more of a chronicle of my (Dr. S) experience than a full coverage of the press conference.
Microsoft starts with Halo 5.
I still remember MCC. NEEEEXT! Playable at E3 though.

New exclusive. Recore. Only a render trailer though. Looks cute.

Phil Spencer throwing buzzwords. PR speak, PR speak, PR speak. Oh, and btw Phil, one game does not make a franchise!
BOOM!!!
360 backwards compatibility. Available this holiday, for free, including a jab towards Sony.

Also a new Xbox One controller called Elite. Offers some customization and other features. More on that in the future

Fallout 4 is next, but we covered that already. Oh, one big news though: Mods created on the PC will be available on the Xbox One.
Microsoft is having a run. Can Sony mount a counter?

Mr. Moore talking EA Access. Titanfall and Dragon Age: Inquisition coming to the vault. Nice, if you don’t already have them.
People who own XBL Gold get 1 week of EA Access for free after E3.
And Garden Warfare 2 is coming next spring. Only a render trailer.

Forza 6, featuring the new Ford GT. No, Xbox is not the home of racing, that’s still the PC.
Forza will run at 1080p/60. And it’s a racing game. Coming September 15th.

Dark Souls 3 is having its “World Premiere”, funnily enough we already talked about it on the last Twinstiq Podcast.

The folks behind Uplay show The Division. Will we learn something new about it? No.

Gigantic. A Windows 10 and Xbox One exclusive. F2P, with a beta in August.

Now follows an Indie Showcase. Couple of games that are already out on the PC.
Tacoma gets shown, from Fullbright, the folks behind Gone Home. Looks of course nowhere near as good as the teaser trailer previously shown, but I'm still interested. Coming 2016.

Aurora 44 with their game Ashen. I get a certain Ico mixed with The Last Guardian mixed with Shadow of the Colossus vibe from it.

Beyond Eyes by tiger& squid. Can’t say much about it, besides: it was bright.

CUPHEAD! By Studio MDHR. Been looking forward to this one since it was first announced. It’s the game that looks like an old cartoon.

Xbox Game Preview, the Xbox version of Early Access. DayZ is joining Xbox Game Preview.. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Not the biggest fan of Early Access, although I can see the benefits. Microsoft hasn't said anything about refunds, so that could be an issue.“I want a game that is not a game. I want a game that is a universe” from the guy who is a grenade, Dean Hall. The game that is not a game is called "Ion" and it’s set in space. That’s all we know.

Rise of the Tomb Raider, Holiday 2015. It looks good and I enjoyed the first one. Probably won’t buy it for the XBO, unless they announce 1080p/60 now. You can waste your money MS and I can wait. Game itself looks very much like the previous one, plus added tomb raiding. So that’s good!

Rare…reanimating the corpse?
Rare Replay, featuring 30 games. August 4th. Includes some Viva Pinata game. I’m sold.
Guy talks on stage about Rare evolving over time. I’m sure he meant devolving. But let’s see, he has something new from Rare. Looks like a Pirate multiplayer game. Could be cool. It’s called Sea of Thieves.

Fable: Legends. Love the soundtrack. The game itself will probably be fine, but I’m a huge fan of the Fable series, even enjoyed 3, and would rather see a real RPG from them.
Cross-platform multiplayer for Fable: Legends.

Microsoft not only supporting Oculus, but also the Vive from Valve/HTC. And then there is the Hololens.
The Hololens with Minecraft demo looks cool. Not because of Minecraft, but because Microsoft seems to have really figured out AR.

Back to Xbox One with Gears of War.
GoW Ultimate Edition. Multiplayer Beta starting today. Those servers will be toast.
Gameplay from a new Gears of War. Looks like Gears. Hardly any progress since the last one. The animations are stiff, the graphics underwhelming, the gore looks like on the 360. Gears of War 4 confirmed. Wow, this was bad. I really liked the first 3 Gears games, but this?

A new Xbox One UI is coming. More games during Gamescom.

And that’s it.

So, overall feelings: I highly doubt their “best exclusives” promise from the beginning. Halo 5 could be cool, Forza 6 was very light on information, Gears looked really bad. Rise of Tomb Raider looked really good, but that’s only a timed exclusive. Rare Replay was probably one of the best things when it comes to games.
On the not strictly games side however, Microsoft really shined. Backwards compatibility (although limited) and mod support for Fallout 4 is a HUGE deal. Hololens looked great. The new controller? We’ll see. Anyway, strong showing from Microsoft on that front. Sony won’t have it easy.

Yet Another VR Headset

Starbreeze, the studio behind Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, The Darkness, Payday 2 and Brothers, is also entering the VR market. Their headset called StarVR is offering a far wider field of view than the competition (210° versus around 100°), paired with a higher resolution.

They also announced VR support for their upcoming The Walking Dead game, although it is yet unknown if this is an exclusive feature for StarVR.
Before you get hyped for yet another VR headset, think about the following though.

The Oculus Rift needs a GTX 970 as minimum spec, and there is a reason for that: VR is highly intensive when it comes to the needed rendering power. You can’t expect a PC that runs Skyrim in 1920x1080/60fps with on a single monitor to run Skyrim VR in 2160x1200 split across 2 displays at a minimum of 90fps (resolution of the Oculus and 90fps is a minimum requirement to keep you from getting motion sickness). This step up in resolution and the 2 different rendering viewpoints needed for the VR experience, already has a huge impact in performance. The StarVR has a resolution of 2560x1440, and also more than doubles the FOV of the Oculus, which means that way more objects get rendered at the same time.

In short: expect to own 2x 980ti’s for anything that’s more demanding than Minecraft.