Keyrock

At the same time, I wonder who is supposed to buy the xXx X Box One X xXx. Who is this aimed at? Which system is the gamer on the budget going to buy? The one that costs $500 or the one that costs $100 less right now and likely $150 less when the xXx XXX xxx X Box One X xxx XXX xXx comes out (I'll be shocked if Sony doesn't slash the price on the PS4 Pro about a month before its competitor's launch)? $500 is a lot for a console, $400 is generally the upper ceiling. Every console that has launched at above $400 has either outright failed or struggled mightily until a price cut (*cough* PS3 *cough*). Most people that are willing to spend $500 on a console probably already have a high-ish end PC, which makes the XXXXXXxxxxxxxxXXXXXxxX Box One XxxxxxxxxXXXXXXxxxxxXXXxxx kinda obsolete, since all the games they showed will be on PC also. Sony has compelling exclusives, Microsoft does not. I don't like exclusives, I want games on as many platforms as possible, but exclusives are what sell consoles.

Reminds me of Flashback.

Think they just wanted SW focus to be on Battlefront 2, since Battlefront 1 was not too well received and it will release before the Visceral game. Who knows though, their use of the SW license hasn't been too impressive. Speaking of which, they had that lady come out and do the speech on Battlefront 2 which was mostly "Hey guys, you know what wasn't in the first game? A single-player campaign. Wouldn't it be cool if we had a single-player campaign? You asked for a single-player campaign, well we got a single-player campaign. Yeah, that's right single-player campaign. Single-player campaign, amirite?" Then proceeded to show zero single-player campaign and instead showed some 20 minutes of multiplayer gameplay which looks remarkably similar to Battlefront 1 multiplayer.

After having time to digest everything here are Keyrock's Highly Prestigious E3 Awards™: Most Anticipated Game: Metro Exodus - I mean, it's Metro. Best Conference: Microsoft - So. Many. Games. All of them coming to PC too. Worst Conference: EA - No surprise here, EA wins this award almost every year. Completely soul crushing as usual. Biggest Pleasant Surprise: Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle - Mario and Rabbids in a tactics game? Seems like a really weird combination, but right up my alley. Biggest Disappointment: Visceral's Star Wars game, or the complete lack of - Really, you got nothing for us on this game? Is it still happening? Most Conflicted About: Beyond Good & Evil 2 - I'm happy to see something about BG&E2, but the direction of the new game is kind of off-putting to me.

The Spiderman game looked impressive... in that heavily scripted sequence. I wonder what the majority of gameplay will be like?

It's from Klei, so of course I'm interested.

So the Ubisoft presentation was surprisingly not completely cringe. Beyond Good & Evil 2 was obviously the big surprise. I'm torn. I'm happy that this is still a thing and it has definite potential, but it's just such a different direction than I expected. Of course, now we won't hear anything about the game for several years.

That doesn't really ring the bell for me but you're right. It's not nothing. Still, it's like the big, expensive steakhouse talking about how great their baked potatoes are. In fairness, the first 2 Metros were very tasty baked potatoes IMHO.

So far I'm truly excited for Metro: Exodus and Wolfenstein 2... and that's it. Props to Bethesda for keeping their presentation short and relatively devoid of blowhards pontificating, I wish all the presentations were like that.

Now I kinda want to replay 2033 and Last Light.

^ If nothing else, it looks like it has more actual gameplay than Fullbright's previous effort.

So, Anthem is basically Destiny. Edit: Microsoft's presentation was definitely better than the soul crushing dumpster fire that was EA's presentation, not that that's a surprise. For me I got excited for Metro, everything else was stuff already present on other platforms (mainly PC) or stuff I didn't much care about.

The further Assassin's Creed gets from Assassin's Creed the better. I mean that's why I liked Black Flag so much, it was the least AssCreed AssCreed game to date.

Alright, the first game reveal that actually got me excited: Metro Exodus I mean, it's not S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, but it will have to do. Edit: As an aside, X Box 1 X is a horrible name. I'm talking Wii U level terrible. Who comes up with these names and how do they still have a job? Edit 2: Also, what the **** is Mixer?

Ah yes, EA's token "look, we do have a soul. No really!" game. It could potentially be a really interesting gameplay experience, I'll give it that. I wonder what Ubi's "we have a soul" token game will wind up being? The "we have a soul" token game generally winds up being the most interesting part of these otherwise awful meaningless buzz word laden presentations.

Well, that trailer tells me nothing except that there appears to be powered armor and there's a wall. Unclear whether the wall was commissioned by Trump and built by Mexicans or not.

I started playing Stellaris. Right now I'm just doing a throwaway game with a premade race and default settings as a sort of tutorial to try to get past Paradox's famously steep learning curve. Once I feel I have a grasp of the game mechanics and concepts I'll make my own custom race and do a real playthrough.

Does E3 even matter any more? There are so many conventions and trade shows these days, it seems like there's one every month, for video games/tech alone. Plus, every year it seems more and more companies eschew E3 and just do their own conference kind of sort of close to the timeframe of E3, but not actually at E3. Does anyone still care about E3?

Honestly, I wouldn't mind Mass Effect style combat for a KotOR remake, especially if it's going to be in first person. Make it actiony FPS combat and allow me to give general commands to my companions (fight defensively, be aggressive, go ahead of me, stay back, etc.) but otherwise let the AI control their individual abilities.

KotOR's combat is turn-based pretending to be "real-time". What it winds up being is really messy, unstructured, clunky lookin turn-based combat. I hate when developers try to disguise turn-based combat as RTwP or do some kind of hybrid (Arcanum). Commit fully to one or the other. Either actually make the combat real-time or make proper, structured turn-based that doesn't wear a cheap disguise.

They announced MCA right from the get go instead of saving him for a stretch goal.

They mention that they're not changing the combat, which I understand, but find disappointing. I found the combat in KotOR to be abysmal. It's the one thing I would most want changed, even before the graphics.

Victor Vran is a pretty fun game. I'm looking forward to the 2 new DLCs to jump back into the game.

The most impressive thing about KD's play so far in these finals has been his defense. He's put up eye popping offensive numbers his entire career, before the NBA even, so him dropping 30+ like it's routine (because it is) is nothing new, but his play on the other end of the floor is where he's really stepped it up. Part of that is his slow but steady improvement on defense, just from better game sense as he's gotten more experience, and part is flat out hustle. Dude is just everywhere on the court going full throttle on both ends on every play. It was kind of crazy to see him get moved to center late in game 2 and thrive in a position he's played almost never. I think KD senses this is his moment to cement his legacy. No matter what happens he's going to be remembered as a great player and will eventually get into the Hall of Fame. However, he's missing 2 things on his resume: a championship ring and a Finals MVP. If he gets both of those this year he moves into first ballot HoFer territory. I mean, he's arguably one of the 10 best forwards ever. He wins Finals MVP and there is no argument, it becomes a written in stone fact. Edit: Now that I think about it, Durant may be top 5 all time forward. Let's see, name 5 forwards better than KD: LeBron Larry Duncan ... Maybe Dr. J? ... Maybe Dirk? ... I'm drawing a blank after that. I think KD is better than Karl Malone and Barkley and I can't think of anyone else I would even consider.