Category: Platforms

Parent Category for All Gaming Platforms discussed on Twinstiq

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: 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: 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.

E3 2015 Bingo: Nintendo

June 16 will have Nintendo starting at 9am PT, followed by Square Enix (10am PT) and the PC Gaming Show will end this year’s E3 press conferences at 5pm PT.

Will Nintendo enter the VR game? Will we finally learn what the NX is all about? Will we get a new F-Zero? The only thing we know for sure: There will be Amiibos.

Bethesda will be up shortly, so remember: To get your personal Bingo card, go to bingo.twinstiq.com

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by John
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by Trey
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by Billy and Dr. S

E3 2015 Bingo: Sony

The 15th is a busy day. Besides Microsoft, we will also see press conferences from EA (1pm PT), the people behind Uplay (3pm PT) and Sony.
EA will probably have a really busy show, with the very likely appearance of Star Wars, Mirrors Edge, the new Need for Speed and their sports line-up (especially the FIFA franchise is supposed to have a really good year). Maybe we also see what Criterion has teased last E3, a new Battlefield, the hinted at Plants vs. Zombies game, and will EA Access finally make it to the PS4?

The Uplay folks, well, they will also have games, but nobody cares about them anymore.

So what about Sony? Hard to say. Uncharted is a very safe bet, so are more talks about Project Morpheus. Rumors about The Last Guardian are also all over the internet. Sony not holding a press conference at Gamescom could mean two things: Either Sony hasn’t much to announce, or they are planning to open up the floodgates at E3 and blow us away.

Whatever the case, here are the guesses by Trey, Cody, Billy and Me (Dr. S)

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Billy and Dr. S
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Trey
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Cody

E3 2015 Bingo: Microsoft

After Bethesda’s press conference (June 14, 7pm PT) it’s Microsoft’s turn (June 15, 9:30 PT).

With the Hololens, a cooperation with Oculus, Windows 10 launching soon and a promised busy release schedule at the end of the year, we can expect quite a bit from that.

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by Cody
After the break: Trey, Billy and Dr. S
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by Trey
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by Billy and Dr. S
Remember, you can visit bingo.twinstiq.com to make your own. I'll try to update them with more pictures later.

New Nintendo eShop Releases: Harvest Moon

Harvest Moon comes to the Wii U Game Boy Advance Virtual Console this week. Specifically, Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town, which, itself, was a remake of the earlier PlayStation Harvest Moon game, Back To Nature. For those unfamiliar with the series, it's kind of like FarmVille, except that the Harvest Moon games came out way earlier and were infinitely better. Also out this week, LEGO Jurassic World, and a new version of Dr Mario for the 3DS. Reap what you have virtually sown, then jump past the break to see more of this week's new releases.
Wii U

3DS

[Image: Natsume]

Andrew J Amideo
[Source: Business Wire]

New PlayStation Store Releases: The Elder Scrolls Online

This week, the new releases are a bit sparse on the PlayStation Store. Though they do have a couple of heavy hitters. Namely, The Elder Scrolls Online and Gradius. As much as I appreciate Bethesda bringing The Elder Scrolls universe to the PlayStation 4, I think I would rather see them provide us with an Oblivion/Skyrim collection (and make them playable on a Sony console for once). Maybe they could throw in an HD remaster of Morrowind to sweeten the deal.I am pleased to see a great arcade classic like Gradius hit the store. In addition to last week's release of Renegade, along with Q*bert, which has been on there for several months now, the PS4 is starting to become quite a little retro arcade machine. ESO and Gradius aside, the only other notable release this week is a Japanese dungeon crawler for the Vita. Create your character, select your class, and then venture past the break to see this list of new releases.

PlayStation 4

PlayStation Vita

[Image: Bethesda Softworks]

Andrew J Amideo

New Steam Store Releases: Massive Chalice

This week, Double Fine drops a massive deuce (sorry, couldn't resist) onto the Steam Store with their second Kickstarter game, Massive Chalice. I actually don't know much about this game, but since it was made by Double Fine, I will be cautiously optimistic. Also out this week, a great-looking arcade shmup called XIIZeal, a pipe puzzler from the Mighty Switch Force series, and the highly controversial twin-stick shooter, Hatred (from the appropriately-named developer, Destructive Creations). Make a big splash and then venture out past the break to see more of this week's new releases.
  • Massive Chalice (Double Fine Productions, Single-player, $19.99) (Controller Support, Steam Achievements)
  • XIIZeal (Triangle Service, Single-player & Co-op, $11.99) (Controller Support, Steam Achievements)
  • Mighty Switch Force! Hose It Down! (WayForward, Single-player, $2.99)
  • Hatred (Destructive Creations, Single-player, $19.99) (Controller Support, Steam Achievements)
  • Sparkle 2 (10tons, Single-player, $7.99) (Steam Achievements)
  • Adventures of Pip (TicToc Games, Single-player, $14.99) (Controller Support)
  • Scribble Space (Coty Getzelman, Single-player, $1.99) (Controller Support, Steam Achievements)
  • Artifact Adventure (bluffman, Single-player, $6.99) (Controller Support)
  • SoulCraft (MobileBits, Single-player, $4.99) (Controller Support, Steam Achievements)
  • Star Hammer (Black Lab, Single-player, $19.99) (Steam Achievements)
  • Vektor Wars (Super Icon, Single-player, $6.99) (Steam Achievements)
  • Supercharged Robot Vulkaiser (Astro Port, Single-player, $4.99) (Controller Support, Steam Achievements)
[Image: Double Fine Productions]

Andrew J Amideo